February 14: Mark 8:11-13
Key Verse: Mark 8:12
He sighed deeply and said, ‘Why does this generation ask for a sign? Truly I tell you, no sign will be given to it.’
Devotion:
How many times have you asked God for a sign so you know it is Him who is asking you to do something? I’m sure we have all been there, where we are quite sure God is asking us to do something… only to falter when we find out how hard it is going to be… so we try to make double sure by asking God for a sign so we know it was Him to start with!
Don’t worry, we are not alone with this. We can see how people have asked God for a sign time and time again. Gideon doubted God and asked for sign after sign and ended up having to face a whole army with a mere three hundred men. When God asks us to do something we should be willing to display our faith in God and step forward to do what He asks without having to have proof it is Him asking!
Even so, these people who doubted God in the bible did not have to fight alone because God never gave up on them. No matter how much we doubt, God will try to accomplish what He wants not matter what. We can make things a whole lot easier if we listen to Him and obey!
When Jesus came to be amongst us, we could say they did not have to doubt because there were so many miracles happening and people being turned away from their wicked lifestyles – yet we still see people having doubt. The Pharisees, it could be said, had doubts; but Jesus knew their hearts and knew it was more than doubts like we have. This was unbelief Jesus was facing and this is why He declared there would not be any sign for them. God is faithful and just. Trust and obey! He loves you!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you have doubts?
How often do you admit those doubts to Christ?
February 13: Luke 6:20-22
Key Verse: Luke 6:20
Looking at his disciples, he said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Devotion:
Can you imagine the scene, Jesus and His disciples trying to do something with a huge crowd of people… Many of them would have been behaving because they came to see and hear Jesus, but there would have been some who were desperate and pushing forward to try and get healed. There would have been some who had not eaten for a while because they were following Jesus, and there would have been some who had lost everything and were now coming to see some sort of justice or hope at the very least.
The disciples had learned to trust Jesus and to allow people to come to Him. They had seen the miracles and they believed Jesus could continue to do many more; but they were probably wary of the fact Jesus was doing so much, probably scared He would wear Himself out and not be able to cope… That is where Jesus was different! He continued to rely on God the Father throughout everything and continued to ask God to allow Him to do more because of His love for the people.
When Jesus turned to the disciples, His words were very poignant : These people around Him were the ones coming forward to ask for help. Who were they? The poor, the hungry, the desperate, the hated and the rejected. These are the people Jesus wanted to be around because these are the people who would depend on Him and not on the world.
Jesus wants us to be more like these people and leave the riches and ways of the world in preference for His ways and follow God in our lives. God is the one who wants to reach out to us and give us the comfort we need and deserve, not because we have done things right, but because He loves us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to get comfort from the world?
Do you ask God for comfort in your time of need?
February 12: 1 Kings 12:26-32
Key Verse: 1 Kings 12:28
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, ‘It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
Devotion:
I used to wonder how people could be persuaded to worship statues of animals… but then you see people worshipping statues of people, and then you see people worshipping animals… it all seems to come down to who has the best, easiest or most unique things going!
Jeroboam did not want the people to go back to following the king of Judah which was Rehoboam. He took counsel from others to see what the people were most likely to follow or believe – probably the only wise thing he did! The advice he got back seems to make me think the people he asked had no real grasp of what people were like! The same can be said for our modern world too; we have some people in government who have no idea how others live because they are from such a privileged society they believe everyone must be like they are!
So, Jeroboam went overboard and built shrines on high places. The builders of these shrines were not the Levites as God had ordered; they were ordinary people. They were not building something to worship God through or with but shrines dedicated to the golden calves he had made and placed in recognised places. They even had a big feast and sacrificed to these so called gods. This is when I question what the people must have been thinking…
But when you look at the society at those times, they had been brought up to follow and trust their kings because it was God who had first instituted them having kings, not because He wanted them but because the people had demanded them as a way of having something tangible to follow. They had trusted God and now were trusting their kings without question… When Jesus came, He informed the people they should question things and make sure what they were being asked to do followed the scriptures – which is what we need to do with everything we are asked to do in our lives!
Points to Ponder:
Do you simply obey your leaders?
Do you see if they are following God’s examples and requests?
February 11: Mark 7:31-37
Key Verse: Mark 7:33
After he took him aside, away from the crowd, Jesus put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spat and touched the man’s tongue.
Devotion:
This is one of those stories which has been taken every which way by us, but it still is remembered by many because of what Jesus did; similarly when Jesus healed the blind man by spitting to make mud and putting it in his eyes! These are not stories to make you comfortable but to make you stop and think! Jesus did not stick to the way normal people acted and He certainly would not stop because things got a bit uncomfortable!
Many of the miracles of Jesus are remembered because they stood out from the other stories. As the apostle said, the things Jesus did are far too numerous to be written down in a single book! The ones we remember are the ones which were different and the ones which were written about – not the many many more Jesus did all the time!
We may not be comfortable with the way Jesus worked, and we certainly will get uncomfortable when He asks us to do something for Him. We may not like it because it is different from the normal, but Jesus asks us to do things He knows we can do (not that we want to do)
God tried giving us all the comforts we could want, but each time we (mankind) went too far and left God out of everything; each time God had to stop the times of comfort before we corrupted things too much. Jesus came to show us God’s love for us has never stopped, no matter what we have done, but He also showed us things can get uncomfortable. Mankind has a habit of corrupting things after which we have to put up with the consequences – but God’s love continues throughout and forever!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get uncomfortable with what God asks of you?
Will you trust Him fully and obey Him knowing He does know what is best?