Devotional messages written by Peter for Seeds of the Kingdom from Ellel Ministries
“If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.”Proverbs 2:23, NIVNone of us likes to receive a rebuke. However, a rebuke given in love is like the
lines of a railway, keeping the engine an…
Proverbs 2:23, NIV
“If you had responded to my rebuke, I would have poured out my heart to you
and made my thoughts known to you.”
None of us likes to receive a rebuke. However, a rebuke given in love is like the
lines of a railway, keeping the engin…
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” James 1:22, NIVSome people like to think of the Bible, especially in the Authorised King James version, as great literature. While that is true, sadly, if that’s all you se…
James 1:22, NIV
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
Some people like to think of the Bible, especially in the Authorised King James version, as great literature. While that is true, sadly, if that’s all you see it as, you have totally and utterly missed the point. It`s purpose in being written by the Holy Spirit was not to create a work of great literature but to communicate to the world great truth about our great God. And then to show sinful men and women how great a salvation the very Son of God made possible for us, when He died on the cross for our sins. For, as Hebrews 2:3 puts it, “how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation?”
Our Scripture for today makes it clear that those who listen to or read the word, but do nothing with what they have just read or heard, are deceiving themselves. Last Christmas I went to a magnificent presentation of Handel’s Messiah. It was truly wonderful to hear some of the greatest words of Scripture put to music in that most amazing and very anointed Oratorio. There is no doubt that Handel knew the One he was writing about. I looked around the auditorium and there were clearly many Christians there who were rejoicing in what they were hearing, the looks on their faces betrayed the fact that the words being sung were real in their lives.
The majority of the people who were enjoying the performance had a different look on their faces. They were clearly enjoying the music, but it looked as though there was something missing in their response and some, even, seemed bored by the words that were being sung. As the words of the Hallelujah Chorus rang out in glorious celebration of all that the Messiah had done for us, I was praying that some of those present who did not know the Lord would realise that what they had been listening to was more than great music and a great performance, but was conveying a great message of a great salvation, which mankind ignores to their peril.
As believers, If we become so familiar with the word, and even worship the word, instead of worshipping the Lord, we can fall victims to our own self-imposed self-deception as well, becoming ‘hearers only’, as the authorised version translates James 1:22. Perhaps it’s time to check out our own lives with the Lord and ask Him if there is anything we are forgetting to do, even though we know it to be the truth. Self-deception is a dangerous disease which lies at the beginning of a very slippery slope!
Prayer: Help me, Lord, to recognise any areas of my life where I am guilty of self-deception, having become only a hearer and not a doer. I choose to come back to you and ask for Your forgiveness and to walk in obedience to the directions You have given me through Your word. In Jesus’s name, Amen.
Isaiah 50:10, NIV
“Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let the one who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on their God.”
Have you ever made a decision to obey God as a way of life? I’m not talking about obeying once in a while, but in every area we’ve placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There are times when we struggle to do what we know is right. We may feel pulled into disobedience simply because we’ve become a bit lazy with our prayer life and Bible reading.
Song of Solomon 2:15 says ‘catch the little foxes that ruin the vineyard’. It seems to me that it can be the smaller decisions that sometimes bring about the bigger consequences. The only similarity between obedience and disobedience is that they reflect the type of lifestyle we have made our own choice to follow.
If we’ve sincerely committed our life to God, then we make a choice to completely obey Him, and then we trust Him and leave whatever the consequences are to Him. In times of disobedience we go our own way, led by our fleshly desires.
And as a believer this brings us into huge conflict between what we know we should do versus what we’re actually doing. The bottom line is that there’s never a time when it’s OK to disobey God. We should obey Him, regardless of what we, or our friends and family, think. We say we believe that God is all wise and knows what’s best for us, so why do we often end up looking for advice in the secular world and not from the only one who knows everything we need to know? We need to consider only one issue – Is this God’s will for my life?
Disobedience can be as simple as not trusting God to take care of our immediate need. Even what we consider to be minor decisions can affect our future. We avoid a lot of heartache by simply obeying God. We can think “I’m not sure whether this is what God wants me to do”. Sometimes it can seem a little crazy, and we rationalise our response with our mind, instead of being led by the Spirit.
I was driving home one day on a main road and felt strongly prompted that I should pull over into a lay-by. I argued with God. “I’m in a hurry. Why would I want to stop”? It seemed completely crazy, but the prompting only got stronger.
So I pulled over into the lay-by and stopped. The next thing that happened was the car behind me, which was travelling quite fast, passed me. Then another car on the other side of the road took the corner too fast. They had a head on collision, and I sat there and witnessed a bad accident. I was completely shocked, and realised if I hadn’t been obedient to the prompting, that would have been me in the accident. We have to learn to be led by the Spirit, not according to our flesh, or logic, or our mind.
