June 2: 2 Timothy 2 1-7
Key Verse: 2 Timothy 2 1
You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
Devotion:
There is nothing in our bibles that tells us we do not have to work for a living; in fact our bibles will tell us exactly the opposite. We do have to work so we can survive be it for obtaining money to buy supplies or from actually farming those supplies ourselves. Without due diligence, our work may not be to any effect either. We have to set our minds to the work and do the work before we can expect some reward afterward. So why should we expect anything different from our spiritual lives in Christ?
Should we expect to have everything given to us without having to lift a finger? Should we really act like a spoiled child and expect everything to be given to us on a plate? Whilst God would love to give us everything on a plate, we are expected to do things as well, but not for the sake of being saved or for keeping us alive. God will make sure we live as long as He would have us to live. We are expected to do things for Him so we can be strengthened ourselves. He does not want us to be lazy but to be prepared. If someone would ask us about Christ when we ourselves have not learned about Him, how are we expected to answer? But if we have spent our time learning about Him, then answering questions will become easier.
If we are going to train to be a soldier, then we have to take on that mantle and become a soldier. We have to listen to the people in charge and act according to their commands. Without doing so, we would not be an effectual soldier since and army has to work together towards a single goal. If we are a farmer, then we have to work towards making the next crop a good harvest. If we simply sow the seeds and stand back and watch, we may well have a complete failure. Working throughout the year to make sure that harvest time is plentiful will give us our final rewards.
Being a Christian means that we need to work at being Christians all the time. We cannot expect to understand things and to move forward if we are a part-time Christian. God requires a full-time commitment from us because He has already given us an eternal commitment!
Points to Ponder:
Would you expect to get paid if you did not work?
How much more can we expect if we commit our lives to Christ?
June 1: Isaiah 35 1-4
Key Verse: Isaiah 35 1
The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Devotion:
Although this passage was foretelling the state of the kingdom when Hezekiah was king, it does look far beyond simply saying how much the kingdom was to flourish at that time. This is typical of the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven. We will be given to rejoicing about everything because we will have Christ in our midst. We will no longer have to face such hardship and evil as we have to face today. We have seen kingdoms flourish as they obey Christ, our king. We have seen kingdoms brought to their knees as they take it away from Christ. When will man learn that this is God’s world and we have to come to Him?
We do not have to look too far to see people living a good life with Christ nowadays, even though we are reminded every day about the horrors of life which can await us because of the evil living amongst us. We can see how people’s greed, lust and pride have continued to erode society away to such a point that many people have given up on society and simply try to look out for themselves. Bringing God back into a community will bring His love back into the community. With that love things will turn around for that community. But, as we were reminded yesterday, evil is always lurking around the corner, waiting to trip us up.
If God can take a desert and turn it into a wonderful place to live for His people, then He can take a backslidden community and turn it round so He will once again get the glory. Man may be able to make a garden in the desert, but He cannot change the hearts of other men like God and His Word can. We need to show people we care so much we are willing to make sure God is in charge. We need to bring Him back into our communities so that He can love us the way He wants to and so we can love Him back. What better way than to sing out your love to Christ?
Points to Ponder:
How often do you sing?
How often do those songs praise God?
May 31: John 10 19-21
Key Verse: John 10 21
But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
Devotion:
One thing we can count on in our lives (besides God and taxes) is Satan being there. Wherever God is trying to get people to follow Him, the evil one is around the corner trying to trip people up. He is going to use whomever he wants to try and trip those who are seeking Christ. He is going to be the one who allows things into your life so you will forget about God. He is going to be the one acting like God. How then are we supposed to spot the difference between what God is doing in our lives to what Satan is doing in our lives? How do we know who we can trust? How do we know who we can believe?
