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July 25: Matthew 13:18-23
Key Verse: Matthew 13:22
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Devotion:
One of the biggest things which separate us from God is living amongst other people! For some reason most of us will allow the things in life to get in the way of our happiness and in the way of our relationship with God too! We get so upset by things of the world we lose sight of God and His ways, making it an uphill struggle to try and commune with Him on a daily basis.
God has warned mankind from the beginning of time about being side-tracked and lured away from Him, and yet we continue to allow the world to interfere with everything! And, no, it is not a simple task of switching it off because we have feelings and we have this sense of looking out for other people all the time.
God wants us to be very aware of others so we can help others, but He also wants us to be very aware of His presence in our lives! No matter what goes on with life and the world around us, God is always going to be close by. We see this in the very earliest manuscripts in our bibles where Job had all manner of things happen to him and his family; but he was somehow able to keep a hold of his relationship with God throughout everything – this saw him though in the end!
Most of us will give in and be taxed by the world and its ways. Most of us will give in to temptations. Most of us will get things wrong from time to time. This is just the way we are. But God watches over us and wants us to succeed!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you get things wrong?
How often do you reach out to God?
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July 24: Matthew 13:1-9
Key Verse: Matthew 13:9
Whoever has ears, let them hear.
Devotion:
Have you ever wondered why some things in life just seem difficult whilst others are so simple? Have you compared what it is like to build something when you have the instructions and when you don’t have the instructions? Life is a whole lot easier when we have instructions to follow and we actually follow the instructions. If we don’t follow them, life is difficult, but with those instructions, life becomes easier.
Jesus was trying to illustrate this to the people by telling them a parable of a farmer sowing seeds. When the seeds landed on the right soil with the right environment, the seeds would thrive and grow into healthy crops.
The Holy Spirit is sowing seeds in our lives all the time and our past lives dictate what sort of ‘soil’ we are and how receptive we are going to be to the seeds being sown. God does not discriminate about who gets the seeds because He would like the seeds to be sown everywhere. Just like the farmer would recognise where the seeds have the best chance at growing, God knows too.
If we start listening and obeying, we are going to become more receptive to those seeds and we will have a better chance at having them germinate in our lives. It has already started with God sowing the seeds, but we have to be receptive and start listening to what He is saying to us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen to God’s instructions?
Or are you distracted by the world around you?
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July 22: Song of Songs 3:1-4
Key Verse: Song of Songs 3:1
All night long on my bed I looked for the one my heart loves; I looked for him but did not find him.
Devotion:
I love this section of passage as it talks about the perceived view of real love, not the basic intimacy we have for others or the carnal view we sometimes look at, but a love which goes much deeper and has meaning beyond normal feelings. Why would this maiden go out late at night to look for her loved one other than knowing this partner meant more to her than ‘being normal’
Whether this was a dream or what, I’m not going to speculate. What I do know is the real feeling you have when you know what love actually is. I have had relationships where I have been in love with the person and I have done things out of the ordinary to go out with said person(s) but each time I have found something lacking in the end.
I know my love for God goes beyond those feeling I have had for others in the past, but that is probably not the love this maiden is talking about. I believe this maiden is talking about the love one person has for another which goes beyond a casual relationship, or one which we think is real because we are choosing to look the other way over the shortcomings we know about.
God would prefer us to be with the one perfect person – but getting two people together at the right time and place is not always likely. We allow various feelings get in the way of what is real and what God wants. We get confused by physical feelings and desires. Sometimes we just have to put up with our shortcomings and get through life!
Points to Ponder:
Do you have the perfect partner?
Have you tried to give more than you take?
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July 20: Micah 2:1-5
Key Verse: Micah 2:3
Therefore, the Lord says: “I am planning disaster against this people, from which you cannot save yourselves. You will no longer walk proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.
