Daily Devotions

The book of Daniel tells of how God shows His everlasting wisdom, power, and faithfulness through one of Israel’s greatest prophets.   Daniel’s story is set right after Babylon’s first attack on Jerusalem. They had plundered the city and the temple, taking a wave of Israelites into exile. 

Among these prisoners were four men from the royal family line of David: Daniel, later named Belteshazzar, and his three friends, who you probably know by their Babylonian names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. This book tells of their struggles to maintain hope in the land of their conquerors.

Daniel was revered as a man of God, and it is already established that he was a committed man of prayer, as illustrated in Daniel 2:17-18 “Daniel then went home and told his companions Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what was going on. He asked them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy in solving this mystery so that the four of them wouldn’t be killed along with the whole company of Babylonian wise men.” 

Daniel further demonstrates his commitment to a prayer life during the events of chapter 6. Due to the envy of the people around him, Daniel is thrown into the lions’ den. However, God works to keep him safe, and he comes out unscathed. 

Someone has said, “God had only one Son who lived without sin, but He has had no sons who have lived without prayer.” Jesus was constantly in prayer. He prayed before He ate, before great decisions, and in the Garden of Gethsemane before He went to the cross. Sometimes He prayed all night. Jesus lived the most beautiful life that was ever lived by a human being, and He did this by saturating His life with prayer.

If we learn anything from the faith of Daniel in the midst of extreme provocation it is the place of faithful prayer that is the key inner strength that allows the one who prays to do God’s will. Interestingly, it was Mahatma Gandhi who said, “Prayer is not an old woman's amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action."

You may wish to read Chapter 9 of Daniel where you will find the earnestness of his prayer.

Today, in the light of Daniel’s prayer, we pray, “All-knowing God, we regularly face difficult decisions and confusing predicaments. We ask for your wisdom to help us make choices that honour you. Amen”

Daily Devotions

The book of Ezekiel takes its title from the priest of the same name, son to a man named Buzi. Ezekiel’s priestly lineage shines through in his prophetic ministry; he often concerned himself with topics such as the temple, the priesthood, the glory of the Lord, and the sacrificial system.

As a priest, Ezekiel was deeply concerned with restoring God’s people to holiness. His understanding of the depth of Israel’s sin is clear in his version of Israel’s history.

Ezekiel declares judgment on those clinging to false hope, but offers true hope to those who accept God’s judgment. He linked God’s judgment with the hope of a new heart and spirit.

A most important prophecy of Ezekiel is found in chapter 36:26-27, “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I  will put my spirit within you so that you walk in my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.

This prophecy is a powerful and hopeful message of renewal, transformation, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It speaks to the promise of God to bring about inner transformation in the lives of His people, and to empower them to walk in obedience and faithfulness.”

I recently read, “Heart is used in Scripture as the most comprehensive term for the authentic person. It is the part of our being where we desire, deliberate, and decide. It has been described as "the place of conscious and decisive spiritual activity," "the comprehensive term for a person as a whole; their feelings, desires, passions, thought, understanding and will," and "the centre of a person. The place to which God turns.”

Our Heavenly Father, open our hearts to Your Word and ways. Thank you, for being tendered hearted to us, teach us to be tenderhearted to others. Take away our stony, stubborn, self-centred hearts and replace them with new hearts that are loving and caring. Like the sunflower blossoms are different but join together into a beautiful display, teach us to join together, displaying love and compassion for each other. In Jesus’ holy name. Amen

Daily Devotions

Lamentations is a unique book in the Old Testament. It contains five poems from an anonymous author, who survived and is reflecting back on Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem, its destruction and exile that followed. The Book is divided into five chapters. Each chapter represents a separate poem.

The design of the five poems is an intentional part of the book’s message.

Chapters 1-4 are made up of acrostics, or alphabet poems, in which each poetic verse begins with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet, consisting of 22 letters. This very ordered and linear structure is a stark contrast to the disordered pain and confused grief explored in the poems. It’s like Israel’s suffering is explored A to Z, trying to express that which is inexpressible.

Whilst most are perhaps not familiar with the detail of Lamentations the essence of the third poem, I am sure, will be familiar to most worshipers.

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
    therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him,
    to the one who seeks him; Lamentations 3:22-25

Two hymns immediately come to mind, Thomas Chisholm's “Great is thy faithfulness,” and the words of “New every morning is the love, our wakening and uprising prove” by John Keeble.

Captain Robert Campbell was a British POW captured by Germany during World War I. When his mother became gravely ill, he begged to visit her. He promised Kaiser Wilhelm II that if he would be allowed to leave captivity and see his mother, he would voluntarily return to be imprisoned again. 

