January 27: Ephesians 4:29-32
Key Verse: Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Devotion:
Depending on your background and where you were brought up, this may be a hard thing to do – to stop the bad language, bitterness, rage, fighting and other things which do not build up others. In boarding school we learned to talk one way in front of the teachers or parents and another way entirely in front of others students. Having someone point this out when I was in boarding school would probably have not changed the way I was talking and acting!
But when we start to study what is being said in these verses and other parts of our bible giving similar instructions, we find a very different way of life to how we probably have been brought up! The big point we should not miss out on is to not grieve or upset the Holy Spirit. Does that mean we just have to talk to God and the Holy Spirit like we would talk to parents and teachers? Far from it! The Holy Spirit is with us in every walk of our lives, listening and trying to guide us in the correct way of doing things for God.
When we start swearing, taking the Lord’s name in vain, putting down others or getting angry with people just because we are not getting our own way, we are upsetting the Holy Spirit with our words and actions. Don’t forget the Holy Spirit is part of God and God cannot and will not accept these sort of actions.
Have you ever been upset with people for the way they have acted toward you? Have you ever been pushed into a proverbial corner through other people’s actions in your life? This is what we are doing to the Holy Spirit when we do things God would not like in our lives; it is as if we are forcing Him into a corner in our lives where He cannot help us, guide us and keep us from harm...
Points to Ponder:
How often do you get angry?
How often do you grieve the Holy Spirit?
January 26: Ephesians 1:11-14
Key Verse: Ephesians 1:13
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,
Devotion:
I still find it remarkable how Christ made it possible for every one of us to be able to join God in heaven! The most amazing part of this being God, who knew of us before we knew Him, chose us to be the ones who would be given this amazing gift… because He already knew what decision we would make in our lives! Christ came to us, not to build Himself up, taking glory from God, but as a mere human who was willing to give all the glory to God.
This was God’s plan for us; Christ came to fulfil this plan. The Holy Spirit is with us to continue making it possible for us to achieve our destinations through Christ’s promise and for God’s glory. It’s mind boggling for us to try and get our heads around this all!
Do we have to understand it all before we can be with Christ? Certainly not! As long as we have heard the truth and choose to believe that truth, we have this amazing gift given to us which cannot and will not ever be take away from us! Christ sealed His promise the moment you chose to believe. Just like wax seals were put on letters to ensure the recipient knew it had not been interfered with, Christ’s seal stays with us as we are presented to God as new beings, not interfered with by the world.
How can He do this? Ours is not to try and figure out the logistics of the whole operation but to simply have faith in Christ knowing He will carry out His promise with us. The moment we believe, that seal is put on us… Yes we still live in the world and we do get up to all manner of things, both good and bad, but that seal remains!
Points to Ponder:
Do you ever doubt your life could ever be forgiven?
Will you simply have faith that Christ has put His seal on you?
January 25: Ephesians 1:3-10
Key Verse: Ephesians 1:6
to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
Devotion:
The first thing the writer acknowledges in this letter to the Ephesians is that God has chosen us to be His people and has given us the freedom of joining Him in heaven because of his grace shown to us through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He made this all known to us because of His great love toward us, a love which covered our sins and continues to envelop each one of us.
It was not down to the timing of people whether they be kings and queens or the very poorest in society; the timing was God’s to make according to His infinite wisdom which has been displayed to us time and time again. Even though we have so many stories in our bibles which show us God’s perfect timing according to His perfect wisdom, we still try to impose our own lack of wisdom on God!
God has done this all so we can be together in unity in heaven. This means leaving our ways and our wants behind to be as one people under God. How long will it take before people all round the world give in to allow God to show us His power and strength? Will it be like the Assyrian army in yesterdays passage where thousands had to die before they believed the truth; will we too wait until it is too late?
God wants us to see and believe the truth whilst we are alive and living in this world, not to suddenly be faced with the truth after it is too late! God wants us all to be together in heaven – yet we still choose our differing and divergent ways.
My prayer for today is we bring Christ’s light to the people around us; that we allow many more people to see the truth which is in Christ Jesus before it is too late for them. We cannot be like the zealous Jew Saul was before his conversion, but we can be like the renewed Paul who was willing to show thousands the gospel story so they had the chance to make their own informed decisions!
Points to Ponder:
How did you get to know Jesus?
Will you tell someone today how you got to know Christ?
January 24: Isaiah 37:33-37
Key Verse: Isaiah 37:35
“I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!”
Devotion:
There are going to be times when we lose faith, lose patience or just stop believing in something… but even though we may be backing down on what we should uphold as the truth, God continues to uphold the truth! We need to ensure we always remember just how much God can do by continuing to uphold the scriptures and the stories of how God has protected others in the past – He still does protect us nowadays, even when we lose faith!
God pointed out the ways of the Assyrian army, ways which the people no doubt were worried about and had in their minds and hearts. Yet, even though they had their doubts, God was not about to old back on His promises. No matter how far we go down the road of lacking faith, God will never back down His faithful ways!
It is sad to see verses like these where thousands of people die because of a war, a war in which they may not know the truth about. These people were led into war because of the unbelief of their king. No doubt they believed in him and followed him and his ways. The people of Jerusalem had also given in to the temptations of following false gods and now looked set to pay for their sins… but as soon as they turned away from their false gods and put their faith and trust in God, their position changed!
So many wars are started because of religious ways and because of false beliefs. People are caught up in the moment and rush into wars which are not just. We continue to see things like this happen nowadays and because of the false stories being told through media, we trust our leaders and are led down the wrong path. These thousands of people died because of their leader. Once he saw God’s power in action, he withdrew and never came back!
Points to Ponder:
Do you always believe the news?
Are you willing to study the truth from the scriptures?