Bread with Faith NKJV
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Today
July 27: Jeremiah 7:1-11
NKJV Key Verse: Jeremiah 7:6
if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, Cross referencesJeremiah 7:6 : Deut. 6:14, 15; Jer. 13:10
Devotion:
We do not have to read too much from the Old Testament to figure out what God likes and what He dislikes. We have all of this written down so we can find these things out for ourselves; after all, we donât seem to like listening to people when they tell us what we can and cannot do! But God gave us our history so we can learn the good from the bad. He gave us families to help us spread the knowledge about the good and bad â but left us with the choice we have to make by ourselves.
He is not forcing us to do anything, but He does give us very strong words of what may happen if we ignore His ways and His rules. It is not so much that He will bring things upon us, but that the world will be able to treat us unjustly because we will not have His protection all around us!
God does not choose to do bad things to us. We choose to walk away from Him and His ways and invite those bad things upon ourselves. We are responsible for the choices we make and the things which happen to us. But, if we choose to follow His ways and His instructions, He will be close at hand to protect us from the world and will try to guide us to avoid all those bad situations we always seem to find ourselves in!
The more we do wrong, the further away from God we get and the less protection He is able to offer us â think about it and draw closer to Him!
Points to Ponder:
Do you knowingly invite bad things into your life?
Are you walking away from God and His protection without thinking about it? -
Day -1
July 25: Matthew 13:18-23
NKJV Key Verse: Matthew 13:22
Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Cross referencesMatthew 13:22 : Matt. 19:23; Mark 10:23; Luke 18:24; 1 Tim. 6:9; 2 Tim. 4:10 Matthew 13:22 : Jer. 4:3
Devotion:
One of the biggest things which separate us from God is living amongst other people! For some reason most of us will allow the things in life to get in the way of our happiness and in the way of our relationship with God too! We get so upset by things of the world we lose sight of God and His ways, making it an uphill struggle to try and commune with Him on a daily basis.
God has warned mankind from the beginning of time about being side-tracked and lured away from Him, and yet we continue to allow the world to interfere with everything! And, no, it is not a simple task of switching it off because we have feelings and we have this sense of looking out for other people all the time.
God wants us to be very aware of others so we can help others, but He also wants us to be very aware of His presence in our lives! No matter what goes on with life and the world around us, God is always going to be close by. We see this in the very earliest manuscripts in our bibles where Job had all manner of things happen to him and his family; but he was somehow able to keep a hold of his relationship with God throughout everything â this saw him though in the end!
Most of us will give in and be taxed by the world and its ways. Most of us will give in to temptations. Most of us will get things wrong from time to time. This is just the way we are. But God watches over us and wants us to succeed!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you get things wrong?
How often do you reach out to God?