MONDAY 27TH JUNE
Zechariah 9.9-12
Jesus conquers by the power of love alone
Throughout the history of the world, kingdom and political powers have made huge conquests. Empires have been huge. But no empire has conquered as many people as the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah was prophesying about Jesus’ empire on earth when he wrote our scripture passage for today. He said it would go to the ends of the earth. How wonderfully this prophecy has been fulfilled. Although there are places where the Gospel has not reached, in almost every country there are Christians. Every day more and more people are surrendering their lives to Jesus as this kingdom grows and grows. The extraordinary thing about Jesus’ conquering power is that He never ever uses force. Jesus came into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday riding on a donkey, not a horse. Donkeys were used only for peace time activities. Horses were mainly used in war. The only power Jesus used was the power of God’s love. The donkey took Jesus into Jerusalem where He took up the cross. The cross is a power house of God’s love. Enormous quantities of love were generated on the cross. This love keeps on and on flowing into the hearts of men and women in every corner of the globe!
Each one of us is called to be a conductor of Jesus’ love. When we are conquered by the power of His love and surrender our lives to Him, we are filled with that love, but that love wasn’t put in our hearts to stay because love isn’t love until we give it away. As we give it away, so more lives are conquered for Jesus!
PRAYER: Jesus, we are so glad you conquered us by the mighty power of your love. We now let your love flow through us to those around us that we may help you conquer the whole world. Amen.
TUESDAY 28TH JUNE
Psalm 145
God is the greatest
We begin today by exalting our God and telling Him how wonderful and truly fantastic He is. He means so much to us that we want to praise Him for ever and ever. He is most worthy of our praises. He is so great that His greatness cannot be measured. We can tell how great He is because we have experienced the power of His awesome works. Wow, He created the universe and all that’s in it! Yes, He is responsible for everything that exists. Even though He is so high and so mighty, He is full of love and compassion for everyone.
When we sin and go against Him, He is slow to get angry at us! He is so patient and always ready to forgive; He is extremely rich in His love for us all. He wants to leave no one out. When we all realize just how good God is, it makes us so grateful. It makes us want to extol Him with all our hearts. It makes us love Him so much. As we read through the Bible, we see that it is crammed full of many precious promises. The wonderful thing about God is that He is faithful to them all. He never tells a lie. God is so very, very good. Because of His compassion, those who fall, and those who are bowed down with sufferings of every kind, can be sure of His help. God is always ready with an open hand to satisfy the desires of every living thing. God is so fantastic.
PRAYER: I will exalt you my God and King. I will praise your Name for ever and ever, every day. I will praise you and extol your Name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 29TH JUNE
Romans 7.14-25
I can’t help sinning
Paul had discovered that however hard he tried he could not stop himself sinning. He said, “What I want to do, I do not do and what I hate, I do” (v15). Why is it that we can’t stop ourselves sinning? There is a force working in us, an unspiritual force, which causes us to sin. We are all basically selfish. We each have a selfish human nature. It is what controls us and causes us to sin. So often we want to do what is good but can’t. We don’t want to do what is wrong, but end up doing it anyway. When we learn God’s law, we desperately want to keep it, and a sort of war goes on in each of us. Our minds, influenced by God’s law, want to do what is good and right, but the members of our bodies want us to do the opposite. We find ourselves in a real conflict. This makes us feel so ashamed of ourselves. I say with Paul, “What a wretched man that I am”. I need rescuing. I need a Saviour. I need someone to stop the war between my mind and my sinful human nature.
Thanks be to God. Jesus is the rescuer. Jesus is the Saviour. He draws us into Himself. He wins the war for us so we can say we are no longer condemned, no longer wretched, for “there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8.1-2).
PRAYER: Father, you know how much we can’t save ourselves from sinning. Thank you for giving us Jesus to save us from the power of sin in us. We trust in Him right now to set us free. Amen.
THURSDAY 30TH JUNE
Matthew 11.15-24
The world gets it wrong
In John 1.10 the Bible says of Jesus, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him”. How it frustrated Jesus because the people around Him did not respond to His message. He loved them all so much. He could see that the way they were going, they would end up in destruction. He didn’t want them to be destroyed.
You would think that all the miracles Jesus did would have convinced people and enabled them to believe in Jesus and inspire them to follow Him, but it did not. Jesus compares the places where He has been ministering to the evil cities which had been destroyed for their wickedness and says God would have spared them because even those evil people would have repented if they could see the miracles Jesus was doing! Jesus feels so sorry for all who reject Him. They are self-destructing. If Jesus had this sort of reaction to His ministry, don’t be surprised if your message is rejected when you minister to people. Never give up. Jesus was victorious in the end, and so will you be if you persevere in your witnessing and sharing.
