Day 118

GOD HEARS WHEN WE PRAY

Today’s Text: And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. (1John 5:14, 15)

Today’s Thoughts: If we ask God for anything and He knows that it is in our best interest He hears us. We do not have to keep praying for that same thing in order to be heard. I’m not saying that we should only take our petitions to the Lord once – the reason for repeating our requests is for another reason. I’m simply emphasizing the fact that God hears each of our prayers as soon as we pray them. Our text then tells us that if God has heard our prayers, which He has, then we can know that He is busy answering them. And yet we need to remember and be thankful that He will answer in the way that is best for us. God has a time for everything, we just need to be patient and wait in faith for Him to intervene when He knows the time is best.

Today’s Testimony: A while ago someone gave me a quote by my favourite author and asked me to write a song about it. I won’t share the quote here, but it was to do with what I shared in Today’s Thoughts. Today I simply want to share the words to the song and let them speak for themselves.

Lord I Praise You For Answered Prayers

The promises in Your Word we read
That if we pray You’ll help when we’re in need
Your promises are true
What You’ve said You will do
And so now by faith I will start praising You

Lord I praise You for answering my prayers
You have always intervened for me
Lord I praise You for answering my prayers
Though sometimes Your hand I’ve failed to see
Your ways are higher than mine
And You work in Your perfect time
But You’ve always come through
So for answered prayers I praise You

Lord sometimes we cannot see Your hand
But we know that on Your promise we can stand
So although Your work’s not done
We know that it’s begun
And so now by faith I will start praising You

Lord I praise You for answering my prayers
You have always intervened for me
Lord I praise You for answering my prayers
Though sometimes Your hand I’ve failed to see
Your ways are higher than mine
And You work in Your perfect time
But You’ve always come through
So for answered prayers I praise You

Lord You’ve always come through
So for answered prayers I praise You

Today’s Task: Take God at His word. Place your petitions before His throne and by faith believe that He has heard and is already intervening. God cares about you – believe it. Trust God’s wisdom to know and do what is truly best for you. Praise God for answering your prayers.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You for hearing and answering our prayers. Help us to believe by faith that You are intervening. I thank You that You will do what is best for us. I thank You that You care about us and will help us if we take our problems to You. I thank You for Your love. Amen.

Day 117

MY KINDNESS SHALL NOT DEPART

Today’s Text: For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee. (Isaiah 54:10)

Today’s Thoughts: Even if everything that seems so certain in life disappeared God will still remain. His kindness and His promise of peace shall never fade away. In God’s mercy He is always there for us. We can place our trust safely in Him. God loves us and is kind to His people. We truly do serve an amazing God!

Today’s Testimony: A few weeks ago some of my family members went to fetch a baby guinea-pig for someone from a friend of ours. We thought we’d have to look after it for a few days, and my family decided that if I had to look after it I’d get too attached, being the biggest animal lover in our home. Long story short – they came home with a fully-grown, long-haired guinea-pig for me as well. At first I didn’t know what to think. But he’s pretty cute.
I let him run around inside the house at some stage every day. At first he didn’t go very far. He usually stayed behind the book-case and the cabinet next to it in the lounge. Now he is a bit more daring. One night, before he started venturing out, he was still relaxing behind the book-case and cabinet while I did my chores in the kitchen when we suddenly had a powerfailure and I had to go find my “piggy” and put him to bed. When I was able to go look for him I went with a lamp and couldn’t see him. He normally stayed in that spot, but I thought that maybe in the dark he became brave and ventured away. I didn’t know how I was going to find my piggy in the dark if he’d wandered off somewhere – he could be anywhere. My stepdad had been busy out the front door a short while earlier while it was still light and for all I knew he could have even escaped then. It was pitch-dark and I couldn’t see my piggy in his normal place and I wasn’t even certain that he was even inside the house. I started calling him both by name and in the language (popping sounds) that he responds to. But he gave no reply. My two sisters then came to help me look. With someone to hold the lamp, another with a candle and three of us to look we were able to spot him in his usual hiding place – he hadn’t ventured out anywhere. It’s hard enough to catch him with the lights on because he hates being put away, but it didn’t take too long to catch him in the dark.
God is so good and so kind! He looked after my piggy and kept him safe. I was concerned when I couldn’t find him, but God knew exactly where he was. He knew that my piggy was exactly where he was meant to be – I just couldn’t see him. God knows all our problems and he knows the answers. We just need to place our trust in Him. God cares about each one of us and is so kind even when we get ourselves into the mess. We serve a wonderful God!

