June 14

 “…Abide not in the hold…” 1 Samuel 22:5

There is a time for everything. David had been escaping Saul and hiding among foreign people. This supplied relative protection for a while, but the advice came from God through the prophet not to abide ‘in the hold’, meaning in hiding, any longer. It was time for David and his band, to be among his own people, where he might be known, recognised and eventually accepted as national leader. God has a plan, and when a man is willing to follow God’s direction and advice, he usually finds out that the Lord’s plan, however different, inconvenient or unusual it may be, is always the best course of action. David could have reasoned it was unwise or inexpedient, to expose himself at this time, when his life was in serious danger; when he was considered a fugitive, and when his associations amounted mostly to those who were in debt, discontented and distressed! Yet God’s direction was clear and David was accustomed to obeying and following God. He trusted God’s reasons and plans. He was confident that God would not direct him into action, without due protection and purpose. Among the people of Judah, David would be able to show his love, interest and protection for his brethren, a fact which would later prove significant in his days as king. Also in the open and in his own country, he would not be seen by his fellow citizens, as the deserter and conspirator he had been made out to be, and Saul would be less likely to pursue David and threaten his life here among his own people. There had been an appropriate time for escape and obscurity, but now God was directing otherwise. We may not always understand all the details of God’s will and direction from the onset, but if we remain sensitive to the guidance of His Holy Spirit, we are sure in due course to understand more of God’s will and purpose. By following Him in faith and obedience, and walking a holy and yielded life, we are best positioned to receive the blessings and rewards He has in store for us.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

June 8

“In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust…” Psalms 31:1

David is afflicted, facing enemies and feeling the sting of afflicton. He doesn’t begin his prayer and call to God with his pressing needs, but starts by asserting his faith and firm confidence in Yahwah. In this time of distress he does not rely on the trust he has placed in God in the past, or on how he may lean on the Lord in the future. It is in the present, during and because of the current anguish, that he focuses his thoughts and heart of faith to God. Often we are guilty of letting our problems get in the way of our trust in the Lord. Right at the time when we should lean on Him and trust Him the most, we turn from faith in God to considering and pitying self. Like Peter who had just walked on water, having focused on the boisterous waves of our distress, and taken our eyes off the Lord, we sink! The billows of our difficulty engulf us and we flounder, wondering how we can ever survive! Putting our trust in God, should be more than just a passing, fleeting moment of reliance. It must become for the believer the default conduct, the ‘normal’ way of life. Whether the sun is shining in our life, or we are being tossed by the fiercest of weather, our staying power in found in the Lord. It is faith that anchors us in Him and keeps us in the darkest times of life. This may well be the reason why God allows us to go through the tough times we all face. It is easy to claim a reliance on God when things are smooth and everything is going our way. But when the going gets rough, the finances lack, the problems at home and work are multiplying, health has deteriorated, or we are facing opposition and our little world is being tossed, we have to learn to hold on to the One who can see us through! In His great love, our Father knows just how to train us and teach us to trust Him! Learning to lean on Him is the all-important skill of the Christian walk. It is only when we are able and willing to genuinely place our trust and confidence in Jesus that we find the fulfilment, peace, contentment and victory we desire in all areas of life!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Apr 24

