TODAY’S DEVOTION (Saturday 8th February 2020)
“God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels.” 2 Thessalonians 1:6-7 NIV
WELCOME TO THE 39th DAY OF OUR YEAR OF REJOICING
We have been in this great year for just 39 days. The plans and purposes of GOD for the year are already being fulfilled. Either we are in them or not, the truth remains they are being fulfilled. Sadly, while GOD has a plan for everyone, not everyone of us are in His plans. Some pf us are not in His plans because of how we choose to lead our lives.
It is a man’s decision to guide His daily life according to GOD’s will, ways and leading of His Holy Spirit that puts the man in GOD’s plans and purposes. Anyone not guiding His life according to His will, ways and the leading of His true Holy Spirit cannot be in GOD’s plans and purposes. Though he or she can be experiencing GOD’s grace and mercies, the purpose is to come into His ways, will and Holy Spirit.
One of the major plans and will of GOD for our lives is that we abstain from immorality and all kinds of sins and evil. Another is that we die in Christ when we get to the end of our days. In the battle of life, we must fix our hearts on this two plans and purposes of GOD for our lives and bring our lives into them. If we don’t do that, we cannot live in the center of other aspects of His plans and purposes. We will just defeat them stupidly.
To enable us to spend our days according to His plans and purpose a word need to come from Him to us on daily bases. That is one major reason for these devotionals – to receive a word from the LORD daily.
THERE IS A WORD FOR US TODAY!
To start with, let me show you how GOD treats the wicked and how He handles the righteous. You see, God is so just that He does not justify the wicked. He is so just that He does not forsake the righteous. He is so just that He makes sure no one who serves Him faithfully goes unrewarded.
Indeed, our God is a just God! It is His just nature that gives us exactly what we deserve. His just nature is strongly controlled by our repentance or lack of it! It is controlled by the nature of our hearts.
For instance, He forgives the sinner who repents and takes away the consequences of His sins; no matter how heavy they may be. The reason is the change in the sinner’s heart. The person may call for punishment from His just nature, but as soon as he or she changes at heart and begin to seek mercies, you see GOD withholding judgment. If all of us no know this, there will be none in hell.
Jesus demonstrated this when He healed a man who had been sick for many years because of his sins. He would later meet him to warn, “Sin no more least a worst thing comes upon you.” His just nature makes repentance the only escape route from hell in time and eternity.
Sadly, many do not know the power of repentance that is why they do not pursue it. Born again is a Child of repentance. When you say you are born again you are saying you have repented of your sinful life.
When you say you have repented from your sinful life, it means you should not be found in them again. Repentance will give to you what no other act of service will give to you in the kingdom because God is just.
Another thing I want to bring to our attention this morning is this, God is so just that He is not moved by what comes out of our mouth. He is only moved by what goes on in our hearts. Yes, I believe in faith and confession, but until your heart is acceptable to God, the words of your mouth will not be acceptable to Him.
SO MANY IN CHURCH ARE YET TO CATCH A REVELATION OF GOD AS A JUST GOD. IF WE DO, WE WILL TAP THE MOST OF HIM!
He is so just that He make sure we get only what we deserve. Where we deserve mercy, He will show us mercy. Where we deserve purging, He will purge us using the power of His grace. If you know how just our God is, you will reap more blessings from Him.
I pray someone reading this will ask the LORD for more revelations of His just nature. It is this nature of God that makes sure those who sow sparingly reap sparingly and those who sow bountifully reap bountifully. No matter how much you claim you love the LORD, if you do not sow, you will not reap.
Yes, a lot of charlatans and expired prophets use the seed faith principle to make many out of people’s misfortunes. They limit it to money and do so many things in the name of breaking evil altars or curses, ending poverty or helping people find jobs etc. There is a lot of darkness around it. But what the Bible reveals in the seed principle is the just nature of GOD.
