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July 29: Exodus 24:3-8
Key Verse: Exodus 24:7
Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read it to the people. They responded, ‘We will do everything the Lord has said; we will obey.’
Devotion:
When you look back at how much the people of Israel went through in the desert and how many of them never got to see the promised land, you may think God was cruel or you may feel sorry for them for everything they had to put up with. This section of passage is the time when Moses had been given all the rules the people would have to follow, had written them down and recounted them to the people. In other words they had heard the laws twice over and now they are making a blood covenant with God concerning them.
This was a promise to God, set in blood, that they would follow God’s rules and do everything God wanted them to do. This was the highest promise they could make at the time. Though nowadays we may look at it as being barbaric…
What I’m trying to show is the two sides of this relationship we have with God. On one side He has promised us things and those things will happen no matter what. On the other side we see man’s promises which last a while but many get broken because we grow weary or change our minds…
God would love us to be in a stable relationship with Him where we continue to make sure we keep Him and His ways in our lives and where He is able to talk back to us because we are willing to listen. We know we can talk to Him at any time through our prayers, but to know He is listening and will answer our prayers takes some commitment from us too.
Points to Ponder:
How is your relationship with God?
How many promises have you made to God?
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July 28: James 1:2-8
Key Verse: James 1:6
But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
Devotion:
One of the things I used to struggle with was having bad things happen to me and wondering whether God is looking after me or not – after all that is what the church leaders had told me… But as I continued to grow in my faith and study God’s Word, I grew to see bad things can happen to all people because it is more about circumstance and behaviour!
No, I am not blaming anyone for bad things happening to themselves otherwise we would all be in very deep water! Putting it simply, God cannot abide sin; how much worse can it get! But we also have a God who is full of compassion and willing to teach, love and forgive in so many cases. But the one thing He cannot forgive is unbelief. Does that mean we are all doomed? No! For when our unbelief turns to belief, no matter how small, He forgives and changes our lives!
When bad things happen we can surely say we are living in the same world as everyone else. This gives us the right to share our belief in God and to allow people to see there is hope and a great reward for anyone who is willing to believe. Our bible is full of stories of how the people of Israel would do strange things like make up their own gods only to see the error of their ways and turn back to our God. Then their lives changed!
God loves us – to matter what! God wants to share wisdom with us – even when we are too proud to accept wisdom! God gives generously to His children – even if we have everything we want. God wants us to have no doubt and will show us great things when we believe!
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel hard done by?
Will you allow your hope and faith to conquer that doubt?
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July 27: 2 Corinthians 13:1-10
Key Verse: 2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realise that Christ Jesus is in you – unless, of course, you fail the test?
Devotion:
I’m not really sure what I would do if I got a letter from a church leader with these words in it! The church in Corinth must have been going through some tough times with people throwing doubt into the congregation and others questioning themselves just because they had been left to largely get on with things by themselves.
Sometimes we crave recognition as a church by wanting well known church leaders to visit us as if that is going to make some sort of difference to our belief or to our congregations. Yes, there are some people who follow the church leaders around and like to be seen with the leaders; but their want for recognition is not heavenly but of this earth. The only reward they will receive is from this earth.
We should be aiming at gaining Heavenly rewards from our God and Saviour. We should be praising God for all He has already done and standing firm on our faith in Him. When the people come to mock us because we believe in something which they cannot see, or because we are relying on something else instead of our own fortitude. What they do not see is we get our strength and fortitude from God because we have faith in Him.
The truth will always come out and we should be upholding the truth above all else. Don’t doubt yourself because other people say you should. Have faith in God because He alone has said we should – He made us a promise to be here for us at all times.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you look at the way you live?
How often do you think about how God wants you to live?
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July 26: Psalm 78:17-20
Key Verse: Psalm 78:18
They wilfully put God to the test by demanding the food they craved.
Devotion:
Yesterday we heard Jeremiah giving warnings to the people of God against testing God and I mentioned the people of Israel and their antics in the desert. Today we read a Psalm which was recounting God’s goodness to the people and Israel’s ingratitude. This is to remind us the prophets came to show the way and the promises of God, promises He always keeps and what we have to endure if we do not trust those promises.
Jesus came to expand on everything the prophets had said and to make sure people stopped and listened once and for all; yet we have so many people who continue to act in ingratitude and some in ignorance. Ingratitude from the people who know what God has said and done but continue to ignore Him in their lives or expect Him to do everything for them all of the time, and ignorance from the people who do not yet know the meaning of the gospel.
