January 5: Mark 6:45-52

Key Verse: Mark 6:46
After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray.

Devotion:
After feeding so many people and giving them much food for thought, the spiritual kind, Jesus retired to go and pray to His Father in Heaven. This was not a sign of weakness or a sign of having worked too hard. This was a sign of love for His Father in Heaven. He wanted to give thanks for everything which had happened so the people could be fed.

But once the disciples were alone in the boat in the middle of the lake, they began to lose sight of the power of God and began to focus on the wind and the wave surrounding them. Even after we have received blessings from God, as soon as something ruffles our feathers, we begin to focus on earthly things and tend to leave God out!

Jesus stopped what He was doing and set aside time to be with God. He did not wait until things started to break down before He prayed, He set time aside to pray. Note the disciples were perfectly safe while He was praying – because God would have been keeping an eye out for them anyway. But after His time of prayer, He started to make His way back to the disciples. Unfortunately they had allowed the weather to get the better of them and they were struggling to get back to shore.

Jesus decided to meet them where they were. He did not wait for them to struggle all the way to the shore – He walked out to them, walking on the water. They were terrified at seeing something like a spirit walking out to them because they were too consumed with what was happening. But when Jesus spoke, they recognised Him and things settled down when Jesus joined them in the boat. They still did not have the foresight to see what God was doing by providing for the people. He was sharing His love!

Points to Ponder:
Do you focus too much on the world?

Will you fully accept God’s love?

January 4: John 1:35-42

Key Verse: John 1:36
When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, ‘Look, the Lamb of God!’

Devotion:
The day before these things happened, John had already described Jesus as the Lamb of God and knowing that Jesus had been born as a human after him, he still said Jesus was before him. John understood Jesus had always existed because He was the Son of God. When John said these words, the two disciples of his who were with him at the time turned round and followed Jesus instead.

John did not cry out and ask why they turned their backs on him. He did not complain these disciples went after someone else… because He knew they were going to follow a higher calling than learning about repentance and baptism which is what He was teaching. John knew they could get more from following Jesus!

Andrew, who was one of the disciples of John who turned to follow Jesus, heard what Jesus was teaching and immediately went to find his own brother Simon to get him to come along and follow Jesus too. For anyone to do this must mean Jesus was an incredible teacher who was teaching people more in depth truths than any of the teachers they had come across yet.

When we meet someone who has such a presence and command of the scriptures, we want to follow them until we too have learned enough to go forward and teach others what we have learned. John, like Jesus, wanted his disciples to go forward and teach what they had learned; not to keep it all a big secret but to take the truth and boldly share it with others. Jesus wants us to learn and teach, learn and teach, just like his disciples.

Points to Ponder:
How much have you learned about Christ?

How much have you shared about Christ?

January 3: Psalm 98:2-3

Key Verse: Psalm 98:3
The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.

Devotion:
I can remember being confused by various verses I had to learn in order to be confirmed; the wording in the Bible was a bit foreign to me so I skipped over many things at the time. I learned enough to get me through the ceremony and when to stand up, sit down and kneel; at the time it was a means to an end, a way of getting out of the confines of boarding school life and being somewhere different!

A short time after that someone could see I was still a bit confused with everything and took time to try and explain what salvation was all about. It was then I began to learn what Christ had done and why He had done it. This is the salvation of the Lord being passed on from person to person no matter where or when. You see, my boarding school was a boys only school and we were taught to be tough and take life by the horns – not what God’s salvation was about, what man was about in his pride, lust and greed.

But if the word of God can be passed around in a place like that, it can be passed around in many places. It is often places like prison and other harsh environments where God can show people the extreme contrast between man’s world and His world. It is often in places like this where God will choose people who otherwise would have no hope to receive His hope and spread the good news to others in similar situations.

I am thankful for the your men in the Christians Union club (another ploy by me to get out to prep or rest time in boarding school) who gave up their time to open God’s Word and try to explain it in simpler terms for us to understand. The more we get to understand God’s Word, the more He can use us to share it with others relating what He teaches to the world around us and into our daily lives, no matter where, when or how!

Points to Ponder:
Do you think you are in an environment where scriptures cannot be opened?

Have you tried opening them to see what will happen?