January 23: Psalms 19 7-10
Key Verse: Psalms 19 9
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.
Devotion:
The more society grows, the more people become aware of each other. Well, that's what we would like to think happens. But, in reality, the more society grows in number, the less we think of others unless we are told to do so. We rely more on what other people say about others than we do about going to them and finding out the truth. But no matter where we are in society, we all have access to the truth – God's truth.
We can have life through the sun, moon, air, water, plants and animals. They sustain us and we are able to live a good number of years. But that is all they can do. If we want more, then we have to find something which goes beyond the physical world we live in, something that is dependable and true. But, just like our physical world, we have to take everything into account in order to get it right. We cannot ignore some things; just like some foods are not good for us. We cannot ignore the fact we will get burned if we stay in the sun too long. Simple things, we may think, but necessary things. Just like that, we have to take everything into account in our spiritual lives too. That is why we need something that will cover everything, something that is complete. Someone who is everything!
God's Word is nothing short of that. He has made sure that what we have in our bible is sufficient to ensure we know the truth and we know what we have to do to ensure we can have a life with Him. It highlights what we think and do in error. It explains what we should do about it and tells us what is still to come. God's Word is a sure foundation upon which we can build our lives, both physical and spiritual, so we can know that what we do is right. We may not get it right all the time – indeed, we make mistakes all the time – but through what it gives us, we can know what God has in mind for us. We simply need to trust it...
Points to Ponder:
Do you wish people would always tell you the truth?
How much do you really trust God's Word?
January 22: Psalms 51 10-13
Key Verse: Psalms 51 10
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Devotion:
King David saw in himself a sinner. He knew the things he had done wrong and he knew they broke God’s law. That is why the law is there – for us to compare our lives against to see the sin within. David also knew it was not in his power to cleanse that sin from within; the cleansing had to come from a higher authority. Back in those days the cleansing water would dutifully be applied with a hyssop plant. Nowadays Christ's cleansing blood can only be applied through faith.
David knew that because of his sin, he was not worthy to be in God's presence. In other words, he was not worthy to have the Holy Spirit within him. He pleads with God to forgive and hide his sins so he may continue to have the Holy Spirit with him. He knew it was his sin separating him from God and he did not like it.
Today we tend to grow up in families where God is hardly mentioned and where the Holy Spirit can only watch from the outside. We don't like to be told we are sinners because that make us look terrible when we actually don't feel that bad. Admit it, the last few devotions have been hard reading! We may help others and make others happy. We may spend much of our wealth on helping others rather than ourselves. But unless we are willing to give our lives back to God, we will continue to fall very short of God's standards for us.
God wants to be able to forgive us – He would not have sent His Son to die for us if it were not so. He wants to have the Holy Spirit live with us permanently – Christ would not have promised it if it were not so. Our sin is the only thing between us and God. Christ has already bridged that gap – as long as we believe it, He will fill that gap for us so we can again commune with God as Adam did in the beginning. With God covering our sin, we can then show others how we have done it and help them to see their way to God too.
Points to Ponder:
How would you rate your life?
Breaking just one sin means you are still guilty.
January 21: Proverbs 28 13
Key Verse: Proverbs 28 13
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
Devotion:
We all know stealing is wrong. We all know if someone else has paid for something, then taking it without consent is wrong. Even the law of the land will tell you it is wrong. So, let us think about something which has been paid for and something everyone steals a bit of every day. God sent His Son Jesus Christ to come to earth and pay for our sin debt. He paid for it in full by laying down His own life when He Himself had not sinned. So each time we sin without acknowledging that Christ has died for it, we are stealing some of what Christ paid for. Not so nice when we think of it that way...
Each time we sin and cover it up, ignore it or falsely justify it through our own thoughts, we continue to steal from Christ's debt. If you want to be able to help yourself to not sin, then you have to think about how much you are doing to Christ every time you sin. That does not mean every time we sin we should shout out to the world about what we have done wrong so everyone can see we are sorry – that would not be right. We do need to make sure we apologise for our wrong-doings keeping in mind how much Christ paid them so we will be encouraged not to do those things again. By shouting out loud, or boasting, about all our faults to everyone we may well discourage others from admitting their own faults or even encourage them to try and do what we have done wrong!
Our conscience will not allow us to cover our sins for too long without allowing us to feel just how wrong we have been. Covering those feelings will only make them build up pride and lust within our spirits and stop us from being close to God. The more we feel bad, the less we want to be seen by God and the more we try to hide. It's silly, but it's true. We need to be open with God because He can already see right through us. Be open about sin and ask Him to help us to defeat it. That way we can live with Him close to our hearts and reap the rewards such a relationship will bring.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you try to cover things up?
How often do you try to hide things from God?
January 20: 1 John 1 5-10
Key Verse: 1 John 1 9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
Devotion:
A Message from God which we all need to hear and be reminded of regularly...
If we walk into a darkened room, there is no way we will know exactly what is in there. Yet as soon as there is a little light, we will start to see things, shapes, shadows. But when a very bright light is switched on, then we will see everything in the room and will become aware of all the things that we did not see in the beginning. When the room was darkened, we would tend to ignore the small things we did not see, like spiders under chairs or sweet wrappers left on the floor. But with the bright light, we can see them and know they are there.
As we go through our lives, we do tend to stick with things that we know. We don't open our eyes fully to all around us; partly because we don't want to know and partly because we think we are safer without knowing. We allow others to show us the ways and do things the way they do – we follow the dull lights. By doing this, we fall into the same ways as they are living and begin to think it is the right way of living. It is only when a brighter light comes along that we see all we are missing and we realise we are doing things wrong. But even with a bright light shining, if we don't stick with that brighter light, we will pretty soon fall back into our old ways of living.
We need to walk in the perfect light that is Jesus Christ, knowing through Him we will be able to see all. This reminder is here for us; to know we have to admit to our faults so He can faithfully and willingly forgive us and show us what is right. We will still want to do what we are used to because that is how we have grown up, but at least we will be able to listen to what is right and attempt to do what is right!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are living right?
Have you compared your life to Christ's?
January 19: Matthew 6 9-15
Key Verse: Matthew 6 14
For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Devotion:
It is amazing that Christ Himself would give us such a simple prayer to pray to Him. But what is so much more amazing is just how much is within this simple prayer. Today, I just want to focus on the one word “forgive”. Just how does that happen? How do we forgive someone? How do we gain forgiveness?
If you do something wrong against someone that you did not mean to do, then the first thing which probably pops into your head is to say sorry, or at least I hope so! When we walk down a crowded street and accidentally knock into someone, I would like to think both parties would probably turn around and say sorry – more often than not it is because both parties were either chatting to someone else and not looking or one appears ‘out of nowhere’ by stepping out of a shop without looking. Our response is to apologise so we may gain forgiveness.
How many times a day do you do something which would probably upset God and not even think about apologising to Him? How many times do we ask for forgiveness but not apologise for what we have done first? If we truly want God to forgive us, then we should be willing to admit to our faults before asking for forgiveness. It's not as if we don't know what we are doing wrong to start with! We know when things are wrong. We know because we may well not feel close to God. We know because we may not be doing God's will. We know in our hearts because we should be in our right relationship with Him to start with. That is the time to stand up and admit to what we are doing wrong so that we can get back into that relationship with Him.
Christ has already paid the price for our sins, but if we are not willing to admit to them, how is He supposed to be able to forgive us of those sins. Sin and unbelief are the only things keeping us away from God. Being too proud to admit to sin is a “double whammy”!
Points to Ponder:
Do you apologise to people when you do wrong to them?
Do you apologise to God?