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July 16: Isaiah 7:1-9
Key Verse: Isaiah 7:7
Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen
Devotion:
One thing I have learned to accept is I am not in control – God is! Yes I have freedom of choice and I make decisions which affect my life and the life of others around me, but as for my life and how long I live, that is God’s choice to make and not mine. When can go through our bibles and find many places where God wanted someone to stay alive or to win a war or to do something extraordinary; He made it happen!
Isaiah had to do many things which we may not like to do, just as other prophets were told by God to go and do something unpalatable, and he stepped forward and obeyed God. That is the key point here. He chose to obey God and do what God wanted knowing that God knew what was best and what was needed!
Today I was reminded of some of the things I went through in hospital and some of the things others had to stand by and watch as they unfolded for me. I also remembered how I knew God was in control and simply waited for God to open the right doors at the right time. Friends and family could not understand why I was doing that, but I knew in my heart I had to do that.
God has a special plan for each one of us and if we are willing to wait on Him, listen out for His instructions and to obey His requests for whatever change He wants in our lives, then we will find out just how much God can do in our lives. Many Doctors and nurses have marvelled at how I was able to pull through when it all seemed against me… I knew it was God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you wait on God?
Do you listen to His instructions?
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July 15: Matthew 10:34-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Devotion:
I have always found people who are willing to argue for and against taking the words used here quite literally. I’m not here to argue one way or another but to allow you to make you own decision based on the words used by the Apostle to depict what Jesus was telling the disciples.
There must have been times when they would have felt very comfortable and content knowing Jesus was with them thinking they were in the best place to be. But the words used here and retold by Matthew are quite concerning when we look at it from an earthly point of view. Jesus knew this as we have already seen how He described others as family instead of His earthly blood-relatives.
Jesus knows the love we have for each other in our families and knows of the special love couples have for one another. What Jesus is trying to depict here is a love which goes further than the love we look at in our families. The love Jesus has for us was shown by Him giving His life up so we could live with Him in heaven. This is beyond any love we know for our families – even if we think otherwise!
Jesus wanted the disciples to understand a new level of love, one which he wanted them to have for God. We have seen all throughout history, both in our bibles and in the world, how people have chosen to lay down their lives at times. We have also seen how people could not quite bring themselves to that point when push came to shove. Jesus wants us to not have to think about our love for God, but to just love Him without reserve!
Points to Ponder:
Do you love someone special?
Do you really love Jesus?
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July 14: Mark 6:21-29
Key Verse: Mark 6:25
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
Devotion:
How many times have you been upset by someone who has promised you something and has not delivered on their promise? How many times have you promised someone and not been able to deliver on the promise because of circumstances? If you don’t like telling someone you have to break your promise, then should you not be making the promise in the first place!
When the disciples were with Jesus they must have been pleasantly surprised to find He always kept His word and made sure He did what He said He would! It is a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in where we know in the back of our minds we may well be let down by someone who has promised us something!
Jesus wants us to live a life where we are a good example of what a Christian should be like – someone who is able to tell the truth and carry out all of their promises! Herod found out the hard way that if he promised something he would have to carry out that promise no matter how much he dislikes the outcome. To that end he had to deliver John’s head on a platter because the daughter of Herodias called him out on his promise of offering anything she wanted!
We should learn from this we should not offer things we may not be able to deliver on otherwise we will be seen as the ones who go back on their word!
Points to Ponder:
Do you promise things you know you may not be able to deliver on?
Do you depend on Christ telling the truth?
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July 13: Isaiah 6:1-8
Key Verse: Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Devotion:
I love this section of scripture, not because it is the commissioning of Isaiah into his role God has selected for him, but of how it is done. One of the things I struggled with in the beginning as a Christian was knowing I was just a sinner who needed forgiving, so how could I go and tell anyone about Jesus? Wouldn’t they turn round and tell me I was just the same as them!
This is a bit of what Isaiah was going through when this was happening. He knew he was just the same as all the other people. How could he be anything other than a sinner too…
God had other plans and came to him in a significant way. God wanted Isaiah to know this was God’s plan and not something Isaiah was thinking of on his own. Isaiah was very scared by the sound and sight of the seraphim and probably thought this was the end for him. But God used the seraphim to show Isaiah what mercy and forgiveness was.
In an instant he was shown how God can forgive, and when God forgives, it is a forgiveness which covers everything! As soon as Isaiah understood God was forgiving Him and setting him free, Isaiah had no qualms about stepping forward and doing God’s bidding there and then.
Points to Ponder:
How would you respond if God called you?
Christ came so we could be forgiven, and He called us!
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July 12: Matthew 10:16-23
Key Verse: Matthew 10:22
You will be hated by everyone because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.
Devotion:
One of the hard things to accept of being a Christian is how people will reject you just because you are a Christian. Some people feel threatened by the fact you are a Christian whilst others reject you because they want to believe they are better than you! Either way, there will be people working against you just because you dare to say you love Jesus Christ!
Some of those people will plot against you thinking that you are working against them. They will think this because they live in a world where corruption and lies is an every day thing, whereas we are walking away from that (or at least we should be trying to walk away from it!) Some will look at you and think you are weak because you need Christ in your life whereas they think they can survive anything without Christ.
We have a great comfort in knowing Christ has promised us something they will never see and something which we can look forward to. They see a black hole or emptiness at the end whereas we can see light and eternity. Governments and leaders may work against you because you dare to point out their rules are broken!
