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March 30: Proverbs 3:5-7
Key Verse: Proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
Devotion:
How many times have you tried to fix something your own way and had it go terribly wrong – making the situation worse than before? Sometimes I think I must attract bad situations in life because they just seem to happen. Then I remember how much God is watching over me and the comfort comes back. So what is this all about?
Living in this world means we have to sometimes put up with what happens in this world. It can be a tyrant invading another country or it can simply be a rain shower as you are walking home. Bad things do happen in life and the more we dwell on those things and those times, the more we will focus on them and the more down we get because we think it is all going terribly wrong!
It is normally just life happening around us – both the good and the bad. We have to go through the same things as the people around us. But God may well be walking with us through these tough times and may be the one giving us the strength to walk forward and not get bogged down in it all.
Whatever happens in life, we can always turn to God and get comfort from Him. No matter how rough and tough things get, we can always find rest with God. It may only be spiritual rest and not physical rest, but you will find that spiritual rest is worth more than the physical rest at the end of the day. Don’t try to analyse everything and set it all right according to your own rules – allow God time to work the spiritual things out in your life too.
Points to Ponder:
Do you get confused with life?
Have you let God take control recently?
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March 29: Psalm 94:1-3
Key Verse: Psalm 94:3
How long, Lord, will the wicked, how long will the wicked be jubilant?
Devotion:
How often have you wondered why the wicked people seem to gain so much in this world? Have you asked the question “how long will they get away with it?” At the moment I am asking this question of the Russian president just as I have asked the question of other tyrants in our world.
When I was reading these verses the one thing which struck me was the fact we always ask these questions as if they belonged only in our time-line. We have a finite life-span and we expect answers to our question while we are still around to think of them; we don’t look at the bigger picture which God is doing! When we look back on the Hebrew people spending so much time in the desert, we try to measure the time based on our ideas.
God was concerned about the people, the generation of people who had continued to doubt Him time and time again. He was not looking at how many days, weeks, month or years it would take, but the generation of people. When we start asking questions of God, we should be willing to allow God to answer in the time-scales He is used to working in. When we ask God to let the wicked come to justice, our prayers have already been answered!
The evil will not inherit the kingdom of God. What is ahead for these people is a time and place we cannot imagine in our worst nightmares. They will be facing the most evil they have brought into the world and they will be facing it for eternity! We may face the evil for a while on earth, but God is looking after us and will take us to be with Him in heaven just as He has promised; not so for those who deal in evil...
Points to Ponder:
How long before you give up praying against evil?
Will you continue to pray against evil and allow God to deal with it?
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March 28: Exodus 2:11-14
Key Verse: Exodus 2:12
Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand.
Devotion:
How many times have you wondered why God has chosen you to do the things you do? How many times have you thought you were not worthy enough to do anything for God? How many times have you surmised you are not good enough to be chosen by God? Well, let us look at this moment in time when Moses was not all he seemed to be...
Moses had been saved from certain death by women who felt sorry for a young child. He grew up in a privileged position when he was supposed to be put to death. He learned all manner of things when he should have been just another poor person from a slave family. But God chose him before he did anything wrong.
Moses went out to see the plight of his own people and came across an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, one of his own people. Instead of doing what other Egyptians would do and look away, he got involved. He checked to see if anyone was watching, thinking nobody was, he killed the Egyptian to save his fellow Hebrew. This went terribly wrong because this act encouraged another Hebrew to beat up his fellow men.
God chose Moses. He then watched on as Moses committed a grave sin. He then watched on as the earthly the consequences of what Moses had done caught up with Moses. But God did not banish Moses; He had already chosen Moses and knew it would be Moses who would be able to save the Hebrew people. God would continue to protect Moses before encouraging him to do something outrageous – to lead the Hebrew people out of Egypt under God’s protection.
Points to Ponder:
Do you wonder if you are good enough?
Do you not see God can choose anyone?
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March 27: Luke 15:11-20
Key Verse: Luke 15:14
After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.
Devotion:
This parable of the lost son is pretty well known and so is the message it gives us, no matter what we have done, God still loves us and He will welcome us home in open arms if we come back… But something else struck me when I read through these verses to write these words for us: When we are blessed by God, or are living a blessed life, we often lose our way and run off the rails a bit!
When the one son heard about the inheritance, all he could think about was the money and what he could do with it! If we are not careful in our lives, we will take the blessings God allows us to have and we will focus on them instead of the one who has given us those blessings! When we focus on those worldly things instead of the things of God, we run full on into the world instead of into God’s arms.
