2022-05-07
Psalm 39:3 CEV
David wrote, ‘I felt a fire burning inside, and the more I thought, the more it burned, until at last I said: “Please, LORD, show me my future”‘ (v.3-4 CEV). Passion is like fire; unless you feed it and tend it, it’ll die. Try asking yourself this question: on a scale of one to ten, how wholehearted are you about serving God?
Before you answer, think about these Scriptures: ‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength’ (Deuteronomy 6:5 NIV). ‘Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart’ (Psalm 119:2 NIV). ‘Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5 NIV). ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart’ (Jeremiah 29:13 NIV). ‘Fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you’ (2 Timothy 1:6 NIV). ‘”Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him’ (Luke 8:39 NIV). ‘Since you are eager for gifts of the Spirit, try to excel in those that build up the church’ (1 Corinthians 14:12 NIV). ‘To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me’ (Colossians 1:29 NIV). ‘Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 3:13-14 NIVUK).
All these Scriptures can be reduced to one sentence: be passionate about what God has called you to do.
Num 8-10; Matt 6:19-34; Ps 37:16-24; Pro 11:4
2022-05-06
1 Timothy 4:15 NKJV
In 2 Kings 13 we read: ‘Elisha said: “Pick up the arrows and hit the ground with them.” Jehoash grabbed the arrows and hit the ground three times, then stopped. Elisha became angry at the king and exclaimed, “If you had struck it five or six times, you would completely wipe out the Syrians. Now you will defeat them only three times”‘ (v.18-19 CEV). Elisha had given Jehoash, the king of Israel, a plan from God for not only defeating his enemy, but also eliminating him permanently as a future threat.
But the plan depended on two important things. First, being fully obedient. Second, being passionate. Jehoash passed the first test but failed the second. He was obedient to what God, through Elisha, told him to do, but he didn’t go far enough, and he didn’t put his heart and soul into it. He settled for less than God had planned for him. Maybe he was tired or distracted. Maybe he didn’t listen carefully to the prophet’s instructions. Maybe he thought ‘token obedience’ would be as effective as wholehearted obedience. The Bible doesn’t tell us. But we do know that he forfeited God’s best because he wasn’t passionate enough.
The lesson here is that it’s not enough to just say, ‘I’ve obeyed God.’ We must also obey Him wholeheartedly. If we don’t, we might end up compromising our future and failing to experience the whole of what He has in mind for us. Paul explained it to Timothy with these words: ‘Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them.’ In other words, when God tells us to do something, we need to be passionate and enthusiastic about it.
Num 7; Matt 6:1-18; Ps 37:8-15; Pro 11:3
2022-05-05
2 Corinthians 2:15 NLT
When food in your fridge has gone bad, you know the moment you open the door. And it’s the same with our lives. Have you ever met someone for the first time and just felt there was something a bit ‘off’? People can often sense when they come into contact with someone who’s carrying sin that hasn’t been dealt with. Jesus spoke some harsh words to Peter: ‘Get away from me, Satan! You are a dangerous trap to me. You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s’ (Matthew 16:23 NLT). Peter’s sin was pride. He openly contradicted Jesus (see Matthew 16:22).
There are sins of the spirit and sins of the flesh. Peter’s sin was one of the spirit, whereas David’s was one of the flesh that showed itself in adultery and murder. Later David wrote, ‘Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me’ (Psalm 19:12-13 NKJV). God doesn’t want us to become so self-absorbed and introspective that we’re constantly condemning ourselves, but He does want us to learn to be sensitive to sin and deal with it immediately.
The Bible gives us three ways to stay clean in a spiritually polluted world. 1) Walking in the light (see 1 John 1:7). That means striving to be honest in everything we do. 2) Being accountable. We each need someone in our lives who’s mature and trustworthy, gracious enough to put up with our faults, and honest enough to confront us if we’re wandering off God’s path (see Ecclesiastes 4:9). 3) Dealing with your sin right away (see Psalm 32:3-5). When we become conscious of sin, it should lead to a confession of sin, which will result in cleansing of sin. Then we must get back up and go on with God!