Well, let’s take it from an earthly view… Would you allow someone to talk you out of your food when you are hungry? Would you allow someone to sit down opposite you in a restaurant and tell you about how they should have your food which you have paid for? That may well sound like an over-simplification of the issue but on closer analysis that is what is going on. We need our food to survive and because of that, we will not allow other people to take it away from us. But when it comes down to spiritual matters we do not tend to think of them as necessities in our lives. We would rather think about our spiritual food as something that we can take or leave…
That is where Satan is the winner because he is the one putting random ideas into our heads and allowing us to become lazy. He tries everything up his sleeve to make us think we do not need God’s instruction in our lives. His very first attempt of that we read about in our bibles is with Adam and Eve when he convinced them to try and ignore God’s instruction and follow his own instructions. He makes things sound good. He makes things sound attractive and makes us think we need his ideas in our lives.
So how do we spot the difference? If he puts an idea in our heads which does not agree with God’s instructions in our bibles, then we know it is him and not from God. We have our bibles, we have the truth. Trust it. Obey it. Turn you back on Satan.
Points to Ponder:
Are you easily convinced?
How often do you compare things with God’s Word?
May 30: John 10 10-15
Key Verse: John 10 14
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me
Devotion:
Have you ever been asked to describe God; maybe because you love Him? It’s easy to describe Him in terms of a loving, caring, just God, but describing Him in terms of what He looks like would be quite difficult. It would be the same sort of thing if you were asked to describe what wind looks like. You know it is there because you see the effects of it, but you cannot see wind itself. Thankfully we can compare so many things with God because He is so wonderful. Jesus compared Himself with a Good Shepherd as in this instance.
It is one thing to look after a flock of sheep, but if a lion or other predator comes along to sniff out your sheep, would you be willing to stand between it and them? Would you be willing to die just to protect your sheep? The answer would most likely be no. But if you were looking out for someone in your family, the answer may well change to yes. Jesus promised here that He would be willing to lay down His own life for us, His sheep. We know it is a promise because that is exactly what He did.
When we have a relationship with God, we know He is real, and we know He is there. We may not physically be able to see Him or be able to describe Him, but we know He is there. We may get frightened when we see bad things approaching and we may run the other way. That does not mean God is not standing there protecting us; it just means we did not think about His protection and we ran the other way! If we stopped to think about it and we stood on our faith we would not be running away because we would be depending on that protection because of our faith. Alas, so many of us would run and then think afterwards or wait until we think all hope is lost before yelling out for help. What we need to do is to remain close to our God where He can then protect, guide and love us in the best possible ways.
Points to Ponder:
Who would you trust with your life?
How often do you run before thinking?
May 29: 1 Peter 5 5-7
Key Verse: 1 Peter 5 7
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
Devotion:
Younger ones here is referring not to just young people but to those who are young in Christ. That then covers most of us because we are still young in Christ, learning and being taught in His will and in His ways. With that in mind we need to turn to someone to be taught… Our primary teacher is going to be the Holy Spirit teaching us through reading our bibles, but there will always be times when we have to learn from those who have spent a lifetime learning as well. Having said that, each of us does have the ability to help one another out too because as we learn we can then pass on our newfound knowledge.
When at school we feed off the teacher and then we help out our fellow classmates if they do not understand what we do. We do not sit there with smug faces and gloat at the fact we know something they do not… would normally try to help them out. In the same manner, when we learn something new about God, we should be willing to pass that on to our brothers and sisters in Christ too. When we do not understand something at school, we can either be silent and fail, or we can speak up and learn from someone. The same goes for us learning about God; if we don’t understand, we need to ask someone.
Being humble means giving up the pride and allowing someone else to explain things to you when you don’t quite understand. Being humble means giving up the pride and going back to the one to whom you just said “yes I understand it” when you did not quite understand. Being humble means giving up the pride and admitting you do need help. There is nothing wrong with needing help. Why else would God have given us people to turn to? Why else would God have given us the Holy Spirit?
God wants us to be able to turn to Him at any time and know that we will find help, support and someone who deeply cares for every one of us.
Points to Ponder:
Who do you turn to when you need help?
Do you explain your relationship with God when asked?