Sunday Reading: Hebrews 10 23-25
 
Key Verse: Hebrews 10 23
23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering (for He is faithful who promised)…

 

Devotion:
We have Jesus Christ whom has come before us to deliver us from our sins. He promised from the days of old to return triumphant and that is exactly what He did. He promised that we should have a way of getting to heaven, not through what we have to do, but through what He did; that is exactly what He did. Through the Father, Son and Holy Ghost we have a certainty that our souls will be around for eternity. Where they will be is our choice. We have His promises, His Word and He Himself to guide us so that we can find the truth and follow Him to heaven. All we need do is to trust in His promises. The promises that He has kept and those still to come.

 

It is not a journey that we need to take alone. It is not one that we should take alone. Some religions will tell you that the only way to find the truth is to cut yourself off from everything else so you can see the truth; but when you are cut off from everyone else, I would say that that is where you are at your weakest because you will not have any truths to fall back on if you get tempted by any small distraction. There is so much encouragement that we can get from being with each other and upholding God’s law and will together. The stronger we can become, the more we will see how our faith can be trusted and how many promises God has already made and kept.

 

One of the best places for this is in God’s house, in church. When we gather together with one thought (that of being with God and He with us) we are closing out any tempter who will try to take us away from God. When we are together in church, be it in a huge church or a tiny chapel, we have Him in our midst to protect us and to allow us to focus on finding out more so that we can build on our faith. The more that we can see His strength and His righteousness, the more we will be able to block out those that try to tempt us away.

 

Points to Ponder:
How often do you mix with Christians?
 
How often do you gather as Christians to praise God?

Saturday Reading: Mark 14 32-38
 
Key Verse: Mark 14 38
38  Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

 

Devotion:
If ever there were a place a time that we should take notice of, it is this place and time referred to us in our bibles. Jesus took the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane so that He could pray about what was about to happen. But one of the most important things that we forget when we think of this time is the simple fact that Christ had to face up to the terrors that faced Him as a human. For a short time He had to face up to the terrors that would await by being separated from God eternally. It was enough for His souls to feel “exceeding sorrowful unto death”. It was at that time that He was taking the weight of our sins onto His shoulders so that we would not have to face that same weight on our souls when we die.

 

So bad was it that He asked God the Father if He could take away that pain, but ultimately made sure that it was God’s will that would be done and not his own feelings, no matter how bad. I know we could never imagine just how much He took on His shoulders at that time, but He was able to see at first hand just how weak we are as humans. Yes, we like to think that we can stand up to all manner of things, but in the end there is always a point after which we can take no more. Jesus realised just how easy it was to reach that point as a human and warned the disciples of that fact.

 

The way that He took care of His worries was our ultimate example which we should always follow. He took His problems to God. He opened up in prayer and placed them squarely in God’s hands. He knew as a human He could not change His position, but He knew that His human self was safe in God’s hands. That is where He got the strength to face up to more than we could imagine. That is where He got His comfort. That is where we need to seek and find ours too.

 

Points to Ponder:
Where do you turn for comfort when things go wrong?
 
Do you place your faith squarely in God’s hands?

Friday Reading: 1 Corinthians 16 13-14

 

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 16 13
13  Watch! Stand fast in the faith! Be men! Be strong!

 

Devotion:
How do you protect yourself? Well, normally, you have to watch out for any dangers or situations that may cause you harm and then act accordingly. In order for us to remain safe, we have to be pro-active in doing something so that our safety can be assured. This is true is all walks of life, physically and spiritually. We have to watch, not only for those things around us that may harm us in any way, but also to those things within us that may lead us to any harm. Outwardly we may be able to see danger. Inwardly we need to watch out for things that will let us down. Our hearts, thoughts, affections, words, actions, in fact the whole way that we are and the whole way we interact with others…

 

It is so easy to allow some things to pass, to allow some things to go untreated or unfixed; but by allowing them to pass by, we are weakening ourselves for the next time round. That is Satan’s aim, to make us so weak against any temptations that we will give in to anything that comes our way. It is only through standing up against things that we will become stronger to fight them. Recognising that we have weaknesses is our first step, but working against them is not going to be easy. If you can imagine a branch growing in a tree; the branch is still subtle because it is still growing. We can bend that branch back and forward until we make it weak; but that does not necessarily mean that the branch is broken because if we can steady it with something the healing of the tree will make that branch stronger again. That does pre-suppose that we have something to shore up our branch to stop it bending with any wind that comes along!

 

That is where God will help each and every one of us. If we are willing to allow Him to be that splint that will bind us firm until He can heal us from the inside, then we will come out the other end being a whole lot stronger than when we went it. But we need to have faith that He will do that. We need to trust Him to do that. And we need to be patient so that He can do that. Nothing is going to be an instant fix because the evil one will be there trying to bend us backwards and forwards all the time…

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you feel like a branch bent in the wind?
 
How much do you rely on your faithful relationship with God?

Thursday Reading: Ephesians 5 15-21
 
Key Verse: Ephesians 5 21
21  submitting yourselves to one another in the fear of God.

 

Devotion:
There are so many things in life that will let us down, but the one that will probably let us down the most is ourselves. Unless we are going to be careful about things, then we are going to find that we will let ourselves down simply because we give in to things around us. If we are going to allow ourselves to walk and talk like a fool, should we wonder then why we should not be treated like a fool? If we are not going to worry about what we let into our lives, then why should other people worry about what they do to us? If we do not worry about how we act, why should others treat us the way that we want them to? If we wear the hat, then we should expect to be called by that hat.

 

God has given us time as something for us to use. He has given us a time on earth for us to use and not abuse. We have all the instructions that should allow us to use that time in the best possible way so that is what we should be aiming at doing. Far too often, though, we ignore those instructions and carry on regardless – without giving thought to the consequences! Looking back we can see that that is not wise, but at the time we did not give thought to whether our actions were wise or not.

 

When we feel down we often seek the fastest fix that will lift our spirits without giving regard to either those around us or to what will happen in the longer term. We run for the quick fix and then wonder why we feel even more down in the dumps after our quick fix wears off and leaves us in the same trouble that we were in in the first place; but this time we know that our quick fix has changed nothing and that gets us down even more! If we do want to lift ourselves up, then we have to go about things in the right way. Ignore the quick fix scenario and aim for something that goes beyond our time on earth. If we aim to our eternal future with God, then we can expect things to fall into place here on earth while we work in God’s care.

 

Points to Ponder:
Does your life go more smoothly when you listen to authority?

 

Do you submit to God’s authority?