2020-08-28
Luke 18:40 NLT
We live such busy lives that it can be difficult to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God. Jesus had the biggest mission in all of history, but still held His schedule loosely enough that He graciously accepted interruptions to reach out to others and show God’s love. Chuck Swindoll writes: ‘The One who said, “Be still, and know that I am God” must hurt when He witnesses our frantic, compulsive, agitated motions. In place of a quiet, responsive spirit, we offer Him an inner washing machine – churning with anxiety…activity…resentment and impatience. But you can change. Here’s how. Admit it. Acknowledge that you’re too busy and something must be done… Stop it. Starting today, refuse every activity that isn’t absolutely necessary. Sound ruthless? So is the clock. So is your health… Quit feeling so important. They’ll find somebody else to sit on the committee…or they’ll wise up and adopt a better plan. Maintain it. It is easy to start fast and fade quickly. Paul told the Galatians, “You were running…well. Who…held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God…he is the one who called you to freedom” (Galatians 5:7-8 NLT). Share it. Once you start gleaning the benefits from reordering your priorities…tell other “activity-addicts.” They’d love to stop – if they only knew how.’ For a lot of us, that honest acknowledgement that we can allow busyness to affect our openness to God can be hard. Especially when it’s often good things that fill our schedules. But it’s vital to remember that building our relationship with God comes before anything else, even ahead of our work for Him out in the world. Use this as a chance to check your priorities. Put Jesus before good works. Allow the Holy Spirit to fill you up before you try to pour out.
Lam 1:1-3:39; Luke 18:18-30; Ps 119:169-176; Prov 19:9-10
2020-08-27
James 4:3 NIV
When we’re praying for things that aren’t specifically promised in the Bible, we should say, ‘If it’s Your will.’ The Bible says, ‘When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives.’ Sometimes we can find it difficult to accept this truth because we’re sure we know what’s best and our requests are justified. But we can’t see the bigger picture, so we might be praying for things that actually wouldn’t turn out to be good for us or for God’s kingdom. The Message says: ‘We don’t yet see things clearly. We’re squinting in a fog, peering through a mist’ (1 Corinthians 13:12 MSG). Only God understands the complete picture. So we need to pray with hearts that are full of God and with our will fully in line with His. John said: ‘This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears – whatever we ask – we know…we have what we asked of him’ (1 John 5:14-15 NIV). When we’re not sure if the thing we’re praying for is aligned with God’s will, we should pray, ‘If it’s Your will,’ and then accept that God might not give us exactly what we want. This doesn’t mean our faith is weak. Instead, it shows that we love and trust God enough to say, ‘Lord, I want this thing, but only if it’s Your will, fits in with Your plan, is Your best for me, and it’s in Your timing.’ So let’s pray in faith, and trust God for the right results.
Gal 4-6; Luke 18:1-17; Ps 119:161-168; Prov 19:3-8
2020-08-26
1 Corinthians 13:8 NKJV
People can disappoint us, especially if it’s those we count on most. The truth is, no one’s perfect, apart from God. Jesus said that ‘no one is good except God alone’ (Mark 10:18 ESV). Because we turned God’s world into something imperfect, we’re holding a broken mirror up to His true love. For us as humans, it’s impossible to live up to the ‘love never fails’ part of 1 Corinthians. In all of that, we’re met with a huge challenge. How do we continue to love others when they disappoint us? We have to remember that in the middle of uncertainty and imperfection, everyone is living with an oversized need to be loved and accepted as they are. Even when someone does something less-than-perfect, they’re still calling out to be cared for and forgiven. Loving someone like that can be a big concept and we can be unsure where to start. The answer lies in that same passage in 1 Corinthians. We can learn to love the flawed people around us by living out the rest of those verses in. ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres’ (vv. 13:4-7 NIVUK). If we can be patient and kind, our interactions will bring light. If we resist anger, letting go of wrongs, then we’ll find it easier to move on. Let’s protect and trust others, having hope and perseverance in our relationships. If we can take those steps with God’s help, we can bring more of His perfect love into this imperfect world.
