2020-01-19
1 Corinthians 10:31 NIV
God loves to bless us. We don’t have to earn God’s love and blessing, we just have to love Him and obey Him. But if we’re not careful we can develop an attitude of ‘God owes me’. When we’re doing lots for God, we can think that we deserve something in return. When we approach God with this attitude, it takes the worship out of our serving. God looks at our hearts (take a look at 1 Samuel 16:7), so while other people might see our good works and be impressed, God knows the motives behind what we’re doing. If we find ourselves with this attitude in our hearts, we need to ask God to humble us. When we understand that everything is from Him, and everything is for His glory, we’ll know that it’s not about us. When we want God to have all the glory, it pleases Him. The Bible says: ‘Whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.’ Our serving shouldn’t come out of entitlement or obligation. Our desire should be to worship God through our words, actions, and thoughts. We also need to make sure that our serving isn’t to gain the approval of other people. We shouldn’t be trying to impress people, or make them feel bad because they’re not doing what we’re doing for God. Instead, our actions should cause others to want to glorify God. Jesus said: ‘Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16 NIV). We need to humbly open our hearts to God and allow Him to transform us so that we live to glorify Him above all else.
Luke 2:8-20; Prov 3:13-18; Ps 119:161-168
2020-01-18
Ephesians 2:8 NIV
We can feel insecure when we’re not sure who we are and we not sure that we’re good enough to be loved. It can affect all of our relationships, including our relationship with God. If they’re not dealt with, our insecurities can damage our relationships and we can end up trying to earn love and approval. But in Jesus we have a secure identity. Through Him we can be: 1) Secure in our appearance. God created us in His image, and He doesn’t make mistakes. We might not look like the people we see in magazines, but that doesn’t mean we’re not beautiful. The Bible says: ‘I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14 NIV). 2) Secure in our purpose. God created us with a purpose in mind. He’s given us gifts and skills for us to use to advance the kingdom and glorify Him. Sometimes we can feel like we’re not good enough to be used by God, but that’s not true. We each have our part to play, and we can know that God has things for us to do, even if we’ve messed up in the past. 3) Secure in our future. Once we’ve accepted Jesus and surrendered our lives to Him, we can be secure in our eternal future. We don’t need to earn our salvation. It’s a gift from Him. The Bible says: ‘For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.’ We need to believe the truth that we’re loved, chosen, and accepted. When we know exactly who we are in Christ, we’ll be secure in our identity and able to focus on the things God’s called us to do.
Exo 28-29; Matt 8:10-17; Ps 84; Prov 2:16-19
2020-01-17
Romans 12:2 NCV
If we want our cars or our bodies to function well, we have to give them the right fuel. But what we feed our mind is equally important. Our thoughts influence our emotions and our behaviour. The Bible says: ‘The mouth speaks what the heart is full of’ (Luke 6:45 NIV). Jesus said a good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit (take a look at Matthew 7:18). Good thinking can’t produce bad results, just as bad thinking can’t produce good results. The Bible says, ‘Do not…be shaped by this world; instead be changed within by a new way of thinking.’ So how can we think differently? Firstly, we need to think about the unhelpful things we’re filling our minds with. We’ll always end up thinking about what we’re exposed to the most. The things we read, watch, and listen to affect our minds. Secondly, we need to be filling our minds with God’s truth. We need to remember that God’s ‘gracious Word can make you into what He wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need’ (Acts 20:32 MSG). When we spend time reading the Bible, we soak in the truth of who we are, and who God is. The things we focus on can change how we feel. When we’re focused on God, we’ll feel peace. When we’re focused on our problems, we might feel fearful and overwhelmed. The Bible says: ‘You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you’ (Isaiah 26:3 NIV). The fuel we give our minds is our choice. God doesn’t force us to read the Bible or focus on Him. We have to make the choice to shift our focus away from unhelpful, worldly things, and onto God.
Exo 25-27; Matt 8:1-9; Ps 81; Prov 2:11-15
2020-01-16
2 Corinthians 6:14 NIV
We don’t have to watch or read the news for long before we see how much darkness and suffering there is in the world. But God is light, and His light shines brighter than any darkness. The Bible says: ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ (John 1:5 NIV). However much darkness we see around us, we can still have hope because we know Jesus’ light has overcome. And we can be part of bringing His light into the world. As His children, we’re children of the light. ‘You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness’ (1 Thessalonians 5:5 NIV). By living in this world, we’re going to come into contact with darkness regularly, and we can counteract this with light. We’re supposed to shine. The Bible says: ‘You are living with crooked and mean people all around you, among whom you shine like stars in the dark world’ (Philippians 2:15 NCV). As children of the light, we don’t need to be intimidated by the darkness around us. Instead, we need to hold on to the fact that through God, we can shine brighter. Shining in a dark world can feel scary because we’re on show. It might even make us a little unpopular with others. But we can know that we’re doing exactly what God wants us to be doing, and by shining we’re glorifying Him. Jesus said: ‘You are the light that gives light to the world…Live so that they will see the good things you do and will praise your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:14-16 NCV). Are we prepared to shine today?
Exo 22-24; Matt 7:15-29; Ps 79; Prov 2:9-10
2020-01-15
Philippians 1:6 NIV
When we don’t see God working in our situations, we can be tempted to take matters into our hands and manipulate the situation. But if we want God’s will to be done in our lives, we shouldn’t try to rush things. Sarah, Abraham’s wife, tried to rush God’s plan. Sarah was old and childless, but God said to Abraham ‘I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her’ (Genesis 17:16 NIV). But Sarah tried to take things into her own hands, and gave her servant to Abraham so that he could have a son. As a result Ishmael was born, and that brought all sorts of trouble and family complications. But God said, ‘my covenant I will establish with Isaac’ (Genesis 17:21 NIV). Isaac was born as a result of God’s will, done God’s way, in God’s time. It might seem like nothing is happening, but God is always working. The Bible tells us that ‘He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion.’ If God’s started something in our lives, He will certainly finish it. We don’t need to try to force things ourselves. We need to trust His timing. Waiting can feel uncomfortable, but it’s far better for us to wait for God to work things out in our lives than try to make things work ourselves. We might not understand why He’s not moving quickly, but He can see the bigger picture. The Bible says: ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding’ (Proverbs 3:5 NIV). And that’s exactly what we need to do while we’re waiting.
Exo 19-21; Matt 7:1-14; Ps 74:12-23; Prov 2:7-8
2020-01-14
Psalm 34:1 NIV
When we’re feeling overwhelmed by our circumstances, the last thing we often feel like doing is praising God. But it’s the first thing we should do, because praise gets our attention off ourselves and onto God’s miraculous power. Jehoshaphat faced an army he had no hope of defeating. He didn’t know what to do. But He went into the battle with worship leaders at the front of his army singing, ‘Give thanks to the LORD, for his love endures forever’ (2 Chronicles 20:21 NIV). While they were praising God, his enemies destroyed each other while he looked on in amazement. When Paul and Silas praised God in prison, their chains broke and the doors opened (take a look at Acts 16). We need to start to acknowledge the power of praise and choose to worship God regardless of how we feel. We can praise God too little, but we can never praise Him too much. David writes, ‘From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the LORD is to be praised’ (Psalm 113:3 NIV), and ‘I will extol the LORD at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.’ Peter wrote that challenges come so that ‘the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed’ (1 Peter 1:7 NIVUK). When we face a challenge, we can praise our way through. Because of the challenge, our faith is strengthened, and that’s something to praise God about. Whatever we’re facing right now, let’s keep praising God through it all.
Exo 16-18; Matt 6:19-34; Ps 74:1-11; Prov 2:6
