Category: Devotions

SUNDAY 17^th

Psalm 9

NIV (vv1-2) ‘I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing the praises of your name, O Most High.’

ESV (vv1-2) ‘I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.’

Well, today we would normally be making our way to the Church building, the house of God in Caris Street to worship the Lord and come to spend time in fellowship together, but because of the decision we have made to close the Church for a few weeks it is not possible, but, it doesn’t mean we can’t still praise the Lord and give thanks to him. Our surroundings in that respect are not important, it is the expression that comes from our heart and out through our lips that matters, in the words of an older chorus, ‘Wherever I am I’ll praise him, whenever I can I’ll praise him.’ We can worship him anywhere as we have been captivated by his love toward us and we can thank him anywhere as our hearts overflow with thanksgiving.

David was a man who constantly desired to worship the Lord and to give him thanks, and at the same time he loved to express to others what the LORD had done for him, ‘I will tell of your wonderful deeds’ (v1) ‘Tell among the people his wonderful deeds!’ (v11) In a later Psalm he talks again of the wondrous deeds of the LORD ‘You have multiplied, O LORD my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; none can compare with you! I will proclaim and tell of them, yet they are more than can be told.’ (40:5) The deeds and thoughts of the LORD toward David were so many they were more than could be told or recounted.

Worship, thanksgiving and testimony should be part and parcel of the life of every believer, Worship which comes out of a heart that is full of thanksgiving or gratitude for what the LORD has done for us and as a result it should excite us to want to tell others. I grew up in an environment in Church where opportunity was always given for the congregation to give testimony of the goodness of God as a part of the collective worship and praise, the sharing of testimony was often a means of igniting praise and worship as we rejoiced together in the goodness of God and his hand at work upon the life of a brother or sister in Christ.

God is good, God is faithful, God is daily bestowing his blessing upon us and although we may not be together today, don’t let that stop you from worshipping the Lord, don’t let it stop you from coming before him with a heart of thanksgiving, and don’t let it stop you from telling others of what the LORD has done for you, tell someone through a text message or via a phone call, so that together you may rejoice in our wonderful God and Saviour.

The song I mentioned earlier goes on to say, ‘I’ll praise the name of Jesus, lift up the name of Jesus for the name of Jesus lifted me.’ Lift him up today with your praises.

Psalm 8

NIV (v9) – ‘LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’

ESV (v9) – ‘O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’

I love this Psalm, we looked at this Psalm way back on April 20^th last year. After the two previous ones where the David seems to be in a valley, he has come onto the mountain top with this one, and from there, he views all he can see, the majesty of the Lord’s name in all the earth, the glory of the Lord displayed in the heavens, he sees the stars, the moon, and stands in awe and then his thoughts then turn to wonder about the fact that God in all his glory and his magnificence and his majesty thinks of man and cares for him.

It is sobering to stop and think that God should be mindful of us, that he should care for you and should care for me, when we consider the rebellion that took place in the garden of Eden, the ongoing depravity of human nature and man’s selfishness and pride which we as individuals also inherited and yet God still cares, so much so that he has demonstrated his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As John reminds us ‘In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.’ (1 John 4:10)

Just stop and pause for a moment on the wonder of the love of God.

David ends this Psalm in the same way that he started it, ‘O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!’ His heart has been filled with wonder, and as a result he wants that all the glory goes to the one who deserves it, to the one to whom it rightfully belongs, he exalts the LORD, calling him his Lord, and then magnifies his name, he wants to ensure that just as God had thought of him, so he also wanted to set his thoughts toward God, and toward his glory.

Today may we also turn our thought toward God and toward his glory

FRIDAY 15^th

Psalm 6 and 7

NIV (6:8) – ‘Away from me, all you who do evil, for the LORD has heard my weeping.’

ESV (6:8) – ‘Depart from me, all you workers of evil, for the LORD has heard the sound of my weeping.’

