The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
TO PONDER
I may have shared this story before, but my dad was a pretty successful fisherman. I don't recall having gone fishing with him very often and not coming home having caught at least something.
What my brother and I didn't realise so much when we were younger was that a big part of dad's success was going at the right time. Sometimes my brother and I would pester dad so much to take us fishing and not understand why he would be denying us a trip out in the boat to catch our own dinner. 20-30 years later and with some greater wisdom and the benefit of hindsight, most of the time dad refused to take us fishing was because he was fairly confident that the conditions would result in a fruitless fishing expedition.
Sometimes waiting for God to keep his promises can be like that. We expect God to answer immediately or with miraculous signs and wonders, in other words, to take us fishing just because we want to go. But God, a bit like a clever fisherman, knows when the time, tides, winds, and temperatures conditions are just right for the best result. Don't let God's 'wait' response to your prayers be discouraging. Instead be excited and expectant that God is simply waiting for the right conditions to produce the best results.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You often had to show patience with your disciples who rarely managed to see the bigger picture. Thank you for your patience with me when I fail to see the bigger picture and get disappointed when I feel my prayers have gone unanswered. Help me to also be patient as I wait for your perfect timing. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
TO PONDER
Betrayal is a universal human experience. Sure, people might experience it to varying degrees, but everyone experiences it in some form or another during their lifetime. Perhaps it is as small as the disappointment we feel when someone fails to come through with a task or favour at work or when a friend reschedules a catch-up in preference for some other commitment or opportunity. We tend to get over those minor betrayals fairly quickly. However, the breaking of marriage vows, major moral failures in our trusted leaders and professionals and the breaking of trust (and sometimes abuse) of those who are supposed to care most about us can be really debilitating experiences.
Sometimes we can feel like God has betrayed us when we find ourselves in the darkest parts of our lives. Perhaps we blame God for the loss of a loved one; maybe we blame God for the loss of income or property amid natural disasters like fires or floods? The number of ways that we can think God has let us down or betrayed our trust are as varied as we are. However, Here in 1 John, we hear that God is light, in Him there is no darkness at all. No deceit, no malice or hard feelings.
So what then are we to do when we feel betrayed or abandoned by God? The answer is easy to say but hard to do. At those times we feel most abandoned and betrayed by God is when we most need to call out to Him. The people if Israel did it in Egypt and then later in Babylonian exile, Job did it, most of the psalmist did it, many of the Old Testament prophets did it, the writer of Lamentations did it. God promises to be with us and bring light to our darkness. When things are their darkest is when we need his light the most.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, in the beginning you said, "let there be light" and light appeared. Would you bring your light into the dark places of my life and help me to trust that when I feel like all hope is lost and I feel most alone, that you will always be available to bring your light back into my life and make that light shine through me into the world.
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
"The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”
TO PONDER
I have never had the need to make a claim against a lifetime guarantee, but I have always wondered about the terms and conditions of those kinds of promises. Is the lifetime guarantee for the duration of the life of the owner, of the product, or the manufacturer? What is the manufacturer goes out of business? What if I pass the item on to my children? Is the lifetime guarantee still valid? After all, in most of these lifetime guarantee situations, no on signs any paperwork agreeing to certain terms and conditions how am I supposed to claim against this guarantee even if I wanted to???
As Peter preached this message on that first Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, he gives a guarantee about God's promise of the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was not just for the apostles or the early church, this promised gift was fully transferable, from generation to generation, it was valid in any country and included international roaming. God's promise was a lifetime guarantee valid for the lifetime of the one and only eternal God of all creation. That's a promise you can rely on - no disclaimers of fine print, escape clauses or loopholes. God has promised to live within you and all those who believe by the presence of His Holy Spirit - His gift to you as one of his dearly loved children.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit at work and alive in me. Help me to faithfully make use of the fully transferable nature of that gift by boldly sharing the hope and faith that you have placed within me with others. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
'This is what I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear.’
TO PONDER
Are you picking up a theme in this weeks devotions? Remembering the promises of God is a fundamental part of being one of His people.
In Haggai, many of the people of Israel, are returning to their home after being in exile in the Babylonian/Persian empire and they are mourning because the rebuilt temple is not as grand as the one that had been destroyed. God reminds them that he Promised to be with them and that it was God himself that would bring glory to the temple.
Just because things don't turn out the way we think or hope, doesn't mean that God was not, or is not, with us. God's promise to be the God of Israel, the promise that he made with Abraham and then renewed with Moses and the Israelites in the wilderness was that he would be their God and they would be His people. Even in exile, the Israelites were still God's people, even with a destroyed temple in Jerusalem God was still their God - he did not abandon them.
Jesus makes that same promise to his disciples - Surely I am with you even to the very end of the age. (Mt 28:20b). It's a promise that is just as good, just as enduring as the one made to Israel. No matter where you are at, or how long it has been since you checked in with Jesus, he is with you, waiting to offer whatever you need to get through whatever is facing you at the moment.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, thank you for your promise to always be with me. Help me to remember and trust in that promise. May it make me bold in serving you and sharing your love and grace with others. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, “To your descendants I give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates"
TO PONDER
This promise, or covenant, that God makes with Abram (or Abraham after God changes his name) is significant because in the preceding verses God also explained that Abraham's descendants would also be enslaved by another nation before taking ownership of the land that God had promised.