For instance, if you do not sow prayers bountifully, you will not reap power bountifully. If you do not sow fasting bountifully, you will not reap the blessings of fasting bountifully. If you do not sow money into God’s will bountifully, you will not reap the blessing of serving GOD with your substance bountifully.
To bring forth many blessings in your life, you must understand that God is a just God and relate with Him as such. If you find your self in a good church but with an evil heart, you will not reap the blessings of being in a good church. One thing about the heart, it is difficult to know how a man’s heart looks like. But if you see what is happening around him despite being in a good church, you can tell how his heart look like.
If you find yourself in a heavenly mandate but refuse to commit yourself to it, you will not reap the blessings of committing yourself to a heavenly mandate. God is just.
HE WILL NEVER REWARD US FROM WHAT WE NEVER DID.
That is why I tell pastors who ask their members to sow prayer, fasting, money and sacrifice unto the LORD while they watch, to stop the madness. God is a just God! He will bless your members and leave you poor for not doing what you asked them to do.
You could be rich in having money but will be poor in carry the presence of GOD in your life as a minister of the gospel. You will just be camping around olive oil, instead of carrying the fullness of the Spirit.
GOD is so just that He does only what He says. He will not do what we think He said, neither will He do what we claim He said. He will do only what He says. That is why we must be accurate in our prophecies and expectations. Misunderstanding the word of the LORD, will frustrate and disappoint our expectations because God is just and does only what He says.
The first few sentences of our devotional text today say, “God is just: He will pay back…” That to me holds the message for today.
God is just, He will pay back. Hallelujah!!
God is like a big fruitful land, that makes sure whatever you sow in Him brings back a harvest in proportion to your seed. When you sow wickedness as a seed, you get wickedness as the harvest. When you sow kindness as a seed, you get kindness as the harvest. “Blessed are the merciful,” the word says, “for they shall obtain mercy.”
Whatever we do in God will be paid back to us proportionally!
That is why no one sinner goes unpunished in God except there is repentance. Daniel said “The Lord was mindful of the calamity, and He brought it on us. For the Lord our God is just in all He has done, and we have not obeyed him” (Daniel 9:14).
God is so just that He brings calamity upon the disobedient and peace upon the obedient. No one who is righteous goes unrewarded except he or she becomes weary and slips back into lawlessness. And those who trouble the righteous will receive their payback either in time or eternity.
THAT IS HOW JUST OUR GOD IS!
Those who hate and speak ill of God’s true servants, will loose divine protection and expose their lives to demonic spirits. That is how just our God is. Those who support false prophets and prophetesses and speak for theme, or financing any miracle working enemy of the cross in the body of Christ will not enjoy God’s protection. They will slip into the gates of hell they defend either in time or eternity. That is how just our God is!
As you embrace the eight day of the second month of our year of rejoicing, let this devotion word be your meditation.
God is just. He is so just that He takes away sickness from the body of those who are truly serving His will. He is so just that He will not put any of the diseases of the Egyptians upon His own Children who serve Him in spirit and in truth.
He is so just that He blesses the bread and water of those who serve His will and bring the bound who are pliable in His hands into prosperity. Except your life conflicts with His will, God will not leave you in trouble because He is a just God.
Yes, He is so just that those who serve Him in spirit and in truth in this life and come to the end of their days on earth still holding on and serving Him, will be received in glory by His angels. To them death will not be a thing of tears but a thing of JOY!
He will welcome them home with a smile that will last forever! That is how just our GOD is! I look forward to a glorious ending. I believe my year of REJOICING will not be limited to 2020 if God keep me alive, it will be extended to the very day I will depart the earth in peace to be with my blessed savior forever and ever! That year will be a YEAR OF REJOICING for me also.
I pray for all who are serving the LORD in truth also, to have the same testimony in Jesus precious name! Yes, a testimony of a glorious ending in Christ Jesus. Amen and amen!
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Get wisdom! Get understanding! Do not forget, nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; Love her, and she will keep you.” Proverbs 4:5-6 NKJV