We are considering two chapters together today.

I am actually preparing this devotion on the day that we in England were placed into another lockdown as the Government seek to make all the effort possible to quell this pandemic, but of course we know that we too have to make all the effort we can to quell it as well, we all have our part to play, we all need to take responsibility toward our actions and in following the advice given. Sadly, it will probably lead to more people becoming lonely, depressed or a feeling of wanting to  give up as so much of our lives are governed through the ongoing restrictions.

In our two chapters today, the Psalmist was going through tough and difficult circumstances. The whole tone of Psalm 6 is of an individual who to use his own words, is languishing, troubled, weary, growing weak, he is also troubled with thoughts of death, (v5) he can’t take things as they are for much longer. But in it all we see that he thankfully knew where to turn, he turns to the LORD, asking that the LORD will heal him, deliver him.

He makes reference to his enemies, in the context of the short chapters it could be literal enemies of people, we know from chapter 3 he was troubled from even family members who had become his enemies, people who opposed him for who he was as the servant of God, but in the context it could also be referring to the enemies of depression, or of fear, or anxiety, or worry, feelings that were eating away at him both mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually, feelings that were bringing him to the lowest ebb he had ever been in regard to life, feelings that tormented him with thoughts that should not be allowed to control our minds. But thankfully he knew where the answer to all these things was to be found, in the LORD God, and he cries out to him, he readily admits how he is feeling, he spills it all out as he supplicates the LORD God, and he comes to the positive answer that the LORD had heard him, the LORD had accepted his prayer and that the tide would be turned, the anxious, depressing thoughts would be replaced with hope and victory.

Many may be feeling like David today, even someone who is reading this devotion, you may be asking the question, ‘How much longer?’ or thinking to yourself, ‘I cannot take much more of this’. Then today can I suggest a couple of things, yes seek help, seek spiritual help and counsel, but more importantly seek help from the LORD God, he is the one who is able to come and to replace all that is presently negatively eating away at you, mentally and emotionally and he can turn your mourning into dancing, he can defeat the enemies of fear, depression and anxiety, he can take your troubled heart and mind and turn them into a heart and mind that are filled with his joy and his peace. In jumping across to chapter 7, we find these words, firstly in verse 10 ‘My shield is God Most High, who saves the upright in heart.’ and then at the end of the chapter verse 17, as the Psalmist is found again in a place of victory. ‘I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness, and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.’

There is something powerful about praise, it lifts the spirit, it lifts the soul, it lifts a heart and brings us nearer to God.

THURSDAY 14^th

Psalm 5

NIV (v12) – ‘Surely, LORD, you bless the righteous; you surround them with your favour as with a shield.’

ESV (v12) – ‘For you bless the righteous, O LORD; you cover him with favour as with a shield.’

I have chosen to take verse 12 today from this chapter because in a sense it continues from our theme yesterday where we considered those who the LORD considered as being godly (recap 4:3 ‘But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself . . .’) In the verse before us today we see that the ‘godly’ in Psalm 4 are referred to as the ‘righteous’ in Psalm 5 ‘. . . you bless the righteous . . .’ This reaffirms that to be set apart or considered in the group of the godly, one needs to be righteous. But what is meant by righteous? How can one become righteous? It is almost too big a subject for one devotion, but we will consider it briefly.

To be righteous means to have a right standing that leads to right behaviour, in the context of Christianity it means therefore to be in a right place or position before God, it means to be found with a right standing before God. But how can this be achieved. It can only be found in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, for in the New Testament we find that our righteousness, our standing before God comes through what Jesus has done for us in going to Calvary and being raised from the dead.

