Sunday Reading: Psalm 107:17-22
 
Key Verse: Psalms 107 19
19  Then they cry to Jehovah in their distress, and He saves them out of their troubles.
 
Devotion:
One thing that we are very sure of is God's promise that He will always be here for us. He has always said that He will never leave us nor forsake us and that promise remains unbroken. You may turn round and say, well what about the time when I... Think about what was going on in your life at that time. Were you truly walking with God, or had you started to do the things that the people around you were doing? Had you focused on God, or the world?

 

Too many times we loose focus on God and then wonder why He has forsaken us. In reality we are the ones who have forsaken Him! We have lost focus on Him and wandered off into the wilderness. Only after we have tripped up a few times and rotten things happened to us do we start to realise that we need help. But if we are not going to confess what we have done, should we really be calling out for His help? If someone was persistently doing something wrong against you and called out for help, would you really feel like helping them? Don't forget that God cannot abide sin. If we are living in sin and calling out to Him without saying sorry for those sins, then we are not focused on God, we are simple thinking of our own plight!

 

When we focus on ourselves, we become the fools talked about in the bible. We know the truth and yet we ignore it – how stupid is that – and yet we don't see it as being stupid... We need to realise our stupidity and call out for help because we know what we are doing wrong. When He knows we are repenting, then He is going to be just and save us from our troubles. We need to make sure that we do focus on God to give Him the glory for all that He continues to do in our lives. We need to glorify Him in everything to remind ourselves who He actually is. Once we live our life towards Him, for Him, we will know that He will be delivering us from troubles and strife. What a wonderful God we have!

 

Points to Ponder:
Do you like helping people that are constantly cruel and unkind to you?
 
Would you expect God to help you if you constantly rebel against Him?

Saturday Reading: Judges 2 1-5
 
Key Verse: Judges 2 3
3  And I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.
 
Devotion:
There are two ways of dealing with getting into trouble, the first being that you confess to the trouble and you deal with the punishment. The second is that you take the punishment and then continue as if nothing has happened. The one sure thing is the punishment, but how you deal with things afterwards is your choice. But hear these words and think upon them. God made sure that Israel was given a lesson that they would not soon forget. He sent His greatest authority (other than a personal visit) to remind Israel of what they had done wrong and then to tell them of their punishment. The very people that they had spared because they thought it good were going to be a thorn in their side forever more.

 

How we need to take heed of that nowadays. How easily we forget such warnings because we think they were directed to someone else. How easy we forget that we are God's people too. God's directions were that the evil people within the land should be destroyed because they did not follow Him. Israel believed they knew better than God's rules and overrode them. Because of that, they had to pay a price. How then, can we think that we can get away with breaking God's laws without having to face up to the consequences?

 

God's punishment was simple. The very things that distracted Israel would become thorns in their side. The very things we do wrong become thorns in our sides. The more we get caught up in ungodly things, the more they will take over our lives and pull us down. The more they do, the more we loose out on God's blessings. The further we go, the further from God we stray. They do indeed become thorns in our sides. They do get worse the more we struggle. We need someone to come and take care of them so that we can continue on without them. God is that person. God is that carer. Just because He loves us!

 

Points to Ponder:
How many things get you down because you know they are wrong?
 
How many things do you ask God to help with?

Friday Reading: Romans 6 8-12
 
Key Verse: Romans 6 12
12  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

 

Devotion:
We may well be weak and give in to our lusts and desires, but once we have given our life back to Him and realise that He has died for our sin, we no longer have any reason to give in to those sins. When we did not have any reason to give up the sins, we continued because we thought that they gave us something or that they pleased us in some way. But it does not take a rocket scientist to realise that the more we get tangled up in sin, the more we are likely to be ruled by it.

 

However, when we realise just what Christ has done for us, we realise that He did die for our sins. He died so that we would not have to be ruled by our sin nature any more. We still have that sin nature, but we no longer need to continually give in to it and be ruled by it!. The most amazing thing is that He only had to die once to cover all our sins. No matter what the sin, He has paid for it in full – son long as we are the ones that have realise that fact and have asked for His forgiveness. If we are not willing to come to Him and ask for that forgiveness, then how are we going to ever get it?

 

If we continue to live in sin, we are acting as if Christ's death was to no effect, we blatantly say that His death was for nothing. But we know different! We know that His death was sufficient. We know that He did that because of His immense love for us. We know that because He gave His life for us – so that we would not longer be trapped by our own sins and that we will be able to live with Him. So why continue to give in to the temptations if we no longer have need for them? Why continue to give up the fight when we know we are on the winning team? Why give up and let Satan in?

 

Points to Ponder:
How difficult do you find it to avoid sin?
 
How difficult would it be if you saw what Christ had to pay?

Thursday Reading: Isaiah 53 10-12
 
Key Verse: Isaiah 53 10
10  Yet it pleased Jehovah to crush Him; to grieve Him; that He should put forth His soul as a guilt-offering. He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the will of Jehovah shall prosper in His hand.
 
Devotion:
I find it so amazing that people were told of God's wrath in the days of old, yet did not follow His commandments. But we do not have to look too far into our own lives to see why – we are surrounded by so much that distracts us that we do find it very hard to keep focused on God's Will all the time. And yet, even after all the grief that we have given God, He was prepared to give His Son for our sin debt so that we could have an easier way to get to heaven. Man was told that Christ was on His way, and yet so many refused to believe.

 

It was only when Christ was amongst people that they would open their eyes to the truth that stood in front of them. They would not believe based on what other people said or what was written, unless they were willing to take a small amount of time and separate themselves from constant stream of distractions surrounding them. We still find that today, even after we have all the proof that Christ has come and done exactly what was foretold. People still get so caught up in the world that they loose sight of God and of what He actually means to us.

 

By faith we are justified. It is not a case of waiting for a big sign to tell us of what we have to do. We need to take a step away from our busy lives and think about what has been done, think about what Christ has done for us, think about what God has done for us. Then that a step of faith forward, trusting that Christ has actually done everything that has been written down, trusting His Word as the truth. We need to admit to our faults, believe on Him and confess that we are guilty before Him.

 

Points to Ponder:
How busy a life do you lead?

 

How much time do you put aside for God?