Category: Devotional

  • Vision – Week 4

    Vision – Week 4

    On hearing of the ruined walls of Jerusalem, Nehemiah turned to God in prayer, mourning and fasting. Our initial response to God should be to come to Him first.

    In the book of Nehemiah, we witness a powerful example of responding to God’s invitation. Nehemiah, upon hearing of the ruined walls of Jerusalem, was deeply burdened. Instead of immediately seeking solutions, he turned to God in prayer, mourning and fasting. This act exemplifies a vital principle: our initial response to God should be to come to Him, just as a child seeks comfort in a parent’s arms.

    Nehemiah’s prayer in Nehemiah 1:3-11 reveals his heart. He recognized God’s invitation to partner in restoring the community. This invitation mirrors God’s continuous call to us, as seen in Isaiah’s “Here am I. Send me!” and Jesus’s invitation in Matthew 11:28-29, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

    “We are invited to make a pilgrimage into the heart and life of God.” 
    Dallas Willard

    Trevor Hudson’s story of the unopened invitation serves as a poignant reminder of the opportunities we may miss when we are too busy to hear God’s call.

    Our response to God’s invitation is not about our strength or worthiness, but about our willingness to come as we are. Like Adam and Eve, we may feel shame and guilt, but through Jesus, we are reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:21 tells us, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 

    We are adopted as children of God, and Romans 8:14-15 reminds us that we can cry, “Abba, Father.”

    “The gospel is this: We are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe, yet at the very same time, we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.” – Tim Keller

    When we respond to God’s invitation, we offer ourselves to Him. God works with what we give Him, not with what we can achieve in our own strength. As Philippians 2:13 states, “For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”

    The enemy wants us to hide, like Adam and Eve, or to become busy with religious activities without genuine love for God, like the church in Ephesus. But Jesus calls us to remain in His love (John 15:9), bearing fruit through our connection to Him (John 15:4).

    For reflection:

    • Where in your daily life do you sense God extending an invitation to you?
    • How do you typically respond to God’s invitations? Are you quick to answer, or do you find yourself hesitant?
    • Are there “unopened invitations” from God buried under the busyness of your life? If so, how can you uncover them?
    • Do you struggle with feelings of unworthiness that keep you from coming to God? How can you embrace your identity as a child of God?
    • What practical steps can you take to offer yourself to God in your weakness, trusting that He will work through you?

    Closing Prayer:

    Heavenly Father, we thank you for your constant invitation to come to you. We acknowledge the times we have been too busy or too burdened to hear your call. Forgive us for the unopened invitations we have ignored. Help us to recognize your voice in our daily lives and to respond with “Here I am.” Lord, we bring our weaknesses and burdens before you, trusting that your grace is sufficient. Work in us, through us, and for us, that we may bear fruit and fulfill your purposes. We thank you for the sacrifice of Jesus, who reconciled us to you, and for the gift of your Spirit, who allows us to call you “Abba, Father.” In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

    Watch the sermon on YouTube

  • DAY 1 | MONDAY | Take a step

    DAY 1 | MONDAY | Take a step

    Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it

    Matt 11:29 Msg

    To work with God in our lives, we need to walk with him, and to walk with him, we need to be taking one step at a time.

    • If you keep taking next steps, you don’t get spiritually stuck.
    • If you keep taking steps, you grow through life instead of just going through life. Bishop and theologian Gregory of Nyssa said, “Sin happens whenever we refuse to keep growing.” 

    That means:

    • If you keep taking next steps sin cannot ensnare you and you are protecting your spiritual progress. 

    In Philippians 3:16 (NLT) Paul the Apostle writes, 

    “But we must hold on to the progress we have already made”.

    Our spiritual walk with God is measured by our progress, not by our perfection, so we need to protect our progress by continually taking the next step, not by perfecting a once-off move.

    Paul the Apostle writes to the church in Galatia from the NT book of

    Galatians 5:25 (NIV)

    “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.”

    If I was to keep in step with the Spirit today, what step could I take?

    This is Gods invitation to us personally in our vision, the question:

    “What step can I take?”

    Whether it’s: 

    • as you’re about to react to something your spouse said, 
    • or while facing a familiar temptation, 
    • or deciding whether to participate in an activity with friends, 
    • or processing someone’s criticism, 
    • or choosing whether to give the car guard the ten rand note in your pocket after shopping.

    Every day you and I can take one step somewhere in our lives that aligns with God’s Spirit.  What I am called to do within God’s purposes in this season of my life is to intentionally keep taking next steps in becoming everything my Lord has for me.

    Those daily steps may seem insignificant, silly or small, but 

    God can do a lot with one small step that others don’t see so don’t stop walking.

    My prayer response:

    • Share with God your desire to keep in step with the Spirit.
    • Confess the areas of your life in which you feel you have been walking in the flesh rather than His Spirit.
    • Ask God to help you recognize where in your life you could take a next step today.
    • Commit yourself and your day to Gods care as you walk into the new day.

    My daily practice:

    • Intentionally move through the day seeking the place and space in which you could take a practical next step in alignment with the Spirit. 
    • At the end of today, make a note describing the step you chose to take. Use the below guide to complete your reflection and pray it back to God in commitment.

    Reflection on my step today.

    • The step I took today was:
    • Taking that step required me intentionally:
    • My desire in taking that step in the Spirit is to:
  • LIFESTYLE PRAYER

    LIFESTYLE PRAYER

    How can we most effectively engage in this week’s prayer and fasting?

    Firstly, we can learn from three things that Jesus did …

    Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed (Mark 1:35).