Any righteousness we may feel that we have apart from the Cross is as filthy rags in the eyes of God, (Isaiah 64:6) it is self-righteousness, that is our own attempts to become holy or godly, it could be good works we are performing, it could even be living honest and upright lives, good and right things and yet without the inclusion of what the Lord Jesus has done on our behalf they will achieve nothing in regard to bringing us into a right standing before God and an eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the book of Hebrews 11 we have the catalogue of the ‘Heroes of faith’ many times we read  ‘by faith’ and this is also the clue as to how we become or are made righteous, it is ‘by faith’ in the full and complete work of Christ in his redemptive act at Calvary, it is a total belief in that going to Calvary, Jesus went on our behalf as our representative to pay the full price for our sin, to receive the full punishment for it and to take the penalty for it on our place, he has done everything that is necessary on our behalf to give to us a right standing before God and all we have to do is to believe and accept by faith. It is believing that when we come to the Cross in repentance and acceptance that Jesus takes from off us our own filthy rags of (self) righteousness and gives to us (or imputes ) his righteousness, that is he washes us, cleanses us through his shed blood and makes us new and gives us a new and a right standing before God. We are made righteousness. ‘For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.’ 2 Corinthians 5:21 ‘For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”’ Romans 1:17 ‘But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.’ Romans 3:21–28

Our doing therefore must not be an attempt to obtain righteousness, our doing is our outward obedience or response because we have been made righteous through the redeeming work of the Cross.

And David says, ‘For you bless the righteous, O LORD . . .’  In a later Psalm we read ‘Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.’ (32:1-2) In other words, blessed is the one to whom the righteousness of Christ has been imputed! To be in the place of true blessedness we need to come to the one who clothes us with his righteousness, the one who welcomes us with arms wide open at Calvary.

In Ephesians 1:3 Paul says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places . . .’ He blesses the righteous, that is the ones who have been made anew through Christ by the Spirit of God.

We cannot make ourselves righteous, but we can hunger and thirst after righteousness and when we do, we will be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6) For our righteousness comes from the one who is both the living bread and water of life, it is he alone who we hunger for and he alone who we thirst after.

WEDNESDAY 13^th

Psalm 4

NIV (v3) ‘Know that the LORD has set apart his faithful servant for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.’

ESV (v3) ‘But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.’

In the first Psalm, we saw that there are two different ways, and two different groups, those who walk on the wide road to destruction and those who walk on the narrow road that leads to everlasting life. This Psalm also like the first suggests that there are two groups of people, for, in verse 3 we read, ‘But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him.’ ‘The godly’* infers there must be another group who are ‘the ungodly’, the godly are those who have put their trust in the LORD God, the ungodly are those who choose to reject him and to do their own thing. Comparing this to the good news of the gospel, the godly are those who have listened to and accepted the good news of the gospel, they have put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and the ungodly are those who have chosen not to heed and not to accept the message of the good news of the gospel. The sad thing is that it also means there are many people who seem to be godly in the eyes of the world but are not so in the eyes of the Lord, because they have chosen not to accept Jesus, many relying on good works rather than his grace.

Verse 3 says ‘that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself’, so it is when we come to the Church, we are a set apart community, a called out people who have been brought out of darkness into the light, we have been separated by his grace to form a new community, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ which is his body. Peter puts it this way, ‘But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.’ (1 Peter 2:9) Notice we have been called out of darkness, that is from out of the domain of Satan, from out of the domain of the ungodly to become a godly community. And in this Psalm, David says, ‘. . . the LORD has set apart the godly for himself: the LORD hears when I call to him.’ Being set apart brings privileges and one of them is that the LORD hears the prayers and petitions of those who are his. We are able to come to the LORD God not as some distant far off God, but as a child to his or her father, we can call him our Father because we being the set apart ones are also adopted into his family.

What a place to be, set apart, firstly set apart from the ungodly, secondly set apart to God, thirdly set apart to form a new community, the Church, and fourthly set apart to be included in the family of God.

In this Psalm David is in a place of distress again, as he was in the previous Psalm, but he rests assured in the knowledge that God is in control, and he says something in verse 8 that is very similar to his response in v5 of the previous Psalm. V8 here reads ‘In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.’ In Psalm 3 he had said ‘I lay down and slept;  I woke again, for the LORD sustained me.’ He had a confident assurance in the place of security he had in God.

