Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [198] Lead us not into temptation

 

Todays devotion is written by Mike Loveridge

In recent months there has been a social media video idea going around in which parents set up a hidden camera to film their kids. They put a bowl of sweets in front of their kids before walking off, telling them they cannot eat the sweets until they return. Seeing the kids battle with the conflict between obeying their parents or eating the sweets is very amusing to watch. The temptation is so real and evident! Some may say it's an unfair test, but it is a helpful illustration of the battle we face every day. The temptation of sin, just like the bowl of sweets in front of the child, is constantly there in front of us. We live in a world full of temptation and sinful ways and amongst a culture that is far from God. 

 

Romans 7:18 says, “For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.” What Paul is acknowledging is that although we have been saved through faith in Jesus and our sin has been dealt with, we still continue to sin. Just as those kids know their parents have told them not to eat the sweets but the desire is still there, we know that Jesus has dealt with our sin and called us to a new life but the desire to sin is still there. 

 

Each of us will be tempted by different things. For some it will be money, for others it will be sex, drugs, image, possessions, alcohol, etc. We each face our own temptations and the devil knows exactly which temptations to throw our way. He knows our favourite ‘sweets’. So, when temptations come - despite our greatest desire to live a holy and righteous life - we can end up falling for temptation and sinning. 

 

All temptations work on the same basis. They work by getting you to believe the lie that God is mean and is withholding a good gift from you. Just as the parents seem mean in putting the sweets in front of the kids and then saying they can’t have them, temptations are things in front of us that seem good and that we want but know we can’t or shouldn’t have. In moments of temptation, it is so easy to doubt God’s goodness to us. But instead, we need to hold on to the trust that God is good and that he gives us everything we need. His way for our life doesn’t include withholding things to be mean. His plan for our life is perfect and for our best. So, as we pray this line of the Lord’s Prayer, we are asking God to keep us from being deceived by temptation’s false promises and to help us overcome every temptation by believing God’s promises of true life in Christ. 

 

We know that when we do fall for the lure of a temptation, although initially it can bring great joy and reward, that feeling is only temporary and fleeting and soon we are left wanting more or the next thing. That is never true with God. He is the one who truly satisfies. We then overcome temptation by believing God’s promises are always far more satisfying and rewarding than the false promises of sin. God has a perfect plan and will for our lives. As we trust in that more and lean on His goodness more the lure of sin will fade in comparison.

 

Temptation is real and we face it all the time. To resist we need to get closer to God and know His word. But He has also put us into a family, and we have brothers and sisters in Christ who can help us with resisting temptation. Do you have close Christian brothers or sisters who you share you struggles and challenges with? If not, then I encourage you to find some! Having others who can hold you accountable and pray for and with you is a huge step to overcoming temptation and sin. 

 

Praise God that even when we fall there is forgiveness in the cross and that He has put His Spirit within us to give us the strength to resist sin. 

 

 

Prayer for today

 

Heavenly Father,

 

We thank you for your loving goodness that you show to us each and every day of our lives. May we never doubt your goodness and be led astray by the false promises of sin. 

 

Father, we thank you that through Jesus you have dealt with all our wrongdoing and for the gift of your Spirit who is at work within us. 

We pray today that you will help us to resist the temptations that come our way and instead to fix our eyes upon you. 

 

We pray all this in Jesus’ name,

 

Amen.

 

 

Song for today

To resist the temptations of sin we need more of Christ and less of this world, that’s what this song reminds us. You can listen and sing along here.

 

Lord, I come, I confess
Bowing here I find my rest
Without You I fall apart
You're the One that guides my heart

 

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defence, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

 

Where sin runs deep Your grace is more
Where grace is found is where You are
Where You are, Lord, I am free
Holiness is Christ in me

 

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defence, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

 

So, teach my song to rise to You
When temptation comes my way
When I cannot stand I'll fall on You
Jesus, You're my hope and stay

 

Lord, I need You, oh, I need You
Every hour I need You
My one defence, my righteousness
Oh God, how I need You

Photo by Laura Briedis on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [197] Daily Light

 

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [196] Honour your father and mother

 

Today's blog was written by Martin Davids, a member of Manor Park Church 

 

Honour your father and mother.

