TODAY’S DEVOTION (FRIDAY 15TH MARCH 2024)
“Therefore, I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:26-27 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 75TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Day unto day utter speech, and night unto night shows knowledge. This is true in the lives of those who wake up each morning searching for the knowledge of the LORD, or spend moments each night doing the same before they sleep.
God has been so gracious to us, especially in providing for us, securing our lives, ordering our steps and not dealing with us according to our sins, but according to His faithfulness.
If God had been dealing with us according to our sins, no one will be alive today. No one will be here on this earth alive. If He had no History of not dealing with people according to their sins, even our redemption would not have been planned before mankind in Adam fell.
The Bible says the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world because God has a nature of not dealing with men according to their sins.
Sometimes we wonder why God did not kill us when we were living wicked lives, or why He is not killing that wicked man or woman alive. It is because He does not readily deal with people according to their sins. The Bible says He is compassion towards us not willing that any should perish.
Understand that if that was not His nature or history, the entire human race would have been wiped away when man fell, and God with His holy angels alone would have been the ones in existence.
In fact, there would have been no us!!
Yes, if He was not God with a nature that does not deal with people according to their sins, Satan would have had the upper hand over Him. He forgives His own and treat them with mercy and compassion, warning them to turn from evil, and mentoring them to walk away from sin, basically to defeat the plans of the enemy, and make sure there is no celebration over them in hell.
We must thank God for being who He is. We must always appreciate Him for His patience, compassion and faithfulness.
We must do that because, we all know that it is not easy for any man not to deal with another man according to his or her sins. There are people most of us would have never been talking to if God had not enabled us not to be dealing with them according to their sins.
EXCEPT THE HOLY SPIRIT HELPS EACH ONE OF US, I SAY AGAIN THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO DEAL WITH OTHERS ACCORDING TO THEIR SINS.
So, let us appreciate God!
If you take a look at your life, you will see so many things He has done to keep you alive despite who you are. If I look at my life, I will see the same. You have your story of God’s faithfulness. We all have our little stories. Sometimes, it is important that we look into them and let our hearts be filled with gratitude towards Him.
Maybe let me share a bit of mine with you.
I have escaped pre mature death several times in my adult life. I remember this incident that happened in 1999. I just turned 23 and have been in full time active ministry since 1993, 1994. It was a season when we were preparing for my official commissioning into ministry which was billed to take place the following year (Though it was later delayed due to the spiritual policies of our upbringing till year 2000).
Then I decided to visit North Central Nigeria for a personal prayer retreat.
I was hosted by a beloved pastor who had visited our Church few months before. I took the opportunity to write my first book, “Power to Become”. I usually visit the Church auditorium of one of the largest Churches in North Central Nigeria then; that was where I sat to write the book.
One day I finished writing a portion of the book, and was on my way to the house of my host when this happened. I was walking by the road side to view the City when a passenger bus failed brakes and started coming towards me.
I saw it quick enough to jump away from this vehicle that had lost control. I believe it was God’s intervention that made that happen, because I was confused when I first sighted it; I was confused not knowing what to do.
I even felt compelled to remain on the destructive path of the ill-fated passenger bus. It taught me how people die. They are kept on the death path by invisible forces that does not want them alive.
But the faithfulness of God overruled it and took me out of the way.
Sadly, someone died in the vehicle but I escaped being killed. Then it downed on me that if our lives lack “brakes” we will be running out of control like that vehicle, making fatal mistakes and even ruing the lives of innocent people on our path.
LET ME SHARE MORE OF THE LESSONS I LEARNED.
You know stories like this are sometimes used by the Holy Spirit to teach things about God’s Kingdom values and principles. Mine was on discipline, and the ill-fated passenger bus was the subject.
The bus is like a human life, a church, or a people. If a human life, a church or a people lack the brakes of self-control and discipline, they are bound to perish.
From the incident, I learned that a vehicle without brakes might just kill one person, but a life without the brakes of self-discipline will always wipe out a generation. It will do things that unborn generations will weep over when they are born.
It is very important that we all know when to apply the brakes of self-discipline to our lives. Whenever destiny people do not know when to apply them, they will be doing things that will defeat their destiny very cheaply.
God did not create anyone without the brakes of self-discipline.
It’s just that many of us are not using them to our advantage. We are allowing our lives to be ruined by lack of use due to the pleasures in lawlessness, perversion, and uncontrolled desires or appetites we like to go after.
We have to be careful of certain things with pleasures buried in them. Our life brakes were given to us by God to use against such things. Any harmful, sinful or unhealthy practice that has pleasure buried in it, can kill or ruin our lives if we do not put our brakes of self-discipline to use.
We all have the brakes of self-discipline attached to our spirits, souls and bodies. People who do not know how to apply them will always have some forms of satanic oppressions to live with.
Sadly, people love living lives without the brakes of self-discipline. They call it freedom. But there is captivity in freedom.
A life without the brakes of self-discipline is a life of Indiscipline. Indiscipline has slain many youths, and is ruining the lives of many others (both old and young) more than anything else today.
IF YOU ARE NOT SELF DISCIPLINED, YOU ARE LIKE A VEHICLE WITHOUT BRAKES. YOU WILL CRASH ONE DAY AND THERE WILL BE NO ONE TO HELP.
People who lack self discipline, are people who do not know when to stop; they do not know when to crucify their carnal desires or put their bodies under control.
For instance, if you lack self discipline, you will always let your sexual desires, or anger to go out of control. You will let your sexual desires go out of control, you will be ruined.
You could ruin all aspects of your life in one sweep.
For instance, there are people who have ruined their marital lives because of out of control sexual desires. While some of them will never get married, others will not be able to stay married if they eventually get married. There are those who have ruined their health, and financial lives very terribly because of the same scourge of lack of life brakes.
For some of us, if not for the redemption in Christ, we would have become history. Among other things, that redemption came as waking up to the application of the brakes of self-control. Our devotional text this morning says,
“…But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
If your life lacks the brakes of self-discipline as a Child of God, you will never get to your glorious destination in Christ. You will ruin your future terribly. Sadly, many have already done so. God does not want you or I to become part of the statistics, hence sending this word to us this morning.
AS we bring this to a close, I want to ask some questions to few people out there; Friend, are the brakes of your life functioning?
Are you living your life with failed braking system? It is dangerous if the answer is yes. God want that to change, and He wants it very fast.
HE HAS GIVEN US HIS WORD, HIS SPIRIT, AND OUR WILL TO HELP US.
If Samson had applied his breaks when he met Delilah, he won’t have died the way he died. If David had applied his brakes when his eyes caught a naked woman bathing, he would not have killed a man and married his wife.
If Abraham had applied his brakes when Sarah his wife suggested that he go into Hagar her maid, there would have been no Ishmael in his life.
We all have things we are battling with because of the same mistakes.
Do you have something your now battle with for not applying your brakes when you needed them? God sent this devotional to stir you to sit up, and also to receive mercy to come out of it. Are you ready!
Now, bow your head in prayer and repent like Samson, David and the rest did.
Ask the LORD to show you mercy and take away the wounds. Prayer earnestly that He TURN your scars into stars. Don’t forget, the sacrifices of God are a broken heart. A broken and a contrite heart, God will not despise.
Seek His mercy and He will give you a fresh start!
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Ezekiel 36:23-27 NKJV