God wants us to be like the psalmist here, recounting the things from the past to show people God keeps His promises and they are important in our lives. This is why He has made sure we have our bibles and we should continue to be good students and disciples of this Word taking it out to others through what we say and do. This does not only show others there is a God but also reminds us and shows God we care!
Knowing these truths, we should not continue to sin against God but should be working towards righteousness and sharing of the gospel just as He has asked of us. Then there is the doubts we harbour… We continue to doubt God’s promises when we come up against life’s hardships. Instead we should be praying to ask for strength and guidance to get us through these hardships and then acting on what He show us.
Points to Ponder:
Are you inadvertently putting God to the test?
Will you read a little more, listen a little more and do a little more for God?
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July 25: Jeremiah 45:1-5
Key Verse: Jeremiah 45:4
But the Lord has told me to say to you, “This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.
Devotion:
Sometimes it is hard to hear what God is saying to you, not because you don’t hear anything but because you don’t want to hear what He is saying! There are going to be times in your life where God has said something will happen and you really do not want it to happen. We have echoes of this throughout the bible so don’t feel like you are being hard done by!
When the children of Israel were guided out of Egypt by God through Moses they never dreamed they would live out their lives in the desert when Moses had told them they would be going to a land of ‘milk and honey’ but because they disobeyed God it was their descendants who would be able to settle in that land rather than them.
There are so many times throughout history where people have faced all manner of disasters from unimaginable war-ending bombs to famines caused by human greed; and these are just the ones which are caused by human deeds. We all have to face the natural disasters together because they are the way of nature; some of which are caused by human error, but some which ‘just happen’ because we live in a world which is ever changing.
They key is how we listen to God and how we react to the things God tries to say to us. Can you hear a person whispering something when you go into a place where there is loud music playing? Can you focus on reading your book in the middle of a thunder storm? We get distracted by the biggest distractions and often lose focus on the things we should be watching and listening to. God may not speak to you through a rumbling thunder but a simple whisper during that thunder.
Points to Ponder:
Do you find it hard to hear God in your life?
What sort of environment are you living in?
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July 24: Exodus 14:5-18
Key Verse: Exodus 14:14
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Devotion:
This is one of those stories I remember from my days before I knew what being a Christian was all about: the pictures of Moses holding up the staff and the seas parting. You see, I remember the after effects rather than the bit in between where the people of Israel were horrified Pharaoh was marching after them because they did not want to die in the desert where nobody would remember them! They were a proud people who made a point of remembering their ancestors.
There they were as a ‘complete nation’ facing 600 of the best chariots Pharaoh had; probably akin to a city of office workers facing an army of tanks and planes nowadays. Not really a fair fight at all. But God wanted them to know just how powerful He was and how He alone could defeat their opponents without having an army Himself!
Too often when we are faced with impossible odds we fall apart and invite the bad things back into our lives to try and fight evil with evil; this is not what God was asking of them and certainly not what God was going to demonstrate to them. But He had to make Moses convince the people they should put their absolute faith in Him! That is the hard part for us sometimes – putting our faith in the unseen God when we see so many obstacles in our ways.
If we look at what Jesus went through when being faced with 40 days and nights being tempted by the evil one, we see a man who knew he should trust in God his Father but not to call God’s bluff by jumping off the high point to see if God would save him. We need to listen to what God instructs us to do rather than expecting God to do what we think He should do. When we do stop and listen, He directs us and we will be safe once again – don’t leave it until it is too late!
Points to Ponder:
How much faith do you have in God?
How much faith do you take away from God because you think you can do better?
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July 23: Romans 8:12-15
Key Verse: Romans 8:15
The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.
Devotion:
I wonder if you are like me and see the different societies in the bible through the Gospels and Letters of the New Testament. I know the name “New Testament” may be modern in terms of the age of the Bible, but we can draw parallels with many modern societies because people may all different but we have roots in the people described in our Bibles.
The Romans needed someone to give them some stern words because they were living under the law of the Romans Empire. They had clear definitions of many things and so the Apostle needed to reach them through said ways of life linking them to what Jesus wanted them to hear. They knew all too well what slaves were, and like many places around the world, slaves are not treated as normal human beings but rather a something lower than normal people; I am so glad slavery has been abolished in most of the world!
