Have you dedicated your body to God?
4 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Judges 12
Judges 13
Judges 14
Luke 9:37-62
I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman (Job 31:1)?
Have you dedicated your body to God?
The Angel of the Lord informs the unnamed wife of Manoah that her child “shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb” (Judges 13:5). He is to abstain from wine, having contact with a dead body, and is not to cut his hair (Numbers 6:1-6). Sadly, he defiles himself with the carcass of a lion (Judges 14:8-9), most likely drinks wine at the feast he gives (Judges 14:10), and subsequently has his hair cut (Judges 16:19). With his third act of disobedience comes the following statement when the Philistines attack him: “But he did not know that the LORD had departed from him” (Judges 16:20). Samson is set apart for God from birth; we are set apart from eternity to “be holy and without blame before Him” (Ephesians 1:4).
Employment Point: Present your bodily members as instruments of righteousness to God.
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Reflections
““We are doomed to die!” he said to his wife. “We have seen God!” But his wife answered, “If the Lord had meant to kill us, he would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands, nor shown us all these things or now told us this.””Judges 13:22-23 NIV
- it is interesting to note in this chapter how the Lord chose to show Himself to the wife twice than to the husband. It seems that the wife in this case has more wisdom than the husband, even felt like she is more at peace and calm than him.
- perhaps sometimes that is how families are like. A fine balance between the husband and the wife or between the parent and the child, so that one supports the other.
“Then Samson’s wife threw herself on him, sobbing, “You hate me! You don’t really love me. You’ve given my people a riddle, but you haven’t told me the answer.” “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother,” he replied, “so why should I explain it to you?” She cried the whole seven days of the feast. So on the seventh day he finally told her, because she continued to press him. She in turn explained the riddle to her people.”Judges 14:16-17 NIV
- the Lord sometimes has strange ways of solving problems. Because He wanted to deal with the Philistines, the marriage between Samson and his wife became part of His plans.
- Sometimes when we are met with strange situations and not understood the whole reasoning behind, perhaps we ought to also remember this story and how the Lord punished these people.
““You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” Even while the boy was coming, the demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the impure spirit, healed the boy and gave him back to his father. And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.,”
Luke 9:41-43 NIV
- Jesus has been doing all the impossible things, one after another, during this time. Whatever that is humanly impossible, He can.
- He has proven His identity more than once but none truly realised who He was. Sometimes we are like this too. Where the Holy Spirit may have kept prompting us on things that are happening, but we are so occupied or overwhelmed by other things that we failed to hear or see God’s hand in our life.
“An argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the greatest.””Luke 9:46, 48 NIV
- a child’s faith is simple, innocent, straightforward. No need for second guessing, schemes and has a great reliance on God our Father.
- Many times people want to be great, want to be leaders, want to sit on the throne, want to be respected and honoured by all. But Jesus has already said that the least will be greatest. He doesn’t look at the outward presentation of our lives. He looks at what is internal and in our hearts.
- To me, the message just seems to be saying that if we want to grow closer to God, we will have to learn humility. We have to learn to serve. We need to have the servant heart. We need to learn of His ways of doing things and not our ways. We need our hearts soften to His moulding and to adapt to changes and learn what are the things He wanted us to learn.
“Jesus replied, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.””Luke 9:62 NIV
- when I read this verse, the song lyrics pops up in my head. “I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.”
- it is a reminder to us all that we should all run steadfast ahead in the direction that He has called us to and to persevere even if times get tough.
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Spiritual Grit
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 04
A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered. — John 16:32
Jesus isn’t rebuking the disciples in this passage: he knows that their faith is real. But he also knows that their faith is disturbed. The disciples are scattered to their own interests, interests that have nothing to do with Jesus Christ. Their faith isn’t at work in the world in the way it should be.
God allowed the disciples to be scattered for a reason: so that they might develop spiritual grit. After we’ve been perfectly related to God in sanctification, we must learn to apply our faith to the actual stuff of life. Like the disciples, we will be scattered—not geographically, but emotionally. In this state, we will discover what internal death to God’s blessings means. Are we prepared for this experience? It’s not something we choose; it’s a discipline God puts us through. Until we’ve been through this experience, our faith is bolstered up by feelings and by blessings. After we’ve been through it, no matter where God places us, no matter our emotional state, we can praise him that all is well.
“You will leave me all alone” (John 16:32). Have we left Jesus alone because our circumstances are dark? God is never in a hurry. Darkness comes through his sovereign will. If we wait, we’ll see what he’s trying to show us: that we haven’t been interested in him, only in his blessings.
Are we prepared to let God separate us emotionally from his blessings, to scatter us into darkness and desolation? If we let him, spiritual grit will be our reward. Then no trouble great or small will be able to stop us from taking heart: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (v. 33).
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are only what we are in the dark; all the rest is reputation. What God looks at is what we are in the dark—the imaginations of our minds; the thoughts of our heart; the habits of our bodies; these are the things that mark us in God’s sight.
