October 1: Luke 10:17-20
Key Verse: Luke 10:20
However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.
Devotion:
How often do you get carried away with celebrations when you lead a person to The Lord, or you manage to do something for others? We do like to be praised when we do something with a positive outcome, especially when that positive outcome is seen a good in Christ’s eyes or for the church… But we should never forget just who is behind the victory.
I used to have a T-Shirt which had a picture of a bass being hooked on it and the words “we catch them, God cleans them” written underneath. I bought that shirt because it reminded me of the fact I could show people the light, I could show them the Bible and I could do many things, but it was God who was the one behind the hope and victory these people had – not me!
I cringe when I hear people talking about how many people they led to The Lord or how many people they brought to God… Yes, that person may well be instrumental in those others getting to know Christ, but without Christ they have done nothing. Without those people submitting to Christ, their work was for nothing…
What we should be rejoicing about is simply the fact our names are written in heaven – without that fact, we have done nothing. I will not count how many people I have changed, because I don’t do the changing, I simply open people’s hearts and minds to the fact Christ has died for them and wants to save them; nothing more! I am a servant of God who is trying to do what God is asking of me, it’s that simple!
Points to Ponder:
Have you boasted about what you have done for God lately?
Is your greatest gift not just salvation?
September 30: Psalm 139:6-11
Key Verse: Psalm 139:7
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
Devotion:
One of the things many of us struggle with in our lives is the sense of loneliness or abandonment. We struggle with being left alone or a feeling that nobody is there to help us out when things get tough. It is not something which is limited to people who struggle in life or people who have lost someone close to them, but to most of us at one stage or another in our lives.
When the psalmist was penning this psalm, it was a psalm of remembering how awesome God is in our lives. No matter what happens in our lives, no matter how far we think we have strayed away, no matter how much we think we do not deserve God to be in our lives, He is always there. Jesus made sure the Holy Spirit came back to mankind so we would never again feel like we have been left alone…
Unfortunately this does not cure everyone of their feelings of abandonment; for those people who struggle to have a relationship with God, they will continue to struggle with feeling alone or left out because they are struggling to have God in their lives. This is not something we have to try and manufacture because nothing we do will ensure the Spirit is with us – at least not in a physical way.
The Spirit stays with us when we invite Him into our lives. As soon as Christ recognises we are asking for help, He will ensure we have the help for everything we need. If we still have doubts, then we will still struggle with our feelings; but as long as we trust in Christ and depend on Him in our lives, we will find we always have the Spirit with us no matter what is happening.
Points to Ponder:
Do you struggle with being alone?
Will you invite Christ to be your partner?
September 29: Genesis 28:10-15
Key Verse: Genesis 28:14
Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring.
Devotion:
How do you think God is going to talk to you when you lift up your prayers to Him? If we are honest we would all like to hear Him say something audibly so we can understand without question – but if we are also realistic, we will probably be so scared to hear Him speak we would think it was a ghost or something else instead of God!
Jacob was on his way to Harran after being in Beersheba mourning the loss of his father Isaac; he was obeying his father and getting out of Esau’s reach. When he stopped for a rest and sleep for the night he had a dream about a staircase reaching from earth up to Heaven. Angels were using the staircase to go to and from Heaven where the Lord God was. God reached out to Jacob in a dream to tell him his offspring would be more numerous than the dust of the earth covering all the land!
There was no audible voice this time, just a dream which was a bit strange! God tries to reach out to us in ways where we will know it is Him because of the circumstances; in this case a dream showing Jacob God was in Heaven above all the angels and speaking down to Jacob to tell Him of this blessing.
When God makes a promise to us, we can know it will come to pass because God will never go back on His word – no matter how impossible we think it may be! When we look back on the life and death of Jesus, we can think how impossible it all was, but still it all came true because this is what God promised would happen – not just to the first people on earth, but throughout the generations of mankind.
Points to Ponder:
Do you rely on God’s promises?
Will you trust His promises now you know they are true?
September 28: Luke 9:57-62
Key Verse: Luke 9:62
Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’
Devotion:
As Christians we should not take the task of following Jesus lightly; but we do so much of the time because we live in a very different world to what Jesus occupied during His life on earth in human form. This passage tells of the time when a couple of men came to Jesus and declared they would follow Him no matter what!
When Jesus turned and said “follow me” to another man, the man excused himself from following Jesus on the premise he had to go and bury his father. Jesus’ answer was to let the dead bury their own dead which sounds a bit strange! What Jesus was talking about was to let the unbelievers (the dead in Christ) bury the dead body because we have a task to go and tell people the gospel story.
When another man came and said he would follow Jesus but only after going and saying goodbye to the rest of the family, Jesus told him he would not be fit for the task if he was willing to turn his back on the task before it was started!
Both these stories should impress on us the importance of following through with what we say we will do for God. If we declare we are going to do something, we should be willing to go and do said task no matter what happens. Is this harsh? Well, no. Jesus did not turn His back on the task of going to face His death on the cross. When God told Him the time was right for Him to return to Jerusalem, Jesus went there without making excuses about what to do. Yes He did ask God if there was any other way, but His willingness to step forward no matter what is what counted!
Points to Ponder:
Has Christ asked you to step forward?
Are you going to stand firm on what He has asked you to do?