God’s word for today

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The Strength Of Friendship

12th May

“Never abandon a friend – either yours of your father’s. When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance… Iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.”

Proverbs 27:10a, 17

Friendship is without a doubt, one of the keys to our survival in this world. Jesus Himself knew, when He walked as human on this earth over 2000 years ago, that He needed friends, He chose 12 disciples to journey with Him. He even took Peter, James and John with Him in His final moments before His arrest, so as not to be alone. Take the examples of David and Jonathan, Moses and Aaron (as we read of yesterday), Elijah and Elisha, and Naomi and Ruth.

Friends are important to be there for you in times of need, as today’s reading says. Even when disaster strikes, friendships says ‘I’m there’ without the need of even asking. Friends can be honest with you and always have our best interests at heart. Friends are our best supporters, willing us on to succeed beyond our own interests and even at our own expense sometimes. Moreover, it is a true friend who can get the best out of you, sharpen you, tell you honestly when you stumble, help you get up from defeat and walk with you along life’s road, holding you accountable yet standing with you throughout.

Yet above all, our greatest friend and supporter, yes you guessed it, is Jesus Christ Himself. He is all of the above and so much more. He is our true friend. When our human friendship fails, and disappoints, Jesus is the one who is always there. We are His friends. He said so Himself, “There is no greater love that to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are My friends if you do what I command” (John 15:12-13).

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When You Don’t Have The Strength

11th May

“As long as Moses held up his staff in his hand, the Israelites had the advantage. But whenever he dropped his hand, the Amalekites gained the advantage. Moses’ arms soon became so tired he could no longer hold them up. So Aaron and Hur found a stone for him to sit on. Then they stood either side of Moses, holding up his hands. So his hands held steady until sunset. As a result, Joshua overwhelmed the army of Amalek in battle.”

Exodus 17:11-13

During the Israelites long and treacherous journey to the Promised Land, through the 40 year of wilderness, they faced many obstacles, tests and hardships; none more so than found in Exodus chapter 17. Shortly after the Israelites had their thirst miraculously quenched, they found themselves in a life or death situation. The Amalekites, a fierce and persistent thorn in the side of Israel, set out to destroy God’s people in the land of Rephidim, where the people of Israel where camped. Yet God had other ideas. He had a plan and a promise for His people, and when God makes a promise, nothing will come between it.

So Moses, under God’s divine guidance, commanded Joshua to gather an army and attack the Amalekites. During the fight, Moses climbed up a hill and raised the staff in his hand, the same staff that parted the waters and had just miraculously provided water from a rock for the people. When his hands and staff were up, the advantage fell to the Israelites, yet when his hands dropped the advantage went to the Amalekites. Upon seeing this, Aaron and Hur, realised they needed to help Moses keep his arms held high. So they sat Moses down on a rock and held up his hands for him.

Of course this story, highlights once again the mighty power of our God and His fierce love for His people, but it also shows that sometimes we need help. Moses was just a man. Although he was commissioned by God to lead the people of Israel to the Promised Land, sometimes he needed help. This story shows us, that although God does have a plan for us and does use us, sometimes we need someone to get along side us and hold our hands up. Pray for us when we can’t pray. Stand with us when we can’t stand. Walk with us when we can’t walk. Let us be sensitive to our brother’s or sister’s needs. Let us be ready to hold their hands up.

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Loved By Him

10th May

“God showed how much He loved us by sending His one and only Son into this world so that we might have eternal life. This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.””

1 John 4:9-10

There are verses in the Bible that are so powerful, and so edifying that they almost don’t need any commentary added to them. Today’s verse is one of them. It almost feels like the author has purposefully made it so simple, to explain the kind of love God has for us. ‘He sent His only Son, a sacrifice for our sins, so we can have eternal life. This is the love of God.’ This is the true gospel.

Sometime we over confuse it. Yet the truth is so simple. We are loved. We are forgiven. We can have eternal life. And our sins are taken away. There is nothing complicated about it. The complication comes from our own ability to accept this truth, when we try and reason and fit the gospel into our lifestyles. Rather than try and change our lifestyles to fit in with the gospel, let’s allow the gospel to change our lifestyles. Let us be driven by the love He has for us and start accepting what He did for us.

