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MONDAY 2nd. AUGUST
Genesis 15:1-6
Faith is believing God’s promises

God made the world and He made all people to be His friends; people who would have a very good relationship with Himself. Very sadly the whole world turned their backs on God. More than anything God wanted those He had made to come back into a right relationship with Himself and become His friends once again. He devised a plan. He would reveal Himself to one person and from then on, through that person’s family and descendants.

The person God called was called Abram and his wife, Sarai. God showed this family how much He loved them and drew them back. This is the way He did it. He revealed Himself to Abram and made Him a fantastic promise. Abram’s wife, Sarai, could not have children and she was beyond the child-bearing age. God promised Abram that Sarai would fall pregnant and have a child.

Abram believed this promise. He believed God. Because Abram believed God, God brought him into a right relationship with Himself. He forgave all his sins and transformed his whole life. He gave Abram and Sarai new names because they were now in God’s family. They were now Abraham and Sarah. Soon Isaac was born. This was the start of the Israeli nation, the Jews, through whom God continued to reveal Himself over many hundreds of years.

Scan the Bible and you will find “God has given us His very great and precious promises so that through them you may participate in the Divine Nature and escape the corruption in the world” (2Peter 1:4). Believe these promises and we will all be close friends of God as Abraham was.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for giving Abraham the faith to believe your promises and so become your very close friend. Give us the faith to believe all your Bible promises that we may all be your close personal friends too, through Jesus our Great Promise Giver. Amen.

TUESDAY 3rd. AUGUST
Psalm 33
Trust in God’s unfailing love

We sing joyfully, we are very, very happy because we know that God has made us all and that He has a plan for each of our lives. His purpose for us will never change. God forms our hearts, He considers everything we do. He is really interested in us.

God does not force anyone to follow Him. He has given us a free will. Although He has a plan and purpose for everyone He has made He does not force us to follow His plan for us. When we do decide to follow Him and trust Him to fulfil His plan for us, the Lord is really delighted. Once He sees us responding to His love He pours more of it into our hearts. Soon we discover how tremendous His love really is. It is unfailing love. Once we receive it we discover that His love is so strong it never, never runs out. It’s so good to be loved by God and to experience that love in our hearts. His wish is for everyone to experience the height and depth and breadth of His love.

All we have to do is to hear the Good News from the Bible of His enormous love for us, respond to that love and draw near to Him and as we draw nearer to Him, He draws nearer to us and overwhelms us with His love.

PRAYER: Lord God, Fantastic Father, we thank you that your steadfast love never changes and that you have such a good plan for our lives. We love you so much we draw nearer to you with our arms outstretched to receive your love. Fill us right now. Overflow us with your unfailing love as we put all our hope and trust in you. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 4TH AUGUST
Hebrews 11:1-3 8-16
Faith is believing before we see

Abraham was such a good example of a man of faith. He heard God speaking to Him. He believed God and trusted every word that God spoke to Him. This is what gave him so much faith. When God told him to leave the security of his home at Ur, he trusted God utterly. Even though he didn’t know where he was going he set out. He knew without the slightest doubt that God would lead him to a wonderful country. Of course his faith was proved to be genuine. Soon he was in the “Land flowing with milk and honey”. He was so happy that he had trusted God.

We had a similar experience in January 1982. We believed God spoke to us and told us He wanted us and our family back in Australia. Even though we had no money at all saved up we trusted God. We knew He would get us back home. Praise God, our faith was proved to be right. We took off from Heathrow on Ascension Day and were soon in this wonderful promised land of Australia. Jesus said, “whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours” (Heb 11:24). This is a fantastic promise. He also said, “if you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be given you”.

God never lies. He always keeps His promises. If we fulfil all the conditions, which are very simple, our prayers will be answered. Repent, forgive, and totally surrender to Jesus. Open your hearts fully to let Him have complete control. Jesus will speak to you as you read your Bible and as you pray. He will fill you with faith to believe that you have whatever you ask for before you see it or experience it.

PRAYER: Jesus, as we surrender totally to you, give us the faith to believe your promises that whatever we ask for we already have before we see them or experience them. Give us faithful hearts as you dwell in us and we dwell in you. Amen.

THURSDAY 5TH AUGUST
Isaiah 1:10-20
Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow

The teaching I received as a young Anglican never made me sure that I was going to heaven. I never thought I was good enough. The reason for this is that I was relying on my own strength, my own power to make myself holy enough for God. As well as trying to stop sinning (which I found was an impossible thing to do), I also tried to be more religious, to say more prayers, go to church more, etc etc. The more I tried the more I failed. When I started to really believe that the Bible was indeed the word of God, things started to change for me. I started to believe what the Bible said about me to be true. My faith built up when I stopped trusting in myself and started trusting only in God.

I had always been taught that God forgives the sins we have committed (my Anglo Catholic teachers were strong on confession), but when I listened to the evangelists and trusted in the Bible, I found I could trust in God to stop me sinning, so that I transferred my trust from my own ability to God’s mighty ability.

