TODAY’S DEVOTION (Tuesday 14TH January 2020)
“Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked. The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.
The wise in heart will receive commands, But [a]a prating fool will [b]fall. He who walks with integrity walks securely, but he who perverts his ways will become known.” Proverbs 10:6-9 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 14TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
There are some things in one’s lifetime which neither time nor circumstances can obliterate from one’s memory.
The things that lives in your memory could be the very reason why your life is the way it is. We cannot see the YEAR OF REJOICING prophecy coming to pass in our lives if we don’t check the things that lives in our memories.
That is why in our devotionals today we will be looking at the powerful role that our memories play in our match towards a glorious destiny. But first let’s highlight some truths in our devotional text. Let us take them line upon line.
The first verse says:
“Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.”
What a verse of the Bible to read at this church age. This scripture tells me that while GOD rewards giving in His kingdom, I don’t need to sow a seed to be blessed. If I am one of the righteous seed of His on the face of the earth, there is a blessing resting upon my head already. It says, “Blessings are on the head of the righteous.”
There is another side of this, it also means blessings are to be pronounced only on the head of the righteous. It is our heads that GOD designed to carry the blessing. That is why GOD’s blessings on one righteous man can save an entire nation.
When GOD want to preserve a people that have not known Him, He will place one righteous man among them so that His blessing on that man can preserve them. That is what makes us the salt of the earth or light of the world.
Instead of using salt to pray and lighting up our phones or candles to say we are the light, we should fulfill our assignments as God’s righteous people.
We should understand our place as one saved and sanctified person in a family, nation or group of an unsaved and un-sanctified people. Blessings are on our heads so that those around us can be preserved and brought to the LORD!
The next truth we see in that scripture says violence covers the mouth of the wicked.
Indeed, when a man is wicked at heart it shows on his lips. The mouth of the person who is wicked at heart may spew out smooth and great words like the Antichrist, but the end-product of the words is a spread of violence. They lie, slandar and backbite. They say things that put the god of destruction to work.
YOU SEE THAT IN THE LIVES OF POLITICIANS ACROSS THE WORLD WHOSE SPEECHES SPREAD ANARCHY.
If you read the story of Adolf Hitlar you will see the power of a speech that spread violence. Yes, there are wicked hearts that when you speak the word of the LORD to, they become violent. But this scripture is not referring to that but to wicked hearts that deliberately cover their mouths with violence, saying things that spread anarchy.
In the field of the world today, as we go preaching the word of the LORD, we see people who cannot take it. They literally become violent when you speak to them. That is not what the Bible is talking about because our mouths are not covered with violence but the word or rebukes of the LORD. It is the hearts of the people we are preaching to that are covered with violence. So the verse does not apply.
Like it was for Isaiah the prophet, many of us today are for peace. But when we speak, those who hear us are for war. So, it does not sit well in their hearts. But let us go further.
Now, we may not be able to exhaust the entire truths in our devotional text, let’s see the next line in the passage. It says, “The memory of the righteous is blessed, But the name of the wicked will rot.”
When the Bible says the name of the wicked, it is referring to the reputation that the wicked builds for Himself. It says it will rot. History is full of proves of this scripture.
The political stories surrounding our nations are full of great but wicked leaders whose names have become so rotten that their offspring don’t even use them. Friend, one of the major things you must strive to earn in this life is a good name. The Bible says its better that riches.
A good name is a product of a good character. A good character is a product of Christ in man the hope of glory. That means we must strive to have Christ live in us every day to earn a good name especially in Heaven not just on earth!
But the first the first line says, “The memory of the righteous is blessed…”.
This is first referring to the story the righteous leaves behind. For instance, each time we look at Paul in the Bible and his great writings we are blessed. His memory literally blesses us. Each time you read about Moses, Joshua, Gideon, David and all who were before us, you see so much to rejoice about. Indeed, the memory of the righteous is blessed.
THE STORIES THEY LEAVE BEHIND ARE USUALLY FULL OF BLESSINGS; THE MEMORY OF THE RIGHTEOUS IS INDEED BLESSED!
But there is another side of the message. The memory of the righteous is not just the stories they leave behind but their memory. What lives in our memories as GOD’s saved and sanctified people on the face of the earth!
The truth is what lives in your memory is what determine what lives in your life. In other words, what lives in your memory will eventually determine or shape what comes out of your life.
Apart from our imagination, the memory is one of the most powerful tools GOD gave to man to use in allowing Him shape or run his life!
Don’t forget, man was not originally designed to run his life. Man was designed to have GOD live in him and run his life for him through him. How we handle our memories, among other things, is what determine if that happens or not. And the most peaceful lives on earth are lives that Christ is running.
If you are following the News recently you will know this; there is a problem in the household of the queen of England. Her grand child Harry and his Wife have decided to break from family tradition. There is a lot going on now. The queen even came out with an official statement that calmed nerves.
I watched an American news channel dissecting this story. While they were dissecting it, one of the panelists said, “How can they have everything and still not be Happy?” No one could answer that among them. But we know the answer. If you are saved you know the answer.
Sometimes the greats of the earth cannot find answers to the questions in their lives. The answers are always with the low things of the earth. GOD’s people that are not even known to anyone on earth.
You see, the reason these people who have everything are not happy is simple; Christ is not the one running their lives. They are running their lives themselves. Satan will ruin your life if you run your life by yourself. He will fill it with crisis if Christ is not the one in charge.
But we are talking about the memory of the righteous – things that lives in that faculty where the mind stores and remembers information.
IT IS IN THE MEMORY THAT THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE PAST LIVE.
God has said its our year of REJOICING. The word of the LORD is true. But hear this, what lives in our memory can defeat this prophecy in our lives. God does not want bad things to live in our memory. What lives in our memory will be printed by time into our lives! That is why we must be careful what lives there!
Jesus said in Matthew 10:14
“And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet.”
Why did He say this? He presented to us one way to keep our memory in a position that He can used in running our lives and blessing us. Like we shared earlier, if your memory is full of bad things, time will print those things out in your life.
Jesus said we should shake off the dust just to save our memory from storing the bad experience.
You see, the dust of bad experiences can cling to us if we allow our memory to store up the experience in. If we do, time will print them out into our lives at a future date. That explains why people live lives in a circle. You see bad things repeating themselves in their lives over and over and they can’t tell why.
It’s the memory! It’s a memory problem not a witch problem. It’s a memory problem not an altar problem.
Sadly, most visit so called prophets for help. The prophets end up filling their hearts or memories with stupid visions thereby compounding their problems.
God said in His word that even the prophets will be made blind as an act of judgment. They will not be able to see that whatever is happening in the people’s life is coming from their memory – it is being printed out from his or her memory.
As we bring this to a close, I want you to understand that if you do not adopt the habit of shaking off the dust of bad experiences you may have had in life (or any other one that may come) off your memory, you will never come into the glorious things GOD intends to print out in your life.
Former things must be ejected from our memories for glorious things to find an expression on our lives. The Bible says:
“Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:18-19 NKJV
Those glorious things must be in your memory for them to happen in your life. If they are in your memory, time will find and print them out in your life. That is the secret to the manifestation of prophecies.
You must have the YEAR OF REJOICING in your memory bank so that time will print it out in your life. This called for meditating on the holy things of GOD until they fill our memories.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY
Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 NKJV