July 17: Romans 7 21-25
Key Verse: Romans 7 21
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.
Devotion:
It is difficult to swim against a strong current. It is difficult to run up a steep hill. It is difficult to keep any weight lifted up for a long time. In almost everything we are up against basic physical laws which work against us; we have to do work in order to move forward. That applies throughout our lives and even in our spiritual lives. If we do not do anything, we will not get anywhere… For many people it all comes down to a question of “does God exist?” We thn use this question to justify everything we do or do not do in our lives.
It is far too easy to simply say God does not exist so we can go off and do our own things and not have to worry about breaking God’s laws – so why do we feel guilty about doing it? The truth is that we all have a basic need for a belief system because that is part of being human. That basic belief system is built into each of us and we live by it. Much of our belief system is built up through visible clues and through example. If we watch the outside world we will learn from it. If we watch ungodly people, we will learn ungodly ways. But if we are willing to spend a little time and look closer at things, we will come to the conclusion that God does exist and we should be living for Him and not against Him.
It’s not necessarily a fact we have to go to Sunday school, church, Christian youth club and the like thereof so we can be convinced that God exists; we can look around us and begin to realise there must be a God who has created us. All of our basic laws in physics point to the fact something must have started the ball rolling. So why do we have all this evil in the world? Because it is easier to give in to the evil than have to work for good, because that means working! The evil one is going to allow many things to cross our paths so we do get to think about evil as much as possible. God has placed all the good things around us so we can think about Him and work toward a good relationship with Him. We do have to put in some of the work to show Him just how much He does mean to us – it is right for any relationship, and so it should be for your relationship with Christ!
Points to Ponder:
How closely do you really look at things?
Do you give in far too easily?
July 16: Romans 7 14-17
Key Verse: Romans 7 15
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.
Devotion:
We all try… We all would like to do things right… But, somehow, we always end up messing things up at some time or another. We know the right way of doing things and yet we persist in doing things we know are not right. What do you think that looks like to others?
I do not want to lay a guilt trip on anyone but just to get us all to think before we act. We live in a world where people are acting first and then thinking afterwards, right from the very tops of our governments down to us… Living our lives with double standards will only lead to disappointment and friction between us. We need to realise why we do things and know we are all still human. We live in a world of sin and because of that we get carried away with things we do. We do not always like what we do and certainly do not mean to go out of our way to hurt people, but we just seem to do a good job of it sometimes!
There is no way we can live up to God’s standards because we are weak and give in to sin. But that does not mean we should stop trying! We know we are going to trip up and fall at some stage, but at least trying to do right will allow others to see we are trying. God knows we cannot leave sin behind us, but He sure does want to see us at least trying… Yes, we do live in a world of sin. Yes, we do give it to sin. Yes, we do say one thing and do another. It is not because we are bad people; it is simply because we are caught up in sin.
If we continue to rely on ourselves more than on God, we are effectively re-writing God’s instructions to say we should do our own thing before doing God’s will. We know we are not perfect because we continue to do things that we tell others they should not be doing… Let Christ in to help you to rely less on sin in your life. Rely less on yourself. Rely more on God’s Word.
Points to Ponder:
Can you remember the last thing you did after telling someone else not to do it?
God continues to uphold what He tells us to do…
July 15: Romans 7 7-13
Key Verse: Romans 7 12
So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Devotion:
There is no real way for us to learn what sin is unless we are told what sin is. Whilst we may well be able to live a good life when we do not have any outside influences, we are surrounded by sin all the time which works its way into our lives too. We may not know something is wrong to begin with because we are being taught otherwise through example. But when we are able to find out the truth through God’s Law, we then have our eyes opened to what sin is. If we are willing to read God’s law, we will find out more about what sin is and even how to avoid some of it. This does not mean God’s Word is a book to show us how to sin!
We are born with a certain knowledge of good within us but for as long as we live in this world, the world teaches us how to ignore that and live in a sinful life. Without the knowledge that we are doing things against God’s will, we do not know what we do is sinful. But when we learn what sin is, that built-in knowledge kicks in and we know what is true. All of us can probably think back to a time when we were living without God’s laws because we did not know them; we may have been told about them but we did not listen to what they meant. That is the deception of sin itself; we are carried away in doing things without realising we are sinking further into sin.
