Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Mark 4:26-27
Jesus also said, “The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens.”
This wonderful little parable tells us why it is so exciting to work for God. As I sit down at my laptop to write these reflections, I haven’t any idea how God will use them. I have no way of knowing who you are or what your needs are at the moment, but God knows and uses what I am putting in his hands. When we care for another person, offer a word of encouragement or write a thoughtful email, people will be blessed by God, but in a way that is totally beyond our knowledge. It’s just the same for the farmer who may not have any understanding of botany but who simply knows that once he has put seeds in the ground, growth takes place, and it happens whether he’s working hard or sleeping in his bed.
Let this be an encouragement to you: nothing that you ever do for God is a waste of time. I am more than aware that it can feel like it at times. Working hard in a youth club where there is only ever rudeness and cynicism, working in a church where the numbers are declining and the people are reluctant to change, sharing your faith when people don’t seem to take you seriously, caring for people who are demanding and unappreciative – there are lots of situations in which it can be really tough to serve God. However, be sure of this: if you are doing God’s work, blessing will flow in miraculous ways from what you do. Don’t ask me how God does it or how he makes things grow. I don’t know, and I don’t need to know.
Whatever you are doing today, commit it to God and you can be sure that, miraculously, it will help to make his kingdom grow, even though we haven’t a clue how he does it.
Question
In what ways does this little parable encourage you?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you that your kingdom is constantly growing. Help me to work enthusiastically for you today. Amen

Mark 4:21
Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine.”
Jesus often spoke using parables. On the surface, they were just simple stories, but they all had a very deep spiritual meaning. Like me, you may well have been listening to the parables since you were young, and I’m sure you’d agree that they keep challenging and encouraging us in new ways. We are not always in a position to understand what God is saying to us, but he is always in the business of shining his light on our lives. He wants us to understand what his will is, and the Bible is one of the main ways in which he chooses to speak with us.
So the question we all need to ask is this: “How are we going to make sure that God’s light shines in our lives?” First of all, we need to set aside time to receive God’s truth. However busy your life is, you need to make sure you have time to reflect on what God is saying to you. These brief devotionals may well be helpful to you, but you also need to stand back and consider what these words mean for you personally. That cannot be done in a hurry. You may be able to go for a walk or sit quietly in a room, and as you do so, you need to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you and to apply God’s word to your life.
From time to time, it is good to set aside a longer period of time to listen to God. Perhaps you can go on a personal retreat where for a day or a number of days you can spend time reflecting on what he is saying to you. There are scores of wonderful retreat houses throughout the United Kingdom where you would receive a warm welcome and where you can allow God’s light to shine. Putting the lamp of God’s truth under the basket of our busy lives just doesn’t make sense.
Question
What do you find the most helpful way of listening to God?
Prayer
Lord God, I thank you that you are constantly seeking to speak with me. Help me to carve out time to listen carefully to your word. Amen

Mark 3:34-35
[Jesus] looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
The Gospels tell us remarkably little about Jesus’ family. We would so love to know about all his family members and his relationships with them, but the Gospels are largely silent. However, we meet them on this occasion because they had clearly got the impression that Jesus wasn’t looking after himself. Earlier in this chapter, we are informed that Jesus and his disciples were so busy that they couldn’t even find time to eat. Mark records that they had formed the view that Jesus was out of his mind.
When Jesus was told that his mother and brothers had come to see him, his response was to identify who his true family was: people who did God’s will. I don’t believe for a moment that Jesus was abandoning his birth family or seeking to insult them. He always sought to uphold the law, which affirmed the God-given responsibility for caring for one’s parents. However, he wanted to make it plain that the most important relationships were with his spiritual family.
The whole Bible is very clear in its teaching about family relationships. The apostle Paul was particularly strong in his language when he addressed his young friend, Timothy. He wrote: “Those who won’t look after their relatives, especially those in their own household, have denied the true faith. Such people are worse than unbelievers” (1 Timothy 5:8). We need to care for our families but never lose sight of the fact that our forever family is our Christian family, made up of those who obey God.
Question
How important is your birth family to you?
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for the blessing of both my birth family and my forever family. Amen

Mark 3:13
Afterward Jesus went up on a mountain and called out the ones he wanted to go with him. And they came to him.
The calling of the twelve disciples is a fascinating moment in Jesus’ ministry. It’s greatly significant that he chose to work with a group of people and not operate alone. In this, he affirmed the importance of fellowship. However gifted we may be, we need one another and our very different outlooks and abilities. Going it alone is never Jesus’ way. I remember as a teenager meeting a very enthusiastic Christian who was determined that my home town should all follow Jesus. It was a wonderful vision to have, but he was quite clear that he was going to do this by himself. He had a large leather bag full of Christian tracts and he was confident that he would be able to get the job done. His enthusiasm was commendable, but his method was sadly wrong. We are never called to go off on heroic solo adventures but to work closely with our Christian brothers and sisters.
Jesus’ disciples were a fascinatingly mixed group. Matthew was a tax collector, working for the Romans. Tax collectors were regarded as traitors because of their close relationship with the occupying forces and were particularly despised because they often became very rich in the process. Another disciple was Simon the Zealot, and he likely belonged to a group that was seeking to kick the Romans out of the land, by force if necessary. Just imagine having Matthew and Simon in the same group! They probably had some heated conversations during the time they worked with Jesus, but what united them all was their commitment to him.
I also find it interesting that so many of the disciples are either largely or completely unknown to us. When we think of the disciples we immediately think of Peter, James and John, but there were twelve of them and each one was crucial to Jesus’ mission, even those whose words were never recorded. Whoever we are, however small our role and few our words, we all have a vital role to play in Jesus’ mission.
Question
Why is it so important to spend time worshipping and working with other Christians?
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for calling me to follow you. Help me to work well with my Christian brothers and sisters. Amen

Mark 2:27-28
Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”
Some years ago, I spent a couple of months living in Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, which is home to a very large number of ultra-orthodox Jews. I very soon learned, to my surprise, that the Sabbath begins late afternoon on Friday, when the first star is seen in the sky. From that moment, the shops shut and people go home to begin their rituals to mark the start of the Sabbath. There is something incredibly special about setting aside one day in seven as a day of rest. This was the example that God set when he created the world, and the law of Moses protected the day with a penalty of death for anyone who worked on the Sabbath.
Over the centuries, the laws of the Sabbath were developed extensively, and by the time of Jesus, there were scores of laws regulating people’s activities on the day. There were, essentially, 39 forms of work which ranged from burning, writing and erasing to washing, sewing and cooking. The Pharisees were strict observers of the Sabbath and, in their eagerness to trip him up, they carefully watched Jesus and his disciples on the Sabbath. When they spotted the disciples walking through a field and breaking off the heads of grain to eat, they had their moment. The disciples were caught red-handed, guilty of a number of Sabbath violations, including walking and reaping.
Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was to indicate that they had completely missed the point. God had given the gift of the Sabbath in order to be a blessing to people, not to tie them up in legal tangles. In a society that is busy seven days a week, we have a real challenge to keep Sunday special, but in doing so we will receive many blessings. We need to work hard to ensure it doesn’t get squeezed into the mould of the other six days.
Question
What more could you do to make your Sunday special?
Prayer
Lord God, I thank you for the gift of Sunday. Help me to use it in order to get to know you better. Amen