This weeks Devotions

MONDAY 20TH FEBRUARY
Joel 2:12-18
Lent a Time of Prayer and Fasting

Lent is a time when God calls us to renew our commitment to Him. As Jesus set aside a period of six weeks to prepare Himself for His ministry, so we set aside a similar period to draw closer to the Lord. As Jesus fasted and prayed so we are called to fast and pray.

Jesus prayed and fasted to prepare for His work of saving and healing. The motivation for our observance of Lent should not just be to develop our own spiritual lives but to receive power to enable us to continue Jesus’ work for Him. As Jesus prayed, “for their sakes I sanctify myself that they may be truly sanctified” (John 17:19), so for the sake of those whom Jesus calls us to help and minister to we ask God to equip us to be able to bring His loving, saving, healing power to them. To be equipped for ministry we are called to fast and pray.

Fasting means giving up food or other things we like. Selfishness is our biggest enemy which drives us further from the Lord. Denying ourselves things helps us to die to self. We cannot sanctify ourselves or make ourselves holy. Only God can do this for us. Fasting helps us to depend on God more. During fasting, as we feel hungry for food, we reach out for Jesus the living bread. Our desire for food fades away as Jesus totally satisfies us with His living presence in our lives. His Holy Spirit gives us all the power we need to pray for people and share the fantastic love of Jesus with them and open up to Jesus to be saved and healed.

PRAYER: Jesus, help us to keep Lent the way you prepared for your ministry. Inspire us to fast and pray. As we give up satisfying our earthly appetites make our appetite for You grow stronger until we are filled with You and totally satisfied. After that empower us to share You with many others until all around are as satisfied as we are. Amen.

TUESDAY 21st. FEBRUARY
2 Corinthians 5:14-6:10, Psalm 51
Be Reconciled to God

Today is Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally it is a day when people confess their sins and get reconciled with God. It’s really very easy to get rid of all the sins and broken relationships etc in our lives and be reconciled to God for God has done it for us. God does not count our sins against us. When Jesus hung and suffered on the cross He took all our sins into His heart. He felt all the pain and suffering and rejection that sin causes. It was so awful for Him. He even felt separated from God when He cried out, “My God, My God why have You abandoned Me?” In feeling all the suffering sin causes, Jesus was receiving the punishment our sins deserve. As He did this He set us free from the consequences of our sins – separation from God and death. He became sin so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus took all our ungodliness from our hearts to make us holy. All of us who trust in Jesus, and all that He did for us, are made into new creations. He blots out our sinful past and makes us new creations. He does all this for us when we surrender to Him, He reconciles us and makes us absolutely and utterly one with God! As we get closer to Jesus, this Lent, we will feel the love of Christ compelling us. He will motivate us to stop living for ourselves and to live for Him and for others. He will give us a tremendous love for all sinners and all who do not know God. We will find ourselves praying for them and looking for every opportunity to tell them what God has done for us and what He wants to do for them!

PRAYER: Jesus thank You so much for becoming sin so I could have no sin. Thank You for reconciling me to God. I accept all You have done for me as I totally surrender and put all my faith and trust in You and believe You have made me a new person. May Your love help me to pray for all who do not know You and tell them how much You want to save them too. Amen.

WEDNESDAY 22nd.FEBRUARY
Ash Wednesday
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Living For God, Living For Others

As the devil tempted Jesus when He was fasting and praying, so he comes to tempt us. He tries to destroy our relationship with God. This is the very relationship we want to improve through all our Lenten observances. The weapon he uses to corrupt our relationship with God is the sin of pride. The better we are at keeping Lent the more success the devil can have if we let him. The devil’s aim is for us to draw all the attention to ourselves. He wants us to feel so good because we give more to the needy than anyone else, because we spend more time in prayer and because we are so good at fasting. He loves it when we get aloof and feel so much better than everyone else. He knows that this will make us repel other people and put us further from God. When we are in the centre, we are useless to God. Denial of self or death to self is so important. It’s only when we are humble that we can draw near to God. Humility makes room in our hearts for God. Humility draws other people to us and through us to God. The way to avoid the sin of pride and develop humility is to be ever so secretive about the rules we make to keep Lent. Don’t tell anyone about how much extra you are giving. Don’t let them know how long you spent in prayer and all the valuable time you’re giving to God. Don’t look all miserable and complain how hungry you are because it’s so long since your last meal. Instead only let God know what you are giving up. May Jesus’ living presence in you show nothing but happiness and joy even when your Lenten disciplines make you very tired and very worn out.

PRAYER: Jesus, all I want to do this Lent is to live for You and live for others. Please kill the sin of pride in me. I’ll keep a secret all the extra things I do for You. Help me to die to self and live for others. When I’m tired and worn out from fasting and praying may others only see happiness and joy bubbling out of my life. Amen

THURSDAY 23rd.FEBRUARY
Genesis 9:8-17
The Rainbow in the Sky

After God had caused the destruction of so much life by the great flood, He made a promise to Noah. Never again would He destroy life like that. The rainbow in the sky was a sign that God would never again destroy life. In the New Testament we learn that the thing that really destroys life is not a flood but SIN. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23a). If sin can be destroyed, death can be destroyed. Jesus the Son of God came to earth to destroy sin. After Jesus’ death and resurrection God made a new covenant, a new promise. Never again would sin result in death. The cross and the empty tomb, like the rainbow, are signs that death has been destroyed. “The free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23b).

