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July 13: Psalm 25:8-11
Key Verse: Psalm 25:9
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
Devotion:
It is good to read through God’s Word. It is better to stop and think about what you read from God’s Word. God has set many things in motion to include sinners from all around the world in His teachings. He has made sure the bible is written in many different languages for people all round the world. He has made sure it is printed and spread everywhere... we are all given a chance to get to hear the bible.
What makes the biggest difference is what we do with the words we hear! Do we listen to the words but not hear them because we are thinking of something else when they are read to us. Do we listen and then move on to another topic as soon as we have heard them? Do we stop and think about the words? Do we meditate on the words?
God is good and continues to make sure we all get opportunity to hear His Word. He even gives His word to the most ardent of sinners. But it is the humble who stop and ingest His Word – these are the people who get to learn the most from God’s Word.
When we do hear His Word, we should not just listen, think and meditate... we should try to move forward and change our lives to fit in with what we are learning. Yesterday I was wearing a T-shirt which has the words Pray & Obey on it. When we get to hear God’s Word, we need to take it in and pray for understanding from the Holy Spirit. When He teaches us what we should understand, we should obey His teaching and move forward with Him in our lives. Not just sinners – all of us!
Points to Ponder:
How do you hear God’s Word?
How do you react to God’s Word?
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July 12: Mark 6:14-16
Key Verse: Mark 6:16
But when Herod heard this, he said, ‘John, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!’
Devotion:
How many times have you heard a short passage from the bible and recalled what you thought was important rather than listening to the actual words being spoken? I know I have drifted away many times in church because I have thought I knew the passage – but the more we read the bible and think about the words we are reading, the more we will learn about God and about us.
Jesus was becoming a bit of a talking point. Many people knew about Him and many could probably tell you a story about Him which they had heard before or from someone else. People were talking! But when people talk, the truth is not always passed on – we tend to embellish on the story to suit our own wants or we change things a bit to make it more exciting!
When Herod heard the stories, he even extended the truth a bit in how he retold it! We all get caught up in the heat of the moment and we all tend to say things which may not be the exact truth, or we leave out key parts so the story sounds better! This is our human nature – one which Jesus had to face and fight every day He was here with us.
When we tell stories, we have to stand by what we say because people are going to expect us to uphold our word! So we should be very careful how we tell people stories or we may end up having to extend the truth, hide facts or make things worse because we have to cover up an untruth we have told before – things just keep getting worse and pilling up on our shoulders!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like telling a good story?
Will you stick to the truth when you tell people about God?
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July 11: Amos 7:7-9
Key Verse: Amos 7:8
And the Lord asked me, ‘What do you see, Amos?’ ‘A plumb-line,’ I replied. Then the Lord said, ‘Look, I am setting a plumb-line among my people Israel; I will spare them no longer.
Devotion:
How many times have you read things which don’t seem to make sense until someone explains them to you? At first glance, this could be one of those passages, but when we read it a few times and think about it we may come to a very different conclusion!
God was angry with the people because they were no longer following His ways and had turned to do all manner of things for themselves and for worldly gain instead. Each time God told Amos He was going to do something bad to the people, Amos pleaded with God to not let it be so... why was Amos pleading with God on behalf of a people who did not seem to care for God anymore?
Amos must have seen some good people and for God to do something against all the people would mean they would get into deep water too. Amos knew God had every right to do whatever He wanted, but that did not stop him pleading for the people. When God then showed Amos the Lord standing by a wall with a plumbline in His hand, Amos was a little confused by this.
A plumbline is there to make sure the builders are building walls which are vertical and hence stronger. If they are not vertical, they will fall down more easily when any force comes up against them. God wants us to be strong and upright so we can stand against temptations when they come in. Any walls which are not upright should be torn down and rebuilt to make them strong again – this is what God was saying would happen to the people who were no longer living upright lives!
Points to Ponder:
How do you think you compare to God’s plumbline?
Jesus is our builder who is building perfect walls!
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July 10: Matthew 9:14-15
Key Verse: Matthew 9:14
Then John’s disciples came and asked him, ‘How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?’
Devotion:
How many time have people stopped you to ask why you are not doing something the way they think Christians should be acting? If it is none, then are you acting like a stereotypical Christian, or are you following what God wants you to do in your life? Sometimes we get too caught up in the way we think we should act and we lose focus on what God wants from us in our lives.