 “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.” Psalms 16:1

God is refuge and comfort for those who trust in Him. We are not certain whether any specific danger assailed David at the time of this Psalm. The prayer and call for God’s protection however is appropriate at all times for the believer. The man that makes God his shelter recognises the blessing and benefit God has already afforded him through life, and desires for that solid cover to be over him and his continuously. This is what gives rise to the utterance of our hearts and lips, as we appeal to God for that which He has already faithfully supplied. It is a way of saying ‘keep doing Lord, the wonderful work of sheltering me’; or 'keep holding me Lord, in your hands I feel safe'. There is in all of us a need to sense maintained security and ongoing assurance of what we treasure. The enemies abound, whether in a physical or spiritual realm, a true battle for survival is taking place. Insidious forces, we are told in scripture, are at work to defeat us in our progress, stunt our growth and derail us from our purpose, as we serve God. Their ultimate goal, should they have their way, would be our destruction! This alone is cause for being conscious of the need of the Lord’s protection. In fact, the ‘watching’ part of prayer has to do with being awake, alert and aware of the enemy, praying against him and seeking God’s protection of self and others. Added to the ever present spiritual struggle, there are also many physical factors at work, some even unknown to us, which in our overall vulnerable humanity, undermine, lessen and detract, from an already naturally deteriorating physical being. These would no doubt overcome and dissolve us, but for the mercy, love and intervention of God. In truth, we cannot afford to take for granted, even one breath going through our lungs, or one single beat of our heart! Our preservation is God’s intent, but we must remember that it is for His glory and purpose not our own. God knows our motive in asking His fortification. To ask God that He protect us so we can go about doing our own will, desire and task, without regard for His purposes, or in rejection of His values and directions, is not only selfish but also foolish. To lean on ourselves, our own means or the ability of others alone, and have no faith in the Almighty, is also foolishness, we are warned that the ‘arm of flesh will fail us’! As believers then, we belong to Him, and we owe God the trust that befits His power, love and glory. He has reassured us that He will ‘keep’ all who believe in Him and that no matter what challenge or danger may face us, He is able to see us through. It is to the degree that we trust Him and lean on Him that we will mostly see the hand of the Lord in protection, provision and preservation to do and fulfil His will. Let's say it and live it '..O God in thee do I put my trust'!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Mar 3

“Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it…” Jonah 3:2

Nineveh was a metropolis in its day and age. ‘That great city’, was indeed great in the number of people that lived there, its fortifications, its towers and its riches. Nineveh was also great in its sin! In fact the wickedness of the city was so great that God was passing judgment upon it! That is where Jonah was sent to preach. He was to be God’s herald, and cry against the sin of the city, taking to it God’s message of impending destruction. Some tasks, to which God calls us, are less than pleasant and may go totally against our preference or leaning. They may be considered difficult, a ‘ten’, on a scale of one to ten! Scriptural examples show that some tasks to which God calls us, may require the risk of our personal comforts, resources, security and even reputation. A servant of Yahwah, the Living God cannot afford the luxury of personal inclinations, when doing a work for God. Following God’s instructions and sensing after God’s Spirit, is all important in being faithful as ministers and servants of the Lord. We live in a time when it has become acceptable to make ministry merely another ‘job’, at best a professional occupation or business. This is not the intention and meaning of the word and the position of ministry, as described in scripture. The only correct motivation for entering the ministry must be a call of God on a man’s life, corresponding to his desire to serve the Lord, in His way and in all areas of life, at whatever personal cost. He must become willing without exception, to remain obedient to every directive the Lord gives and faithful in carrying out the tasks God has set – even the hardest ones! Jonah did not have an easy task ahead of him, but he did have the power of God behind him. This is the core thing to remember – that with each task God calls us to, if we trust Him, He supplies the ability and all that may be required to carry it out. The power of God behind us is always greater than the task before us. It follows that it is on Him we must place our eyes and not ourselves, and that from Him we must draw our strength, wisdom and capacity to meet the challenges, He directs us to address. Once Jonah aligned himself with the Lord’s will, and obediently carried out the mission God had sent him on, he was mightily used of God and a great revival resulted in Nineveh. We too can find great blessing and wonderful success in God, if in all our ways we acknowledge Him, and in each endeavour we go forth in His strength and wisdom, obediently, patiently and faithfully, loving and trusting Jesus.

