August 4: John 5:1-10
Key Verse: John 5:7
‘Sir,’ the invalid replied, ‘I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.’
Devotion:
How frustrated do you get with things in life which you can’t quite master? How many times have you tried to do something before you give up and try to move on… but you can’t give up and go try again, only to fail once again? I know there are things like this in my life and I sometimes get to the stage where any attempt to accomplish the task is not done with any confidence at all – we give it a go but expect to fail once again.
Sometimes it is the big things in our lives which we seem to fail at and ones we always get wrong – maybe something as big as relationships and we just can’t seem to succeed! This man had been an invalid for thirty eight years and I’m sure was at the end of his tether with trying. But he was still there with hope in his heart. That was the key, having hope and wanting to succeed. Even though he had not been able to get to the pool to be healed, he still had hope.
That is the key. Hope! We need to remember there is still hope, not in what we can achieve, but in accomplishing what cannot be done. How so? Because we still have Christ on our side. Jesus saw this man and walked up to him knowing his situation but also knowing he still clung on to the hope God would be able to heal him one day. Jesus was about to make it happen there and then without being asked directly!
God wants us to be in the best places at the best times, but far too often we get caught up in the world and find ourselves in the worst places at seemingly the worst times! We need to cling to the hope Christ has promised us and to trust God will do something about our situations. I have learned this and now try to lean more on this hope each day, trusting and knowing God still performs miracles!
Points to Ponder:
Are you frustrated with your life?
Will you cling to that last ounce of hope?
August 3: John 4:46-54
Key Verse: John 4:48
‘Unless you people see signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’
Devotion:
What does it take before you really believe something? Will it take an earth-shattering event or will you believe something God tells you through another person? I have learned God speaks to us through other people and not just through the big events of this world. Yes it may well have been a big event which cemented my belief God is my protector, but each day I continue to realise just how much He does on a day-by-day basis!
Don’t wait until you have an earth-shattering event happen because you may find it is the most difficult thing you have ever been through, or the worst imaginable thing! God wants us to believe Him because we want to and because we trust Him, not because it is the last thing on earth left before we collapse into a big heap.
This royal official must have been at the end of his tether with the looming death of his son – not something I ever want to have to live through. And what was the response from Jesus? A seemingly uncaring “go away your son will live” How was he supposed to believe this when his whole being was telling him his son was near to death? Why else would he have come to Jesus as a last resort?
Don’t wait for a last resort but place your faith and trust in the one true God is is willing and able to do so much more than we can imagine. Remember the little things which He is telling you through other people. Remember the chances He gives you. Add up all of those little things and see just how big the picture really is. He has got your back whether you realise it or not!
Points to Ponder:
What makes you stop and listen?
Will you listen to the small voice of someone else God is speaking through?
August 2: John 4:7-9
Key Verse: John 4:9
The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Devotion:
Who did Jesus include in His group of people He wanted to live with… everyone! So many times in our culture we don’t include some people just because they live on the wrong side of the street or they don’t belong to a particular group we associate with… We exclude people just because they are different...
When Jesus came to Sychar He knew it was time to meet with the Samaritan woman who was being shunned by the community she lived in. He knew it was time to include the person others were rejecting just because she was different. To Him, it did not matter whether she was a Jew, believer, Samaritan, non-believer, whatever! He wants every one of us to be included in His family and in His church. He wants every one of us, no matter what race, colour, position, society, past, present or future; He wants very one of us to be included!
This is the task set before us when He said He wants us to love our neighbour. Jesus wants us to include the excluded. He wants us to meet with the people who are shunned. He wants us to greet the people ignored by society. He wants us to help those who are stepped on by others. Jesus wants us to act like the Christians we say we are!
I know I have been guilty of this in the past, and for those times I am truly sorry, but joining Eden (#joineden) and becoming part of a community which had been sidelined by society, I have been able to do so much more of the things Jesus asked of me in the beginning. The place I live and love may well change over time, but the people always remain the same – those chosen by God! (that means everyone by the way!)
Points to Ponder:
What do you do in your community?
What would Jesus do in your position?
August 1: Luke 5:27-31
Key Verse: Luke 5:31
Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill.’
Devotion:
I could just imagine the faces of the Pharisees and teachers as they watched Jesus go to the tax collector’s house and have a banquet with them instead of a humble occasion with a few of the people they thought should deserve it… What would you think if your vicar went to have a meal with a local drug dealer instead of coming round to your house and having a light salad!
OK, that may not be a good comparison, but it has got you thinking… Just what do we expect in our lives and how much do we judge others according to our own rules and our own wants? If we are honest we will admit to having some jealous thoughts in our lives which are not really justifiable!
Jesus quite clearly stated He was not here to appease the people who thought they made up the best synagogues or supported the best temples… He came to reach out to the people who needed God most in their lives. He came to allow the people who were shunned from the temples to meet with God and see a new hope in their own lives. God calls us to do similar things – and it can be very scary!
I cannot compare my life to that of Christ, but I can see so many places where God has placed me in a difficult situation to allow me o be used in a way which reaches out to people who can’t face coming to church for one reason or another. God uses us in ways which we cannot or do not perceive. He uses us where we just don’t know how to reach people – because He is God and He can do these things! Trust and obey is ringing in my head as I write this down...
Points to Ponder:
Where do you aim your “God Work?”
Will you stop and allow Him to do work through you?