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March 24: John 8:31-38
Key Verse: John 8:36
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Devotion:
I always find the language fascinating as used by the people at the time this was happening. To be able to wonder where they were in their hearts and where they were spiritually gives the gospels so much more body! We could look at this and wonder why they could not see their history as we see it. You could look at this and think why they could not recognise Jesus as the Messiah. Or you could look at this and wonder what God wants you to gain from it!
If you are not wondering what God wants you to learn, then, just maybe, you are trying to lay the blame on someone else’s shoulders. This is the stance we take too many times in our lives – we want to apportion some blame on someone else or make it so there is a defined reason for everything which happened... Maybe what we should be doing more often is stopping what we are doing and thinking about what we can learn from these words!
God gave us the bible so we could learn more, draw closer to Him and apportion praise and worship where it should be sent rather than blaming others for things we do not have control over. God wants us to grow in our lives with Him and not to be strangled by pit holes and trappings we cannot avoid because of our nature.
When we accept Christ’s ways into our lives we are going to find a new freedom in our lives which when have never had before. Before, when we felt trapped by unseen forces and circumstance, we can step back and see a new way forward offering us hope and freedom with God at the middle! Aim for what Christ is trying to teach us and not for how we can blame others for things wrong in our lives.
Points to Ponder:
Do you like blaming others?
Will you accept the path Christ lays before you?
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March 23: John 8:27-30
Key Verse: John 8:28
So Jesus said, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.
Devotion:
How many times have you not believed something until it was too late? I know I have been in that boat many times before and so, now, I tend to believe my friends and family and I have not missed out in so much anymore; but it also means I have to spend more time supporting friends and family too. That has made me a much better person!
I believe this is one of the main reasons why Jesus wants us to love and support our neighbours so much. If we can all draw closer and spend more time together, Covid depending, then I believe our communities will grow into much better places to live. When I first moved onto an estate in London, I was very surprised by the amount of people who were willing to take a chance and make a difference. Don’t be put off by the look of a problem or by the statistics the government or other authorities put on different places – God knows what is in people’s hearts much more than we do. Trust Him.
Jesus knew what lay ahead for Him and He knew how much He was going to have to do in order for us to know Him as the Son of God. He was willing to do this all despite the horror which lay ahead. If He was willing to do this for us even before we knew Him, then how much more should we be willing to do this for the people we are getting to know in our communities!
God has spent a lot of time preparing the ground – we need to come in and tend to the ground so His long-standing work is not in vain! Just as you love and support your God, love and support your community because God has put the people into your community for a reason!
Points to Ponder:
How many opportunities do you see in your community?
What are you going to do about it?
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March 22: John 8:2-11
Key Verse: John 8:11
‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’
Devotion:
How quick are you to blame someone for doing something wrong? Do you talk about people and say how many bad things they have done? Do you use the law of the land or ‘righteousness’ to say how some people are bad people? We all do this to a certain extent because we live in a land where we have to uphold the law.
When the teachers of the law had Jesus in front of them, they brought in a person who had been caught in the act of adultery. Now, according to the laws handed down via Moses, someone who was caught in the act of adultery should be stoned to death! Not nice, but those were the laws to try and prevent people from causing so much pain and hurt in other peoples’ lives.
When they confronted Jesus, He asked which one of them had not done something wrong in their lives... and none of them could answer because, just like you and I, they had done something wrong. Let’s face facts – we are all guilty of something or other and because of that, we don’t really have the right to bring judgement upon others!
God has taught us we need to have witnesses and trials to make sure people who are accused of doing wrong get what they deserve – but when it comes to taking a life, do we really have the right if we have done things wrong in our lives which can be just as damaging as what they have done wrong. This is a debatable topic and one which has caused many countries to stop the death penalty all together. Jesus is willing to forgive anything we have done is we are willing to try and change after admitting what we have done is wrong in God’s eyes.
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame others for what is wrong in your community?
Have you tried changing your community through love?
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March 21: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Key Verse: Jeremiah 31:31
‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
Devotion:
Who would have thought the Son of God would come down to live amongst us, die for us and be raised from death to show us the way forward which God promises here! Who would have thought these words would mean Jesus would come to live with us – we can look back on them now and realise what God meant, but often we find we hear things we don’t fully understand... not because we are not listening properly, but because we cannot comprehend the marvellous things God can do and does do for us!
