Walk With Me - Devotionals

God Planted A Garden

Reader: Louise Macmillan

Date: 22nd March 2022

Passage: Genesis 2:8

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I like gardening. There's something special about getting your hands into the earth and planting bulbs or bushes and watching them grow.

God had a wonderful idea when he planted a garden. The Bible tells us the garden of Eden was full of trees that were pleasant to see and their fruit was good to eat. Why did God create such a place? I think God just loved having this area with its colour, beauty and peace. But he also made this garden as a place where he could meet with the people he had created, Adam and Eve, and where he could enjoy friendship with them. The garden was a beautiful place for Adam and Eve to live in.

But there was one condition for living in the garden of Eden. God had marked two trees in the garden as special. Adam and Eve were told not to eat the fruit of those trees or they would surely die. Sadly, however, first Eve and then Adam disobeyed. They did eat the fruit of one tree. That disobedience (sin) has had enormous consequences not only for them, but for all the rest of us as well. Adam and Eve were put out of the garden and eventually they died.

We have inherited their disobedient nature — all of us sin. But God in his great mercy has given us a Saviour — Jesus Christ. He can forgive our sin and give us the promise of the tree of life — everlasting fellowship with God in the Eden above in heaven.

The Heavens Declare The Glory Of God

Reader: Sue Simison

Date: 21st March 2022

Passage: Genesis 1:1

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Christians love to sing praise to God as the Creator of the vast and wonderful universe in which we live. We know God's power keeps it all together every moment.

Psalm 19 sings: "The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork". Right through the Bible the story is the same. We live in the world God has made in all its vastness and complexity.

Sometimes people say that science tells a different story from the Bible when it comes to creation. They don't include God in their view of the world. But we believe that God is the God of true science as well as being the God of his book, the Bible. Both science and the Bible tell the same story of creation but in different ways.

If we remember this then we can have confidence in our Bible when it speaks about God's acts in creation as well as in teaching about God's salvation for our lives.

Dear Lord, I worship you as Creator and Sustainer of the universe. Help me also to worship you as my Saviour and the Lord of my life. Amen.

Who Do You Hang Out With?

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 20th March 2022

Passage: Psalm 1:6

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Our friends are very important to us . When we are growing up we can easily get drawn into wrong friendships that can have a really bad influence on us and on the way we behave.

In the modern language of the Message Bible, Psalm 1 speaks about three groups of people to be avoided — those who hang out at Sin Saloon, those who slink along Dead-End Road, and those who go to Smart Mouth College! It gives a pretty dire picture of people who could mess up your life. The funny thing is that people like that think they are the happy ones; they imagine that a Christian life could be pretty dull and restrictive. But in reality, it is their lives that are empty — they are like 'wind-blown dust'.

In contrast to that way of life, the Christian is like a tree that a gardener plants beside a stream of water which makes it blossom and fruitful, and it is never affected by drought. It is a life that is guided by God's word; that will be surrounded by good friends and will keep on enjoying the help of God at all times. Jesus Christ said he came to give us a full life, and he certainly keeps his promise when we give ourselves to him.

Remember the text at the top of the page - God charts the road you take. Walk with him on his road and you won't get lost!

Lord, please help me to walk in the way that pleases you and leads to everlasting life. Amen.

Have You Got A 'Pride Problem'?

Reader: Louise Macmillan

Date: 19th March 2022

Passage: Galatians 3:1

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A 'pride problem'! It is usually very easy for us to spot — in someone else! Of course there are some things we can be justly proud of — our favourite team when it wins something; our school when it does well; our family and so on. But if we bring pride into religion, it becomes absolutely destructive.

When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Galatians — a congregation that he loved - he wrote very strong words to them, calling them foolish and bewitched. What caused him to write such things? It was because they had become proud. In what way? They believed in Jesus, didn't they? They were Christians, weren't they? Yes, they were but here is where they went wrong. They did believe in Jesus but they also believed that they needed to do something more themselves to make their salvation complete. They thought Jesus needed their help to save them so they started keeping all the old Jewish laws. They were proud enough to think they were completing what Jesus had done for them.

That was why Paul called them foolish and bewitched. We cannot improve on what Jesus has done for our salvation — it is perfect and complete and it is God's gift to all who are humble enough to accept it. We cannot bring anything to God to pay for it and we cannot work for it.

Dear Lord, take from me all my pride. Help me to trust in you alone and in your righteousness to save me. Amen.

The Power Of The Gospel

Reader: Sue Simison

Date: 18th March 2022

Passage: Romans 1:16

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Have you ever looked up at the sky on a clear starry night and marvelled at the sheer beauty and expanse of the heavens? Just think of the power it took for the Creator to bring all of this into being — much, much more than we can see and much, much more than we can imagine. God is the Creator of the universe.

But God's creative power is used in another way as well. In the Gospel God makes sinful people 'new creations' in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). That same wonderful power that made the world was needed by God to turn helpless, lost, hopeless sinners into new people with a new heart to love and follow Jesus Christ. That shows us just how bad we sinners had become when it needed such power to change and save us.

It is one of the greatest pieces of good news that the world has ever known, giving hope and rescue to people who had become utterly powerless to change their lives. But the power of God can do all of that by making a 'new creation' out of that old life.

Have you felt that power in your life, the power that changes us into someone who thankfully follows the Lord?

Dear Lord, I thank you for the power of the Cross which brings me to rejoice in your salvation. Amen.

Coming Face To Face With God

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 17th March 2022

Passage: Job 42:5

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Job is one of the world's best known people. His story has come to us in the Bible in a way that has made him an icon of suffering and wisdom and patience. We know very little about where he lived or when he lived. But we do know that Job had a very real faith in God and that his faith was tested to the limit through the loss of his children, his wealth and his health, and also because of the awkward friends he had. Those friends kept questioning his faith.