No wonder David could rest or sleep, for he knew that his being set apart from the ungodly had also set him apart into a place of safety, and we too the Church as the set apart ones today are in a place of safety, a position of being safe in Christ, and safe for eternity. 

(* later editions of the NIV replace ‘godly’ with ‘faithful servant’, earlier editions had godly as is found in the ESV, KJV, NKJV, NASB)

TUESDAY 12^th

Psalm 3

NIV (v8) – ‘From the LORD comes deliverance. May your blessing be on your people.’

ESV (v8) – ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD;  your blessing be on your people!’

The Psalmist commences by stating in prayer that his enemies have risen against him, declaring that they are saying ‘there is no salvation for him in God’. They (his enemies) were saying that David who was fleeing from his son Absalom (2 Samuel 15:14-17) was a lost cause, without hope, but David knew and saw what his enemies didn’t know and see, and he states it in verse 3 ‘But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.’ He knew that the one whom he had proven in the past would not abandon him in his time of trouble, but would come to his aid, and so he ‘cried unto the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill’. It reminds us of Psalm 121:1-2 which says, ‘I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.’ He knew where his help was, he knew his helper would come, he knew that he would be victorious and so he continued ‘I lay down and slept’ in the midst of his trial he had a peace that sustained him, a peace that became his confidence, a peace that gave him boldness against the many enemies that came against him.

In the final verse, our text, he makes a declaration that ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD’ this means that the LORD is the Saviour, the one who is the LORD was not only his shield, his safety, his security but also his Saviour. He was speaking out of personal experience, but also prophetically, for the helper would come from his holy hill to another hill called Golgotha and there give himself as the ransom, as the Saviour of the world. And we who have come by faith to believe and trust can also declare, ‘Salvation belongs to the LORD.’

As I am preparing this devotion, I am listening to an old recording from 1977 and the congregation has just sung ‘Full salvation! Full salvation! Lo the fountain opened wide, streams through ev’ry land and nation, from the Saviour’s wounded side. Full salvation! Streams and endless crimson tide.’ Thank God that when our enemy was pursuing us, hounding us and seeking to destroy us, our help also came, in the person of Jesus, the one born to be the ‘Saviour of the world’, he saves us with a full salvation and defeats our enemy.

Revelation 12:10 ‘And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.”’

In the book of Revelation we also read in 7:9-10 ‘After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!”’

Acts 2:12 ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.’

Revelation 19:1 ‘After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God . . .’

MONDAY 11^th

Psalm 2

NIV (vv11-12) – ‘Serve the LORD with fear and celebrate his rule with trembling. Kiss his son, or he will be angry and your way will lead to your destruction, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.’

ESV (vv11-12) – ‘Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.’

There is an older hymn that goes ‘Hail to the Lord’s anointed, great David’s greater Son’ This Psalm has a prophetical inference pointing to the magnificent day when the Lord Jesus Christ will sit upon the throne of David, and what a day it will be as he establishes his reign upon the earth. It is a Psalm of triumph, for it reminds us that even though the nations rage and people plot, ultimately God has already triumphed. In the present he allows what is taking place among the nations of the earth, because it will all eventually lead to the coronation of his eternal Son.

The world schemes, the people seek to plot, the sinner continues in his sin, they walk as I mentioned yesterday on the road to destruction not realising that God is in control, God is sovereign and his will and purpose will finally be seen and acknowledged by all.

