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January 23: Proverbs 4:1-9
Key Verse: Proverbs 4:2
I give you sound learning, so do not forsake my teaching.
Devotion:
I do continue to try and learn all I can from God’s Word, and even though I have read through my bible, I continue to learn from those same words. So how do I continue to learn new things if the words do not change? My life changes, and as my life changes, the words take on a new meaning in many cases; not that the mean changes but deepens.
I continue to gain wisdom from the words God has made sure we get to hear. God’s word does not change, but our understanding changes as we grow in wisdom and understanding. Just as Jesus did not know everything in the beginning, so we do not know it. But we can learn more and more with every day if we are willing to listen and learn as much as Jesus did!
As we go through school, we learn to read and write, then we get further understanding and then, if we are lucky, we continue on to college and university where we can explore more and try to further our own understanding by discovering new things. We must be willing and want to do the same with our Christian understanding too – the more we can learn, the closer we become to how Jesus was able to live.
As with any learning, we need to remember things we read and hear. We need to take what we learn and hold it in our hearts because that is where God is trying to reach us – in our hearts. He knows we have to accept these things in our hearts to further deepen our relationship with Him, so He tries to speak to us through our hearts!
Points to Ponder:
How much do/did learn from school?
How much do you learn from God’s Word?
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January 22: Proverb 3:19-20
Key Verse: Proverbs 3:19
By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place;
Devotion:
I loved doing science experiments when I was younger – especially those chemical types which made new things. What I could not get my head round was the chemical reactions and formulas which were happening behind the scenes. I marvelled at the chemistry teachers as they went about showing us experiments as if it was something they “just did!”
Now, we could look at God as being someone who just does the experiments which give us many of the things we take for granted, or we could try and understand how He does things... But, in the end we have to accept He is able to do things which we may never be able to understand or grasp; but because we do see it happening, we should believe it!
God created this world because He could and because He wanted something special for us. His abilities are far beyond our normal understanding it terms of science and physics, but we should still accept it as the truth because He has already done it. It may be hard to accept something we cannot see – but accepting something we see should be ‘normal.’
We probably don’t deserve what God has created for us and given us, but He has, because He loves us. We don’t have to return it when we mess it up! We don’t have to try and fix everything we break... God gave this all to us as a gift and continues to support us with this gift every day of our lives. Accept all God is doing and thank Him for it, daily.
Points to Ponder:
Have you looked at the natural world around you?
Do you see the design God has planned for everything?
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January 21: Proverbs 3:5-6
Key Verse: Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Devotion:
How much do you trust your family? How much do you trust your friends? How much do you trust other people? Your answers to any or all of these is probably to trust those who have given you reason to trust them and not to trust those who have given you reason not to trust them... But we cannot always live in the past where we judge people according to what they have done in the past!
If we lived by that idiom, we would probably trust very few people in our lives and find it very difficult to trust new people who came into our lives. Contrast that with the way God sent His Son to make a way for us to trust Him even when He knew we could not be trusted!
Someone has to start the trust relationship; and it may well be difficult for you to try and start that trust because of what has happened to you in your past. God wants us to be able to trust others and for them to trust us. This means we have to be trust-worthy and show others we can be trusted.
God has already shown us He can be trusted in everything and continues to uphold the truth and that trust. If we are willing to place our trust in His hands, He is faithful and just to continue keeping His word and continue showing us how much we can trust Him with everything and always.
Points to Ponder:
Do you trust God’s Word?
Will you place a bit more trust in God’s hands today?
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January 20: Psalm 34:19-20
Key Verse: Psalm 34:20
he protects all his bones, not one of them will be broken.
Devotion:
One of the most surprising things is that I have not broken any bones yet! When I think back of all the stupid things I have done in my past from jumping off roofs and rock climbing without any protection, the odds were clearly stacked against me – but I still came out relatively unscathed from all my doings... Now I am not saying we should all go out and jump off roofs! There is no way we should be knowingly tempting God!
