November 19: Proverbs 27 9-10
Key Verse: Proverbs 27 10
Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you - better a neighbour nearby than a relative far away.
Devotion:
How much do you really put into friendships? How much do you trust your friends or neighbours who are close by? Sometimes we withdraw from people who are physically close to us and depend rather on people closely related to us instead. What happens when we are in desperate need of something and the only people close enough to help us are those friends and neighbours who we have refused to get close to?
God wants us to be able to mix and interact with our neighbours and friends who live close to us. Some of us are fortunate enough to have family that are just as close, but this is not always the case. What we have to begin to realise is we are actually all one family when seen through God's eyes – so why do we act differently? There are many societies in different countries who do mix well with each other and depend on each other. They live very happy lives together and build up circles of trust which run very deep. But here in England so many people tend not to do that, closing the rest of the world off when the front door is shut.
We can set up our homes as best as we can with all the luxuries we can afford, but none of this is going to match up to friendship. No earthly materials are going to match the friendship we can gain from others. No materials will ever affect the heart like a true friendship can. When we build up true friendships, we know then we can depend on others for anything. We know then we can rely on others. When they need help, we can help them. When we need help, they will be there for us.
But never forget that God is closer to us than any friend. He is there to help us at all times and we need to acknowledge Him as our close friend at all times!
Points to Ponder:
When did you last do things with your neighbours?
When did you last include Christ in your circle of friends?
November 18: Obadiah 1 12-14
Key Verse: Obadiah 1 13
You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over them in their calamity in the day of their disaster, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster.
Devotion:
What happens when you are playing a sport and the opposing team makes a mistake? You try to make the most of that mistake and you take the advantage as far as you can. If you fail to take the advantage, then you will not get around to much winning in your sport. But you cannot rely on waiting for your opponent to make mistakes. So should we take this sort of attitude into life with us? If you are going to treat life as a sport or a game, then you will, and so many people do exactly that! They treat life as a game to be played to the best advantage to gain out if it what they can.
If we break the rules in a sport, the referee will soon blow the whistle and we will lose our advantage because of the foul we have carried out. But in life we do not have referees standing on the side-lines to check up on us all the time. People are out there breaking the rules because they think they can get away with it. They take the advantage through any means they can. In Obadiah's prophecy against Edom the destruction was listed out in similar ways to other who took God's work into their own hands. The carnal desires and earthly security was what would bring them down. They played the game and thought they had won. They looked for the mistakes and pounced upon the people when mistakes were seen. They did not follow God's laws, they took things into their own hands.
Just like so many people today, they tried to make their own rules instead of following God's laws. In doing so, they lusted after success, no matter what. They lost sight of what was good. They went too far. Their earthly desires took them further than required because they lost sight of God's rules. The only problem being for them was God was watching that game... We need to remember with everything we do, God is watching over us and waiting for us to follow the rules...
Points to Ponder:
Do you set your own standards or follow God's standards?
Do you keep to God's rules even when the world breaks them?
November 17: Romans 3 19-20
Key Verse: Romans 3 19
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God.
Devotion:
Have you ever looked at society in this way? The law convicts you and declares you guilty, not because someone has caught you, but because you have done something wrong. That means we should all be on our way to jail. It also means we are all hypercritical law breakers because we, as a society, are condemning people to jail just because they have broken bigger laws than us! If we truly do follow the law to the utmost, then we are going to be broken, distraught, condemned, failed humans.
We like to think we do have a good set of laws in our own countries, and we try our best to keep those laws. And yet we don't like to follow the laws which we do not agree with. It sounds so bad when you say it out loud. But that is exactly what we do. We follow the laws which we like or at least agree with. We try to keep the laws when others are around so we can look good. We like to look good in front of others so we try to look good in front of them. We don't like to point out when others do small things wrong, because we don't want them to point out when we do things wrong. There is no real encouragement to follow the law and make a good example...
But when we come to look at the Law of God, we find a whole new set of laws. We find laws which tell us what we should be doing and not telling us we are guilty of what we have done wrong. The laws of God are there to encourage us to reach further into doing what is right, but also to show us that we have done things wrong. God's laws are there to show us that we are sinners, we do things wrong. God's laws remind us of what we are doing wrong so we can convict ourselves. When we begin to see what we are doing wrong, we can identify where we have to change. We are still guilty until God forgives us. That comes through admitting our sins to Him and asking for forgiveness... So simple... not so hard...
Points to Ponder:
How many laws do you break each day?
How many laws do you break through your thoughts alone?
November 16: Galatians 2 15-18
Key Verse: Galatians 2 16
know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
Devotion:
When we really do believe in Christ we are placing ourselves totally at the mercy of God's grace. Just like a mountain climber swinging at the end of his rope, trusting totally that it will save him from death, we too are to let go of the world and to swing free and see we can totally trust Christ. When we come to this realisation, we will know we are forever safe. Saved through Faith, by His grace. Not anything we have done, but what He has done. Not because we could believe strongly enough, but because His grace is sufficient. Not just because we were predestined, but because of our taking that step.
If we start to think it is because we have done anything or because of all the rules and commandments we have not broken, then we are making Christ's death to no effect! If we ever think we can take the place of Christ, then we have not realised just who He is. Imagine if a mountain climber believed they did not need the rope to swing under the overhang. What would happen when they finally tried to swing... If we think we can get to heaven by any other means other than through Christ, then we will suffer the same embarrassing defeat!
If we seek to be justified by Christ, then we ourselves admit we are sinners and cannot bypass the penalty for sin... death... (Romans 3 23) Does that make Christ the minister of sin? Certainly not! It is only through our realisation of sin we can identify what we have done wrong. It is only through His word we can identify we are sinners. It is only through His example that we know. He is the exact opposite of our sin! He is the example we need to aim for, not to be saved, but to show Him that we love and respect Him!
Points to Ponder:
Could you have survived without parents?
How can we think we can survive after this world if we are not saved?
November 15: Psalms 78 9-18
Key Verse: Psalms 78 18
They wilfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
Devotion:
Oh how easy people forget. It does not take too much to make a person look the other way, to ignore something or to put it behind them. It does not take too much to make someone forget about the troubles they have been through, about the trials they have had to face. But let there be a bit more trouble in their life and pretty soon they start to recall the things of the past and remember just who has done what for them.
We are so easily distracted from our walk with God. It can be the smallest of things which turns our head for a moment, that moment when we should have been communing with God. It does not take too much of a distraction to get us thinking about what could have been or what could be... if only... Yet none of those distractions will come from the One who loves you. None of them will come from the One who cares. None will come from the One who wants to protect you. God will not tempt you!
Those distractions will come thick and fast just when we don't need them. They will come flooding in when we are at our weakest point. They will come to trip us up when we walk, push us down when we stagger and kick us when we are down. That is because they come from one who hates us because we know God's truth. We know that compared to God, Satan is weak; but the evil one does know our weaknesses. We know he does not care for us like God, but he will pretend to care when we need to hear it. We will be easily persuaded, because we lust after more than we need. Our weakness will be our downfall unless we use our weakness to find our strength. When we know we are tempted, we need to turn to God. When we know we are lusting, we need to turn to Him. When we are feeling down, we know He will be there. He will not pretend, or leave us to fend for ourselves. God is our refuge. God is our strength. He has already proven it. Remember His Word, lest we forget His love.
Points to Ponder:
What do your friends have to do for you before you trust them?
How much more does God have to do for you before you see the truth?