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Reflections
Spiritual grit is the unyielding courage, perseverance, and firmness of spirit used to maintain faith and pursue divine purposes, especially during trials or adversity. It involves relying on a higher power rather than personal strength to endure challenges, blending spiritual tenacity with deep-rooted hope. (Definition from google).
In darkness is where the light shines the brightest. In the dark valleys are where God’s light makes our paths. If we never enter into darkness, we may not be fully aware of how great this light is, how awesome our God is.
Entering the darkness is a test of faith, a test of perseverance and of our trust in the Lord. There is nothing that the Lord cannot do to lift us out of darkness. But are we willing to wait for Him to act or do we try to take matters into our own hands?
Waiting also tests our peace, our patience and our self control. If in the midst of waiting we try to do things our way just because we can wait no longer or we think that we are not in time anymore, we are not trusting God enough for Him to do His things. Do you remember Abraham when in the beginning he took things into His hands and agree to sleep with the female slave, trying to fulfil God’s promises by his own means?
Was he wrong? Maybe. But think of the time he has waited. A total of 11 years. Can you wait that long and believe that God will fulfil His promises? And how long he did wait for Isaac to arrive? A total of 25 years when he was a 100 years old.
Friends, while we may be too quick to judge Abraham for having rush to have a son, let’s not forget on the facts. 11 years of waiting and him being 89 years of age is like a mission impossible. You and me would probably have thought the same. But with God, nothing is impossible. It was a 11 years and no he is not the one and another 14 years before the real deal. Sometimes God truly tests our patience and on whether we truly have faith in Him.
He credit to Abraham as righteousness when he believed. (Gen 15:6)
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Lent devotion Day 46/53
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 27:57-66
HOLY WEEK: HOLY SATURDAY
They tried to keep Jesus safely dead then, and they try it still today.
Again and again, when the newspapers or the radio stations want to talk about God, they ignore Jesus. We hear experts pro- claiming that science has disproved God — without realizing that the 'god' you could squeeze out of the picture by more and more scientific discoveries is not the God whom Christians worship. Our world is still full of the modern equivalents of high priests going to the governor to have a guard placed on the tomb — the sceptics appealing for help to the powerful. It didn't work then and it won't work now.
Sometimes, though, we Christians need to observe a Holy Saturday moment. On Holy Saturday, there is nothing you can do except wait. The Christian faith suffers, apparently, great defeats. There are scandals and divisions, and the world looks on and loves it, like the crowds at the foot of the cross. When the Pope visited the United Kingdom in September 2010, he spent almost all his time talking about Jesus while the commentators in the media spent almost all their time talking about sex. And where the church, through its own fault, has caused scandal, a time of silence may be appropriate.
But God will do what God will do, in God's own time. The world can plot and plan, but all of that will count for nothing when the victory already won on the cross turns into the new sort of victory on the third day. In many parts of the western world today, the church is almost apologetic, afraid of being sneered at. It looks as though the chief priests of our culture, the Pharisees in today's media, and even the political leaders, have won. Give them their day to imagine that. It's happened before and it will happen again. The Romans tried to stamp out the Christian faith once and for all at the end of the third century, but within a few years more than half the empire had converted and the new emperor gave in. Many people in England were sceptical about Christian faith after the religious turmoil of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but great revivals of various different sorts took place in the eighteenth and nineteenth. Who knows what will happen next, after the sneering and scheming of the sceptics of our day? Our part is to keep Holy Saturday in faith and hope, grieving over the ruin of the world that sent Jesus to his death, trusting in the promises of God that new life will come in his way and his time.
And there is usually something to be done in the present, even when times are sad and hard. It took considerable courage for Joseph of Arimathea to go to Pontius Pilate and ask for Jesus' body. Peter and the others had run away to hide because they were afraid of being thought accomplices of Jesus. Joseph had no such qualms, even after Jesus' death.
Some of Jesus' followers might well have thought that, if the Romans had crucified him, he can't have been the Messiah, so he must have been a charlatan. They might willingly have let the Romans bury him in a common grave, as they usually did after a crucifixion (always supposing there was anything left to bury once dogs, birds and vermin had done their work). But Joseph didn't see it that way. A clean linen cloth; the tomb he had prepared for himself; and the security of a great stone.
It all had to be done in haste, with the sabbath approaching (that's why the two Marys were watching, so they could go back on the first day of the new week to complete what should be done to the body). But what was done was done decently. Sometimes, as we work for and with Jesus, it may feel a bit like that. We aren't sure why we've got to this place, why things aren't going as we wanted or planned, and the life seems to have drained out of it all. That's a Holy Saturday moment. Do what has to be done, and wait for God to act in his own way and his own time.
TODAY
Help us, gracious Lord, to wait for your victory, and in the mean- time to serve you in whatever way we can.
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Let’s pray:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank You for reminding us of the different seasons where we may be in. And if it is a season of waiting, to allow us to have peace while waiting for Your next instructions. We will not move till the clouds are lifted for we do not want to run before You. Calm our anxious hearts O Lord and grant us shalom peace. Even in the waiting, help us to just trust You completely. In the precious name of Jesus I pray. Amen 🙏🏻
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