August 14: Psalm 16:1-4
Key Verse: Psalm 16:1
Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.
Devotion:
It is always good to know you are being protected by something. Here in the United Kingdom we have a saying “an Englishman’s house is his castle” which roughly means our homes are looked at as being the safest places we have. It is in our homes where we feel safest and often our homes we withdraw to when things start getting messy in the outside world!
The psalmist here writes about being safest in God’s arms because he knows of the history between God and the people of Israel. They experienced the safety of being in God’s arms first-hand. They knew of His great power and His extraordinary love. They passed down this knowledge through the generations so others would get to know of the good news. We have all this recorded in our bibles so we too can hear of the good news.
People do strange things for power. They are willing to go beyond what is thought to be decent and righteous just so they can have greater power. God knows of the corrupting nature of this lust for power and wants us to stay clear of it so we will not be tempted. This is just one of the reasons why He offers us safe refuge within His arms.
We have to stop lusting after power because it is that lust which will corrupt our spirits and lead us into ways we should never be going near. Watch out for the false and empty promises which others will tempt you with and rather trust in the true and just ways God is trying to teach us!
Points to Ponder:
What have you done in the past just to gain a bit more power?
Will you turn to God and accept His safe refuge?
August 13: Matthew 19:3-12
Key Verse: Matthew 19:8
Jesus replied, ‘Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.
Devotion:
We do not live the same way now as people did fifty years ago, never mind a century or more ago. Mankind changes, evolves, mixes, learns, makes mistakes – and so it continues. When the people started quizzing Jesus about divorce, it was because they knew from history Moses talked about getting a certificate of divorce and some of them seemed to object to that practice.
The Pharisees wanted to trip Jesus up so they could look more important and better versed with the law than Him. Unfortunately, they did not realise just whom Jesus is and they threw questions at Him expecting Jesus to flounder and say something wrong. Jesus knew what they were trying to do and would quite often get the people to question themselves instead of pointing out their errors.
Constantly being told off or being told you are wrong does nothing to help you feel good about yourself! On the other hand, always being told you are good and nothing can go wrong is going to give you a false sense of pride. We have to find the balance somewhere in between – God can help us to find that balance and wants us to be able to walk the path with Him.
It’s no good just talking about love, peace and happiness when we know the world is not like that. We must face reality and know we are going to face horrible things like divorce in our lives. As long as we can come to terms with why things happen, we can move forward and continue to draw closer to God each day.
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel bad breaking up with others?
Will you ask God to help you realise why things happen?
August 12: Matthew 18:23-35
Key Verse: Matthew 18:27
The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go.
Devotion:
How many times have you looked for forgiveness from someone else? How many times have you not forgiven someone else? Yes it is very subjective – we like to think we can judge what is good and bad and forgive the right people... But how about looking at things from God’s point of view? We are sinners. We have broken the Commandments given to us by God. We have sinned even when we knew the penalty for sin is death!
Jesus was trying to get a point across to the disciples – we do need to exercise forgiveness on a much bigger scale than we think we should! Jesus knew He would have to forgive sins which were much bigger than the things we think we should not do. Jesus knew He would have to forgive people before they got to know Him and even before they asked for it... Because He exists outside of time!
When we get upset about the little things people do against us, we should look back in our lives and think of the big things we have done against others or against God. That should put things into perspective so we are more willing to forgive people time and time again. Jesus was not taking count of the sins people were doing against Him; He was willing to forgive no matter what!
When we know Christ is going to forgive us, we should be more than willing to forgive others when they come to us and ask for mercy or forgiveness. We may not like what they have done to us or are doing against us, but if Christ is willing to forgive people who kill others just because they have a conscience and ask to be forgiven, then so should we be willing – always!
Points to Ponder:
What things has Christ forgiven you for?
Will you forgive someone even when you don’t feel like it?
August 11: Matthew 18:15-20
Key Verse: Matthew 18:15
‘If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over.
Devotion:
One of my biggest gripes for people quoting Matthew 18:20 is people taking it as meaning when more than one person gates together to talk about Jesus, He will be with them... Well, that is not exactly what Christ was saying here. If we look at the preceding verses we realise He is talking about more than one witness being together to discuss what has gone wrong or what others have done wrong!
Christ wants us to make sure we don’t turn on others just because we don’t believe they have done something the right way. We cannot judge others – Christ has warned us against this. What we need to do is to go about things the right way. First, discuss it with the person involved; if they listen and change their ways, then you have done right by them and by God. If they don’t listen, then we should bring another person into the discussion so they see you are not just blaming them.
If they still do not listen, then things should be escalated until such time as it is brought before God in an official way. This is the point where Christ is saying He is going to be with us. Up to this point we have been trying to act on Christ’s behalf; but when that does not work, we have to get serious and involve Him!
God wants us to be able to sort things out between ourselves because we learn more by doing so and we can always be a friendly face instead of the long arm of the law being involved from the start! Take time to talk things over. Take time to work things out. Whatever we do here in our lives will be taken with us to Heaven – if we judge others falsely, that comes with us! If we do things right, that comes with us too!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you just blame others?
Will you try to do it Christ’s way next time?