December 4: Hebrews 11 1-3
Key Verse: Hebrews 11 1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Devotion:
Faith is not a way of living. It is not a religion. It is not an asset of anything received. It is not temporary. It is not an act. Faith is not a moral virtue. These are often things which are associated with faith because people do not know how to handle someone who shows faith. This first verse in Hebrews 11 describes what faith is.
Faith and hope go together because the same things which are the object of our hope are quite often the object of our faith; or they should be. Christian faith is the firm belief that God will perform all He has promised to us in Christ Jesus. This belief is implicit. It gives our souls an expectant foretaste of things to come. Faith will change our way of living. It may be seen to others as a religion but faith will give us a different outlook on life.
It is the substance of things hoped, not an asset of things already received. Faith is believing in things which we are told will happen. If we wait until after they have happened before believing, then we no longer have faith, we have evidence. We can look back through our bibles and see the evidence of things which have passed and have happened to others. That then gives us evidence of things which will come to pass because they come from the same source. Believing they will come to pass even though we may not see them is faith.
Seeing how a tightrope holds up a person is evidence. Getting ready to go out onto that rope for the first time takes some faith. Real faith could only be likened to being told about this rope, never seeing it, and being blindfolded and lead out to the rope. Out on the rope, we have the evidence that it did hold. Faith in Christ is continual because we will not get out on that rope until we get to heaven. Living by faith will change our lives just like it has changed many who have gone before us. Living by faith will give others the encouragement they need to take that first step out towards Christ.
Points to Ponder:
What gives you hope?
Could Christ have done anything more to convince you?
December 3: Proverbs 27 12
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 12
The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.
Devotion:
There is still a large gap between God and sin. We may have that gap bridged for us by the death of Christ so we may have a way of getting to heaven, but sin is still far away from God. We may look at it another way. Sin is in our nature, but sin is against the very nature of God. The sin we are talking about is the internal, indwelling rottenness of us and our societies. The very stuff which keeps people away from knowing God. The sin that is picked up by each one of us and the sin which Satan takes hold of and steers us away from God with.
God has given us the ability to see what sin is. He has given us the ability to tell the difference between doing good and doing evil. Yet we still choose evil over good so many times in our lives, just because we think we can take hold of it and control it. What we don't see is the rottenness which sets in as soon as we choose evil ways of doing things. As soon as we allow a little sin into our lives, we allow the rottenness to start working. If you had a whole sack of apples, would you store a rotten one in the middle of all the good ones? Hardly, because it would spread the mould and germs to all the others before too long. We need to make that separation between good and bad and we need to keep them apart.
God cannot abide sin, that is why sin will never get close to Him. We, on the other hand, dabble with it for all of our lives. Choosing the sin path is easy because everyone else around us is doing exactly the same. Choosing the good path means going against people, even our friends. We know what we are going into, but we pretend to ourselves everything is going to be ok. We place the rotten apple straight into our sack and expect it not to affect the rest! When we choose the wrong way, we don't advertise it because we know it's wrong – we would rather do it in the dark away from others, just in case... so why do we do it? Because we don't depend on Christ!
Points to Ponder:
What do you think your worst bad habit is?
How often have you tried to ask for help with it? How often have you accepted help?
December 2: Psalms 139 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 139 2
You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.
Devotion:
So many times in our lives we would like to think that people know us enough to be able to do the right things for us. When it starts getting close to Christmas we like to think people will know what we want for presents! We just assume so many things about people knowing us... Yet when it comes down to our bad points, we don't want anyone to even hear about them!
We can thank God He is all-powerful and all-knowing. We can thank Him that even though He does know all about our bad points, He continues to love us totally! He alone is the one who does know us inside out. He alone knows our thoughts. He alone knows our deeds. He alone knows what each of us has on the inside – the parts which we try to hide from others, the parts we try to pretend do not exist! But through all of this, He continues to be faithful in His absolute love towards us!
We don't have to pretend with God. We don't have to make ourselves look good. We can be ourselves and He will accept us the way we are. We know our bad points and should not ignore them ourselves. For when we do ignore them, we are telling God that we know the law and yet do not care for it. We know when we do wrong. We know when we think wrong. And so does He.
We need to make sure we do lift up our lives to Him. We need to lift up our sinful lives and beg for His forgiveness. It is not God who is tripping us up with all the things we do wrong. We are the ones making the choices to do those things and to ignore His faithful and just laws. We need to straighten up our act so we don't have to pretend to be who we are not in front of Him! We need to be honest to ourselves and to Him because He has been totally honest with us!
Points to Ponder:
What things do you hide from others?
What do you think upsets God the most with your life?
December 1: Psalms 1 1-6
Key Verse: Psalms 1 6
For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.
Devotion:
When you read verses like these, they just make common sense... Not just for Christians, Christianity and Godliness, but in everyday life too. Do things right and you will get it right. Do things wrong and don't expect to see anything happen the way it should! If we are given something which we have to build ourselves, such as a model car or plane (in my case), we have to follow the instructions of how to put it together so it looks right at the end. If we just start sticking things together without caring where we place them, we will not get anything resembling the picture on the box! Common sense needs to be applied in life wherever we go and whatever we do. We need to take notice of the things we do and make sure we do them right!
Common sense also needs to be applied to our Christian lives. God has given us the scriptures to learn from. He has given us the whole bible so we can learn the truth. He has given us all the instructions we need – we just need to follow them! You may be saying, well it's not just about doing what is right... No, it's not just about doing what is right in our earthly view on life. It's about doing what is right in the sight of God. God has given us instructions for us to follow Him and to live our lives according to His Word. That includes doing the right things in earthly terms, but it also includes doing the right thing in spiritual terms.
We need to make sure our lives are full of thoughts of Him. That way we will always have Him in our thoughts. With Him always in our thoughts we will be able to remember more of the things He wants us to be doing. We will be able to concentrate on doing what is right in His eyes rather than just our own! When we think more about Him, we will be able to think more like Him and do things right in His eyes. It's all about His glory, not ours!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are a good person?
What do you think God would think about your thoughts?
November 30: Matthew 7 12-14
Key Verse: Matthew 7 14
But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Devotion:
Life is so busy! We are caught up in it. We can't get away from it... Or at least it gets to feel like that sometimes. Sometimes we crave to step off the merry-go-round and have a rest for a while. Sometimes we are able to and look back and wonder how we ever got caught up in it all. But when we are in the middle of it, we live for it; we don't notice just how much we are caught up in it until we find ourselves too tired to continue!
We may be able to compare life to things such as merry-go-rounds, fairs and even computer games. Christ had a very simple analogy which struck home. When you are too busy with life, you will probably not see the narrow gate as you run past it and will follow everyone else through the wide gate. But if we stop to take account of things, we will have time to see the narrow gate and choose it correctly.
Each one of us has this choice to make. We can continue running the rat-race and ignoring things such as our health and other people, or we can stop a while and see what is actually going on. When we stop to think and look around, we are going to find a whole new world; one where we can see the right choices to make, one where we can see others who need help, one where we have time to make important decisions!
Making those decisions and helping others to see which decisions are correct is so much more important than running with the crowd. Not only will we be able to do what is right, but we will be able to help others in their choices too. If we want others to be doing what is right, we need to start the ball rolling in the right direction by stopping to push it in the wrong direction in the first place!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you stop to think?
How often do you compare what you do with what is righteous?