Today’s Task: If life seems to be crumbling before your feet remember that God’s love, kindness and care will never pass away. He is always there for you. Take every trouble to Him. He is merciful and cares about your well-being. Trust Him – He will not let you down.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that You care about us when we don’t deserve Your care. I thank You that You are kind to us. Please help us to treat You with the love and respect You deserve. I thank You for Your great love. Please help us to learn from You and be kind and merciful to others. You love us so much Lord – help us to love You back. Amen.

Day 116

WAIT FOR ME TO SAVE

Today’s Text: It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:26)

Today’s Thoughts: When Satan tempts you how long do you resist before giving in? Today I’m going to share a few texts that can help us to remain strong when tempted. God wants us to take hold of His strength when facing temptation and wait for Him to save us. God gives us a way to escape every temptation – we just need to patiently endure until we overcome. It is good for us to place our hope in God and wait patiently for Him to save us from the tempter’s snare.

Today’s Testimony: It’s all fine and well for me to encourage you to keep God’s Commandments and live for Him, but keeping them might not come naturally. We have been living in this sinful world for so many years. The battle against sin is not an easy one to fight, so today I’m going to share some Scripture texts that should hopefully help us to gain victory over sin.
Remember how when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness by the Devil He used Scripture as His weapon? We can do the same. Firstly, let us take a look at these few texts: “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations….” (2 Peter 2:9). “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). “For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted” (Hebrews 2:18). Christ knows what we are going through when we face temptation and can give us the strength to resist it and be victorious. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Christ knows what we can bear. Every temptation that comes our way is something that we can endure. He gives us the way to escape – we just need to accept it. Then our text for today: “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD” (Lamentations 3:26). God wants us to wait for Him to save us from temptation and sinning. So often we just give in without a fight, but as we read yesterday, God wants us to resist unto blood, striving against sin (Hebrews 12:4). God wants us to resist temptation and He can give us the power to do so. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13) “And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible” (Mark 10:27). God wants us to flee from sin and He has made it possible. “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). The way to be victorious is available, “your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8), and we therefore need to watch and pray and then wait and resist. God will give us strength. He came to save us from our sins.
There is one more thing that we need to do in order to be equipped for our battles against the Devil: “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints” (Ephesians 6:10-18). God wants us to put on His armour. He has given each piece for our protection, we just need to put it on.

Today’s Task: Put on the whole armour of God – truth, righteousness, the gospel of peace, faith, salvation, the Word of God. Watch and prayer, lest you enter into temptation. God wants to give you the strength to resist every temptation – take hold of that strength and gain the victory over every sin. Give yourself the joy and peace of freedom from sin. God has done all He can, the rest is up to you.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord, You know what we go through when we are tempted. You know what we can bear. You can give us strength to resist every temptation. Please help us to run to You whenever Satan comes to attack. Help us to put on Your armour so that we can stand victorious in You. I thank You that You have not left us to battle against sin alone. We love You and praise You in Christ’s name, Amen.

Day 115

I CAME TO SAVE

Today’s Text: And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)

Today’s Thoughts: Jesus did not only come to save us from the result of our sin – death, He came to save us from sin itself. He has a better life for us. He wants us to put sin behind us and live with the joy and peace of this better life. It was never God’s desire for us to have to suffer so much, He longs for the day when He can take us to our heavenly home free from pain and heartache. Right now He wants to give us relief from so much of our sorrow by helping us to gain victory over our sins. He came to save us from our sins. That’s how much He loves us!

