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James 3:16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.
Spending too much time comparing yourself to others will lead to jealousy and to ill feeling about yourself.
In modern society we are often told to look after ourselves rather than the people around us so we can get the best from life; but what does that lead to?
If Christ tells us to look out for those around us and to love them as we love ourselves, and the world is telling us to love ourselves first and foremost, where do we go?
Listening to God will help you to focus on the people around you and allow you to avoid many ill feelings.
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Ecclesiastes 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
I know we do strive to learn in our lives and we are taught to try hard at gaining knowledge and wisdom to make our lives better; but is it right to do so?
The answer to this is not that wisdom or knowledge is wrong, but the thirst or greed for it can be very wrong; just like the love for money is wrong, but money in itself is not.
If we spend all our energy on focusing on getting the best knowledge and wisdom into our lives we are going to fall short of the need for both and focus on the requirement of getting the best.
God wants us to learn, but not at the cost of remembering and growing with the truth.
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Ecclesiastes 2:15 So I said in my heart, “As it happens to the fool, It also happens to me, And why was I then more wise?” Then I said in my heart, “This also is vanity.”
How often do you ask God “why me?” or look at something else which has happened and ask God “why them?”
Have you stopped to think about who things happen to, stopped to try and analyse why and when?
I trust you came to the same conclusion this verse has… Things happen in this world to everyone whether you are an ardent Christian or a complete fool.
God does not target people for who they are but for what is best in our lives; we may not agree with those things or the timing of them; many of them are simply caused by people out of control and not by God!
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Matthew 12:34 Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
I wonder if you have been called a snake before? I know I have been whilst at boarding school. We used it as a term for calling someone a liar.
If we do not have goodness and mercy in our hearts, then we should not expect to be able to talk and do good and merciful things because whatever is in our hearts will come out in what we do one way or another.
I’m pretty sure the people Jesus was addressing would have taken this to heart themselves and not liked it one bit. It is not nice to have someone point out your bad side when you want to promote a good side.
Don’t focus on the bad but rather try to focus on the good we can do in our lives; good for Christ!
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Psalm 141:4 Do not incline my heart to any evil thing, To practice wicked works With men who work iniquity; And do not let me eat of their delicacies.
It is very easy to get carried away and give in to temptation doing bad things; but actually making a conscious effort to go out of your way and do something bad is very different.
Our laws define a difference between premeditated murder and killing someone because it is the act of planning something like that which is the true evil part.
God does try to give us advice and guide us as we walk in this world; if we are not making an effort to listen in to Him we risk losing it all!
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Psalm 119:176 I have gone astray like a lost sheep; Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments.
This last stanza in this chapter of the Book of Psalms shows how the psalmist wanted God to hear every prayer they lifted up, to consider each one and to answer them.
Why? Because they believed in their hearts God was and is the Good Shepherd who will look out for His sheep just as He had said He would.
Believing God’s Word can be very comforting and uplifting. Knowing God’s Word and carrying it with you is comforting and uplifting.
Believe and trust in our awesome God who can be and is our Good Shepherd.
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Luke 15:4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?
When Jesus was speaking to the tax collectors, scribes and Pharisees, they would have understood this parable because they were talking about jobs and positions which were current in that day.
When you want to tell people about Christ, how do you talk to them? Do you rattle off a whole string of Old English words you have read in the bible, or do you use life lessons like Christ?
Don’t leave Christ out of the gospel is what we hear a lot of; but why leave the world out of your discussions when you talk about Jesus?
Relate to people as best you can; you are talking to real people!
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John 3:29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled.
How many weddings have you been to where the bridegroom has a trembling or elated voice when trying to say his vows to the bride?
The bridegroom may be the one who is marrying the bride, but the people around him will be able to share in the joy and excitement of the moment because they are there with him.
On some days the bridegroom may sound like he is getting cold feet and may need a bit of encouragement to go forward.
We can share in the joy and excitement of people coming to know Christ by being there with them and encouraging them forward too.
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Jeremiah 33:11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the Lord of hosts, or the Lord is good, For His mercy endures forever”— and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the Lord.
How happy does a bride or bridegroom sound on the run up to their wedding, or better still on the day itself? They beam with joy and gladness.
That is how we should be with our relationship with Christ! We should be beaming with joy and gladness at the fact we have this amazing relationship with and absolutely awesome God.
Jeremiah did have good news to bring as well as the bad news; reminders of what God had done and what He still could and does do for us.
That continues on today. God is working for us and supporting us every step of the way; we just tend to ignore most of it most of the time…
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Psalm 98:4 Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth in song, rejoice, and sing praises.
