Category: Devotions

Proverbs 22

The sluggard says, “There’s a lion outside! I’ll be killed in the public square!”, v13.

“I won’t be in today. My fish is sick and I need to take it to the vet”.

“I won’t be coming in today, I’ve spent my last penny playing online bingo and I don’t have any money left for the bus. Don’t worry, I’ll try to win it back today while I’m off”.

“The dog ate my car keys. We’re going to hitchhike to the vet”.

“I am not coming in because I tried to dye my hair blonde, but it came out green.”

“I cannot come into work today because I came down with a bad case of something or other”.

The sluggard says ….
The lazy man doesn’t want to leave his recliner chair.
The lazy man thinks of an excuse to stay indoors.
The lazy man’s excuse is always extreme, pathetic and often laughable.
The lazy man is a visionary.
There is no lion.
There is no danger.
Yet he sees it visually. It’s a certain death.
Is there something God has been calling you to do?
But instead of actions you have made excuses.

Proverbs 21

Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered, v13.

There’s nothing wrong with the cry, it is loud enough.
The poor do exist, Jesus said they will always be with us.
The poor are poor, that is the category.
They are not criminally poor, immorally poor and lazy poor, they are poor.
Poverty is not having to send the Sky TV back. Poverty is a killer.
Hunger is the world’s number 1 health risk; it kills more people every year than AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis combined.
Some 925 million people do not have enough to eat.
Ninety-eight percent of them live in the developing world.
One in seven people in the world will go to bed hungry tonight.
There are more hungry people in the world than the combined populations of the U.S., Canada, and the European Union.
Undernutrition contributes to five million deaths of children under five each year in developing countries.
Worldwide, 115 million children under the age of 5 are underweight.
The poor are asking Elim International Missions to carry the cry of their soul and the cry of their children’s stomachs.
We have a vision to help. We are doing everything we can. This is a new day for an old cry.
There is nothing wrong with your hearing.
Call us today.
We know these people. We know their names. They are real. They are people just like me and you. We could be them. This could be our cry. We could be poor one day. We could have people ignore us too. Solomon says it will be so if we don’t say YES now.

Proverbs 20
Do not love sleep or you will grow poor; stay awake and you will have food to spare, v13.
I knew a friend once who spent half his life asleep. He didn’t need to sleep he just loved to do it. Sleep shut out the world and his world had quite a few problems! It was a defence mechanism. When he was asleep he didn’t need to work on the problems that needed fixing.
I am quite the reverse. I stay awake for as long as I can to fix as many problems as I can. I love being awake. Being asleep is something I have to do. Yes. I know. I need to sort myself out.
However I wonder if people just got up a little earlier or stayed awake a little longer what productive things could be done? So stop hitting the snooze button and get up and begin to do life. If you had another 15 minutes each day awake, by the end of the year you would gain an extra 3 days!
Now that’s put a smile on your face I know!

Proverbs 19
People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed? v3

In October of 2005, a convicted murderer in a Romanian prison sued God for his troubled life. The man, identified as Pavel M., filed a suit in which he requested “legal action against God, resident in Heaven, and represented here by the Romanian Orthodox Church, for committing the following crimes: cheating, concealment, abuse against people’s interest, taking bribes, and traffic of influence.”
Pavel also noted that “God even claimed and received from me various goods and prayers in exchange for forgiveness and the promise that I would be rid of problems and have a better life.” According to the suit, this did not happen, and the plaintiff instead found himself in the devil’s hands.
Pavel’s complaint was sent to the Court of Justice and forwarded to the prosecutor’s office. However, it was eventually dropped because the defendant—God—was not an individual or a corporation, and therefore not subject to a civil court’s jurisdiction!!!

Bonkers I know!

But since the beginning of time man has blamed God.
Adam: The woman You gave to be with me …

It’s not complicated: the mistakes, failures and disappointments that occur in our life can be traced back to ourselves being stupid rather than God being awkward.
And of course if we still are not able to blame ourselves, we can always blame each other!

Proverbs 18

A gift opens the way and ushers the giver into the presence of the great, v16.

Okay, I have a confession to make.
When I shop and there are ‘tasters’ being offered I always take. Even if I don’t normally eat the food or like the food, I gladly receive. Sometimes I have walked around the aisle and gone back trying to appear to be a new customer in order to feel it would be okay to take a second free portion of olives on a stick or whatever it is.
I like to receive. That’s my confession.

And now a fact.
Since a child I have been taught it is better to give than to receive. I like to have the opportunity to buy-in to things that have convicted me because of vision and a clear strategy. That is why I have decided to give every month to Elim Missions. Join with me please.
Send a cheque of any amount to Elim International Missions, Elim International Centre, De Walden Road, West Malvern, WR14 4DF. Or you could simply phone us today on 01684 588 940 and make a difference.
I truly believe God’s presence will be strong in your life as you give.

Proverbs 17

Better a dry crust with peace and quiet than a house full of feasting, with strife, v1.

Yesterday I sat and listened to a man called George. He has a church who worships outside in the north of India. He and his wife have a small modest home. Money is scarce. They are doing much with very little. Their house has a dry crust.