When I did this my heart was strangely warmed. This was the experience of Jesus being in my heart. I knew I was born again. I knew that Jesus had done a miracle in me. He had made me know that I was good enough for Heaven. In the reading today God says that He can’t stand the religious activity of those who are trying to please Him by being religious. He is so pleased when we surrender 100% to Him and trust in Him only.

PRAYER: Lord Jesus, when I couldn’t save myself, when I was still a sinner, you loved me so much you died for me to make me good enough for heaven. Enable me to stop trusting in myself and trust only in your power to get me to Heaven. Amen.

FRIDAY 6TH AUGUST
Luke 12:41-48 Hebrews 11:17-28
Be Prepared - Exercise your Faith Every Day

There is a tendency for those who receive the truth of the Good News of Jesus and make a decision to live by faith to get really lax. They know they are saved only by trusting in God’s power and not by obeying God’s law. The trouble is that they can soon begin to neglect God’s law completely.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says, “for it is by grace you are saved through faith and this is not from yourselves. It is a gift of God. Not by works so that no one can boast”. But the Bible goes on to say in Ephesians 2:10, “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works which God prepared in advance for us to do”.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses believe they are only saved by doing their good works. That’s why every JW visits so many people. In today’s reading Jesus says the works He wants us to do is to give people their food allowance at the proper time. In John 6, He makes it clear that He is the food of life and we are to share Him with others. Once we realise we have already been saved by Jesus and are heavenward bound, we should have such a desire to do His will and get more people to heaven that we should find ourselves doing twice as much as the JW’s!

The more Jesus has given us the more He expects of us (V48). He has given us salvation. He’s coming again soon. Will He find us doing the good works He has planned for us to do? Let’s make sure He finds us busy and active!

PRAYER: Thank you Lord that you have saved us by your grace as we trust in you for our salvation and a place in heaven. Show us all the good works you want us to do and all the people you want us to feed, through Jesus the giver of life. Amen.

SATURDAY 7TH AUGUST
Luke 12:32-40
Be ready by being generous

God is so pleased to give us the free gift of eternal life, a place in His Kingdom! We do not have to be afraid of going to hell. As we trust in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross our sins are forgiven and we are assured a place in heaven.

Jesus said that now that I have given you a place in heaven I want you to prepare yourselves for it. The way to make yourselves ready for heaven is by letting yourself become more and more generous. If you save all your money and buy things for yourselves with it, you won’t be able to take it with you. It will never help you to be prepared for heaven but every time you give something away you build up treasure in heaven. In heaven everyone is loving, everyone is generous, everyone gives and gives and gives. Remember, you don’t have to be rich to be generous. The more you give away the more God will give to you, enabling you to be rich and generous on every occasion. (2Cor 9:11) God is so good!

Will God find us ready when He comes again? Will He find us saving and hoarding for this temporary life or will He find us to be very generous, always giving, always loving, always doing things for others?

PRAYER: Jesus, make me ready for you when you come again. Give me a generous heart. Enable me to give and give and give. When I give more than I can afford, make me rich enough to be generous on every occasion. Amen.

SUNDAY 8TH.AUGUST
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE

Today Jesus tells us to make sure that we are always ready fro Him when He comes again or for when it is our turn to leave this life on Earth. There is absolutely no need for us to be afraid of death or the end of the world. Jesus has given us a fantastic promise. He has promised to give us His kingdom. His Kingdom is where God rules completely. It is a place where everyone is perfect and where there is perfect love and where everyone lives together in unity and harmony.

His kingdom is heaven! God is always pleased to give us the free gift of His Kingdom but only those who find out how to receive it will receive what He has promised.

The bible makes it very clear that it is by our having faith that enables us to receive all that God has promised.

Having faith is very simple. It is simply believing that God will keep His promises. God promised that Abraham’s aged wife was going to have a baby. When Abraham believed this promise Isaac was conceived. This made God very pleased with Abraham. He credited him with righteousness.

In many places in the New Testament God promises that through the Death of Jesus all our sins have been forgiven and we have been given the free gift of eternal life. He promises us a place in Heaven. In Ephesians 2:6 the Bible says, “God has raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms.” If we become like little children and just believe all these biblical promises God has made then we can be absolutely sure we will be in heaven.

Jesus reminds us of a good way of preparing for Heaven. That is by being very generous. He said when we give away our treasures on earth we build up a store of treasure in heaven. God’s will is for all of us to be very generous people.

Let’s all repent of all the sins we have committed, have a real desire to go on doing God’s will, really believe we have been forgiven and given the free gift of eternal life. This is all we have to do to make sure we are ready for Jesus when He comes again or when we die.

PRAYER : Jesus thank you so much for your wonderful promises which fill us with faith. Thank you very much for dying for us on the cross, taking our sins away and making us sure that we have eternal life. AMEN.