Devos

God Wants Us to Set Our Eyes Upon Him

   

“Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord’s mercies that w are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” (Lamentations 3:19-25)

Have you ever been humbled by your own sin? How about by a trial, something hard that you or your family have to go through? Sin and trials humble us. Sometimes the sins we do have consequences, some bad results that come because of the sin. Sometimes we feel very hurt and sad and worried about trials. When sin and trials come, our hearts can be miserable. But even when we are going through times like that, we should not forget that God can help us and bring us through the hardest things.

Hard times do not happen only to grownups. Kids face temptations and heartbreaks, too. If it were not for the mercy of God, you might get overwhelmed by everything, and you might want to “throw in the towel” (just give up). But God does not fail. He is faithful to care for His children. He is good to those who hope and wait on Him.

Do you know what it means to hope and wait on God? Sometimes we want to try really hard to figure everything out and change everything that is going on so that it will not hurt so much. To hope and to wait on God means to trust Him that He will work everything out for His glory and our best good. It means believing that God will handle the whole thing perfectly, in His perfect timing (because He is perfect), and He will change things if He wants to change things. To hope and wait on God means to look only to Him for your help. Just keep setting your focus on Jesus. He will help you through hard times, and He will not let sin and trials destroy you as long as you are trusting Him for your help.

God is faithful! Hope in Him.

We should hope in God to help us through hard times.

My Response:
» When something makes me sad or worried, do I try to fix it by myself, or do I look to God?
» How can I encourage others who might be fighting against sin or going through a really hard time in their hearts?

Devos

God Reveals Himself to Those Who Love Him

   

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” (John 14:21)

Jesus had just told His disciples that He was going to go away from them. He said that He was going to go and prepare a place for them in His Father’s house. For three years, His disciples had followed Him. They had walked beside Him, listened to Him teach, watched Him heal sick people, and even eaten meals with Him. But now He said that He was leaving, and they weren’t going to see Him for a while. Their hearts were sad and troubled. Jesus was their Master, their Teacher, their dearest Friend.

But Jesus had good news for them. He was going to send them a Helper—the Holy Spirit—who would stay with them always. Even though Jesus was returning to heaven after His death, and even though His followers would not see Him anymore, He promised that they could still know Him, talk with Him, and be close to Him.

Do you have a desire in your heart to know God—I mean really know Him? Do you want to have a deep, personal relationship with Him, even though you can’t see Him with your eyes? Do you want to know what He thinks and how He feels? Do you want to understand Him as He really is?

According to this verse, knowing God starts with obedience. The very first thing we have to obey is the Gospel. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” (John 14:6) But after we’ve entered into a relationship with God through repentance and faith in Christ, we need to keep on obeying Him. We need to take everything that He tells us in His Word very seriously. That is the best way to show God that we love Him. And once we are saved, we have His Holy Spirit dwelling in us. The Holy Spirit helps us understand God’s Word and gives us power to obey it.

Jesus said that He will manifest Himself, or make Himself known in a special way, to those who love Him. If you really want that kind of closeness with Jesus Christ, He wants to give it to you. Ask Him for it, and then start listening to His voice and obeying Him. A close relationship with Jesus carries a price tag of obedience. But it is a price well worth paying, and the rewards will last through eternity.

Jesus reveals Himself to those who love and obey Him.

My Response:
» How much do I want to know God?
» Am I willing to pay the price of obedience?

Truth in Real Life Moments

Corrie ten Boom

   

“The measure of a life, after all, is not its duration, but its donation.”

According to an old Jewish belief, only the most blessed people die on their birthdays. How appropriate, then, that Corrie ten Boom was born and died on April 15. She was born in 1885, and she died on her 91st birthday after a lifelong testimony of how the love of God can transform and sustain people. Cornelia ten Boom lived with her father and sister in Holland at the time of the Holocaust and World War II. When the Nazis invaded Holland, she began helping her Jewish friends by hiding them in secret rooms in her house. A fellow-countryman betrayed the ten Booms and their “underground network” and secret hiding places were discovered. The ten Booms and their friends were sent to prison and terrible concentration camps.

