MONDAY 7th DECEMBER
Zephaniah 3.14-20
The Lord God takes great delight in you
Let’s ask ourselves a question! What makes each one of us happier than anything else on earth? I have no doubt about the best answer to this question myself: it is when I know someone else delights in me; when I know that really and truly they think I am special. It’s even better when they know all my faults and failings, yet still delight in me and still let me know how special I am.
I was very fortunate to have a mother who delighted in me when I was small and to have a wonderful wife and children who also delight in me. I lost my father when I was only three and I got a stepfather who believed children should be seen and not heard. He returned noisy Christmas presents to my uncles and aunts who gave them to me - I don’t think he delighted in me. Maybe this contributed to the fact that I wasn’t sure that Father God delighted in me. I always felt I fell short of what I thought He wanted me to be.
In March 1969, when I was a young priest, I attended the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. One night when the invitation was given to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour, I felt God wanted me to go forward but I had a dog collar on. I was too embarrassed to declare that I, a priest, needed to go forward.
When I got back to my hotel I opened my Bible. It fell open at the verses we have before us today. It was as if God the Father, Himself, was speaking to me when I read the words, “He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will renew you in his love, He will exalt over you with loud singing”. I had no doubt that the Lord delighted in me. This made me happier than I had ever been before. God proceeded to open my eyes to see that I did not have to try to be a good Christian to earn my Father’s love. All I had to do was to surrender to Jesus and trust that He took the punishment my sins deserved on the cross. By this He renewed me in His love.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for loving each one of us so much that you delight in us. Help everyone to really believe that you rejoice over each one of us with great joy. We delight in you with all our hearts and are so grateful to Jesus for renewing us in His love. Amen.
TUESDAY 8th DECEMBER
Isaiah 12.2-6
Joyfully draw from the wells of salvation
After yesterday’s message that the Lord delights in us so much that He sent Jesus to renew us in His love, our hearts keep on overflowing with joy. As we draw water (by faith) from the wells of salvation, our joy bubbles up like the froth on a cappuccino and makes us so very happy.
Humans only tend to delight in those who are nice to them and who respond to their love. Parents often delight in their children only when they are too young to answer back and give them trouble. God is so different from us. He delights in us all the time. This is because God is love and God has the power to love. As soon as we respond to His love and draw close to Him, He draws close to us. He fills us with faith in Him which is faith in His power to transform our lives. He delights in us when we are still sinners. This is what motivates us to want to be like Him. Through faith in His saving power we soon become like Him and He delights in us when we become saints. If He waited for us to become saints before He delighted in us, none of us would ever make it.
Because of God’s amazing grace and saving power, He takes away all our fear. This makes us all so happy. It makes us sing and dance with joy. Our hearts are filled with gratitude and our mouths filled with thanksgiving and praise to God.
We become so intoxicated with the joy of all that God has done for us that we are impelled to “show the enormous, fantastic love of Jesus to as many people as we can”.
PRAYER: Father, thank you that when we are still sinners, you delight in us and give us faith in the saving power of your Son, Jesus. We respond to your love. Pour your saving grace into our hearts until joy bubbles up to show the whole world how fantastic you are. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 9th DECEMBER
Philippians 4.4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always
So far this week, joy has been already bubbling up in our hearts because God has shown us how much He delights in us. We have also been reminded of the tremendous saving power the Lord has given us through Jesus. This has made us feel abundantly happy too.
Today the Bible exhorts us to delight ourselves in the Lord and to rejoice in the Lord always. In the light of what God has shown us, this is a very easy thing to do. As Christians who are fully aware of God’s great love for us, we can obey this command - to rejoice in the Lord always - even in the most difficult of life’s circumstances. This is what makes us truly the happiest people on earth.
Because God loves us so much and we know that He’s so close to us, we can be so gentle with others. We can be very tolerant of people, even when they are causing us to be in a lot of pain and suffering physically or mentally.
When we have a wonderful close relationship with God, as we delight in Him and rejoice in Him continuously, so He cures us of one of life’s worst problems, which is worry or anxiety. As soon as something begins to go wrong which would normally make us very worried and anxious, we turn to God in prayer. We have so much confidence in Him that we are absolutely sure He will keep His promise (see Mark 11.24) so we immediately start to thank the Lord for taking away the cause of the anxious worry. Immediately the anxiety dissolves and our hearts are filled with an extraordinary peace.