Today’s Testimony: Today we’re going to take a look to see if God really wants us to stop sinning. Some say we can never stop and therefore try to resist temptation, but hardly. We sometimes take advantage of Christ’s mercy and sin, believing that we can simply run to Him for forgiveness and all will be well. Does God require more of us?
We already shared the text that states that God came to save us from our sins, obviously meaning that He doesn’t want us to live in sin any longer. Our next text is Galatians 2:17, 18, “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Ok, so this tells us that we are not to be found as sinners. What is it that we have destroyed and should not build up? “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9, 10). When did this putting off of the old man take place? “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When we accept Christ into our lives He gives us the strength to live a new life in Him. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This means that our own sinful lives die and we allow Christ to live out His life in us. “For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. (1 Peter 2:21, 22). Christ left us the example of a sinless life. “And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. …He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God” (1 John 3:5,6,8,9). This passage is pretty strong, but it shares a logical truth. But we can sin a little right? “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10) – obviously not. But does God really intend for us not to sin? Can we stop? Well, for starters, read Hebrews 12:4. “Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin”. Now I don’t know about you, but this is my problem. I think for most of us if not all of us, Satan tempts us, we may try to resist for a while, but we give in without too much of a fight. God wants us to strive against sin as though our lives depended on it, and to put it plainly – they do.
Ok, so now we have a problem. God wants us to be free from sin, but we are so weak. Tomorrow we’ll share texts that can help us gain victory over sin. But for now, let’s solve our problem. Read the following text: “My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Problem solved! God doesn’t want us to live in sin any longer. He wants us to put sinning behind us. He wants us to strive against sin and be victorious. However, if we do sin, He wants us to know that we are not beyond His mercy. We have an advocate, Jesus Christ. He doesn’t intend for us to sin knowing that we have an advocate and can be forgiven afterwards, but He does want us to know that there is hope for His battling people when they realize they have sinned. God loves us enough to free us from our lives of sin, and to forgive us when we err. We serve an amazing and loving God. I choose to live for Him and strive against sin. I hope you do too.

Today’s Task: Strive against sin with God’s help. Live the better life that God longs for you to enjoy – the life free from sin. Ask Him to give you the strength. Know that God’s children do not sin. But know that God is merciful if they do. Surrender your selfish and sinful desires to the Lord and live for Him with your whole heart. He has done all He can for you.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You that You came to free us from sin. Please help us to turn away from our lives of sin. I thank You that we are not beyond Your mercy when we fall. But please help us not to take advantage of that mercy and sin presumptuously. We want to live for You. I thank You that You can give us the power to do so. Please save us from ourselves. Amen.

Day 114

BLESSED ARE THEY

Today’s Text: Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. (Revelation 22:14)

Today’s Thoughts: Those who keep the Ten Commandments will be blessed. Keeping them gives us the right to enter heaven and to eat of the tree of life. However, this does not mean that we are saved because of keeping God’s Law. Simply put: We are not saved by keeping the Ten Commandments, but we cannot be saved without keeping them. If this still doesn’t seem to make sense, read further.

Today’s Testimony: The keeping of the Ten Commandments will not save us. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8, 9). There is nothing we can do in order to be saved – we are saved entirely by God’s grace. Some people think we need to work our way to heaven, others think we have nothing to do at all. Today we’re going to discover the truth about the balance between grace and works.
The text I shared above states clearly that we are not saved by works. But does that mean that we can neglect to do what the Lord would have us do? Romans 6:14, 15 says: “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace. What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” Well, this text tells us that we are not under the law but under grace, from which many derive the idea that we do not have to keep God’s Law. However this text also tells us that the fact that we are under grace doesn’t mean we should sin. Would you like to know what it means to be under the law or under grace? Let’s look at 1Timothy 1:8, 9 – “But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners….” Firstly, notice that this text tells us that it is good to keep God’s Law. Secondly it tells us who the Law is there for. Let me explain by using this simple illustration. In South Africa we have laws against smoking in many public buildings. I don’t smoke, and I therefore obey those laws by default and they are not a restriction to me at all. I don’t need to check where I can smoke and where I can’t because I don’t smoke in the first place. …When Christ enters our lives we allow Him to live out His life in us. We turn away from sin and breaking God’s Law because we have chosen to live for God and God alone. God’s Commandments are no longer a restriction to me because I keep them by default because I love the One who gave them. Yes, sometimes we do give in to temptation and sin but we repent and turn back to the ways of the Lord. We have chosen a life free from sin instead of a life of sin. That makes all the difference. Those who rather choose to stay in sin will always have the law condemning them even though they choose to ignore it. Those who choose to surrender their lives to the Lord and live according to His will will be under God’s grace having every sin covered with Christ’s blood. God’s people keep the Ten Commandments because they love the Lord and want to serve Him. The Commandments are not a restriction to them, but guidelines of love.
Now let’s talk a bit more about Today’s Text. I’d like to use another simple illustration. Imagine that your city or town is throwing a huge banquet. All are invited. However, before entering the banquet your record is checked. If you have any offense against your name like an unpaid traffic fine, you may not enter. You are invited to join for no reason other than the fact that you are a citizen of that place and not because you have been a faithful, law-abiding citizen. However, your failure in being a faithful, law-abiding citizen can keep you out of the banquet. Make sense? We are saved purely by God’s grace. All we need to do is have faith in Him as our Saviour and place our lives totally in His hands. We will then keep His Commandments out of love for Him and when our record is checked we will have a clean slate – all our sins would have been paid for with Christ’s own blood because we have accepted His death in our place and have allowed Him to live out His life in us. We are not saved by our works, but we are judged by them (Revelation 20:12, 13). We need to allow Christ to live out His sinless life in us – what an insult to say, “I’ll accept Your death in my place, but I refuse to accept Your life in my place.”
I want to live for my God. I want to please Him. I want to be able to live with Him eternally. He loves me more than anyone else ever could. He wants me to reap the benefits of keeping His Commandments. I want to be a follower of Christ who keeps God’s Law by “default”, and who runs to the Lord in repentance if I sin. I want to have a clean slate so I can enter heaven. I choose to keep my Saviours Commandments of love. Do you?

