2021-07-11
Luke 5:9 NKJV
Lesson two: God is interested in your success. Peter knew Jesus was a great teacher and that He could even heal the sick. But what he was about to learn was that Jesus wants us to succeed in our work. Peter probably had good nets, owned a good boat, and knew exactly where to catch the most fish. And his income depended on a good catch. But after fishing all night and catching nothing, Peter made the best move of his life: he got Jesus involved.
We might lose sight of the fact that God wants to be involved in our work. We can involve Him by making our work available to Him to use any time for His glory, so He’s able to minister to people through us while we’re working. We often try to separate secular things from spiritual things; we have our Christian life nicely partitioned off from our work life. But this prevents God from using and blessing our work.
God says: ‘I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good for you, and leads you along the paths you should follow (Isaiah 48:17 NCV). We might think that if the work we’re doing isn’t for a church or a ministry, then God can’t or won’t use it. But He wants to be involved and give us His wisdom and guidance in all areas of our lives, and He can use the work we do to bless others in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Work takes up a large part of our day – imagine the difference it could make if we invited God into that time too.
Ruth 1:3-18; John 6:41-69
2021-07-10
Luke 5:3 NKJV
At the beginning of Luke 5, we read about when Jesus met the fishermen Simon Peter, James and John. Over the next few days, let’s take a look at what we can learn from their meeting. Lesson one: Invite Jesus into your boat. That should always be our starting point. Nothing has greater influence on us than whether or not we have Jesus Christ in our lives.
By himself, Peter fished all night and caught nothing. But when he brought Jesus on board, he caught more fish than he had ever caught before. Jesus used His miracles to illustrate principles, and this incident teaches us what to do when we’ve failed, or when our best just isn’t good enough.
For Peter, his boat represented his livelihood. It was his means of support and he was probably relying on it to be his provision for his future. It’s significant that Peter invited Jesus into one of the most important things in his life, and Jesus used it as a platform for ministry.
We need to be willing to do what Peter did. And if we give Jesus access to all areas of our life, He’ll bless all of it. But if we only give Him part of it, He’ll bless just that one part. Having Jesus in our boat removes the fear of failure and reduces our worries about the results. When Peter made Jesus his fishing partner, the results were incredible.
But don’t miss the sequence. First, Peter let Jesus use the boat for His purposes. Then Jesus blessed Peter’s boat and used it to take care of all Peter’s needs. Jesus said, ‘Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need’ (Matthew 6:33 NLT).
Acts 1:1-3:10; Luke 6:27-36; Ps 109:1-15; Prov 15:22
2021-07-09
2 Chronicles 31:21 NCV
Sometimes we can think that to be successful for God, we have to become a church leader and work for Him in that way. But that’s not true. We’re not all called into that work, and we can be successful in God’s eyes even when we’re in the secular world. Money, fame and power make us successful in the world, and achieving those things is not necessarily wrong. It all depends on our attitude and our motives.
We need to make sure we’re working for God’s glory rather than our own. And that’s exactly what Hezekiah did. In the world’s eyes he would have been seen as successful; he’d become the king of Judah by the age of 25. The Bible says that: ‘In everything that he undertook in the service of God’s temple and in obedience to the law and the commands, he sought his God and worked wholeheartedly. And so he prospered’ (2 Chronicles 31:21 NIV).
There are three keys to his success here. First, he was obedient to the law. We can see how important that is when God spoke to Joshua about the same thing: ‘Be careful to obey all the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go’ (Joshua 1:7 NIV). But then we also have to seek God, especially to make sure we’re still doing His will. And then we must work wholeheartedly for Him. ‘Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters’ (Colossians 3:23 NIV). These things will help us to be successful in God’s eyes, not the world’s.
Joel 1-3; Luke 6:17-26; Ps 79; Prov 15:18-21
2021-07-08
Proverbs 12:23 NLT
When we see the people around us hurting or struggling with something, we may feel like we’ve got the answers or the right advice for them. But if we don’t have the right approach, we can end up making things worse. Good ideas and advice are wasted when we try and force them on other people. Proverbs 12:23 says: ‘The wise don’t make a show of their knowledge’ (NLT). If our desire to help comes from wanting to show off how much we know, we’re doing it for the wrong reason.