¹² “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you."

I am convinced that the first verse a child brought up in a Christian family is this one (along with, perhaps, John 3:16) and it is not surprising that the Lord should have a word for us regarding our conduct towards our parents.  So important are respectful children that the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle Paul, makes this a prerequisite of eldership  “He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full^[a] respect.”  (1 Tim 3:4)   

Honouring your parents the first step in loving your neighbour

The commandments that we have dealt with so far have to do with our relationship with God. This is the first one that has to do with our relationship with our neighbour. And it is very noticeable that the first commandment that the Lord gives in regard to our relationship with others is one about honouring our parents. There is a reason for that and it is very simply that if someone does not have their relationship with their parents right they are likely to offend in regard to the other commandments. They will have a basic character flaw that will impede them in keeping the rest of the commandments. But if someone does honour his or her father and mother it is going to safeguard them, at least to some degree from going down a path of offending against the other commandments. But please notice that the Lord puts this first. There are only Ten Commandments and the Lord uses one of them to urge honouring of parents and he does so before he forbids stealing and murder and lying. That is how important this is.

What does honouring look like?

What does the Bible say about how you should treat your mother and your Father? First of all when we are young and living under our parents ‘roof’ then we conform to your parents. In other words you should pay heed to them and obey them (Ephesians 6:1-3) The question arises, “What if my parents are unsaved?”  The Bible doesn’t tell us that we are to only honour godly parents.  No, it simply tells us to honour our parents. The only time that we cannot obey is if they are telling us to do something that is contrary to the Word of God or preventing us from worshipping God. 

But what about if I am grown up and left home? A grown child is not under the same obligation to obey as is one living under their parents ‘roof’, yet they can still honour their parents by listening to their advice.  The reality is that our parents have been down the road of life longer than we have and may be able to see us repeating a mistake they made at their age and they want us to avoid it.  As a younger man, like so many young men and women, I thought I ‘knew it all’ and didn’t need to listen to parental advice.  I never really understood the wisdom of that advice until later in life and especially now as a parent, I find myself saying the things I would ‘roll my eyes’ at in my youth.  Young people, please realise that your parents have your best interests at heart and godly parents are constantly sacrificing (very often behind the scenes) for you regularly, with a smile on their face so that you are not aware of the sacrifice.  I once saw a meme with a child walking between his parents, holding their hands.  On his feet were odd shoes – he looked glum.  Above the image was written “Never complain about what your parents couldn’t give you – maybe it was all they had.”  When you looked at the parents they only have one shoe on – they had each given one of their shoes to the child so that he could have two. 

We also must honour our parents when they are old.  During ‘lockdown’ I did a ‘delivery run’ for one of our members who was temporally in a residential home. I saw a number of messages posted by the residents on the window for their relatives.  There were some lovely ones but what saddened me were quite a few that said “Just to let you know I’m fine, however I haven’t seen my family in months…” or “I doubt they will read this but….”  It would appear that these elderly relatives had been abandoned by their families.  This is now a new phenomenon – Jesus encountered the same with the Jew’s of his day. It was known as the Corban rule.  They taught a tradition, that if you dedicated your money to the temple then it excused you from using it to look after your parents.  Jesus harshly rebuked this, telling them that their tradition ‘nullified the Word of God’.           