Today’s Task: I invite you to study God’s Word more deeply. Search for His truths. He gave us His Word so we could know how to draw close to Him and live for Him. He gave us the Ten Commandments so we could live happy lives here on earth, and be suitable for the sinless life that awaits us. Those who enjoy sin will never be happy in heaven. Get a taste of heaven – surrender to the Lord and live in accordance with His will. Love God enough to keep His Commandments. Follow Him with all your heart.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I thank You for Dying in our place. The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and You chose to die so that we could live. Lord I pray for all those who have decided to rather die and pay their own penalty. Lord they don’t know what a huge mistake they are making. One day, when You come, they will realize how foolish they were, but it will be too late. Lord help us to tell the world about how great You are so that decisions can be made to surrender to You. I thank You for giving us guidelines of love. Help us to follow them. I thank You for the blessings that You have promised to those who faithfully do Your will. We love You Lord! Amen.

Day 113

DELIGHT IN MY DAY

Today’s Text: If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it. (Isaiah 58:13,14)

Today’s Thoughts: God doesn’t want us to trample on His Sabbath. He wants us to spend it with Him. He gave it to us as a rest-day to spend in worship to Him and to take a pause from our own busy and pretty selfish lives. He gave us a whole seven days in each week. He only asks us to give one of those back to Him. And yet we must keep Him by our side every single day. We have six days to sort out our busy lives, and then one whole day to rest and recharge for the next week. God has a special blessing for those who come to spend a day with Him. He wants each of us to take the time to build a close and personal relationship with Him. God has promised a reward for those who obey His command to keep His Sabbath, and what God has promised stands forever. He gave us the Sabbath as a benefit to us; He wants us to delight in spending that day with Him. I invite you to try it. Delight in God’s Sabbath day.