In Christ Jesus we are so happy and secure; so free from stress.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, we delight ourselves in you. We can’t stop ourselves rejoicing, especially when you take away all worry and anxiety and fill our hearts with that extraordinary peace. We can’t stop thanking you. Amen.
THURSDAY 10th DECEMBER
Isaiah 51.9-16
Stick a geranium in your hat and be happy
Once I noticed a book in our house which someone in our family was reading. The heading above is the name of this book by Barbara Johnson. The main message of the book is “pain is inevitable, but misery is optional”. Isaiah wrote today’s reading when the people of Israel were very miserable. They had been completely defeated by the Babylonian enemy and had been taken into captivity in Babylon. They were continually afraid all day long and dreaded that the fury of their oppressors would destroy them.
Speaking through this prophet, God moves to lift the people out of their misery. He gives them some fantastic promises. The Lord’s people will be able to go back to Jerusalem, set free. They will enter the city with shouts of triumph, crowned with everlasting joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
God promises them that He, Himself, will comfort the people. He shows them that He has so much more power than their enemies, so they no longer have any need to be fearful and miserable.
Do you feel defeated at this present time? Is your life filled with anxiety and worry? Are you miserable? If so, listen to what God is saying to you. He promises to set you free. You do not have to live in misery when things go wrong and the pain is great. Remember, “You are God’s people. He has put His words into your mouth. He keeps you safe under the shelter of His hand”.
PRAYER: Lord, when things go wrong and the pain gets great, physical or mental, keep reminding me that Jesus has set me free from all this misery so I can choose to trust in Him and be filled with everlasting joy and be so happy. Amen.
FRIDAY 11th DECEMBER
John 3.22-36
He must become greater, I must become less
Some people came up to John the Baptist and told him that Jesus was drawing bigger crowds than he was. This person expected John the Baptist to be jealous of Jesus, but there was no way in the world John was even a tiny bit envious. On the contrary, he was so pleased Jesus was doing so well. John recognised that the ministry he did have wasn’t really from himself, because it was given to him by God. He knew that he came to prepare for the Christ, so when Jesus started up he knew his own ministry was coming to an end.
John said that Jesus must become greater, and he must become less. Then John went on to really praise Jesus’ ministry and said that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Christ, and as such was above all - He was the greatest of the great. Jesus’ teaching is spot on because He teaches what He has seen and heard from His Father in Heaven.
Jesus thus speaks not His own words, but the words of God. His ministry is the most powerful of all ministries because God gives Him the Spirit without limit. God loves Jesus so much He has placed everything in His hands! Jesus’ main ministry was to give people the free gift of eternal life. All those who believe in Jesus are promised the gift of life; those who reject Him are destined to perish.
Each one of us has a ministry, but it’s not our own; it comes from God. As we totally surrender and let Jesus take over our lives, we can be used powerfully by Him, but all the time He must become greater and we must become less.
PRAYER: Jesus, like John the Baptist, we recognise that you must become more important and we must become less. Come into our hearts, fill us with your Spirit and enable us to spread your word that we may be used by you day by day. Amen.
SATURDAY 12th DECEMBER
Luke 3.7-18
Preparing for Jesus
Before we can receive Jesus into our hearts and be used by Him to minister His love, we have to repent. John the Baptist points to a few important things to look at in our lives to make ourselves ready for Jesus.
Firstly, those who have plenty should always be ready to share with those who have very little. We are a global village and we can soon find out from many relief organisations that needs our help. We should all pray and work out which relief organisations we can give to.
Secondly, we must be fair and honest in all our business and other dealings. We must also be content with our pay as our lot in life and not be envious of others. After repenting, we are ready to receive Jesus. We must realize how powerful He is and how much of His power He wants to give us. John says that Jesus is so much more powerful than He is. As we saw yesterday, He has the Holy Spirit without limit. When we receive Him, He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. This means He completely immerses us in the Holy Spirit’s power. As we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we can sense God’s power working through ourselves. We find that our prayers are answered. We lay hands on sick people and see many of them recover. We witness to people and see some of them being born again and coming to the Lord.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we lay aside all that would stop you coming into our hearts and repent of it all. Baptize us now with your Holy Spirit and empower us to be powerful witnesses and ministers of your Gospel. Amen.
