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January 18: Mark 3:7-12
Key Verse: Mark 3:12
But he gave them strict orders not to tell others about him.
Devotion:
One of the things which still gets me worried about people is when they start to brag about what they are doing, what they have done and the monetary value of their achievements! I gave up on doing that as much as I could when I saw how it affected other people – we don’t often stop to think how others would feel when we tell them about everything we have achieved!
When Jesus was at the lake He told the disciples to get a boat ready so He would be able to separate Himself from the crowd when things got too much. The more people were healed, the more people came. They were not just local people now but people from surrounding areas; the news of what He was doing got around quickly.
Now imagine, someone gets healed of some terrible illness and another person cannot get close enough to ask Jesus for healing… how are those two people going to feel. The person who gets healed sees the other person not being able to get healed – do they feel terrible for the person who cannot get healed? The person who cannot get healed – do they feel jealous about the person who is healed?
Jesus did not want the people around Him to start fighting because of what was happening. He wanted to be able to do as much good as possible in the time He had. Sometimes we get carried away and start publicising what we do – how do the people around us feel about this happening to us and not them? We really do need to stop and consider the people around us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get carried away with telling people what you can do?
How do you feel when you hear others telling what they can do?
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January 17: 1 Samuel 17:32-50
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 17:39
David fastened on his sword over the tunic and tried walking around, because he was not used to them. ‘I cannot go in these,’ he said to Saul, ‘because I am not used to them.’ So he took them off.
Devotion:
Many times in our lives we will face people who will say we should not trust in God but trust in them or some other physical thing. Sometimes God will give you the strength to do something physical against an adversary and you will be surprised. Here David was led to the battlefield, not to join the army but to deliver food for his brothers; but he ended up fighting for the army!
David was not a warrior in the physical sense, but he was a warrior for God. His faith was firmly planted in God’s hands and he trusted God for everything. When he saw and heard what the Philistine was doing to the army of God, he was angry and wanted things to change so God could be praised. This was not something he wanted to do to show how strong he was or to show anyone up, he simply wanted God to get the glory instead of the philistines!
When Saul allowed David to go up against Goliath he gave David his armour and weapons. Saul was a big man so nothing would fit and all would be cumbersome; besides this would give glory to the weapons instead of to God.
David asserted his position as a child of God, without swords, spears or javelins, just God and God’s holy name! David gave this battle over to God and stepped forward to fight a foe for whom he was no match physically – but he was going forward with God as his guide and protector! David used a simple sling with a stone to defeat in God’s hands to defeat what nobody in the army was willing to go up against!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you really rely on God?
Will you give God more credit for things in your life?
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January 16: 1 Samuel 16:1-13
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 16:7
But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’
Devotion:
One of the most important things we learn from the bible is to not judge people by their outward appearance – or as we say in the West don’t judge a book by it’s cover. Samuel was now facing worrying times because Saul had fallen out of favour with God and a new king was being sought after. Samuel was worried for his own life in case Saul found out and wanted to kill him, but God had other plans.
God knew what might happen if Samuel declared he was going to anoint a new king, so he sent Samuel out with a heifer as if he was going to make a sacrifice to God. When Samuel got to Bethlehem the people there were worried in case Samuel had come to prophesy against them; they had that guilty feeling knowing they had each done something wrong…
Samuel called on Jesse to be consecrated along with all of his sons. Each of them came out to meet Samuel and Samuel looked at the outward appearance of the first son just as he looked at the outward appearance of Saul: he was impressed with what he saw.
But, as we said earlier, God had other plans. Each of the sons came forward and God said no. After enquiring if there were any other sons, they called for the youngest son who was tending to the sheep. A son who had not gone to join the army but stayed at home to care for their father’s sheep. This is the man God had chosen!
Points to Ponder:
Do you judge people when you first look at them?
How many people have you given a chance and been surprised by?
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January 15: Mark 2:18-22
Key Verse: Mark 2:22
And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.
