March 18: Proverbs 20 12-13

Key Verse: Proverbs 20 12
The hearing ear and the seeing eye, The Lord has made them both.

Devotion:
We all have our lazy days when we just don't want to do things, but there are times in our lives when we need to put our laziness aside and stand up to do God's will. We can make all the excuses we want to, but when it comes down to it, God is the one who is in control of our lives and He is the one who will make sure we do have the opportunity to do His will when He asks us; but we are the ones who have to make the final choice as to whether we wish to carry out His will!

God does not make our lives hard to bear, He does not throw temptations in front of us, He does not make our life a misery... yet that is the impression we may well be giving out when we turn down His will in our lives for others to see. When we give in to things around us we are showing others we do not have the full respect for God that we first said we had. We are showing others we too will give in to the worldly temptations just as they do. It may make us fit in with them, but it is not doing the same with God.

God has supplied us with bodies which can see, hear, learn and do things. He has given us these bodies so we may be able to choose what we will in our lives. He has given us these bodies so we may be able to understand His will, to be able to learn His will and yet to be able to still make our own choices. How we make those choices is going to affect the way we live. How we make those choices is going to affect the way others perceive us. How we make those choices is going to affect our relationship with Christ.

Using our bodies to follow His will, to read His Word and to learn what He has in store for our lives will strengthen our relationship with Him so we can live a life closer to Him.

Points to Ponder:
Who is your life has made the biggest impression?

How much time do you submit to God?

March 17: Habakkuk 3 16-19

Key Verse: Habakkuk 3 19
The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer’s feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills.

Devotion:
We, as Christians, are probably going to face tough times just like those around us face tough times. We will come up against things which scare us, frighten us or even worry us right to the bone. But that is where we are different. There is no way we are going to be able to escape a bomb blast which goes off a few meters away from us, just like the people standing next to us. There is no way we will be able to escape a drought which expands over all the lands around us. I am not saying that God would not want us to survive a disaster if He knows we are going to do great things for him in the future... Being a Christian does not mean we are super-human or that we will get special physical protection throughout our lives.

Being a Christian is far more meaningful than the simple physical things in life. Yet it is those physical things in life which pre-occupy us most of the time. We are led by the physical, encouraged and discouraged by the physical and our emotions follow the physical as well. The reason for this is we are living in the physical, so that is no great surprise! But what we have is an inner joy which nothing on earth can take away from us; An inner peace which extends far beyond the physical discomfort we may suffer; An inner spirit which lifts us higher when we fall lower into the physical.

I like to think of it as a balance. The more we load our lives with the physical pleasures, the more it outweighs everything on the other side. Yet when the physical pleasures get lighter and sparser, the constant abundance of the Holy Spirit far outweighs the sparseness of everything physical in our lives. We can depend on the unchanging Spirit. We can depend on God. We can depend on His peace. We can depend on His love. Because He never changes....

Points to Ponder:
How much do you depend on physical things to make you happy?

How much do you really entrust to God for your comfort?

March 16: Romans 12 9-16

Key Verse: Romans 12 12
rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Devotion:
One thing we certainly have to remember as Christians is that our love for each other must be totally sincere. What use is love if it is not going to be total, without any missing parts? What use is love if it is going to be held up by deceitful comments, or vain comments? Love has got to be whole. That whole love is central to our faith, to our very being.

Christ showed us the ultimate love by giving His own life for our sin debt. We need to remember just how far He was willing to go for us even before we knew Him. Why should we be holding any love back from any other people? We do need to be careful in making sure we don’t get caught up in evil, even when we do show love towards those who do act in evil ways. How can they ever expect to find out how they can be forgiven if someone is not going to first show them they can be loved?

Serving the Lord is not just about going to church and keeping up with bible reading and prayers. It is about our personal relationship with Christ. We have to make sure we keep our spirits focused on Him. We need to make sure our lives revolve around serving Him in whatever manner we can. That may not mean running a whole church but simply making sure our lifestyles reflect the fact that we are Christians and we do look to keeping Him first in our lives!

Showing others we do look for that hope with total faith, depending on God, trusting in Him and expecting Him to be faithful to us will encourage them. Showing others that we are willing to forgive and not persecute, bless and not curse, truly support and not feign support! Rejoice and be happy with them, cry and weep with them – but do everything with utmost honesty through true love. Love needs to be total.

Points to Ponder:
Why do we limit ourselves to just 'some friends'?

Are you treating Christ like a true friend?

March 15: Romans 15 1-4

Key Verse: Romans 15 4
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Devotion:
One of the things we need to continue doing as a society is to look out for those who need help. This is part of being human. When we lose focus on the ability to help others, we are losing focus on God's commandments and on those great commandments which Christ told of us. But what we need to remember all the time is exactly why we are doing the helping. If we are doing the helping just to please the other person, then why are we actually doing it? Doing something just to please someone else normally means we are looking for something out of the deal, we are looking for some sort of payback later on. So if we are doing that, then we are actually acting for ourselves in the beginning and not for God.

God would have us to help others whenever we can, but so long as we are taking the praise for it, we are the ones gaining from the situation. Christ has given us our freedom of will, not to go and please ourselves, but to ultimately praise Him. Why should we not? He is the one, after all, who has created us. He is the one who has given that liberty to us. He is the one who has supplied us with everything in our lives. Yet He alone was the one who took upon the sins of the whole world. He alone, who did not sin Himself, took upon the sin of everyone that came before Him and after Him, just so we can all have a free life. We don't have to look forward to taking on the sins of anyone else to make sure they get to heaven, all we need do is to carry the people who need it a little further so they too can see Christ.

Without that little assistance we can muster, some will never get close enough to hear of His wonderful love and to hear of the wonderful things He has already done for us. If you think you need help in deciding what you should be doing, or in finding out what you can do – then read God's Word. Everything has been written down already so we can gain from the experience of great men and women of faith throughout history. We can learn about what Christ has done for us through their example.

Points to Ponder:
Wouldn't it be nice to read all about someone before allowing them to be your friend?

How much do you know about Christ?