But these words are so very comforting to us – not that God will always protect us from breaking our bones, because we still do stupid things and we probably deserve to have a broken bone or two! But God continue to watch over us in everything we do and will try to make sure we are safe at all times.
The most comfort I get from these verses is not the broken bones part, but that God gives us a peace which really does go beyond all our own understanding. That peace is able to cover all our worries and self-doubts. That peace lifts us up from our mourning and gives us an understanding of how God continues to love and protect us.
I pray each one of you who are reading this (or listening to it) are blessed by God’s peace and continue to trust Him in many more things in your lives. I know I have always been surprised by the depth of the peace He gives me and continue to accept it in bundles. He really does look after me and protect me in so many ways, especially with my heart and mind!
Points to Ponder:
How much do you trust God with?
Will you give God your heart for safe keeping today?
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January 19: Acts 4:32-35
Key Verse: Acts 4:35
and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Devotion:
If you wanted to start changing your community from the inside, what would you start out by doing? One of the best things to start with is blessing others... I’m not talking about the crass way some people go about giving things to others just so they can get loads of views on social media, but the true servant hearted giving Christ calls us to. These people talked about in this section of passage were all now living as one community and were sharing everything they had with one another.
I can feel the cries of socialism and various other things... but when it comes down to it, this is what Christ was teaching – not the rule based “you will share everything with everyone” but the servant hearted “I am willing to share with anyone who is in need!” There is a huge difference in the two!
God does not call us to be a regimented society who are all too scared to do anything else but follow the rules. God calls us to be willing to share with people who are in need... So who is in need? It may surprise you to find out who the ones are who are in need.
It could be the company director just down the road who is now facing bankruptcy because their bills far outweigh the family income, or it could be the factory worker who had hardly anything to start with. We are not here to judge people on what they have done but to stand by people because of the situation they are in now! God bless you Dad for always being willing to help anyone.
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to open your eyes to people in need?
Would you help someone who has not helped you before?
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January 18: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8
Key Verse: 1 Corinthians 5:8
Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Devotion:
This chapter may be a hard read for many because it is dealing with a case of incest in the community; but what is more disturbing is the attitude of the other people around in accepting this behaviour as OK and using some excuse to uphold what is going on. Paul’s comments are hard hitting, and I would like to focus on the humility of the submission Paul is suggesting.
Paul is trying to cut off this behaviour in the bud, before it takes over the community and destroys peoples moral code. It does only take one instance of something which is accepted to bring about a change in the whole community. If that acceptance is for something which is not good, then that behaviour may well spread throughout the community, destroying what God has tried to build up.
As Christians, we need to be the lights in our communities, holding up the light as high as we can and not covering it or hiding it. Just like letting in a little of a bad thing in to the community, letting in a little of a good thing to the community can bring about changed for the good!
Allow God to guild you and protect you as you step forward allowing His light to shine through you. Allow Him to guide you and counsel you to bring about a small, good change in your community; one which will be accepted over time and adopted as part of your community. This is how God gets into the broken communities we call home...
Points to Ponder:
Are you willing to start a change?
Are you willing to uphold that change for God?
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January 17: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 3:7
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
Devotion:
I love these verses where God is calling Samuel to a life of a servant of God; Samuel did not have much of an idea of what this would involve or what would be expected of him because he had not yet been taught God’s Word. And this is the point I want to focus on today. I have written enough about how we should submit and how willing Samuel was to submit, but not about how God called him before He knew what it was all about!
This tell us how God is willing to use anyone to bring His word to others – we don’t have to be famous, we don’t have to be accomplished priests or prophets, we just have to be us! God can do all the rest of the things as long as we are willing to listen. This shows how God looks into our heart and not into our lives.
When God chose David to be the next king of Israel, it was not his stature or strength which made God choose him, but what was in his heart! When God chose Gideon, it was not his strength but his willingness (albeit after a bit of coaxing.) God continues to choose us to do His work based on what He knows secretly about us – we may not even know until God calls us!
