Category: Devotions

Proverbs 1
Such is the end of all who go after ill-gotten gain; it takes away the lives of those who get it. v19

Chun Doo-hwan, South Korea’s last dictator now lives in a mansion protected by 15 foot stone walls and a plainclothes security team. Having being convicted in the 1990s for mutiny, insurrection and bribery he is now living out his days trapped and his family are still being pursued for the $200million their father took in bribes whilst in office.
Jorge Rafael Videla, Argentina’s former dictator who once said, “I am above everyone,” died May 2013 unrepentant behind bars.
Charles Taylor, ruler of Liberia from 1997 to 2003 was tried at The Hague for aiding and abetting war crimes against humanity. In 2012 he began his 50 year prison sentence.
You may know all these 3 leaders from the media or none. However, you do know people who have gone after ill-gotten gain. You also know what the Message translates of these people, “the more you get, the less you are.”
In the end it is the dictator that will suffer and their family. It is the erroneous leader who will face an end to their life they had never wanted. Those who grab at things that are not theirs will have it taken from them. Those who cut corners to advance themselves will face the longest journey. Those who cause others to suffer will embrace suffering into their own family.
Just because someone appears to have it all doesn’t make them the person of value. Just because someone appears untouchable doesn’t mean they are not already imprisoned. Just because someone has the public respect of many doesn’t mean they will be standing with them in the end.
Friends, the end will sort it. Life is about what glitters and shines in the end. The journey of life polishes your heart for the end verdict. The decisions you have made, the paths you have taken, how you gained and what you did with that gain. These are what make you.

Psalm 150
Final day of a 150 days journey for the blessed.

If you’re going to do it.
Do it with everything.

Psalm 149
Day. 149: Be blessed

Where are you today?
In v5 the Psalmist calls for the faithful to sing for joy on their beds.
Where are you laying today?
Are you on a bed of suffering today? Are you in the failed place, the disappointed place? The message translates the verse as: “Let true lovers break out in praise, sing out from wherever they’re sitting”.
Maybe there is no lover for you? Or perhaps you are sitting in a God-defying country where trouble and persecution are all around you, where kings and leaders really do need permanently dealing with by God.
Where are you today?
If in the hard place don’t let your mouth be that of complaint, of slander and accusation, of bitter words, criticism and judgment. Fill your mouth with praise to God. For here lies the miracle, if we only believed it:-
Praise to God changes your environment.

Psalm 148
Day 148: Be blessed

Today take hold of a different perspective. See through a different filter.
A heavenly, higher one, an angelic one, from that of the constellation, think of creation, think of the people all over the world, think big, wide, high, deep and as you do, praise.
Praise from a different perspective for praising God affects you more than it affects God.
The blessed always praise for all things.

Psalm 147
Day 147: Be blessed

Some days call for big, loud and bold statements of faith.
Days like today perhaps. So here goes:-
God can build me up
He can bring me back from a distant place (v2)
He can heal my broken heart
He can bind up my wounds (v3)
He can understand all my complexities (v5)
He can sustain me (v6)
He can cover me
He can supply my every need
He can make me grow (v8)
He can provide for me (v9)
He can strengthen me
He can bless me (v13)
He can give me peace
He can satisfy me (v14)
He can command me (v15)
God can do all these things for me!

Psalm 146
Day 146: Be blessed

Who do you turn to?
When you are wronged, emptied of resource, held back, not able to see what to do and when you have fallen, who do you turn to? (v7-8)
Is it some expert? Even those who know it all don’t have all the answers.
Who do you turn to?

Where is your hope?
When you are not where you should be, when you have no mentor and when there is no one to love, where is your hope? (v9)
Is it with man whose own dreams die with them? (v4)
Where is your hope?

The blessed are those whose help and hope comes from the Lord!

Psalm 145
Day 145: Be blessed

To all who call on him …
To Ignatius Kattey, Nigerian Archbishop kidnapped by armed men …
To Shahin, Iranian Christian musician, in Adel-Abad Prison in Shiraz right now …
To the Christian villagers of Maaloula in Syria being terrorised by the rebels who are insisting they convert to Islam or die …
To Ms Doddamma and her daughter in Chikkamalaguru district, India, brutally beaten and their home destroyed …
To the many missionaries facing persecution, ill-health, financial difficulty…
To the many, the silent, the unknowns…
To you …
To all who call on him …
He is Great, Worthy, Mighty, Majestic, Wonderful, Awesome, Abundant, Good, Righteous, Gracious, Compassionate, Slow to Anger, Rich in Love, Glorious, Ruling, Enduring, Faithful, Upholding, Lifting, Giving, Satisfying, Fulfilling, Hearing, Saving, Watching, Destroying…
Describing Him there is no end …
But right now, all over the world, in the forgotten place, in the unspoken place and in the famous place. Here, now, with you and to all who call on Him ….
This hard to describe God …
… is near!

Psalm 144
Day 144: Be blessed

Yesterday one journalist wrote of the latest trend to hit social media websites. She focused on a 19 year old who posts up to 20 snaps of herself online a day. It has been given the name ‘selfie’. This self-confessed selfie addict often spends hours posing for up to 60 shots and constantly checks her smartphone to see what others think of the pictures she uploads. In what is so concerning to read the girl says, “I get such a rush when I see people’s comments, hearing what they think and reading their thoughts. If I get a positive reaction I feel great. If I don’t get many likes or I get negative comments on a picture I start feeling really down. I keep taking and uploading more selfies until I get the likes and comments I want.”
Before you say what I’m sure you’re thinking, “the world’s gone mad!”, the fact is so many wake up and spend the whole day wondering what people think of them.
But maybe you are with the blessed? For the blessed are people whose “God” is not man and what man thinks but the “Lord”, v15.
He loves you and protects you, v2
He incredibly cares for you, v3
He comes to you, v5-8
He gives you victory, v10-11
He blesses you, v12-14
Five huge thumbs up from God, He sees every photo shot of you, He likes you, He comments on you. How blessed are the people who have all this!

Psalm 143
Day143: Be blessed

Show me the way I should go.
If you don’t then judgment awaits, v2.
If you don’t then the enemy wins, v3.
If you don’t then the past becomes better than the present, v5.
If you don’t then I feel like its the end for me, v7.
Some days you need to know what might happen if God doesn’t guide you. It is this that gives you the driving motive to:
Put your trust in Him, v8.
Lift up your soul, v8.
To hide in Him, v9
To be teachable, v10.
To be available to serve, v12.

Psalm 142
Day 142: Be blessed

This is a cave not for exploration and adventure. This is not for camping out for the night with friends. This is a cave when there’s nowhere else to run to, when you’ve reached the end of your tether, when you have hit a brick wall. This is that cave.

A place where the prayer becomes very loud and you know no one can hear and if they could they wouldn’t be concerned, v1,4.
A place where there is only God, v2.
A place where tiredness is more within than bodily, v3.

A place where you realise He is all you need, v5.
A place where you can tell Him exactly what you need, v6.
A place where you can look to the future, v7.

So perhaps this is a cave of great treasure. This is a cave of the presence of God. This is a cave where there is only you and Him. This is a cave where hope is reborn. This is a cave of blessing not cursing.
Thank God for the cave!