If we’re not sure it’s from God, then we need to ask for wisdom about whether to say it all. But if God is leading us to say something, we should pray for wisdom about the right time and the right way to say it. ‘A man of knowledge uses words with restraint, and a man of understanding is even-tempered.’
Timing is really important when we’re giving advice. If people aren’t ready to receive it, then it won’t help. Sometimes it’s obvious to us when someone isn’t ready to listen; other times we may misjudge the situation. We can always ask God to open their minds to what we feel we need to say. But our efforts at helping someone to change may fail, unless we approach them in love and humility. If we don’t approach them in the right way, they may respond with a ‘who-are-you-to-tell-me’ attitude.
The Bible says: ‘Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones’ (Proverbs 16:24 NIV). We shouldn’t approach people in a judgmental, critical or harsh way. We need to be sharing kind, encouraging and supportive words if we want to be taking the right approach in helping others.
Jer 51-52; Luke 6:1-16; Ps 137; Prov 15:15-17
2021-07-07
Psalm 119:11 NIV
Senator Bill Nelson trained for and flew on a six-day space shuttle mission on board the Columbia. In his book Mission, he explained how difficult it is to maintain a proper orbit in space. There’s no resistance in space, so an astronaut can literally turn over the huge shuttle on their own. To maintain the correct orbit, the onboard computers constantly make course and altitude corrections by firing small rockets which make tiny adjustments, while larger jets burn fuel to make major adjustments. These rockets are critical – if they don’t consistently fire at the right time, the shuttle can drift from its orbit and go tumbling into outer space or crashing into Earth’s atmosphere.
There’s an important lesson here for us. Left to ourselves, we tend to drift out of our spiritual orbit into lukewarmness and indifference. Or worse, we end up in sin and rebellion. That’s when the rockets of prayer and Bible study, ‘fired’ on a continuous and consistent basis, help us to keep our course correct, and prevent our lives from spinning out of spiritual control.
Bible study and prayer go together. We should pray before we read the Bible, asking God to help us understand what we’re about to read. And we should also pray after we read it, asking God to help us apply what He’s told us through His Word. ‘All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness’ (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV). Getting into a habit of a daily prayer and Bible study time is so important – it’ll help us stay close to God and quickly become aware if we’re drifting off His path so we can make whatever adjustments are necessary to get back to Him.
Jer 49-50; Luke 5:27-39; Ps 122; Prov 15:10-14
2021-07-06
Proverbs 1:10 NLT
We can often underestimate the influence that other people can have on us. Even the TV programmes we watch and the social media accounts we follow can have an effect on us. We tend to become like the people we spend the most time with, so it’s very important that we choose our companions wisely. Here are some tips for making sure that we’re surrounding ourselves with good influences:
1) Try to become aware of who and what influences you the most. There might be a particular person or group that we gravitate towards, or a YouTube channel that we tend to head to when we’re alone. We should try to develop an awareness of who has the most potential to influence us.
2) Check if they’re likely to be good or bad influences. Notice the way they talk, dress, show respect or a lack of it, and how they interact with others. We should also ask ourselves if they draw us closer to God or push us away from Him.
3) Look out for warning signs. If someone is having a negative influence on us, chances are that when we stop to consider our behaviour, we’ll begin to notice things like we’re becoming indifferent towards spiritual things, we’re developing a defiant spirit, or we’re attracted to things that God wouldn’t approve of. Proverbs 1:10 says: ‘If sinners entice you, turn your back on them’ (NLT). When Joseph was being tempted by Potiphar’s wife, he didn’t stop to let himself be trapped – he simply ran from the temptation. That’s a legitimate course of action if we feel we’re being separated from God. We shouldn’t allow anything to replace God’s influence on our lives.
Jer 45-48; Luke 5:12-26; Ps 110; Prov 15:8-9