Today’s Testimony: Out of all ten Commandments, I think the fourth one is the one we most often push aside. Most people don’t set aside a full 24 hours for the Lord. They don’t feel the need to, and don’t believe we have to. So today I’d like us to talk a bit more about keeping the Sabbath holy.
When we discussed the fourth commandment we shared what we should and shouldn’t do on this day, so we won’t go into that again. Firstly, let us talk about which day is the Sabbath. There are so many theories going around that many just don’t know anymore. I would say look at the calendar to see which is the seventh day of the week, but calendars are changing these days so even they confuse us. And yet even then, some say, “How can we be sure that the calendar hasn’t changed over years?” “How do we know that what we may view as the seventh day of the week is the same seventh day that Jesus blessed at Creation and kept while He was here?” That is an extremely valid question. I want to spend one full day with the Lord every week, and I want it to be the only day that God blessed – I hope you do too. So for me, amongst all the other evidences I have, this stands as the most persuasive that Saturday truly is the seventh day of the week – the Sabbath blessed and set apart as holy since Creation…. Ever heard of animals that keep Sabbath? I’ve heard of a donkey that wouldn’t budge because those intended to use it to work wanted to keep the Sabbath. They couldn’t work without the donkey, so they were let off from their work. I’ve heard other similar stories too. Now we could say, “Well, in those situations God could have been honouring the convictions of His people who were living up to what they believed.” Fair enough. But what about the bees in Brazil? They live far away from civilisation. Their bee-keepers live in small huts while the bees live in tree stumps as they always have. Bees are known to work hard, and these bees do, but only for six days of the week. On Saturday, the seventh-day Sabbath, these bees remain in their hives. They don’t go to collect nectar, and they don’t do anything in their hives either – they rest. Who told them to rest on Saturday? Could it be that God wants to tell us something through these bees? If God’s “sinless” creation (by the way – these bees don’t sting, just for interest sake) keep Saturday as God’s Sabbath day, I choose to do the same.
Why most people go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday is something we’re not going to deal with now. My Bible doesn’t say anything about God’s holy Sabbath changing from the seventh day to the first day of the week and I believe that seeing this day is so important to Him He would have mentioned any change at least once. If you were Satan wouldn’t you want to turn the world away from worshipping on the only day that God blessed and from keeping that day holy as God commanded? Could it be that that was and is Satan’s goal? Just some food for thought. Like I said, we’re not going to dig into that now.
Now we need to discuss the time for Sabbath-keeping. According to Leviticus 23:32, the Sabbath should be celebrated from evening until evening. When God made the sun and the moon He set the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night. At the end of each day of the Creation story we read that “the evening and the morning” were whichever day. To put it simply – we now function with the day being from midnight till midnight, but God set the day to be from evening (the moons time), till evening (the moons time). This means that a Biblical day lasts from sunset to sunset. The Sabbath therefore is from sunset on what we call Friday until sunset on what we call Saturday.
The Sabbath was given to us as a rest-day in commemoration of Creation. It is a day to remember our Creator. I have a twin sister. That means that I don’t get my own birthday – I have to share. When I was young I asked my mom if I could celebrate my birthday a few days later because I wanted to have my own day to feel special. I was very disappointed when she told me that wasn’t possible. Fact is – we can’t change the day we were born. The Sabbath is planet Earth’s birthday. I plan to worship my Creator on that day and spend it with Him. I hope you do too.

Today’s Task: I’m going to be keeping the Sabbath this week. Will you join me? Please do. God wants to spend this special day with you. Please don’t disappoint Him. There is a special blessing for all those who delight in this day. I invite you to keep this Sabbath and all those to come. Delight in spending the Sabbath with the Lord and you will be blessed.

Today’s Thanks: Lord I thank You that You have given us a day to rest and recharge. Help us to take advantage of this blessing. I thank You that You, the Creator, want to spend time with us, the creation. Lord You want a close and personal relationship with each and every one of us. You have even set aside one whole day to build that relationship and I praise You for that. I thank You that You love Your creation so much. Lord help us to love You with all our hearts and to do whatever You ask. I praise You for the Sabbath. Amen.

Day 112

LOVE IS THE FULFILLING OF THE LAW

Today’s Text: Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. (Romans 13:10)

Today’s Thoughts: If we love others we will not do them any harm. Therefore, if we love God and others we will not break the Ten Commandments. God wants us to love Him and our fellow man. Everyone wants to be loved. No one wants to be mistreated. God wants what’s best for all of us. This is why He wants us to love.

Today’s Testimony: Have you ever heard people say that we don’t have to keep the Ten Commandments anymore because God gave us a new commandment to love? Today I’m going to share the texts that the Lord gave me to explain this theory.
First of all let’s share the text from which some get this false idea, “A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another” (John 13:34). Now this new commandment for one only speaks about loving others. Do you believe that it is essential for us to love God too? If your answer was yes, we’ve already hit a problem with the “new commandment” theory. In the very next chapter of the Bible Christ says these words, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). This means that even if we are only required to love, in loving God we will keep His Commandments.
When we started this series I mentioned that the Commandments can be divided into love for God and love for our fellow man. You may go and look at the Ten Commandments again to double check (Exodus 20:1-17). Here are the texts that bring us to this conclusion: “Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets” (Mat 22:36-40). So this means that the Commandments can be summed up in “love”. Read Romans 13:8-10, “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” There is no clearer text to explain the simple truth that the new commandment to love was just a more simple way of stating the ten. Think about it… even if Christ did mean that we only have to love now, by default we would have to keep all ten Commandments. We cannot kill and yet claim to love. We cannot dishonour others and yet claim to love. We cannot spend as little time as possible with the Lord and claim to love Him.
But beyond the fact of “love” being a more simple way to state the Ten Commandments, look at it this way. When Christ came the people were “keeping” the Ten Commandments, but most of them were doing it because they had to keep them and thus were doing so with long faces. Think about it this way – you are so angry with someone that you feel you could kill, but you refrain because the Commandment says you mustn’t kill. Yet you still harbour that anger in your heart. For one, that’s why Christ told them that if they “hate” they are breaking that Commandment anyway (Matthew 5:21, 22). But I believe the reason Christ gave us the “new commandment” wasn’t because He was changing anything. We had missed the point – we were “keeping” the Commandments but with hate in our hearts. Christ intended to open our eyes. If we truly focus on loving God and others we will naturally want to keep all ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments were never nailed to the cross, nor were they replaced. We had just fallen asleep and needed to be reminded of the reason that God gave the Ten Commandments in the first place. He wants His people to be happy. The Commandments were given for our benefit and the new commandment was given as a reminder. Let’s remember these Commandments given in love.