We need to be lights for Jesus – this is not to say we have to be Jesus in the eyes of others, but we should be shining like Jesus did. Jesus set Himself apart from the people because He did things differently. Not because He wanted to rebel, but because He wanted people to see He was not the same as everyone else.
When we say we should be lights for Jesus we should be more of a reflection of what Jesus was like – not as someone who follows an exact set of rules and will not change, but someone who takes into account the people and places around them and does what is right!
Jesus wants us to set ourselves aside from the worldly ways of the people around us and to make people stop and think why we are doing things the way we are! If we simply do as others have done all along, then we are not following the will of God but rather the rules as others think they should be followed...
Points to Ponder:
Do you follow rules for rules sake?
Will you do what God wants you to do instead today?
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July 9: Matthew 9:9-13
Key Verse: Matthew 9:12
On hearing this, Jesus said, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill.
Devotion:
How do you feel when your prayers are not answered in the way you want them to be answered? Do you get upset if your prayers are not answered? How often do you pray for yourself, and how often do you pray for others? Just some of the important questions we need to come to terms with when we look at prayers and how and when God answers them!
But there is another side to things and that is the selfishness or selflessness of ourselves and our prayers! Jesus had no problem going to Matthew and calling him to be a disciple; whereas the people around Him thought this was a terrible travesty because Matthew was a tax collector who had got more out of people than they should have paid – that is how they made their money (much like debt collectors nowadays who get more out of people than the person or company sold the debt for)
Some will say it’s business. Some will say it’s wrong. What God looks at is the heart of the person on each side of the debt. He looks at the person who owes the money to see if they will own up to their debt. He looks at the integrity of the person collecting the money. His focus is not on the money, but the honesty and humbleness and mercy of the people concerned.
When the people around Him complained about Him eating with the ‘sinners’ Jesus turned things around and said these were the very people who needed to get to know God more than the honest and upright people because they were furthest away from the truth to start with. God wants us to serve on a level playing field where we all know the rules and try to obey them!
Points to Ponder:
Do you pray for good people?
Will you pray for someone you consider to be bad?
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July 8: Matthew 6:5-8
Key Verse: Matthew 6:7
And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.
Devotion:
After Jesus had told the disciples how they should not behave as the hypocrites were behaving in the synagogues, He reminded them they should keep their prayer life in a similar manner and not to go after publicity for what they were saying! When people are saying things out loud just so others are going to hear them and think well of them, they are just saying things out loud! Jesus wants us to pray to God from our hearts and not necessarily from our mouths!
Jesus often closed Himself off from others when He was going to pray to His Father; not because it was a big secret what He was going to pray about, but because it was a very personal time between Him and God the Father. This is still how God would prefer us to handle our prayers too – so they come from our heart directly to God’s ears...
It is not as if we have got to pray before God will look out for us; God already knows what we need in our lives and He already has a plan to do what is right. But, we need to know in our hearts we are asking God so when our prayers are answered, our faith will be made whole by seeing them answered.
If we go about shouting our prayers out to make sure other people hear them, then you could say we have already had our rewards – because we have let others know our requests and we know they have heard them... This does not mean God is going to answer them. He would rather we ask from our hearts and allow Him to do what is right and at the perfect time.
Points to Ponder:
How do you pray to God?
Will you spend some quiet time with God today?
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July 7: Matthew 6:1-4
Key Verse: Matthew 6:4
so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Devotion:
How many times have you done something just to be noticed by others? I know when I was growing up in junior school, I used to get up to all sorts of things just so I would be noticed! I did work out it was not getting me anywhere, but the temptation was always there to do something to be noticed. I like to think I am different nowadays, but I know if the temptation is too great, I may well give in!
But this is where God can help us in our lives. If we are willing to make Him a bigger part of our lives and do things to please Him instead of the world – we will get a lot more out of things and even find we have more strength to resist those temptations which come our way.
God wants us to stop trying to do things to help ourselves and to start doing things which are going to help others. This is what Jesus came to teach us face to face; how to be better people by loving others! The only reward we are going to get from doing things for ourselves is that – what we get out of doing things. But when we start doing things to please others, we not only get to please others and ourselves, but we are helping them and pleasing God too. For this, our reward will be in Heaven!