SUNDAY 13TH.DECEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’
Saint Paul’s words ring out to us This Morning! We have so much to be happy about. Clap your hands. Praise the Lord, He is so good to us!
We are so happy this morning because God is speaking to us through His Word in the Bible. What He says is so fantastic! Let’s look at what He says in Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you.
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you.
He will quiet you with His love.
He will rejoice over you with singing!
As you grow up as a child, if your parents and your family really love you and delight in you, you grow up to be very happy. The more they delight in you the happier you become. Because you have been loved so much you are able to give out a lot of love yourself. Sadly, there are so many people in our society that do not have such loving parents. They find it hard to love people and make lasting relationships. Today’s Word from the Lord is really good news to them. When the ears of their hearts are opened and they hear God telling them that He has an enormous lot of love for them and that He delights in them their lives are transformed. They become happier than the happiest people on earth. God fills them with His Holy Spirit, pours lots more love into their hearts and gives them power to love others. Nicky Cruze, the author of the book, ‘Run baby run” is a good example of this. He was never loved as a child and became a wild violent teenager. One day he heard the good news that God loved him so much He let His Son Jesus die in His place to take all his sins away. He responded to the God who delighted in him and Jesus soon baptised him with His Holy Spirit causing a great well of love to flow from him. He helped found Teen Challenge, an organization which has helped thousands of young people to realise how much God delights in them and has enabled them to come off drugs and alcohol.
Because God delights in us and loves us so much, we don’t have to be anxious about anything. Whatever happens to us, if we pray to God with thankful hearts, we know that the God of salvation will always look after us. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Rejoice again, I say Rejoice! (See Philippians 4:4-7)
MONDAY 7th DECEMBER
Zephaniah 3.14-20
The Lord God takes great delight in you
Let’s ask ourselves a question! What makes each one of us happier than anything else on earth? I have no doubt about the best answer to this question myself: it is when I know someone else delights in me; when I know that really and truly they think I am special. It’s even better when they know all my faults and failings, yet still delight in me and still let me know how special I am.
I was very fortunate to have a mother who delighted in me when I was small and to have a wonderful wife and children who also delight in me. I lost my father when I was only three and I got a stepfather who believed children should be seen and not heard. He returned noisy Christmas presents to my uncles and aunts who gave them to me - I don’t think he delighted in me. Maybe this contributed to the fact that I wasn’t sure that Father God delighted in me. I always felt I fell short of what I thought He wanted me to be.
In March 1969, when I was a young priest, I attended the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusade at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. One night when the invitation was given to receive Christ as Lord and Saviour, I felt God wanted me to go forward but I had a dog collar on. I was too embarrassed to declare that I, a priest, needed to go forward.
When I got back to my hotel I opened my Bible. It fell open at the verses we have before us today. It was as if God the Father, Himself, was speaking to me when I read the words, “He will rejoice over you with gladness. He will renew you in his love, He will exalt over you with loud singing”. I had no doubt that the Lord delighted in me. This made me happier than I had ever been before. God proceeded to open my eyes to see that I did not have to try to be a good Christian to earn my Father’s love. All I had to do was to surrender to Jesus and trust that He took the punishment my sins deserved on the cross. By this He renewed me in His love.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for loving each one of us so much that you delight in us. Help everyone to really believe that you rejoice over each one of us with great joy. We delight in you with all our hearts and are so grateful to Jesus for renewing us in His love. Amen.
TUESDAY 8th DECEMBER
Isaiah 12.2-6
Joyfully draw from the wells of salvation
After yesterday’s message that the Lord delights in us so much that He sent Jesus to renew us in His love, our hearts keep on overflowing with joy. As we draw water (by faith) from the wells of salvation, our joy bubbles up like the froth on a cappuccino and makes us so very happy.
