Do you understand your own weaknesses?
27 Feb 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Numbers 18
Numbers 19
Numbers 20
Mark 7:1-13
Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall (1 Corinthians 10:12).
Do you understand your own weaknesses?
Moses is physically and emotionally fatigued. Once again the people lack water, and they complain bitterly (Numbers 20:1-3). The Israelites are like verbal hit men; they aim their lethal questions at Moses’ heart. They ask, “Why have you brought up the assembly of the LORD into the wilderness, that we and our animals should die here? And why have you made us come up out of Egypt, to bring us to this evil place?” (Numbers 20:4-5). No wonder Moses is exasperated, especially when you couple these questions with Miriam’s recent death. Kindly, the Lord instructs Moses to speak to the rock and the people’s thirst will be quenched (Numbers 20:7-8). Moses makes two costly mistakes: He takes credit for the water coming from the rock, and twice strikes the rock instead of speaking to it.
Employment Point: Draw continually upon God’s strength, while honoring His person and work.
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Reflections
We need to be mindful of our own weaknesses and be careful not to let it stumble our own faith. The Lord has never liked anyone to go against His commands and there is always a price to pay. However, we cannot blame ourselves for being ignorant because the Lord has offered guidance. We too cannot say that we did not know the consequences because we have read it all in the bible. We should, know better.
“But only you and your sons may serve as priests in connection with everything at the altar and inside the curtain. I am giving you the service of the priesthood as a gift. Anyone else who comes near the sanctuary is to be put to death.””
Numbers 18:7 NIV
- this is more than a gift that the Lord has bestowed on Aaron and his sons. This is a special calling for priesthood that the Lord has chosen. Not that he earned it but it is a gift from the Lord.
“Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord I give to you and your sons and daughters as your perpetual share. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring.” The Lord said to Aaron, “You will have no inheritance in their land, nor will you have any share among them; I am your share and your inheritance among the Israelites.”Numbers 18:19-20 NIV
- if you were in Aaron’s shoes what would you be thinking?
- If I were Aaron I would be very happy, for my needs are provided for. I don’t need any land or inheritance amongst people when the Lord is my share and my inheritance. This is the greatest gift I can receive!!!
““Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.””
Numbers 20:8 NIV
- Jesus is the living water and give life to all that drinks from it. We are all renewed through His blood which redeemed us from our sins.
“But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.””
Numbers 20:12 NIV
- we may look at this verse and think to ourselves, yes Moses did not trust the Lord enough to honor Him as holy.. but what about us? Are there times where we also did not trust God enough? I know I have and for that I know I will not be able to inherit all that He has assigned for me. I know I don’t deserve it, especially the times when I chose to do things my way, when He has warned me multiple times not to and I still went ahead.
““Aaron will be gathered to his people. He will not enter the land I give the Israelites, because both of you rebelled against my command at the waters of Meribah.”Numbers 20:24 NIV
- The responsibility of the leader is great, especially one of Lord’s servant. It can lead you to death if you chose to disobey or rebel against God. May we pray for our leaders to be able to stay humble and righteous and never deviate away from our Father’s teachings. To abide, to trust and obey.
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The Almighty God
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
February 27
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep.” — John 4:11
“The well is deep”—indeed! The well of human nature is even deeper than the Samaritan woman knew. Think of the depths inside you, the depths of your thoughts and your feelings, of your hopes and your fears. Do you believe that no depth is too deep for Jesus?
Imagine that there is a fathomless well of trouble inside your heart. Then Jesus comes and says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (John 14:1). Do you reply, “But, Lord, the well is too deep. You’ll never draw quietness and comfort up from it”? It’s true; he won’t. Jesus doesn’t bring anything up from the wells of human nature. He brings it down from God above.
If we’re looking inside ourselves for the answers, diving into the wells of our incompleteness, we’ll only succeed in placing limits on God. Sometimes, we limit God by forgetting what he’s done for us; sometimes, we limit him by remembering. We remember how far we’ve allowed him to go for us in the past, and we think that he can never go any further. But God has no limits; God is almighty. As disciples, we must believe this fully. To believe in God’s almightiness means believing in the very thing that seems to challenge it. We find it easy to believe that God can sympathize with us, but when it comes to something we’ve already decided is impossible, we shrug and say, “God can’t do everything.” God’s ministry is infinitely rich; we impoverish it when we talk like this.
The reason some of us are such poor specimens of discipleship is that we don’t believe in an almighty God. We have Christian attributes and experiences, but we aren’t abandoned to our Lord. Beware of the satisfaction that comes from sinking back and saying, “It can’t be done.” You know it can, if you look to Jesus.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We can understand the attributes of God in other ways, but we can only understand the Father’s heart in the Cross of Christ.
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Reflections
The words in bold stood out to me as I read this devotional. It speaks volumes of how much we try to reject Him, undermine Him, restrict Him, thinking Him as someone that cannot be better than what we make Him to be.