Today’s Task: Love God and love your fellow man. I invite you to make the commitment to keep all ten Commandments. God gave them for our benefit. Taste the joy of living the life God intended for us to live.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You gave us the Ten Commandments. I praise You that You reminded us that we cannot truly keep Your Commandments if we are doing so with hate. Lord please help us to love You more and to love others more too. Please help us to keep Your Commandments. You gave them for our benefit and we want the blessings that come from keeping them. I thank You that You love us so much. Amen.

Day 111

MY COMMANDMENTS STAND FOREVER

Today’s Text: Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 5:17-19)

Today’s Thoughts: God never intended for us to throw away His commandments. He gave them so we could keep them, and continue keeping them. After all – we learnt over the last few days that He gave them for our benefit. Why would He want to take them away?! And more than that – why on earth would we want to stop keeping them if they benefit us?! There is a curse for those who neglect God’s commandments of love, and there is a blessing for those who obey them. The Ten Commandments stand forever. They were written in stone with the finger of God. Let us keep them forever.

Today’s Testimony: Have you ever heard someone say that the Commandments were nailed to the cross? Do you have any idea where they get this idea from? This assumption is taken from a verse in the Bible itself, but it is interpreted out of context. Now I don’t know what you believe about whether or not we should still keep the Ten Commandments, but I’d like to share some Scripture texts with you. If you disagree at all you can either e-mail me or go directly to God Himself seeing I will be sharing purely Scripture. Please read the passages mentioned if you have any problems and also read their surrounding verses to obtain a better idea of what God is saying in these passages.
The text that gives many the idea that the Commandments were nailed to the cross is found in Colossians 2:14, “Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross.” Well let’s start by noting that this text does not say Law or Commandments, it says “handwriting of ordinances”, and yet people still assume this text refers to the Ten Commandments. Secondly I’d like to bring to your attention that whatever was nailed to the cross was “against” us, but we’ve just had a look at the benefits in keeping the Ten Commandments. According to this text, something was definitely nailed to the cross, but was it the Commandments?
Did you know that the children of Israel were given other laws besides the Ten Commandments? Our next text is Ephesians 2:15, “Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances….” Ok, so this text refers to the nailing as abolishing, but it speaks about the law of commandments contained in ordinances. So, could it be that these laws were what was nailed to the cross? What laws are these then? Let’s take a look at Hebrews 9:10, “Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.” Here we find that these things were “imposed” on God’s people “until” the time of reformation. These were the sacrificial and ceremonial laws – the ones about washing and offerings etcetera. The sacrificing of lambs for one was no longer necessary because the Lamb that it pointed to had died as our true sacrifice.
If you’re still not convinced then you better keep reading and follow carefully. “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1John 3:4). Therefore it follows that “where no law is, there is no transgression” (Romans 4:15). In other words – if sin is the breaking of the law, and there is no law, we cannot sin. Then take a look at Galatians 3:19, “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made….” Once again this is referring to the law that was nailed to the cross. This law was “added because of transgressions”. That means that another law must have been broken first right? Think about it… God’s Commandments of love were broken and He therefore had to put in place the sacrificial laws to point us to our redemption and turn us to our Saviour – the only way we could be saved. These laws were only needed until the real Lamb gave His life for us. Make sense?
God gave us the Ten Commandments because He loves us. They were not nailed to the cross. God knew that life would be far better if we kept each of these simple guidelines to a happy life. I invite you to take another look at the Ten Commandments and ask the Lord to help you to keep them. God has special blessings waiting for you. Trust Him.

