Wed.’s Devo - Lead us not into Temptation.

Read Luke 11:4b The next thing Jesus taught us to say was “and lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.” James 1 says that, “God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempts he any man: 14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15 Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death.” The word “lead” means to carry inward because temptation always starts from within. It is the little voice in our head giving us suggestions of how we should think. Mine usually come in accusations about how I messed up because I’m just not good enough or I sinned and deserve it. I try to catch these thoughts and stop them before they make a believer out of me. I have to remind myself that God loves me with all of my failures and the devil hates me because he hates God and I am His. If I don’t stop these thoughts then I am drawn away and robbed of the joy God has for me. If it continues then I will spiral down into a well of self-pity and depression. I consider both of these sin; they contradict the power of God. If I continue down this path it leads to death. To me it is more a death in my personal spirit but to some it can lead to suicide. The cure for me is to read the Psalms and let God’s Word renew my mind. “…But, deliver us from evil.” Another word for deliver is rescue. We are to pray that God rescues us and our family from evil. Evil means anything that is hurtful, or of evil influence, lewd, malicious, wicked, mischievous, brings us guilt, or the devil himself - the evil one. Never doubt the power of prayer. We are probably all the product of someone’s prayer. Prayer moves God’s hand and his heart. Lord, we pray that we comprehend this prayer. We pray that we will not be lead into temptation and that you would deliver us from the evil the devil has planned for us. We choose your plan.

Tues.’s Devo - Forgiveness

Read Luke 11:4a Forgiveness is such a heavy topic. Jesus tells us to pray that our sins are forgiven. Then he assumes that we will forgive everyone who is indebted to us first. God always sides on the one who needs justice. To not forgive someone is to have pride. Do we believe that we have a right not to forgive? If Jesus could forgive the very ones who mocked him and persecuted him and finally gave him over to their enemies to crucify him, then there is no one we cannot forgive. Jesus came to forgive sins. We might think we can’t forgive, but Jesus in us can. We can’t afford to walk in unforgiveness. It will rob us of our very life and cause us great complications in our physical body and in our spirit. In Matthew’s writing of the “Lord’s Prayer” (Matt. 6:14.15) he adds “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. That is enough to make us want to forgive everyone. But what do you do if you can’t seem to forgive someone? We have all had those people in our lives who offend us to the core. I had a person in my life that I couldn’t hardly stand to be in the same room with because they had hurt me so bad but I hated what it did to me and truly wanted to be able to forgive them. I finally asked God to help me forgive and give me his heart for her. It took praying that over and over until one day it was totally gone! I now love that person and see her in God’s eyes. It is so freeing! To withhold forgiveness is to hold ourselves in a prison. It hurts the other person if they know it but if they don’t then it only hurts ourselves. The best analogy I have heard is this: holding an offense is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. It robs us of our relationship with God and other people and eventually causes bitterness. Lord, help us to forgive those who have hurt us or used us. Help the people we have offended to forgive us. Thank you for your forgiveness!

Mon.’s Devo - The Lord’s Prayer

Read Luke 11:1-3 The disciples had watched Jesus retreat for days to pray to his heavenly father and they also wanted to learn how to talk to God. Before, the people only prayed when they needed God to deliver them, but only the High Priest was believed to have an audience with God. So Jesus told them exactly what to say. He started with “Our Father” addressing who he was talking to. Once, David referred to God as his father but no one else had till Jesus showed up. God had always been seen as a consuming fire and someone to fear and revere. Jesus was making God personal and endearing. Then he gave his placement “which art in heaven”. He wanted them to know where God resides. “Hallowed be thy name. Hallowed means pure, consecrated and holy. “Thy kingdom come.” God’s kingdom means his royalty, rule, and realm. Jesus wanted them to pray this heavenly realm down to earth. He wanted them to pray that God’s will that is being carried out in heaven would come down and be carried out on earth. The only way that will happen is for us to allow the Holy Spirit to do that in us. We have to realize how it is in heaven. There is no sickness, sin, sorrow, or suffering in heaven, so it is God’s will that it not be here on earth. It is given to us to pray that. I know that James seems to contradict this, but this is what Jesus said we are to pray; the outcome is up to God. “Give us day by day our daily bread.” I love this one because God doesn’t expect us to have our lives all planned out. We are to live day by day depending on him. We need him daily and daily he is there for us. In John 6:32-33 Jesus told his disciples that the true bread had come down from heaven and this bread was Him. Jesus told the devil that his bread was every word that came from God. I am sure that if we eat this bread of Jesus and the Word then all our needs will be provided and then some. Lord, we acknowledge you as our loving Father who is holy and just. We pray that your realm will come to earth in a powerful way. Thank you for sending your son, Jesus to open to us your Word. May we dine with you daily.