Summing it up

For some this is an easy Commandment to follow.  Some of you had great (and some were blessed to also have godly) parents.  They were easy to honour as a child and still are.  For other, this is a hard commandment.  One or both of your parents were harsh, absent or in some way not an example of a good, let alone a godly parent.  If you are in the second group I would encourage you to think over this again.  God isn’t telling us we must show affection to a wayward parent but simply honour them.  Why? If only for one reason - I have heard of a few cases where parents have been brought to faith witnessing the godly conduct of their children. This alone should be reason enough.  Yet God never fails to give us more than we deserve.  Due to the transforming work of the Gospel, the parent’s life is changed in their latter years, and the child enjoys the relationship they missed out on and craved when they were younger.  

Song for the day

I really struggled to find a song for today but then I remembered this song called "A Mothers Prayer" I found when my daughter was born and though not a song about honouring your parents – perhaps it will give you an appreciation for them, knowing this is the desire of a godly parent for their child.  It can be found here

Prayer for the day.  

Our Father in heaven

We give you thanks for your commands – even when we find that through our own earthly circumstances we many find them difficult.  We ask that you will help us to honour our parents, whether they be with us or not and whether we find that easy or not.  We also ask that those who are parents show not only our children but the watching world what the example of Godly parents should be and in doing so bring honour to you.  As our Father we pray that we may do everything to honour you.

We ask these things through the name of your Son

Amen  

Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [195] Daily Light

 

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [194] As we forgive others

Todays devotion is written by Mike Loveridge

Last time we looked at how much we have been forgiven by God. We, by our very nature, are all sinful and without the forgiveness God freely offers us through Jesus we would have no way back into a relationship with God. Forgiveness from God is a free gift because of His grace and mercy. 

Having taught us to ask God for forgiveness every time we pray, Jesus then instructs us to forgive as we have been forgiven. Just as we are sinners, we live with and around sinners every second of every day. Since the people we interact with are sinners, it should be expected that - at times - they will annoy us, offend us and sin against us. What Jesus is teaching us here is what our attitude should be when that happens. But I also think it's more than just an attitude but something we need to verbalise. As we pray this line, we are saying, ‘I forgive those who have offended me and sinned against me, because you have forgiven me of such a greater debt of the offenses and sins I’ve committed against you.’ We also need to remember that we did nothing to earn the forgiveness of God and yet He forgave us. So, let’s forgive with the same generous attitude. As we forgive those who have hurt us and those who have acted wrongly towards against us, actually verbalising this helps us to not only forgive them but also to release our bitterness, resentment, and anger toward them. 

To not forgive others is to live the life of a hypocrite. Jesus points this out through the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35). A servant who owed his master a huge debt is let off by the merciful master but then the servant goes out and does not show mercy to a fellow servant who owes him a tiny debt. If we don’t forgive others, then we are just like that unforgiving servant. God has let us off from a debt that we could never repay, so for us to not forgive others (when in comparison the wrong they have done us is miniscule compared to the wrong we have done to God) is utterly hypocritical. If we desire God’s forgiveness, then we also need to forgive others.   

 

When we don’t feel like forgiving people and find it a struggle, we can remember that God is the ultimate judge of all and one day everyone will need to come before God and give an account to Him. So, in bringing it to God in prayer, we can let go of our unforgiveness and leave it to God. 

 

Prayer for today

 

Heavenly Father,

 

We thank you that you sent Jesus into this world to earn our forgiveness through giving up His life upon the cross. Thank you that whilst we were still sinners you reached out to us. 

 

Father, we ask that just as we have been forgiven so much we will forgive others when they do wrong against us. Help us to show your loving grace and mercy to those around us. 

 

We pray this in Jesus’ name,

 

Amen

 

 

Song for today

 

You can listen and sing along here.

