Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Galatians 5:25-26 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another. Living in step with the Holy Spirit sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Just imagine a life which is full of love, joy and peace, and all the other beautiful fruit of the Spirit. This must surely be life at its best, but, as the apostle Paul knew, the life of the Spirit has to be lived out in a world in which sin is still alive and well. I often hear people express disappointment about their church. They have found that there is a big gap between the pure life of the Spirit and the attitudes and actions of their Christian brothers and sisters. Paul was clearly well aware of this, and it is significant that he follows this challenge to live by the Spirit with the reminder that the Galatians needed to stop being conceited, provoking or jealous. We cannot be sure what was in Paul’s mind as he wrote these words, but he was likely concerned about those who had become conceited because they believed that they were more spiritual than others. Those who continued to obey the Jewish law strictly looked down on those who, like Paul, believed that all that was necessary was to have faith in Jesus. Tensions easily spring up in any community, and Paul knew how important it was to act before they became totally destructive. Paul had his feet firmly planted on the ground. He knew both how wonderful it was to live a life directed by the Spirit and, at the same time, how easily that life could be disrupted. We need to be alert in just the same way. Question What are the challenges you are facing as you seek to live in step with the Spirit? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the strength you give to me day by day as I seek to live in step with the Spirit. Amen

Galatians 5:22-23 The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These beautiful spiritual qualities are the inevitable result of the Holy Spirit taking control of a person’s life. You can be sure of the genuineness of a person’s spiritual experience when you see these qualities in evidence. It’s interesting that Paul speaks here of the fruit of the Spirit but not the gifts, which are also the result of the Spirit being at work in someone’s life. Perhaps this is because the gifts of the Spirit can be mimicked, but the fruit cannot. Jesus spoke of those who, on judgment day, would say: “Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.” Jesus commented that he would have to reply: “I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws” (Matthew 7:22-23). Nobody would doubt the beauty of the fruit of the Spirit. We would all want our lives to be characterised by these qualities, and whether or not we display them is in our hands. The Holy Spirit wants to give us this wonderful fruitfulness – the question is whether we are willing to open ourselves up to the Holy Spirit. Paul was clear that our lives will be a battleground as long as we live and breathe on this earth. The voice of the Spirit will not be the only one that we hear, so we need to spend our days deliberately tuning in to the Spirit amid the clamour of other voices. Spiritual fruit is crucial in our own lives, but it is also an important way of recognising those who are genuinely working for God. The Galatians heard many false teachers and needed to be able to tell who they could trust. Jesus had addressed exactly the same situation in his Sermon on the Mount, when he helped people to recognise the difference between true and false prophets, saying: “You can identify them by their fruit” (Matthew 7:16). Question How are you seeking to grow the fruit of the Spirit in your own life? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of your Spirit. Help me to open more of my life to his influence each day. Amen

Galatians 5:16-17 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. It’s always refreshing when you meet someone who is completely honest. The apostle Paul was such a man. In Romans 7, he gave an astonishingly frank account of how he ticked. He talked about struggling with his sinful nature. He summed it up in this way: “I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway” (vv18-19). That all sounds rather bleak, doesn’t it? Whoever we are, we all know how easy it is for our selfish nature to dominate our lives, even when we know that that’s the wrong way to go, but we don’t need to despair because God offers to lead us by his Holy Spirit. He is able to give us the wisdom and strength to choose a better way. Paul then gave an agonising list of the destructive consequences of leaving our selfish nature in the driving seat. What’s fascinating is that he wouldn’t need to come up with a different list if he were addressing us today. “Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarrelling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these” (Galatians 5:19-21). Paul’s excitement was that it doesn’t have to be this way. The Holy Spirit has set us free so that we can live a new life characterised by love and all the fruit of the Spirit. Such a life is open to all of us, but only if we are willing to be, like Paul, absolutely honest about our own weakness and our complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to help us to live this new life. We will never make it by ourselves. Question How will you deal with your natural desire to be selfish today? Prayer Loving God, I thank you for the gift of your Holy Spirit. Help me to put him in the driving seat of my life today. Amen

