Devotions

Good morning!

Blessings to you, your families and communities.

John 1-2

Living Bible

1 1-2 Before anything else existed,[a] there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. 3 He created everything there is—nothing exists that he didn’t make. 4 Eternal life is in him, and this life gives light to all mankind. 5 His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it.

We live in hope today because

Christ came to dispel the darkness. 

Yes, the darkness that exists within us and without. The challenge, heartache of our personal experience and that which we witness in others. Life is NOT a meaningless set of interactions that some would have us believe.

Our steps are ordered by God. Christ has come that we might have the more abundant life

The word of God states we who believe must trust and be settled in our conviction that God is able to do all things. When we do so we experience rest and peace

Hebrews 4: 10-12 states,

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; 

10 For anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works,just as God did from his. 

11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest..,

In this rest we are not passive but active. We are aware of the oppression of the darkness that pervades our world. We must fortify our minds with God’s word.

12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow;

Let us give praise to God the most High who is the light to all men. When you experience the darkness, when it seeks to consume or overwhelm, know that weeping may endure for the night but joy comes in the morning!

Jacqui 

Good morning

Blessings for the new working week. We as believers must live our lives and so reflect the conviction that we are in God’s hand. The fight belongs to him. What is the fight? The fight is, the life we live and the choices we make when we are perplexed, overwhelmed by our own, our communities and global circumstances/ events. 

The bible declares, when the enemy comes in like a flood, God lifts his standard against him. We are NOT alone!!!

Today and every day, renew your commitment to allow God to be a lamp unto your feet and light unto your path. What does this look like? It requires that you undertake due diligence but in this process, ask God for discernment, for understanding and also you need to entertain wise counsel. 

Reflect on the word of God, which states it is He that has made us and not we ourselves. This means we are not alone in the challenge. We are the sheep of his pasture.

God is sovereign in all our circumstances and sometimes he allows in our lives only what he can transform. Why? So we do not loose sight of who he really is! He is the author and finisher of our faith. Contemplate this and never believe the lie that was told to Eve in Eden that we can live this life devoid of God. 

So the fight is to recognise and acknowledge whose we truly are. Whatever we become, whatever accolades we receive, it is in God we move, live and have our being. Understand and do not become distracted by the noise all around you. It is God that is to be worshipped through our life’s actions and deeds. It is he alone that should and needs to be glorified. 

The fight is fierce. It can challenge us to our knees. But it is when we are on our knees that God reminds us that we are not fighting on our own. Christ came, lived and died to show us that by relying on the father, we too can be victorious and overcomers.  🙏

Jacqui 

Good morning! 

Blessings to you, your families and communities. 

What does it mean to follow? Implicit within this question is the understanding that this life is about finding direction, purpose and meaning. 

Have you found this today? We follow because innate within each of us is the desire to be fulfilled, to be understood and to belong. 

Our desire for God, the desire to seek after and for Him alone, resides deep within our spirit and psyche. We were made with a deep desire for connection, for communion with God. Nothing else will satisfy the question for self understanding, life meaning and purpose. 

We are made whole in God. We are renewed and find favour only through his love. 

Whatever your experience yesterday, today or tomorrow, hold to the conviction that it is God and God alone who is altogether lovely. 

He makes all things beautiful in His time. 

There is no shadow of turning with Him. 

He sent his son so that through Him we might experience joy despite the sorrow, hope in despair and peace though the storm rages. 

Who do you follow today? What or who has your heart? Following takes a concerted effort. It means we walk by faith and not by sight. 

We are not swayed by feelings. We stand and live by our convictions and principles. 

Is this easy? No- but all things are possible with God

We as believers need to have a determination so like Job we can say though he slay me yet will I trust Him. We have to settle in our minds that what God allows, he will enable it to work for our good 🙏

Good morning!

Reflecting on the good in Good Friday we see God’s love for us and see he acts out of love. 

