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December 24: Acts 13:16-26
Key Verse: Acts 13:26
Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent.
Devotion:
When was the last time you sat down and looked back over the things which have happened in your life? Have you tried to go back further through time to look at your ancestors and others? It may amaze you to see how much God has done in this world which ultimately affects your life.
Paul stood up and motioned to the people around him so they would stop and listen intently. He wanted to make sure they all heard what he was going to say and thought about it. There is nothing worse than trying to tell a story when nobody is paying attention!
God has been on the brunt of this sort of thing for many years, and yet He continues to bring forward His Word hoping we will take the time to stop and listen. He wants us to take account of what has happened in our lives and in the lives of the people who have come before us so we realise just how much He is doing to get our attention!
How about reading a bit of the Old Testament and looking back to see how many times God tried to get the attention of the people. He did this so that we will all listen, not just the people at the time. The stories we have in our Bibles list all God has done and are there to encourage us to trust in Him and believe what He is saying!
Points to Ponder:
Do you like history?
Do you realise you are a part of history?
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December 23: 2 John 1:4-6
Key Verse: 2 John 1:6
And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.
Devotion:
Do you believe in God? Do you believe in Jesus Christ? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit? A lot of people will answer yes to all of these questions, but still go about a life which many will question as being Christian! When Jesus invited those men to be disciples, it was not just to learn the scriptures and to do everything He asked of them… He wanted them to make disciples too...
As I was growing up and growing in the Lord I learned many things as I studied the Bible covering all aspects – or at least I thought it was all aspects. The more you get to believe in Christ, the more questions you ask yourself and the more you seek out the answers. This is the essence of believing in Christ. He does not want you to blindly do everything He commands without thinking of the ramifications and consequences of all we say and do.
Part of your life with Christ should be to love one another. This is not limited to people you know who also go to church or who also believe in Christ. Jesus wants you to step forward and to reach out to more people, not just to be a bible basher and tell them all about Christ but to love and nurture them and bring them closer to loving and trusting Christ the way you do.
The more you get to love Christ the more you want to love the people around you and the more you want to share Him with everyone. This is what being a Christian is all about – not just obeying rules and regulations...
Points to Ponder:
How do you act in front of other people?
Do you reach out to them with an open heart?
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December 22: 1 Samuel 1:24-28
Key Verse: 1 Samuel 1:28
So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he shall be given over to the Lord.’ And he worshipped the Lord there.
Devotion:
There are some places in the bible which many of us struggle with; this is probably one of them too! Elkanah had two wives, one called Penennah and the other called Hannah. Peninnah had children from the marriage, but Hannah did not. She was distraught and one day prayed to God in earnest asking for a son; in return she was willing to give him to the Lord...
I can tell you from experience it is a terrible thing to be faced with the possibility of having to give up on a child! Both of my children were in critical care in hospital when they were very young – somehow you can face that and accept whatever the outcome. But later I was faced with having them taken away from me during my divorce – that I could not accept!
And yet, Hannah was willing to give her child back to God if she was able to have one after she prayed such words. Eli, the priest, assumed she was drunk because she was praying so earnestly it showed outwardly. When he found out she was praying with such emotion he blessed her and I’m sure asked God to fulfil her prayers after that!
When the time came and the boy was weaned, Hannah took him to the temple and literally gave him into God’s care to the priest, the same one who had assumed she was drunk! That must have been one of the hardest things to do!
The moral of this story – be very careful what you pray for because you should live up to any promises you make through prayer!
Points to Ponder:
Have you ever prayer with such passion?
Did you live up to your prayers like God has done for you?
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December 21: Luke 1:39-45
Key Verse: Luke 1:41
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Devotion:
Have you ever had a very big surprise? I’m not talking about something bad but something very good… When we get a surprise which is bad, it can feel like life or energy drains from your body – not sure where it goes but that is what it feels like. When we get a good surprise, the opposite seems to be true and energy and life flood back into your body – again, not sure from where!
This meeting between Mary and Elizabeth was something Elizabeth certainly felt good about. She instantly knew Mary was pregnant and she was filled with joy; so much so her baby itself was filled with joy too! That sort of joy is wonderful to experience and something we would wish to happen to us every day; sadly it does not though.