With so many difficult things happening to him Job sometimes wondered what on earth God was doing with him and why? He really wished he could take all his questions straight to God and speak to him face to face.

Near the end of the book of Job we are told that such a face to face meeting did take place, and it turned out to be different from what Job thought it would be. God began by questioning Job and showing him just what he is like - very great and wise and astounding in his power in all creation and the universe. In the end Job realised that all his own questions about God came as a result of his ignorance of who God really is.

"I babbled on about things far beyond me", he said. (Job 42:3) (The Message) . Job asked God to forgive his ignorance and we know that God did just that. So the end of Job's story turns out to be a happy one, even better than it was in the beginning.

God never turns away from our questions but he asks us to look at who he is to remind ourselves that God always knows best and care for us more than we can ever realise.

Now, That's What I Call True Friends!

Reader: Louise Macmillan

Date: 16th March 2022

Passage: Mark 2:3

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Crowds often gathered around Jesus. This story in Mark's gospel tells of a paralysed man who had no strength of his own but he had four of the best friends anyone could have — they were determined to get him to meet Jesus. On that occasion it seemed impossible for them to get to Jesus but they managed to get him down through the roof — even if it meant that they would later have to repair the roof of the house where Jesus was, surrounded by a crowd of people. I wonder what the paralysed man's friends thought when Jesus, instead of immediately healing the man of his illness, said to him "Son, your sins are forgiven" (Verse 5). Maybe the friends were thinking, 'Jesus, just heal our poor friend. That's why we brought him to you'. Of course Jesus knew that, but he dealt with first things first. We can't see inside the heart of the paralysed man but Jesus did, and so he dealt first of all with what was worrying him most — his sin. Then he healed the man of his paralysis, so the man and his friends could go home to live a new life.

As the forgiven and healed man left there were some in the room who became angry with Jesus for claiming to forgive a person's sin. But Jesus showed his authority, in not only having power to heal but also to forgive.

Thank God that Jesus still has that power. Whatever our outward circumstances may be, remember Jesus deals with first things first — he wants to cleanse us from our sins before anything else .

Touching The Untouchable

Reader: Sue Simison

Date: 15th March 2022

Passage: Mark 1:41

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The little story told here in Mark 1: 40-45 and also in Matthew and Luke's gospels is one of the most moving stories in the Gospels. At the heart of the story there was a man with a desperate need. He was a leper. We are not told more about him — his leprosy made him ill, made him an outcast and made him someone to be avoided at all costs. But into this man's miserable life came the person of Jesus and he was moved with pity when he saw this poor man. Jesus was so full of pity for him that against all the taboos of the time, he stretched out his hand and touched the man, something no on else would dare to do .

But Jesus did more than touch the man, he healed him — willingly and immediately and fully. 'The leprosy left him and he was clean' (Verse 42). Jesus' compassion was powerful.

Actually, we are all unclean in the sight of God — our sin has made us that way and it has cut us off from God. But Jesus still comes to touch us, to clean us, to save us through his sinless life, the sacrifice of his death and his infinite mercy. In the Bible story, the leper said to Jesus "If you are willing, you can make me clean" (Verse 40). Just as Jesus said, "I am willing, be clean", so he will respond to you when you ask for his forgiveness and mercy — and you too will be clean!

A Surprising Convert

Reader: Jon Watson

Date: 14th March 2022

Passage: Matthew 9:9

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People from all walks of life and all backgrounds become Christians. Are we surprised at times when we hear that some well-known person has become a Christian? We raise our eyebrows and think — HIM? or HER? Have they really become a Christian? Miracles never cease! And that's exactly what people were thinking when Matthew (also known as Levi) became a follower of Jesus. Matthew was an educated man, a well-to-do man but he certainly was not the kind of fellow you would hang out with. He was a tax-collector, despised by nearly everybody and he was not even allowed into the Jewish churches (synagogues) or the Temple.

However, Jesus probably had seen Matthew very often and probably knew that there was a sore heart inside this wealthy tax-collector. So one day Jesus spoke to him and said quite simply, 'Follow me'. And Matthew got up and did just that.

And what a great help Matthew has been to the church of Jesus Christ! He wrote the Gospel that bears his name. As we thank God for Matthew, let's remember to thank God for all the other surprising converts who are brought into the Christian family. Let's always welcome people who may not fit into our ideas of what Christians ought to look like or the background from which they come.

Dear Lord, we thank you for Matthew and the Gospel which he wrote. Help us to be very thankful for all the people you bring to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Don't Forget To Go To Church

Reader: Louise Macmillan

Date: 13th March 2022

Passage: Hebrews 10:25

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"I don't feel like going to church today". No doubt we have often said (or thought) that, and it seems the people to whom the book of Hebrews was written may have felt the same way. It's easy to forget why it is important for us to go to church and not to' avoid worshipping' together.

Why is this important?

First of all we go to church to worship God. God, and only God, is worthy of our praise and honour. He is our Creator and he has commanded us to worship him. True worship always implies our loving obedience to him.

Secondly, it is important for us to go to church because there God's word, the Bible, is preached. God makes himself and his will known to us in his word and preaching helps us to apply that word to our understanding of what God wants us to do and how he wants us to live.

Thirdly, it is important for us to go to church because there we meet with other worshippers. Church is not a building, it is people — the people gathered together to praise God, to pray to God, to hear God's word and it is there that God promises to be with those who worship him sincerely and truly.

Lord, help me to enjoy going to church to worship you. Amen.