Campbell was granted his request, and he was a man of his word. Though he could easily have decided to take the easy route and not return, he kept his promise. Similarly, God’s word is trustworthy, he is always faithful. When he promises  something, he is honour bound to fulfil his promise. His word is his bond.

Lord, I praise you

because your unfailing love

never ends!

By your mercies I have been kept from complete destruction.

Great is your faithfulness;

your mercies begin afresh each day.

You are my inheritance;

therefore, I will hope in you.

You are unfailingly good

to those whose hope is in you,

to those who seek you.

Teach me to wait quietly for your salvation. Amen

Help me to submit to your yoke of discipline.

Let me sit alone in silence beneath your demands.

Amen.

Daily Devotions

The Book of Jeremiah combines history, biography, and prophecy. It portrays a nation in crisis and introduces the reader to an extraordinary person whom the Lord called to prophesy under the trying circumstances of the final days of the kingdom of Judah. 

Jeremiah was born, around 650 B.C., of a priestly family from the village of Anathoth, two and a half miles northeast of Jerusalem. He was called to his task in the thirteenth year of King Josiah (Jer 1:2). Josiah’s reform, began with enthusiasm and hope, ended with his death on the battlefield of Megiddo (609 B.C.) as he attempted to stop the northward march of the Egyptian Pharaoh

As a prophet, Jeremiah amongst other things, uses 6 key verbs (4 negative and 2 positive ).

Uproot - Tear Down - Destroy - Overthrow - Build - Plant

 Perhaps the most significant prophetic passage is found in chapter 31:31–33. 

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to[a] them,[b]”
declares the Lord.

“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.

The Lord is saying that a day is coming when the old covenant Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai would be fulfilled through a new covenant God will put in its place. We notice that there are 4 key parts to the new covenant described here: 1) a new heart, 2) a new relationship, 3) a new knowledge, and 4) a new forgiveness. God was saying He would some day supply a new covenant that, by His power, would start with the heart.

To respond to the Old Covenant, if we could possibly live faultlessly by the law, is to become righteous, to respond to the New Covenant is to become new.

A prayer by St. Ambrose of Milan (AD 339-397)

O Lord, who has mercy on all,

take away from me my sins,

and mercifully kindle in me

the fire of your Holy Spirit.

Take away from me the heart of stone,

and give me a heart of flesh,

a heart to love and adore you,

a heart to delight in you,

to follow and enjoy you, for Christ's sake, Amen

Daily Devotions

Isaiah is among the most important of the prophetic biblical books. It covers a long period of Israel’s history (before, during, and after the exile) and offers the full range of God’s prophetic messages: terrifying words of judgment as well as comforting words of promise. Isaiah portrays God as the powerful Creator, like no other, and also the gentlest comforter, like an earthly lover or mother. 

Prophetic books like Isaiah are, for the most part, written in poetry and should be read accordingly. Readers should offer appropriate care for and attentiveness to the common features of Hebrew poetry, such as repetition, thematic echoes, line endings, metaphor, and the creative use of language. 

At the heart of Isaiah’s message is God’s purpose of grace for sinners. If that ultimate miracle is accepted—and one cannot be a Christian without accepting it—then a lesser miracle is no barrier. Indeed, the prophet making predictions of future events is not a problem; it is, as Isaiah intended it to be, encouraging evidence of God’s sovereign salvation intercepting a sinful world.

A Familiar text later quoted by Jesus can be found in chapter 61:1-3  The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

Today, we hope and pray for:

Joy as we journey together,

Sight for the blind and healing for the sick,

Freedom for the prisoners 

and good news for the poor,

Release for the oppressed with justice for all

and love for each other.      

And the coming of God’s topsy-turvy,

inside out,

upside-down Kingdom. Amen

Daily Devotions

The Song of Songs has unique and somewhat puzzling position in the canon of scripture. Some have considered carefully the place that Song of Songs plays within the Bible and conclude  in rather a simple way, that this canticle is an inspired biblical love story. It is a book written in praise of romantic love between a man and a woman. 

Historically, some Christian and Jewish interpreters favoured an allegorical approach to the Song, and see the text as symbolically pointing to a deeper, spiritual truth. For many Jewish readers, the Song’s lover and beloved were understood to represent God and his covenant people, Israel. 

There appears to be four main interpretations of the Song of Songs. They are the “Allegory of God’s love for Israel,” “An Allegory of Christ’s love for His bride, the Church,” an “Extended type of the Christ-Church marriage illustration,” and the view that exalts love as the most powerful and desirable of human emotions. 

Essentially the Song of Songs teaches us that love and one’s beloved are almost indescribably beautiful. Even if the poems imagery jars with modern readers.

