Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

Mark 8:36-37
What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
Our cynical, materialistic society was well summed up by Oscar Wilde as knowing “the price of everything and the value of nothing”. Like many one-liners, that’s a bit harsh, but he was making an important point. It’s very easy for our money-mad society to overlook the most important things because of its obsession with the temporary things that have a price tag. Jesus pours scorn on this way of thinking. Forget owning a really large house or becoming the exclusive owner of every property in your town – Jesus encourages you to imagine what it would be like to own the whole world. That, he suggests, would be completely pointless if you lost your soul, your very reason for living.
Jesus is encouraging us to think about our priorities. What matters most to us? Whether we are conscious of it or not, the answer to that question will shape every day of our lives. It’s an issue to which Jesus returned on many occasions. In his Sermon on the Mount, he observed how people worry about a whole range of issues. He said there was no need for his followers to expend energy on these things because God perfectly understands our needs and can provide for us perfectly. He encouraged his followers to seek first the kingdom of God. When that is our focus, everything else will fall into its proper place.
Every day, our society will try to tell us what our priorities should be. It may be that at work we feel a pressure to go for a promotion and to earn more money. That may be right for you, but I have known many people who, in answer to the call of God, have gone as mission partners to other parts of the world where they have earned less and faced far greater challenges than at home. It may be that you are thinking about moving home. It may be right for you to move to a nice area where you will feel comfortable and secure, but I can think of a number of friends who have deliberately moved to tough areas on needy estates in order to be able to serve the Lord there. I don’t know what seeking first the kingdom of God will mean for you, but it will certainly challenge the assumptions which our society tries to thrust upon us. Above all else we need to pray, knowing that the Holy Spirit will love to lead us in God’s way.
Question
In what way will the command to seek first the kingdom of God affect your decisions today?
Prayer
Lord God, help me to learn more of what it means to seek first your kingdom in all that I think and do. Amen

Mark 8:34-35
Then, calling the crowd to join his disciples, [Jesus] said, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it.”
Jesus’ breathtaking honesty is very striking. Day by day, we are constantly being encouraged to sign up to organisations which can improve our health, wealth or general wellbeing. Their marketing is slick and highly polished and calculated to get us to subscribe to their products or services. They help us to dream of a happier and more successful life and cram in every attractive and glossy image to lure us into signing up. Jesus took a completely different approach. He spoke straight to people about the costs of following him. It reminds me of Winston Churchill, who during the second world war offered people “blood, toil, tears and sweat.”
I am firmly convinced that living for Christ is the most amazing and wonderful life. I would recommend it to anyone. However, that doesn’t mean it’s easy, and Jesus wanted his followers to know from day one that he was going to completely change their approach to life. If they wanted to hang on to their old ways, they could do just that. Jesus was only inviting people to follow him who were prepared to go on a completely new journey. They needed to turn their back on their old way of life and start all over again.
We miss the point completely if we think that we can simply add a few Christian attitudes and virtues to our old way of life. It just won’t work. Like driving a car, there can only be one person at the controls. The apostle Paul put this very clearly when he wrote: “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” (Galatians 2:20).
Question
Do those words from the apostle Paul describe your life?
Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, I hand over my life to you. I want to live for you today and ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit so that I will please you in all that think, say and do. Amen

