March 16: Matthew 5:33-37
Key Verse: Matthew 5:37
All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
Devotion:
How many times a week do you ‘swear an oath’ thinking that this will carry more weight than simply saying what you will do? I used to do this a lot until it was pointed out that we don’t have control over everything around us, so we should simply be saying what we know we can do – and if people are asking for more, then we say we will try to do that…
God made many promises to us, but He did not swear an oath. He always tells us the truth and when He says He will do something, we know it is true and we can depend on what He has said. Why is this not the same for all mankind? Because we are corrupt at the core! We have also learned not to trust people because what they have told us and what they do seem to be two different things! What we should be aiming at is bringing trust back into our relationships so we can depend on people once again.
As the world struggles to contain this current outbreak of coronavirus, people seem to have lost the will to trust in anything in many places and would rather build up their own ‘defence’ against anything by buying even more than they need to survive on. They are ignoring the needs of their neighbours and trying to go it alone – where has the trust gone in our societies?
We need to put aside our wants and desires and start thinking about the promises we made to God… “But I didn’t make any promises to God” may be your response, but I look at it differently. God simply says what is going to happen and we take that as a promise. He expects us to say what we are going to do and expects us to fulfil those words – taking it as a promise just as we take His word as a promise. That is the way we should all be living – simply saying what we can do and getting out and doing it! As an individual I promised to help people on the estate where I now live and I am trying to fulfil that as best I can – even within Governmental guidelines in the current crisis we face. We can still do this!
Points to Ponder:
Do you use excuses so you don’t have to do your work?
What excuses have you used with God?
March 15: Matthew 5:13-16
Key Verse: Matthew 5:14
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Devotion:
Have you ever bought, or had given to you a sample of different salts? I had a present given to me which was a set of different salts from around the world: blue salt, grey salt, white salt and even pink salt. Each of the salts got their colours from the surrounding elements where they are found from volcanoes to waters. But what was common amongst all of those salts? They tasted of salt! Sounds a bit silly, but what use would any of them have been if they did not taste of salt? We expect things to taste like what we know they should taste of!
If we have salt which has lost all of it’s flavour, then the only good thing left for it would be to throw it on the ground to be used to melt ice… if it even did that any more! The same can be said of lights – we expect lights to shed light in places where we need to see after dark. We know they can do that and we expect them to do so when we flick the switch on! But what use would a light be in a closed box into which we could not see?
God looks at each one of us as salty or able to shed light. The saltiness may not be what we can do by ourselves; we may need God to enable us to be the salt which people want to taste. The light is probably not going to be us because we live in a world where we are constantly surrounded by dark and where many people try to hide in that darkness – but we are that light in many cases. The light may only be a reflection of God’s light, but it will seem to come from us at times.
The people around us are going to expect us to remain tasty and remain as a light source. We may not feel like it at times, but after we have show people a bit of God through us, they will continue to expect to see God in us when they look at us. To be of real use to these people around us we need to be filled with the salt and light which comes from God in the beginning. We need to continue allowing others to take away some salt and share the light. Don’t hide away just because you think they may not like it – it may be the one thing they have been waiting for in their lives!
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever been described as salty or full of light?
Are you ready to share that salt and light?
March 14: Matthew 5:3-10
Key Verse: Matthew 5:5
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Devotion:
Over the years of reading these verses I think I have imagined myself to be in different places at different times in my life; but being meek is a little hard at times! We are not just called to be believers but to also reflect the different aspects of our awesome Saviour – and these verses do describe most aspects of Christ which we can hope to attain in our lives. We cannot be pure and holy as He is, but we can hope to be in a position where we can receive His blessings more often!
If we are willing to change our lives a bit each day and listen to what God would like in our lives, we will not just see ourselves drawing closer to Him but also see the blessings He sends our way. It may not seem like it at times when we fall into the category of the ‘persecuted’ people, but through everything in our lives we can always see the blessings. Yesterday in our staff meeting we had to write down a few reasons to be cheerful – and as the suggestions went round the room, it was clear we all had different things to be cheerful for! What an awesome God we serve!
When we fall short of the perfect life we probably wish we could have, God is standing by ready to give us the blessings we deserve. If we are going to do nothing but complain about our circumstances, then our blessings are going to fall very short of the ones we want in our lives. But when we lower our focus and accept our circumstances, we can then see more of the blessings we do receive and be more cheerful we do have something!
God does not want us to be inward focused but to be outward looking. If we are too inward focused, we will not see the world God has given for us and certainly not notice the blessings which come our way. It is not always about looking for the blessing you can get out of life or from God but also the blessing you can be to others around you. When we someone who is in need, we should be trying to fulfil their need in some way – this is what Jesus would do!
Points to Ponder:
Do you look out for your own blessings?
Do you help to bless others around you?
March 13: Micah 6:6-8
Key Verse: Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
Devotion:
I don’t know if I would have been able to cope with the sacrifices and ways people were called to live by thousands of years ago – but God wanted people to stop and think about what they were doing and what the implications of their actions could be. If we were faced with death because of the small things we do wrong, then we may well stop doing those little things wrong and fall in line with the law!
But was it the sacrifices and burnt offerings God wanted – I fear not. I believe He was trying to make a point for us to see what we are doing wrong and the only way He could do that was to be quite extreme with His dealings with mankind! We face the same sort of things in our lives – when we fall out of line and start getting carried away with ourselves, the people around us may well take a drastic step to try and make us realise what we are doing wrong. Sometimes it takes that big step for us to wake up!
I wonder what it would have smelt like when a king like David was making a very large sacrifice of hundreds of animals to dedicate things to God. When I was in high school I was able to visit a slaughter house where animals were being killed for food and the smell of that took a few days to wear off – I kept thinking I smelt the blood and the burning of various things… When the kings of old performed large sacrifices, they would have been in the open and the smell would have permeated everything!
This is not what God requires. He does not require us to do all the sacrificing and carry on trying to show we are sorry through horrible acts like that. He wants to see the change in our hearts where we want to be good and we want to act justly, the love mercy (both to us and to others) and to walk humbly with Him. That means just getting on and doing the stuff He wants you to do and not shouting and boasting about it – a fine line we often step over in our lives nowadays.
Points to Ponder:
Do you act justly?
Will you live with mercy?