So let us stop trying to make things bigger than they are. Let us stop trying to make ourselves look better than we are. Let us stop making big of the small things in life. Let us, instead, make more of other people and show them God’s love through what we can do for them. Let us show others we are willing to be servants just like Jesus came to be a servant for us. Let us take the small things in life and share them with everyone!
Points to Ponder:
Do you build things up when you tell others about them?
Will you try telling God’s truth instead?
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July 6: Ezekiel 2:3-8
Key Verse: Ezekiel 2:7
You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious.
Devotion:
Do you like speaking to people who don’t bother to listen? I’m pretty sure we all can agree on thinking it is not worth speaking to people who are not going to listen! But notice what God is saying to Ezekiel here – and this goes for the rest of us too. God wants us to step forward and tell people about Him even though we know some people are not going to listen!
Why would God ask us to do something we think is going to be futile? He is telling us this because He promised us the whole world will be given the chance to listen to His Word and make up their own mind whether we believe in Him or not... But if we are not willing to tell other people, how will they get to hear about Him?
We are all part of God’s plan and we should be willing to step up and do our part for Him when He calls us. Sometimes that is going to see futile. Sometimes it is going to see like harder work than we can do... But He alone knows what is possible and what we are capable of – He alone knows what is best for us and the people around us.
God asked Ezekiel to step forward amongst a people who were actively rejecting God! He asked him to step into what could be described as a pit of scorpions! Now I am thankful He does not ask all of us to do this – otherwise many of us would never end up talking to anyone – especially to our friends and relative... amongst whom will be the hardest people to talk to because they think they know us better than God!
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to listen to God?
Will you still listen if it sounds like hard work?
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July 5: Mark 6:7-13
Key Verse: Mark 6:8
These were his instructions: ‘Take nothing for the journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in your belts.
Devotion:
When Jesus went out village to village, He did not just carry on doing the same things, teaching, healing, praying... He laid the ground for the disciples to go out and start to learn to do the same thing by themselves. Jesus knew He was not going to be around forever with the disciples, so He made sure they were prepared for the work which they had to carry on with.
He also knew they would face the same uphill tasks as He had to face whilst around their own friends and family – so they went to new places to meet new people and carry on God’s work there. This did not mean they went to the other side of the world to teach others, but they were not in their home towns.
Jesus taught them they would have to face new challenges because of this. They would have to seek out the people in the new communities who would accept them and give them space to do God’s work. It would not be very productive if they were to get opposition whatever they tried to do, so finding people who would support and encourage them would be a good starting point.
When we go forward to try and do what God wants us to do – we are going to have to find people in the communities who will support the work we know God is asking of us. It is not always going to be easy either – so Jesus was sending out the disciples with little else but what they had with them so they would have to depend on the support of the communities. Being in a vulnerable position is probably going to get you accepted quicker than I you went in with all guns blazing...
Points to Ponder:
Do you rush in and try take thing over normally?
Will you let God guide you and depend more in others?
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July 4: Mark 6:1-6
Key Verse: Mark 6:4
Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honour except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.’
Devotion:
Jesus must have felt distraught with the lack of faith of the people He grew up with... On one hand you can relate to this – if you grew up with a person, would you believe them if they said they were the Son of God? But, equally, they should have recognised there was something very different between Jesus and the rest of them; not just because He could perform miracles...
When we chose to have Jesus in our lives, we should be choosing to make a very different place for Him to be with us than we had before in our lives. He wants us to see how vastly different it is to be with Him than to be with the world. God wants us to be separated from the world – not hiding away from it, but choosing to be different from it!
When Jesus was amongst the people He grew up with, they did nothing different from what they had always done – including being part of the world. They did not change their lives to be more like His; they did not change their lifestyles to be more in line with God’s ways... This meant they had prejudice against what Jesus could do – not that they wanted this prejudice, it was just natural for them!
When we are too stuck in the world and its ways, we take away from Christ because we are showing others we do not have faith in Him. This is not a blind faith, but one we have grown up with and one which we need to cultivate with Him by our sides.
Points to Ponder:
Do you walk you own way in life?
Will you invite Jesus to walk with you?