July 22: Psalms 139 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 139 2
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
Devotion:
Why do I repeat verses? Why do I say the same things? Too many times we forget just who God is. We forget just what He is. We forget He is with us. Sometimes we have to have something happen in our lives again and again to make us remember He is our comforter and our Friend. Everything we see should remind us of our Eternal and precious Saviour who has created everything for us, maintains things for us and continues to patiently wait for each of us to remember Him.
He never forgets. He never misses anything. He never turns away. Yet we do; we forget, we miss things and we do turn away. He continues to watch over us and continues to try and guide and comfort us; we must be willing to allow Him to guide and comfort us if we are to enjoy His love. He does know everything about us despite what we may like to keep away from Him. He does know how our minds work – even when we cannot figure that out. He continues to watch our hearts when we lose them in the world around us. He continues to shine as a bright steady light whilst we blink and shy away from that light.
There is no way we can know enough to be anything like our God. All He wants us to do is to know Him so we can listen to His voice as He patiently guides us through our lives. If there is one thing we need to do to become more like Him, it is to listen a bit more like He listens to us – through our ears, eyes, thoughts and hearts. When we start to listen, we will begin to hear. When we begin to hear, we begin to learn. Once we begin to learn we will never forget His love for us because it is a love that is greater than all we can do.
Points to Ponder:
In the words of Sir John Betjeman:
“Thou knowest my down sitting and mine uprising”
Here where the white light burns with stead glow
Safe from the vain world’s silly sympathising,
Safe with the love I was born to know,
Safe from the surging of the lonely sea
My heart finds rest, my heart finds rest in Thee.
July 21: Titus 2 11-15
Key Verse: Titus 2 14
who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good
Devotion:
At one stage or another we have all been exposed to the gospel (even if this is your first time!) We may well not have listened to many of the things which have been told to us from God’s Word. We have all gone against some of those things we have heard – we still do. Yet the grace of God has been shown to all of mankind because Christ went to the cross to die for everyone and not just the people which were around Him at the time. God continues to show His grace through what He does for us and through His love He shows us even though we may not return it in like manner.
Our bibles are a source of knowledge and wisdom which teach us how we should live for Christ. We are warned against the evils of lust and pride and shown how we can gain strength to oppose them in our lives. We are shown the truth, giving us a wonderful hope upon which we can rest assured. We are told about Christ so we can believe that truth and see how wonderful and awesome His love is for us. He gave Himself freely so we would not have to die for eternity. He gave Himself, not in part, but totally, so we would never have to face our sin debt after we accept Him as our Saviour and King.
We could try to shove the gospel down people’s throats. We could try to indoctrinate people through various means. We could try to separate people from the world so they would never know anything else. God did not do that! Christ came to live with us so He could show us the difference between a life with Him and a life without. Christ came to encourage us to seek that truth, use it, uplift it and then encourage others to do the same. He never forced the truth upon anyone, giving us all a free choice. Even when faced with the man-made authority of the land, Christ did not provoke. Let us go forward in His example and allow our own bodies to be an example whereby others can be encouraged to follow Christ.
Points to Ponder:
Can you easily spot the Christians around you?
Do you think others see a true Christian in you?
July 20: 2 Corinthians 6 1-11
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 6 1
As God’s co-workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain.
Devotion:
How often do you make sure you are clean by having a bath or shower and then put on the same clothes you have had on all week? I think not… When we clean ourselves, we hope to be able to put on clean clothes too, so we may stay clean as well. So why should we treat our spiritual lives any different? If we are going to go out of our way to beg for forgiveness from God for the things that we have done, why should we then continue to subject ourselves to those same things after we have gained that forgiveness?
We do not have to wait for that forgiveness because Christ has already paid the price; we can accept that forgiveness as soon as we ask for it, knowing it is there. The Word of God gives us the knowledge by which we can be saved and through which we can learn to live for Christ. If we are going to use it to help clean ourselves through the initial forgiveness, then we must surely use it to cleanse our daily lives too. Whilst we do receive immediate forgiveness from Christ, we cannot expect the world to let us go easily… We still do live in this same world, the same world which gives in to Satan and all things he throws at us. We can still expect to have to put up with all that he can throw at us but within a newfound confidence Christ is protecting us and will ultimately protect us!