 

I'm forgiven because you were forsaken
I'm accepted, You were condemned
I'm alive and well
Your Spirit is within me
Because you died and rose again

I'm forgiven because you were forsaken
I'm accepted, you were condemned
I'm alive and well
Your spirit is within me
Because you died and rose again

Amazing love, how can it be?
That you, my king. would die for me
Amazing love, I know it's true
It’s my joy to honour you
Amazing love how can it be?
That my king would die for me
Amazing love I know it's true
It’s my joy to honour you
In all I do
I honour you

                            

                            Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash

 

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [193] Forgive us our sins

 

Todays devotion is written by Mike Loveridge

Each evening, at bedtime, we read our kids a Bible story and then pray with them. Before praying, we ask them two questions; 1) What do you want to thank God for today? 2) What do you want to say sorry to God for today? The other evening, when I asked Pippa this second question she replied, “Nothing, I’m good girl!”. Isaac found this highly amusing and told her, “No, Pippa, you have to say sorry for your sins!” Now it didn’t take me long to think of several things Pippa could say sorry for from the previous hour, let alone from the whole day. Isaac was right. Each day we need to say sorry for our sins and adults, just like children, have plenty to say sorry to God for. 

Every human being who has ever walked on this earth, with the one and only exception of Jesus, has sinned and if they don’t admit it they are lying, which is itself a sin! The Bible puts it this way in Romans 3v23. ‘For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Every single one of us reading this has fallen short of God’s standards which means we have sinned. 

Jesus recognises this need for forgiveness as an essential part of prayer and includes it within the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus doesn’t say if you have done wrong that day, say this. No, he is teaching the disciples, and us, how we should pray each day and assumes our need for forgiveness every time we pray. 

Another thing to note, is that asking for forgiveness isn’t the first line of the Lord’s Prayer. God doesn’t say to us, ‘Sort yourself out and clean yourself up, then come to me in prayer.’ Instead He says, ‘You are a sinner who has messed up. Come to me in prayer and during that prayer ask once again for forgiveness.’ God listens to the prayers of sinners! So, when you have messed up and sinned don’t let the guilt of that sin stop you from coming to God. Instead come to Him, ask for forgiveness knowing that Jesus has dealt with that sin upon the cross. As Christian we are still sinners, who are in the process of being sanctified, but we are completely saved by grace through Jesus. 

So, we are all sinners who need to, in repentance, seek God’s forgiveness daily. Asking for God’s forgiveness is not something we do just once when we become a Christian but it is an ongoing, lifelong commitment. We know we are forgiven through Jesus’ death on the cross but we still ask for forgiveness for all our wrong doing. As Christians we sin explicitly, sins we are aware of, and implicitly, sins that we aren’t aware of. So, as we ask for forgiveness we can name directly some of our sins but we should also ask for forgiveness for the sin that we cannot recall to mind. 

 

As we pray ‘Forgive us our sins’ we are asking God to forgive us for all the ways we have turned away from Him and His will, for the ways we have not trusted Him, for the ways we have offended and grieved Him and for the ways we have rejected His wisdom, His love, His goodness, and His glory. I am sure that is not an exhaustive list of all the things we do wrong, but it's not a bad start!

 

Today as you pray and ask God for forgiveness come to him boldly knowing that the debt for your sin is paid. As you ask for forgiveness also ask for the strength to resist the temptation of sin and to be sanctified into the likeness of Jesus. 

 

 

Prayer for today

 

Our loving and gracious heavenly Father,

 

As we come to you today, we once again confess all our sin to you, both sin we are aware of and hidden sin in our lives. We are sorry for all the ways we wrong you, grieve you and do not live how you call us to. We thank you that through the death of Jesus we have complete and total forgiveness for our sin. 

 

We ask today that you will show us in our lives where sin is hidden. Through the power of your Spirit, will you give us the strength to resist sin as you change us day by day into the likeness of your Son. 

 

Use us to glorify your name here on earth.

 

In Jesus’ name we pray,

 

Amen

 

 

Song for today

You can listen and sing along here

 

How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure

 

How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory

 

Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers

 

It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished

 

I will not boast in anything
No gifts, no power, no wisdom
But I will boast in Jesus Christ
His death and resurrection

 

Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom

Photo by Felix Koutchinski on Unsplash

Daily Devotions for Difficult Days [192] Daily Light