2022-01-31
Isaiah 6:9 NCV
When we’re involved in God’s calling, there’s a balance we need to maintain between the times we experience alone with Him, and actually going out and doing what He’s tasked us with. The power we need to succeed in our God-given assignments comes from the time we spend with God, not with people. But we can’t fulfil our assignments if we don’t take action.
First, Jesus called His disciples to Him; then, He sent them out from Him. One day He took three of His disciples to the top of the Mount of Transfiguration. ‘His face shone like the sun…there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus’ (Matthew 17:2-3 NIV). Peter was elated by the experience: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters’ (v.4 NIV). Peter wanted to stay, but God spoke from heaven and said, ‘This is My beloved Son…Listen to Him!’ (Matthew 17:5 AMP). Afterwards, Jesus took His disciples back down the mountain and they began to minister to people in need.
It’s good to have occasional ‘mountaintop experiences’ with God, but we can’t stay there. There’s lots of work to be done at the foot of the mountain, and we’ve been called to do it. There must be a balance between taking in and giving out. One day a year, the high priest entered the holiest of holies and had the privilege of seeing God’s glory. It was such an honour! But the rest of the year was spent outside, ministering to the people.
It’s important to spend time alone with God, drawing on His strength and being refreshed. But there comes a time when He says to us, ‘Go out and do the work I’ve given you.’ So let’s be open to both experiences!
Rom 7:1-9:16; Luke 7:1-10; Ps 107:17-22; Pro 3:21-24
2022-01-30
Genesis 28:16 NCV
We’ve probably all heard people say, ‘God told me,’ and then it turned out not to happen. The problem is that the more times people get it wrong, the more we become doubting and cynical. God speaks through people, and our fear of someone getting it wrong, or even being deliberately misleading, can mean we miss out on some very vital, and very real, input from God.
One night, God appeared to Jacob in a dream, saying: ‘”I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven”‘ (v.15-17 NCV).
If we want to hear from God, we must 1) desire it above everything else, 2) slow down, give God space to speak, and take time to understand what He’s saying to us, and 3) believe that God will actually speak to us. If we don’t believe, we’ll be reliant on our own thinking and judgment, and open to the influence of others who share our opinions.
Seven times in chapters 2 and 3 of the book of Revelation, God said, ‘Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches’ (NLT). So how can we be certain that what we’re hearing is actually from God? The answer is that it will always agree with His Word, and our spirits will say, ‘Amen!’ when we hear it.
Exo 16:1-35; John 6:30-40
2022-01-29
2 Corinthians 5:16 NCV
Paul wrote, ‘From this time on we do not think of anyone as the world does. In the past we thought of Christ as the world thinks, but we no longer think of him in that way. If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new!’ (v.16-17 NCV).
Here’s something important that we need to keep in mind: When we’re trying to help believers who are struggling or battling with addiction or a physical problem, we should speak life to their regenerated spirit. We need to speak to the part of them that’s capable of rising up in faith and responding to God’s Word: ‘Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ’ (Romans 10:17 NIV). Faith comes by hearing what God thinks, says, and can do. Until God has been heard, the last word hasn’t been spoken.
God instructed Ezekiel to stand in a valley full of dead bones and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life’ (Ezekiel 37:5 NIV). And it happened! Ezekiel said, ‘As I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together’ (v.7 NIV). Faith doesn’t deny reality or ignore what’s happening, but it does refuse to be intimidated, limited, or ruled by the circumstances we can see. ‘Spirit can be known only by spirit’ (1 Corinthians 2:14 MSG), so when someone is a redeemed child of God, we shouldn’t speak to their human mind. Instead, we should let God guide us in speaking His words of life and hope to their spirit.