It is only when we realise we have nothing without God we see just how blessed we were to have Him in our lives to start with. We then think about all the other people who God is blessing and we can even get jealous about it! That pulls us further down the rabbit hole of wanting earthly goods instead of wanting God in our lives…
The son in this parable had to realise he had a much better life when he was with his father. He had to realise the people who were with his father, even though they were servants, were is a much better position than he was. When we realise the people who stick with God are in a better place than us, we may finally realise just how far we have gone away from God and turn back to Him. He will be waiting with open arms!
Points to Ponder:
Do you thank God for your blessings?
Will you try to focus more on God in your life?
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March 26: Hosea 6:1-3
Key Verse: Hosea 6:1
Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.
Devotion:
How many times have you commented on how God has done something to you or has allowed something to happen to you – you know, like blaming God for something bad in your life! Whilst I cannot remember doing so outwardly for as long as I can remember, I do know I have thought such thoughts inwardly!
These are the words of Hosea the prophet who was sent to try and talk some sense into the people of Israel, or Ephraim & Judah as they were known to some. The words are saved here for us to show how the people had lost their faith and trust in God and were blaming God for what was happening in their lives – something which is all to easy when we are in troubled times!
But just how much of it is down to whom? When we take a step back and get things into context, we will see so much proof and witness to the fact God does not let anyone down and remains the one constant in our lives. So why do bad things happen? Take a look around you and tell me what you see? Do you see a bunch of people working to make your life better, or do you see a bunch of people trying to make their own lives better and not always thinking about others?
We are constantly competing in this world and, sadly, many people don’t think of others but focus on themselves. When they do that, someone has to lose out. If we continue to try and follow what God has encouraged us to do, we will be obeying His will in our lives but could well be going against what some people want. They then turn against us, maybe without realising it, and we get into trouble; not because of God, but in spite of Him.
Points to Ponder:
Do you blame God when things go bad?
Do you realise where the bad things come from?
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March 25: Hebrews 10:4-10
Key Verse: Hebrews 10:9
Then he said, ‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second.
Devotion:
I think this is one of the more poignant places in the bible which talks about the end of animal sacrifices in the face of Jesus sacrificing His own life for us. When the people of Israel were taken out of Egypt to follow God’s direction, they had many laws and rules put in place to guide them and to focus their hearts and minds. Is it right God should have set such hard laws, laws which could not possibly be met by mankind?
I put it to you we would never have been convinced if our ancestors would have had an easy life after being in captivity for such a long time. I put it to you God knew what we needed to refocus our minds and hearts. I certainly was not alive in the days when the people of Israel faced such hardships in the desert, so I cannot hope to understand their plight. But what I do understand is having strict rules to follow…
In boarding school we were always told how harsh our lives were by our peers who were not boarding; they could not understand how we put up with the rules and regulations we lived within. What I have learned from those days is that we were much more disciplined and could achieve more without having to be told what to do all the time.
God opened the gates by allowing Jesus to come and lay His life down for us. I fear many people have taken this too lightly and do not have a proper grasp on the seriousness of what Jesus went through. I cannot compare my boarding school life to what Jesus faced, but I can understand the difference between living a life within very strict rules to living a life of freedom and plenty.
Points to Ponder:
Do you have a blessed life?
Will you give some proper thought to what Jesus went through?
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March 24: Jeremiah 7:21-26
Key Verse: Jeremiah 7:23
but I gave them this command: obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.
Devotion:
God spoke very specific words to Jeremiah so he would tell the people the truth about what they were are were not doing in their lives. The people were still in disarray after they left Egypt and their rulers; even though Moses had given them so much direction and confirmation about how God loved them, they still chose to not believe and to not obey. Why? Because they were not facing so much hardship in their lives!
When we face hardships it makes us think about what we are doing and what is happening around us. We tend to see a whole lot clearer; but there are also times when we get lost in our thoughts, in our sorrow and in the feeling we carry around because of this. Jeremiah had the task of opening up the hearts and minds of the people by telling them what God was trying to get through to them.
How frustrating it must be for God when He faces a people who will not listen and will not obey. A people who don’t trust what God is telling them, a people who question everything because they cannot get their hearts and minds around what is happening! God does not necessarily want us to understand everything, but He does want us to listen to Him and obey Him!
God has this plan for each of us and unless we are willing to go along with the plan, we will be fighting against what it is He has planned for us. Sound so simple doesn’t it – but for us it is hard to let go of the worldly things which surround us and to place our full hope and trust in God! This is the task Jeremiah had in front of him – to try and persuade the people what they had been doing wrong and to turn away from their own imaginings and trust God.
