May 8: John 6 1-11
Key Verse: John 6 5
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?”
Devotion:
What was Jesus’ first reaction toward all the people descending on Him? To think about what they were going to get to eat! I don’t think I would have the same reaction because my brain would be thinking of real-world things rather that how I could take care of all of the people. Jesus knew they did not have enough food amongst all the people gathered and so He made a point of what was about to happen, so God could get all the glory!
The disciples had a reaction which I would think was quite reasonable. I would open up my wallet (albeit a virtual wallet with debit cards and the like nowadays) and see if there was enough in there to be able to share what I have. I would be thinking about the bills to pay and would therefore make a quick calculation in my head to see whether I could help in the first place. That was not Jesus’ thoughts. He seemed to be thinking about feeding the people rather than wondering whether they could get the food!
Our hearts need to change to be more like that – not worrying about the here and now but rather looking toward the goal of glorifying God by doing things as He would! Jesus was going to feed these people no matter what! The logistics was something they would have to think about, but the love came straight from His heart and the provision came from trusting God to provide for His children!
Faith is something we need to test a lot of the time because if we do not, we grow tired and stop depending on that faith. We then start to wonder whether it is true and start to get caught up in doubt first rather than Christ first. Jesus had no problem with taking the very little they had and lifting it up to His Father in heaven so He could do the provisioning. That showed faith in the unseen God! We need to demonstrate our faith as we test it and as it grows with our everyday lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you doubt first or have faith first?
Will you try to be more like Christ this week?
May 7: Psalms 102 12-17
Key Verse: Psalms 102 17
He will respond to the prayer of the destitute; he will not despise their plea.
Devotion:
The Psalmist writes of a time when God is going to forgive the people from doing wrong, from running away without Him, for a time when they will choose to come back to Him. And what is the promise given to the Psalmist from the scriptures? That God will never turn us away when we come to Him!
No matter what we have got up to, no matter what our situation in our past, God is always going to listen to the prayers of every single one of us. We don’t have to go to church before He hears us. We don’t have to donate before He hears us. We don’t have to do everything right before He hears us – He listens to all of our prayers. And because this is shown to be the case, Christ’s promise to us to answer our prayer is even more poignant! He answers because of His love for us and because He has said He will!
God has demonstrated all manner of forgiveness to all sorts of people in our history. This is all written down so we can know it as the truth and be able to depend on it too. Israel was used as an example for us to follow because God knew they their love would wane and He knew they would ask to be forgiven when they realised how much they needed Him. We too need God in our lives and we need that constant communion with Him just as many have shown in our bibles.
Listen to His promises. Look to His actions as they bare out those promises. Think about the reaction as He forgives and forgets our crimes toward Him. What an awesome God we have! These are promises we live with, these are actions we have seen repeated time and time again. Is it not time for us to put aside our own fears and live toward the truth that God will forgive us and will accept us in – no matter what!
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to put aside your fears and trust in God?
Will you make your relationship personal?
May 6: John 6 35-40
Key Verse: John 6 37
All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.
Devotion:
Do you ever stop and think “why would God choose me?” or “how can God accept me?” Well, He loves us more than we could ever imagine, right from the most righteous like Job to the least like the criminal on the cross. Jesus opens up His heart to allow us in, and when we choose to go to Him, He is going to accept us as a son or daughter and never let go of us. Now, as mentioned before, we can run away for a while, but we will always have that place in His heart and will always be called His son or daughter.
Jesus promise here is to never cast us out; as in we will never be thrown away because we think we are not good enough. He has chosen to accept us the way we are and to forgive us from whatever we have done in our past. Just like the wayward son who ran away and spent all his father’s inheritance was able to come back to his father without question, so Christ accept us back without question; because of this promise to never cast us out!
If Jesus acted like the human being He was, He would be carrying grudges and judging people before they had time to do anything – we would not have a hope of being able to come to Him in the first place, never mind coming back after doing wrong! This is because God has this open invitation to all who will call on His name, not just the people who prove they are righteous.
He chose the unrighteous and chose to allow His Son to pay for our debt so we can become righteous and join Him in Heaven. Once we are covered by the blood of Jesus, we will always remain righteous – His death was most certainly good enough to cover the most heinous sin of all… if we bring it to Him! That is why He ends this passage with the reminder that it is us who have to make the choice – He has given us everything we need to make the choice, we just have to choose.
Points to Ponder:
Do you worry you are not good enough?
Which promise means the most to you in this short passage?
May 5: Matthew 11 25-30
Key Verse: Matthew 11 28
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Devotion:
We do not have to be rocket scientists in order to understand the bible; Jesus made sure the Holy Spirit could explain things to us at all times! We do have direct access to God through prayer and sometimes that may feel a bit one sided when we don’t hear back from Him within our timespans or our limits; God is going to answer all of our prayers and do so in a manner where we will all understand, but we need to stop and listen.
We also may feel like God is not answering because things are getting on top of us, lack of time, lack of money, lack of various things do heighten our wants or worries. The more we worry about things, the less clearly we think, and the less we are likely to call on God in our times of need. This is why Jesus was saying these words to the people around Him. A very young child will be oblivious to the worries of the world when they can see their parents or carers, but when they lose sight of them they may panic and not think straight while they go around crying over something which is not there!
Our time with Christ is similar because when we lose focus on Him, the worries of the world seem too big to handle and we stop being rational about things. Christ wants us to bring our burdens to Him and leave them with Him. He does not want us to have to worry about the things of this world but to focus on Him as a child looks for a guardian; when we are focused on Him we will not worry unduly about stuff we do not have control over – leave that to the one who can control things and who does want to look after us!
Stop for a short while and look back on how you have handled your worries. Have you given them over to God or have you kept them because you somehow feel the need to take care of them yourself? When we give them to God, He will guide us to the best way of handling things. It may not mean the problem goes away, but it will mean the worry about the problem goes away! Also, when we give things to God we need to allow Him to deal with them, not take them back again so we can have another go! Stop and listen for a response!
Points to Ponder:
Do you take care of your own problems?
Are you allowing God to handle things?
May 4: Matthew 23 23-24
Key Verse: Matthew 23 24
You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Devotion:
I think we have all been there at some stage – we look at the little things in life and either make big things of them or show others we are doing the little things; but when it comes to the bigger things, we hide them in the closet! Jesus’ warning to the Pharisees was quite descriptive and something they may not have forgotten for a while – the apostles certainly remembered it!
The more we look into God’s Word the more we find there is to look for. Sometimes it does seem overwhelming to see so many rules and regulations written down; how can we ever live up to being the people God wants us to be! That is when we start to try and bend the rules a little to fit better into our lives rather than us be changed to fit into Christ’s ways. The Holy Spirit is here to help us to live more like Christ, to be in a closer relationship with God. In order to do that we should listen to Him and obey Him.
Life on earth is for those who are living here on earth. We live amongst people who do not yet know Christ. We live with people who promote their own beliefs and their own ways of living. It does not mean we have to get involved with it all and it does not mean we should be ignoring it all either. To live with Christ means trying to live a Christian life amongst all people, an honest life showing off the truth about God and not living a lie just to fit in with the people around us!
The Pharisees seemed to have got it to a fine art where they did what things they knew they could do to ‘follow the law’ and swept the real things God wanted them to do under the carpet. Why would Jesus say the most important rules were to love God and love your neighbour unless He really meant it? Don’t pass by on the other side of the road just because it is more comfortable to do so. Live up to your life with Christ and make sure He is involved with everything you do – don’t try and do it all yourself because you will only achieve the things you think you can do!
Points to Ponder:
Do you do the things you can well?
What about the real stuff God asks you to do?