God’s Word is holy. God’s Laws are just and true. The Commandments are there so we can find out about our sin. We do not die because of God’s law; we die because of our sin nature. Christ came not to condemn us but rather that we would find out the truth and come to repent so we can be forgiven. He upheld the commandments so we could know what we have done wrong and why we have death hanging over our heads. He wants us to live! We need to know the truth about sin so we can put it behind us and live in Him!
Points to Ponder:
Have you been caught out by “terms and conditions” lately?
Do you know God’s terms and conditions?
July 14: 1 Thessalonians 4 13-18
Key Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4 13
Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death, so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind, who have no hope.
Devotion:
When was the last time you worried about what was going to happen to you when you died? As Christians we do not have to question this anymore because God has given us the answer, nicely explained in this text. If we die before Christ returns, He will take us to heaven. If we are still alive when it’s time for Him to return, we get to go there sooner! God has got things planned out already and He has told us so too; we just have to be ready for the event when it happens.
Being ready for your homecoming is making sure your house is in order. I’m not saying we all have to have a clean and tidy house (I could never say that to you all if you were to see the state of my house). What I am talking about is making sure you are right with God – our bodies are His house and making sure we keep our lives in a manner which He would approve is important. If we think we have holes in our lives where God should be, or gaps made by us driving Him out – those are the places we need to make right. Yes, our futures are secure once we have confessed our belief to Him, but allowing Him to continue living in a reasonable state is also important!
The first thing Christ will take care of when He does descend is to raise up all the dead Christians... well, to raise up their physical bodies because their spiritual bodies will already be with Him. Once that is accomplished, He will then take us up in like manner – we will be transformed into our new bodies, leaving behind all the sickness and worries and death. What a wonderful day that will be! So, we definitely have something rather special to look forward to.
But that does not take us out of this earth yet because we still have to put up with all manner of sickness, pain and even suffering before we go. We are human. Our bodies are still human. We still live in amongst all the sickness and death; obviously we are still open to those same sicknesses and to our physical death – but what an outlook!
Points to Ponder:
Are you fortunate enough to live a healthy life?
Do those that are less fortunate know about God’s gift?
July 13: Joel 1 3-14
Key Verse: Joel 1 14
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord.
Devotion:
Things happen! We may not like some of the things which happen in our lives but they still happen. We may not want them to happen and we may even expect God to protect us from them, but still, things happen. This does not mean that God is not with us. This does not mean that God is not real. It is a simple reminder we live in a world which has been corrupted by sin.
Bad things are not always the direct result of sin; we may have things happen in our lives which are totally unrelated to our personal lives other than we are caught up in things. The simple fact is we live in a world with loads of sin in it. That sin corrupts things and breaks down the structure which God sets up. It breaks down things because God gives us the free choice to do what we will, whether we are followers of His or not; each of those things has the potential to break down a structure Christ has set up – it’s call consequences. People who lived before us in history have done things which still affect us today. People in power and in charge have left God out of the equation and have brought greed and lust into the equation instead. With that sort of history behind us we can expect a whole lot more corruption and a whole lot more to have to put up with because of the consequences of that corruption.
But what about our lives? Why are we personally affected? Is it because we ignore God? Is He punishing us in some way?
Our God is not a God who dishes out punishment to anyone just because they did not listen – we leave that to other extreme religions and sects. Our God is a loving God who patiently waits for us to return to His side. If we ignore Him, then we have to walk in our historically corrupt world, a world where people care more about themselves than others. Should we expect fair trade from that sort of world or should we expect what we seem to see? More often than not it is not our own sin which makes things happen to us but rather the fact we have chosen to live in a corrupt world instead of living by God’s side. Unfortunately for us, keeping close to God still means we have to put up with the corruption around us, but at least we can know our future is secure!
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame God when things go bad?
Or do you cry out to God?