We can’t be partially obedient to God. Partial obedience is disobedience. The last verse of an old hymn called ‘When we walk with the Lord’ says ‘Then in fellowship sweet, we will sit at His feet, or we’ll walk by His side in the way. What He says we will do, where He sends we will go, never fear, only trust and obey’, and the chorus goes ‘Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey’ (John Henry Sammis, 1846-1919).
Prayer: Dear Lord, help me today to have a rightful fear of You that will keep me on the path of complete obedience, where You command the blessing for me. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”2 Cor…
“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to themDaniel 10:12, NIVDaniel needed help. God had given him a visio…
Daniel 10:12, NIV
“Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them
Daniel needed help. God had given him a vision, but he didn’t understand it. He knew that it was from the Lord and he was desperate for God’s explanation. For Daniel, hearing and understanding what the Lord was saying had been literally a matter of life and death as he had interpreted the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast and been saved through the agency of angels from the mouths of hungry lions. He knew through hard experience that God hears and answers prayers and that the most important thing in his life was God’s answers to his prayers.
And so it should be for us. What God is speaking into each one of our lives is of the greatest possible importance and can, indeed, be for us a matter of life and death. We need to grow in our understanding of the ways of God and learn to recognise the voice of God when He is speaking to us – through His written Word or through His voice speaking into our spirit or, even, through dreams and visions as had become Daniel’s experience.
But on this occasion, even though Daniel had prayed, it seemed as though God’s answer was slow in coming and he was getting desperate. Three weeks earlier Daniel had been given a revelation from God (verse 1). But what did it mean? He needed to know. Immediately Daniel set his heart on gaining understanding from the Lord and chose to fast and pray. Three weeks passed before God’s answer came in the form of an angelic vision in which the angel told Daniel there had been war in the heavenlies and the prince of the Persian kingdom had tried to stop him bringing God’s answer to Daniel’s prayers for twenty-one days (verse 13).
But the answer had been on its way, the Scripture tells us, since the first day that Daniel had set his mind to gain understanding and to humble himself before the Lord. Here are two vital keys to answered prayer. Pride says ‘I know best’ – and it’s so easy when looking for guidance to fall into the trap of telling God what He should be doing and then waiting for God’s confirmation that He has agreed with our way of thinking! Humility says ‘I first need to hear what God is saying – I need His understanding of the situation. Only then can I move forward in faith and trust.’
But when we do humble ourselves and wait on God for His answers before acting, the answer may be a little while in coming – for various reasons. God may be testing our faith and our willingness not to rush ahead. There may be an issue of God’s timing – He knows, sometimes, that if we have His answer too soon we may rush ahead impetuously before the time is right for action. And there may be times like this one with Daniel, where God’s answer is held up through spiritual warfare in the heavenly realms. All of these are possible.
Humbling ourselves and waiting for God’s answer to our prayers is essential if we are not going to get blown off the course God has prepared for our lives.
Prayer: Thank You Lord that You delight to hear and answer our prayers. Thank You for the lessons we can learn from the life of Daniel. Help us to be like Daniel and, when we are in need of clear guidance for our lives, to humble ourselves and set our hearts to get your understanding, knowing that in this way You will rejoice to hear and to answer our prayers. In Jesus’s Name. Amen.
“And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written `Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God`”Matthew 4…
Matthew 4:3-4, NASV
“And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” 4 But He answered and said, “It is written `Man shall not live on bread alone but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God`”
In recent months in the UK something new has been happening in many of our communities. Those who have plenty have been donating food to Food Banks, where those who can’t afford to buy food for themselves may be given free food to support their families. It is a fact that the world recognises the need everyone has for their “Daily Bread” and when others have none, people are willing to help those who are desperate. Food is essential for our health and strength.
When Jesus said that man cannot live on bread alone, however, He wasn’t saying that physical food is unimportant, but He was saying that there is another kind of food which is just as, or even more, important – the food which supplies our health and strength for the inner being. This food is the very Word of God to mankind. We may not be able to physically live without physical food, but we cannot REALLY LIVE without the spiritual food of God’s word. It is the key to life.
The Word of God is like a Food Bank for the Soul. Just as physical food costs the donor so that the recipient can have it for free, the message of the Gospel cost God everything when Jesus died on the cross, so that we, the recipients of His love, may have the food which transforms our present life and prepares us for eternity, absolutely free!
One of the tragedies of our fallen world is that most people do not recognise their need of the good things that are lying there in the Food Bank for the Soul. May I urge you to treasure highly the food that God has made freely available and make it part of your daily spiritual diet. Look on your daily reading from the Scripture as something like opening a can of truth from God’s Food Bank and let it feed your inner being and transform your life one day at a time.
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for Your Word – the Food Bank for my soul. Help me never to forget how precious this free gift is and to always value it as I think about all that God has provided for me at His own great expense. In Jesus` Name, Amen.