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August 7: Matthew 17:14-20
Key Verse: Matthew 17:17
‘You unbelieving and perverse generation,’ Jesus replied, ‘how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.’
Devotion:
Can you imagine Jesus yelling at people? Can you imagine Jesus doing anything out of the ordinary? Well, He was not ordinary! Far from ordinary! Jesus did things, not to get a response from anyone, but because they needed to know the truth or to be shown the truth.
Sometimes we get so caught up in the world we lose focus on what is actually important – we leave behind the things which matter and we take on the useless things which are of no real value, treating them as though they matter! Jesus also pointed out to people when they were losing focus on their own faith, something we need to keep a tight hold on in our lives.
Often, we stop believing certain values in our lives because we see too many people either breaking those values or discarding them; we become despondent and no longer hold those values as precious. Jesus wants us to remember the values He gives us and which we have written in our bibles. He wants us to remember the things God has been trying to teach us because those are the things we need to remember rather than all the clutter in our lives.
The disciples had faith – why else would they be following Jesus and believing in Him! But it was at times like these when they saw a bit too much “agro” or a bit too much heavy going when they would turn away from that faith and believe in the worldly things instead. Jesus wants us to know we can go to Him at any time, we can lift up our prayers at any time and we must keep believing He is going to answer those prayers all of those times we ask. That is why it is called faith...
Points to Ponder:
Do you get side-tracked by the world?
Will you try to focus on Christ more today?
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August 6: Psalm 97:1-6
Key Verse: Psalm 97:6
The heavens proclaim his righteousness, and all peoples see his glory.
Devotion:
Have you ever said you would prefer to live in the past? Have you ever wondered how good it would be to live when Jesus was walking amongst us? Have you ever wondered what it would have been like to be wandering through the desert with God? Sometimes we do paint a very rosy picture of how the world was back then and we tend to ignore the everyday things.
Our bibles are full of descriptions of how people either obeyed God or disobeyed Him, but not too many pictures painted about everyday life back then. Let’s look at some of the basics we take for granted in the Western world... How about running water? We tend to forget these people would have had to search hard for water and dig wells to reach it in many cases. Some of these wells are known by the people who started them and in some cases who dedicated them to God.
What do you do with the everyday things you have in your life? Do you just take things for granted and live as best you can, or do you thank God for allowing you to live as you do in these times? I know I continue to thank God for the time I was able to spend in hospital here in the UK because of the amazing care I received by amazing people, many of whom I found to be Christians too!
Will you take the everyday and make a point of showing or telling others your God is amazing because He has allowed you to live with these things? Will you tell people of the amazing things God does in your life from the most mundane looking breaths of life to the amazing answered prayers? People need to know!
Points to Ponder:
Do you tell people what God does for you?
Will you give God a bit more glory today?
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August 5: Matthew 16:13-16
Key Verse: Matthew 16:16
Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’
Devotion:
How many different names have you been called because you said you were a Christian? I can think of quite a few but whatever name people come up with, I can always see the positive side rather than the negative side they think they are dishing out. I think the only one which I did not like over all the years has been when someone said I had ‘got religion’ because I know my relationship with God is not about religion!
When Jesus was wandering round with His disciples, there were many different names He was being called, none of which stuck because they were not the truth. As long as we can see the truth and cling to that truth, we will rise above any name calling.
But there is another side to the coin here. People can call us names because of the things we do, things which are not very Christian or how we should be behaving in our walk with Christ. The names the people were coming up for Jesus, or their ideas about who He was were mostly based on religion and not on knowing Him. As soon as people got to know Christ, their relationship grew and they would know who He is.
Our goal should be to show people who Jesus is and what our relationship is with Him. If we can get called names which reflect Christ or our relationship with Him, then we have shown people the true Christ; the Christ who has always been there, but the Christ who has been hidden by people who just don’t know Him yet. Let’s make a difference today and show people who Christ is!
Points to Ponder:
Do you mind being called a Christian?
Will you try to show the true Christ through your actions?
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August 4: Matthew 15:21-28
Key Verse: Matthew 15:28
Then Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed at that moment.
Devotion:
Do you ever feel like an outsider where you don’t belong to a church or you don’t go to one? Well Jesus was reaching out to the Jews at this time when a Canaanite woman approached Him begging for healing for her daughter. Jesus was quite plain in ignoring her initially and then basically telling her she was not a Jew so would not get answered. But her persistence and faith carried her plea forward.