Rom 3:21-6:23; Luke 6:37-49; Ps 107:10-16; Pro 3:19-20
2022-01-28
Job 16:5 NCV
Even when an injury has healed, it can leave a scar that causes lingering pain and discomfort. And it’s the same in life. Some of the people around us are wearing masks of success and happiness, but inside, they’re carrying wounds that they don’t feel able to talk about. And often the most painful and lasting wounds can be from the words someone has spoken. That’s why we always need to take care in how we’re speaking and what we’re saying. Our words have the power to wound or heal. They can inspire and encourage someone, or they can reinforce their feelings of failure and worthlessness and hurt them even more. The Bible says, ‘Gracious words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the body’ (Proverbs 16:24 ESV).
We should regularly ask God to guide our words, to help us speak with gentleness, to prompt us when it’s the right time to talk to someone, and to check us when we need to stay quiet. Job, who suffered more loss than most of us will ever experience, said, ‘I would encourage you, and my words would bring you relief. (Job 16:5 NCV).
If we want to help someone who’s hurting, giving them our opinion on their circumstances won’t do much for them. What we should do is give them the only opinion that matters – God’s opinion! This is what He says: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you and continued My faithfulness to you’ (Jeremiah 31:3 AMP). When we know someone is feeling the pain of old wounds and old words, let’s encourage them with God’s love, and be guided by Him to speak only words of healing over them.
Rom 1:32-3:20; Luke 6:27-36; Ps 107:1-9; Pro 3:13-18
2022-01-27
1 Corinthians 9:22 MSG
It’s easy for us to develop ‘spiritual forgetfulness’. We can forget what we used to be like before we let Jesus into our lives. And that attitude can affect the people we interact with each day. We might fall into the trap of being judgmental of others who don’t live by the same standards that we now have. We might begin to point out their sins and mistakes in a way that hurts them rather than treating them with kindness. We might try to force our faith on them, forgetting the journey that we took to believing and trusting God. So how can we share our faith with others, while keeping a high level of integrity and sensitivity? Here are some ideas:
1) Ask sincere questions and listen with a caring spirit.
2) When its’s appropriate, offer to pray for people – and then do it.
3) Pray at the start of each day and ask God to help you see all the opportunities for sharing His love.
4) Don’t play down how important your faith is to you. When it fits naturally into a conversation, talk about church, prayer, and the Bible. Let others see for themselves the joy you have in Christ.
5) Demonstrate God’s love for all people by organising a collection for a foodbank or a fundraiser for a local charity.
6) Strive for excellence. Be someone who can always be relied on to do a solid job.
7) Invite your non-Christian friends to events with your Christian friends.
8) When you’re not sure about when to speak, check in with God and ‘when the time comes…the Holy Spirit will make his witness in and through you’ (Mark 13:11 MSG).
9) Above all, remember how far you’ve come and maintain a humble attitude!
Ecc 9-12; Luke 6:17-26; Ps 104:24-35; Pro 3:11-12
2022-01-26
Isaiah 51:1 NCV
If we want to win people to Christ, we won’t be able to do it with a ‘holier-than-thou’ attitude. Sadly, this is how people see a lot of Christians; their hearts are in the right place, but their ability to reach out to non-Christians with compassion and sensitivity doesn’t do God any favours. If we want people to respond to the gospel, a good place to start is to follow Paul’s example. He ‘voluntarily [became] a servant to…all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious…moralists…immoralists, the defeated, the demoralised – whoever’ (1 Corinthians 9:19-21 MSG). That doesn’t mean Paul didn’t take sin seriously.
He adds: ‘I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ – but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become…every sort of servant…in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life…I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!’ (v.22-23 MSG). Paul could relate to unbelievers without endorsing their lifestyle because he remembered what he was like himself before God transformed him on the Damascus road.
It’s the kind of humility that only comes from looking back and remembering ‘the stone quarry from which you were dug’ (Isaiah 51:1 NCV). Being the recipient of God’s grace enabled Paul to have this attitude: ‘Here’s a word you can take to heart…Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof – Public Sinner Number One – of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy’ (1 Timothy 1:15-18 MSG). Today, let’s remember what we were like before God stepped in, and look thankfully at how far we’ve come.
Ecc 5-8; Luke 6:1-16; Ps 104:1-23; Pro 3:9-10