Today’s Task: Please give the Ten Commandments a chance. Try keeping them even if you only plan to do so for a while. But remember that God never gave us an option. They were never nailed to the cross and will stand forever. Ask the Lord to help you to keep them. Praise Him for giving them to us for our benefit. God has given you simple guidelines – please follow them.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You love us so much. I thank You that Your Word can interpret itself. I thank You that You did not nail Your gift of the Ten Commandments to the cross. Please help us to keep them with Your strength. Please forgive us for breaking Your commandments in the past. I thank You for giving us guidelines that will benefit us. Help us to keep them and reap the benefits. We love You Lord. Amen.

Day 110

BE CONTENT

Today’s Text: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Exodus 20:17)

Today’s Thoughts: To covet means to desire something that does not belong to you. It means that we are not totally content with what we already have. God loves us and provides for all our needs. If there is anything we need, we simply need to go to the Lord in prayer – He owns everything. God hears and answers our prayers, but sometimes His answers differ from what we hoped for. God wants us to learn to be content with what He has blessed us with, knowing that He knows what is truly best for us.

Today’s Testimony: God doesn’t want us to covet; He wants us to be content with what we have. If we covet, sooner or later we will be going the next step and breaking another commandment. We may steal, place something else as our god or as an extra god, commit adultery, start living a different life and causing shame to God’s name, tell lies to be popular or “better off” in whatever way, start doing our own thing on the Lord’s day, place ourselves above our parents or others or even kill in order to have a “happier life”. Sin often leads to more sin. The life of sin is not to be coveted, yet so many walk down that road. It is a life of pain, regret and heartache. God has a life of joy available to everyone who follows Him all the way. Yes we will have pain and sorrow in this life, but His peace and strength will see us through, and one day we can enjoy a life free from sorrow with our Saviour in Heaven. I want that life, and it is available to me. I choose to live for my God now. He knows I will be far happier, and I’ve experienced it.
I mentioned once before (Today’s T’s Day 2) that I once asked the Lord to help me to live up to my name. My name, Lindy, means beautiful. I asked the Lord to help me to be beautiful on the inside, but added that I wouldn’t mind if He made me beautiful on the outside too. He changed me inside and outside. I am happy with my physical appearance now. I don’t wear make-up. I don’t feel I need it, but my main reason is simply this: I asked the Lord to make me beautiful and He intervened. In my opinion, for me to now go and wear make-up would be like saying, “Thanks Lord, but You didn’t do a good enough job.” I am content with what the Lord has done with my physical appearance. I have no desire to change it. For me to wear make-up and jewellery would, for me, be an insult to my God, and I therefore stick to displaying my natural beauty that the Lord has blessed me with. I am content.
There is one thing that we must never be content without, and that is the Lord. God is so good and created us that we will never be fully content without Him. Many people have obtained everything that money can buy, but they are still left empty inside because they haven’t met the Lord. Then there are those that try and fill that gap with friends, entertainment, harmful substances and practices, or even work, but they too are left empty. Only God can truly satisfy the longing of our hearts. He created us to be His people, and we will not be content unless we are. But then there are people that “know” the Lord, but still feel empty. Those are the people that have a head-knowledge of God. The people who have a heart-knowledge of God will be content – their longing for God will be totally satisfied. The problem is that so many people either don’t know God or only have a head-knowledge of Him. We need to know the Lord personally and then we will be content no matter who else or what else is in or out of our lives. God will bless us with what He knows we need – all else is unnecessary.
There is peace in being content and not coveting what we don’t have. God wants us to experience that peace, and that’s why He gave us this commandment. If we are unsatisfied, we will never be happy. God can and will provide all that we truly need. We need to learn to trust Him.

Today’s Task: Be thankful for what you have. Don’t look elsewhere to satisfy your desires. If you have desires – look to God, but be willing to submit to His will – He knows what’s best for you. Be content with what you have. God has truly blessed us with so much.

Today’s Thanks: O Lord I praise You that You provide for all our needs. I thank You that our heart’s desire can be satisfied in knowing You personally. Help us to know You. Lord help us to be content with everything that You have blessed us with and not to covet the life or things that we don’t have. Life is best lived in You – help us to realize that. I thank You that You give us the peace and strength to live a joyful and contented life in You, no matter what. You are all we need. Lord may we know You as never before. Amen.