devotionals

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Walking On Water

22nd February

“Then Peter called to Him, “Lord, if it‘s really you, tell me to come to You, walking on the water.”“Yes, come” Jesus said. So Peter went over the side of the boat and WALKED ON WATER towards Jesus. But as soon as he saw the strong winds and the waves, he was terrified and began to sink.”

Matthew 14:28-30

Isn’t it amazing to read that Peter actually walked on water. Yet why is it so significant in this text, beside it being humanly impossible to achieve such a feat?

Peter in particular, would have been used to storms. He was a fisherman after all. It is very likely that he battled many storms in his lifetime. Yet this storm was different. Mark in his account, tells us that the disciples were in serious trouble. However, when Jesus called Peter to come to Him, Peter ignored the perilous situation around him, climbed over the boat and supernaturally started to walk towards Jesus.

Notice that there are two significant things here. The first being, that Peter completely ignored the storm around him and stepped out in faith. He didn’t look at his circumstances but instead fixed His eyes on Jesus and walked towards Him. The fact that Jesus called Peter and he heard His voice, gave Peter enough faith to know that he could put His trust in the One calling him.

The second is the fact that Peter had to physically climb out of the boat. That is hard enough to do on a good day, let alone in the midst of violent storm. By stepping out the boat, his comfort zone, he further demonstrated his complete trust in Jesus, to make sure he didn’t drown.

When life gets stormy, we too can be assured that we have an anchor to keep us grounded and not sink. He will watch over us in the storm, call us through the storm and help us step out in faith in the midst of it. All we have to do is keep our eyes fixed on Him and not on the things that can make us drown. May we stand firm through the trials, fixing our eyes on Jesus.

 

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Beacons Of Christ

20th-21st February

Weekend Edition

“You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.”

Matthew 5:14-16

Have you ever noticed that you stand out sometimes? Well, if you are a Christian reading this, then most probably you really do stick out. Morals standards are at an all time low, people’s belief or acceptance of Jesus is running thin, and the line between sin and righteous living is ever being blurred by liberal churches. Those of us who do stand up for truth and for Christ-like living are often ridiculed, marginalised or even persecuted. Yet Jesus’ commands to us are to stand up for truth, Biblical living and to shine ever brighter in a world desperate for hope and direction.

Society needs light. It needs Jesus. We are, as Jesus described, a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. We are the light to direct people back to Him. The Apostle Paul also encouraged the church in Corinth with these words, which can equally be applied in our lives too, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making His appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”” (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Friends, let us not give up shining for Jesus, living for Him in all we do and bringing glory to His Name forever and ever. Even when it is hard to stand firm, evermore lean on God’s grace to hold you up and make you a beacon for Him. Be a burning light shining out Jesus. May your lifestyle, actions, and words lead people back to Jesus.

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Living In Christ

19thFebruary

“…since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.”

2 Corinthians 5:14b-15

Jesus’ death and resurrection, was and still is, so significant for our lives. When we commit to serving Jesus, following His ways, and giving Him our lives, we too die and are raised to life again spiritually. We die to our old lifestyles, habits, choices and desires that are contrary to Godly living and are raised to live for Christ in all we do. Moreover, sometimes it is not even a conscious decision that our former desires have faded away. It is part of a regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives, changing our desires for God’s desires. This is not to say we become puppets, but rather daily experiencing goodness and perfection from spending time with a good and perfect Father, eventually leads to His characteristics becoming ours, aided by the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit.

Living in Christ means that we are longer living for ourselves but living for Him. Our dreams are birthed from God’s desires, to see the best in our lives. Our hopes and plans are inter-twinned with God’s purposes for us. Our daily living is in pleasing Him, sharing His goodness with others and bringing Jesus’ light into this dark world. We are beacon’s and ambassadors to show the world the power of Jesus’ finished work on the cross and fullness of His love and grace.

“..Be my everything, be my everything, be my everything, Jesus, everything…!”

SONG: Tim Hughes, Everything

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Growing In Christ

18thFebruary

“The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But those who fail to develop in this way are shortsighted or blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their old sins.”

2 Peter 1:8-9

Yesterday we looked at the benefits of spiritual discipline and discussed why it is so important in a believers life, to not just ‘know of God’ but truly ‘get to know Him’ by spending time with Him, through prayer, worship and reading His word. Spending time with Jesus, has a two-fold benefit. Firstly, we learn more about God’s characteristics, His love for the world we live in, His goodness and kindness etc., and secondly we learn more about how God see us, His children.

As we grow in our walk with God, we discover that God really really loves us. We discover that His blessings are abundant, His grace is unlimited, and that He only wants the best for us. His desire is to mould and shape us into His own character. The more we grow in the knowledge of Him and in how He sees us, as Peter says, the more ‘productive’ and ‘useful’ we will be in making Jesus known to others.