When we hear from God, we almost always think back of the things we have done before and try to make sense of things from what we know already. Too many times we don’t hear the words “I am doing a new thing” when God say so.
One day, when we are with God in Heaven, we will understand some of the things He has said to us in the bible. Some of the things written down for us still don’t make sense to us – because we are limiting God’s ability to our own thinking instead of allowing Him to expand our minds and hearts.
When I first went to work in deprived areas, I was worried whether I would be able to cope with this new work; but once you allow God to take control and allow Him to really guide you instead of trying to steer Him, then you can get to grips with what God wants in your life! It is not easy at first because it is often uncomfortable because we feel like we are not in control – that is exactly what God wants! He wants to be in control!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to do your best for God?
Will you allow Him to change you?
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March 20: John 7:37-44
Key Verse: John 7:43
Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.
Devotion:
Have you noticed how you always get opposition from people who don’t want to believe in what you believe in? No matter how much we expect things, we always seem to be surprised when we get opposition from people who say they believe or are part of a church or even say they are Christians. And there is nothing new about these conflicts!
What Jesus wants for us is to come to Him with an open heart, to listen to His teaching and to obey it. Only when we start to reflect our Saviour can we pass on this teaching to the people around us. If we try to do things our own way, we will falter and stumble because we cannot see the pitfalls like Christ can. God has seen it all before as mankind has tried and failed so many times before. So why do we insist on giving it another go by ourselves if we have failed so many times before?
The answer to that is probably because we do not listen to Christ enough, and we certainly do not listen to the Holy Spirit enough! Jesus tried to tell people how much better things would be if they listened to the Holy Spirit because they would be able to share so much more with others. And this is where we seem to differ from others – some want a quiet life just doing what the old church did, others want to just be good people whilst some want to jump up and down and shout to the world about God!
We are going to have differing opinions as we move forward because not all people have been taught by the same teachers. God saw this and knew people would always be in conflict because of the differences in what has gone before. This is why He wanted people to listen more to the Holy Spirit because that teaching is coming straight from God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have arguments with others in church?
Will you try to listen to the Holy Spirit more today?
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March 19: Romans 4:13-18
Key Verse: Romans 4:18
Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’
Devotion:
It is reminders like these which not just give us hope, but give us encouragement and strengthen our belief in a God who keeps His promises. Abraham did not inherit anything because he kept the laws or because he was a good man – he got his inheritance from a God who promised it to him if he kept his faith!
Was it a requirement to have demonstrate his faith in some way? No, it was the act of having faith in the promise God had given him. We all fall over at times because we stumble or lose our footing. But if we keep on believing we can continue to get up and walk even after we fall over, then we have faith in something! God wants us to have that belief in His promises for and to us. God wants us to know we can depend on His promises!
If we relied on the law, then we would all be in for a big disappointment – the only thing we would gain is the wrath of God when we broke the law! If we make our hope in laws, then the only thing we will definitely see is how we falter and break the law! But we know how Jesus came to earth and gave us hope because He took on the debt we owe for our sins – He gave us a way of ensuring we have hope!
We need to step up and believe in that hope Christ has given us. We need to remain strong in our belief God allowed this to happen so we could join Him in Heaven! It is our faith, no matter how small and insignificant, which will allow us to join Him in Heaven!
Points to Ponder:
Do you think you have enough faith?
If you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you have enough!
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March 18: Exodus 32:7–14
Key Verse: Exodus 32:14
Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Devotion:
How many times have you given into temptation because it looked so much better than what you were going through at the time? The English saying “the grass is always greener on the other side” comes to mind – we see what we don’t have as being better than what we do have because we don’t actually know what we don’t have! We look for a fast and easy solution!
When the people of Israel were at the bottom of the mountain and Moses was at the top with God, they became restless and wanted some sort of comfort and gratification there and then... why should they have to wait for Moses to come down the mountain after days or weeks when they could go back to their old ways and their old gods right then and there!
God was trying to educate Moses by showing him what was needed and how the people could draw closer to Him; but the people chose to follow their own ideas instead of waiting patiently on God. Sometimes we are called to wait while we learn more and those are the hard times for us because we want instant gratification instead.
