July 6: Jonah 4:5-11
Key Verse: Jonah 4:10
But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.
Devotion:
How many times have you got angry with God – note I ask how many times, not if! We all do get angry with God at times because we want to see things done according to our own times and places, yet what do we do about all the other times and places the Lord allows us to be alive with and at?
Jonah sat outside of Tarshish to see what God was going to do to them because they were not obeying God or listening to Him. This was obviously a desert town because it was hot and no shade around anywhere, but God provided a small plant which grew up beside him to give Jonah a little bit of cover. Jonah did not give much attention to this plant other than being thankful for it being there. So it came and gave him shade and it went and died just as easily…
What lessons do we take from this? We need to not just be thankful for the things God gives us, but to take care of them too. Without us taking care of anything we are simply taking God for granted and living according to our own wants and needs. God is still with us and still cares for us, but when we ignore the very things He is placing around us, we are beginning to ignore God in our lives too.
Take a bit of time to stop and think about the things God is placing around your life. Take a bit of time not just to be thankful but to care for them too. This does not just include the plants around us, but the buildings, places, environment, and of course the people too. Stop taking them for granted and start offering a helping hand to the things and people which God places around you every day! Be thankful for more and care just that little bit more by showing you care!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get angry with God for not giving you what you want?
How much do you care for the things He gives you without you asking for them?
July 5: John 5:31-40
Key Verse: John 5:39
You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me
Devotion:
Talking all about yourself can be harmful for your image – the more we build ourselves up the more people will think we are not telling the truth because we are talking about ourselves! Jesus knew He would face this and that is why John was sent before Him to tell people of a truth which was coming, one which was going to change the world. This was what the scriptures had recorded in them and something the people should have already been prepared for… but the closer the time came, the more people ignored the signs.
We have seen this in action over the first half of this year and we will continue to see more of this as people ignore the warnings just because they want to go back to doing their own thing! We can look forward and say “we won’t get involved!” but after a very short while of not having our own ways we tend to give in to temptation and do silly things! We even start believing our own lies and tell those same lies to others expecting them to believe us…
Let us never forget we are those lights Jesus is talking about here, just as John was a light coming before Jesus, we are lights declaring the way before the Lord returns once again. We don’t know when it will be and we have no idea how other than this is because Jesus said it would be so. You may think we have a bit of an uphill struggle here because we don’t know enough details – that is where our faith comes in.
If we are willing to have faith and trust Christ will do as He has promised, then we can shine that light just as John did and people will believe us just as they believed John. The crowning glory will be when Jesus does come again and we can live out our faith! Ours is to simple tell it how it is, but Jesus has the task of fulfilling what has been said, no matter what!
Points to Ponder:
Do you shudder at the thought of having to tell people about Jesus?
Imagine having to tell them there is no longer any hope...
July 4: Mark 12:28-33
Key Verse: Mark 12:30
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.
Devotion:
I wonder how frustrating it was for Jesus to go round telling people the truth about Heaven and for them to all question His every word. Many of the people who were not learned scholars of the Torah were willing to listen to Jesus and to learn – almost like they had not been given the chance to learn before… Sometimes we do get carried away with the intricacies of the details and we forget about the simple truth. So when Jesus brought it down to just these two commandments, it was about as simple as He could make it!
When we try to explain the gospel to others we should not be trying to give them the law according the scholars and priests, we should be giving them what we have in our hearts and what we have learned to understand ourselves. If we think it is still difficult to be a child of God, then we surely are on the wrong end of the rope…
God wants us to know it is very simple to love Him and to dedicate our lives to worshipping Him. We don’t have to try and invent a million rules and regulations so we can prove in some way we are worthy! God simply wants us to love Him with our whole heart and to love the people around us so they too can get to know Him. I love being able to help others and sometimes spend far longer helping others than I probably should, but it is my way of showing people a bit of the love Christ showed me!
I want to be able to allow people to see the simplicity of the gospel and not to get caught up in the many laws mankind tried to follow in order to prove himself worthy. We have shown on so many occasions we are not worthy, but because of Christ’s love for us, we can be worthy because He has made it possible. It really is that simple.
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you have broken too many rules?
How many can God forgive?
July 3: Mark 11:22-26
Key Verse: Mark 11:23
Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.
Devotion:
Do you have doubts when you pray? Doubts your prayers will be heard, doubts they will be answered, doubts they are what you need? All these doubts do not come from God but from the evil one who is trying desperately to make you doubt so your prayers will not be answered. Jesus was quite plain with the truth about prayer – if we ask and believe, He will answer!
Our problems come when we ask with that little bit of doubt hanging around in the corner of our minds – why, because we have probably asked before and nothing has happened yet… but that time we asked we had doubts anyway! Bit of a catch 22 situation and it will remain so until you are corned and ask our of desperation, knowing God is the only one who can answer your prayers, and then you find they are answered.
When Jesus sent out the disciples to go and teach, cure and support people, he did so knowing they knew the power of prayer. When we do know the power of prayer, we don’t, or shouldn’t, have any doubts about what we ask for because we should know Christ is listening and answering all the time.
Each time I write about this subject my mind goes back to a time when I literally fell on my knees with my son and daughter and begged God to help me. We all ended up in tears and our prayers were answered at that very moment; not years, days, hours or minutes later but at that very moment! Yet I still have that nagging doubt swimming round in my head because the evil one is always throwing things into my head and into my path. Lord, help me in my unbelief.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray from your heart?
Do you fully trust in your prayers?