God’s Word cannot be blamed for anything which does go wrong through not following Christ. God’s Word is not a stumbling block that will trip us up. Instead we need to remain confident and sure we can depend on it and on Christ for all of our troubles. We can know Christ is with us through all of our troubles, of all kinds, and nothing will ever separate us from Him. We need to stand fast in His Word through all of our lives and not just the times we like to pick! Through troubles, we learn. Through blessings, we provide. Through sorrow, we mourn. Through joy, we bless. Through kindness, we love. Through Him, we live! Standing fast in His Word means all of the above, By reading our bibles and learning, blessing, believing, loving, providing… living!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to live a different life on Sundays?
Are you depending on Christ through all your times?
July 19: Psalms 19 12-14
Key Verse: Psalms 19 14
May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.
Devotion:
I think one of the biggest reasons why people do not read their bibles is the fact that it will highlight the things which are wrong in your lives. None of us like to be told we are doing things wrong because we have a certain pride within ourselves which refuses to believe we can be wrong. Once the truth is exposed, there is no turning back on it. It is out in the open and nothing can then change that truth. There is nothing different about our lives either; once we find the truth about what we do wrong, we will always know we do things wrong unless we change our ways.
King David prayed for forgiveness, not just for those things he had begun to see were wrong from learning through the Scriptures and from the prophet, but for those things he had yet to find out about too. Once we find we are human and that we do have faults, we have a desire to find out more so we can ‘fix ourselves’ – our conviction. It is all very well being able to fix some of the things we have done wrong to ourselves, but what about those things which have affected others. That is where we need to seek forgiveness.
Forgiveness may initially need to come from the people we have wronged, but ultimately the sins exposed against God need to be brought before Him. He allowed His only Son to come to the cross on our behalf so our sin debt would be paid for; through that He showed us His amazing love for us. Christ raised Himself up to show sin had truly been defeated; such is His conviction towards our cause. He waits patiently for us to admit our sins to Him so He can show His forgiveness; such is His dedication to us.
We can know all this from reading His Word. We can know about His love because of all that has been written by so many people over the years. All we need do is read all about it so that we can apply it to our lives too.
Points to Ponder:
How does it feel when others refuse to admit to their mistakes against you?
How do you think God feels when we refuse to admit we are wrong?
July 18: Psalms 19 7-9
Key Verse: Psalms 19 8
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
Devotion:
It can never be overestimated just how important our bibles are for us; it is always underestimated. Christ reminded the disciples if we have the faith of a mustard seed we will be able to move mountains. To be able to get that faith, we have to be willing to learn about God so we can have it. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. (Romans 10 17) With us reading our bibles, we can gain a better and fuller understanding of how we can depend on God, giving us the confidence to rely on him more – faith.
When we do read His Word, we will see just how wonderful it is and how powerful it is. It is responsible for each one of us coming to know God because we have either read about Him or have heard people telling us of Him from reading about it. None of our close relatives has seen Christ and we will not do so until we go to be with Him, so we have to rely on our belief of the unseen – God’s Word will give us more confidence. When we struggle to understand spiritual things, we will be able to learn about them through reading because our bibles are complete.
When we want to find out what is wrong, we can turn to our bibles to find out what He has said about things in the past and what He would have us to do. He is the one who has designed us and knows what is best for us; through reading His Word we will be able to learn more about how we can do the right things. By following His Word, we will find ways to be much happier because we know how to ‘get it right’. What better way to please others than to be happy ourselves so that we can pass that on!
Once we find out just how good God’s Word is, we will not want to forget it, we will not want to ignore it and we will certainly make sure it comes first in our lives. That is when we can say that our faith is beginning to be strong. The rewards we get are more than gold or riches can give us.
Points to Ponder:
Name one physical thing that you would really like to have?
Do you actively seek God as much as that?