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January 13: 1 Samuel 9:15-20
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 9:17
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, ‘This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.’
Devotion:
One of the things I love reading about is the things we talk about as being fate or coincidences! Here is a man called Saul who has been sent out to look for his father’s donkeys and had travelled a fair way. He was now on a quest to find the seer who would hopefully be able to tell him where the donkeys had gone off to. Instead, God had planned something quite different for Saul.
Now Saul was a handsome man and very tall too so he would not be mistaken amongst a crowd of people. God chose Saul because of his qualities and because he stood out amongst men. But God also knew what Saul would be like in the end; though in the beginning he would be everything the people had asked for.
You see, God listen to the cry of his people. He listens when we call out to Him and hears every prayer. He wants to be able to answer every prayer, but sometime we are so caught up in life we forget what is going to be best for us. In these cases God does answer our prayers but will be standing by in case we forget about what we should be doing too!
God doesn’t want us to just accept the answered prayers and move on to new thing. He wants us to acknowledge the answered prayers and share them with other to encourage everyone. We are all in one church and we need to support each other because we are all God’s children!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray for things?
How often do you praise God for answered prayers?
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January 12: 1 Samuel 8:4-7
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 8:7
And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Devotion:
What do you do when people start questioning your faith or your relationship with God? Do you get discouraged and try to find a way out of the situation? Sometimes we have to accept what people are saying and leave them to it. Those are also the times when we need to make sure we are listening to God because He is going to have something to say to us!
Here Samuel is getting on in age and the people no longer want to listen to him. They see the countries around them who have kings and ministers who lead them; they now look to see why they can’t have a king! This is the dangerous age where people will rather follow a human being than follow God.
The difference between a king and a prophet is the king does not necessarily follow what God is telling them to do; they may well be doing things for their own good rather than the glory of God! God knew this would come and so He tells Samuel to listen to what the people say and tell them what their futures would be like living under a king instead of a prophet.
When humans gain power, they want more and with that power they demand respect in ways which are not Godly and not righteous. These are the ways which often lead to tyrants being made because the kings or queens get too greedy… This is typical human behaviour when they turn their back on God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get discouraged by people not trusting God?
Will you continue to trust and listen to God no matter what?
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January 11: Matthew 10:40-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10:40
Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Devotion:
One of the things we often forget is someone who is close to God will always tell God when good or bad things happen to them. So no matter how far you think you are away from God, He always gets to hear what you are up to. As Jesus says in these verses, if you do anything as little as giving a cup of water to one who is close to God, He will make sure you get your reward for doing something for them.
We don’t know how close other people are to God if they are strangers to us; we can have a good guess if we observe them long enough, but not just by looking at them! So what Jesus is also saying is we have to treat each person we meet as if they are in communion with God so we always treat them properly.
So many situation in our modern world suggest we should be treating many people with the same mannerisms as they treat us and others. This causes a bit of a snowball effect because once someone starts treating others badly, more people join in to treat them and others affected badly too; and so it continues until everyone is getting hurt by others!
God wants us to try and turn this on its head by treating people right. If we can break the chain of treating people badly, we stop the spread of evil and invite righteousness into their lives. As disciples of God we should be willing to treat others well so they can be encouraged to do the same.
Points to Ponder:
How many people did you treat badly today?
How many people did you treat well today?
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January 10: Psalm 40:1-4
Key Verse: Psalm 40:2
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
Devotion:
When we really and truly wait on the Lord, He pulls us out of places where there seems no hope and sets our feet on firm foundations from which we can grow and blossom. Why does it take us many times where the Lord helps us out of the mire before we realise He is with us and protecting us always!
When things go well, we don’t take a second look but bask in the good times and blessing which surround us. When things go bad we suddenly take time out to think about what is happening and call out to God to help us in any way He can! Yet, when He does help us out, we overlook the fact it is Him helping and take credit ourselves!
God wants to be able to help us in any way He can, but He would also like us to acknowledge it is Him who is giving us what we need. He will continue to help us no matter what, so we should be willing to praise Him no matter what! Sometimes things will not go our way and we may feel hard done by; but God is choosing the path forward which is going to be best for all of us!
We need to always trust His ways and trust is what He asks us to do. He does not look up at the people who look down on others; instead He will lift up those looked down upon and lift them up in ways we cannot comprehend. Trust in God like you life depends on it and not only when you think everything else has gone wrong!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you trust in God?
How often do you praise Him for everything He does in your life?
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January 9: Mark 1:21-28
Key Verse: Mark 1:22
The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Devotion:
I used to get scared I would not know what to do and say when I met people who wanted to know about God, but the more I get to know other Christians the more I get to see how people can give out good news no matter how much they know about the scriptures. When Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath in Capernaum, the people say how much more Jesus knew than the teachers…
This sort of story made me feel like I would never get to know enough from the scriptures to be able to tell others about Jesus. I think my turning point was when a young man and his friends asked me why the bible would always talk about God as being male. It was a question I had never fully considered myself. I admitted by lack of knowledge to them and together we went to someone who had more knowledge of the scriptures.
That is how I got to learn more and the young men also got to learn more. Together we grow; as long as we are willing to admit others can know more than us – then we can all learn together and move forward.
These people in the synagogue suddenly saw how someone could know more than the teachers of the law and they wanted to know more! Don’t be discouraged because you think you don’t know enough. Share what you have and admit when you don’t know enough. Grow together with the people who come to you seeking God.
Points to Ponder:
How much do you know about the scriptures?
Do you know someone who knows less whom you can share something with?