Although the idea of Christians enduring persecution is not unusual, the faith that Corrie maintained as she endured persecution was unusual. The Nazis separated her from loved ones, beat her, harassed her, humiliated her, and almost killed her. Death was all around her; she watched her sister Betsie grow more and more ill, and eventually she lost her and other family members and friends. Yet Corrie was able to testify wholeheartedly to the love of God: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.”

How could she say that? Corrie valued the good news of Jesus Christ’s love in a world full of hate. She saw the people who hurt her as souls who ought to be delivered from themselves instead of enemies who ought to be punished for eternity. She once said, “Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.”  

What about us? In today’s comparably “normal” and “safe” circumstances, praying in a public restaurant or giving a disabled beggar some food is too “hard” or “scary” (or maybe just embarrassing?) for some Christians. They do not do anything notably “Christian” in public, because they don’t want to stand out as being different, and they are afraid someone might get angry or give them a funny look. They don’t want to give sacrificially or take risks to help needy people, because they are worried about having enough money and food for themselves. It was crucial for Corrie to remember that God loved her in spite of her shortcomings and that He wanted her to share His kind of love and forgiveness with her enemies. Do you love the unlovely? Do you take risks and make sacrifices to help needy people? Did Jesus Christ do those things for you? Even if you “don’t feel like it,” you can, by God’s grace, live out God’s love and grace in a world that doesn’t understand it.

Hebrews 11:25 – Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin.
 

Devos

God Must Come First

   

“I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12b)

How do we know when someone really loves us? One way we can tell is when that person gives up something they love in order to spend time with us. Imagine that you came to your parents when they were busy with something they enjoy—maybe reading a good book or watching a basketball game on TV. What if your mom put her book down and said, “I can read this book any old time. I would rather spend time with you. Let’s go for a walk!” Or what if your dad turned off the TV and said, “You’re more important to me than a basketball game. I’d rather go shoot some hoops in the driveway with you.” If your mom or your dad were willing to give up something for you, you’d know that they really cared about spending time with you.

It’s the same way in our relationship with God. We show our love for God by showing that He comes first. One way that we can show Him how much we love Him is by spending time in His Word—even if it means giving up something else we love in order to do it. God’s Word is the primary place where He reveals Himself, the best place to get to know Him.

Job was a man who really, really loved God. He said that he would rank God’s Word even higher than the food he needed to stay alive! He would be willing to give up food if necessary, because God’s Word was more important to him.

We don’t always have to give up food or a sport or a hobby to spend time in God’s Word. Sometimes it just means pulling our thoughts away from some other fascinating topic we would rather think about. It means turning our minds to think about what God is saying, and turning our hearts to obeying.

Are you willing to love God by showing Him that time in His Word is very important to you—every day?

We show love for God by placing great importance on our time in His Word.

My Response:
» Have I spent time reading and thinking about God’s Word yet today?
» Is there anything I’ve been doing that is stealing away the time I would usually spend with God?
» What do I need to do to guard my time with God?

Devos

God Changes Hearts

   

“The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.” (Proverbs 21:1)

King Nebuchadnezzar was rich and powerful. He was king of Babylon, and his country had conquered many other nations in wars. He had many slaves, many soldiers, and many wise men to give him advice and answer his hard questions. Because of his greatness, King Nebuchadnezzar was proud.

One day the king was walking in the palace. Looking around he said, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built . . . by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty?”

A very humbling thing happened to Nebuchadnezzar that very hour. He lost his mind. He was driven away from the palace, and he lived like an animal, eating grass. His hair grew thick and shaggy, and his nails became as long as birds’ claws.

After a time, Nebuchadnezzar’s reason returned. He became a normal man again. But one thing about him was very different—his heart. At the end of Daniel 4, we find him praising God instead of himself. God had changed his heart from a proud one to a humble one.

Is there someone you know who needs a heart change? Maybe one of your friends or loved ones needs to trust Jesus Christ as Savior. Or maybe someone you know is living a proud and disobedient life. What is the best thing you can do for that person? Ask God to change that person’s heart into a heart that loves and glorifies God. God can change anyone’s heart for His own glory.

God changes hearts that He might receive glory.

My Response:
» Am I praying regularly for God to change the hearts of people I know?
» Have I ever asked God to change my heart to love and glorify Him more?