The two babies, John and Jesus, had a very special connection from this moment onward. John was filled with the Holy Spirit even before he was born, and Jesus was excited even before He was born! It is this sort of special connection we can have with Jesus as soon as we accept Him into our lives. He praises God when any person wants Him in their lives – this is what he looks forward to every day!
When we believe in Christ and place our faith and trust in Him, we get direct access to this joy and peace which He wants us to have. We gain access to the living water which will allow us to grow far beyond any earthly water or food will do for us. Christ continues to want us all to join with Him just as He did when John wanted to have Him as Lord in his own life way back then.
Points to Ponder:
Do you look forward to having Jesus in your life?
Will you make sure you give Jesus access to all of your life?
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December 20: Luke 1:26-38
Key Verse: Luke 1:32
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David
Devotion:
When we get round to reading and studying these verses, I know Christmas is upon us! Each year we go over these verses to remind us of the amazing gift God brought to us through His Son Jesus Christ. We can begin to imagine what Mary, Joseph and their families went through when God told them about their futures; but I don’t think you get to experience the full feeling unless something extraordinary has happened to you...
This is not when I tell you about something special or tell you to wait a decade or two to learn about this special time! This is where I tell you this has happened to you and is happening to you right now. We are joining in on this special journey of faith and love shared with us by God through our history.
People will tell you it couldn’t have happened or it was very different or many other things; it is a personal journey between you and Christ as you learn about His love for you and what He has done just for you. This is not just for Mary and Joseph, not just for the people alive at the time, not just for the Jews or any other people, this is a personal story for you to follow with Christ at the centre.
God can do and does do miracles. We continue to see evidence of what he is doing in our lives as we grow with Him. Inviting His to stay by your side and joining in with His story allows each of us to experience the love He has shown each of us. This Christmas, why not spend some time thinking about all the things God has done just for you.
Points to Ponder:
How much time do you spend with friends and family?
How much time do you spend with God?
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December 19: 2 Peter 1:3-11
Key Verse: 2 Peter 1:8
For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Devotion:
One of the things the disciples learned was very important was to be disciples! Being a disciples is not just about following Jesus and being a good person! Being a disciples is about taking what you learn and learning from it, then taking that and going out to show others what you have learned so they can learn like you have done. Being a disciples is about making disciples by being a disciple...
It may sound strange to say things like this in the beginning because we are answering a question by being the question – or something like that! Jesus taught the disciples through example. He taught them they had to reach out to others and get them to not just learn but to then reach out to others themselves!
Here we learn the basic steps of starting out on the road of being a disciple. We need to be the person Christ has been asking us to be. Only then can we see why He has asked us to be like this. Adding all the attributes of Christ to our daily life means stepping forward and inviting others to do the same – just like Jesus did to the disciples.
When we stop trying to learn more about Christ, we stop growing in Christ and others will see we have given up on something. This will not encourage them to find out more about Christ – instead they will learn by example to stop learning about Christ. This is the circle of discipleship – learning more about Christ to show others how they can learn more about Him...
Points to Ponder:
Do you strive every day to learn more about Christ?
Will you try to learn one new thing about Him today?
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December 18: Isaiah 7:10-16
Key Verse: Isaiah 7:14
Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Devotion:
What does it take for you to believe something someone tells you? Do you have to see physical proof? Do you have to read about it on the News? Do you have to hear about it on social media? We all have places or people we believe and trust to hear the truth from, but what happens when the truth sounds unbelievable for some reason?
God continued to tell people they would have the Messiah come to them to be their Saviour at some stage in their lives; they did not know the date or time of this even but the Jews continued to wait for it to happen… When it did happen, they could not bring themselves to believe it because they had grown too used to having to wait – they had made the wait a more important occasion than the actual occasion itself!
God sent multiple messages through multiple prophets to make sure the people all had the chance to hear about the Messiah coming. They were told of the miracle which would happen, that the Lord would come to them by being born of a virgin and they should call Him Immanuel… yet when it happened they did not want to believe it!