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January 8: Mark 1:14-20
Key Verse: Mark 1:20
Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Devotion:
I think this section of scripture has so much going on in it. First how Jesus went off to Galilee after John had been put in prison. Jesus knew now was not the time to be captured and so went off to galilee, knowing John was in trouble. He did not forget John but proclaimed the good news John was telling people: The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
If you knew there was no escape for someone because of the corruption in the leaders, what better way than to remind people of all the things they stood for so they would never be forgotten! And now was the time to get more backing so even more people would hear the good news and try to get more people to repent!
So Jesus approaches the people He knows from within their hearts who would make the best disciples. The first four were fisherman each of whom had a heart for God because as soon as they were called by Jesus, knew this was what God was calling them to do!
When you know God is calling you, you will not waste time by going to find out what it all entails, you will not waste time asking around to see if this is what should be done – you will simply believe and trust in Christ to go and do whatever He is calling you to do. I know my family has asked what I was doing a few times...
Points to Ponder:
Are you ready to answer God’s calling?
Will you drop what you are doing and say Yes?
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January 7: Acts 19:1-7
Key Verse: Acts 19:4
Paul said, ‘John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.’
Devotion:
You may read these verses and think Paul is picking on John for only teaching people about repentance, but without repentance you will not get to know the Holy Spirit! When we try to teach people about God and Jesus we should not get caught up in trying to answer all their questions on the first day. Instead we should be willing to teaching then about repentance and forgiveness.
Once we have laid the ground work – just as John was doing – then we can start to get people to think more about Jesus and what He has done, pointing them in the way of what Jesus taught the disciples. None of that would make much sense to someone if they did not first get to know why this is all necessary to start with!
When Paul met these disciples they had learned the basics from John and were probably teaching others what they had learned. This is our first step as people who believe in God. Share what you know with others so they can get on the first rung of the ladder. As you grow you can share what you know with them and they can grow too.
Once you know Jesus and the Holy Spirit too, then you can share that with people who have at least been in touch with the first step of repentance. Don’t try to get people to run before they have walked! Allow Christ and the Holy Spirit to lead you forward and share what you find out...
Points to Ponder:
How did you first hear about God?
What did you repent in your heart on that first day?
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January 6: 1 John 5:5-13
Key Verse: 1 John 5:9
We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
Devotion:
How many times have you accepted what your friend has said as being the truth without checking up on it? How many times have you found it hard to accept what someone is saying because it is a new thing you are hearing? We all have those whom we believe and those whom we find to be dubious, and we stick to those because we can see them and hear them…
Some people find it difficult to believe what God says because they cannot see Him and the things He says are hard for them to grasp. This is where we come in, the ones who believe God and trust what we read in the bible. If we can be witnesses to those people who find it hard, then we could be able to lighten their burden of doubt.
We read about how Jesus came to us, how he was a great testimony, how he submitted to baptism, had great compassion on many people, submitted to human sinners so he could take on the sin debt we owe, died, came back to life to defeat death and showed us the Holy Spirit for our support. We should be standing up and reminding people this is what we believe!
God made this all possible, giving us a life in human form, giving us time to accept Him as our God and to accept the eternal life He gives us – just because we believe these truths! Share it a little!
Points to Ponder:
How many times do you believe your friends?
How many times do you believe God?
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January 5: 1 John 3:11-15
Key Verse: 1 John 3:12
Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.
Devotion:
How many times have you been told or heard someone say “Don’t be like them”? We all do tend to judge people by the actions they do and the lives they live which raises a question; is it right to judge people? If you are comparing them to others you are probably not judging them per-say but comparing them to the life God would prefer us to live.
The message behind these verses is to love one another and the story of Cain is being used as an example of how we should not live! Cain became jealous of his brother through what his mother was feeding him and his own feelings. He was being influenced by the people around him and the environment; again the message here is to identify these sort of things in our lives so we can avoid ending up like Cain!
If we focus on our own lives and the things we do, we are going to be able to accept guidance from the Holy Spirit much easier than if we are being influenced by our surroundings and peers. If we feel like we cannot escape from these trappings then we should probably live in an environment that is encouraging rather than discouraging and righteous rather than evil.
In short, it takes some actions from you to move in the right direction in your life. Don’t expect others to do everything for you or to guide you in everything – because they may be influenced themselves. Rather try to listen to righteous guidance from someone righteous: the Holy Spirit!
Points to Ponder:
Who influences you the most in life?
How much do you invite the Holy Spirit to join you in life?
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January 4: 1 John 3:7-10
Key Verse: 1 John 3:8
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
Devotion:
If we look at the world around us we can see how easy it is to give in to temptation and do all the wrong things in life. As Christians we know we are doing wrong so should want to avoid all the things we know are wrong; but the evil one continues to throw doubts in our minds so we give in to the temptations instead of working against them – this is the way of the evil one!
Jesus came to destroy the devil’s work and give us a better chance at avoiding the evil things promoted by the evil one. When we accept Jesus into our lives we also invite the holy spirit to live with us. By doing this we have an automatic guide against all evil things because the Holy Spirit does not want to have any evil in us when we are living with Him!
When we do good and abhor evil we allow the people around us to see we are different from the world because of our communion with Christ. We live for Him and work against the evil in the world. But if we continue to invite evil into our lives then we are working with the evil one and against God! We know this and become aware of this because the Holy Spirit prompts us against all evil.
So, don’t allow the evil one to continue introducing evil into your life. Simply say no and keep Christ closer!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel guilty when you do something wrong?
Do you know the Holy Spirit is prompting you?