Devotion:
I wonder how many readers are old enough to know about the canvas bags which used to hang on the front of jeeps a few decades ago. The canvas would obviously leak a little bit, but the water coming out would evaporate and keep the contents cool even in the brightest sunshine. But if the canvas bag dried out too much it would crack and the whole content of the bag would gush out making it useless! That is what I always think about when I hear these verses.
Back in those days the skin of an animal would be used to keep the liquids in; much the same as the canvas bag, but it would dry out much quicker when empty so when used again after drying out, it would split and be useless.
Jesus was trying to teach those listening that if we let our lives dry out without constant input of the gospel, we may well become like an empty vessel which has dried out and becomes useless once again. The initial comparison was between the disciples of some groups fasting and the disciples of Jesus not fasting. Jesus was trying to say they were constantly being filled with the gospel because He was with them.
If they were not constantly receiving the gospel they may well have dried out and become like useless vessels. The Pharisees were too consumed with recounting the scriptures word for word and making sure other people kept the myriad of laws which had been drawn up! Their ability to keep the scriptures was fine, but their ability to share it was not going so well because they were alienating themselves from the people...
Points to Ponder:
Do you keep up with receiving the gospel?
Do you share the gospel as well?
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January 14: 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 3:10
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’
Devotion:
Samuel was serving under Eli at this time. One night when they were in their beds someone called out to Samuel and he assumed this was Eli because there was no-one else within earshot. When Samuel rushed to Eli’s side and said Here I am Eli woke up an insisted he had not called out. After a couple of times Eli worked out it must have been God calling out and told Samuel to stay where he was and simply say to the Lord that he was listening!
The Lord then spoke to Samuel and told him what was about to happen, but what he heard was not good news for Eli and his family.
Sometimes we find it hard to listen to God because we are so caught up in the world we loose grip of what He says to us and He tries to commune with us. This is nothing new because we have a whole history of people doing this in our bibles. The world is a place full of temptations and trappings to lead us away from God – the evil one has made sure of that!
God wants us to be able to stop in our lives and spend time trying to listen carefully to Him. Don’t be tricked into thinking other people are calling you or guiding you. They may well be being used by the evil one to disrupt our lives so we don’t get to listen to Go. It is hard to differentiate things at times and that is why God would like us to spend time alone with Him so we can get used to listening to Him...
Points to Ponder:
How often are you distracted by something in your life?
How often do you stop and give God time in your life?
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January 13: 1 Samuel 9:15-20
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 9:17
When Samuel caught sight of Saul, the Lord said to him, ‘This is the man I spoke to you about; he will govern my people.’
Devotion:
One of the things I love reading about is the things we talk about as being fate or coincidences! Here is a man called Saul who has been sent out to look for his father’s donkeys and had travelled a fair way. He was now on a quest to find the seer who would hopefully be able to tell him where the donkeys had gone off to. Instead, God had planned something quite different for Saul.
Now Saul was a handsome man and very tall too so he would not be mistaken amongst a crowd of people. God chose Saul because of his qualities and because he stood out amongst men. But God also knew what Saul would be like in the end; though in the beginning he would be everything the people had asked for.
You see, God listen to the cry of his people. He listens when we call out to Him and hears every prayer. He wants to be able to answer every prayer, but sometime we are so caught up in life we forget what is going to be best for us. In these cases God does answer our prayers but will be standing by in case we forget about what we should be doing too!
God doesn’t want us to just accept the answered prayers and move on to new thing. He wants us to acknowledge the answered prayers and share them with other to encourage everyone. We are all in one church and we need to support each other because we are all God’s children!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you pray for things?
How often do you praise God for answered prayers?
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January 12: 1 Samuel 8:4-7
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 8:7
And the Lord told him: ‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.
Devotion:
What do you do when people start questioning your faith or your relationship with God? Do you get discouraged and try to find a way out of the situation? Sometimes we have to accept what people are saying and leave them to it. Those are also the times when we need to make sure we are listening to God because He is going to have something to say to us!
Here Samuel is getting on in age and the people no longer want to listen to him. They see the countries around them who have kings and ministers who lead them; they now look to see why they can’t have a king! This is the dangerous age where people will rather follow a human being than follow God.
