TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 17TH APRIL 2024)
He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.
He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. “For by strength no man shall prevail. 1 Samuel 2:8-9 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 108TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
2024 for us has indeed been our year of impact. First, the impact of God Himself on our lives, as our Heavenly Father.
It’s been 108 days of seeing His Fatherly kindness, goodness, favor, grace, provisions, direction, mercies, compassion, care, forgiveness, and all forms of marvelous helps in our lives.
It’s been 108 days of breathing in and out without paying for it. It’s been 108 days of seeing, hearing, tasting, and sensing, without paying the bills to God who created us to operate that way. We pay bills for communication, but God helps us to communicate freely.
If God was to bill us for the ability to use our senses, I do not think any of us would have been able to pay, because He would not have collected money for it. Money is only used on earth not in Heaven.
So, by now we all would have lost our sense of smell, taste, hearing, and seeing due to our inability to pay for it.
If we were to be billed for the ability to eat, that would have been worse. God would have seized that ability long ago, and none would be able to eat again, because many of us would not have been able to pay for it.
If we were to pay for the ability to sleep and wake up each morning, many of us would have died in our sleep long ago, because of the debt we would have owed God. The service would have been withheld and we would have fallen asleep one day and remain on our beds or couches.
The list of the things we get from God freely is endless. Yet we do not acknowledge Him as we ought to. But this morning, we can change all that by saying to the LORD God Almighty, “thank you for all you have been doing for me freely.”
We can begin a new life of gratitude to God. He has been our free helper and all in all, and He is worthy of our praise.
WE SHOULD THEREFORE REMAIN GRATEFUL TO HIM FOR ALL HIS LOVE FOR US.
Sadly, there are those who depend on God to sleep and wake up, and operate as humans on earth but have no regard for Him. They do not know He is responsible for their being alive. They just have no regard for Him. They use His free services like the ones we have mentioned, but live like they are responsible for their being alive.
Those who are influential among this breed, spread a false narrative that we can become anything we want to be on our own. They remove God completely from the equation. They subtly create a world driven by humanism.
But I submit to you that the only thing you can be without God is an evil and dark person. Everything good you want to be in this world, will need God by your side. He did not create an earth where you can become anything good without His help.
In fact, God did not create anything or anyone to survive without His power.
The Bible says all things are sustained by His power. Not by the power of the things created. The only creature that attempted to survive by its own power fell and became Satan; that is food for thought!
We will fall and fall, and fall down and down, until we become unredeemable if we try to survive by our power. Every disaster in life is caused by man’s attempt to do things in his own will, way, and power; to do things without needing the counsel and power of the Holy One.
One of the major revelations that the mother of Samuel (the first prophet of Israel after the end of the priesthood) Hannah, got from all her years of bareness reads;
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.”
“For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.
He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked shall be silent in darkness. “For by strength no man shall prevail.” 1 Samuel 2:8-9NKJV
Hannah did not get this revelation in joy, but in the tears of not having a child for a long time. No other scripture fits the center of our sharing today like this one.
THAT IS WHY WE MADE IT OUR DEVOTIONAL TEXT.
The last line made it clear that “by strength shall no man prevail.” If you want to prevail in this life, especially doing or succeeding in what is not considered dark and wicked in God’s sight, it will never be by your human strength.
People who try to succeed in things that are right in God’s sight, must key into His strength else they will never be free from worries and anxieties.
That is why I tell people who are in God’s will that 1 Samuel 2:9 must become one of the anchors of their lives if worries and anxiety will not kill them. The scripture further tells us that we were not created to prevail by our own strength.
That is why the most successful, impactful, victorious, and significant people in GOD’s kingdom,are those who know how to depend on Him – people driven by the same prophetic lesson that Hannah learnt – “By strength shall no man prevail.”
Men like Enoch, Lamech, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Jeremiah, and etc., who unleashed their destinies, and left us trails of glory to draw life giving and sanctifying truths from, sought God in persistent and consistent prayers – they sought Him because they knew by strength shall no man prevail.
You will not achieve even a spark of what these men achieved if you are a child of God who does not depend on God the way they did.
For Enoch, the Bible says he walked with the LORD consistently for 300 years. He was never backslidden at any time and then returned. He never slacked and then returned. He was not unfaithful at any time, and then returned. He was consistent.
It takes a man who depend on God to walk that way with Him. The word of the LORD said,
“Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah.
After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years.
And Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 5:21-24 NKJV
THE BIBLE FURTHER SAID THAT BEFORE HE WAS TAKEN, HE HAD A TESTIMONY THAT HE PLEASED GOD.
You cannot say that you depend on God, and yet you are not living a life that please Him. People who depend on God live lives that please Him.
From the life of this man, Enoch, we can clearly see that we cannot just claim that we depend on God. It is the way we live that will suggest if we DO. A man who depends on God will not trust in the arm of flesh. He will trust in God enough to maintain a consistent walk with him like Enoch did.
He will not maintain a hypocritical walk with God, neither will he maintain an unholy and ungodly walk with the LORD. He will maintain a Godly, Holy, Intimate, and righteous walk with God consistently until he will be not.
Apart from living a life that please God, we can see another characteristic of a man who depend on God in the life of Jesus Christ.
When He came as man, He prayed countless times, and showed us how to depend on God in everything through persistent and consistent prayers. Though He was Deity stepped down, He prayed, fasted, and sought Him as man, always.
In fact, He never began His ministry until after a 40-day fasting and prayer. That is the life of a man who depends on God. After that, He prayed always, and at all times. He was always on His knees.
A few hours to when He would carry the cross, He was at the garden of Gethsemane, not eating but praying. He so depended on God that prayer was His way of breathing in and out.
We will be foolish not to do the same and expect great success in life. The early Church learned from that, and gave herself to prayer and to the ministry of the word always. If we know how much we need God, we will do the same.
These Bible men, and our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ (as man), spent their time more with God than with men.
Wisdom demands that a man spend the most of His time with the person He cannot succeed without. Yes, someone he needs strength from, every now and then, to prevail in life.
Prayer helps us to do just that with God.
Understand that God is indispensable. If you make Him dispensable, you will be disposed into the garbage of life sorrows. You will be disposed, and destroyed without remedy. Yes, there will be no one to help you. You see that all through the scriptures.
You cannot treat God as a disposable napkin and enjoy life to the fullest.
You will live to regret it either in this life or the life to come. It is my prayer that we will all heed to this word and renew our dependency on the LORD this morning. Amen!!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!!
So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of hosts.
‘Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”‘” Zechariah 4:6-7 NKJV