Galatians 5:7-9 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough! We all know what is to be disappointed. It may be that someone has let you down, or that things just haven’t worked out in the way you had hoped. Paul’s letter to the Galatians is dominated by his deep and agonising disappointment that his readers had allowed false teaching to mislead them. He wondered whether his ministry to them had been a complete failure. This was clearly intensely painful for Paul because he longed to see them become joyful and fruitful Christians, and all seemed to have gone horribly wrong. They had gone back to following the rules and restrictions from which Christ had set them free. It’s easy to understand how quickly and easily false teaching spread in the early Church. Christianity was new and very few people had a deep knowledge or experience of it. Many people came from a Jewish background and found it very difficult to understand the radical nature of the changes that Christ had brought about. Others came from a background in other religions and were easily persuaded by the latest eloquent speaker. Paul was eager to help them resist false teaching and to stand strong in the freedom that Christ had brought them. Our context is very different from the Galatians, but we should be no less concerned about false teachers. Paul describes their teaching as being like yeast. It may seem small, but it can have a huge and damaging effect. These days, false teaching can spread instantly around the world through the internet, so we need to be even more on our toes. The very best way to prepare ourselves is by sticking close to the Bible’s teaching. By spending time reading, reflecting and praying through the Bible, we arm ourselves to face the latest false teaching. Question What have you found to be the most helpful ways of getting to know the Bible better? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the gift of the Bible and for the way in which its light shines on my life. Amen

Galatians 4:6-7 Because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.” Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child. And since you are his child, God has made you his heir. When I hear the word ‘father’, I immediately think of my own father. We probably all do. I think of a gentle and kind Christian man. He was a businessman and a busy member of our church, and he was always absolutely devoted to my mother and his four children. He died a few years ago, and I thank God for him. I am well aware that the word ‘father’ can trigger completely different reactions. For some people, it reminds them of someone who was cruel, dismissive and rude to them. Does that mean we should stop referring to God as a father? I don’t believe so. A number of people who have had a bad experience of fatherhood have told me how they desperately needed to know that they had a father, a heavenly Father, who was completely faithful and loving to them. Whatever experience we have had of human fatherhood, our fathers have not been perfect. Only God himself offers us that kind of fatherhood. Now that we are fully a part of God’s family, we have the incredible privilege of calling God Abba. The word comes from Aramaic, Jesus’ mother tongue, and is a word of extreme intimacy, similar to ‘daddy’. How amazing that we can address the creator of the universe with such familiarity, but that is the consequence of being children of God! We have a completely new status and security. It’s helpful to think of our relationship with God as forming the foundations of life. No building can stand for long if it hasn’t got firm foundations, but if they are in place, the building can grow strongly and securely. Life is no different. When we are clear about our unchangeable relationship with God our Father, we can build all other relationships and plans with confidence. Question How helpful do you find it that you are able to call God ‘Abba’? Prayer Abba Father, thank you for the love and security that you give me. Help me to build the whole of my life on the relationship that I have with you. Amen

Galatians 3:11 So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” For the apostle Paul, this was the crunch issue. The only way to be made right with God is through faith. He was addressing many people who believed that obeying the law was crucial for all Christians, but he argued that however well we live, we will always fail. We will never be able to put our relationship with God right by our own efforts. Coming from a strict Jewish background, Paul knew all about the significance of the law. From his earliest days, he had been taught that he needed to obey the letter of the law in order to please God. He had then been taught by the Pharisees, who were meticulous in their adherence to the law. Paul knew exactly what he was talking about! He knew that the law could only ever be a burden, and that’s why he was so excited that Jesus came to set us free. Because of the impossibility of pleasing God by our hard work, all we can do is receive his salvation as a gift. This all sounds so simple but, interestingly, we find it surprisingly difficult to receive free gifts. We instinctively suspect that there must be a catch. When someone offers the most precious thing in the world, we assume that it cannot possibly be true, but it is! Paul knew for himself how wonderful it was to live in the freedom that Jesus gives, and he longed for his friends in Galatia to have the same experience, but they needed to know exactly what kind of freedom this was. In chapter 5, he spelled this out. We have been set free not to do whatever we like, because that would be incredibly destructive. Christ has set us free so that we can “serve one another in love” (Galatians 5:13). It’s impossible to think of a world that is better or happier than one that is shaped by love, and that’s the gift we have been given, if only we will accept it. Question How has Christ’s gift of freedom affected your life? Prayer Lord Jesus, forgive me for those times when I have fooled myself into thinking that I could please you by my own efforts. I thank you for the free gift of salvation. Amen