Because of his goodness and love, we have hope today, and life today. We as believers know that God showed up for us, sent his son for us so that we could be restored, reconciled back to him. We have the blessed hope today and always because he rose from the dead hallelujah!! 

He rose and we will rise with him if we are alive and remain when he returns. 

Contemplate today the depths and breadth of God’s love that was extended to us. 

It’s only this love that is able to keep us, sustain us, assists us to understand our life purpose and so acts to transform us. 

God is the designer of this world and all that is within it. He is all powerful! He demonstrated this through the life of his son Jesus Christ. 

Good Friday is the fruition of God’s plan put in motion from the start of creation. God is for us and not against us. Hold to this fact today. Good Friday means nothing can separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord 🙏

Good morning!!

Blessings for the new working week. May God’s peace abide in your hearts, souls and mind. 

When we look around us in our world today what do we see? Do we see a conflict raging? Do we understand the battle for our minds? 

The central question is who do we seek to worship? 

Psalms 100 states that we… 

Shout with joy before the Lord, O earth! 2 Obey him gladly; come before him, singing with joy.

3 Try to realize what this means—the Lord is God! He made us—we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

4 Go through his open gates with great thanksgiving; enter his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name. 5 For the Lord is always good. He is always loving and kind, and his faithfulness goes on and on to each succeeding generation.

From the above verses what is critical for us to grasp and to contemplate is why God is worthy of worship? 

He is worthy because He is God!! 

He has made us and not we ourselves.

We may seek in this life to create gods of ourselves, of others or of our environments. 

But these things will not satisfy. They cannot give the peace that passes all understanding. These cannot quell our heart storms. Only God gives fulfilment that allows our cups to overflow. 

Because God is, therefore we are. 

If you’re searching for meaning beyond the mundane today, look to Jesus. If you’re perplexed by life or challenged by current circumstances surrender to the one who spoke and the seas calmed. 

If you lack hope in this life, lean on the one who gave himself so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. 

You are not alone in your experiences. God sent his Son, so that new life could be afforded to us. 

We can experience a new perspective, a sense of healing and joy because God’s sent his Son that through Him we might be saved. 

We just have to trust in the one who is able to do all things. We must allow God to be God. This means that we give up the attempt or denounce the fallacy that we can do this life on our own. We ask God to shape and direct our path. Because he alone is able to this. We allow God to sit on our heart’s throne. 

 We trust if God allows experiences , he will give us the grace to surmount the challenges or if these difficulties remain we will understand that God’s grace is sufficient for us because his power and His glory will be revealed in our weakness. 

 So remember whose you are. You are not walking this life journey alone. He who has started a good work in you is able to complete it. 🙏

Good morning! Blessings be upon you, your families and communities. 

Isaiah 41:10

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There is certainty with God. That’s why we can experience the peace that passeth all understanding in all our circumstances!!!

There is hope and peace for those who dwell in the secret place of the most high. They shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. 

God is relational and desires intimacy with us. It is in this connectedness with God that we are transformed into all he wishes us to be. 

This refers to the transformation of the inner self. Our outward circumstances may not change or improve BUT with God’s indwelling spirit we are strengthened and remain at peace. 

If you feel agitated, worried or perplexed, let us stop trying to do for ourselves only what God can do for us. He alone can bring true comfort and rest. Give everything concern, desire, worry or perplexity in your life to Him. He is the God who has whole world in his hands. 

He is able to do all things above which we can ask or think. 

If you need healing today, turn towards the one who gives life and offers it more abundantly. If you thirst for fulfilment and a meaningful existence, Christ offers living water so that you need not thirst again. If you need bread that truly sustains, turn to Christ who sacrificed himself,  the bread of life, so that you could be whole, not lacking any good thing. 

God wants us to be seen and known in Him. Rest in this truth- We truly belong to God and our times are in His hand. 

When we grasp the magnitude of what the above statement means, we will then say boldly I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. 

We will be able to declare that He is the all sufficient God. God is our strength when we live in a place of despair. 