We may talk of ourselves as being slaves to Christ, but this is not the same as the ‘sub normal’ position slaves had back then. The apostle wanted them to know the difference between the word they used for slave and the way we look at ourselves as being slaves to Christ. I think the gist of the difference being described here is slaves for Romans were the lowest of the low, yet we look at it as being ‘willing participants’ because we feel like we are children of God instead of ‘unwilling slaves!’
If we were unwilling slaves we certainly would not call out to God as Father (Abba Father) and would not want to do the things He asks of us. That is another difference because God is asking things of us and not demanding we do things. We have been given free choice and God sticks to supporting that free choice. Our choices will govern our relationship with Him!
Points to Ponder:
Are you a willing child of God?
Are you willing to listen to your Heavenly Father?
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July 22: Song of Solomon 3:1-5
Key Verse: Song of Solomon 3:5
Daughters of Jerusalem, I charge you by the gazelles and by the does of the field: do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.
Devotion:
I have caught myself thinking about past loves a few times over the past month or so, so when I read these verses I began to think more about our modern world and the relationships we hold in it. So many films and stories we hear and see are about people falling in love, out of love, splitting up, and obviously all the wars – but is our world so different to the past?
There obviously were people who split up and argued in the past, lots of wars too and some of those stories got into our bibles because God wants us to think about what we are doing. God gave us stewardship of this planet and we have not done a very good job in my mind; we are all guilty of breaking it in one form or another. Is this the way to treat the gift God has given us?
Jesus came and reminded us the at the centre of everything is love. Without love we cannot hope to care for each other or the world. If we treat love like a disposable asset, then we are treating the whole world as a disposable asset… but with love we can gather together the overcome the things which separate ourselves from others.
God wants us to seek out love in all aspects in life and to not jump at desires and wants, but to seek out the love which can last upon which we can build better communities and a better society as a whole. When we see the love Christ showed us we should aim to reach as close to that love as we can in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
How many times have you been ‘in love’?
Will you allow God to guide you in your life?
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July 21: Psalm 116:10-19
Key Verse: Psalm 116:12
What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me?
Devotion:
These verses are a simple insight into the psalmists thoughts on a few things they could do because of all God has done for them. Note how they start off this section of verses: “I kept my faith…” That is the starting point for everything – do you keep your faith? This could be the first answer of how to repay God for everything He has done for you – simply keep your faith – keep on believing in Him and what He can do for and with you!
After that, things then open up in a big way. Many people struggle to think what they can do for God knowing God has done so much for them. They get to know how great God is and so struggle to think what they could possibly do to repay God for all He does in their lives. Don’t overlook the obvious things which we take for granted all the time! God wants to have a relationship with you. Remember that.
What is the key to any relationship – there are two in the relationship which means both have got to work at keeping the relationship fresh and right. This means trusting each other and even relying on each other for many things… So you can probably see how you can rely on God for so much in your life, but how can He rely on you?
How much do you lift up what God has done for us all through going to the cross? How many people know you are a committed Christian? How many people have you supported through bad things or times? How often do you say “here I am, use me” when God is looking for people? Are you willing to give up on anything to support God’s work? How often do you meet with God’s people and worship Him? Think on the answers to these things.
Points to Ponder:
Have you recognised all God does for you?
Will you increase your giving of your time to God?
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July 20: Matthew 11:28-30
Key Verse: Matthew 11:28
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
Devotion:
When was the last time you just wanted to stop and talk with someone and offload the troubles you are having in your life? Did you manage to find someone who was willing to listen and how did you feel after you had talked? There are many times when we need to express ourselves, not to spread gossip or to tell lies, but to undo the pent up frustration and ill feelings we harbour when we try not to burden others with our worries!
God knows we need to talk and He is always willing and able to listen to whatever you have to say to Him. If you want to complain about things, bring it to The Lord. If you want to vent your frustrations over what is happening, or what is not happening, bring it to God. If you need to shout, bring it to God!
When we bring our worries and troubles to other people, they then shoulder some of that burden – and we don’t like doing that to others! They then may have to take those worries to others and so the chain continues. We may end up with a lot of people with a small amount of worry, but that may play more on our minds than the original worry to begin with! No so with God because He is more than capable to consume our worries without passing them on to anyone else!
We need to stop worrying about our worries and simply hand them over to God knowing He will work out a way forward for us. We have to stop and listen to what he has to say to us because we may have to do things in order for Him to help us; if we are not willing to listen to instruction, we may end up not having our worries taken care of...
Points to Ponder:
Do you worry about your worries?
Will you try to offload them to God and listen for answers?