Are you prayerfully awaiting God to enact vengeance?

 5 Feb 26

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


Readings:

Exodus 37

Exodus 38

Matthew 23:23-39


How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth (Revelation 6:10)? 


Are you prayerfully awaiting God to enact vengeance?


Jesus verbally assaults the scribes and Pharisees for their ungodly living. He equates their bloodthirsty ways to those who murdered the prophets. Our Lord says, “that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah” (Matthew 23:35). In one fell swoop, the Lord lays the murders of the first martyr Abel (Genesis 4) to the last Old Testament martyr Zechariah (2 Chronicles 24) at the feet of the religious hypocrites. (2 Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Bible.) They will not escape the Lord’s wrath. Paul writes, “Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Romans 12:19). 


Employment Point: Prayerfully wait upon the Lord to dispense justice.

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Reflections

I think for myself, as time passes, I no longer hold on to anger or grudges anymore. I still get angry but I let it pass. It’s like I will always try to find grace in the situation to just let it go and the Lord’s prayer helped me to further understand why we are doing this. 


“Forgive our sins as we forgive those who sin against us”. This works two-ways right? Our Father has readily forgive us all sinners for whatever we had done. We as His children is to learn from Him and do the same to others. Otherwise, we will be no different to the servant who was granted leniency by his king, was harsh to his servant and later labeled as “wicked” and handed over to be tortured until his debt is paid. 


““Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.””Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭35‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Full parable is found here: https://bible.com/bible/111/mat.18.23-35.NIV


Grace is freely given to us and to us we are to exercise the same grace to others. We gladly received so we should also gladly give. The world will be a better place if everyone can give one another some extra bit of grace.


““Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”Matthew‬ ‭23‬:‭27‬-‭28‬ ‭NIV‬‬

  • The Lord is definitely more concerned with whatever that is going on with our hearts. Whether we are what we say we are, whether we do what we should do, whether we think only the things we should be thinking, whether we place Jesus in the center of our lives. He doesn’t want us to be like the Pharisees, putting on an act for others to see or think how holy we are. He wants us all to be transformed from within, from the inside out.

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Are You Ready to Be Offered?

BY OSWALD CHAMBERS

February 05


I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith. — Philippians 2:17


Are you ready to be offered, to become broken bread and poured-out wine in the hands of the Lord? Or are you full of hesitation, saying to yourself, “I’m not going to be offered up just yet. I’m not going to let God choose my work or the setting of my sacrifice. I’ll only offer myself when the ‘right’ kind of people are watching, so they can congratulate me and say, ‘Well done’”?


It’s one thing to go about God’s business unnoticed, walking a lonely path and filled with dignified heroism; it’s quite another to become a doormat under other people’s feet. Sometimes, the role God wants you to play is the lowly role. He wants to teach you to say, “I know how to be humbled.”


Are you ready to be offered up like this? To be just a drop in the bucket, so hopelessly insignificant that no one even thinks of you in connection to the deeds you’ve done? Are you willing to spend and be spent, not seeking to be served but to serve (Matthew 20:28)?


Some saints are too holy for menial work. Are you one of them? Or will you decide that nothing God gives you to do is beneath you?


Exodus 36-38; Matthew 23:1-22


WISDOM FROM OSWALD

God created man to be master of the life in the earth and sea and sky, and the reason he is not is because he took the law into his own hands, and became master of himself, but of nothing else. 

———————

Reflections

Someone once told me before that he wants to be working in the church. I wasn’t a believer then. I asked him why? His reply “I rather to be working in my Father’s house. Even if it is to be a cleaner, I don’t mind.” I was in awe of how much he is willing to give up, just to be near his God.


Just how much are we willing to do or how far are we willing to go? Are we setting limits to how much we want to go for the Lord? His word grounded me in a sense that-I am willing to sacrifice even my son for you, my love for you is unconditional. How much do I love Him?


It just means to me to be the living sacrifice. The old me no longer lives but Christ in me. The life I now live, I live for God alone and this is a new life that I am living because the old me has died. I live for Christ. It doesn’t matter what I do, so long it is for His glory. Whether frontline or backend, it is still His work. It is about coming to serve and not to be served. 

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