Today I think of a family who will be attending a lovely church. They live in a nice house. Money is no problem. Yet they do little for God with their life. Their house has so much it’s like a banquet.

I cannot help but compare.
Yesterday I was impressed by the peace I felt.
Today I think of all the stress and the falling out.
I know which is better.
It is George.

Proverbs 16

Anyone can come up with ideas, v1
Those ideas can all look good, v2
Good for our life, v9
And justified by appearing to be so right, v25
A Christian can base their whole life’s decisions on the above 4 steps. They can appear to be very spiritual and envied amongst the Christian community.
They talk well.
They look good.
They do right.
However, what does God say? v1
What are the true motives? v2
Is this sustainable? v9
What does it look like in the end? v25
No one ever gets too big for the above 4 questions. No experiences, no qualifications, no titles and no recognitions outweigh the need to know those answers.
It is not complicated. We need to keep it simple.
“Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.” v3
He is always in charge. It is better for us when we acknowledge that.

Proverbs 15
A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel, v18.

The Academy Award-winning movie Forrest Gump has been viewed by millions. There is a line worth noting. The scene has one of the central characters, Jenny, returning to her old home after her father has died. The old farm house is dilapidated and abandoned. As she reflects on the sexual abuse that she endured as a child, she is overcome by rage and begins throwing rocks at the house. The photography is powerful as it shows her rapidly reaching for rocks and then violently throwing them at the house. Jenny finally falls to the ground in exhaustion and the scene closes with Forrest Gump sympathizing, “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” Many of us struggle with anger. It can stem from a variety of reasons, and some anger seems very justifiable. Yet, unresolved anger leaves us reaching and crying out for more rocks. The rage is never satisfied, and contentment is never found. Through the power of Christ we can find the strength to lay down rocks of anger rather than needing to reach for more.
A man was dying in the desert. As he stumbled over a sand dune he was greeted by a man selling ties. The dehydrated man begged for water, but the salesman said he only had ties. In frustration and anger the weakened man continued on his journey for survival. In an hour he reached an isolated restaurant in the middle of the desert. Was it a mirage? As he drew closer, he saw it was real. He was ecstatic. With renewed energy he ran for the door. He was stopped at the entrance by a security guard who denied him entry. The guard said, “I’m sorry, sir, but you need to wear a tie to eat here.”
Be careful: what you may be angry at today could make perfect sense tomorrow.

Proverbs 14

Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests, v14.

I am writing this in the house of friends that I have known for 21 years. They were faithful members of my first church in a farming community. The church was called Church in the Barn and it did what it said on the tin: meet in a converted animal barn on a working farm. Every Sunday we worshipped to the smell of animal dung and the noise of cattle in this new church plant. It is easy perhaps to imagine a church worshipping in the mess and the smells of a farm. However, the true mess was within the Church. God sent to us all kinds of people with every behavioural or social problem you can think of. Broken, bruised and battered people came to this small church and they found an acceptance, love and the grace from God. Within a few years the barn was filled with worshippers.
I learnt that to see Church grow we needed to receive and clean up the mess.
The manger is clean only if there is no oxen because cattle leave a whole heap of mess. But without oxen to plough the fields, there is no harvest.
Is your manger empty? Maybe it is because you have become a bit too comfortable, perhaps focusing too much on being tidy and orderly.
Maybe today you can accept a little mess of your life …
Some people who don’t seem to go away …
A difficult or tough job …
Tiring studies that don’t make sense …
Hard work …
Children’s bedrooms!

One day you will look back as I do today and say that period of my life though difficult was worth it.

Proverbs 13

v12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.

Let us differentiate between the false hope of the world and the hope of God’s children. ‘Comical Ali’ had hope. He spoke hope, he looked hopeful, he was wrong, he was very wrong. He proclaimed Saddam airport secure when it had been taken. He declared that the pictures of Saddams statues been pulled down was because they were being cleaned. He declared that America were no-where near Baghdad when American tanks were driving down the streets of the city. It was false hope. Comical hope.

An assistant manager of a large department store saw a boy standing at the bottom of the escalator one day. The assistant became suspicious. He watched the boy for a while. The boy had his eyes glued on the moving handrail. Finally the assistant went over to the lad and questioned him. “Something wrong young man?” he asked? “No sir “., replied the boy, not taking his eyes off the handrail, “I’m just waiting for my bubble gum to come back.”

We face issues far more serious than having our bubble gum get stuck on an escalator handrail, some days the world seems like it has no hope and some days our own world has so many disappointments and challenges that we feel drained and something inside begins to shrivel.

On September 17 1911 Galbraith Perry Rogers left Long Island, New York and on November 5th he arrived in Pasadena, California. The time Perry spent in the air was only 3 days and 10 hours and 14 minutes. Along the way he crashed 39 times and made 30 other unscheduled stops. The only parts of the original plane that were left and completed the trip were the rudder and the drip pan. But he never let go of hope and he became the first pilot to fly across the U.S. from coast to coast.

You need to keep hope alive. You need to keep your eyes on Him. You will get there.