PRAYER: Jesus, it’s so awful that people rejected you and still reject you in us now. It’s awful because they will be lost. Empower us to persevere in ministering to them until they come around to accepting you. Amen.
FRIDAY 1ST JULY
Matthew 11.25-27
God must reveal Himself
Today’s verses give us the clue why, as we saw yesterday, so many people rejected Jesus and still go on rejecting Him today. Just as you can’t stop yourself sinning (as we learnt earlier this week), so you cannot, using your own mind, get to know God or begin to understand the truth about Him. Have you tried to witness to someone? Have you been so disappointed because they didn’t respond? Have you thought to yourself, “I can’t do it, I’m not an evangelist”? The truth is that not one of us can convince another person about the truth of Jesus. The only ones that can get to know and fully understand God are His Son, Jesus, and all those Jesus reveals Him to. A little miracle has to take place before we can know God.
Paul describes it in Ephesians when he says, “The eyes of your heart are opened”. God gives us a spirit of revelation which enables us to see Him through the eyes of our hearts (the eyes of faith). If we want our friends to be saved (to become followers of Jesus), then there is only one way. We have to pray and ask Jesus to open the eyes of their hearts and enable them to perceive and get to know God.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we can think of lots of people whom we would love to become your followers. We tried to witness to them. Please reveal Yourself and the Father to them by opening the eyes of their hearts with a spirit of revelation. Amen.
SATURDAY 2ND JULY
Matthew 11.28-30
Come to me all who are wearied and burdened
Jesus loves us all so much. When we reject Him, He feels so sorry for us. He longs to reveal Himself and the Father to us. So often the things of THIS WORLD crowd Him out. We get preoccupied and stop Him opening the eyes of our hearts. There is one time nearly everyone will respond to Jesus. That is when they are suffering. All they can think of is the pain. Getting rid of it now becomes more important than anything else. Jesus loves them so much that He longs to relieve their suffering. Even though they rejected Him when things were going well, He still comes to them with His helping hand outstretched.
Jesus is so humble. He comes right alongside us and gently eases the burdens off our shoulders. We don’t reject Him because He’s right there with us, suffering with us. Jesus is in us who believe! He gives us the power of His love, to humbly get alongside people who are suffering and to help them ease their burdens. He fills our hearts with compassion. He makes us gentle and humble. As we help these people and share their burdens, Jesus will be revealed to them. They will be so happy.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for being so sinless and humble and getting alongside the suffering and poor. Empower us with your love to relieve others of suffering and lead them to you. Amen.
SUNDAY 3RD.JULY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
When I was a child I used to think like this: ‘If only could see lots of miracles happening, as they did when Jesus was walking this earth, then it would be easier for people to come to believe in Him.’ I could see how hard it was to convince people to believe in Jesus. Later on in my life I saw many miracles happening around me. When I told people about them they still did not believe.
Today’s gospel shows us that Jesus actually had the same problem. Seeing many of His miracles did not convince people to believe in Him. What is the secret which enables people to come to have faith in Jesus? Again the Gospel for Today gives us the answer:
You simply can’t believe if you can’t believe simply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jesus says that He has hidden the truth from the learned and wise and revealed it to children. He calls all the struggling poor people of the World to come to Him. He tells them that they can only come to know God if God opens the eyes of their hearts and reveals Himself to them. Before people can come to have faith in God and Jesus they must be healed of their spiritual blindness.
Man’s self reliance is what causes him not to see God! Having lots of human wisdom and learning and having everything he needs and wants are the things that stop him from coming to believe in God. This is demonstrated by looking at what is happening in the world today. In the wealthy, well educated, western nations the numbed of believers is shrinking. In contrast, where education is lacking and the people are starving, people are coming to the Lord in their MILLIONS!!!!!!!!!!
e.g. In Bangladesh, probably the poorest country in the world, 7,000 people are being baptized as Christians every month!!!!!!!!!!
Let us pray that all the self reliant people of the world will repent of their independence from God and allow Jesus to open the eyes of their hearts that they may see Him and believe. Let us also pray for all the people we know who do not have faith in Jesus that He may open wide the eyes of their hearts too.
Before telling people about Jesus it is important that we first pray for them and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to them by opening their spiritual eyes.
PRAYER: Father, you taught us that we have to become like children to believe in You. We simply can’t believe if we can’t believe simply. Empower us with your holy Spirit to enable us to share the good news with others. As we pray for them open the eyes of their hearts that they may come to see You and believe. Through Jesus our wonderful Saviour. Amen.