Just read the following from Song of Songs 4:7-10 and allow the words to paint the beauty of love upon your soul.

“You're beautiful from head to toe, my dear love, beautiful beyond compare, absolutely flawless.

Come with me from Lebanon, my bride. Leave Lebanon behind, and come. Leave your high mountain hideaway. Abandon your wilderness seclusion, Where you keep company with lions and panthers guard your safety.

You've captured my heart, dear friend. You looked at me, and I fell in love. One look my way and I was hopelessly in love!

How beautiful your love, dear, dear friend - far more pleasing than a fine, rare wine, your fragrance more exotic than select spices.”

And so we pray a prayer of St Francis of Assisi 

Dear God, please reveal to us
your sublime beauty
that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere
so that we will never again
feel frightened.
My divine love, my love,
Please let us touch
your face. Amen

Daily Devotions

The title “Ecclesiastes” comes from a Greek word indicating a person who calls an assembly, so it makes sense that the author identified himself in Ecclesiastes 1:1 by the Hebrew word ‘qoheleth,’ translated as “Preacher.” 

Ecclesiastes presents us a naturalistic vision of life—one that sees life through distinctively human eyes—but ultimately recognises the rule and reign of God in the world. 

Ecclesiastes is a book of perspective. The narrative of “the Preacher” (KJV), or “the Teacher” (NIV) reveals the depression that inevitably results from seeking happiness in worldly things. This book gives believers a chance to see the world through the eyes of a person who, though very wise, is trying to find meaning in temporary, human things. Most every form of worldly pleasure is explored by the Preacher, and none of it gives him a sense of meaning.

In the end, the Preacher comes to accept that faith in God is the only way to find personal meaning. He decides to accept the fact that life is brief and ultimately worthless without God. The Preacher advises the reader to focus on an eternal God instead of temporary pleasure.

In the end the ‘Preacher’ concludes, “And, when all is said and done, here is the last word: worship in reverence the one True God, and keep His commands, for this is what God expects of every person. For God will judge every action—including everything done in secret—whether it be good or evil.”

Of such reverence John Milton, says, “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.”

The word for reverence used in some translation is fear. For the believer, the fear of God is something much different from that generally understood within society. The believer’s fear is reverence of God. In Hebrews 12:28-29 we find is a good description of this kind of reverence: “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire.’” This reverence and awe are exactly what the fear of God means for Christians. This is the motivating factor for us to surrender to the Creator of the Universe.

Help us today to fear You and obey Your commandments, to love you with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, revere You, worship You, trust You, and do what you have said. Live according to Your word knowing that this is where life is found. This is what we're made for. God, help us to live for this. Amen

Daily Devotions

The book of Proverbs has been given the title Walk and Work

Proverbs accomplishes something no other biblical book does: it simply compiles numerous short instructions for living an effective life on earth. While other books articulate profound theological truths, lengthy narratives of triumph and failure, or prophetic preaching to a disobedient people, Proverbs concerns itself completely with instructing people in the path of wisdom. The writers of the book recognised the varied circumstances of a person’s life and provided principles to apply in a variety of situations rather than instructions to follow in only a few specific instances.

The book of Proverbs contains many brief but wise statements about how to live a godly life. Although the book was written in ancient Israel, its messages remain applicable in the modern world. This student's study book, enables them to discover wisdom that draws them closer to the Lord.

So, Proverbs provides practical help for everyday life. Written by the wisest man to ever live, Proverbs warns us about the people and pitfalls we’d do well to avoid. And, it gives us insight into how to be successful at work, at home, in relationships, and with our money.  The book is not a list of promises, but a list of timeless instructions from God. In each wise saying, we discover how to handle every situation.

What we can say about Proverbs is that knowledge is nothing more than an accumulation of raw facts, but wisdom is the ability to see people, events, and situations as God sees them. As such, in the Book of Proverbs, Solomon reveals the mind of God in matters high and lofty and in common, ordinary, everyday situations, too.

The following key verses from the book of Proverbs gives us a flavour of the wisdom found within its pages.

Proverbs 1:5, "Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance."

Proverbs 1:7, "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.”

Proverbs 4:5, "Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or swerve from them."

Proverbs 8:13-14, "To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are mine; I have understanding and power.”

Heavenly Father,

As I rise from my sleep and step into this new day, I am reminded of the wisdom You have shared with us in Proverbs 3:5–6:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Lord, today I place my trust in You with all my heart. I acknowledge that my understanding is limited, and I lean on You for guidance and wisdom in all I do. Help me to rely not on my own   understanding but on Your infinite knowledge and love. As I prepare to face the challenges and blessings of this day, I submit myself to Your will. Amen