Mark 8:33
Jesus turned around and looked at his disciples, then reprimanded Peter. “Get away from me, Satan!” he said. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view, not from God’s.”
I have a soft spot for Peter. When Jesus informed his disciples that he was going to suffer at the hands of the Jewish authorities and then be killed, Peter did what any friend would do. He told Jesus off for saying such terrible things. He loved Jesus and hated the thought of him going through such suffering, but Jesus would have none of it. “Get away from me, Satan!” was as complete a reprimand as he could have uttered, and then he explained that Peter was just thinking things through from a human point of view. He needed to start thinking from God’s point of view.
This is an important challenge for us all. It is easy for us to become so immersed in the busyness of daily life and the demands of our world that we struggle to think of anything from God’s point of view. Like Peter, it’s very easy for us to respond to situations in kind and thoughtful ways which totally miss the point. God is calling us to have a completely different worldview that is shaped by his agenda. The apostle Paul addressed precisely this issue when he wrote to the Corinthians. He reflected that they used to see one another and even Christ from a human point of view, but that had all come to an end. “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
If we are to be the people that God wants us to be, we must receive a complete overhaul of our ways of thinking. That’s where the revolution needs to begin. Only then will our actions reflect God’s generosity, wisdom and love to the world. Writing to the church in Rome, Paul got to the heart of the matter when he wrote: “Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2).
Question
In what ways has God transformed your thinking recently?
Prayer
Loving God, thank you that you love me so much that you want to transform my thinking. I invite your Holy Spirit to direct my thinking today. Amen

Mark 8:27,29
Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages near Caesarea Philippi…He asked them, “But who do you say I am?” Peter replied, “You are the Messiah.”
As you look back through your life, you may be able to spot turning points. At the time, the day was just like any other, but with hindsight you realise that nothing was quite the same afterwards. Jesus’ visit to Caesarea Philippi with his disciples was undoubtedly a major turning point in his ministry. Up until this moment, Jesus had been preaching and healing with the rumble of threats from the teachers of the law in the background. From this point on, he was heading to the cross. These verses, in which Jesus asked his disciples about his identity, are followed by his first prediction of his death.
From the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, people had tried to work out who he was. They were amazed by his authoritative teaching and his powerful miracles. They also knew that he was from Nazareth, a town which had no reputation for producing influential people. As Jesus spent time alone with his disciples in the beautiful mountainous setting of Caesarea Philippi, this was an ideal moment for him to talk with them about his identity. At first, he asked a general question. He wanted to know what people were making of him. There were lots of theories. It isn’t surprising that some people imagined he was a revived John the Baptist. In Mark 6, King Herod had come up with the theory that John, who he had beheaded, had come back to life in the form of Jesus. Clearly, he was a man with a lively conscience. Others reflected on the possibility that Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets.
Then Jesus turned the spotlight on the disciples themselves. They had spent about three years with Jesus and had enjoyed a close relationship with him. He wanted to know who they thought he was. Peter was first to reply. “You are the Messiah”, he declared. People today still have many different theories about Jesus, but the time comes when we all need to answer for ourselves. We can’t put it off any longer.
Question
Who do you say that Jesus is, and how does your answer shape your life?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank you that you are the Messiah and that you are my Lord and my Saviour. Amen

Mark 7:14-15
Then Jesus called to the crowd to come and hear. “All of you listen,” he said, “and try to understand. It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart.”
The Pharisees had got really worked up by the disciples not washing their hands properly before eating. Elaborate rules had been developed over the years, and the Pharisees were meticulous in their adherence to them. They were sure that in order to be acceptable to God, they needed to keep these rules, but Jesus turned their thinking upside down. He pointed out that having really clean hands and following endless religious rules did nothing to change the person that you were. What mattered was what was in your heart. If you were seething with bitterness and anger, no amount of washing or other clever rituals could help. Jesus wanted to get to the heart of the matter.
I honestly haven’t spent much of my life thinking about my heart. However, nine years ago, that all changed. I had cellulitis and when I was rushed into hospital, my heart was racing at 240 beats a minute. That wasn’t sustainable. I was swiftly treated with intravenous antibiotics, and within a day or so, I was much better, but that incident forced me to think more carefully about my heart. We would all do well to receive Jesus’ challenge and to look at our spiritual heart. If our hearts are full of pride and envy, there is no wonder we’ve got problems. We need to make sure that our hearts are full of the Holy Spirit, who is constantly producing his fruit within us. Singing hymns and songs, raising our hands in worship and praying will do nothing to bless us if our hearts are not sorted out.
Question
What is the condition of your spiritual heart?
Prayer
Lord God, I invite you to fill me with your Holy Spirit, so that my life will constantly produce good fruit. Amen