2020-04-25
Ephesians 6:7 NIV
All throughout our lives we’ll have to be under the authority of others. When we’re children, we have to do as our parents say. At school, we have to obey our teachers. At work, we’re reporting to a boss. In our everyday lives, we follow rules made by those in government. Romans 13 talks about the importance of submitting to those in authority. But this can be really challenging when we don’t agree with what those above us are doing, or when we’re frustrated with how we’re being treated. In the Bible, we read about David and his ‘boss’ King Saul. Every time Saul became jealous, angry, and violent, David kept on serving him. Why? 1) David knew God had called him to be king, and that being in Saul’s palace was the best place for him to learn. Sometimes we have to stay in places we’d rather not stay in, because God has things He wants us to learn. 2) David recognised that because Saul had been called by God to the position he held, it was God’s job, not his, to remove him. We’re not ultimately in control, God is. It’s up to Him to bring justice in our situations. It’s our job to be faithful. Paul writes, ‘Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.’ Instead of complaining, let’s work hard for God. But it’s also worth remembering that if someone is treating us badly, we should speak up about it to people who can help us. God calls us to work hard for Him, and to respect people above us. But if those people are abusing their authority, we don’t have to stay and let it carry on. Instead, we need to ask God for wisdom on how to deal with our situation.
Dan 8-10; Mark 4:13-25; Ps 144:1-8; Prov 10:19-21
2020-04-24
Exodus 32:9 NCV
We can all be stubborn at times. We get fixed on our ideas or traditions and refuse to make changes, even if we can see that we’re in the wrong. But stubbornness can damage our relationships with others. It can make it difficult for people to want to spend time around us, or to share ideas with us. Stubbornness doesn’t just affect our human relationships, it can also damage our relationship with God. When we harden our hearts to Him and refuse to surrender to His ways, we end up drifting away from Him. The Message paraphrases Proverbs 29:1 like this: ‘For people who hate discipline and only get more stubborn, there’ll come a day when life tumbles in and they break, but by then it’ll be too late to help them.’ This is exactly what happened to the Israelites. God said: ‘I have seen these people, and I know that they are very stubborn.’ God repeatedly warned them to turn away from the things they were doing. But they wouldn’t listen. In Psalm 81, God says: ‘Israel did not want me. So I let them go their stubborn way and follow their own advice’ (vv.11-12 NCV). Because God loves us, He doesn’t force us to connect with Him, repent of our sins, or surrender our plans. He allows us to go our own way, if that’s what we choose. But He doesn’t want that to happen. His ways are far better than ours. And sometimes, even though we don’t want to admit it, we know that we would be so much better off if we allowed God into our lives. So are we going to be like the Israelites who were stubborn, or are we going to allow Him to soften our hearts?
Dan 5-7; Mark 4:1-12; Ps 7:10-17; Prov 10:17-18
2020-04-23
Philippians 2:14 NLT
How often do we live our lives without feeling joyful? We can find ourselves just getting through each day, hoping that the next day will be better. We survive rather than thrive. We complain about the things we have to do and the things that happen to us. But attitudes don’t just happen – we choose them. We can choose to feel down and complain, or we can choose to be joyful. Our emotions don’t have to control us, we can change them. If we’re feeling down, we can ask God to fill us up with His joy, and we can reflect on His truth found in the Bible. Joy is something God wants us to experience. The Bible says: ‘Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus’ (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NLT). Sometimes we say that we’ll feel more joyful when something good happens to us. But joy isn’t dependent on circumstances. Paul said: ‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’ (Philippians 4:4 NIV). Paul was in prison with no hope of release when he wrote this. His circumstances didn’t dictate his joy, his focus on Jesus did. Even when everything in our lives seems bad, we can still have joy. We might not feel happy, but joy goes beyond happiness. It’s a deep knowledge that we’ve been saved and that God has got better things to come. The psalmist writes, ‘This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it’ (Psalm 118:24 NKJV). Each day is an opportunity to be joyful because of what God has done for us. So let’s choose joy today.