Life happens to us but God is saying when you abide in me, you can choose your response to life situations. 

In all the life situations that God has allowed for us to experience, God is saying to us today, I am the Waymaker- I am all that you need 🙏

Jacquie

Good morning!

Blessings for the new working week ahead. 

Paul writing to fellow believers in Philippi shared his faith in God. 

He said…

He who has begun a good work in you is able to complete it! Philippians 1:6

What does this verse mean to you today? 

With God there is no shadow of turning with Him. What does this mean? 

God says of himself- I am the lord and I change not. 

Your circumstances may change, your feelings and attitudes may change BUT God does not! 

We can rest in God’s faithfulness. We can trust the blessed assurance that Jesus is ours today. We can know that because the lord is our shepherd we will lack no good thing. We can trust today that Emmanuel- God is with us in all our situations. We can live today because he has conquered death, hell and the grave. 

No matter what we face we trust in God’s word if God be for us who can be against us. We know that greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world. 

Let us rest in God’s unfailing love. He who has started a good work in you IS able to complete it! 

Life serves us uncertainties, setbacks, chaos and confusion on its daily platter each day. Faith in God allows us to find purpose and direction using those hurdles to navigate ourselves in and through life and rise above each challenges confidently and triumphantly.

Being patient teaches us self-control to respond to these challenges mindfully, be resilient and to competently thrive through each climactic seasons of life .

Faith helps us to be hopeful to live in expectation of the desired outcome and not be dissuaded and confused by the ever-changing scenes of the world but rather be creative and seek ways of mastering the art of being the overcomer.

Remembering the goodness of God in the past, present and future produces a calming effect on the mental, emotional and spiritual health. God the Creator of Heaven and Earth is in control. Therefore, love for God drives out fear within us. Instead of fear, trust, hope and faith will be nurtured within our hearts and reflected in our thoughts and conduct towards self and others.

We have  the Blessed Assurance that no matter what – whether good or bad all things will work together for good. This teaches us how to be flexible, adaptable, self-aware and practice consistency in our daily life. Man is created by God with the highest intelligence out of all His creations. Day and Night follows a consistent pattern so should man reflect the image of their creator. God has made us with freedom of choice to serve.

We are not able to  control external forces around us but we can control our responses within an ever-changing environment. 

Faith in God gives victory to overcome the world.

TC

I had to retire in my mid-forties on ” Ill Health” from a job that I really enjoyed, although it was challenging at times.
This caused me great pain, sadness, feelings of loss and loneliness.

I had questions, why me.
I asked myself some deep soul searching questions for days, weeks and months. Then I started to attend church more frequently when I felt able to do so.

One particular sermon touched my heart. I felt at peace with myself and ill health. I decided to give my life to Father God who knows everything about me.
Through baptism I became a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

God has made all the difference in my life. He will never leave me nor forsake me. He has held my hands through severe storms, mountains, valleys and rivers of tears. He has made a way out of every situation, no matter how hard and difficult it was. I know God will continue to make a way.

Today I am happy in Jesus. He gives me the breath of life each day. I am still standing on his promises and will continue to lift his name on high. At all times and in every situation I will praise God.
He has given me the Greatest Gift ” LIFE”

M Little

Grab hold of the vibrant, abundant life Jesus offers

Grab hold of the vibrant, abundant life Jesus offers

“Recover your life. Take a real rest. Live freely and lightly.”

When we read these words from Jesus in Matthew 11: 28-23, it’s easy to think they’re for someone else. Someone with a more laid-back personality. Someone who’s super spiritual. Someone… anyone else… who must have their act together.

But here’s the deal. Jesus’ invitation to find real rest is for YOU. 

It’s for the you who doesn’t have their act together. The you who doesn’t have life figured out. The you who he loves and the you whose load he wants to lighten!

Every word Jesus spoke in Scripture is truth for our lives every single day. He said in the middle of this crazy world, we can find rest in him. Jesus wants to and can give us that rest.

Michael Monteith