Monday Reading: Proverbs 27 3-4
 
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 4
4  Wrath is cruel, and anger is overwhelming; but who is able to stand before envy?
 
Devotion:
Which is easier to carry, a rock weighing 5 kilograms or 5 kilograms of sand? Well, unless you have the sand in a nice bag, it will be almost impossible to pick it up on one go! Each has it's drawbacks, and each has it's strengths and until we have tried both, we will not really be able to say with all honesty which is easier than the other. Neither are going to be pleasant to have to carry because they are both heavy, but with a little thought we can get to carry either. What we do find much harder to carry is what people can lump upon us. People can give us burdens to carry without thinking about it, they can overload us without knowing about it; and those burdens will be the ones that weigh us down more than anything. When people get angry with us, they throw all sorts of things at us and we have to do something with them!

 

For those who do not believe in Christ, they have a weight on their shoulders that they don't know the half of! They have a weight that far out-weighs anything we could ever give them. Yet most people go through life trying to figure out what they weight is, never looking at the obvious truth because it just looks too simple. We always want to find a complex answer to everything to make us feel that it has been worth the struggle! We are being out-weighed by out own thoughts. Wrath and anger are weights that we carry around and don't think about. They pull us down, building up inside, until they come out screaming – and we find ourselves screaming! Wrath does not know bounds, it rips through everything and anything in it's path. It is not kind and thoughtful but cruel and thoughtless overwhelming anything and everything.

 

Envy will pull us down further below the surface than anything else we know; and we won't know it until it is far too late! Without asking Christ to lift you above wrath, anger and envy, we may as well be on the Titanic! We need His strength and guidance to lift us above those thoughts and feelings and allow His love to shine through us!

 

Points to Ponder:
How much anger does it really take to upset you?
 
How much do you rely on God to lift you above your feelings?

Sunday Reading: Jude 1 17-21
 
Key Verse: Jude 1 21
21  keep yourselves in the love of God, eagerly awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to everlasting life.
 
Devotion:
So many people today try to follow their senses rather than their faith. They would rather feel good for a few minutes than to stand up for the truth. They would rather live for the second than plan for eternal life. They do this by turning their backs on God and focusing on themselves as being the most important thing in the universe... How can anyone say they have love when they focus on themselves rather than any other!

 

We need to remember the words written down by so many people as they were inspired by God to do so. God has made sure that those words have stood the test of time so that we can continue to learn the truth and that we can continue to apply that truth in our lives. Part of that is having faith to depend on those words. We have not personally heard from God, but we can have absolute faith that He is the one that has provided His Word for all generations. He is the one guiding us. He is the one displaying His perfect love for us.

 

We need to make sure that we set ourselves apart from the rest of the world. If we are going to depend on nothing more than the rest of the world, then we will fall into the same ways of doing things as the rest of the world, not really knowing what we are after nor what will happen to us. We will simply exist without thought for eternity and God. But if we do trust in Him and have faith that He will continue to carry out His Word, then we will find that we have meaning and direction in our lives. We will find strength and a sense of purpose in all that we do, so long as we do things to glorify God. That is the one thing that will set us aside from acting like animals. God has placed us on earth so that we can glorify Him. It is simple, but it is hard. Keeping in His Word will help us along the way...

 

Points to Ponder:
Are you searching for things in life?
 
How much do you re-search on God?

Saturday Reading: 2 Peter 3 1-6
 
Key Verse: 2 Peter 3 3
3  First, knowing this, that there will come in the last days scoffers walking according to their own lusts
 
Devotion:
The one thing that we will always have to face as Christians is scoffers (unbelievers who mock Christianity). If we are going to rest quietly in our belief and allow them to mock us because Christ has not yet come, then we are allowing them to put down the Word of God. We have to be able to stand firm in our belief, stand firm with His Word, stand firm in our Faith and to be able to demonstrate it too. To do this, we have to be more knowledgeable in the scriptures so that we can tell those scoffers the truth and remind them of their folly. Without that, they will have no chance at being saved from the destruction of the world.

 

God has promised that Christ will return and will eventually destroy this world through fire. He has backed up His promise by showing how He has kept every word that He has said in the past. We have the scriptures as proof of everything that has been said that will come to pass. We have history to remind us of everything that has happened. Yet so many choose to ignore this truth because it is not convenient to them. How will they be able to continue their life in sin if they have to stand up to the truth.

 

How easily people have forgotten how God destroyed the earth through a flood in the past. How easy it is to forget things over time. How easy it is to forget things that are not convenient. Yet God does not. He continues to watch over us and continues to be saddened by our lack of faith as a world. He knows that He could come down and convince everyone by facing us face to face, but He wants to be able to give us the free choice as to what we believe in so that our love for Him will be as genuine as His love for us.

 

How can we extend our love other than by getting more involved in His Word. How can we demonstrate His love other than by following His will and allowing others to see it. How can we depend on that love other than by having faith to stand by it. God is with us, we must not be against Him!

 

Points to Ponder:
Can others depend on your promises?
 
Has God ever given you a reason not to trust His promises?

Friday Reading: Psalm 24:1-6
 
Key Verse: Psalms 24 5
5  He shall receive the blessing from Jehovah, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

 

Devotion:
One thing about us is that we strive to find something better. We cannot just sit around and accept our life and do nothing more. We want to know what is going to happen to us after our physical life is over. None of us can truly accept that there is nothing more after death... Ever wondered why? Because God gave us brains that could think about it. He gave us the ability to think about Him and to seek out the truth.

 

No matter how much we are able to squeeze into our physical lives, we still yearn for something else, we still seek after the non-physical, the spiritual. We have the ability to consider our whole life and we will always be wanting, we will always find things we could have done and we will always think of the things we could do if we could just live a bit longer. Before long we will start to ask ourselves, how can I live forever... Then we may find out about God and ask further, how can I get to heaven... We may then approach religion in its various forms and still be wanting, still think that there is more to it.

 

It is only when we put our whole heart into a relationship with God that we begin to feel the satisfaction that we seek. It is only after we realise just what Christ has done for us by shedding His blood on the cross that we begin to realise how perfect a situation we can be in. His has done the perfect thing to enable us to come to Him, find out the truth and then live with Him forever. We can find what our hearts and souls seek. We can live out a life that will be fulfilling. We may still look back on our lives and think of how we could have done it better – but we can look forward and know that we are heading for the perfect place. If we want to fill that gap in our spiritual lives, we need to find the only plug that will fit it, and that is a life with God.

 

Points to Ponder:
When do you feel most alone?
 
When do you call out to God?