Gal 1-3; Luke 17:20-37; Ps 119:145-160; Prov 19:1-2
2020-08-25
1 Thessalonians 5:18 NLT
God’s Word makes it absolutely clear that we’re called to be thanks-givers. In fact, there are more commands in the Bible to praise, rejoice, and give thanks than there are about anything else. This tells us two things: 1) God enjoys receiving thanks and praise for His goodness. The psalmist wrote: ‘I will praise God in a song and will honour him by giving thanks. That will please the LORD more than offering him cattle’ (Psalm 69:30-31 NCV). 2) He wants us to be happy. He repeats His commands to be joyful, and to thank and praise Him more often than any of the ‘thou shalt nots’. This doesn’t mean His commands to not do something are less important, but shows that He wants joy to be prominent in our minds. Even David, a man after God’s own heart, needed to remind himself to give thanks. He wrote: ‘Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me’ (Psalm 103:2 NLT). It’s not always easy to remember to give thanks, especially when we’re going through difficult times. But even when circumstances don’t look good to us, God can completely turn them around. When Jonah was in the belly of a whale, he remembered the importance of giving thanks: ‘I cried out to the LORD in my great trouble, and he answered me…I will offer sacrifices to you with songs of praise, and I will fulfil all my vows. For my salvation comes from the LORD alone’ (Jonah 2:2, 9 NLT). So let’s make a habit of ‘always giving thanks to God the Father for everything’ (Ephesians 5:20 NIV), and develop an attitude of gratitude.
Judg 19:16-21:25; Luke 17:11-19; Ps 119:137-144; Prov 18:22-24
2020-08-24
2 Timothy 2:22 NLT
Proverbs 7:19 is potentially one of the most danger-filled sentences in the Bible. It reads: ‘My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey’ (NIV). The rest of Proverbs 7 sets out the story of a young man being lured in by a woman whose husband is working away. It applies to so much more than adultery. It’s a picture of every time we do something that we know isn’t the best choice, just because we had the opportunity to. It’s also about the times that we don’t do something we should, because no one will know. It echoes every time we allow ourselves to be lured into talking negatively about someone, because we’re pulled in by the ‘persuasive words’ of those around us (see Proverbs 7:21 NIV). It mirrors when we get distracted by the ‘coloured linens’ of social media, when we’d planned on reading the Bible (see Proverbs 7:16 NIV). The ‘adulterous woman’ (vv.5 NIV) embodies every temptation and distraction that we face each day. At the end of Proverbs 7, Solomon pleads with us to ‘listen…pay attention… Don’t let your hearts stray away towards her. Don’t wander down her wayward path. For she has been the ruin of many; many men have been her victims. Her house is the road to the grave. Her bedroom is the den of death’ (vv. 24-27 NLT). We all know from experience that when our ‘hearts stray’ and we ‘wander’, it’s almost always unintentional. We get drawn in. This means that the only way to avoid it is to be intentional first. Pray for your eyes to be more open to temptations, to recognise distractions, and actively move away from them. Close the app, walk away from the conversation, say goodbye to whatever your ‘adulterous woman’ happens to be.
Judg 16:1-19:15; Luke 17:1-10; Ps 119:129-136; Prov 18:21
2020-08-23
2 Corinthians 5:9 NIV
It’s impossible to please everybody, but it’s absolutely possible to please God. That should be our main focus, and the way to discover and test our calling. In Galatians 1:10, Paul writes: ‘Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God… If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ’ (NIV). Here, Paul acknowledges that pleasing God is often at odds with winning everyone else’s approval. When God is our main focus, there’s no need to stress the opinions of others. We should still seek advice from those we trust, but we always have to apply the question ‘does this please God?’ This is also very important when we’re still figuring out what God’s plan may be. If you’re unsure about what God wants you to do next, or what His calling could be, start with that same, simple question. What could you do with your time, energy, and resources that would please God? While it would be ideal to hear our calling in a booming voice, it’s much more likely to be revealed through what we’re already doing, in our talents and likes, or through exploring the Godly opportunities in the places that we find ourselves in. Whether you’re trying to discover your calling, or working to live it out, it’s important to remember Proverbs 29:25: ‘Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe’ (NIV). Whatever you’re doing, do with trust in God and a heart to please Him. Try to put aside any worries that you have about others’ opinions. God will be with you.
Job 2:7-10; Job 40:1-5; Job 42:7-17; Jas 5:10-11
