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January 29: 2 Corinthians 10:1-6
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 10:2
I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.
Devotion:
I don’t think any of us like to confront people with what they are doing wrong just as Paul did not like having to confront the Corinthians – but, he was willing to do so to stop them following the ways of the world! The more people live in the ways of the world, the more they are willing to push their ways and the ways of the world instead up upholding God’s ways. Just like the passage yesterday, we need to remember we are working against spiritual powers and need God’s power and wisdom to bring us through and allow us to promote gospel ways!
I wonder how many times teachers had to (or have to) tell you off because of the things you did (or do) in class which are not right! The way the teachers used to stop us from doing things wrong was with a cane – the ways teachers do this now are very different; but they are still ways of the world and not the way Christians should be doing things.
Christ calls us to uphold the gospel and promote the gospel to encourage others on the right path and not to constantly punish people when they step off the path He has described in our lives! The weapons we should be using are not the canes from long ago, nor the exclusions and others ways of the world today but rather we have the divine power of God through which we can accomplish so much more.
Don’t limit your ways to the ways of the world but rather allow God to use His ways and His powers to overcome the worldly and spiritual powers we work against. It is said that a single voice cannot do much, but multiple voices can do so much more; I put it to you that a single voice backed up by the most powerful and wise voice in our world can do immeasurably more than we can imagine! This means obeying God and trusting more to Him than we do now...
Points to Ponder:
How strong do you think you are?
Will you give your battles to God to win the wars?
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January 28: Ephesians 6:10-17
Key Verse: Ephesians 6:13
Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Devotion:
One of the greatest things I love about being a child of God is the protection He offers us each and every day of our lives with Him. But just as we do obtain protection from Him, we also need to make sure we have the best protection available: this means putting on the full armour of God. Our armed forces dress appropriately for battle wearing protective gear against being shot and also carrying weapons they can use when required.
Our struggle, as mentioned here in there verses, is not will other armies or people, but with rulers, authorities and the powers of this dark world. For these we have to be prepared to fight back against injustice and wrong-doings. But we also fight against spiritual forces for which we have no real powers by ourselves; through Christ and the Holy Spirit we have the ability to fight these forces.
But what use is the best weapon going to be unless we know how to use it or how to deploy it? We could have the very best the world has to offer, and we know we have the very best God has to offer, but if we do not know how to use this protection and these weapons, we may as well be running into battle with our bare hands – not the best thing to do!
God wants us to be truthful and inform people about the gospel message to start the war against evil. Then we need to listen to the guidance from the Holy Spirit as He tries to guide us in the best possible way forward. Don’t back down when people argue about the gospel; stick to the truth and stand firm in that truth. We may not be able to see tangible evidence of the power God can yield through us, so we need to have faith it is there and faith it will deliver us in all circumstances. The evil one is going to use circumstances around us to make us doubt – don’t believe him! Christ has promised us this all; take it in faith and firmly believe it!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have doubts about your faith?
God does not doubt His power or His faith?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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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?
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January 23: Psalm 76:1-6
Key Verse: Psalm 76:3
There he broke the flashing arrows, the shields and the swords, the weapons of war.
Devotion:
In the years which followed the Israelites being freed from Egypt, God became known as the one God who was able to defend His chosen people against anyone and anything. The stories spread over all the lands surrounding the Israelites and the people made sure these stories were told; they were proud to have a God who looked out for them and enabled them to live in a new land which had been picked out for them by God Himself!
When God says He is going to do something, nothing is going to stop Him from accomplishing that. We may well delay things by running off in the other direction, but even that will not stop God from carrying out His promises. The more we give Him the praise and honour He deserves, the more He is willing to do stuff with and for us. Our worship of Him is a very important part of our life; one which we often leave out!
God does not have to send in the biggest and strongest army in the world in order to toggle a country; He is able to get that done all by Himself. So why do we have to do anything? He asks us to do things to make sure we know He is with us and protecting us. If He went ahead and completed all His promises without involving us, we would become complacent and not give Him the honour due.
God should be the most important thing in your life; once He is given that position in your life, He is able to love and support you in your life. This does not mean we should ignore friends and family! But if we give God pre-eminence, He can give us the ability to uphold our friends and families. It is hard to love people who have done things wrong against you, but with God in your life, He can give you a love for them you thought was not possible. Trust in Him!
Points to Ponder:
Where is God in your life?
Are you willing to put your friends and family in God’s hands?