The Psalmist says here in this chapter that God laughs, he sees the plotting and the scheming, the activity that is inspired from the pit of hell itself to try and frustrate the purposes of God, but it is God who will have the last laugh for he has already procured the victory through the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is pictured in this Psalm is continuing to happen through the realm of time and in particular the day of grace, the era of the building of the church. The nations still rage, the people still plot, the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the Church, the people of God, the ones who have been called out to become His body, the bride of Christ. It happened immediately after the day of Pentecost through the persecution that broke out against those who belonged to the Way, it has continued throughout each succeeding generation, it is happening in a widespread way today as the Church is fast becoming marginalised and becoming an unwanted company of people, but they can plot, they can scheme for the promise of Jesus stands sure that they will not prevail, his Church will be competed and one day after he has raptured his Church to become his bride in heaven, he will return with her as his saints to sit upon the throne of his Father David. And when he comes, he will break the plotters and schemers with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

His rule and reign is guaranteed, the day will fast approach when all will bow the knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, therefore as the words of this Psalm say, ‘Serve the LORD with fear and rejoice with trembling, kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled’ thankfully the Psalm ends with these words, ‘Blessed (there it is again ‘happy’) are all who take refuge in him.’

Today, ‘Hail the Lord’s anointed’, know him as your Saviour and know him as your Lord and King. Take refuge in him, daily kiss him with your love and devotion, allow him to rule in your heart and life.

SUNDAY 10^th

Psalm 1

NIV (vv1-2) – ‘Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night.’

ESV (vv1-2) – ‘Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.’

The first word here in this Psalm is ‘blessed’ which can be translated to the word ‘happy’ or ‘truly happy’, or ‘how happy’ is the man (or woman) who . . .’

True happiness or the real state of blessedness can only be found in walking on the road that leads to life everlasting and in delighting in the law (instruction, guidance) of the LORD, which is his Word. For the psalmist writing the instruction in this first Psalm, it would have pointed to the first five books of the Scripture, but for us today as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ it points to the whole of Scripture, the 66 books of the Bible, which becomes as I mentioned yesterday ‘a lamp to our feet and a light to our path’ as we walk the Pilgrim way.

To walk on the Pilgrim way, we need to transfer from the road that leads to destruction and on to the road that leads to life eternal and this takes place by coming to the ‘CROSSroad’ and placing our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

As we are walking on the road that leads to life everlasting, so we need as instructed in this Psalm to ensure that we do not get side tracked by walking in the counsel of the wicked, nor standing in the way of sinners, nor sitting in the seat of the scornful. By choosing to accept Jesus as our Way, we have also chosen to steer away from the ungodly, this means the ways of the ungodly, the wickedness of the ungodly, the sinful activity of the ungodly. We are still living among them, but instead should stand out as shining lights, examples of the difference that the grace of God has made in our lives.

This short Psalm is the gospel in a nutshell, for it clearly defines the eternal difference to those who walk on the narrow road and those who remain on the wide road. The narrow road will lead to the congregation of the righteous, I like to think that this congregation is revealed to us in the book of Revelation where we see the great throng standing around the throne, ‘And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.’ (Revelation 5:9-10) The wide road will lead to eternal destruction, verse 6 says, ‘but the way of the wicked will perish.’ And the book of Revelation also reveals to us what this will be ‘And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.’ (Revelation 20:15)

Just as we all have a destiny in this life, where we get to is determined upon the choices we make, career, relationships, family etc. so we all have an eternal destiny, and where it will be is also determined by the choices we make now. We choose God’s way, God’s Book and the company of God’s people or we choose the counsel of the wicked, the way of sinners and the seat of scoffers. God’s way will lead to us being blessed and brought into his eternal home, the other way will lead to us being blown away like chaff, and eternally cut off from the presence of God.  

There is so much more that I could bring from this Psalm, but may we all take stock, as we begin our journey through the Psalms to ensure that our feet are walking on the right road, the pathway that leads to being blessed now and which will lead us to the place of eternal blessing, the very presence of the eternal God.

