2020-02-06
Romans 5:8 NIV
God’s love is so different to any experience of human love we’ve ever had. God’s love is not performance based; it’s unconditional, unbreakable, and unending. We don’t have to earn His love. In fact there’s nothing we can do to make Him love us more, and nothing we can do to make Him love us less. He loves us because He Himself is love (have a read of 1 John 4:8). Sometimes we can struggle to accept that we’re unconditionally loved. We think we’ve made too many mistakes and that there’s no way God could still love us. But when we look at the parable of the Prodigal Son, we can see that God’s love remains, even when we’ve taken the wrong path. The son had left his father and followed his desires until he realised that he should have been at home. When he was still quite a long way off, the father saw him coming and ran out to meet him. ‘His father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him’ (Luke 15:20 NIV). The father welcomed his son back despite his mistakes. He loved him even when he wasn’t at home. And that’s exactly how God is with us too. He loves us even when we take the wrong path, even when we leave His presence, even when we think we know better than Him. The Bible says: ‘God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ Even though we’re all sinners, He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us, so that we could be connected with Him and have the opportunity to live with Him forever.
Isa 45-48; Matt 12:38-50; Ps 120; Prov 3:33-35
2020-02-05
Deuteronomy 31:8 NIV
When we’re having to walk into a new situation, we can feel anxious because of the unknowns that lie ahead of us. Israel had just come out of 430 years of slavery. Now they were free to own their own homes, raise their own families, work at jobs they liked, and be well paid for it. But the Promised Land wasn’t problem-free. There were enemies who had to be conquered one by one, which would take time. ‘The Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will not be allowed to eliminate them all at once, or the wild animals will multiply around you’ (Deuteronomy 7:22 NIV). This can feel quite similar to some of the situations we find ourselves in. Sometimes we’re about to embark on a new relationship, a new job, or an unfamiliar area where we don’t have all the answers, and because we don’t know exactly what’s involved, we feel anxious about it. But God not only promises to be with us every step of the way, He also promises that He’s already gone ahead of us. He knows the things we’ll have to face. He knows the way we need to walk. The Bible says: ‘Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you…The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you’ (Deuteronomy 31:6-8 NIV). That’s an amazing promise. We’ll never be left on our own, and we never have to fear the unknown because God knows everything about our futures. It may feel new and scary, but we can walk forwards confidently because we know it’s the same, faithful God guiding us.
Isa 42-44; Matt 12:22-37; Ps 108; Prov 3:31-32
2020-02-04
1 Corinthians 13:4 NIV
In yesterday’s reading, we looked at how we can grow our relationships. The second place we can find growth in relationships is in ourselves. Relationships help us to get to know ourselves better. Even when we’re committed to being a good friend, family member, or partner, we’ll still have days when we struggle with the relationship. People will frustrate us. People will make mistakes. But the tough times in relationships can grow us. It’s in those times when we learn how we respond to frustrations. Do we communicate well or do we give people the silent treatment? Are we quick to forgive or do we hold on to bitterness and resentment? In order for us to grow, we have to be able to evaluate ourselves honestly, and our relationships with other people provide good opportunities for us to do this. The people closest to us help to shape our beliefs, character, and faith. They influence our choices and habits. In 1 Corinthians 13, we find a list of the characteristics of love. It’s a useful checklist for our character in our relationships. It says: ‘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. Love never fails’ (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 NIVUK). If we want to grow through our relationships, we need to evaluate where we’re at, what we need to improve on, and then put the work in to grow in those areas.
Isa 38-41; Matt 12:15-21; Ps 111; Prov 3:29-30
2020-02-03
Ephesians 4:2 NIV
We all have a number of different types of relationships in our lives. There are the relationships we have with our family, our friends, our partners, and our colleagues. All of our relationships can lead to growth, if we’re open and committed. Firstly, our relationships themselves can be grown when we put the effort in. We have to spend time with people for a relationship to develop. We need to really listen to what the other person has to say, and remember details about them. It’s through this time and conversation that we can begin to understand the other person better, allowing us to grow closer to them and know how to show them love. It can be easy to take people for granted. We need to learn how other people feel loved and appreciated, and then act in that way towards them. It’s also important to treat the other person with respect, in the way that we would want to be treated. The Bible says: ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’ (Luke 6:31 NIV), which is a great rule for us to live by if we want our relationships to grow. The Bible also says: ‘Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.’ If we don’t exercise humility, patience, and love in our relationships, we’ll find that they begin to fall apart rather than grow. Finally, communication is necessary to maintain and grow any relationship. We need to remember that people can’t read our minds, so we’ll often have to tell them if we need something or if we’re upset by something. So if we want our relationships to last, we need to commit ourselves to growing them.
Isa 34-37; Matt 12:1-14; Ps 107:33-43; Prov 3:27-28
2020-02-02
Exodus 15:26 NIV
Why isn’t every sick person we pray for healed? We don’t know, and God doesn’t always tell us. Paul writes, ‘I left Trophimus sick in Miletus’ (2 Timothy 4:20 NIV). Why would Paul, who had raised the dead, leave a friend sick instead of praying and seeing him healed? Perhaps he did pray, but God chose not to heal Trophimus, at least at that time. There are aspects of healing we’ll never fully understand, and there are many things about God we don’t know, but here’s one thing we do know about Him: ‘I am the Lord, who heals you.’ And since He said, ‘I am the Lord, and I do not change’ (Malachi 3:6 NLT), and ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’ (Hebrews 13:8 NIV), we can go to Him for healing based on His Word. One of the last statements Jesus made before leaving earth was: ‘These signs will follow those who believe…They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover’ (Mark 16:17-18 NKJV). Do we believe God still heals people today? Or have we become disappointed and disillusioned because we haven’t seen God move in miraculous ways when we’ve prayed? If we’re struggling to believe, we need to ask God to increase our faith and then we need to start praying expectantly again. Let’s obey this verse: ‘Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord’ (James 5:14 NIV). We may be finding it hard to keep praying when we’re not seeing anything happen. We can wonder if God really is as good as He says He is. But let’s not give up. Let’s persistently, expectantly pray for those we know who are ill.
Luke 6:27-36; Exo 23:1-9; Rom 12:14-21
2020-02-01
Luke 22:40 NIV
Deep inside, we all know the areas of our lives where we’re most often tempted and fail. And if we repeatedly fall into the same temptations, we can begin to think: ‘What’s the point in asking God for forgiveness? I’m just going to repeat the same sins and have to go back to Him again.’ But God’s forgiveness doesn’t run out when we’ve sinned a certain number of times. When we go to Him with a humble and sorry heart, He loves to forgive us. We can also break the cycle of temptation we find ourselves stuck in. Jesus told His disciples, ‘Pray that you will not fall into temptation’. We can pray before the temptation comes and ask for the strength we need to handle the situation when it arises. When we pray, God strengthens us so that we can overcome the things that are trapping us. We don’t have to worry that God will be angry with us for being tempted; we can approach Him for the help we need. Paul said: ‘Let us…approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need’ (Hebrews 4:16 NIV). Tempting situations can come up regularly, so we need to make sure we’re setting aside time to pray. It can be easy to fill our spare time with things like TV and social media, but it’s far more worthwhile to use that time to pray into the situations we’re facing and about the parts of our lives where we feel weak and vulnerable to temptation. If we keep facing temptation, we need to avoid becoming frustrated at ourselves and remember God’s grace to forgive us. Then we need to rely on His help to overcome our temptation.
Isa 30-33; Matt 11:20-30; Ps 107:23-32; Prov 3:25-26
