March 20: Psalm 89:26-36
Key Verse: Psalm 89:28
I will maintain my love to him for ever, and my covenant with him will never fail.
Devotion:
One of the biggest put-offs in life is a lie. When we place our trust in someone and they lie to us it is hard to accept things they tell us as the truth again. But we have a God who has never lied and who will always uphold the truth at all times!
I despair at the news most of the time as we continue to hear governments and world leaders fabricating the truth, telling lies and covering up misdoings just so they can remain in power or have power over someone else. It is not our task to judge those who do lie to us, but we can tell them we know the truth. Christ has asked us to try and forgive people time and time again – but in order to do that, they have to know we know the truth…
God has given us a promise He will never turn His back on any person who calls Him their father – not just mumbling the words or saying them out loud, but meaning then in their hearts. When we do so, He reciprocates with a promise to love and cherish us forever as a child of His! This is a very personal thing between God and you, not between God and your vicar or church leader, but between you and God with nobody else between!
It does not matter your brother or sister has rejected God. It does not matter your children do not see God as Father. It does not matter if your parents do not acknowledge God as Father – it is just you and God. Having said that I think I am lucky to know most of my family continues to love and cherish God; which makes all the difference in the world!
Points to Ponder:
Do you acknowledge God as Father?
How do you show Him and others?
March 19: Exodus 2:1-10
Key Verse: Exodus 2:8
‘Yes, go,’ she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother.
Devotion:
One of the things which still surprises me is the amount of stories I hear about how God is looking after people in extraordinary ways. The story of Moses birth is just one of those moments where God used the soft heart of the Pharaoh’s daughter to make sure Moses would survive even when the Egyptian king was trying everything to make sure no baby boys were born to the Hebrew people.
If this were in more modern times the king would have an arrest warrant out on them for crimes against humanity; but this was a very different time back then. The people ruled with iron fists and would make sure they did everything and anything to ensure their survival. But, like always, there was a chink in his armour, the soft heart of his own daughter who felt sorry for the child crying in the basket.
As if that was not enough, God continues to make sure things get even more extraordinary. The servants of Pharaoh's daughter went to find a woman suitable for nursing the child and they chose the child’s real mother! And then… she gets paid for raising her own child, a child which should never have survived according to the law of the land!
God continues to do many miraculous things in our world today, just as He did back then. We may not get to hear of many of them because people are afraid to talk out when something has happened which just doesn’t seem to make sense! The press and peer pressure has made sure people do not step out of line and cause doubt within the system! But God continues to work! And He uses extraordinary mothers to do that every day!
Points to Ponder:
Do you know how extraordinary your mother is/was?
A blessed Happy Mothering Sunday to all God’s wonderful daughters!
March 18: Luke 18:9-14
Key Verse: Luke 18:12
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.
Devotion:
There is a fine line between being a proud Christian and being proud… I have always tried to play down my role in any church and have tried to live a low profile life, both in church and outside of church. I know there are many out there who will tell me how I need to be more assertive, take pride in my work, and advertise myself more, but none of those sit right with me in my heart.
I do enjoy doing what I do and do take pride in what I do; I will always try to do my best and don’t back down until I know I have done what I can. I believe God does watch over me and He knows what is in my heart and knows what I do – that is more than good enough for me. I really do know God watches over me because of all the answered prayers and the protection He gives me in everything I do.
To all those who say we should take more pride etc I ask: “who is the target or recipient of your pride?” I don’t know if that makes for good English, but I hope you get where I am coming from. If we are looking for recognition from the world, then the only rewards we get are going to be from this world. But if we look for recognition from God, then surely we will be rewarded by God. The problem comes with knowing how much pride to take and how much to give…
If we limit our giving to just get enough recognition, then we are not loving the Lord our God with our whole soul and heart. If we do things so other people will notice us doing things, then we are not working for God but for the people of this world. As a disciples of Christ we should be giving all we can and knowing God is going to reward us for what we give without the world having to get involved with our rewards at all!
Points to Ponder:
Who do you seek recognition from?
Will you give your all to Christ?
March 17: Hosea 14:1-9
Key Verse: Hosea 14:1
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
Devotion:
Have you ever noticed once you do something you are more willing to do it again – the same goes for good and bad things. Sometimes we have to muster up the courage to do something, like climb a mountain, and after we have done it once we realise it was not as bad as we thought. Or maybe we are tempted to do something wrong and we keep on putting it off until nobody is watching and then we give it a try, find it was not as bad as we thought and carry on doing it!
The good part is that when we do good things we are more likely to continue doing good things. The bad part is when we do bad things we are more likely to do bad things! The more bad things we do and get involved with, the more we drift away from God because we walk off in the other direction. He has been trying to tell us all along it is bad, but we ignored Him and we did it anyway!
We can see this pattern all throughout history where someone tries something bad and gets away with it at first so they continue one. Countries have been brought down. Governments have fallen, just because someone stepped out of line…
God continues to watch us and continues to try and convince us we are doing wrong. He uses the people around us, events and all manner of things to try and get us to see the righteous ways, but we are still given free choice and we continue to chhose what we like...
Points to Ponder:
How often do you try something new?
Will you try something new today which is good?