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August 21: Matthew 23:1-12
Key Verse: Matthew 23:6
they love the place of honour at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
Devotion:
How many things you do are so other people will take notice of what you are doing? If we are very honest with this question – most of the things we do are for the response we get from others rather than what we get out of it! The more social media takes grip in our world, the more we are going to demand attention for ourselves rather than doing things for others.
Jesus tried to teach the disciple how they should be thinking of others at all times and to do things for others as much as possible – not because you want to be seen to be good, but because the things you end up doing are for the good of others! Jesus could see how people, even back then, were turning to attention seeking rather than doing good to others. People wanted to get noticed and not necessarily do the right things!
God was very select in what He did. Jesus went out of His way to help others. Yes, some of the things He did were to get noticed or to bring glory to God, but none of it was in a negative way like most social media things are nowadays. We even have professional people whose primary goal is to influence what others should do – not necessarily to do the right thing but to influence others to do things they are getting paid for.
When we hear God’s word, we should be aiming to follow it and to do what God is requesting of us. Sometimes we get told about God’s word by people who are not following their own advice – this is what was happening at this time and Jesus was warning the disciples of this. We should not be seeking fame and fortune at the expense of others!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you show off?
Will you try to listen to and obey God’s word before showing off?
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August 20: Psalm 146:1-5
Key Verse: Psalm 146:2
I will praise the Lord all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
Devotion:
How many times have you promised to do something and then later regretted the promise because you cannot live up to it? How many times have you just brushed it off and kept on going rather than face up to not keeping the promise? If we are honest to each other and ourselves, we could probably list a whole lot of times when this has happened – both ways!
We can look back on the history of the world through the eyes of the people who penned the words of the bible down and we see this has been happening for a long time to many many people! We all fall short of our promises and we all fall short of being able to do what we think we can. But God does not fall short of His promises and certainly does not say anything He cannot do!
We need to think about the words of this psalm and try to keep them in our hearts. We need to try to promise God we will praise Him all the days of our lives. Why should we if we know we will fail? Because if we do not make the promise we will always have an excuse to not praise God. If we make the promise it will stay with us and remind us every time we fall short – that is the time when we can try turn things around and keep the promise as best we can.
God does not need a bunch of robots which keep doing the right things over and over again. God needs people who are willing to try to do the right thing as much as possible. And when we fall short we need to reach out to God and ask for His guidance and strength to get us through. Hopefully this way we will be able to learn how we can achieve daily praise and worship!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you fall short of the commandments?
How often do you ask God to help you through those times?
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August 19: Matthew 22:1-14
Key Verse: Matthew 22:12
He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?” The man was speechless.
Devotion:
Have you ever tried to turn up to work in your pyjamas or to ball in shorts and t-shirt? I have not done either of those, but I can remember someone telling me I still had my slippers on when I had just started walking to school! If I had turned up for school in my slipper, I’m pretty sure I would have been told off and forced to go home and get my proper shoes on!
But, let's go back to the beginning of the parable where the king sent out invitations to some people for the wedding. These people all made excuses and would not turn up for the wedding. The king sent out more servants to invite more people who also made excuses and some even killed the servants who came to invite them! The king retaliated and burned the towns of those people.
When God sends out the invitation for us to go to Heaven, He does expect us to say yes and to come! If we make up an excuse and don’t turn up, we lose out! But if we start fighting or killing the messengers who are telling us about God’s invitation, then we are fighting directly with God! Then again, if we say yes to the invite but do nothing to change our lives or promote God in any way, we are like the person caught in the wrong clothes!
God may well be loving and merciful, but he is just and expects us to accept Him fully into our lives. If we say we will but do not accept Christ as our Saviour, then He will not be our Saviour and we will not get to be with Him in Heaven.
Points to Ponder:
Have you said yes to Christ being your Saviour?
Have you changed to show you have?
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August 18: Matthew 20:1-16
Key Verse: Matthew 20:8
When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”
Devotion:
This is one of those parables you think of as not being fair – just like the people involved in the story. The landowner hired some people at first light and they were to be paid a certain wage. He then hired some people at noon and even a few more when it came to evening time... His decision was to pay them all the same wage – not an hourly wage according to how long they had worked, but a flat fee because they turned up to do the work!