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Run Like A Winner

9th May

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now He is seated in the place of honour beside God’s throne.”

Hebrew 12:1-2

Usain Bolt can take pride in the fact that he is the recorded ‘fastest man on this earth’. He trained hard, most probably sacrificed many things, all for the sake of perfecting his sport and becoming the world’s best champion. Did you know that we too are in a race, the race of life. Yet this is not a race that needs to be won, in terms of finishing the fastest. This race is won with patience, integrity and God-like living. Our ‘training’ is imitating Christ in all we do, exercising spiritually (praying, worshipping and reading His word), sacrificing the empty pleasures of sin and living for Jesus wherever we are.

The most comforting thing, is that we can all be winners and be crowned champions. In fact we are already on the winning side. Moreover, when we feel like giving up we can look to those who have gone before us as our inspiration, ‘the Hero’s of faith’ mentioned in Hebrews, chapter 11; people who were just like us, warts and all, people who fell down but got back up, and persevered to the very end. Yet above all else, we can look to Jesus, who came to this earth, ran the race of life and completed it with excellence. He now sits championing us on, running by our side, encouraging us along the way and being our best supporter.

Wherever you are, re-focus on Jesus, fix your eyes on Him and press on. If you have fallen, don’t give up, instead, get back up. In addition, if there is something that is causing you to stumble, get rid of it. Give it to Jesus. Let the joy of what awaits us give us a new burst of energy. May we all run together, encouraging one another, keeping our eyes on the Author and Finisher of life itself. For what joy awaits those who finish well.

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The Faithfulness Of God

8th May

“If we are unfaithful, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny who He is.”

2 Timothy 2:13

Who is our God? Whom do you serve? An idol, an image, or an ideology? Perhaps your image of God, is merely a well meaning hope, wish or desire that there is some good in this world, or at least something more than we see in the world around us. If that is you, then there is good news! There is something more than we see around us, God is something more than idols, images or academic theology. He is the ruler, creator, sustainer and life giver of all that is in this world, and all outside of it. He is the reason you are breathing. He is the reason you are alive.

Yet who God is, His nature and character, doesn’t just stop at academic knowledge. It is personal. God wants us to know Him personally. He wants to show us that He is more than just our supreme, magnificent, almighty God, but that He is also our Father, our friend and our closest companion. He wants us to know that He is journeying with us in every step we take. He is by our side and will never leave us.

Paul also reminds us of this truth in his letter to Timothy, encouraging Timothy, that even when we are ‘unfaithful’ or ‘faithless’, He will stay faithful, because that is who He is. He cannot be something else, because God is truth, and in Him there is not deceit or falsehood. If He said He will be with us and never leave us, then He meant it. If He said He will be faithful, even if we are not, then He meant it.

God is faithful friends. That is the God we serve.

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Our Winning Strategy

6th – 7th May

Weekend Edition

“Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.”

Romans 12:21

Some of the greatest Generals in history owe their success, not to their own brilliance but to the wisdom of their Military tacticians, who are employed in battle to strategise against their enemies weaknesses and make a tactical plan to ensure victory. Many wars, fighting against impossible odds, have been won by the wisdom and guile of a Military tactician.

So often in our own lives, we too try to strategise our victory over sin and evil, by coming up with some kind of ‘master plan’ as if we can outwit our enemy in our own strength. Yet the writer of Romans, tells us that the only way to conquer evil is to do good.

Romans 12:12-21, makes a list of all the ways in which we can live out that ‘good’ in our lives. By not repaying evil with evil. By blessing those who persecute you. By not cursing our enemies but blessing them. These tactics are not things we can do in our strength but come from being in a right standing relationship with the King, Jesus Christ. When He fills our lives, we begin to walk in the victory that has already been won. God has already won the greatest war, when He sent Jesus. All we need to do is live it out in our lives. Our victory over evil has already been masterminded by our Great General, the Lord and King of the armies of Heaven. Go and live in it. Do good!

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Even If….

5th May

“I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13

There is an old famous Hymn, written in 1887 by a man named John H. Sammis, that is simply titled ‘Trust and Obey’. This precious hymn really does sum up this wonderful scripture we read in today’s key verse, epitomised by the chorus lyrics that say, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way. To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey”. Both Sammis, the writer of Romans and many other mighty men and women of God, have all come to the truth, that there is no other way, but to trust God and obey Him. We can try and do things our own way, and that may be ok for a while. But if we want to find true joy and peace, there is only one way, to trust and obey.