MONDAY 27TH JUNE
Zechariah 9.9-12
Jesus conquers by the power of love alone
Throughout the history of the world, kingdom and political powers have made huge conquests. Empires have been huge. But no empire has conquered as many people as the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Zechariah was prophesying about Jesus’ empire on earth when he wrote our scripture passage for today. He said it would go to the ends of the earth. How wonderfully this prophecy has been fulfilled. Although there are places where the Gospel has not reached, in almost every country there are Christians. Every day more and more people are surrendering their lives to Jesus as this kingdom grows and grows. The extraordinary thing about Jesus’ conquering power is that He never ever uses force. Jesus came into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday riding on a donkey, not a horse. Donkeys were used only for peace time activities. Horses were mainly used in war. The only power Jesus used was the power of God’s love. The donkey took Jesus into Jerusalem where He took up the cross. The cross is a power house of God’s love. Enormous quantities of love were generated on the cross. This love keeps on and on flowing into the hearts of men and women in every corner of the globe!
Each one of us is called to be a conductor of Jesus’ love. When we are conquered by the power of His love and surrender our lives to Him, we are filled with that love, but that love wasn’t put in our hearts to stay because love isn’t love until we give it away. As we give it away, so more lives are conquered for Jesus!
PRAYER: Jesus, we are so glad you conquered us by the mighty power of your love. We now let your love flow through us to those around us that we may help you conquer the whole world. Amen.
TUESDAY 28TH JUNE
Psalm 145
God is the greatest
We begin today by exalting our God and telling Him how wonderful and truly fantastic He is. He means so much to us that we want to praise Him for ever and ever. He is most worthy of our praises. He is so great that His greatness cannot be measured. We can tell how great He is because we have experienced the power of His awesome works. Wow, He created the universe and all that’s in it! Yes, He is responsible for everything that exists. Even though He is so high and so mighty, He is full of love and compassion for everyone.
When we sin and go against Him, He is slow to get angry at us! He is so patient and always ready to forgive; He is extremely rich in His love for us all. He wants to leave no one out. When we all realize just how good God is, it makes us so grateful. It makes us want to extol Him with all our hearts. It makes us love Him so much. As we read through the Bible, we see that it is crammed full of many precious promises. The wonderful thing about God is that He is faithful to them all. He never tells a lie. God is so very, very good. Because of His compassion, those who fall, and those who are bowed down with sufferings of every kind, can be sure of His help. God is always ready with an open hand to satisfy the desires of every living thing. God is so fantastic.
PRAYER: I will exalt you my God and King. I will praise your Name for ever and ever, every day. I will praise you and extol your Name for ever and ever. Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 29TH JUNE
Romans 7.14-25
I can’t help sinning
Paul had discovered that however hard he tried he could not stop himself sinning. He said, “What I want to do, I do not do and what I hate, I do” (v15). Why is it that we can’t stop ourselves sinning? There is a force working in us, an unspiritual force, which causes us to sin. We are all basically selfish. We each have a selfish human nature. It is what controls us and causes us to sin. So often we want to do what is good but can’t. We don’t want to do what is wrong, but end up doing it anyway. When we learn God’s law, we desperately want to keep it, and a sort of war goes on in each of us. Our minds, influenced by God’s law, want to do what is good and right, but the members of our bodies want us to do the opposite. We find ourselves in a real conflict. This makes us feel so ashamed of ourselves. I say with Paul, “What a wretched man that I am”. I need rescuing. I need a Saviour. I need someone to stop the war between my mind and my sinful human nature.
Thanks be to God. Jesus is the rescuer. Jesus is the Saviour. He draws us into Himself. He wins the war for us so we can say we are no longer condemned, no longer wretched, for “there is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus because through Christ Jesus the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8.1-2).
PRAYER: Father, you know how much we can’t save ourselves from sinning. Thank you for giving us Jesus to save us from the power of sin in us. We trust in Him right now to set us free. Amen.
THURSDAY 30TH JUNE
Matthew 11.15-24
The world gets it wrong
In John 1.10 the Bible says of Jesus, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him”. How it frustrated Jesus because the people around Him did not respond to His message. He loved them all so much. He could see that the way they were going, they would end up in destruction. He didn’t want them to be destroyed.
You would think that all the miracles Jesus did would have convinced people and enabled them to believe in Jesus and inspire them to follow Him, but it did not. Jesus compares the places where He has been ministering to the evil cities which had been destroyed for their wickedness and says God would have spared them because even those evil people would have repented if they could see the miracles Jesus was doing! Jesus feels so sorry for all who reject Him. They are self-destructing. If Jesus had this sort of reaction to His ministry, don’t be surprised if your message is rejected when you minister to people. Never give up. Jesus was victorious in the end, and so will you be if you persevere in your witnessing and sharing.