We need to take God’s Word and believe it because it is the truth and has continued to be the truth from the beginning. It is the people who have corrupted it and have tried to make it of no effect because they have built things up to be more important than God in their eyes. This is the same thing that were warned about in the beginning too – yet we still do it...
Points to Ponder:
What does it take for you to believe?
Will you simply trust God’s Word?
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December 16: Matthew 18:6-9
Key Verse: Matthew 18:7
Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to stumble! Such things must come, but woe to the person through whom they come!
Devotion:
One of the hardest things to accept in life is disappointment or hardship. Nobody wants to endure either of these things and yet we all do face at least one at some stage in our lives. It is no consolation to know that everyone will face one or more problems in their lives which they feel they will not be able to get past or over, but it is the truth. No matter how much we try to steer clear of the bad things in life, they seem to find us.
It is not because we deserve bad things to happen to us for the bad things we have done. It is not that we get punished by God for the evil in our lives. God would rather see us enjoying our lives and living a life which is filled with love and support. One only has to take a look at Job’s life and see how happy God was when things were going well.
What happened to Job? It was the evil one who brought bad things into Jobs life! It was the world around him, and his friends, which caused him heart-ache and even hardship. You see, we all live in this world together and things happen in this world because of our interaction between each other and with good and bad. So many people choose the evil and bad things because they think they will be able to control them and win in some way…
God wants us to see the truth and to be able to live righteous lives with Him at the centre. God wants to be able to reward us for all things in our lives – which means we should stay close to Him so He can reward us. If we are too busy running off in the wrong direction, it gets easier for evil to win through… God is watching every interaction and will make sure the good things get good rewards!
Points to Ponder:
Are you trying to balance good and evil?
Have you noticed how slippery evil is yet?
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December 15: Matthew 17:22-23
Key Verse: Matthew 17:23
They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.’ And the disciples were filled with grief.
Devotion:
Has anyone ever told you they were going to die? What sticks in your mind is the fact they will die, not what they say before hand or afterward, just the fact they will die. When I read these words I could not but help think of the words spoken to me a while back when my Dad told us he had cancer and did not have long to live. Those words stuck with me. As it happened Dad did continue to live for a few years during which time we grew closer.
With that in my heart I think I begin to know what the disciples were going through when Jesus told them He was going to die. Nothing they could do would be able to stop that death. They could hope for more time and could pray for more time; but the Father had the time in mind and knew when this all had to happen in order for our sins to be covered by Jesus’ blood.
I’m sure the disciples were trying to come up with all manner of excuses so Jesus would not have to face death; they would have been distraught knowing their Saviour would die and I don’t think they thought too much about the words after that. Jesus tried to console them by reminding them He would be raised from the dead three days after His death. Those words were probably not realised until after it had all happened…
When we look back over the time Jesus was with the disciples, we can see what He was promising because we know the outcome. At the time I don’t think the disciples fully grasped those words saying He would be raised from the dead until after He was!
Points to Ponder:
What promises do you think of which God has given you?
Will you look back and realise the promises were true?
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December 14: Isaiah 51:1-3
Key Verse: Isaiah 51:2
look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth. When I called him he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.
Devotion:
How often do you doubt when someone tells you God can do anything. How often do you doubt when you see all the bad things surrounding you? How often do you doubt because there seems to be so much going wrong and nothing going right? It is very easy to be swayed by the world when there is so much going on in the world.
People follow people – that is the way we do things and have been doing things for a very long time. God knows this too and He has given us quite a few things which we can look back on to see nothing is impossible for Him! God made a promise to a single man, Abraham, saying he would be the father of a great nation. In our eyes we may think God is promising to allow Abraham to have many children – because that is about as far as we can see!
God made the promise knowing Sarah was barren at the time and knowing they would try something to make things happen quicker! God wants us to trust Him and to be patient while trusting Him. His timing knows no bounds and it certainly not timed with a stopwatch like we want it to be!
God has tried to impress His promises on us and not to have time limits for those promises to come true. God indeed blessed Abraham, but not with hundreds of children of his own, but through his family tree and Abraham grew to know this promise as he waited patiently (in the end!)
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to rush God’s decisions?
Will you try to have a bit more patience with God?