Can you imagine the dismay for the people who had already been working all day to find out the people who had just joined the workforce were being paid the same amount as them! But, the landowner is the one who can dictate how much people get paid and did so in this case.
Jesus was telling everyone this was what Heaven was going to be like... If someone accepted Christ as their Saviour just moments before their death, they would get the same position in Heaven as a person who had been a good Christian the whole of their lives! What an awesome gift!
What we have to do is to look at it from the “awesome gift” point of view. This is a ultimate gift God is giving us – to be with Him in Heaven after we die. It does not have requirements which have to be met regarding the length of service or the depth of service... it is just service! All we need to do is to say Yes to Christ and be willing to do what He asks, that is all!
Points to Ponder:
How long have you been a Christian?
Will you continue to encourage people right up until the end?
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August 17: Judges 6:11-24
Key Verse: Judges 6:12
When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’
Devotion:
How many times have you thought differently about another person than your friends? When we meet other people, we don’t all get exactly the same impression because we change our opinions of others as we get to know them more. We don’t have the same insight God has!
When the angel of the Lord came to meet with Gideon, God had already told the angel what a great warrior this man was going to be. What other people thought of Gideon would probably have been very different if they saw him threshing wheat in a winepress trying to hide it from the Midianites! What Gideon thought of himself was probably not much different from what others would have thought – he knew he was hiding from the Midianites in the wine press!
But what God saw was a man who would be able to serve Him in an amazing manner because he would eventually be willing to listen to God. This is where we would fall down at first just like Gideon. We would not think we could do what God asks because we know ourselves as being the humans we are – with all our faults and shortcomings!
What God saw was what Gideon would be able to become, given the right time, encouragement and space. God is willing to supply our needs so we can serve Him to the best of our abilities... we just need to be willing to listen to God. Yes, it may take a few times of asking just like it did with Gideon, but God is persistent!
Points to Ponder:
What would you do if God called you?
Will you be willing to stop and listen to Him?
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August 16: Judges 2:10-15
Key Verse: Judges 2:10
After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel.
Devotion:
How many times have you watched someone fail to do a task because they refused to read the manual, or they refused to listen to someone who knew how to do the task? We have probably been there too at some stage; a time when we have failed because we refused to listen to someone else’s advice, or we threw the manual away before reading it!
Israel went through this a few times. Generation after generation tried to pass down the Good News, the scriptures and everything God had done for them... But when things went wrong and a generation was not effective at passing on the information, the people became restless and went after seeking their own desires instead of seeking God. When they did this, the stopped worshipping God and found themselves making up their own gods instead.
Each time God would get upset with them and send dire warnings about what would happen if they did not turn round. Each time they ignored the warnings they would have to face the consequences of their actions – which never went down well! You’d think they would have learned after messing things up the first time, but they did it time and time again... much like we do when we go off the rails!
God wants us to listen to His instruction so we can move forward in a positive and meaningful relationship with Him. Now is the time to stop and listen. Now is the time to follow God instead of inventing our own gods or following after other gods. We need the truth in our lives and we need God by our sides!
Points to Ponder:
How often have you left God behind?
Will you try to take God with you to the next generation?
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August 15: Luke 1:46-55
Key Verse: Luke 1:48
for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed,
Devotion:
When Mary visited Elizabeth, they were both blessed by their visit. Elizabeth’s baby jumped or kicked within her when Elizabeth heard the voice of Mary. If we ever need a reminder the child within a pregnant woman is alive and living, here it is! Elizabeth must have heard about what had been going on and was very excited to see Mary knowing she was carrying a very special baby indeed.
Mary’s reaction to Elizabeth’s encouragement was (and is) an encouragement to us all! When we get to know Christ, we know Him in our heart – within our spirit, within our souls. It is a very deep and meaningful relationship which we enter into and one which is not easy to shake... It does not matter whether we are kings and queens or the humblest servant, Christ looks at us all ion the same light and will bless us equally.
When we are humble, or at our humblest time, our relationship with Christ is at its peak and blessings mean so much more. The more we acknowledge the blessings and allow others to share in our blessing, the more we gain encouragement from the people around us. On the other hand, when we try to walk this path alone, the loneliness of the journey does bear down on us, and doubts do creep in where they should not.