Galatians 2:20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. In these first two chapters of Galatians, Paul gives a fascinating summary of his life story since he became a Christian, reminding his readers of his background. He had been so deeply committed to his Jewish faith that he had done everything possible to destroy the Church. Paul makes it clear that when he started following Christ, he didn’t rush to Jerusalem, where the first church was formed. First, he went away into Arabia, and only after three years did he go to meet the leaders in Jerusalem. The point he was making was that his new life as a Christian hadn’t been shaped by other people and their traditions, but only by Christ. It was another 14 years before he returned to Jerusalem and the church leaders recognised him as the one God had sent to preach to the Gentiles. The Jerusalem church was, not surprisingly, focused on people from a Jewish background. Paul’s life was completely defined by Christ, not by any humans or their traditions. His new life was no longer his own but Christ’s, and he was certain that he had found the best life imaginable. He had long since learned that living for himself wasn’t worth it. In Romans chapter 7, Paul reflected on the struggle inside him when he lived life by himself. He tried to do the right things but consistently failed. He exclaimed: “Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?” He triumphantly concluded: “Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 7:24-25). To give up his entire life to Christ might sound an incredible thing to do, but don’t miss the punchline. He was delighted to give himself completely to Christ because the Son of God had loved him and given up his life for him. Living for Christ, whether in the first century or the 21st, is purely and simply a response to God’s perfect love for us in Christ. Question How do you understand the expression “crucified with Christ” for you personally? Prayer Lord Jesus, I thank you with all my heart that you love me and gave yourself for me. Amen

Galatians 1:4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. Every now and again, we hear about rescue missions. Brave soldiers are put down behind enemy lines, often in a low flying helicopter, and set some prisoners free. It’s all very exciting and impressive. Here, the apostle Paul talks about us being rescued, and it sounds as if God is coming to transport us out of this world, but that isn’t his purpose. His desire is to leave us in this world to do his work. What we need to understand is that the Jews thought in terms of two ages. There was this present evil age and then there was the age to come. This present age is dominated by the devil and is characterised by sin, death and brokenness, and the age to come is marked out by love, harmony and life. The age to come is what the New Testament writers refer to as eternal life. Because it has its roots in God, it cannot and will not come to an end. When Paul talks about the rescue mission that Jesus brings about through his death on the cross, he is saying that we are transported from one world to another, but for the time being, we stay exactly where we are! Our calling is to experience eternal life and to live for God amid all the challenges and difficulties of a world that is firmly opposed to him. We might often wish that God would relieve us from all the pressures and brokenness of our sinful world. Having met Christ, we know that the world doesn’t need to be like this. However, for now, our calling is to stay where we are and to serve God faithfully, encouraging and helping other people to have the experience of being rescued by Jesus. Question In what ways have you experienced God’s rescue through what Christ did for you on the cross? Prayer Loving God, thank you for rescuing me. Help me to become increasingly eager to help others to find the eternal life which you offer. Amen

Galatians 1:1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. Yesterday, we were reflecting on the call of Isaiah. He was absolutely clear that he was called by God to his challenging ministry. Today, in this reading from Galatians, we meet the apostle Paul hundreds of years later making it clear that he was appointed by God alone. This was no human appointment, but one that God had decided to make. As this letter unfolds, it will become increasingly clear why he needed to make this point right at the beginning. It’s a strong letter in which he shows his severe disagreement with many people. They needed to know that he was acting purely and simply on the orders of God himself. There is nothing more important in life than to know that we are doing what God wants. Too often, people have got the impression that only ministers and mission personnel are called by God, but that isn’t the case. Each day, God calls all of us to work for him. In our schools, offices, colleges, hospitals, factories, homes, communities and friendships, we are living and working as God’s representatives. That might sound rather overwhelming. We are all keen to emphasise how frail, failed and unimportant we are, but God always equips the people that he calls. We frequently face situations that are outside our experience or expectation. In those moments, we need to remind ourselves why we are there in the first place! We are there because God has placed us there, and we can confidently look to his Spirit to equip us to be who and what he wants us to be. Throughout Paul’s ministry, there were people who looked down on him. He hadn’t spent time with Jesus like the other apostles, and he was often seen as an outsider. He also doesn’t seem to have been a particularly powerful preacher, and that didn’t go down well. However, he knew he was called by God, and that gave him the steel to stand up for his faith in the most testing of settings. Whatever others think of us, we all need to keep focused on what God thinks of us and what he has called us to do. Question What is God calling you to do for him today? Prayer Lord God, thank you for equipping me to do whatever you call me to do. Amen