Points to Ponder:
How often do you ignore good advice?
Will you try to listen carefully to God’s advice?
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March 23: Matthew 5:17-19
Key Verse: Matthew 5:19
Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practises and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Devotion:
How do you feel about the Old and New Testaments? Do you regard them as opposites, different eras, ancient and new, the old laws and the new laws… Jesus reminds us here He did not come to replace the law, redo the laws, change the laws or anything else as drastic as that! He came to fulfil the scriptures. God gave the scriptures to the prophets and kings during those years so they would pass on those laws to each generation.
Jesus came to finish the scriptures – to make them come to life! He did not come to upturn the laws or to show them to be too old or ancient. He came to show us they are real and they need to be remembered and continue to be passed down from generation to generation. Even though we live in a modern world nowadays, does not mean any of the scriptures have run their course or have come to the end of their life!
Jesus came to show He was the fulfilment of the scriptures. He came to bring them to life by showing people He lived by them and He upheld them. He continues here in these verses to remind us we need to carry on upholding the scriptures. They don’t tell us of an age which should be forgotten, but an age where mankind tried his best to fulfil them, only to find out we can not do that by ourselves. We do need Jesus as the fulfilment of the laws so we can move forward instead of being caught up in laws we cannot hope to keep!
We are sinners and we need someone or something to be the sacrifice for our sins. God started telling us He did not want to continue having to accept innocent animals as the sacrifice because Jesus would be the perfect and permanent sacrifice for all of us. This is why we need to continue on and tell people about this good news. We need to try our best to keep and commandments and not just to try and remember them! This is what God wants!
Points to Ponder:
Do you break the rules now and again?
Do you accept Christ as the sacrifice for your sins?
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March 22: Matthew 18:21-22
Key Verse: Matthew 18:21
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’
Devotion:
Do you take what your friends tell you as the absolute truth and do exactly what they say you should be doing? No, I don’t think any of us do; but that does not mean we don’t trust our friends or we don’t obey them… When Jesus was talking to Peter, He made a point of telling Peter to forgive many more times than he expected from Him. If Peter had taken that literally, he would have gone around telling people about this new measurement of mercy.
If Peter had done that he would be teaching others mercy can be measured and everyone would have been sidetracked into doing things in earthly ways instead of showing true mercy and forgiveness! Jesus does not want us to keep a measure of how many times we are willing to forgive. He does not want us to measure it at all because that would not be showing people love!
Jesus’ instruction was to show Peter there should not be a measure to love by; love should be a commitment to live with and forgive. The love I am talking about here is not the love two people have for each other in a relationship, but the love Jesus wants us to show everyone. If we try to measure the love, we are not focusing on the love but the measure of what we are calling love.
I do find it hard to stop showing people love nowadays because I experienced a whole new level of love when I was in hospital: the love the doctors and nurses had for me in trying to get me better. Yes it was their job to care for me, but in doing so they often went further than the requirements to try and give me hope and something to aim for in the future. This is the love we should be sharing with each other!
Points to Ponder:
Do you try to compare your love with others?
Will you break down the barriers and love without measure?
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March 21: Psalm 42:1-3
Key Verse: Psalm 42:3
My tears have been my food day and night, while people say to me all day long, ‘Where is your God?’
Devotion:
Maybe you know the words of the first verse as a worship song from the late 80’s or early 90’s. I can recall worship leaders in the late 90’s singing these words and even singing it in youth clubs a few decades ago – but the words in the rest of this Psalm are just as important when we start to look at what they mean.
Whilst these words may make you think of beautiful scenes of deer drinking from the waters edge, I come from a country where the buck would have to walk a long way to reach water at a watering hole because the rivers were not much good or too far away. The animals would walk for miles to get to the water and then have to be on a constant look-out for the predators which would be waiting for them to come there!
In our lives we may well see the watering hole as being a church or other group where we can gather – what we don’t think about is the evil one who is lurking close by to try and trap us before we get the water we need. No matter how much safety we see and how much goodness and righteousness we see, there will always be evil lurking in the wings.
We need to constantly look to God for our protection so we will not be ambushed by the evil one as we try to draw close to God. It is no coincidence the evil one will be lurking just when you think you may be getting close to safety. But, God is always willing and able to protect us when we ask Him to stay close to us. When we are willing to draw close to God and stick with Him, He is able to protect us and to guide us so we don’t get ambushed! Don’t be discouraged by someone lurking in the shadows and trying to tell you God cannot protect you – they don’t know God!
Points to Ponder:
Do you listen too much to the worldly chatter?
Will you listen closer to God and obey His guidance?