Devotion
Iron Sharpens Iron
Chipo Biti
Friendship should be about bringing the best out of each other. While you enjoy good times and create wonderful memories, you should also focus on building each other up. There are things that you can learn from your friends and there are also things that your friends can learn from you. Godly friendships should be about helping each other grow in your knowledge of God and His Word. The way iron can sharpen iron, is the same way in which you and your friends should sharpen one another. When you leave one another's presence, you should have learned something that will help you grow.
You don't have to arrange specific meetings for teaching or building one another - though that is something you could try every now and then. Building one another should come naturally, in your normal conversations. This is why you need to make sure that your friends are as focused as you are on developing your relationship in God and making something great out of your life. If you choose to associate with people who do not take their lives seriously, you will struggle to grow. If you choose to associate with focused people who have great ambitions and are passionate about the things of God, you will grow in leaps and bounds.
Your friends should inspire you to do better and to be a better person. They should be inspired to do the same thing when they spend time with you. When your friendships are rooted in God, you will grow in the right things because you both have the right priorities. You will push one another to maximize on your full potential. The best friendships are the friendships where you communicate well, you pray together, and you celebrate one another's victories. Great friendships are also characterized by supporting and encouraging one another when challenging times come.
Prayer
When your friendships are rooted in the love of God, great things will bloom. You will look out for one another and you will see the fruits of your support and encouragement for one another.
Godly friendships glorify God and also serve as testimonies to the people around you. Check your friendships and ask yourself whether they glorify God.
If they don't, pray about them and follow God's guidance on what to do.
Devotion
Misrepresenting God
Frances Taylor
This passage is one I try very hard to take to heart. For over forty years, I have worked to bring the gospel message to children and adults alike. That is what I'm doing as I write this. It is so important that we don't misrepresent God to others. When someone tells me they don't believe in God, I wonder whose image of God they have been taught. When I was a child, it was common to hear that God was some policeman in the sky that was going to punish me for everything I did wrong. The idea of a loving, forgiving God was not taught as the norm. Ministers and other teachers of religion often spoke more of hellfire and damnation. It's no wonder that there are those who claim that God doesn't exist. On the other hand, there are those who taught that God was like Santa Claus, keeping track of our good deeds and rewarding us accordingly, or tracking our misdeeds and punishing us accordingly. Neither of these images of God are accurate. God is loving ...
Morning Prayer
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed; To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
Inspiration
Those in ancient Israel, as today and in all lands, who prey upon the poor and vulnerable, who pervert justice against them and deny them their rights, sin against God. His eyes see, his eyelids try the children of men, and nothing is done in secret where he does not know.
Prayer
Give me a heart of compassion, O Lord, for the weak and helpless, for the poverty stricken, for widows and orphans. And give me a righteous indignation against those who oppress them, pervert their justice, or deny their rights. Amen.