If you do not view yourself as God sees you, then how can you be excited to tell others about Him. We become ‘shortsighted’ or even ‘blind’ to how God sees us, and live in the guilt and shame of our ‘old sins’ or previous lifestyles. We get so caught up there, that we never move forward as we continually re-live and are bound by past sins.

If we are to grow in Christ, we need to remember that our sins are forgiven once and for all by Jesus’ own sacrifice for us. It as a forgiven and innocent child, that God sees us. If we have confessed our sins, we are free. The more we spend time with Him, the more we realise this truth and the less we allow the enemy’s lies to deceive us and pull us back.

“…..who the Son sets free is free indeed!”

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More Of Jesus

17thFebruary

“…make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with Godliness, and Godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.”

2 Peter 1:5b-7

Spiritual exercise is just as, if not more important than physical exercise. Just as we need to exercise our physical body to keep fit, so it is the same spiritually. We cannot afford to get spiritually lazy or obese because we are not putting in the time to grow in God. Unlike physical exercise the benefits are Christ-like living, spiritual growth and closeness to Jesus. It is like any relationship; you need to make an effort otherwise the relationship will grow distant and stagnant. Yet again, unlike physical exercise, spiritual discipline is not burdensome, it is not hard work and it is not tiring. Yes it requires effort to make time to spend with your Creator, but the more time spent with Jesus, the more refreshed, invigorated and more prepared we are for life. Moreover, it is Jesus’ grace that allows us to have a relationship with Him in the first place.

By spending more time with God, in both conversation (that includes letting Him talk to us too) and through His word, the characteristics that Peter mentions in today’s verse will naturally become apparent in our lives as evidence of daily spiritual discipline and exercise, all to bring glory to the Father. Moreover, spending time with God and exercising spiritually, is our way to respond to God, which leads to Christ-like living. Just like a tree or a plant, the more you water it, care for it, and nurture it, the more it will grow into a beautiful tree/plant bearing good fruit. It you neglect it, it will wither away and die. Let us pursue Jesus with an insatiable thirst. Let us discipline our spiritual lives by spending time with our Lord and Saviour. Spending time with Jesus is time well spent.

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More Of Nothing

16thFebruary

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve disciples, went to the leading priests to arrange to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted when they heard he had come, and they promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray Jesus… when Judas, who had betrayed Him, realised that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse.”

Mark 14:10-11, Matthew 27:3a

Sin sometimes seems so attractive. It lures us into it’s grasp, giving a false sense of satisfaction, then once you have fallen for it’s trap, it tosses you back out, leaving you completely empty, guilty and with a sense of remorse. Yet we allow ourselves to go again, to sin again and to once again fall into the trap of ‘nothingness’. Sin literally leaves us wanting more of nothing. When we try to compare the pleasures of sin with God’s goodness, it becomes completely un-comparable.

Throughout the Bible, there are countless stories of wonderful men and women of God, caught by the false entrapment of sin’s lures, yet all it did was leave them empty and full of remorse. We think of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit, David and his adulterous affair with Bathsheba and probably the most shocking of all, Judas’ betrayal of our Lord Jesus. In fact Judas’ remorse was so great, after He betrayed Jesus, that he ended up hanging himself due to his guilt and shame.

Friends, let us be united to stand firm against the enemy’s cheap tricks. Sin only offers emptiness. In fact sin only offers us ‘nothingness’. Let us rejoice that in Jesus, we have the fullness of life, the best of all that God has, love, joy and acceptance. We are filled daily with grace when we do fall. Furthermore, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live in the opposite spirit of sin, to withstand temptation and live in all God has for us.

‘…And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil’

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Because Of Jesus….

15thFebruary

“He is so rich in kindness and grace that He purchased our freedom with the blood of His Son and forgave our sins……Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 7:25

Did you know that it is only because of Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit in glorifying the Son through our lives, that we can enter into God’s presence and live for Him in all we do. We do not enter out of merit but out of surrender; Surrender to Jesus’ finished work on the cross. We surrender to the fact that we are forgiven and made clean before the Father, and have accepted that Jesus has purchased our freedom with His own blood. Moreover, it is Jesus who intercedes for us saying, ‘Don’t punish them, I paid the price.’

Bryan Chapell, in his book called “Praying Backwards” talks of how important it is to pray in Jesus’ Name as the foundation of your prayer, not the conclusion of it, because it is in Jesus’ Name, that the Father is glorified in our petitions and in Jesus’ Name that we can even approach God’s throne. He suggests that this, is in essence why and how we can pray in Jesus’ Name….

“Lord, there is not enough goodness in my best works to warrant Your listening to me or answering my prayer. But, Lord, I am not appealing to You on the basis of my merit. I ask You to listen to me as one who trusts in the blood of Jesus to wash away my sin. By the work of Your Holy Spirit, I am united to Jesus, and it is only on the basis of His righteousness that I can approach Your holy throne in this prayer.”1

Chapell’s prayer is an acknowledgement, that as forgiven sons and daughters of Almighty God, we can enter into God’s presence, not based on merit, but as people who have accepted the finished work of the cross. Today, when you pray in Jesus’ Name, know that He is listening, sitting next to the Father and interceding on your behalf.

