TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 3RD DECEMBER 2025)
“Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business; but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:3-4 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 336TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF VICTORY
It’s a festive season again!! The Christmas bells are getting ready to ring. If you go to our malls, and other public places, you will see that the smell of Christmas is already in the air.
Glory to God for another end of Year. I pray that we all cross over to 2026 in Jesus precious name. Amen!!
December is always a time of getting ready for the next year for some, and refreshing relationships, for others. It is a time of traveling to spend time with loved ones you have never seen for a long time, and for the kingdom advance minded, it is a time for taking the gospel to the unreached.
May the LORD grant us peace and safe journeys as we all do his will in Jesus precious name. Amen
Today we want to look at some righteous truths on our relationship with God, specifically the need for it to go deep or be up to the required standard this end times. Relationship with God is the ultimate in life, when it is deep or up to standard, it saves us from much.
It will save us from evil, evil occurrence, evil people and wrong choices, wrong decisions and their consequences.
It is important to note that, one can be in ministry, doing so much for the LORD, manifesting some gifts of the Spirit, and moving in power, yet his or her relationship with God is not up to the ideal standard that saved a vessel of God from making a bad choice, taking the wrong spouse, falling into sudden destruction, spiritual attacks, diseases, or any evil occurrences.
That is why you see great men and women of God falling into mishaps and going through things that they should not be going through. I have come to understand that it is when we are deep with God all the time that we can be saved from anything wrong.
IN OTHER WORDS, OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD MUST BE UP TO THE IDEAL STANDARD ALL THE TIME.
If our relationship with Him is not up to standard, there are things we will have to rely on our senses and strength to escape from, and our senses and strength are too weak to save us from what is wrong all the time. So, we will end up with the wrong things about life most of the time, despite our walk with the LORD.
When a relationship with God is there but not up to standards, things that will leave one wondering, why they happen, will be happening.
We will be losing pregnancies, jobs, marriages, sometime loved ones, business, peace, progress and all that and be wondering why they are happening. The naïve will blame it on their membership in certain churches, even when the church is very good in helping people serve God and being eternally relevant, like the Cry of the Spirit Ministries, global.
It is when a church is a synagogue of Satan that God blames it for a person’s life problems. But when a Church is Christ centered and move in the power and Spirit of the LORD, your poor relationship with God will be blamed for any thing that happens in your life. But the spiritually mischievous will still blame it on the good church and leave to another one.
Sadly, after a while they will leave that church also to another and eventually perish crossing from one church to another. I have seen few people who did that and today they are neither here nor there. Some of them were close enough for us to see the hypocritical life they live as a Christian life.
Others were so noisy but no depth in God. They will appear on every testimony time standing before us to testify and look Christian. But there was no depth in their walk with God. A tree without depth will wither away. So, their faith withered away, and they disappeared from among us.
I remember my own time also when I suffered so much because my relationship with God was not up to standard. I was a preacher; a crusade evangelist, a local pastor, a prayer leader, and moved in signs and wonders, but my personal relationship with God was not up to the ideal standard.
IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE POWERFUL AND IMPACTFUL AS A PREACHER BUT WITH A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD THAT IS SUBSTANDARD.
I took in the wrong people into my life despite divine warnings that were too faint for me to acknowledge to have come from God. That was how substandard my relationship with the LORD was.
Consequently, the people took 18 years out of my life, years I still lament over till date.
But I did not blame the church I attended, the spiritual authority I was under, or anyone. I blamed myself. I knew my relationship with God was poor. Hence pressed daily for help from the LORD. I lost the years but did not lose my life.
In fact, I woke up this morning thinking about those 18 lost years and what would have happened if they were not lost or wasted. I was wondering what would have happened if my relationship with the LORD was not substandard during those empty years.
I would not have had those set of people in my life, I would have escaped the snare. But though I was caught in the snare, I thank God that I did not lose my life, because there were times, I was seeing my graveside and the epitome on it. God’s mercy kept me!!!
I am glad that we serve a God who is slow to anger and abound in mercy? Honestly, I won’t trade this God for anything because of His mercies that I have seen. They made sure my life was not lost with the years, because it is possible to lose a life with the years one has lost.
The mercies of God taught me that it is better to have wasted and lost years than a lost life. Wasted and lost years can be recovered, but a lost life cannot. It will only be in the grave and the stories it leaves behind will become a lesson for others. It will not be there to apply those lessons to its life or teach others the lessons it learned.
THANK GOD THE LORD SHOWED ME MERCY, AND I AM ALIVE TODAY TO EVEN TALK ABOUT THOSE LOST YEARS.
I believe it was my life that would have been lost. But God’s mercies frustrated that and made sure only the years were lost. Today, am still looking up to the LORD, and pressing as the LORD enables me to make sure my personal relationship with Him is healthy enough to save me from things God never designed to happen in my life.
I pray the LORD help me and all who are of the same mind to keep pressing into His upward call for our lives in Christ Jesus.
Child of God if our relationship with God is not up to the standard, it will show in our lives. Things that will make one wonder why they happen despite one’s walk with the LORD, will be happening. You will be seeing things God never designed to happen in your life happening and if you do not have light, you will think they were bound to happen.
Come to think of it; have you ever wondered why great Christians marry the wrong spouses, or move from one broken marriage to another until they finally settle in one peaceful one? It is because our relationship with God is not up to the standards that can save us from such life challenge.
Our devotional text was a decision the early church leaders took to keep their personal relationship with the LORD up to standard. A major highlight in the devotional text said, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”
If you want to keep your relationship with God up to standard, you must uphold the very standard they upheld.
You must tell yourself the truth and not seek to please people or show you are doing well in the LORD while everything is just a noise. Genuine intimacy with the LORD must NOT be traded for anything. You must learn to seek the face of the LORD concerning anything before stepping into it.
If intimacy with God is the missing key in your life, no other key will bail you out of problems until you use it to navigate through the storms. Many times, we replace the key of intimacy with God with running after people. If you are too close to people, especially those who are far from God, you will not be close to God.
As we prepare for 2026, plan to keep your personal relationship with God up to standard. Plan to make sure your personal relationship with the LORD is healthy enough to save you from any evil that may befall men.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.” Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem! Jerusalem is built as a city that is compact together,”
“Where the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, to the Testimony of Israel, to give thanks to the name of the Lord”
“For thrones are set there for judgment, the thrones of the house of David.” Psalms 122:1-5 NKJV