Matthew, in his account of the beatitudes of Jesus, tells us that we shouldn’t worry about anything, because God firstly already knows what we think, but most importantly, because He is our provider. Jesus says plainly and clearly affirms this truth in Matthew 6:25 “.. I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear.” Yet if we are honest our natural tendency is to lead our lives in our own strength.

Trusting the Lord, is both allowing Him to lead your life, but also walking hand in hand with Him as He guides your path. It is an attitude that says, ‘even if things don’t go the way I had planned, I will still trust that my life is in Your hands’. Just as the writer of Romans says, ‘I pray that you will be filled with joy and peace, BECAUSE you trust in Him!’

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Our Victory In Christ

4th May

“But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Corinthians 15:57

When you are battling and feel like you are drowning in life’s rivers of temptations and despairs, stop and say this verse to yourself…‘But Thank God!’ We have a hope greater than the mountains we may face. We have a strength more powerful than the pulls of our fleshly desires. We serve a mighty God who overcame sin and death, so that we may live in the victory and fruit of it.

Friends, we don’t have to surrender. We don’t have to give in. We just need to thank God for the victory we already have. Notice that Paul doesn’t say, because we have victory through Jesus, thank God. He starts from a place of thankfulness that appreciates that victory has already been won. In Jesus, we have life not death, victory not defeat! So be strong and immovable in Him and for Him.

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Tell God Your Needs And Thank Him For His Deeds

3rd May

“Don’t worry about anything: Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God’s peace… ”

Philippians 4:6-7a

Part of trusting God for all your needs is thanking Him for all He has already done. It is in the moments of getting caught up in our needs that we can often forget who God is and what He has been and is doing in our lives already.

Yet it seems so hard, when we are in our darkest moments, when we feel like all hope is gone, to trust God and start thanking Him for all He is doing. However, this attitude of gratitude is the key to living a worry and stress free life and living in the fullness of God’s peace.

Paul encourages the church in Philippi to also trust in God and thank Him whilst bringing their requests to Him. He then states that it is only when you are exercising a thankful heart, that you can really know the peace of God. The great thing is that the peace of God is a supernatural peace. It’s a peace that says, although there is a storm raging around me, because I know God is at hand, because I am thankful for all He has done and is going to do, I have a stillness in my heart that anchors me and gives me the strength to carry on. It gives a whole new dimension to the ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ slogan. In truth, keeping calm and carrying on, only comes when we are fully grounded, fully submitted and fully thankful to the will and desires of our loving and caring Heavenly Father.

Do you trust God with your worries enough to be thankful for everything?

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The Ultimate Plan And We Are Included In It

2nd May

“God has now revealed to us His mysterious plan regarding Christ, a plan to fulfill His own good pleasure. And this is the plan: At the right time He will bring everything together under the authority of Christ – everything in heaven and on earth.”

Ephesians 1:9-10

God’s plan from the beginning of time was clear yet not fully revealed. Although God revealed part of His plans through the prophets and promises found in the Old Testament, it was only until Jesus walked on this earth, that God’s ‘masterplan’ was fully revealed to His people. Paul, plainly and clearly tells us that God’s plan is to bring the whole of creation, both in heaven and on earth, together in one voice, as one body, under the authority of Christ.

This is not some communistic ideology, to bring all humanity under one head to have ultimate authority and dictatorship over all, but rather God’s plan is to bring peace, love and joy to a broken, hopeless and helpless world. It is to save humanity rather than enslave it. God’s perfect love wants to set the captives free, to break the chains of sin, to release us to live as He made us to be. His rule is liberty not law, freedom not captivity!

We, who have been saved already, live in the fullness of this plan. We can have as much of Jesus as we want; as much as we allow ourselves to be filled by His love. We can walk in His plans and purposes for our lives NOW. We can live in all He has for us NOW. Moreover, we are also called to be instruments and vessels of His masterplan too. We are beacons of His love. We carry the authority of the King. We are individually commissioned to serve in His Kingdom. God has a plan for you individually that is necessary and fits perfectly in His final masterpiece. You are part of God’s plan.