Humans only tend to delight in those who are nice to them and who respond to their love. Parents often delight in their children only when they are too young to answer back and give them trouble. God is so different from us. He delights in us all the time. This is because God is love and God has the power to love. As soon as we respond to His love and draw close to Him, He draws close to us. He fills us with faith in Him which is faith in His power to transform our lives. He delights in us when we are still sinners. This is what motivates us to want to be like Him. Through faith in His saving power we soon become like Him and He delights in us when we become saints. If He waited for us to become saints before He delighted in us, none of us would ever make it.
Because of God’s amazing grace and saving power, He takes away all our fear. This makes us all so happy. It makes us sing and dance with joy. Our hearts are filled with gratitude and our mouths filled with thanksgiving and praise to God.
We become so intoxicated with the joy of all that God has done for us that we are impelled to “show the enormous, fantastic love of Jesus to as many people as we can”.
PRAYER: Father, thank you that when we are still sinners, you delight in us and give us faith in the saving power of your Son, Jesus. We respond to your love. Pour your saving grace into our hearts until joy bubbles up to show the whole world how fantastic you are. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 9th DECEMBER
Philippians 4.4-7
Rejoice in the Lord always
So far this week, joy has been already bubbling up in our hearts because God has shown us how much He delights in us. We have also been reminded of the tremendous saving power the Lord has given us through Jesus. This has made us feel abundantly happy too.
Today the Bible exhorts us to delight ourselves in the Lord and to rejoice in the Lord always. In the light of what God has shown us, this is a very easy thing to do. As Christians who are fully aware of God’s great love for us, we can obey this command - to rejoice in the Lord always - even in the most difficult of life’s circumstances. This is what makes us truly the happiest people on earth.
Because God loves us so much and we know that He’s so close to us, we can be so gentle with others. We can be very tolerant of people, even when they are causing us to be in a lot of pain and suffering physically or mentally.
When we have a wonderful close relationship with God, as we delight in Him and rejoice in Him continuously, so He cures us of one of life’s worst problems, which is worry or anxiety. As soon as something begins to go wrong which would normally make us very worried and anxious, we turn to God in prayer. We have so much confidence in Him that we are absolutely sure He will keep His promise (see Mark 11.24) so we immediately start to thank the Lord for taking away the cause of the anxious worry. Immediately the anxiety dissolves and our hearts are filled with an extraordinary peace.
In Christ Jesus we are so happy and secure; so free from stress.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, we delight ourselves in you. We can’t stop ourselves rejoicing, especially when you take away all worry and anxiety and fill our hearts with that extraordinary peace. We can’t stop thanking you. Amen.
THURSDAY 10th DECEMBER
Isaiah 51.9-16
Stick a geranium in your hat and be happy
Once I noticed a book in our house which someone in our family was reading. The heading above is the name of this book by Barbara Johnson. The main message of the book is “pain is inevitable, but misery is optional”. Isaiah wrote today’s reading when the people of Israel were very miserable. They had been completely defeated by the Babylonian enemy and had been taken into captivity in Babylon. They were continually afraid all day long and dreaded that the fury of their oppressors would destroy them.
Speaking through this prophet, God moves to lift the people out of their misery. He gives them some fantastic promises. The Lord’s people will be able to go back to Jerusalem, set free. They will enter the city with shouts of triumph, crowned with everlasting joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
God promises them that He, Himself, will comfort the people. He shows them that He has so much more power than their enemies, so they no longer have any need to be fearful and miserable.
Do you feel defeated at this present time? Is your life filled with anxiety and worry? Are you miserable? If so, listen to what God is saying to you. He promises to set you free. You do not have to live in misery when things go wrong and the pain is great. Remember, “You are God’s people. He has put His words into your mouth. He keeps you safe under the shelter of His hand”.
PRAYER: Lord, when things go wrong and the pain gets great, physical or mental, keep reminding me that Jesus has set me free from all this misery so I can choose to trust in Him and be filled with everlasting joy and be so happy. Amen.