This send out a very special message to all of us – though we may not be part of the chosen people or a big church or whatever, we can still rely on God to answer our prayers. This woman admitted she was not a Jew but she still fully believed in Jesus being the Son of God; she believed He could heal her daughter without a second thought. That faith lifted her daughter up to be healed at that moment!
I used to be worried my prayers would not be answered because I was not in church or I had done something wrong; this act by Christ shows us He listens to us all, not matter what sex, race, creed, location or even our pasts! This is a personal thing between you and Christ. This is a very personal relationship in which He looks into your heart alone.
No matter how much you think a big church is being blessed because of all the healing and things which are happening in it, we can still be equally blessed by believing Jesus can do things for us too. They may get all the visible blessings because they talk about it, but He still hands out hidden blessing for those who take their faith to Him in private.
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel left out of a church?
Do you have faith Christ will answer your prayers?
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August 3: Matthew 15:1-2
Key Verse: Matthew 15:2
‘Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!’
Devotion:
How many things do you do in your life just because your friends do them or your parents did them or because so many other people do them? We all do like to follow what other people do, whether it is so we fit in with the crowd, or so we can have things in common with others – but how many things do we do because we want to do them or even better still, how many things do we do because God has asked us to?
There are things we do just because we have been taught that way. I can remember growing up in school and doing things just because we were taught to – not by our teachers, but by friends at school or by parents of friends. Then there were the history lessons which we were taught which turned out to be far from the truth; just because the government wanted us to think a certain way. This is probably why I have a very low opinion of governments!
I am thankful to people like one of my uncles who stood up against the government and told the truth. People like that who have opened up my eyes in the past. I now try to have an objective view on what others say and do – which means I tend to spot when people are not telling me the truth. I wonder what it was like for Jesus who knew when people were going to lie to Him, deceive Him or even try to entrap Him.
Jesus wants us to listen out for the truth and follow that truth. He came and told us the truth all the time. He uncovered many lies and dishonest people during His ministry – not to show them up, but to try and get them to think about how much damage they were doing by not telling the truth...
Points to Ponder:
Do you just do what others do?
Will you stand up and listen to God’s truth?
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August 2: Ephesians 4:7-16
Key Verse: Ephesians 4:16
From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Devotion:
Have you ever wondered why Jesus chose the disciples which he chose? Why were they not all the same? Why were they not all priests or priests in learning? Why were they the local lads? Christ chooses a wide range of people to do the things they do. He chooses people to be the apostle, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, but He also chooses the work people who do the physical jobs...
We need a wide range of people to work together to form a community. We don’t need a police force who will tell us ever step we need to make. We don’t need an army to bully us into doing things. We don’t need rich people to pay for everything... We need a wide range of different people all with very different skills to come together and work as one body!
Jesus chose the disciples based on what he knew they would become and what they could do – even though they did not know it yet! Jesus continues to choose people to work for and with Him. Some of those people will raise your eyebrows and some may even make you run in the opposite direction... But when you get to see what they can do for God, then you will see why God chose them!
I am say I have met a whole range of people who do some serious work for God. They take the name of Jesus with them in ways you would not think possible. They reach out to the people who make you run the other way. They know they are not good enough, but they know that with Christ they can do remarkable things.
Points to Ponder:
Who is the most surprising Christians you have met?
Will you stand firm in God’s teaching and step forward to help today?
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August 1: John 6:25-29
Key Verse: John 6:27
Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.’
Devotion:
Have you met someone who was truly different from anybody else? I’m not talking about in physical appearance, but the way they behave and the way they are. I’m talking about meeting someone who you thought was so different from everybody else they made a big impression on you. Jesus was that type of person, someone who made a very big impression on everyone He met because He was so different to everybody else.
We could start with the way He was willing to meet with anyone and everyone, or we could start with the way He wanted people to be well and so healed them... Or we could look back at all the things He did differently and wonder why He was the way He was...
Jesus was this way because He knew God personally – That's difficult for us to understand because we know Him as being God. Jesus was so very different because He wanted people to see there was a very different way of living, one which did not have to revolve around the ways of this world, but to revolve around what God wants in our lives.
