December 8: Psalms 51 1-6

Key Verse: Psalms 51 6
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

Devotion:
When we do things wrong, we know it. When we do things wrong, we know who we have done wrong against. But, when we do things wrong, we don't always know how to get out of the hole we have just jumped into. One things we have to do is to try and avoid getting into those situations; but there are going to be times when we just can't avoid getting into trouble. We are born into this world and we live in it. We get tempted and we give in. Those are the times when we have fallen into the hole and need to get back on track again before it gets us down and consumes us.

David was a man who gave into the sin of lust. He did many things which the people around him would have seen as being wrong. I'm sure God would have given him a few reminders along the way as well, but his lust had taken over his heart and taken him all the way to commit adultery. It was only afterwards that he realised what he had done and how wrong it was. I'm sure he knew what he was doing was wrong, but only after doing the act did it suddenly dawn on him just how wrong he had been. In our lives we do things wrong and far too often it is only after we have sunk to the lowest position do we realise just how wrong we have been.

What we do then is up to us. We can ignore what has happened and try to brush over it, or we can get ourselves right with God again. We need to know what we have done is wrong. We then need to make sure we admit to what we have done – fully, not half-heartedly! Then we need to ask for forgiveness for what we have done. Read these verses again and see just how much king David admits and who he admits it to. See how he knows it is against God that he has committed the worst sin. God laid down the rules and David broke them. He is the one who had to admit to them; nobody else could have done that on his behalf. He had to bring it directly to God, not through sacrifices, but directly to God.

Points to Ponder:
Do you always admit to doing things wrong?

How many things have you swept under the carpet whilst God has been watching?

December 7: 1 Corinthians 10 1-6

Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 10 5
Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.

Devotion:
We may not be Jews, but there is no reason why we cannot learn from their past. We may not be from various races around the world, but we sure can learn from their mistakes. Yet, like so many people, we tend to ignore what other people go through because we all too often think it cannot and does not apply to us because we are not them!

We don't only have to look at all the troubled times that people have been through to learn from them. We can look back at the good things which have happened and be encouraged and learn from them too. We can look back at the miracles God has done for many to see that He is a loving God. We can look back at the people who were great men and women of God to find out how they lived their lives. It is not always their physical lives which we should be searching, but their spiritual lives too. It is not how they made or lost money, but how they communed with God that we need to find out more about.

We can look back at the people from the bible and learn just how much trouble they got into and think we will never go there. But we can look at their spiritual side and know what we should be doing in ours. All too often in our lives we will lose sight of the spiritual and focus on the physical, only to be tripped up by that physical because it is all self-centred or centred about evil instead of being centred around God.

We need to read our bibles to find out what people have done so we can learn from those things which are recorded. It is no secret that people did things wrong. Those things are recorded so we will not have to go through the same things in our lives... but we still think it will never happen to us and ignore the warnings... to our peril...

Points to Ponder:
Do you look at people and say, “that will never be me”?

What difference does God see between them and you?

December 6: Numbers 11 31-35

Key Verse: Numbers 11 34
Therefore the place was named Kibroth Hattaavah (graves of lust), because there they buried the people who had craved other food.

Devotion:
No matter how we see things and what we think about things, there will always be times in our lives when we think that God is not doing enough for us! Those times are when we are thinking about something, maybe coveting it, but certainly lusting (thinking more than we should about it) after it. When we get to the stage of lusting, we allow our thoughts to get hold of us and we start to follow those thoughts, not taking care of the will of God, but our own will until we satisfy our wanton need.

Lust is typically used nowadays to describe our overzealous sexual desires towards others. We can all identify with those sort of feelings, maybe not through our own feelings, but certainly through what we see happening around us today. But what we have to watch out for is the lust of our thoughts towards other things in our lives. We can identify sexual desires and can probably control those, but what about the lusts towards money, drugs and even things like chocolate. We allow those feelings to control our lives. We allow simple things to get in the way of our normal way of thinking and living just because we get caught up in them. Most of the time we are caught up in the social aspect of our lusts, not realising there are severe anti-social sides to what we do as well.

But it's not just the fact we are being anti-social when we allow our lusts to control our lives. It's the fact we are extending that anti-social behaviour towards God during those times as well. Turning against yourself is one thing, but allowing your lusts to turn you away from God and His people is entirely different. We will have to face up to what we do if we choose to follow that route. When God allows certain things into our lives, He is doing so under the assumption we will accept things without going overboard. When you offer someone an open box of chocolates, you don't expect them to take all of the chocolates! Be aware of how much God loves you by seeing how much He does for you, but don't allow your lust to overstay your welcome!

Points to Ponder:
Is there one thing you will not share in case people take too much?

God shares everything with us; are we being good stewards?

December 5: Hebrews 11 4

Key Verse: Hebrews 11 4
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

Devotion:
When we start to do what God wants us to do, we are going to upset others; not because of our actions, but because it probably makes them look bad in some way. When people start to see us acting like the Christians we say we are, they are going to take notice because we are now practising what we preach – literally. Jesus did not go round saying one thing and doing another – He made sure that what He said, He did. Oh how wonderful it would be to live up to such a standard!

In the next few verses in Hebrews 11, we are reminded about various people from the scriptures who have shown faith. What is different about Cain and Abel is that we know so little about them. Cain looked after crops and Abel looked after the animals. Together they provided food for the family. But in order for them to know about sacrifices, God must have given that knowledge to Adam in the first place. God must have told them about making a blood offering to cover their sins. The rules before Christ died for our sins were simple. Make sure you offer a blood sacrifice which is good, without blemish. What better sacrifice than an innocent lamb.

Christ died on the cross as our blood sacrifice so we would no longer have to offer blood sacrifices which did not quite live up to the mark. No single sacrifice before Him was enough to cover all sins, forever! Every sacrifice before was a temporary solution. If people did not offer the blood sacrifice, they were not forgiven. They did this all because of their belief of the unseen God. They did it because they knew it was right. Short cutting anything was wrong and Cain knew it but still chose the wrong way. The result was that he got so upset when God did not like his own sacrifice, he ended up killing his brother... We need to give up on our ways and follow the rules God has laid down for us. Acknowledge Christ as your last blood sacrifice and ask for His forgiveness. You know it is right.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you have to say sorry for thing you do wrong?

Have you chosen to say sorry to Christ yet?