Devotion:
One of the things which has always fascinated me about the stories from the bible is how people would continually ignore warnings! But when you are on the other side of the fence and you have multiple warnings about your life or your health, you may ignore them thinking it could never happen to you!
We live in a world where all manner of things go wrong because of what people do to each other.
Only recently we have had a global disruption to all manner of IT infrastructure because of the mistakes made by someone and the ignorance of others who refuse to accept responsibility. We have world leaders who refuse to accept what they are doing is wrong and so the rest of us suffer!
God does not turn a deaf ear or blind eye to these things and will give people warnings before catastrophe happens on way or another. More likely caused by people because they ignore the warnings!
Go loves us and will bend over backward for us… but if we continue to ignore Him we have no way of knowing where He wants us to be so we are not affected by the global disruptions and goings on! Listen and learn from God alone!
Points to Ponder:
Do you continue to ignore people?
Do you continue to ignore God too?
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July 18: Matthew 11:28-30
Key Verse: Matthew 11:28
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
Devotion:
This is one of my favourite passages in the bible, one which we often forget about during rough and tough times. It is normally only after the event when we can look back on the times we have struggled, the times when we have thought the world was treading all over us, and we can then see how God played a big part in the courser of events when we trusted Him!
I look back at the time when I was in hospital and recount the times with friends and family only to see the despair and torrid time they all went through back then. I knew God was with me and I knew He was going to do what is best and so I left the decision making to Him. When the Doctors came to me and asked if they should go ahead with the operations knowing there was a great change of failure, my choice was always yes, because God had it!
When I look back and see the timing of the events, how the right people were in the right place at the right times; I see God’s hands in ever step of the way. It wasn’t me making a selfish choice but me placing my trust in Christ knowing that if it was His decision to take me home I would be there very soon!
When the world feels like it is breaking up around us, we need to allow God to guide us and keep us; don’t drown in the worries of the world because we can’t change the world, but we can depend on God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to change the world around you?
Or do you try to listen to God and simply obey?
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July 17: Matthew 11:26-27
Key Verse: Matthew 11:25
At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
Devotion:
As Jesus was teaching the disciples, He saw how they were having their eyes and hearts opened through their believing in what He was teaching them. Jesus marvelled at this and praised His Father in heaven for allowing this to be so. He had seen how the teachers of the law, the scribes and the Pharisees had learned so much but had not accepted the truth in their hearts. They were simply living out the law and trying to earn a place in heaven through what they were doing.
Jesus wanted them, and us, to see that it is more of a relationship we attain with God and maintain through our belief and our faith. As we grow in God and allow the Spirit of God to guide and teach us, we learn directly from Him just as a child learns from their parent(s).
God had given this knowledge to Jesus even though He was then in human form so He would be able to share that way of living with God with us all. Jesus had to be the example through which we could understand this is all possible even though we are sinners and should be eternally separated from God because of our sin. Jesus had stepped up and placed His own life on the line to pay for our sins.
When we accept this we become children of God and He can then allow the Holy Spirit to commune with us and guide us every step of the way from that moment on. That is God’s amazing gift to us!
Points to Ponder:
Do you accept Jesus as the Son of God?
Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to guide you?
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July 16: Isaiah 7:1-9
Key Verse: Isaiah 7:7
Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘It will not take place, it will not happen
Devotion:
One thing I have learned to accept is I am not in control – God is! Yes I have freedom of choice and I make decisions which affect my life and the life of others around me, but as for my life and how long I live, that is God’s choice to make and not mine. When can go through our bibles and find many places where God wanted someone to stay alive or to win a war or to do something extraordinary; He made it happen!
Isaiah had to do many things which we may not like to do, just as other prophets were told by God to go and do something unpalatable, and he stepped forward and obeyed God. That is the key point here. He chose to obey God and do what God wanted knowing that God knew what was best and what was needed!
Today I was reminded of some of the things I went through in hospital and some of the things others had to stand by and watch as they unfolded for me. I also remembered how I knew God was in control and simply waited for God to open the right doors at the right time. Friends and family could not understand why I was doing that, but I knew in my heart I had to do that.