God wants us to learn the right way so we will remember those ways He wants us to learn. God wants us to have the choice of doing the right thing and that is why He allows us to make our own decisions – even when they are the wrong ones. It’s not too surprising this makes God cross! But as we see here, He is willing to forgive no matter what the crime; as long as we are willing to come before Him with humility!
Points to Ponder:
Do you take decisions based on what you want to need?
Will you allow God to show you what you need?
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March 17: John 5:19-23
Key Verse: John 5:20
For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.
Devotion:
This is one of those sections of verse which speak deeply to me as a father. I can look back at my life as a child and relate to this in my relationship with my Father, but I can also look back as a father and view my relationship with my son... and I can even look at my relationship with my grandchildren too now! How time passes!
When we do love and respect our parents, we tend to listen to them and try to obey them – yes, I know we get it wrong and we go off and do bad things, but in large we try to obey our parents in a loving relationship. The same has to be said with our relationship with Christ – when we do love Him, we try to obey Him. We still get things wrong and make mistakes, but as long as we are trying to do what He wishes, our relationship will continue to grow deeper.
Now the relationship between Jesus and God is something more difficult to get our heads round – but we have the ultimate example through Him because He obeyed His Father at all times and because of His closeness to Him, was able to do so much more during His life on earth. Because of this closeness, when He asked something of God, the requests were granted; something we can relate to in our relationships with our parents – if we are in a good relationship with them, they are more likely to say yes when we ask...
As a parent I can say I am very defensive when anyone does anything to my children or my grandchildren. There are times when we do have to stand by and just watch because it is the right thing to do. This is how love looks...
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to do what God asks?
Do you try to help God’s other children?
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March 16: John 5:16-18
Key Verse: John 5:17
In his defence Jesus said to them, ‘My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.’
Devotion:
Do you work for a church? Have you noticed Sunday is actually a very busy day for you! So what about God’s instruction to not do any work on the Sabbath? Well, we could go into all manner of arguments about what day the Sabbath is or what is recognised by your particular church, but the fact remains, God says we should take a day off every week – and this goes back to the beginning of time when God created everything!
Jesus stepping into this argument to try and stop people from making this law such a big deal because they were forgetting about “the main thing!” We worship God. If we start making all manner of rules take us away from worshipping God, then we are forgetting about the main thing! Not doing something because it goes against a law which is being upheld by mankind may well be taking us away from the main thing!
Jesus reminds us God is always working. God does not take the day off because He is getting tired or is over-worked. He took the day off in the beginning as an example to us. As humans we do need to take time out and rest; that’s why we sleep every night! We are not gods!
I am currently working for a couple of churches every Sunday, one I get to go in and do the audio-visual side of the service, and the other I do completely remotely as I set up the videos on YouTube while they are in lock-down. I also have a ‘normal’ job which I work during the week... but I do make sure I take time for myself and time for God too. My weeks are variable to try and fit in to other’s requirements; but I always make time for God.
Points to Ponder:
How much time do you set aside for work every week?
How much time do you set aside for God every week?
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March 15: Psalm 30:1-5
Key Verse: Psalm 30:5
For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favour lasts a lifetime; weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.
Devotion:
I love verse 5... How many times do you get angry at someone for doing something wrong and how long do you stay angry with them? Are you still angry inside when they come to you to ask for forgiveness? It is hard for us to sweep aside our anger and to forgive someone totally, but this is what Christ is asking of us for His people!
We are His people and He is asking us to forgive and forget. Think about a time when you have done something wrong and have had to ask someone to forgive you. What did it feel like when they were able to forgive you and you felt that weight being lifted off your shoulders?
We may think we have done something so bad it will take God a long time to forgive us – maybe we have done something wrong against Him and we knew we were doing it wrong at the time... But, because Jesus was willing to give His life as a perfect sacrifice for us, when we ask Christ to forgive us, God sees us as perfect once again – because Jesus is perfect!
So, now is the time to lift up your voices and praise God for all He is doing in your life. Not just the big things we ask for, but the little things like the comfort He brings when we feel down. Lift up your burdens to Christ and allow Him to carry them away from your shoulders giving you the peace and rest He has promised to give you.
Points to Ponder:
Have you asked Christ to forgive you?
Will you extend your mercy to others?