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Feb 19

“…for who can stretch forth his hand against the LORD'S anointed, and be guiltless?” 1 Samuel 26:9

Persecuted and hated through no fault of his own, David had found himself a fugitive. King Saul, a man he had supported, defended and blessed by his ministry and skill, on his heels and after his life! We too may experience attacks and deliberate injustices acted against us. There are times when we may uncover in our hearts a desire for revenge, against those, who without just cause, turn on us or determine to become our enemies. While we may try to defend our ‘feelings’ and minimise the true motives which fuel them, such a condition of heart, is not appropriate in a believer. The greatest injustice which was ever perpetrated by human beings, was the false accusation and crucifixion of Jesus Christ! Unlike any of us who though innocent in some respects are nevertheless sinners, there was no sin or fault to be found in Jesus. He lived the perfect and sinless human life and died, not because He deserved death, but because we did! In His great love He died in our place and paid the price of sin He did not owe, for us who owed the price of sin we could not pay! No other human injustice ever before or since equates in severity and guilt, to what took place that day at Calvary! Jesus could have commandeered an immense host of angels, who at His mere nod would have destroyed every enemy and persecutor! He could have avenged Himself of their abuse, beating, mocking and cruel torture. Yet He did not! Instead, He even stopped the hand of his disciple which had been stretched forth to strike a blow at the Lord’s enemy! He had the opportunity, the power and the means to take revenge against the injustice, yet in His love Jesus prayed for you and me, along with the physical persecutors of His day saying “Father forgive them”! He chose to do the righteousness of the Father, to fulfil His will and die for those who were His enemies! In light of Christ’s example, any thought of personal revenge or retaliation for any hurts or offenses made against us, should simply vanish and be vanquished from our hearts!  If we are honest however, we will see that often we waste no time in ‘paying-back’ for those things which we perceive have been done against us. If an opportunity presents itself to us, where we can inflict an injury, ‘bite back’, or give them a bit of ‘their own medicine’, we might be tempted to take it with glee. David found himself in just such a situation with the man who unjustly tried to kill him and continued to pursue him for his life. He found himself presented with the opportunity to finally end his torment, and cease from being a fugitive from family and country. He could have reasoned that God had delivered his arch-enemy into his hand and with the support of probably every human being around him, put an end to Saul and his threats! His own men encouraged him to do exactly that, in fact, they volunteered to do it for him! Let’s not forget also that by time David also knew he had been anointed to be the next king. A lesser man, a man who walked in the desires of his own flesh and not sensitive to God and His Spirit, would have caved at the temptation and justified his actions. After all, as the next anointed king, eliminating his enemy could have been seen as defensible by the people, but not David. A man after God’s heart, he reasoned spiritually, acted correctly, did the righteousness of God and gave no place to his pride or hurt. He wanted what was acceptable to God not man! He would not stretch forth his hand against the man whom God had set up as king, even if clearly this man has lost favour with God and was floundering in every way. David did not take things into his own hands but relied on the Lord to be his strength, his Defender and Avenger. He would be king, but only at the time, and in the way that God would bring it about! Do we have the courage, confidence and constancy of character to stand as David did, in the face of fleshly opportunities to take our revenge? Can we really justify any thought of avenging the hurts and injuries done to us, in the light of Christ’s example?

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion

Jan 9

 “In my distress I cried unto the LORD, and he heard me.” Psalms 120:1

There had been great times of rejoicing in David’s life, but he was also well acquainted with sorrow and distress. With David we too can truly say that the Lord is the God of the good times, and yet He is still God in the bad and troubled times. In the seasons of difficulty, anguish and pain, we may feel alone and ill-equipped to cope with the misery that life can bring. Friends are not always there for us or able to help and understand. Although these are not the only times when we should remember to call on the Lord, it is most appropriate that we do so. The Lord is prompt and ready to hear us, He does not slumber or sleep, and is not put off by the difficulty of our request. Though God is supreme and can select to answer us as He chooses, we have an assurance that He will heed our cries and that He is interested in us and our troubles. Faith to trust Jesus, and believe for His intervention and provision, is necessary if we are to be blessed by the Lord. We all know we will be faced with turmoil and struggles in life, as wise servants of the Lord, we therefore ought to uphold a strong, holy and pleasing walk with God at all times, so when the storms hit, as we know they will, we will find harbour, solace and assurance in the God who can calm the sea!

http://www.pentecostalfamilychurch.com.au/devotion