Fri.’s Devo - Mary and Martha

Read Luke 10:38-42 Yesterday Jesus told the story of the man on the way to Jericho. Jericho means “place of His fragrance”. That is what we are to be - a place of His fragrance to Him and the world. The man who helped the wounded man lived in this place and his actions revealed it. Today we read about the much-preached story of Mary and Martha. We all know the story. Jesus comes to visit and Martha is in a tizzy trying to make Jesus comfortable and fed. Mary, on the other hand, is more interested in what Jesus carries and has to give her. I know that sounds a little selfish, but Jesus saw her heart. She was hungry for God and Martha was trying to feed God. He needs nothing we have to give which was Jesus’ point. All we need is in Jesus and Mary got that. We need planners and servers but we need to know timing. Mary realized that her Lord was here and she wanted to hear every word he had to say and just be near him. Martha wanted to gain his approval. We are all guilty of being “Martha’s” because that is the easiest for us. I comes natural to see what needs to be done and do it. Mary chose the good part which was sitting at Jesus’ feet. That is the only way we gain strength and intimacy with Jesus. That is what Jesus truly wants. He is looking for a bride that will want to be with him and know him. What if we spent our whole lives fixing Jesus peanut butter sandwiches only to find out he didn’t like p.b.j.’s? Intimacy with God means that we find out what is close to his heart and we adapt our lives to please his desires. Lord, draw us to your presence and show us what is important to you and how we should best spend our time.

Thurs.’s Devo - The Man on the Road to Jericho

Read Luke 10:29-37 This is the rest of the conversation with the lawyer. The lawyer has no doubt followed the law by the “t” and wants to further justify himself. Since he got Jesus’ approval on his first answer he decided to further his right standing by asking Jesus who his neighbor was. I’m sure he was not ready for Jesus’ answer. Jesus tells him the story of the man who traveled to Jericho. Along the way he got accosted, robbed, beaten almost to death and left on the side of the road. The first man to walk past him was a priest. If he helped the man he would get blood on himself and become unclean so he passed him. Next came a Levite who did the same. But the third man was a Samaritan who saw him and had compassion. He had no law to break by helping the man so he attended his wounds with medicine and sedatives and bandaged them up. Then he put him on his beast and walked beside it the whole way to the next inn and took further care of him. When he had to leave the next day, he left enough money for the inn keeper to care of the man and told him if he spent more, he would pay him back when he returned. Then Jesus asked, which of the three do you think was a neighbor to the man? The lawyer said, to the one that showed him mercy, to which Jesus said, “Go, and do the same.” Jesus took the word “neighbor” and transcended geography, race, and religion. The Samaritans were hated by the Jews yet Jesus made him the hero in the story. He was also trying to show them that their laws and priesthood had become so religious they had lost their real purpose. If we are going to reach our world for Jesus we are going to have to realize that our neighbor is anyone who needs help whether they are in Africa, another race or in a cult. To be a good neighbor we have the learn the secret of the next story… tomorrow. Lord, give us hearts of compassion and open our eyes to see the needs we are to meet.

Wed.’s Devo - Blessed are Your Eyes for They See

Read Luke 10:21-28 Jesus had just given encouragement to the 70 disciples he sent out. Then he says a prayer to God out loud thanking him for choosing these people to hear the good news. These people weren’t the learned Torah scholars of the day but the plain citizens of the country that had hearts to believe what he said. Jesus referred to them lovingly as “babes” which is the connotation of a simple minded person. I can relate to that! Then he makes the statement in verse 22 that no one knows who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him. Then he turns to his disciples and names them as the ones he reveals this mystery. He reminds them that the prophets and kings desired to see the Messiah come and didn’t, but they were privileged to live in the generation that did. To illustrate this we see an example of the man who didn’t have the privilege of being able to “see”. This man was a lawyer who came to Jesus to have an argument. He tempted Jesus by asking him how he could inherit eternal life. Instead of telling him to trust in him, he asked him what the law said. The man replied, to love the Lord with all his heart, soul, strength, and mind and his neighbor as himself. Jesus commended him on answering right and told him to go do that. Why didn’t Jesus tell him to believe in him? I think it was because he saw his heart and knew his heart was not softened to believe the truth. This man lived by the law so that is how Jesus met him. Tomorrow we will see how Jesus takes the law and brings it back to the spirit of the law. Lord, help us to know how to answer every man. Thank you that we are the babes you speak of who the Father chose to reveals the great mysteries of his kingdom. We are humbled and greatful!

Tues.’s Devo - Power over Serpents and Scorpions

Read Luke 10:17-20 The seventy that Jesus sent out came back rejoicing about what God was able to do through them. What surprised them the most was that the demons had to obey them. Jesus told them that the result of what they did caused Satan to fall like lightning from heaven. We forget that Satan has access to the skies. He can come and go from heaven and even approach the throne as in Job 1. He is our accuser but Jesus is our justifier. When we defeat him here on earth, he is defeated up in heaven. Then Jesus gave them additional instruction about the power they now possessed. He told them they could tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will be able to hurt them. Wow! That is the power we possess. If you look up the Greek for serpents you will find that the serpent is a picture of having sharp vision; sly and cunning; an awful malicious person - Satan. So we have power over powers that have more insight, and are more sly and more malicious than us. Scorpions are known as poisonous stingers but scorpion is also a word used to describe a whip with cut glass or rocks tied to the whip to tear. Jesus was scourged before he hung on the cross. These are the things they and we have power over if we exercise it. Power of life and death is in our tongues. We tread on serpents and scorpions by our declarations. We don’t fight people but the spirits controlling the people. Jesus brought it all into perspective when he told them that more important than having power over demons was the power of life that Jesus was about to die to give them. Because he died and was subject for a time to the power of the devil and the scorpion, we can have power over them and have our names written in his book in heaven. Jesus, thank you for what you did for us. We can never understand the pain and suffering you went through to take our sin, but we can only imagine and be forever grateful.