Where is your hope for the salvation of sinners?
22 Apr 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
2 Samuel 4
2 Samuel 5
2 Samuel 6
Luke 18:18-43
The things which are impossible with men are possible with God (Luke 18:27).
Where is your hope for the salvation of sinners?
First-century Jews often equated riches with God’s favor; therefore, the rich young ruler must be going to heaven. Jesus shocks His audience after the affluent ruler walks away from Him with the following statement: “For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God” (Luke 18:25). The Lord picks the largest animal (the camel) and smallest object (a needle) familiar to the people to illustrate His lesson. “And those who heard it said, ‘Who then can be saved?’” (Luke 18:26). Jesus has already pulled the rug out from under them by exposing their erroneous worldview on salvation. Then He exclaims, “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God” (Luke 18:27).
Employment Point: Rely upon God and the gospel’s saving power to reach all people.
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Reflections
Salvation has never belong to us. It has always been the Lord’s. Only He has the ability to bring about salvation in His perfect timing. It is not for us to decide but we can always plant seeds.
“David answered Rekab and his brother Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, who has delivered me out of every trouble, when someone told me, ‘Saul is dead,’ and thought he was bringing good news, I seized him and put him to death in Ziklag. That was the reward I gave him for his news!”
2 Samuel 4:9-10 NIV
- i think sometimes we may assume too much till a point that it kind of became a truth. Without us knowing the full story, it will be hard to deduce what truly happened as the truth may often not be something we thought it to be.
- here, Rekab thinks that he had done David a favour by helping kill Saul’s son. But it is this foolish assumption that brought about his death. All for wanting to find favours with a man of standing.
- Are we sometimes like this too? Jumping into conclusions, doing things for others thinking we are correct. Perhaps it will be good too that we take time to pause and check our intentions or whether what we are thinking of doing is truly what the Lord is wanting us to do.
“As soon as you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar trees, move quickly, because that will mean the Lord has gone out in front of you to strike the Philistine army.””
2 Samuel 5:24 NIV
- The Lord can manifest Himself, whether it is seen or unseen. Sometimes, He makes Himself seen to really encourage His children and to show them what kind of God He is.
- We have to be thankful that we can call Him Abba Father, who is also the maker of heaven and earth.
“When they came to the threshing floor of Nakon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord’s anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down, and he died there beside the ark of God.”
2 Samuel 6:6-7 NIV
- somehow when I read this verse, it does not seemed that the Lord had meant it to be in a physical sense. It seemed to send a message that says “who are you to think that You can help God?”
- Does our God need our help? Never! So in a sense, this affects the way we do things. We should never have the thoughts that by doing something, we will be able to help Him. Really, who do we think we are?
- Instead we should be asking the Lord our next steps and stay humble. Don’t try to help the Lord. We don’t have that capability.
“David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the Lord’s people Israel—I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor.” And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.”
2 Samuel 6:21-23 NIV
- How beautiful are the words that David spoke which I placed in bold. We can see how he is named the man after Lord’s own hearts. By what he spoke we can tell that he is humbled before the Lord and his heart is also in the right place. He realised that being the Lord’s servant is all about submission and he is willing to surrender everything, even his dignity as a king, and he is not bothered about power and is also a God-fearing man.
- On the other hand, we saw in great contrast how Michal behaves.. we clearly know her heart was for a king to be dignified, glorified and be held high. But somehow, this reminds me of Jesus. How He was being so undignified and humiliated. David recognised all these and somehow foretells how a real king will or should be.
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The Light That Never Fails
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
April 22
And we all … with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory. — 2 Corinthians 3:18
Servants of God must stand so much alone that they never know they are alone. In the first phase of Christian life, disheartenments come. People who are bright lights for us flicker out; those who stand with us pass away. We have to get used to this—so used to it that no matter what happens, we never feel we are standing alone.
“Everyone deserted me… But the Lord stood at my side” (2 Timothy 4:16–17). We must build our faith on the light that never fails, not on the light that fades. When “great” men and women go, we are sad— until we see that they were meant to go, and that the only thing that remains is looking on the face of God for ourselves.
Allow nothing to keep you from looking God squarely in the face about yourself and your doctrine. Every time you preach, every time you pray, every time you testify, look God in the face first. Seek his mind on your subject before you begin and his glory will sound in every word. A Christian disciple is one who perpetually looks in the face of God and then goes forth to talk to people. Moses, when he’d been with God, “was not aware that his face was radiant” (Exodus 34:29). That unconscious glory is characteristic of the one who ministers for Christ. The secret of our life as disciples is that we keep in tune with God all the time.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
The truth is we have nothing to fear and nothing to overcome because He is all in all and we are more than conquerors through Him. The recognition of this truth is not flattering to the worker’s sense of heroics, but it is amazingly glorifying to the work of Christ.
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Reflections
Indeed our strength and our help or hope does not come from men. It comes from our Lord God alone.
My ex boss once told us when he is preparing to leave work to answer God’s call.. not to anchor ourselves on the leader but on our real leader the Lord. I was sad initially but I realised the weight in his words. Because only the Lord is the real leader. We can be sad cos a greater leader left but we should not think or say things like, what will happen to us when the leader leaves. Who then, are we truly worshipping? Our Lord or the human? This is something simple yet sobering.
His words carved deep in my heart and always remember that the Lord is our true leader. So in fact then no matter where we work, we work for God and not for men. We have security not because it is a career of high demands or a job that pays well. Our security comes from our Lord Jesus who oversees the whole universe. We know we can trust in Him and not fear. He is always there for us. Praise You Lord!
Let’s pray:
Heavenly Father, we truly thank You, and praise You for being the true leader in our lives. Let everything that has breath praise You O Lord. Thank You for leading us and being with us every part of our journey. Thank You for being there with us and for us, to anchor us in this truth, and never be afraid. In the most precious and loving name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
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