SATURDAY 9^th

The Psalms

The Psalms are often broken up into five books or sections:

Book One – Psalms 1-41

Book Two – Psalms 42-72

Book Three – Psalms 73-89

Book Four – Psalms 90-106

Book Five – Psalms 107-150

Over the course of the next few weeks we will look at the first book or section, chapters 1-41, now, if I go into lengthy detail with each of the Psalms it would take months to get through them, therefore for the devotions I will just concentrate mostly a day per Psalm, (as difficult as this will be) highlighting something from each. We will discover that the Psalms were composed by more than one author, there are Psalms that are very short and of course they also contain the longest and shortest chapters in the Bible, Psalms 119 (176 verses) and Psalm 117. (2 verses)

I guess we all like the Psalms, and in various moments in our Christian walk have been blessed in some way through the reading of a Psalm, or with the preaching from one of the Psalms, we find that there are Psalms that give instruction, others that give us guidance, others that give us confidence, or assurance, or comfort and of course ones that give us warning, helping us to navigate the pitfalls we come across as we walk through life.

For myself I can recall particular moments in my experience when a Psalm has been given me or shared with me and has been pivotal in my life at that particular moment, sometimes it will have encouraged me, other times challenged me, I recall a very difficult experience over twenty five years ago, where everything seemed to be going against me, and one day in the Church a lady got up and said she had a Psalm to share and that she believed it was for me, and she read it and it immediately spoke into my life and into the circumstances that I was found in at that time and the outcome was exactly as the Psalm portrayed.

As I have said, there are snippets from the Psalms that we can all probably relate to in some way, a line or a sentence that has been key to us at some point, and why not, for as it is with the whole of Scripture, the Psalms are the Word of God which is living and powerful, as we read in Psalm 119:105 ‘Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.’ Are you seeking direction at this present time, then allow the Word of God to be the lamp to your feet and the light for your path, allow the Word of God to lead you and to direct you.

May we be encouraged as we look at the Psalms, applying perhaps the prayer that is found in Psalm 19:14 ‘Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight,  O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.’ And adding to this the words from Psalm 119:18 ‘Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.’

FRIDAY 8^th

Colossians 4:7-18

NIV (v18) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting in my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.’

ESV (v18) – ‘I, Paul, write this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.’

Our last look in Colossians today, and Paul ends it by saying that he has written the greeting himself, with his own hand, maybe he was not able to see enough to write the whole letter, or maybe his being in chains made it difficult to be able to write, he probably dictated the content but wanted to sign it himself, showing it was a genuine letter, but he then says ‘remember my chains’.

I want this to be the theme today and to turn our attention to those who because of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ are suffering in some way, persecuted, ridiculed, imprisoned, being beaten and possibly living under a death sentence.

Thank God we know that Jesus said he would build his Church and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it, but it doesn’t mean the gates of hell will not try, and try they have done throughout the 2000 years of the Church being built, but they have not and will not prevail. The devil is not happy that he has been defeated through the work of the Cross and the resurrection of Jesus, he knows his days are numbered and so he is doing all he can to destroy what God is doing through the Church, and as a result anything that is anti-Christ will oppose and seek to destroy, and much of the persecution is brought against individuals, individuals who have put their hope and trust in Jesus.

We see the persecution start almost immediately after the birth of the Church, leading to the martyrdom of Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, here in our study, Paul who himself was once a persecutor is now the persecuted, and he is wanting the believers to remember his chains, in other words, remember the situation I am found in because of the gospel and pray for me.

We need to pray for the persecuted, we need to pray for them to have God given strength to persevere, protection from the venom of the ones persecuting them and also for the persecutors themselves to have a Damascus Road experience and know the power of the gospel transforming them and translating them from the kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of Light,

We need also to pray for our own nation as the secular world is seeking to do all it can to snuff out the light of the gospel, to deprive the Church of its right to preach and to declare the truth as it is found in the world of God, we need to pray that even though we may not as yet be knowing any severity of persecution as it is  found in other nations that should it come we will be endowed with grace and strength to stand firm, as Paul says in the closing of Ephesians, standing in the full armour of God.