There was one person who never had to die because He always was eternal because He always was God. But He who never had to die chose to come to earth and die for us on the cross. Jesus chose to die because He loved us all so very, very much. He knew that if He died we, who accept Him as our Lord and Saviour, would never die. He made us all so we could be His friends forever. Our sins spoilt our friendship. His death restored us as His friends.

As Jesus won eternal life for us by dying on the cross, so we too can win others to be His friends if we are willing to die to self and give ourselves unstintingly to God.

PRAYER: Father, You promised that never again would You destroy life when you put the rainbow in the sky. You kept your promise fully when You let your Son die to destroy sin. As we enjoy the assurance of eternal life help all our friends trust in you that they may have the benefits of your death with us and be with you for ever, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

FRIDAY 24TH.FEBRUARY
I Peter 3:18-22
Baptism a Share in Jesus’ Death and Resurrection

Baptism is very important for all Christians because Baptism signifies all that Jesus did for us when He died for our sins to bring us into a right relationship with God and when He rose again to bring us all into eternal life. When we were baptized we shared in Jesus’ death. The old sinful nature in us died. We also shared in the resurrection of Jesus. The living Lord Jesus came to live in our hearts and to make us into new people. The water we were baptized with symbolizes cleansing; not the cleansing of our bodies but the cleansing of our inner selves – our spirits. They are made clean by being washed in the precious blood of Jesus who died to make us clean. If we believe that in our Baptism we were cleansed and made into new people we always have a clear conscience.

God promises that He will allow the power released when Jesus died on the cross to keep us free from sin and its effects. Sin can’t harm us for long, even when we commit sins (and we all do). As we keep trusting in Jesus, His power washes over us and blots out all our sins. His power working in us keeps our consciences clean. If we really believe our old selves died with Jesus on the cross when we were baptized and that the risen Lord Jesus took up residence in our hearts, it makes such a huge difference in our lives. If you have let Jesus slip away since your baptism, know that He’s always standing at the door of your heart knocking until you open the door and let Him in.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for my baptism in which You enabled me to die with Jesus so that He could come alive in my heart. Help me to believe this wonderful truth and always let You into my heart so I can go on being cleansed by You and always have a good conscience, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

SATURDAY 25TH.FEBRUARY
Mark 1:4-15
Driven By the Holy Spirit

When Jesus was baptized in the River Jordan, He was filled with the Holy Spirit. Although Jesus was God’s Son and was God, the second person of the blessed Trinity, He was fully human. For Him to have an effective ministry He had to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

When we were baptized we, too, received the Holy Spirit into our lives. The Spirit caused us to be born again. However, for us to live effective Christian lives in which we can be used by Jesus we have to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. That means we have to be immersed in the Holy Spirit’s power. Jesus’ disciples were all baptized in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost when they spoke in tongues and preached the Good News of resurrection and life with great power and effectiveness. The first thing that the Holy Spirit did for Jesus was to drive Him into a place of prayer. There He got very close His Father. He saw all that God was going to do with Him in His ministry.

Everything He did He did because God told Him. The Holy Spirit gave Him power to resist the temptations of Satan and gave Him all the protection He needed. As we are filled with the Holy Spirit (as promised to those who ask for Him (Luke 11:13) this drives us to pray. He prays in us and through us and helps us to pray according to God’s will. He makes our prayers very effective. He gives us power to be powerful witnesses and to proclaim to people that the kingdom of God is close at hand to encourage them to repent and believe the Good News.

PRAYER: Father, as you filled Jesus with Your Holy Spirit and drove Him to a place of prayer, go on filling us with Your Holy Spirit. Enable us to pray the way You want us to and give us power to be Your witnesses and power to move people to repent and believe the Gospel, through Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

SUNDAY 26TH. FEBRUARY
LENT 1
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE.

Lent is a very important time for us Christians. It designed to help us to get closer to Jesus. It lasts for six weeks and ends with Holy Week and Good Friday.

We choose this period of six weeks because that is the time that Jesus spent fasting and praying in the desert to prepare himself for His ministry. The Holy Spirit drove Jesus into this deserted place and was with him to help him to pray and to resist the temptations of Satan. The Holy Spirit enabled Jesus depend only on God to sustain him all through the time that he fasted when he ate and drank nothing.

We can best use this Lenten period by setting aside special times to be alone with God in prayer. Use this time to read the bible and listen to God and pray to Him.

We will be helped greatly if we can take the time to attend midweek communion services or bible studies. Attend or join a home group or start one up.

Fasting, which is abstaining from food for certain periods and giving up things that we like are ways in which we can learn to depend on God more. When we deny things we like, it draws us closer to God. Jesus makes His presence felt in our hearts . He gives us more satisfaction than the things we have given up.

Giving extra money to Missions, above our normal tithes and offerings, is another way we can deny ourselves during Lent. . Use the Lenten ABM Appeal envelopes. Fill up our Bush Ministry Fund money boxes or buy a plastic money box for $10. Give to CMS or BCA. Give to the Archbishops Flood Appeal to help those who lost to much in the towns of South West Queensland.

When we get so close to Jesus He fills us with His Holy Spirit and gives us more power to love and to help other people.

Jesus needs us to share His love with everyone so He needs us to draw closer to Him in the Lenten period.

I pay that you will all ENJOY your Lenten disciplines.
“If anyone would come after me, He must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ( Mark 8 34)

PRAYER:Lord Jesus you set us a wonderful example when you denied yourself food and water for six weeks. The Holy Spirit drove You into the desert to be alone with The Father. He gave you the power to resist the devil and to save all mankind. Inspire us all to deny ourselves and get close to you in prayer. Fill us with the Holy Spirit and empower us to love and help other people. Amen.