Here is a devotion from a great free resource I have used a lot over the years – Our Daily Bread. I found it encouraging today. I especially liked the statement about self control that I bolded…
A hole in the wall
Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. Proverbs 25:28
Something was eating my flowers. The day before, blooms proudly lifted their heads. Now they were headless stems. I prowled the perimeter of my yard and discovered a rabbit-sized hole in my wooden fence. Bunnies are cute, but the pesky animals can mow down a garden of flowers in minutes.
I wonder, might there be “intruders” shearing off the blooms of God’s character in my life? Proverbs 25:28 says, “Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control.” In ancient days, the wall of the city protected it against invasion from enemies. Even a small opening in a wall meant that the entire city lay open to attack.
So many of the proverbs are about self-control. “If you find honey, eat just enough,” wrote the wise man (25:16). Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit that guards us, protecting us from losing ground to impatience, bitterness, greed, and other pests that can intrude and destroy God’s harvest in our lives (see Galatians 5:22–23). Self-control is a healthy-mindedness that watches for the holes in the walls of our lives and keeps them patched.
When I inspect the perimeter of my life, I can at times see vulnerable holes. A spot where I give in to temptation over and over. An area of impatience. Oh, how I need the healthy-minded self-control of God in my life to guard me from such intruders!
Dear God, please grow the fruit of self-control in my life that I might be protected from intruders. Amen.
Matthew 11:28 NLT – Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.
For some reason I hear Jesus say “Come to Me all who are weary” and I miss the “carry heavy burdens” part. I have burdens I still carry. Things that always seem to be on my heart and in my mind. I need to come to Him afresh and allow Him to take my burdens. How about you? Have you got heavy burdens you carry? Maybe it is time to let them go to Jesus?
Prayer
Dear Jesus, You call us to come to You if we are weary and carry heavy burdens. Right now I come to You afresh as I am weary and burdened. I give them to You and exchange them for Your rest and peace. Amen.
Psalm 32:8-9 TPT – I hear the Lord saying, “I will stay close to you, instructing and guiding you along the pathway for your life. I will advise you along the way and lead you forth with my eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult; don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make me tug you and pull you along. Just come with me!”
In today’s passage I really enjoy three things that God encourages us with.
1. He promises to stay close to us.
2. He will instruct, guide and advise us along life’s pathway with His eyes.
3. He invites us to just come with Him.
When I read this it gives me a lot of encouragement and a lot of comfort. The Creator of the universe promises to be with me and help me along the life’s pathway.
When I read of His promises in this passage, there is no way I want to stubborn or difficult, I just want to just go with Him and trust Him. It is by far the best place to be.
Prayer
Dear God, thank You that the Bible says that You will stay close to us and You will guide, instruct and advise us along life’s pathway. I pray I will willingly follow You each and every day. Amen.
In John 20:26-27 we see that Jesus appears to Thomas. Thomas had said he would not believe Jesus was alive until he saw the nail marks. As we know Jesus then appears and shows Thomas the scars.
This passage got me thinking about Jesus being nailed to the cross and the type of nails that were used.
When we look at the Greek word used for nails in that passage it is helos (hay-los). It is not a little nail that you use to tack a back on a bookshelf. It is more like a large peg or nail used to hold railways tracks down to a railway sleeper. They are huge.
After a little more research I found that a typical nail used in a crucifixion was between 10 and 20 centimetres long. They were more like this (hold up railway spike).
When I think about that I can’t imagine that being driven through my hands or wrists or my feet or ankle bones, depending on how one was crucified. I can’t comprehend someone doing that for me…but Jesus did. He endured the nails of love.
Jesus could not live with the idea that your and my sin separated us from God. So He endured the nails of love.
Jesus could not live with the idea that you would not be redeemed and set free from the curse of sin and death. So He endured the nails of love.
Jesus could not live with the idea of you not experiencing His peace, hope and abundant life now. So He endured the nails of love.
And Jesus could not live with the idea of you not spending eternity with Him. So He endured the nails of love.
Let us remember today the love Jesus has for us and the lengths He was prepared to go to for us to be in relationship with Him.
Before I ask the helpers to come forward I want to symbolically nail in three nails to remind us of what Jesus did for us all. What Jesus did for you and I.
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