Making a noise in church may well be frowned upon in many circles, but doing so because you are celebrating your worship before God is different!
Not making the noise so other people can hear you, but making a noise because you want others to know your love for God.
The human voice is incredible and beyond any single instrument; the versatility of God’s creation goes far beyond that of man’s creation.
Use what God has given you to praise and worship Him to your fullest!
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Psalm 47:1 Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph!
How many churches have you been to where it is frowned upon for various things to go on such as applauding what someone says or voicing your approval?
There is always a time where such things may well be out of order, but we should be able to express our support for our victorious Lord and God!
Think about whether you are giving glory to God because it is He who should have all the glory and not we ourselves.
I don’t charge for devotions, nor do I advertise or seek a return. This is my way of giving God the glory.
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Isaiah 55:12 “For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Although the people of Israel had great joy out of being led out of Egypt in peace, these words are more focused on the joy and peace we have from living with God.
Not the joy and peace we will have when we get to heaven but the joy and peace we see, feel and touch when we are saved from sin, bonds, slavery, whatever.
There is no more joy than knowing you have eternity ahead of you!
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Psalm 105:43 He brought out His people with joy, His chosen ones with gladness.
When we see just how much God does for us at the right time and the right place we can celebrate with joy and partying!
No matter how much life gets us down we can always look forward to the joy and life God brings us and be able to celebrate this life with Him.
God has chosen us and set us aside from the bad and evil side of life. He has done this for a reason – we may not see the reason as we try to make sense of our lives, but we know it is God who is in control!
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Amos 2:10 Also it was I who brought you up from the land of Egypt, And led you forty years through the wilderness, To possess the land of the Amorite.
You may be asking questions like “why should I continue to uphold my praise and worship if God is going to allow bad stuff and people into my life?”
It is not all about consequences where we have to pay for the bad things in our lives either!
God does not want all these bad things to happen to us, but we do live in a world where there are a lot of bad people doing bad stuff; we are just some of the targets for those bad people. That is life.
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Amos 2:12 “But you gave the Nazirites wine to drink, And commanded the prophets saying, ‘Do not prophesy!’
People working against God’s people is not new. Mankind has been trying to knock Christians down for a very long time; and yet we continue to show just how powerful and supportive our God can be!
What we have to remember is we are not alone; we have God with us and we continue to have His support.
Don’t try to make a world for yourself but rather continue to try and work in God’s world and in His will. That is where we are going to be safest of all.
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Acts 5:40 And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
Do you get upset when many people turn out to support someone who is doing something wrong or even against the law?
I know I do get very upset when I see people getting carried away with their feelings and following the wrong path; but that is part of being human and emotional.
God has given us the ability to choose between right and wrong and He warns us we may well face a lot of opposition when we stand up for what is right. That should not stop us from standing up for the truth!
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Matthew 23:34 Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city,
What would you think of a group of people if you sent a person to help them and they turned round and killed that person? Not much!
Thankfully we do not have to deal with things like that in our “normal” lives, but we often do get our help rejected by people just because they don’t want to trust us.
God has faced this issue of people not wanting to trust Him far longer than we have and He does not turn His back on us!
Show some love and compassion on this special day to the people around you and don’t expect anything back!
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Acts 11:27 And in these days prophets came from Jerusalem to Antioch.
Does it surprise you to see things written down like this? I was kind of brought up in such a way as to believe the prophets were people who lived a long time before Christ and that was it.
God allowed people, even during these times when this was written, to be able to tell about things which were still to come.
God knows some of us need a lot of guidance and that we cannot get everything from just reading His Word. He gives us special people in our lives to guide us.
Trust in Him and trust in His power to be able to do so much more than we can think about!
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Ephesians 4:11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,
Is it really any real surprise we are all different from each other? You may be forgiven for thinking we should be more alike because we all come from each other as it were.
Even though we all have the same roots, we all live on the same planet and we all are exposed to pretty much the same things, we are all very different.
We have choice. We have the ability to think for ourselves.
This is what God has given to us. He has given us the ability to grow as our own people and He wants us to be able to do so. Make Him proud by growing as best you can!
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Acts 21:8 On the next day we who were Paul’s companions departed and came to Caesarea, and entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him.
How do you think you would be described by a bunch of Christians? Would they describe you as a good person or as someone who did things out of the ordinary?
Would you be just another Christians or would you stand out as one of a group who were making a difference?
God wants each of us to go out there and make a difference. That sometimes means doing things you are not comfortable with because they are stretching you further than you want to go.
Listen to God and expand on what you normally do for Him.