Do you worship and serve God, despite opposition?

 15 Jan 26

Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One

Readings:

Genesis 36

Genesis 37

Matthew 12:1-21

For even His [Jesus’] brothers did not believe in Him (John 7:5). 

Do you worship and serve God, despite opposition?

Joseph and Jesus have something in common: They are subjected to persecution. Joseph is envied by his brothers since his father favors him and on account of his dreams. Yet he doesn’t retaliate because he knows that God uses all things for good. Later he tells them, “But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20). He worships and serves God regardless of the persecution. Similarly, Jesus is systematically attacked by the religious hierarchy and regularly accused of violating the Sabbath. He refuses to cave to the pressure and states the following: “Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:12). In the very next verse, Matthew records Jesus again healing on the Sabbath. 

Employment Point: Worship and serve God despite internal and external opposition.

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Reflections

Every devotional I read somehow only points me to one point. Full surrender of myself, don’t lean on not only my own understanding but also the understanding of others. Trust in Him only and just do it!!!!

Aiyo. Father Lord You know how hard this is right? Doing something out of the norm when others don’t understand. But I do remember when You asked Noah to build the ark, nobody understands it either. You wanted only obedience and faith in You and nothing else. But I am trying very hard to do that. And yes, I do see how by obeying You, that You can bring about transformations, amazing miracles, and especially how You made me know that You walked with me and I am not alone on this journey.

“So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.”Genesis‬ ‭37‬:‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• Betrayal in the ancient times comes in the form of money. Where Joseph was sold for twenty shekels of silver and Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver. Betrayal in our current times are not much of a difference because it is not about money anymore, it is also about the betrayal of trust, or even family ties.

In whom are we supposed to put our trust in. It is only in our Lord and Saviour. Humans? Cannot be trusted fully because we all fail one time or another. In the lesson learnt from Joseph, He reckoned that the experience He went through has got a higher purpose. It was definitely beyond his own understanding but his obedience brought him to a point where the Lord lifted him up from the situation and brought about the joy and the peace that went beyond all understanding. 

This is an encouragement to me too that whenever we felt like we are in the pits, God can also use situations to do the same thing that He did for Joseph. People may meant evil for us but the Lord has His way to meant it for God and all for His glory.

“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.”Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

• this verse means to me something that people usually say. It is more important to be kind than to be right. In the olden days, the Pharisees will offer sacrifices for their sins. Day in and day out they will do this. However, when it comes to healing of people on the sabbath, they choose to do “what is right”. Not saying that we are suppose to disobey the laws that are set but the Lord’s teachings to us were to love first. So how are to love when we have no mercy or compassion. How can we ignore an injured person and pass him by just because we do not want to be defiled or deemed unholy? What is so holy about us when our hearts are set in the wrong place in the beginning? We will look just like the Pharisees, a brood of vipers. Or like the priest or levite who passed by the injured man, not showing love or being the good neighbour.

_Father, I pray for strength, courage and full trust and obedience in You, to be able to fully surrender to You and bring to You myself as the living sacrifice. May You remind us of the things that we follow if they become too legalistic and made us lose our sense of love. Help us to have mercy and compassion and always be the good neighbour to the people around us. May You send us out by the power of the Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love You and worthily magnify Your Holy Name, through Jesus Christ our Lord”_

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Do You Walk in White?

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

January 15

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that . . . we too may live a new life. —Romans 6:4

No one enters into the experience of entire sanctification without going through a “white funeral,” a burial of the old life. If this crisis has never taken place, if you’ve never put your old life to death, sanctification is nothing more than a vision. It is a death followed by one resurrection—a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can upset such a life. It is one with God for one purpose: to be a witness to him.

Have you come to your last days really? You may have come to them many times in your thoughts and dreams; you may have grown excited at the thought of being baptized into death with your Lord. But have you actually done it? You cannot die in excitement. Death means you stop being, stop striving. Do you agree with God to stop being the kind of striving, eager Christian you’ve been up to now? We circle the cemetery all the time, refusing to actually go to our deaths.

Are you ready to be buried with Christ, or are you playing the fool with your soul? Is there a moment you can identify as your last? Can you go back to it in your memory and say, with a chastened and grateful spirit, “Yes, it was then, at that ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God”?

“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). When you realize that sanctification is what God wants, you will enter into death naturally. Are you willing to do it now? Do you agree with God that this day will be your last? The moment of agreement depends on you.

Genesis 36-38; Matthew 10:21-42

WISDOM FROM OSWALD

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth.

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Reflections

I remembered the days when I still smoke and after I became a Christian, I felt the Lord spoke to me, especially in the following verse:

“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”1 Corinthians‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭20‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I therefore told God that I don’t know how but can You help me to quit smoking because I don’t wish to smoke anymore and I want to honour You. So I ask God for His help and for Him to help me overcome my addiction to cigarettes. 

Smoking is a habitual thing and also can easily be used as an excuse to kind of get away from work, stress, etc. I don’t have the full understanding of how to quit because I have tried it a few times and it came back with a vengeance. I used to only smoke 10 sticks a week but it became something like 10 sticks a day after I started smoking again after a period of not smoking. Only this time round, it is all different.

The Lord wanted to honour my words and guided me. He made me feel disgusted by the taste and smell of cigarettes I could not even go near one as they would smell so terrible. I remember my last packet which I bought, something which I give in to my flesh, only to realise the shopkeeper gave me a wrong one and they won’t do because to any smoker, it’s either you smoke this or that and not either one. I ended up smoking half a stick and telling the Lord. Nope I can’t take this and this is enough. No more smoking and I snubbed the other half out and gave away the rest of the cigarettes to someone else and never touched it since about 5 years ago.

Father, help us to come to You in repentance and to seek Your forgiveness over our sins. Help us to be willing to die to our old self and to learn how to live a new risen life in You as a child of God. Speak to us Lord and teach us Your ways. Sanctify us by bringing to our minds the things we ought to die to and help us to give it all up for Your sake and all for Your glory. In Jesus’s name we ask and pray. Amen 🙏🏻