Num 4:34-6:27; Matt 5:38-48; Ps 37:1-7; Pro 11:1-2
2022-05-04
1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV
Did you know there’s a natural mindset and a spiritual mindset? If we want to live in a way that really honours and reflects God, we need to develop our spiritual mindset. The Bible says: ‘The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God… and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit… But we have the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:14, 16 NIV).
As we tune our lives to the pitch of God’s Word and consciously submit ourselves to His will every day, He’ll plant His thoughts in our minds. And that’s a massive advantage! For example, someone criticises you and your feelings get hurt. In that moment God speaks to you and says, ‘Yes, your feelings are hurt, but we can deal with that together. I love you, and the way I see you isn’t at risk. The person who criticised you might see a flaw, but you don’t have to pretend to be perfect or try to please others. I’ll help you use this experience as a chance to grow!’
Even though there are elements of pain in these kinds of thoughts, with God’s perspective they energise us rather than trapping us and bringing us down. They’re true, they give us something to stand firm on, and we realise that if we can keep our minds centred on them, the right feelings and actions are more likely to flow from them. We’ll start to live out the promise, ‘You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you!’ (Isaiah 26:3 NLT). Instead of focusing on our critics, we should focus on God, on our spiritual growth, and on what we can learn from the experience.
Num 3:1-4:33; Matt 5:27-37; Ps 2; Pro 10:30-32
2022-05-03
2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV
If a thief came to your house, you wouldn’t invite them in and let them have free rein to steal and destroy whatever they liked. You’d call the police and have them arrested. And that’s what we need to do when wrong thoughts come to our minds. We must stop them and take them captive before they take us captive. The best time to do that is the moment the first wrong thought tries to enter our minds, because when we allow a thought to have space, we empower it, and give it a chance to overcome us.
The Bible says, ‘Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7 NIV). On our own, we don’t have the power to resist Satan. But the moment we call on God and submit our will to Him, we’re more than a match for Satan, because we have God’s strength and power to rely on, not just our own. We get to decide who’ll control our minds: ‘The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace’ (Romans 8:6 NIV).
When a thought keeps turning over and over in your mind, ask yourself, ‘What direction is this thought leading me in? Is it towards something spiritually harmful, or towards “life and peace”‘?
If you realise you’ve failed to keep a wrong thought out, don’t give up. Take an honest look back and ask yourself, ‘What was I thinking that led to it getting through? Was I around people who had a bad influence on me? Was I in the wrong place, or the wrong mindset? Have I been neglecting God at all recently?’ In the long run, monitoring your mind will really pay off.
Num 1-2; Matt 5:13-26; Ps 35; Pro 10:28-29
2022-05-02
Philippians 4:19 ESV
God is the source of all our blessings, but sometimes He’ll use other people as instruments to bless us. It’s right for us to thank people when they’ve done something we appreciate, but we mustn’t forget that God’s the centre and the source; if we do, we can begin to depend on people rather than Him. We might get upset with a tutor because we didn’t get the grade we think we deserved for an assignment, or get angry with a friend or family member because they refused to lend us some money or help us with something. If any of these scenarios sound familiar, it could be a sign that you’re relying on people and not God.
Let’s think about these Scriptures: ‘You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth’ (Deuteronomy 8:17-18 NIV). ‘When God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them… this is a gift of God’ (Ecclesiastes 5:19 NIV). ‘She doesn’t realise it was I who gave her everything she has’ (Hosea 2:8 NLT). All these verses remind us that God is the true source.
We usually put effort into relationships that are rewarding, and that’s important information because when we recognise God as the source of all love and blessings, we’ll commit to nurturing our relationship with Him. That’s why Jesus said, ‘Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well’ (Matthew 6:33 NIV). When we pursue God, sow generously into His kingdom, and trust Him to meet our needs, our faith will grow and we’ll notice His hand and blessings everywhere.
Jam 3-5; Matt 5:1-12; Ps 94:12-23; Pro 10:27
