Sold Out For Jesus daily devotion online
G. John White's first devotional Sold out for Jesus covers 12 vital themes of Christianity.
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January Topic: OBEDIENCE IS GREATER THAN SACRIFICE |
Of all the things I have had to learn over the length of my lifetime - this is the most important. If we don't get this right, the rest is impossible. So let's spend this first month of the year getting our priorities in the correct order. |
Numbers 20:8
SPEAK TO THAT ROCK ... YOU DID NOT TRUST ME
How often we say to our children before an important test or exam - "you must read the question before putting pen to paper!" "It's no good writing all you know, if it doesn't answer the question!"
Moses struck the Nile and it turned to blood. Moses struck the rock and out came the water. I've done it before - I'll do it again.
But God did not say strike this time ("read my lips!") God said, "Speak!" God said that Moses struck the rock because he did not trust Him. Moses was disobedient. He had been so right for so long and now he had blown it. Blown it, so much evidently, that God chose that moment to tell him that he would not bring the people into the Promised Land!
Do you think God was hard on Moses? I have to confess I do. Because I've been in similar positions. Needing a miracle, and expecting God to do it "the same as last time!" But our God is the Almighty Creator God - the One who "creates something out of nothing". The One who "speaks" and it is done.
Have you noticed how God continues to test us? To make us feel human and a failure? No, to strengthen our faith in Him, to teach us more of His character and make us more like Jesus - who only did what His Father said.
You see the problem is, that sin and rebellion have their roots, not in evil per se, but in independence and selfishness. I will do it "my way". When Frank Sinatra sang his song "And I did it my way", he summed up all that is wrong with humanity. God did not create us to do it "my way" but to do it "His way".
His way is life, health, happiness and fulfilment. My way is loneliness, selfishness, arrogance, rebellion and destruction.
Oh, may you and I strike the rock when we have to, but speak when the Lord asks us to speak.
And the moral of the story? - "Read My lips!"
Incidentally, Moses did get to go to the Promised Land - read Matthew 17:1-8 (verse 3 in particular).
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