Isaiah 6:8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” Isaiah’s encounter with God in the temple was so intimate that he was able to overhear God having a conversation. God was wondering who he could send as a messenger, and Isaiah immediately put up his hand and offered his services. Isaiah’s response stands in marked contrast to others, such as Moses and Jeremiah, who offered God reasons why he had chosen the wrong person. Isaiah was willing, and God took him at his word. Willingness is a wonderful quality. When gifts were given for the building of the temple in Jerusalem, the people were incredibly generous. They gave 170 tonnes of gold, 10,000 gold coins, 240 tonnes of silver, 612 tonnes of bronze and 3,400 tonnes of iron. We read that: “the family leaders, the leaders of the tribes of Israel, the generals and the captains of the army and the king’s administrative officers all gave willingly…The people rejoiced over the offerings, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the LORD, and King David was filled with joy” (1 Chronicles 29:6,9). Isaiah was willing to serve God, but that doesn’t mean that life suddenly became easy for him. Far from it. He was given a desperately difficult task to perform. God assured him that people wouldn’t want to hear his message. They would “plug their ears and shut their eyes” (Isaiah 6:10). Even this discouraging information didn’t undermine Isaiah’s willingness. He simply enquired of God how long this would go on, to which God replied that it would carry on until the land had been turned into a wasteland and the people had been carried off into exile. It was a tough message, but Isaiah’s willingness was undiminished. Isaiah knew that the greatest thing he could ever do was to serve the living God. Question Are you willing to do whatever God asks you to do? Prayer Lord God, help me to always be willing to serve you in whatever way you choose. Amen

Isaiah 6:5-7 [Isaiah] said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man…” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” You may have had the experience of cleaning a window with great care. The last smudge has been removed and you are convinced that you’ve done an excellent job, and then you sit down and see the sunlight streaming in and you cannot believe how dirty and smudgy it still looks! That was Isaiah’s experience in these verses. He came into the presence of a holy God and the brilliant light of God’s presence shone on the inadequacies and failings of his life. He felt doomed. His predicament seemed completely hopeless, but it wasn’t. God did for Isaiah what Isaiah could never have done for himself. He forgave him. Isaiah recognised that he had filthy lips and lived among a people with filthy lips, so the seraphim touched his lips with a burning coal from the altar. His guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven. His life was transformed from one of hopelessness and defeat to one in which he would be able to carry God’s word to his people. Forgiveness was the turning point in Isaiah’s life, and that is the experience of every Christian. Until we come to that point of recognising our sin and seeking God’s forgiveness, we will inevitably be weighed down by our sin and guilt. Only God can set us free, and he does so by totally removing our sins from us. David described the experience in this way: “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12). Question How has God’s gift of forgiveness affected your life? Prayer Holy God, I worship you and praise you for your love for me. I recognise my need of your forgiveness, and thank you for your willingness to set me free from my sin. Amen

Isaiah 6:1 It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Uzziah had become king when he was 16 and reigned for 52 years. For much of that time, the kingdom of Judah had thrived. Uzziah had listened to the prophet Zechariah and walked in the ways of the Lord. However, later on in his reign he had become arrogant, and on one occasion, he went into the temple to burn incense, a task which only priests could perform. Uzziah was struck down with leprosy and lived in isolation for the last years of his reign. The death of King Uzziah after such a long reign was clearly a turning point for Isaiah. His world had suddenly changed. I wonder what his mood was when he entered the temple. He likely felt confused and insecure as the nation faced a major time of change, but in that moment, God met with him in an amazing way. Suddenly, he was overwhelmed by the majesty and holiness of God and forced to take a completely new look at his life. God meets with us in an amazing variety of ways. He can do so when we are in a church building or a garden. He can speak to us as we read the Bible or the newspaper. He can reveal himself through a friend or a stranger. The main question is whether we are ready to meet with him. Celtic Christianity speaks of thin places, where heaven and earth seem to meet and where it can be particularly easy to meet with God. The islands of Iona and Lindisfarne are two places that have been identified as thin places for hundreds of years, but you may well have discovered somewhere else that is a thin place for you. The ways in which God might meet with us are many and various. What matters is that we should, like Isaiah, be ready for that moment. Question Have you discovered any thin places where it seems particularly easy to meet with God? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you want to speak with me. Help me to always be ready to hear your voice. Amen