Dan 3-4; Mark 3:20-35; Ps 7:1-9; Prov 10:16
2020-04-22
Galatians 1:10 NLT
People-pleasing does two things: 1) It makes us neglect our own needs in order to meet other people’s. 2) It causes us to make decisions based on their approval. We can end up feeling like we’re being walked over. Maybe we became a people-pleaser early in life to get the attention we needed and couldn’t get any other way. Or maybe we never learned to trust our own judgment, and instead relied on other people to make the decisions for us. The Bible says, ‘Fearing people is a dangerous trap’ (Proverbs 29:25 NLT), because it always backfires. Not only do others get upset with us, we end up disappointed with ourselves when things don’t work out. Peter struggled with people-pleasing. The night before the crucifixion when ‘a servant girl…said…”You were one of those with Jesus”…Peter denied it in front of everyone. “I don’t know what you’re talking about”‘ (Matthew 26:69-70 NLT). Afterwards he ended up devastated over his failure. When Samuel confronted Saul about his decision to not completely destroy the Amalekites: ‘Saul admitted…”I was afraid of the people and did what they demanded”‘ (1 Samuel 15:24 NLT). Paul, on the other hand, wrote, ‘I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant.’ It’s good to be considerate, loving, and patient, but we can’t let ourselves be intimidated and manipulated: ‘For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline’ (2 Timothy 1:7 NIV). We shouldn’t let other people control our lives. Instead we should surrender our lives to God and allow Him to be the One to lead us.
Dan 1-2; Mark 3:7-19; Ps 16; Prov 10:15
2020-04-21
Luke 10:42 NLT
Every day we all have loads of things we need to do. But the one thing which should be right at the top of our list is seeking God. A life with God is the most rewarding life possible. The Bible says: ‘You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand’ (Psalm 16:11 NIV). But there are two things that can really threaten our spiritual lives: boredom and busyness. Sometimes our faith can become mundane. We go to church, we read the Bible, we occasionally pray, but only because we think we have to or because it’s a habit. If we feel like this, we need to try and connect with God in a new way. If we’re too busy trying to tick off everything on our to-do lists, we can easily find that time with God ends up at the bottom of our agendas. Jesus told Martha, ‘You are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it’ (Luke 10:41-42 NLT). Mary was sitting at Jesus’ feet listening to Him. Martha loved Jesus and she couldn’t do enough for Him. But she was so busy serving Him that she didn’t know how to relax and enjoy being with Him. God wants to be our top priority. David said, ‘The one thing I ask of the Lord – the thing I seek most – is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in his Temple’ (Psalm 27:4 NLT). Let’s focus on the one thing that’s most important – spending time with God.
Phil 1-4; Mark 2:23-3:6; Ps 103:13-22; Prov 10:14
2020-04-20
Psalm 71:3 NLT
The Bible says, ‘Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring’ (Proverbs 27:1 NLT). Every morning when we wake up, we have no idea what will happen to us that day. Sometimes the day is filled with good things, other times unexpected bad things happen. We live in a real world with real problems. We’re not immune to bad situations happening in our lives. Satan wants to attack us, discourage us, and make us afraid of what’s going to happen. We’re told to: ‘Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8 NLT). It can be easy to start fearing the future, especially when lots of bad things seem to be happening to us and those we love. While we can’t avoid experiencing some of these things, we can avoid being fearful. In Psalm 91, it says: ‘Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday’ (vv.5-6 NLT). So how can we stop being afraid? We can choose to believe that God is our protector, fortress, and hiding place. The psalmist wrote: ‘Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.’ No matter what comes our way, we need to trust that when it arrives, God will give us the strength to cope. As long as we remain strong inwardly and keep trusting God, we can handle anything that comes against us outwardly and keep moving forward.
Lev 26-27; Mark 2:13-22; Ps 103:1-12; Prov 10:13