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January 22: Exodus 14:21-28
Key Verse: Exodus 14:25
He jammed the wheels of their chariots so that they had difficulty driving. And the Egyptians said, “Let’s get away from the Israelites! The Lord is fighting for them against Egypt.”
Devotion:
When I was young I marvelled at this story which shows the power of God; what was going through my head was pictures of the walls of water each side of the Israelites and the probability they would have been able to see whatever was swimming in the ocean! What I see now is the marvel of the different experiences between the Israelites and the Egyptians. The Jews were able to walk along the sea bad and get to the other side without issue… the Egyptians had problems with their chariots and struggled all the way.
You see, God is not just able to do things, but He does what is required at the time. We may be worried about things in our lives, but when we bring them before God and allow Him to take care of those worries, He does the right thing at the right time! God is faithful and He is just… so don’t ask something of Him which you know is wrong!
But God did not just do things by Himself; God made sure Moses was fully involved with each step. He wanted the people to see Moses as the leader, but knowing Moses was going to tell people it was not his power but God’s power. God does want to get the glory – we may be able to do amazing and miraculous things in His name, but we need to make sure He gets the glory for what He enables us to do.
Too often we may get a big head about the things we are able to do and assume we are able to do much more than we can; give glory to God for enabling you to do things, no matter how small or insignificant you think they are. Once you start keeping the praise for yourself, your pride grows and God gets left out of things...
Points to Ponder:
Have you asked God to do stuff for you lately?
Have you given Him the praise He deserves?
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January 21: Psalms 48:4-7
Key Verse: Psalms 48:6
Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labour.
Devotion:
One of the things we forget far to often is how great God is and how much He can and will protect us – even in this modern day and age! Sometimes I would think God was not capable of changing things in the modern age because of all the computers and other electronic devices. I am a computer programmer and I depend on the computers doing what I have told them to do… but I still make mistakes and things turn out differently. God can step in and work with humans who are in every walk of life; but don’t limit it there because God can do anything!
Here in the Psalm we are reminded of the way in which the nations around and Israelites saw the power of God and were very afraid; afraid enough to feel physical pain and flee from their enemy! God will protect you and will keep you – you may not agree with the way He does it because you are human and you limit your ways to human ways… God is not limited to human ways!
So how do we go about getting this protection God is offering us? Do we have to go to Jerusalem so He can reach us? Do we have to lock ourselves up in a church so we can be protected by the church? NO! That is limiting God to earthly ways and imposing our limits on Him. God works with you wherever you are and in whatever circumstance you are in. But there is a catch… you should be the one asking Him for help!
Does this mean we are not going to get help unless we ask for it? Hmmm. Again, this is imposing limits on God… Yes, God can and will help people who don’t ask and some who don’t even know Him yet – because He can see our future and knows what is best for us. But when we come and plead for His help, He answers and does something about it which we will be able to recognise! We may not recognise it at the time when He does help us, but when we look carefully at our lives we can see the ways God is working in our lives and how He is helping us.
Points to Ponder:
Do you only call out to help from God when things go wrong?
Will you ask Him for help now, before things go wrong?
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January 20: Isaiah 26:16-18
Key Verse: Isaiah 26:17
As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, Lord.
Devotion:
Just how serious are you in your relationship with Christ? Do you talk about things and never get round to doing them with Christ, or do you do things and then talk about them?
We need to be living the right life with Christ as an example other people can look at and be encouraged by. But even as we try to do so, we are going to have times when we do not do the right thing and God is going to try to bring us round to getting things right again. It may not be a clear and visible reaction we get from God because He can and does use all of the people around us to try and keep us on the right track. Maybe the people around you are trying to tell you about something and you are not listening, thinking you know better!
God wants us to listen to all of His people so we have the best chance at living our lives with and for Him. It would not be wise for us to ignore all of the advice we are getting, especially if that advice is coming from godly people! Just like that, when we live our lives with Christ, He is able to use us to reach out to others and get them going in the right direction again.
It is going to be tough listening to others when things seem to be falling apart in our lives – even tougher when they are telling us to change and do things we don’t like doing or are too scared to do. Just maybe God is trying to get through to us!
And then there are going to be times when God is going to use us to reach out to others – maybe to bring them down a peg or two so He can reach out to their hearts like He used to be able to do. It will be tough for us as we think we are being unkind or are being stubborn; but as long as we are listening to God and obeying His requests, then we are doing the right thing.
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to discipline others as a Christian?
How do you think God finds it when He has to discipline us?