    CONSIDER:

    • A CERTAIN TIME
      • Jesus got up very early in the morning to spend time with his heavenly Father. Choose a certain time in which, guided by your booklet, you commit to prayer this week.
    • A CERTAIN PLACE
      • Jesus had a prayer place. Your prayer place needs to be in a distraction-free environment where you can pray out loud and, perhaps, have some worship music playing in the background.
    • A CERTAIN PLAN
      • Go into your prayer time with a plan. Use this prayer guide and engage with its content. As part of preparing your plan, read our suggestion for starting each day with the serenity prayer and our explanation of fasting so that you can include it in your week of prayer.

    Understanding fasting as a follower of Jesus

    Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Matthew 4:1-4

    Jesus’ response to the devil was that he would not rely solely on human sustenance for fullness of life, but beyond the provision of the flesh, place his trust in God first, even if it meant sacrificing his own will. This is what fasting communicates, and placing our trust in God as we fast makes room for His presence in our hearts.

    “Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” Eph 3:17

    Fasting is a form of giving up to go up

    What sustains your flesh is rooted in spiritual provision. Fasting makes us focus on the spiritual provision of God over the sustenance received by the flesh. 

    Fasting removes “static” from the line of our busy lives, guiding us, and aligning our focus toward God (see Acts 13:2; Daniel 9:3-23; Joel 2:12).

    In Mark 2:18–20 it tells us:

    Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. Some people came and asked Jesus, “How is it that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not?”

    Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? They cannot, so long as they have him with them. But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them, and on that day they will fast.

    Jesus was referring to the time of his crucifixion, then His resurrection that gave way to the great commission that could only be achieved through prayer and fasting.

    Prayer and fasting keeps us close to the one who has commissioned us.

    Pastor, author and speaker, John Mark Comer, explains:

    “In fasting, you are literally praying with your body, offering all that you are to God in worship. As you yield your body to God, you are breaking the power of the flesh to control you and opening up to the power of the Spirit in its place.”

    You may choose to fast food or screen time. The key is that you give up something that usually feeds your flesh and use that time to focus on God in prayer. This would be part of your plan as you find a certain place and time for prayer this week. As you make room, may God lead you into the fullness of resurrection life. (See John 10:10.)

    Starting Each Day with the Serenity Prayer

    Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian, penned the original Serenity Prayer in the early 1930s or 1940s. Its simple yet profound message quickly resonated, especially after it was published in a 1943 booklet for military chaplains.

    Later, the 12-step recovery movement adopted a modified version, and over time, the prayer has been expanded by various authors. This powerful prayer guides us toward surrendering to God’s sovereignty in all aspects of life. Martin Luther King Jr., for example, embodied these principles, aligning his leadership and personal struggles with the prayer’s core message.

    This week, as you engage in your daily devotional during this time of prayer and fasting, I encourage you to begin each day by slowly reciting the Serenity Prayer.

    To help you truly experience its meaning, we’ve added suggested pauses. After you pray, take a minute of quiet reflection before you begin your devotional reading.

    THE SERENITY PRAYER, with pauses:

    “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, (PAUSE)

    The courage to change the things I can, (PAUSE) 

     and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, (PAUSE)

    accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking, as Jesus did, this  sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, (PAUSE)  

    trusting that you will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may know peace in this life now and wholeness forever in the next, (PAUSE)

    in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

  • Stand in the waiting

    Stand in the waiting

    How can we wait when these seasons are filled with pain and loss and doubt?

    Often, life presents us with seasons of waiting. These periods can be filled with uncertainty, doubt, and even pain. However, it’s within these very seasons that our faith is tested and strengthened. Kim Ballentine powerfully illustrates this through her own experiences, reminding us that even in our darkest moments, God’s faithfulness remains constant.

    The core message emphasizes “standing” during these times. It’s not about passive waiting, but active faith. To help us remember how to do this, she provides the acronym “STAND”:

    S – Stand on the Word of God:

    The foundation of our strength lies in God’s promises. When we feel weak, we must anchor ourselves in His Word.

    1. How consistently am I grounding myself in scripture? Are there specific promises I need to cling to during my current season?

    T – Take Control of Your Thinking:

    Our minds are battlegrounds. Negative thoughts can easily overwhelm us. We must actively choose to focus on truth and positivity.

    1. What thought patterns am I allowing to dominate my mind? How can I actively replace negative thoughts with God’s truth?

    A – Attitude:

    Our attitude during waiting is crucial. Maintaining a posture of faith, gratitude, and hope, even when circumstances seem bleak, is a powerful testament to our trust in God.

    1. What is my current attitude towards my situation? Am I choosing to see God’s hand at work, even in the midst of hardship?

    N – Never Negate the Long-Term Impact of Trauma:

    Acknowledging and processing past traumas is essential for healing. Ignoring them can hinder our ability to move forward.

    1. Am I allowing past traumas to affect my present faith? Have I taken the time to process past pains in a healthy way, with Gods guidance?

    D – Dare to Dream Again:

    Even after experiencing setbacks, we must dare to dream again. God’s plans for us are far greater than we can imagine.

    1. Have I allowed setbacks to extinguish my dreams? What new dreams is God placing in my heart?

    Closing Prayer:

    Heavenly Father, thank You for Your unwavering faithfulness. In moments of waiting, help us to “STAND” firm in Your promises. Grant us the strength to anchor ourselves in Your Word, to take control of our thoughts, to maintain a positive attitude, to acknowledge and heal from past traumas, and to dare to dream again. We place our trust in You, knowing that Your timing is perfect. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

    Watch the sermon on YouTube