1Praying Backwards: Transform you prayer life by beginning in Jesus’ Name, Bryan Chapell

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What The Lord Desires

13th-14th February

Weekend Edition

“What can we bring to the Lord? Should we bring Him burnt offerings? Should we bow down before God Most High with offerings of yearling calves? . . . . No, O people, The Lord has told you what is good, and that is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

Micah 6:6,8

What does God really want from you? Does He want your religious acts of worship that mean nothing more than to check your daily list of duties off, so that you can feel good about your ‘Christian’ life? Or does He want you to give up everything you enjoy and love, and be filled with sorrow and sadness at your un-worthiness before His Holy throne? The answer, an emphatic NO! What God wants is YOU… He wants to have a relationship with YOU. So much so, that He did give His only Son, Jesus Christ, to make that possible when Jesus died for our sins (see Micah 6:7b).

Religious acts of worship and sacrifices do nothing more than to appease our man made list of rules and regulations. When Jesus was alive on this earth, He fought tirelessly to correct the Pharisees’ way of thinking, to change their thinking from doing to done, from religion to relationship. Yet we too so easily fall into the same trap. Our intentions may be right, yet we feel by doing, we can earn God’s favour and love, just like the Israelites in Micah’s time and the Pharisees in Jesus’ time. Yet we don’t have to do things for God’s love. He already loves us. We just need to accept it. It is from that knowledge that we can walk in humility before God in JOY; we love what God loves, which is mercy and justice, and we do what is right, not out of duty but out of relationship.

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The Fool Says There Is No God

12th February

“Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”.”

Psalm 14:1a

The Psalms are known for their beautiful poetic writings expressing how wonderful and faithful God is, written mostly by a man who knew first hand how great the God he served was. Yet there are plenty of Psalms that are ‘hard to read’ for their strong and explicit vocabulary and content. Today’s short verse is just one of them.

Imagine you have just discovered the greatest treasure in the world. You are so excited, that you want to share it with everyone you meet right? And you would probably think that those who reject that truth or who simply don’t believe are crazy? Much is the same with David’s statement in today’s verse. He knew that people needed a Saviour. Yet instead of looking to the Lord, the One true God, people put their trust in bows and arrows, in gods unknown and in human power and might. Yet all those things will fail, and David knew that. He knew that hope was only found in God Almighty, who created the Heavens and the earth and all that is in it. David’s treasure was in knowing that God was real and with him always. To others it was foolishness.

Much is the same today. We have great news. God is real. Look around you and see the wonders of creation. Look closer at your own body, how intricately God has made you. How much detail and care He has taken to design the physical body. God is the creator of the world and the sustainer of it. He holds the planets in His hands and controls the universe with the power of His words. Moreover, that same God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to earth in the form of a human, to suffer at the hands of His own creation, to restore us to our true identity and restore a right relationship between God and man. That is our treasure. Yet for those who don’t believe, as Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18a ‘the message of the cross is foolish.’

We have such wonderful good news. The creator of the world loves you. He laid down His life and rose again for you. He can set you free from sins, burdens, pains and sorrows. All you need to do is accept it. That is Great news. Don’t be a fool and reject it.

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The God Who Hears

11th February

“O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? . . . . . But I trust in Your unfailing love. I will rejoice because You have rescued me. I will sing to the Lord because He is good to me.”

Psalm 13:1-2,5-6

David, in this wonderful psalm, uses some very strong wording to describe his feelings during his time of persecution. In fact, they are so strong, you almost feel like cringing and asking, ‘are you really talking to God?’ Yet if we look further into the Psalmist’s words, we soon begin to realise that actually, David was just like one of us.

If we are honest, then we too can probably say that we have cried out the same words as David did. Perhaps there are moments in your life, when you too feel alone, feel abandoned and feel like God is looking the other way. However, and probably most importantly, although David felt alone and felt sorrow in his heart, he knew that even there, God was never too far from him.

David was so confident in the Lord, that he even thanks God for the victory he has not yet won. Verse 5 exclaims “I will rejoice because You have rescued me!” Isn’t that an amazing gem found in the middle of what seems like a gloomy and hopeless situation. It can be assumed, as not stated in the text, that his victory had not yet been won, yet so firm was David’s trust in the Lord, that he knew God would rescue him. In addition, David says that he can “rejoice” and “sing” to the Lord, because He had been good to him.

It is in knowing God’s faithfulness in our lives that carries us through times of uncertainty and worry. We know God is faithful. We know that God is good. Yet if we are honest, there are times in our lives when we do feel like God is not answering prayers or that He feels distant. Yet, it is in those times that our praises should increase, as we remember the faithfulness of Almighty God and the unconditional love we receive from Him. He promised to never leave us and God never breaks His promises. He is with you. Keep trusting. Keep praising.