Isaiah 5:7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence. There is only one reason why you would plant a vineyard: because you were wanting grapes. You certainly wouldn’t plant one for the vines’ natural beauty or because you want to make use of their wood, which struggles to burn. This chapter poignantly describes God’s desperate disappointment with his people. They were planted to be fruitful and he had gone to great lengths to prepare his vineyard. He planted it on a fertile hill. He ploughed the land, cleared its stones and planted one of the best of the vines. However, the outcome had been appalling – the exact opposite of what God had been looking for. Instead of the justice that he longed to see, he saw oppression, and instead of righteousness, there was murder. God had given his people free will and they’d chosen to use it to oppose him rather than to obey him. He had given them every opportunity to thrive and they had thrown it all back in his face. Amazingly, he didn’t give up on them. The prophecy of Isaiah is an amazing study of the love and faithfulness of God. Disappointed as he clearly was, he didn’t reject his people but looked for new ways to bless them. We may feel that we haven’t acted as badly as the nation of Israel, but we have all sinned. We have all been a disappointment to God. He has given us every advantage and time and again we have ignored him and gone our own way, but God doesn’t give up on us. In Isaiah chapter 40, we see a beautiful picture of the persistent and gentle love of God for his people. “He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will carry the lambs in his arms, holding them close to his heart. He will gently lead the mother sheep with their young” (v11). That’s our God! He loves us so much that he has high expectations for us. He longs to see us being fruitful. However, he doesn’t give up on us when we fail, but looks for every opportunity to shower us with his love. Question In what ways do you think that you have disappointed God’s expectations? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you never give up on me. I confess my sins and ask you to help me to live closer to you day by day. Amen

Isaiah 2:4 The LORD will mediate between nations and will settle international disputes. They will hammer their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer fight against nation, nor train for war anymore. This beautiful verse gives us an insight into the heart of God, who always longs for world peace. In this passage, we are given a vision of what the world will look like at the end of time. With God in charge, there will be complete peace. The instruments of war will become useful agricultural implements, all war will cease and there will be no longer any need to train people to fight. It’s a stirring vision and one that needs to thrill us all. Our present world is continually in the grip of violence and war. They are characteristics of a world that lives in rebellion against God, but as we worship him, we need to remind ourselves of his longing for peace. It is so easy for us to feel that world politics and historic rivalries between nations are so complex that we cannot relate to them at all, but as followers of the God of peace, we need to continually pray for peace and long for a world in which warfare will have no place. Most of us live our lives far away from international politics, but that doesn’t mean we are uninvolved in peacemaking. Every day, all of us have the opportunity to be peacemakers. We can bring peace to people as we listen to their concerns, pray for them and give them encouragement. It might seem far removed from bringing peace to the world, but it is intimately connected, and it is all part of God’s mission of peace. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: “God blesses those who work for peace, for they will be called the children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Question In what way might you be able to work for peace today? Prayer God of peace, thank you for the way in which you have brought peace into my life. Help me always to be willing to share it with others. Amen

