TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL (Monday 19th July 2021)
“Behold, God is my helper; The Lord is with those who uphold my life. He will repay my enemies for their evil. Cut them off in your truth.”
“I will freely sacrifice to you; I will praise your name, O Lord, for it is good. For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.” Psalm 54:4-7 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 200TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF HIGHER HEIGHTS!
Indeed, if GOD had not been our helper these 200 days, things would have been different with us. It is the help of the LORD that have been our everything.
It has been our weapon of spiritual war, our defense, our refuge, our stronghold, our guide, our spiritual fitness trainer, our hope, our everything.
I want to submit to you as one who have been a beneficiary of God’s help that whatever you may be going through, just remain hopeful building your faith in God. Our devotional text is saying to you this morning; “Behold, God is your helper.” He will send help to you in Jesus precious name.
Now, there is something you must understand in matters of divine help and that thing is how God sends help to His people. He sends help to us according to our needs.
I said according to our NEEDS, not according to our WANTS. There is a difference between a man’s needs and a man’s wants. Whenever you are asking God for help, just understand that God sends help to meet our needs not to grant our wants.
The definition of needs and wants in God’s kingdom is different from its definition in man’s kingdom. In God’s kingdom, when we say wants, we are referring to things that are born out of a canal desires or a craving for earthy blessings with no eternal value. Things born of the flesh.
But needs are born out of what God decides for us to have on earth; blessings that are full of eternal value and relevance. Things born of the Spirit of God or a sanctified spirit nature.
Let me explain further! There are seven aspects of life, and all of them has needs and wants.
For instance, in the marital aspect of life, your desire to get marriage can be classified as a want of a need by God. It all depends on what or who is driving you to desire marriage. If your carnal desires or cravings are responsible for your desire for marriage, then it is not a need in God’s sight but a want.
People who got into marriage to satisfy their carnal desires for a mate are either out of marriage today or in dead relationships they call marriages.
Most got married to beat the competition hence not following the ways of God into marriage and finding themselves in terrible situations. You don’t get married because others are getting married and leaving you behind. It is not a competition.
A carnal desire should not birth the need to get married in your heart. That will be a want not a need by God’s definition.
ONE MAJOR REASON WHY A CARNAL DESIRE SHOULD NOT BIRTH THE NEED FOR MARRIAGE LIES IN MAKING THE RIGHT CHOICE.
You will not be able to make the right choice in marriage or come into God’s will for your life if your carnal desire is what is driving you. Your carnal desire and craving for marriage (the kind of person you want) will be the determinant of your approval ratings, making you to miss God’s will for your life.
God’s will for our lives does not flow along the lines of what we want but what we need.
So many people who are calling their husbands or wives enemies today, called them the best people that they have ever met when they first met. They saw them as what they truly needed in their marital life, not knowing it was their carnal nature that was approving the people not the divine nature.
When your carnal nature approves a mate for you, it will not be long you will either enter into the school of endurance in marriage, or just carry out an escape for your life called divorce. And that is not good for your destiny. Sometimes it can lead to terrible consequences in life.
Many people are in the school of endurance in their marriages today. But marriage was not created to be endured, marriage was created by God to be enjoyed!
The truth is if you are looking for a man to call a husband or a woman to call a wife just because of some earth based reasons, then God will never be a helper in your search for one. God’s help is not there to meet our WANTS; His help is there to meet our NEEDS.
If you are looking for God to help you meet your wants, sorry you will never find Him. If you are looking for God to help you meet your needs, you will find Him ever resent Help.
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND THE PRINCIPLES THAT GOVERNS ANYTHING YOU NEED FORM GOD BEFORE GOING TO MEET HIM FOR IT.
The Bible says;
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
Therefore, we will not fear, even though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though its waters roar and be troubled, Though the mountains shake with its swelling. Selah
There is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God, The holy place of the tabernacle of the Most High. Psalm 46:1-4 NKJV
So many people have read this scripture and believed God for Help after hours, days, weeks, months and even years of praying, but found none. It all appeared to them as if God is dead or not listening to them. Some have even concluded that He does not love them. Which is not true!
You will never get anything from God if you met Him for it without understanding the principles that governs how to get it. People who do not see scriptures like Psalm 46 above coming to pass in their lives, despite prayers and faith for it, sort God for help without an understanding of the the principles that govern divine help in God’s kingdom.
They never knew that God will never grant us a carnal heart desire because of how fatal it can be. He did it once and it stopped millions of Israelites from coming into His rest for their lives in the promise land. The Bible says;
“They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert.
And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul.” Psalm 106:13-15 NKJV
When you ask God for anything to meet a desire that was born by your lust, pride, prophetic ignorance of what your future holds, or lack of faith in God, He will never grant you the request.
He knows if He grants it, whatever will come out of it will result in leanness in your soul. That is why people enter in marriages that take them out of the kingdom of God or make it difficult for them to make Heaven.
When you get a thing that send leanness to your soul, it will become a snare to you, making it impossible for you to maintain a walk and talk with the LORD.
A major highlight in our devotional text this morning says;
“For He has delivered me out of all trouble; and my eye has seen its desire upon my enemies.”
This will never be so in your life if a carnal reason for the deliverance or help you seek from God is the motivation for your prayer for help or deliverance. God did not create us for our pleasure. God created us for His pleasure. That is why as soon as you meet the LORD, in spirit and in truth, you cease to exist.
Everything about you comes to an end and everything about God begins in your life.
Your visions, drives, motivations, desires and etc. will become born of God not born of you. That is how to lead a Christian life that will end up in the parley gates of Heaven, to be welcome home by the LORD Jesus Christ.
Therefore, in all circumstance and in every situation that we may find ourselves, the ultimate of our faith should remain making Heaven not making it on earth. It should remain living and dying as part of that generation of believers who will be in the New Heaven and the New Earth where righteousness dwells.
That is the word of the LORD of today!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY;
“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.
Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness,
looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?” 2 Peter 3:10-13 NKJV