God has levelled the greatest rulers with simple words and raised the most humble with similar words. We need to take into account everything we know about Christ and listen closely to everything He wants us to hear. We must continue to be encouraged by His Word and reach out for those blessings at all times!
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen closely to God’s Word?
Will you take His Word to heart today?
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August 14: Psalm 16:1-4
Key Verse: Psalm 16:1
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
Devotion:
It is always good to know you are being protected by something. Here in the United Kingdom we have a saying “an Englishman’s house is his castle” which roughly means our homes are looked at as being the safest places we have. It is in our homes where we feel safest and often our homes we withdraw to when things start getting messy in the outside world!
The psalmist here writes about being safest in God’s arms because he knows of the history between God and the people of Israel. They experienced the safety of being in God’s arms first-hand. They knew of His great power and His extraordinary love. They passed down this knowledge through the generations so others would get to know of the good news. We have all this recorded in our bibles so we too can hear of the good news.
People do strange things for power. They are willing to go beyond what is thought to be decent and righteous just so they can have greater power. God knows of the corrupting nature of this lust for power and wants us to stay clear of it so we will not be tempted. This is just one of the reasons why He offers us safe refuge within His arms.
We have to stop lusting after power because it is that lust which will corrupt our spirits and lead us into ways we should never be going near. Watch out for the false and empty promises which others will tempt you with and rather trust in the true and just ways God is trying to teach us!
Points to Ponder:
What have you done in the past just to gain a bit more power?
Will you turn to God and accept His safe refuge?
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August 13: Matthew 19:3-12
Key Verse: Matthew 19:8
Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Devotion:
We do not live the same way now as people did fifty years ago, never mind a century or more ago. Mankind changes, evolves, mixes, learns, makes mistakes – and so it continues. When the people started quizzing Jesus about divorce, it was because they knew from history Moses talked about getting a certificate of divorce and some of them seemed to object to that practice.
The Pharisees wanted to trip Jesus up so they could look more important and better versed with the law than Him. Unfortunately, they did not realise just whom Jesus is and they threw questions at Him expecting Jesus to flounder and say something wrong. Jesus knew what they were trying to do and would quite often get the people to question themselves instead of pointing out their errors.
Constantly being told off or being told you are wrong does nothing to help you feel good about yourself! On the other hand, always being told you are good and nothing can go wrong is going to give you a false sense of pride. We have to find the balance somewhere in between – God can help us to find that balance and wants us to be able to walk the path with Him.
It’s no good just talking about love, peace and happiness when we know the world is not like that. We must face reality and know we are going to face horrible things like divorce in our lives. As long as we can come to terms with why things happen, we can move forward and continue to draw closer to God each day.
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel bad breaking up with others?
Will you ask God to help you realise why things happen?
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August 12: Matthew 18:23-35
Key Verse: Matthew 18:27
The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
Devotion:
How many times have you looked for forgiveness from someone else? How many times have you not forgiven someone else? Yes it is very subjective – we like to think we can judge what is good and bad and forgive the right people... But how about looking at things from God’s point of view? We are sinners. We have broken the Commandments given to us by God. We have sinned even when we knew the penalty for sin is death!
Jesus was trying to get a point across to the disciples – we do need to exercise forgiveness on a much bigger scale than we think we should! Jesus knew He would have to forgive sins which were much bigger than the things we think we should not do. Jesus knew He would have to forgive people before they got to know Him and even before they asked for it... Because He exists outside of time!
When we get upset about the little things people do against us, we should look back in our lives and think of the big things we have done against others or against God. That should put things into perspective so we are more willing to forgive people time and time again. Jesus was not taking count of the sins people were doing against Him; He was willing to forgive no matter what!
When we know Christ is going to forgive us, we should be more than willing to forgive others when they come to us and ask for mercy or forgiveness. We may not like what they have done to us or are doing against us, but if Christ is willing to forgive people who kill others just because they have a conscience and ask to be forgiven, then so should we be willing – always!
Points to Ponder:
What things has Christ forgiven you for?
Will you forgive someone even when you don’t feel like it?