We need to try to include everyone in our discipleship and reach out to everyone who is willing to listen. For those who work against us and refuse to listen, Jesus told the disciple they should walk away from them after giving them every chance to turn their lives around; they have made a choice to live without Christ and we must allow them that choice in the end.
Points to Ponder:
Do you look forward to your life with Christ?
Do you try to include others in your life with Christ?
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July 11: Matthew 10:7-15
Key Verse: Matthew 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.
Devotion:
When Jesus sent the disciples out into the world, it was with a very specific job, but one with no limits. They were not given a single task to do, to go and be good at, to train for a long time to earn money or anything like that. His instruction was quite simple: Go out into the world and give back to people what you have been given.
Jesus had already told them they had been given eternal life because of what He was going to do. He had already said a way would be made which would enable them to have their sins forgiven and for them to enjoy a life in full communion with God. That is what Jesus wanted the disciple to go and do now. He was making disciples and now He was sending them out to go and make more disciples.
The task was not to go and make money, to go and gain a huge following, to go and be famous; it was to go and give freely what had already been given freely to them!
If we would focus on giving back to our communities what Christ has given to us, we would be able to bring more people freely into a life with Christ. If we focus on the earthly things surrounding all that, then our only gain will be the earthly things we gain. That is not what Jesus wants...
Points to Ponder:
What is your goal in life?
Have you listened to Christ to find out what your goal can be?
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July 9: Matthew 9:32-38
Key Verse: Matthew 9:34
But the Pharisees said, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons.”
Devotion:
Have you noticed how people will blame something else or make up a story or lie to ensure they are not shamed in some way? If you dare to show up someone by exposing their lie or their shortcomings, you can expect to have some sort of backlash where they will try to turn the lies on you in some desperate attempt to cover up their own lies.
Jesus faced this when He was doing God’s healing amongst the people. The temple leaders, Pharisees and others in charge had covered up their shortcomings for too long and Jesus was slowly exposing their lies. They did not like this and they tried to tell more lies to cover up their lies. Unfortunately, this never works!
Jesus stood up to the lies and used God’s Word to make sure people would get to know the truth. Lies will never stand up against God’s Word because his Word is the truth – we should make sure whatever we do we are doing it for the glory of God and by carrying out His will in our lives. This will be backed up by Scripture unless we start inventing our own rules like the leaders back then!
God wants honest and faithful people to come forward to help others to be honest and faithful too.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you lie to cover up a lie?
Have you tried telling the truth and supporting it with God’s Word?
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July 8: Matthew 9:18-26
Key Verse: Matthew 9:22
Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
Devotion:
One of the things Jesus wanted the disciples to know was how their own faith could make such a difference. Some people were healed seemingly without Jesus having to do anything; to these people Jesus made sure it was their faith which made all the difference. If we have faith Christ is going to do something, He will make sure our faith is made whole by our prayers being answered.
The synagogue leader came to Jesus knowing He could heal his daughter even though she had physically died. This was the faith this person had in Christ and Jesus wanted to show others this faith was real!
On His way to bring the daughter back to life, a woman only needed to touch his garment for her to be heal – such was her faith that Jesus healed her on the spot.
When we come to Christ with expectant prayer, He is faithful and willing to make sure our prayers are answered. This faith grows faith in others because they see faith being realised and coming to life. The more we expect Jesus to do things, the more He is able to do things because He knows He can count on our faith. God does not miss a trick!
Points to Ponder:
How strong would you say your faith is?
Do you expect Jesus to answer your prayers?
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July 7: Matthew 6:7-13
Key Verse: Matthew 6:12
They went out and preached that people should repent.
Devotion:
Whenever I have heard people talk about Jesus sending the disciples out, they have focused on the things Jesus told them not to do: not to take anything with them, not to worry about supplies and payment, not to enter houses where they are not welcome… all the negative things. But what I picked up today when I read these verses was what the disciple actually did do!
They went out and preached that people should repent! Yes, they did the other things like driving out demons, anointing sick people, making people well and all the other things people focus on; but the core of this all was to get the people to see they had done something wrong in their lives and that they had to repent because of that. This is the first step in getting to a right place with God!
God wants you to know you have done something wrong so you can understand what it is which is keeping you apart from Him. Once we understand we have a problem, we can move forward by asking Him to forgive us. He has already promised us He will forgive us when we repent, so what is holding us back? Pride!
Once we get over ourselves we can step forward and start to make a good relationship with Christ; and it all start with us repenting!
Points to Ponder:
What do you think a disciple should do?
Where do we start to get into a relationship with Christ?
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July 6: Matthew 9:14-17
Key Verse: Matthew 9:15
Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast.
Devotion:
One thing which seemed to bother many people was the way the disciples acted when around Jesus. They had been brought up in very strict circumstances and they tried to follow the scriptures to the letter – well, as best they could understand them!
Jesus was not there to upturn things but to show people God knew they were human and knew they would get things wrong from time to time. The important part was not the sticking to the letter of the law but what was in the hearts of the people. If they knew in their hearts they loved God and wanted to do what they could to please God, then God would see what they had in their hearts and be happy with that!
Too often we get caught up in red tape and all manner of rules and regulations, losing sight of what it means to be a child of God. Children get things wrong, but the parent still love them. Children grow up to learn to love their parents (assuming a rightful relationship exists to start with) and the love shows between child and parent.
When we love God, our love for Him should be on show, not in a boastful manner to exclude others, but in a way to include others in how we live with God and how we commune with Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you get caught up in rules?
Will you focus on loving God instead?