I certainly did not know I would want to do youth work until God called me to do it in our local church. I thought I had had enough of youth after trying to bring up my children – but God knew what I could accomplish because He knows what I am really capable of! He knows you – just listen...
Points to Ponder:
Do you feel God calling you?
Will you simply say yes and stop to listen to Him?
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January 16: John 6:16-21
Key Verse: John 6:20
But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.”
Devotion:
One of the things I relish most about Jesus is there is nothing too big or too small for Him; He has been there for me from the beginning, even when I wasn’t watching, and even when I least expected it. I can imagine the disciples beginning to get worried with the wind and waves – after all it was dark and they were probably tired from being up most of the night trying to get to the other side...
Then to top it all, along comes somebody/something walking on the water toward them! Now I may have been in a few tight spots in my life, but I don’t think I have ever been in a place where I see something like this! I can remember being so scared I dropped to my knees and prayed out loud; but still being scared because I did not know at the time my prayers had already been answered!
God does not have to send a bright shining light, and angel or even Jesus walking on the water so you can know your prayers are answered – sometimes He is going to answer them before you realise it, and other times you may have to wait a bit... But your prayers will be answered, and answered where God will get the glory!
Jesus’ first words were to calm the disciples down and then He got them to safety. Whether those words are out loud or quietly whispered without you hearing them, they are answered and you will know in your heart because you find peace. God is just so awesome!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you plead with God?
How often do you expect Him to answer?
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January 15: Isaiah 25:1-5
Key Verse: Isaiah 25:2
You have made the city a heap of rubble, the fortified town a ruin, the foreigners’ stronghold a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.
Devotion:
No matter how strong we think we are, no matter how invincible we believe we are – nothing can compare to your might and power God! Over the past few decades we have seen quite a few tyrants brought down and we have even seen great countries brought to their knees by scandal and infighting – all because mankind has thought they could do anything.
God is faithful and just. This means He will listen to all our prayers and He will answer them – but He will also bring to justice those who pervert the course of justice for their own greed and wants. God is here for all mankind and He will do what is righteous and just. He will always uphold the truth and will ensure the truth will get to be told, no matter what!
Sometimes we may have to wait a season before the right people are in the right positions so the truth can get out. Sometimes we have to wait until a tyrant is taken out of the picture before the truth can be safely told to others – we are the ones who need to learn about patience, waiting for the truth to be told.
God can bring down anyone and anything. If we do not listen to His guidance and, instead, lean on our own understanding, then we will fall in front of justice and the truth. God wants us to be standing up in front of truth and justice instead, not waiting in the shadows too frightened to come out in case we are found out! Trust in the truth and allow God to guide you forward with Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you have any skeletons in your closet?
Will you strive to tell the truth today?
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January 14: Proverbs 25:21-22
Key Verse: Proverbs 25:21
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
Devotion:
O how we like to berate our enemies or to embarrass them in the sight of others, but this is not God’s way! Jesus told things how they were; He called out those who were hiding behind acts which were not sincere, but He always held out a hand to His enemies! It is a difficult route to follow, but one which we need to strive for in our own lives.
I know many people justify their actions through the next verse which tells us how being kind will heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies. This is not meant as a justification for doing something good! God wants us to do good things for the people around us because it is the right thing to do – not because we will be getting back at them in some other way!
But it is a though we should remind ourselves of because we may end up doing more harm than good if we go about things in the wrong way. If we go out of our way to be nice just so we can get back at people, then we are doing that as our primary goal and not blessing them! It is not right to channel all our energy into getting back at people, no matter how much they have done in our lives.
Striving to be what Jesus would do is a far better goal to aim for – one which we may end up finding much hard to achieve that living our lives peaceably! Our motives for doing what we do have got to be more in line with God’s motives; it is these motive God will be looking at and how He will be judging us.
Points to Ponder:
Do you go out of your way to get back at people?
Are you setting your goals in line with Jesus’ goals?