God has a special plan for each one of us and if we are willing to wait on Him, listen out for His instructions and to obey His requests for whatever change He wants in our lives, then we will find out just how much God can do in our lives. Many Doctors and nurses have marvelled at how I was able to pull through when it all seemed against me… I knew it was God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you wait on God?
Do you listen to His instructions?
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July 15: Matthew 10:34-42
Key Verse: Matthew 10:39
Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Devotion:
I have always found people who are willing to argue for and against taking the words used here quite literally. I’m not here to argue one way or another but to allow you to make you own decision based on the words used by the Apostle to depict what Jesus was telling the disciples.
There must have been times when they would have felt very comfortable and content knowing Jesus was with them thinking they were in the best place to be. But the words used here and retold by Matthew are quite concerning when we look at it from an earthly point of view. Jesus knew this as we have already seen how He described others as family instead of His earthly blood-relatives.
Jesus knows the love we have for each other in our families and knows of the special love couples have for one another. What Jesus is trying to depict here is a love which goes further than the love we look at in our families. The love Jesus has for us was shown by Him giving His life up so we could live with Him in heaven. This is beyond any love we know for our families – even if we think otherwise!
Jesus wanted the disciples to understand a new level of love, one which he wanted them to have for God. We have seen all throughout history, both in our bibles and in the world, how people have chosen to lay down their lives at times. We have also seen how people could not quite bring themselves to that point when push came to shove. Jesus wants us to not have to think about our love for God, but to just love Him without reserve!
Points to Ponder:
Do you love someone special?
Do you really love Jesus?
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July 14: Mark 6:21-29
Key Verse: Mark 6:25
At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”
Devotion:
How many times have you been upset by someone who has promised you something and has not delivered on their promise? How many times have you promised someone and not been able to deliver on the promise because of circumstances? If you don’t like telling someone you have to break your promise, then should you not be making the promise in the first place!
When the disciples were with Jesus they must have been pleasantly surprised to find He always kept His word and made sure He did what He said He would! It is a sad state of affairs we find ourselves in where we know in the back of our minds we may well be let down by someone who has promised us something!
Jesus wants us to live a life where we are a good example of what a Christian should be like – someone who is able to tell the truth and carry out all of their promises! Herod found out the hard way that if he promised something he would have to carry out that promise no matter how much he dislikes the outcome. To that end he had to deliver John’s head on a platter because the daughter of Herodias called him out on his promise of offering anything she wanted!
We should learn from this we should not offer things we may not be able to deliver on otherwise we will be seen as the ones who go back on their word!
Points to Ponder:
Do you promise things you know you may not be able to deliver on?
Do you depend on Christ telling the truth?
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July 13: Isaiah 6:1-8
Key Verse: Isaiah 6:8
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
Devotion:
I love this section of scripture, not because it is the commissioning of Isaiah into his role God has selected for him, but of how it is done. One of the things I struggled with in the beginning as a Christian was knowing I was just a sinner who needed forgiving, so how could I go and tell anyone about Jesus? Wouldn’t they turn round and tell me I was just the same as them!
This is a bit of what Isaiah was going through when this was happening. He knew he was just the same as all the other people. How could he be anything other than a sinner too…
God had other plans and came to him in a significant way. God wanted Isaiah to know this was God’s plan and not something Isaiah was thinking of on his own. Isaiah was very scared by the sound and sight of the seraphim and probably thought this was the end for him. But God used the seraphim to show Isaiah what mercy and forgiveness was.
In an instant he was shown how God can forgive, and when God forgives, it is a forgiveness which covers everything! As soon as Isaiah understood God was forgiving Him and setting him free, Isaiah had no qualms about stepping forward and doing God’s bidding there and then.
Points to Ponder:
How would you respond if God called you?
Christ came so we could be forgiven, and He called us!