The words in Genesis and Numbers kept popping up in my head as well. “Is anything too difficult for me?” Genesis 18:14; “Is the LORD’s arm too short?” Numbers 11:23. We all know it is not like that.
However, in the face of adversities, our brain somehow short-circuited all these information. It doesn’t allow it to flow to our heart. We let the situation or challenges or failures get to us. We forgot to seek the Lord. We even kind of forgot that the Lord knows everything and is with us all the time!! We chose to trust in ourselves, our own understanding and judgement, in our own skills and wisdom and totally throw God’s wisdom and understanding out of the window. We had forsaken the Lord when He is always there for us. He must have been so upset. 🥲
This reminds me of times when I had told my mum about some healthcare information and she chose to ignore it, only to tell me later after she heard the same thing being told to her by a friend or mentioned in some TV show… it felt totally disappointing that our own loved ones don’t trust us even though in my case, I am the professional. I told her bluntly one day, my 15 years in nursing was for nothing, cause even my mother doesn’t believe what I do. Kind of sounds like what Jesus said that His works do not flourish in His own hometown due to their unbelief. No faith.
On the reverse, we probably did the same to them too.. During this lenten season, may the Lord speak to us and help us reflect more deeply on this issue.
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Lent devotion Day 10/53
taken from YouVersion, Lent for Everyone
Lent for Everyone is a devotional created and written by N.T. (Tom) Wright. For each day of Lent, there is a reading chosen from the Gospel of Matthew, plus a reflection by Wright. These readings have grown out of a project encouraging Lent reading in Northern England. This is the second in a three-volume series based on the Revised Common Lectionary of the Church of England.
Today’s reading:
Matthew 9
WEEK 1: FRIDAY
Those of us who now use computers take it for granted that they will have a large internal memory. This is stored on what is called a 'hard disk', as opposed to what we used to have, back in the 1980s, which was a 'floppy disk', which you had to put into the computer and take out again. They didn't hold much information, and you always had to be putting them in and taking them out. It was a nuisance. But you get quite attached to the machines you use a lot, and I remember trying to get a technician to fit a hard drive and disk into the old machine I had been using and wanted to carry on using.
Eventually, as we discussed it, he took a deep breath. 'What you need', he said, 'is not to add more bits onto this old machine. What you need is a new machine.'
That wasn't what I (or my bank manager) wanted to hear. But he was right. The new machine duly arrived, and I quickly realized it was, of course, what I had been needing for some time.
If we get attached to computers and other machines, we get far more attached to the traditional ways in which we have organized and run our lives. And though we all know that things could be better, we all hope that we can simply add the better bit on to the way we do things at the moment, so that we won't have to change too much, if at all. This is a challenge every generation has to face, but for Jesus and his contemporaries it was massive. They had lived for many centuries with a traditional way of life. They assumed, naturally enough, that if and when their God came back to rescue them he would support and vindicate that way. And Jesus was telling them that something new was happening. God was indeed doing what he'd always said, but the old machines they had been working with — the things they'd expected to happen — simply weren't adequate for this new moment.
They were wanting God to put the world right, with them- selves coming out on top as the ones who'd always been on his side. What they hadn't realized was that God would do this for individuals, too, including individuals who up to then had not been on his side. Jesus used a picture for this: the doctor doesn't go round visiting people who are fit and well, but people who are sick and poorly. In other words: he wasn't just supporting the status quo. He was doing something much better, much more exciting, much more encouraging for people like us.
In particular, he was replacing an overall mood of sadness and longing with an overall mood of celebration and hope. They used to fast regularly, to remember the times long ago when their nation had suffered awful disasters. Jesus was coming to do something that would always be remembered with celebration — so fasting wasn't appropriate! That was revolutionary. But it was appropriate.
We today fast during Lent, to remind ourselves of the sorrow and sin that still abounds in the world and in our own lives. But we do so as a people whose basic mode of life is celebration. God has brought the new world into being in and through Jesus. Don't try to put the new cloth on the old coat, or the new wine into old bottles. God is making everything new, and he's inviting us to the party.
TODAY
Thank you, gracious Lord, that you are the doctor who has come to cure us. Help us to celebrate your new life with gratitude and love.
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Let’s pray:
Father forgive me, for I did not know what I was truly doing. I realised now that my wilfulness will bring about pain and / or sufferings. It will make me forfeit the good that You have placed upon me. I was looking like the spoilt brat, heart hardened against You, refusing to barge even an inch for Your sake. I come to You Lord, to seek Your forgiveness and repent of my sins. Have grace and mercy upon me..
Help me to live my life anew, fresh from the start, being willing to change and be transformed by You, being willing to step out of my comfort zones and do things differently from the norms. Help me in my unbelief and belief in You LORD. In Jesus’s Most Merciful Name I pray. Amen 🙏🏻
Amen
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