December 2: Luke 21:34-36

Key Verse: Luke 21:34
Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you suddenly like a trap.

Devotion:
One of the things which always seems to pop up at this time of year is some sort of depression: the nights are drawing in, it’s getting dark far too early, it’s cold and icy and lots of people come down with colds. But one of the things which affects us most is staying indoors for longer periods because the weather is just not hospitable outside – or at least that is the excuse we give.

Scientists and phycologists will tell you there are reasons for us all feeling down and for people taking up drinking and allowing the anxieties of life to take hold – they say it is because of the lack of sun and being outside. But it is more than that. That may be the physical reason why people to feel down, but when we do allow those feelings of anxiety in its many forms to take hold we are allowing the world to take over our lives.

God has warned us for a very long time we should not allow the ways of the world to grab hold of us and lead us away from Him. Sadly, anxiety and depression are just some of those things which take us away from God. We can call out as much as we like and tell people they only have to read the bible, but unless they have some sort of relationship with Christ, reading the bible may not help because they may not understand it!

God wants us to be in a relationship wit Him so He can guide us through the dark times; physically, mentally and spiritually. These worldly feeling can pounce on us like a trap and we will feel helpless against them; but with God’s help and encouragement we can weather them!

Points to Ponder:
Do you allow worldly feeling to take hold?

Have you tried depending more on Christ to stay those feelings?

December 1: Psalm 139:13-18

Key Verse: Psalm 139:13
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

Devotion:
How often do you look at the biology of the human form? I was never any good at biology because I could not remember all the names of the parts of the body and how they worked together; I could remember some parts of various others things like plants, but human anatomy just went over my head. I can, however, get my head round most engineering things, mathematics and technical drawings…

So when it comes to the bible talking about how God knows everything about me, I look at it as an engineering problem instead; even then the logistics of how we exist in this work are far beyond my computational thinking! So going through these verses makes me think of a designer who has thought long and hard about the design to make it the best possible knowing all the pitfalls and problems it is going to face for years to come.

So many things in our lives don’t seem to be designed to last. Instead people seem to design for a limited lifespan so they can make things obsolete and not have to worry about them in the future. Not what God has done! God has made us to live forever with Him, having a spell down on earth while we make the choices we need to make first.

God was there, doing things, planning and waiting patiently until you finally came together inside your mother’s womb and started the greatest journey on earth in preparation for the greatest life in eternity with Him and all who believe in what He has done for us all!

Points to Ponder:
Do you know when you started life on earth?

Are you ready for when your life will end on earth?

November 30: Romans 10:12-18

Key Verse: Romans 10:13
Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.

Devotion:
This is one of the verses the pastor of the church I went to continued to remind people of and it was a verse which would often go unnoticed by the people who came to visit to see what church was all about. But as we go through the verses in this section of the letter to the Romans we find another side of this verse which always has to go hand in hand with it.

How can people call on the name of the Lord unless they have heard of Him and heard what it means to call on His name. We could say to people they should visit a certain web page to get details, but if they have not heard of the Internet or have not been exposed to it, they will not know what you are talking about!

We take so much for granted in life and assume people know what we know. We give them directions from what we know and hope they will follow the directions; but they do need to know what the base is before they can build on that base. This is why we need to continue spreading the gospel from the roots up.

We cannot assume people have heard the gospel and know how to respond because there are still many who have not heard the Good News about God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Don’t just tell people to believe, give them something to hope in so they can build their belief on firmer standings.

Points to Ponder:
How often do you tell people they need to believe in God?

How often do you tell them about God first?