TODAY’S DEVOTION (TUESDAY 30TH APRIL 2024)
“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.”
“You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:2-3 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 121ST DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Glory be to the LORD GOD Almighty for giving us another day and keeping us alive.
Friends, we should not take being alive for granted, not at all. We should not! Only a Godless people takes being alive for granted. It is important to always remember that many who started this year with us, are already dead!
Some died not by their making. They just died an unjust death. But we are still alive, some unjustly alive because of the wickedness in the heart of man. God’s mercy is just keeping each and everyone of us.
Jesus said something in scriptures, about people who were killed, when a tower accidentally fell on thousands; He said to those who heard the story, not to think that they were more righteous than the ones who died in the accident.
In the same way, we should not think we are more righteous than those who have died, especially unjustly. We should never behave as if we are the one keeping ourselves alive. We should be grateful to God.
Gratitude to God for keeping one alive is as important as the air we breathe. A people who take being alive for granted may eventually lose their lives. If we do not show gratitude, we will be sending a wrong signal to the throne of God.
One way we show gratitude, is with what we say. Another way is in how we live. That could even be the best way to show gratitude, because the mouth could be hypocritical. Yes, we show gratitude by how we live.
We show it by living right before the LORD, and not indulging in sin and wickedness. Right living is the best way to show gratitude to God for keeping us alive.
I reiterate again that you do not show gratitude to God by living a sinful and wicked life, no!!
For instance, using the life that God has given us to sleep with people we are not married to, live wayward lives, commit sexual sins of the worse order, or break other people’s homes, is the worst way to live after God has kept us alive.
YOU DO NOT USE A LIFE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO SOW INTO SIN AND WICKED LIVING.
That will not be gratitude to God. That will be ingratitude to God.
You do not use it to hold grudges against those who offend you, return evil for the good people do to you, speak evil of people, no!
You do not use the life that God has given you to be smoking, drinking, defiling yourself with all kinds of sexual acts, and feeling good about it, no!
You do not use the life that God has given you to engage in fights and all kinds of conflicts, tell lies against others, gossip, steal, and destroy people, no!
You do not use the life that God has given you to cheat, deceive, inflict pain on others because you want to get all you can, and can all you get, no!! You do not use the life that God has given you to be unkind to people, unforgiving, unloving, selfish, self-centered, and etc., no!!
You do not use the life that God has given you to make people hate those they should love, make wives leave their husbands or husbands leave their wives, or prevent others from getting jobs they so need to feed themselves and their families.
You do not use the life that God has given you to be lazing about, collecting money from people that you know you will never return, owing this and that other person and lying about everything, no!!
Your life will never be pleasant or peaceful if you do any of that.
You do not use the life that God has given you to be killing unborn babies, if you are a woman, or making your womb a grave yard of the unborn, or sleeping around and taking all kinds of contraceptives. That will be a show of ingratitude to God.
You do not use the life that God has given you as a man, to be getting women pregnant and running away from them, or making them take contraceptives to their ruin. That will be a show of ingratitude to God!!
You do not use the life that God has given you to prostitute, or solve your financial needs by becoming a side chic for someone in need of your sexuality. That will be misusing the life that God has given you, a show of ingratitude to God.
YOU DO NOT USE THE LIFE THAT GOD HAS GIVEN YOU TO BE SATISFYING THE SEXUAL DESIRE OF OLDER WOMEN, AND GETTING SOMETHING IN RETURN.
You do not use the life that God has given you to do anything His word forbids. If we do any of that, we are living a very ungrateful life. We are not being grateful to God for keeping us alive.
If we do any of these things that God’s word forbids with the life that He has given us, we will be filling the life that He has given us with a stench, and that will not be good for us.
We cannot fill the life that God has given us with the very stench that made Him to destroy nations, peoples, and generations in Bible days, and not be destroyed suddenly.
For instance, Ananias and Saphira his wife, used the lives that God had given them to tell a lie in His presence. They died instantly.
There is no wrong thing we do with the life that God has given us that does not bring an instant consequence. It’s just that some are too miniature to be seen, while others take time to be seen. God wants us to use the life He has given us right.
Our devotional text says;
“But to you who fear My name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves.”
“You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,” says the Lord of hosts.” Malachi 4:2-3 NKJV
God wants us to use the life He has given us to live a life that fears Him, so that He will be rising upon us as our Sun of righteousness with Healing in His wings. He wants us to use the life He has given us to live right and smell good in the Spirit.
He wants us to use the life He has given us to walk uprightly before Him, so that he will not withhold any good things from us. He wants us to use the life He has given us to spread righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
He wants us to use the life He has given us to be sending sweet smelling fragrances to Him in Heaven so that he can be speaking irrevocable blessings into our lives from time to time.
GOD WANTS OUR LIVES TO SEND A SWEET-SMELLING FRAGRANCE TO HIM IN HEAVEN. THAT IS THE SECRET TO A BLESSED LIFE BY HIS DEFINITION.
He wants our lives to be smelling good for Him as He keeps us alive.
If you are living a wicked or sinful life, you are sending a stench to God’s nostrils and defeating His purpose for keeping you alive. We all have to repent.
Prophetically, there is a fresh Rise of the Sun of Righteousness that is coming upon you in the coming month, but you have to align with God’s word this morning.
You have to make up your mind not to live your days according to the desires of your flesh, the systems of this world, or your carnal cravings.
You have to live your days according to God’s word, will, and ways! Sadly, so many of us on earth live our days by doing things that send a stench instead of a sweet-smelling fragrance to God in Heaven. We spend each day using the life God has given us to send a stench to His nostrils. That is not good.
That must change if we want better lives in the coming month and beyond.
For so many of us, God is yet to smell anything good from the garden of our lives, on earth. That is not how to live a life that God has given you.
The Bible spoke about a generation that used its life to do all kinds of wickedness, sending a stench to His nostrils daily.
God had to send a flood to wipe it away. Only one man and his household were saved. His name was Noah. His life was different.
God does not want our lives to end that way. He does not want the floods of life to come into us and wipe our joy, marriages, peace, ministries, finances, and etc. away. He wants us living in His goodness.
But we have a decision to make; a decision to live our days right before Him.
Make that decision today, or renew yours if you have made already! Let your life be like the altar of Noah that sent a soothing aroma to God after the flood and the floods of life will stay out of your life forever. Amen
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR US TODAY.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma.
Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
“While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.” Genesis 8:20-22 NKJV