The difference between a king and a prophet is the king does not necessarily follow what God is telling them to do; they may well be doing things for their own good rather than the glory of God! God knew this would come and so He tells Samuel to listen to what the people say and tell them what their futures would be like living under a king instead of a prophet.
When humans gain power, they want more and with that power they demand respect in ways which are not Godly and not righteous. These are the ways which often lead to tyrants being made because the kings or queens get too greedy… This is typical human behaviour when they turn their back on God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you get discouraged by people not trusting God?
Will you continue to trust and listen to God no matter what?
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January 11: Matthew 10:40-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10:40
Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.
Devotion:
One of the things we often forget is someone who is close to God will always tell God when good or bad things happen to them. So no matter how far you think you are away from God, He always gets to hear what you are up to. As Jesus says in these verses, if you do anything as little as giving a cup of water to one who is close to God, He will make sure you get your reward for doing something for them.
We don’t know how close other people are to God if they are strangers to us; we can have a good guess if we observe them long enough, but not just by looking at them! So what Jesus is also saying is we have to treat each person we meet as if they are in communion with God so we always treat them properly.
So many situation in our modern world suggest we should be treating many people with the same mannerisms as they treat us and others. This causes a bit of a snowball effect because once someone starts treating others badly, more people join in to treat them and others affected badly too; and so it continues until everyone is getting hurt by others!
God wants us to try and turn this on its head by treating people right. If we can break the chain of treating people badly, we stop the spread of evil and invite righteousness into their lives. As disciples of God we should be willing to treat others well so they can be encouraged to do the same.
Points to Ponder:
How many people did you treat badly today?
How many people did you treat well today?
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January 10: Psalm 40:1-4
Key Verse: Psalm 40:2
He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.
Devotion:
When we really and truly wait on the Lord, He pulls us out of places where there seems no hope and sets our feet on firm foundations from which we can grow and blossom. Why does it take us many times where the Lord helps us out of the mire before we realise He is with us and protecting us always!
When things go well, we don’t take a second look but bask in the good times and blessing which surround us. When things go bad we suddenly take time out to think about what is happening and call out to God to help us in any way He can! Yet, when He does help us out, we overlook the fact it is Him helping and take credit ourselves!
God wants to be able to help us in any way He can, but He would also like us to acknowledge it is Him who is giving us what we need. He will continue to help us no matter what, so we should be willing to praise Him no matter what! Sometimes things will not go our way and we may feel hard done by; but God is choosing the path forward which is going to be best for all of us!
We need to always trust His ways and trust is what He asks us to do. He does not look up at the people who look down on others; instead He will lift up those looked down upon and lift them up in ways we cannot comprehend. Trust in God like you life depends on it and not only when you think everything else has gone wrong!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you trust in God?
How often do you praise Him for everything He does in your life?
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January 9: Mark 1:21-28
Key Verse: Mark 1:22
The people were amazed at his teaching, because he taught them as one who had authority, not as the teachers of the law.
Devotion:
I used to get scared I would not know what to do and say when I met people who wanted to know about God, but the more I get to know other Christians the more I get to see how people can give out good news no matter how much they know about the scriptures. When Jesus went into the synagogue on the Sabbath in Capernaum, the people say how much more Jesus knew than the teachers…
This sort of story made me feel like I would never get to know enough from the scriptures to be able to tell others about Jesus. I think my turning point was when a young man and his friends asked me why the bible would always talk about God as being male. It was a question I had never fully considered myself. I admitted by lack of knowledge to them and together we went to someone who had more knowledge of the scriptures.
That is how I got to learn more and the young men also got to learn more. Together we grow; as long as we are willing to admit others can know more than us – then we can all learn together and move forward.
These people in the synagogue suddenly saw how someone could know more than the teachers of the law and they wanted to know more! Don’t be discouraged because you think you don’t know enough. Share what you have and admit when you don’t know enough. Grow together with the people who come to you seeking God.
Points to Ponder:
How much do you know about the scriptures?
Do you know someone who knows less whom you can share something with?