Isaiah 2:2-3 In the last days, the mountain of the LORD’s house will be the highest of all…people from all over the world will stream there to worship. People from all nations will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of Jacob’s God. There he will teach us his ways, and we will walk in his paths.” Isaiah 1 makes for scary reading. God is hopping mad at the unfaithfulness of his people. They have comprehensively let him down, and they are paying a terrible price for it. God’s blunt language is enough to make anyone blush as he comments: “See how Jerusalem, once so faithful, has become a prostitute. Once the home of justice and righteousness, she is now filled with murderers. Once like pure silver, you have become like worthless slag” (Isaiah 1:21-22). It was a very grim predicament, but God still had a vision for how things could be in the future. The vision in Isaiah 2 focuses on Jerusalem as the place which would transform everything. It would be the focus of peace and unity, and people would stream there from all over the world. Yes, streams can flow uphill when God is at work! In Jerusalem, there would be teaching, and the result would be that people would walk in God’s ways – the teaching would lead to action. There is nothing more dangerous than to study the Bible and to reflect on God without asking the question: “Lord, what do you want me to do?” As I write these reflections, I often wonder what happens as a result. My prayer is that God will use them to help you to make really good decisions that will enable you to live more effectively for him. In his letter, James talks about the importance of not merely hearing the word, but doing it. If you don’t do what God’s word says, he observes, “you are only fooling yourselves” (James 1:22). He suggests that it would be like glancing in a mirror and immediately forgetting what you look like. I wonder what God is saying to you at the moment and how his teaching is helping you to walk in his ways. No pressure, but it is always great to hear about specific ways in which God is leading people, so always feel free to let me know at jonathan.edwards@premier.org.uk Question Why do you think it is so easy to listen to God’s word and do nothing about it? Prayer Lord God, give me your strength to walk in your ways, however tough it might be. Amen

Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let’s settle this,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool.” If you want to know what God is like when he’s in a rage, read through this first chapter of Isaiah. He was fuming. He simply couldn’t believe that anyone could treat him like this. After all he had done for his people, it was as though they now didn’t even recognise his existence. God pointed out that even an ox and a donkey know who their owner is, but Israel didn’t seem to have a clue who their master was. The country was lying in ruins and beautiful Jerusalem had been abandoned. The situation was disastrous, and yet, amazingly, the people continued with their religious practices. However, God was repelled by their worship because he knew that it didn’t come from their heart. He asked them to stop making their sacrifices and offering their meaningless gifts and assured them that when they prayed, he would refuse to listen. We spend so much of our time thinking of God’s love, generosity and kindness that it’s hard to think of him being so cross. It would’ve been understandable if the chapter had concluded by saying it was game over and God wanted nothing more to do with them, but it doesn’t. Instead, God invited them to sort things out, which would affect every aspect of their lives. They certainly needed to confess their sins and turn away from them, but they also needed to: “Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows” (Isaiah 1:17). This passage in Isaiah is a good challenge for all of us. God does love our worship and praise, but only when it is offered by people whose whole lives are committed to living for him 24/7. God will be looking at the way in which we care for the poor and marginalised in our communities in order to work out the reality of our worship. Question In what ways do you reach out to the needy members of your own community? Prayer Loving God, thank you that you don’t give up on me when I fail you. Help me to be the person you want me to be throughout the whole week. Amen

Proverbs 29:25 Fearing people is a dangerous trap, but trusting the Lord means safety. The posh word for fearing other people is ‘anthropophobia’, and it can happen for all sorts of reasons. Perhaps other people are threatening us. The psalmists often spoke of the people who were out to get them. They seemed to be surrounded by people who were trying to trip them up and make their lives a misery. Fearing other people might also be based on our fear of what they might think of us. It’s very easy for our lives to be controlled by our desire to please other people. We can become fearful of what they might think of what we are saying or wearing, or where we are going. There is no doubt that it is easy for fearing other people to become a dangerous and depressing trap. The writer of Proverbs provides an alternative. There is a way out. Rather than using other people as our reference point, we could turn to the Lord instead. When we trust him, we are entirely safe for a number of clear reasons. Firstly, God always loves us. However strong our relationship with other people is, they change. They have good days and bad days – days when they have time for us and others when they are far too busy for us. Secondly, God is eternal. Our human relationships are precious and important to us, but they have limits. They won’t go on for ever. God gives us the security of knowing that he will never leave us. When we place our confidence in God and find him as our true source of security, it will affect every other part of our lives. The outcome will be that we discover that we don’t need to fear other people. As the psalmist wrote: “The Lord is for me, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” (Psalm 118:6). Question Do you ever fear other people? If you do, how could you handle the situation better in future? Prayer Lord God, thank you that I have nothing to fear when you are on my side. Amen

