2021-11-26
1 Timothy 5:22 NLT
Before David became the king of Israel, he spent years tending a flock of sheep in the wilderness. That’s not an impressive start. But that’s where he built his relationship with God and honed his skills as a strategist and warrior. If you want to succeed, here is an immutable principle you must understand: God will let you practice in a place where your weaknesses can be worked on, your gifts developed, and where your mistakes won’t affect too many others.
One Bible teacher tells of a pilot friend who received word from the control tower saying, “You’re cleared for five thousand feet.” When he got there, he was told to hold for further instructions. Then came the words, “You’re cleared for ten thousand feet.” Gradually the controller took him level by level to thirty-five thousand feet where he was cleared to fly to his destination. That day, God spoke to him saying, “I wish you would trust me like that. Instead, you want to go straight to thirty-five thousand feet in one thrust!”
Try to understand this: God sees the end from the beginning, and He has already mapped out your journey. He knows that if you rise too quickly, there are dangers. You may be in the cockpit – but God is in the control tower! And today He is saying to you, “Trust me and I’ll get you safely to your destination.” God’s plan for your life can’t be rushed. When you try to rise too quickly, (1) you make costly and painful mistakes, (2) you adversely affect the lives of those who depend on you, and (3) you end up in a tug-of-war with God, which you lose!
Soul food: 3 John; Jude; John 13:31-38; Ps 118:1-9; Prov 27:23-27
2021-11-25
Exodus 33:21 NKJV
God told Moses, “I will make all My goodness pass before you” (v. 19 NKJV). But in order to see that promise fulfilled, Moses had to be properly positioned, so God said, “Here is a place by Me.” When you function in the place where God has assigned you, you can claim His promise: “I will make all My goodness pass before you.”
Why would the Prodigal Son leave his father’s house when everything he needed was there? Because: (1) He wanted his father’s blessing, but not his authority. Jesus said, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord’…and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46 NIV). Why indeed! Peter Marshall, former chaplain to the US Senate, once prayed: “Lord, help us to apply what we applaud.”
(2) He took his father’s blessings for granted. God warned the Israelites: “Be careful…you do not forget the Lord, who brought you…out of…slavery” (Deuteronomy 6:12 NIV). When they crossed the river Jordan, He told them to take twelve stones, one for each tribe, and build a memorial. Why? To remind them of who they were, who He was, and His covenant with them.
(3) He didn’t know the danger waiting for him out there. And as a result, he ended up in a pigpen. Understand this: The path that takes you away from God may begin with pleasure, but it always ends with pain. Ask those who have walked it, and they will tell you, “Don’t go there!” Live by this Scripture: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” (Psalm 91:1 NKJV). Stay positioned for God’s blessing.
Soul food: 2 Chr 35-36; John 13:18-30; Ps 114; Prov 27:20-22
2021-11-24
Psalm 37:34 TLB
When God gives you a promise or a vision for your life, it’s like a seed; it needs time to take root before it can bear fruit. It’s like the birth of a baby. First the seed, then the pregnancy, then the development within the womb, and finally the day of delivery. And what does the mother do during this time? Prepare! She gets ready for the challenges and responsibilities of parenthood.
You may think you’re ready, but God knows when you’re ready. Though he had already been anointed king, David had to wait seven years until God removed Saul from the throne. And during those years he learned valuable lessons. Here is one of them: “Don’t be impatient for the Lord to act! Keep traveling steadily along his pathway and in due season he will honor you with every blessing” (v. 34 TLB).
You must learn the difference between what you can do and what God can do. Fools rush in! If you don’t want to risk delaying the fulfilment of God’s plan for your life, don’t get ahead of Him. “The vision is…for an appointed time…though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come” (Habakkuk 2:3 KJV).
Everything God does is by appointment. And an appointment is simply an event that has already been set. God has scheduled a time for bringing to pass two things in your life: His promises and your vision. And there is great peace in knowing that nothing the enemy does can pre-empt these two things. So, when you grow impatient, remind yourself, “My life can’t end without this happening. God said it, and He will do it!
Soul food: 2 Chr 32-34; John 13:1-17; Ps 95; Prov 27:17-19
2021-11-23
Matthew 13:28 NLT
“Here is another story Jesus told: ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds!’…’An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed. ‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. ‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds'” (vv. 24-30 NLT). There are two important lessons here.
(1) You must know God’s Word so well that error, regardless of how convincingly it’s presented, can’t mislead you. Paul warned the leaders of the church at Ephesus: “Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!” (Acts 20:30-31 NIV).
(2) You must stay spiritually awake and alert. Notice, the seeds that were sown that night didn’t produce a harvest of weeds until later. And at that point they could not be uprooted. Perhaps you think this is no big deal. Think again! One degree off course may seem harmless enough. But if you stay on that trajectory long enough, spiritually speaking, you will end up far from where God wants you to be and realize “an enemy has done this!” So what is the answer? “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching…to fellowship…the breaking of bread and…prayer” (Acts 2:42 NIV).
Soul food: 2 Chr 29-31; John 12:37-50; Ps 102:18-28; Prov 27:13-16
2021-11-22
2 Kings 12:15 NIV
In the Old Testament, when King Joash repaired the temple, we’re told: “The money brought into the temple…was paid to the workers…They did not require an accounting from those to whom they gave the money to pay the workers, because they acted with complete honesty” (vv. 13-15 NIV). And because integrity was practiced, the nation of Israel prospered.
James Madison, one of America’s Founding Fathers and a signatory to the Constitution, wrote: “The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” Nowadays, most surveys show that trust in our political and business leaders is at the lowest point on record. We believe they have only two things in mind: to get rich and to stay in power. And sadly, good leaders receive the same broad-brush stigma. So what should you do?
(1) Pray for those in authority. Prayer is the conduit through which God’s influence is brought to bear in any situation. If you believe that, you will pray.
(2) Vote for godly leadership. The Bible says, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34 KJV). Unless you vote, you forfeit your right to complain.
(3) Get personally involved. Edmund Burke is attributed with saying, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” One person, plus God, can change things. So endeavor to be that person!
Soul food: 2 Chr 25-28; John 12:20-36; Ps 102:12-17; Prov 27:10-12
2021-11-21
Proverbs 15:26 NIV
Sometimes we say to people, half in jest, “Try to be good. And if you can’t be good, be careful!” The idea being that if you decide not to be good, make sure you’re clever enough not to get caught. But in reality, our lack of goodness is no laughing matter.
In the words of Robert Fitch: “Ours is an age where ethics has become obsolete. Morality is superseded by science, deleted by philosophy, and dismissed as emotive by psychology. It drowns in compassion, evaporates in aesthetics, and retreats before relativism. The usual moral distinctions between good and bad are simply bathed in a maudlin emotion in which we feel more sympathy for the murderer than the murdered, for the adulterer than for the betrayed, and in which we have actually begun to believe that the real guilty party – the one who somehow caused it all – is the victim and not the perpetrator of the crime.”
Those are sobering thoughts. Things that were once considered black or white are now categorized as gray. Goodness that used to meet a universal standard is now a matter of personal interpretation and preference. And an epidemic of public officials whose private conduct leaves us shocked hasn’t made things any better. Right about now you may be thinking, “I read this Devotional every day to get something that will help me feel good, and today isn’t doing it.” That’s the whole point! In order to feel good, the Bible says you must practice doing good and being good, which makes you a “pleasure” to God.
Soul food: Lev 27:30-33; Num 31:48-54; 1 Cor 16:1-3; 2 Cor 9:15