FRIDAY 11th DECEMBER
John 3.22-36
He must become greater, I must become less
Some people came up to John the Baptist and told him that Jesus was drawing bigger crowds than he was. This person expected John the Baptist to be jealous of Jesus, but there was no way in the world John was even a tiny bit envious. On the contrary, he was so pleased Jesus was doing so well. John recognised that the ministry he did have wasn’t really from himself, because it was given to him by God. He knew that he came to prepare for the Christ, so when Jesus started up he knew his own ministry was coming to an end.
John said that Jesus must become greater, and he must become less. Then John went on to really praise Jesus’ ministry and said that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the Christ, and as such was above all - He was the greatest of the great. Jesus’ teaching is spot on because He teaches what He has seen and heard from His Father in Heaven.
Jesus thus speaks not His own words, but the words of God. His ministry is the most powerful of all ministries because God gives Him the Spirit without limit. God loves Jesus so much He has placed everything in His hands! Jesus’ main ministry was to give people the free gift of eternal life. All those who believe in Jesus are promised the gift of life; those who reject Him are destined to perish.
Each one of us has a ministry, but it’s not our own; it comes from God. As we totally surrender and let Jesus take over our lives, we can be used powerfully by Him, but all the time He must become greater and we must become less.
PRAYER: Jesus, like John the Baptist, we recognise that you must become more important and we must become less. Come into our hearts, fill us with your Spirit and enable us to spread your word that we may be used by you day by day. Amen.
SATURDAY 12th DECEMBER
Luke 3.7-18
Preparing for Jesus
Before we can receive Jesus into our hearts and be used by Him to minister His love, we have to repent. John the Baptist points to a few important things to look at in our lives to make ourselves ready for Jesus.
Firstly, those who have plenty should always be ready to share with those who have very little. We are a global village and we can soon find out from many relief organisations that needs our help. We should all pray and work out which relief organisations we can give to.
Secondly, we must be fair and honest in all our business and other dealings. We must also be content with our pay as our lot in life and not be envious of others. After repenting, we are ready to receive Jesus. We must realize how powerful He is and how much of His power He wants to give us. John says that Jesus is so much more powerful than He is. As we saw yesterday, He has the Holy Spirit without limit. When we receive Him, He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit. This means He completely immerses us in the Holy Spirit’s power. As we are baptized in the Holy Spirit, we can sense God’s power working through ourselves. We find that our prayers are answered. We lay hands on sick people and see many of them recover. We witness to people and see some of them being born again and coming to the Lord.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we lay aside all that would stop you coming into our hearts and repent of it all. Baptize us now with your Holy Spirit and empower us to be powerful witnesses and ministers of your Gospel. Amen.
SUNDAY 13TH.DECEMBER
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
‘Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!’
Saint Paul’s words ring out to us This Morning! We have so much to be happy about. Clap your hands. Praise the Lord, He is so good to us!
We are so happy this morning because God is speaking to us through His Word in the Bible. What He says is so fantastic! Let’s look at what He says in Zephaniah 3:17
The Lord your God is with you.
He is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you.
He will quiet you with His love.
He will rejoice over you with singing!
As you grow up as a child, if your parents and your family really love you and delight in you, you grow up to be very happy. The more they delight in you the happier you become. Because you have been loved so much you are able to give out a lot of love yourself. Sadly, there are so many people in our society that do not have such loving parents. They find it hard to love people and make lasting relationships. Today’s Word from the Lord is really good news to them. When the ears of their hearts are opened and they hear God telling them that He has an enormous lot of love for them and that He delights in them their lives are transformed. They become happier than the happiest people on earth. God fills them with His Holy Spirit, pours lots more love into their hearts and gives them power to love others. Nicky Cruze, the author of the book, ‘Run baby run” is a good example of this. He was never loved as a child and became a wild violent teenager. One day he heard the good news that God loved him so much He let His Son Jesus die in His place to take all his sins away. He responded to the God who delighted in him and Jesus soon baptised him with His Holy Spirit causing a great well of love to flow from him. He helped found Teen Challenge, an organization which has helped thousands of young people to realise how much God delights in them and has enabled them to come off drugs and alcohol.
Because God delights in us and loves us so much, we don’t have to be anxious about anything. Whatever happens to us, if we pray to God with thankful hearts, we know that the God of salvation will always look after us. “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” Rejoice again, I say Rejoice! (See Philippians 4:4-7)