I wonder how much this promise was in the minds of the Israelites as they were oppressed in Egypt? God had promised them through their forefathers, a life living as his people in a land flowing with milk and honey, and yet here they were in slavery but that was also part of the deal.
We talked yesterday about remembering history. I think this verse reminds us again, as does so much of the book of Exodus, of the importance of remembering. Remembering that God said there would be a period of 400 years of slavery to a foreign nation before He would bring His judgement against them and make Israel rich through their oppressors would, I imagine, have been something of a hope and comfort to the Israelites, knowing that God had not abandoned them but that this was all part of his plan to bless all the nations through them.
Jesus also told his followers to expect trouble and opposition when they followed Him. Perhaps there is some comfort for you today in remembering that God has not forgotten you in your suffering, that the promise of Jesus was not a life free from suffering but rather free and constant access to Him in the midst of our suffering, access to the son of God who suffered in our place, who understands what suffering is and who walks with you in the midst of it.
PRAYER: Lord God, sometimes it's easy to forget your promises and to begin despairing about the challenges that life can bring. Help me to remember that I am never alone in my suffering and that even in the midst of my suffering, you are at work carrying out your ultimate good and perfect plans for me, and all those who love you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle
Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”
TO PONDER
There's a fair bit going on in today's verse. Some context from the end of the book of Genesis might be helpful. There we hear that Jacob (to whom God gave the name Israel), and his 12 sons and their families all moved to Egypt to avoid famine, and because Jacob's son, Joseph, had been elevated as the Pharaoh's right hand man, they were welcomed and lived comfortably in the land.
How quickly things change when we forget history!!! A new Pharaoh comes to power generations after the death of Joseph and all the good and blessing that came with the Hebrews is forgotten and now their blessing and filling the land is seen as a problem. These days it's not too hard to find people who feel the same way about Christians. Rather than being seen as the people who try to bring blessing to our communities, we can sometimes be viewed as the problem.
The challenge for us today then might be to consider how we can continue to bless our communities with such outrageous generosity and unexpected hospitality that there is no possible way they could forget the blessing that Christians have been in their lives.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, Like the Pharaohs of Egypt forgot Joseph and the blessing you brought through him to the land of Egypt, so to has much of our world forgotten you and the blessing which the Heavenly Father brought to us through you. May my life be one which constantly reminds others of the love, mercy and blessing that you bring to all those who put their trust in you. Amen
Today's devotion written by Mathew von Stanke, LifeWay Newcastle.
Teach me to do your will, for you are my God;
may your good Spirit lead me on level ground.
TO PONDER
Here we find that we should turn our focus toward what God desires for us. As we walk in His will, we learn more and more just how to walk in His will, and more of that will is revealed to us. This shows us again that God leads us into His will for our lives day by day, one step at a time. His plan for each of us unfolds before us step by step as we continue to move forward in faith, and we also find here that this journey into His will for us begins and is sustained by the acknowledgement that He is “our God”. What this essentially involves is a continued awareness of, and a life ordered by, the understanding that He is God and that means that He knows what is best, that He determines what is right or wrong. It involves a "die-heart" commitment to walk in His way for us no matter what.
PRAYER:Lord, we have often, in our life walked on “bumpy” ground, through our own mistakes, stumbled and fallen. It is often these past stumbles which have gotten us off your path for our life. We now ask God, that you would help us avoids these stumbles in the future, understanding and acknowledging that it is only as we follow the leading of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to avoid these mistakes and walk into your purpose and plan for our life.
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping
Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit
TO PONDER
Vigorously pursue love; that is, earnestly desire it; strive to possess it; make it the object of your anxious and constant solicitude to obtain it, and to be influenced by it at all times. Cultivate it in your own hearts, as the richest and best endowment of the Holy Spirit, and endeavour to diffuse its happy influence on all around you.
PRAYER: May my spirit be united with Holy Spirit and a may His love flow unrestricted through my life, my appreciation, and my expression to Him of His greatness and His glory as I praise and glorify the God that I worship and serve.
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping.
There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.
TO PONDER
The Holy Spirit works in and through the lives of Christians by means of spiritual gifts for building God's kingdom. In Scripture, we see that there are many spiritual gifts, such as wisdom, knowledge, service, craftsmanship, teaching, and more. No one receives all the gifts, and everyone has at least one. The Spirit gives all these gifts for the common good, so that everyone may work together as the church, the body of Christ, in this world. Everyone has the gift of service and should use their gift for God's glory and for building God's kingdom. Focus on what you can do and use that gift for God!
PRAYER: O God who has gifted me, fill me with an eager desire to use my gifts in service to you and for the good of your people.
Today's devotion written by Francis Leung, LifeWay Epping