PRAYER: Jesus, it’s so awful that people rejected you and still reject you in us now. It’s awful because they will be lost. Empower us to persevere in ministering to them until they come around to accepting you. Amen.
FRIDAY 1ST JULY
Matthew 11.25-27
God must reveal Himself
Today’s verses give us the clue why, as we saw yesterday, so many people rejected Jesus and still go on rejecting Him today. Just as you can’t stop yourself sinning (as we learnt earlier this week), so you cannot, using your own mind, get to know God or begin to understand the truth about Him. Have you tried to witness to someone? Have you been so disappointed because they didn’t respond? Have you thought to yourself, “I can’t do it, I’m not an evangelist”? The truth is that not one of us can convince another person about the truth of Jesus. The only ones that can get to know and fully understand God are His Son, Jesus, and all those Jesus reveals Him to. A little miracle has to take place before we can know God.
Paul describes it in Ephesians when he says, “The eyes of your heart are opened”. God gives us a spirit of revelation which enables us to see Him through the eyes of our hearts (the eyes of faith). If we want our friends to be saved (to become followers of Jesus), then there is only one way. We have to pray and ask Jesus to open the eyes of their hearts and enable them to perceive and get to know God.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, we can think of lots of people whom we would love to become your followers. We tried to witness to them. Please reveal Yourself and the Father to them by opening the eyes of their hearts with a spirit of revelation. Amen.
SATURDAY 2ND JULY
Matthew 11.28-30
Come to me all who are wearied and burdened
Jesus loves us all so much. When we reject Him, He feels so sorry for us. He longs to reveal Himself and the Father to us. So often the things of THIS WORLD crowd Him out. We get preoccupied and stop Him opening the eyes of our hearts. There is one time nearly everyone will respond to Jesus. That is when they are suffering. All they can think of is the pain. Getting rid of it now becomes more important than anything else. Jesus loves them so much that He longs to relieve their suffering. Even though they rejected Him when things were going well, He still comes to them with His helping hand outstretched.
Jesus is so humble. He comes right alongside us and gently eases the burdens off our shoulders. We don’t reject Him because He’s right there with us, suffering with us. Jesus is in us who believe! He gives us the power of His love, to humbly get alongside people who are suffering and to help them ease their burdens. He fills our hearts with compassion. He makes us gentle and humble. As we help these people and share their burdens, Jesus will be revealed to them. They will be so happy.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for being so sinless and humble and getting alongside the suffering and poor. Empower us with your love to relieve others of suffering and lead them to you. Amen.
SUNDAY 3RD.JULY
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
When I was a child I used to think like this: ‘If only could see lots of miracles happening, as they did when Jesus was walking this earth, then it would be easier for people to come to believe in Him.’ I could see how hard it was to convince people to believe in Jesus. Later on in my life I saw many miracles happening around me. When I told people about them they still did not believe.
Today’s gospel shows us that Jesus actually had the same problem. Seeing many of His miracles did not convince people to believe in Him. What is the secret which enables people to come to have faith in Jesus? Again the Gospel for Today gives us the answer:
You simply can’t believe if you can’t believe simply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jesus says that He has hidden the truth from the learned and wise and revealed it to children. He calls all the struggling poor people of the World to come to Him. He tells them that they can only come to know God if God opens the eyes of their hearts and reveals Himself to them. Before people can come to have faith in God and Jesus they must be healed of their spiritual blindness.
Man’s self reliance is what causes him not to see God! Having lots of human wisdom and learning and having everything he needs and wants are the things that stop him from coming to believe in God. This is demonstrated by looking at what is happening in the world today. In the wealthy, well educated, western nations the numbed of believers is shrinking. In contrast, where education is lacking and the people are starving, people are coming to the Lord in their MILLIONS!!!!!!!!!!
e.g. In Bangladesh, probably the poorest country in the world, 7,000 people are being baptized as Christians every month!!!!!!!!!!
Let us pray that all the self reliant people of the world will repent of their independence from God and allow Jesus to open the eyes of their hearts that they may see Him and believe. Let us also pray for all the people we know who do not have faith in Jesus that He may open wide the eyes of their hearts too.
Before telling people about Jesus it is important that we first pray for them and ask Jesus to reveal Himself to them by opening their spiritual eyes.
PRAYER: Father, you taught us that we have to become like children to believe in You. We simply can’t believe if we can’t believe simply. Empower us with your holy Spirit to enable us to share the good news with others. As we pray for them open the eyes of their hearts that they may come to see You and believe. Through Jesus our wonderful Saviour. Amen.