Jesus wants us to see the difference between living in this world and living with God. If we are content with the ways of the world we will get no further than the ways of this world. But if we strive to find out the ways of God, then we will grow up to see God’s ways which will give us something very different to aim for. Jesus was trying to tell the people they should act on what they believe, and hopefully that would be believing in God and following His ways!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think your life revolves around God or the world?
Would you ever be content with anything less than God’s ways after knowing Him?
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July 31: Luke 9:51-56
Key Verse: Luke 9:54
When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, ‘Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?’
Devotion:
When the time was right, Jesus set out to return to Jerusalem – the place where people wanted to kill Him! Jesus knew what was going to happen but He also knew this was the only way He could save us from our sinful lives. When they stopped along the way, they sent messengers ahead who would do the booking so to speak. They did not have phones or anything like that, so if they wanted to stay with anyone they would still have to call ahead, but manually!
When the messengers got to the Samaritan village, the people there did not want to welcome Jesus and the disciples. They may have heard in the past about the king wanting to kill Jesus and even though they would have heard the king was dead, they would not know if Jesus was still on the most wanted list. They would be the ones who would get into trouble for harbouring Jesus and His followers if this was so.
James and John took offence and wanted God to rain down fire and brimstone of the village because they had refused (unknowingly) the Son of God. Jesus rebuked them for thinking this way and that is what I would like to focus on today. When we find or hear of people who do something against God, we get cross with them and we often wish bad things on them...
Jesus is not like that. He was trying to teach the disciples how to love everyone – yesterday we touched on that a bit. Jesus wanted them to remember His commandment to love their neighbours. As they went into the village, these people would be their neighbours. We may find it hard to love anyone in these circumstances, but Jesus did not and does not.
Points to Ponder:
Do you wish bad things on people who work against you?
Would you consider loving them instead?
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July 30: Matthew 25:31-40
Key Verse: Matthew 25:40
The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Devotion:
Some of us will look back on our lives and wonder when we did anything for God, or we may even feel guilty we have not participated in events organised by other Christians... But God looks a whole lot deeper into your life than you realise. Here we are reminded God is watching us in our lives with other people – not because He has to keep an eye on us to make sure we don’t do anything wrong, but because His people are all around us!
We often forget how much of the population belongs to God because many people just don’t act like we think they should if they were Christians! We have our ways of seeing the world and others have their own way of looking at the world. God sees it for what it is – something we often overlook.
As you walk down the road today, think what you would do if the people you walk past were known to you to be Christians... would you be acting differently to how you are now? What if they are closet Christians, hiding from the world because they are scared to own up? What if they were greater prayer warriors than you? We don’t actually know people from the inside like God does – we pick up on how they act!
God wants us to go out there and treat every person as if they were His child; He wants us to go out and love the people around us as if they were our brothers and sisters. God knows their heart just as He knows your heart. If we treated each other as if they were our actual brothers and sisters, then maybe the world would be a better place!
Points to Ponder:
Is the first person you see today a Christian?
Will you treat them as a fellow Christian even if they are not?
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July 29: Psalms 10:12-15
Key Verse: Psalms 10:15
Break the arm of the wicked man; call the evildoer to account for his wickedness that would not otherwise be found out.
Devotion:
As Christians we all like to say how much God helps the helpless and the needy, but how much do we do to help them? As humans we all like to wish bad things happen to bad people – but what would Jesus do if He were here living as your neighbour.
Our daily prayers should be to praise God for everything He is doing in our lives and to worship Him for the same! Then we should be asking Him to look out for the people who need Him most; those who are needy, those who have nobody else to help them and those who have been left behind. As Christians we can go a long way to help these same people out – Christ will use us to help them if we allow Him to guide us and show us how.
Wicked people tend to shy away from God because they are either hiding stuff or they don’t want to mix with good people because they will be shown up for who they really are. I’m not saying Christians are righteous or without the need for help, but if you are like me, you accept all that God has given you and you try to help others out when you know they are in need. I still get things wrong and I know I have issues – but God allows me to work even with those issues!
Let us not ask God to bring bad things on the evil people but rather to shine light around them so they will either be encouraged to go toward the light or at the least leave the dark and shadows behind for a season. Let us not wish bad things on people we perceive as bad, but to bring God’s light into their lives so they can see what good can do in their lives too...
Points to Ponder:
Have you helped anyone out today?
Will you pray for someone you think has issues today?