Proverbs 29:23 Pride ends in humiliation, while humility brings honour. William Hazlitt, the brilliant 19th-century writer, put his finger on the problem with pride when he observed that it “erects a little kingdom of its own, and acts as sovereign in it”. When we are puffed up with pride, we take total charge and push God out, together with everyone else. The proud person might look impressive for a while but, as the writer of Proverbs observes, sooner or later they end in humiliation. The alternative way is humility. This is the key to all of God’s blessings, so we need to be absolutely clear what it is. The trouble with the word humility is that we often confuse it with false humility, which is horribly unattractive. Anyone who claims to be humble is almost certainly false. The humble person doesn’t expend energy thinking about themselves, and if they were ever identified as being humble, they would deny it. True humility is not about denying that we have gifts and abilities, but having a readiness to admit that we have failings and shortcomings. The disciples were constantly seeking to push themselves forward. They were interested in who was the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. In response, Jesus could have given them a lecture about the virtues of humility, but instead he called a little child and placed him in front of them. He said: “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 18:3-4). Jesus’ words couldn’t be clearer. Humility is the only way to make progress in the Christian life. Only when we acknowledge that Jesus is the King of our lives will we find his peace, love and joy. Building our own little empire may look clever for a while, but it is bound to end in disaster. Question How do you think you could grow in humility? Prayer Lord Jesus Christ, I acknowledge you as the Lord of my life. Help me constantly to decrease that you may increase. Amen

Proverbs 29:20 There is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking. The writer of Proverbs has a lot to say about fools. They live dangerously and destructively, and he does everything he can to encourage his readers to avoid foolishness and to live a life of wisdom. When he declares that there is more hope for a fool than for someone who speaks without thinking, he is clearly describing the most terrible disaster, and that’s because words are so powerful. They can be powerful to build, but they can also be devastatingly destructive when used in the wrong way. So, what thinking should we do before speaking? I love the mnemonic T-H-I-N-K. Here are five excellent tests to apply to anything that you say. T stands for True. So much damage is caused in relationships and organisations because untrue things are said. Gossip feeds off this. A statement might be partly true but give a misleading impression, and when it is passed on a number of times, it bears no relationship to the real situation. If you are not absolutely sure that something is true, it is better to keep quiet. H stands for Helpful. It can be very tempting to share information simply to show that you know it, but it is better to be quiet if what you are saying won’t help. I stands for Inspiring. Your words need to have a positive effect and leave people encouraged and strengthened. N stands for Necessary. For some of us, when we start talking, it can be difficult to stop, and we end up sharing half formed thoughts that are totally unnecessary and are in danger of fuelling gossip. K stands for Kind. If our words are not kind, then they should never have been spoken. We won’t go through all those five steps every time we speak, but I encourage you to start making use of this simple guide. It may help to slow down our speaking and increase our thinking time. Question Which of the five steps is most challenging and important for you to reflect upon? Prayer Loving God, thank you for the privilege of speaking. Help me to become increasingly wise in the way in which I speak. Amen

Proverbs 29:11 Fools vent their anger, but the wise quietly hold it back. I love the down-to-earth realism of the Bible. It meets us where we are and engages in the sharp reality of our lives. We all have very different anger thresholds. Some people rarely get angry, and others can get steamed up about the most minor issues. Wherever you are on the scale of anger, we all need to know what to do with it. The writer of Proverbs, in his typically blunt way, declares that fools let it all out and wise people quietly hold it back. Valuable and wise as the book of Proverbs is, its short, pithy sayings need unpacking. It would, for example, be a mistake to lump all anger together. Some anger is good. We often hear about God’s anger. In his holiness, he gets incredibly angry about sin. Isaiah wrote of the Day of the Lord when God would reveal his “fury and fierce anger” (Isaiah 13:9) and Jesus expressed anger at the temple being overrun by moneychangers and those who were selling animals and birds for sacrifice. There is clearly a place for righteous anger, and the Bible offers us many illustrations of it. However, anger is often completely unrighteous. We may be angry because we have failed to get our own way, or we didn’t like the way someone spoke to us. The apostle Paul was clearly well aware of the issue of anger when he wrote: “Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil” (Ephesians 4:26-27). This is extremely wise advice. The greatest danger is when we allow our anger to carry on unchecked, and this can so easily happen. Anger is sometimes allowed to grow for months or even years, and it starts to define a person’s life. Knowing how to control anger is crucial for all of us, so we all need to seek God’s strength and wisdom to do so. Question How do you control your anger? Prayer Lord God, thank you that you understand me completely. I invite you to help me to control my anger. Amen