TODAY’S DEVOTION (MONDAY 6TH JUNE 2022)
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 157TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF AMAZING GRACE
This is the day the LORD has made. We shall rejoice and be glad in it. Our God has been faithful to us and we give Him all the glory. Day unto day He has been showing us mercy. He has been our refuge and shelter.
Today will be a great Day! Amen.
Daily God loads us with benefits. The reason for that is obvious. Sometimes mankind finds themselves in battles that one can’t share with any because there are no words. But God is always there as an immediate present help.
I believe that was what happened to Samson Long before meeting Delilah. His life proved Delilah was a fallout of the internal warfare he had that he found no ear to talk to, because there was no heart that will understand and no hands that can offer help.
I have been in this kind of situation in life over and over again. That is why when I read stories of warriors who fell suddenly, I can connect. But our case today is different and even better than Samson’s but the warfare type remain the same because we are still dealing with the patterns of the things they faced in their time.
Unlike David, Samson had no prophetic finger in his life to offer direction and help. There was no Holy Spirit to guide him the way we have now.
There were no preachers to preach to him from week to week or day to day like we have today. There was just the Torah. His parents taught him what they learned from the priest and like every Jew, he must have grown up memorizing it. But that is not always enough when dealing with problems that are too personal in life.
Apart from Him coming on them from time to time to do a quick work through them, that generation had the Torah as the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit Himself was not present in them. He was only present symbolically in the use of oil. But that presence and the Torah they had could not give an immediate present word.
THE TORAH ITSELF ONLY HAD WRITTEN STANDARDS TO LIVE BY.
Only prophets could help them find an immediate present word. Sadly, in the case of Samson, there was no prophet to offer help. He must have known every detail of the Torah but that was not enough!
But our generation is blessed. We now have the Holy Spirit and the immediate present word.
Yes, We have a complete Bible that if we read and reason over can always help us in time of need. We have the Holy Spirit as a replacement of the Torah and Old Testament type of prophetic ministry.
We only need to cultivate and maintain a healthy relationship with the Holy Spirit, because if that relationship is not there, we will always fall back to the very defeat that people like Samson fell in their time when we face the patterns of what they faced.
But thank God they got back to their feet, fought to the finishing line (even though it was with destiny injuries), and finished strong. Concerning Samson, the Bible says;
“Then Samson called to the LORD, saying, “O Lord GOD, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes!”
And Samson took hold of the two middle pillars which supported the temple, and he braced himself against them, one on his right and the other on his left.
Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” And he pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the lords and all the people who were in it. So the dead that he killed at his death were more than he had killed in his life.
And his brothers and all his father’s household came down and took him, and brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel twenty years.” Judges 16:28-31 NKJV
The life of Samson was like the life of everyone else living in a wicked and imperfect world. His brothers and his father’s household should have shown up when he needed people.
But When he no longer needed them; when he died, that was when they showed up. They showed up to burry him. That is the irony of life. People will not be there when you need them, but will always appear to burry you when you die, or spread your story when something bad finally happens.
That is why the best friend to have is Jesus, made active in your life by the Holy Spirit. And the best people to have in your life are people who are in God’s will and have receive the call from the LORD to become part of your life in one way or the other.
THAT BRINGS US TO OUR CONSIDERATION FOR THE MONTH – THE CRY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT ON FEAR MATTERS.
Our devotional text says;
“Two are better than one, Because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, For he has no one to help him up.
Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm; But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And a threefold cord is not quickly broken.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 NKJV
This scripture is about companionship and partnership in life.
There is a kind of fear that is generated by not having the right companions or partnership in life. In other words, there is a fear created by being alone in life – a loneliness associated fear. That is why God said in His word “it is not good for a man to be alone”
Loneliness can induce fear into a man’s heart. And a loneliness induced fear only disappears when the right people come into your life. The right people most times are God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
God the son said if we obey Him, the three will come in and make our lives their home. They are the most important right people we need in life.
If they are there, it does not matter who is not there. They will be the one to bring who need to be there to us. When who need to be there come, we will be delivered from fear and come to the realm of uncommon boldness even before the greatest dangers in life.
So, having the triune God in your life is the fist step to take in matters of walking away from a fear driven to a faith driven life.
IF GOD SITS AT THE CENTER OF OUR LIVES, WE WILL NOT LOOSE GRIP IN LIFE.
There will always be a present help in time of trouble. Our fathers where able to stand before the terrible things they faced because of that. The Bible says;
“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets:
who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.
Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourging, yes, and of chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned, they were sawn in two, [k]were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—
of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. Hebrews 11:32-38 NKJV
If our fathers in this scripture were men and women whose lives were driven by fear, they would not have successfully defended their faith and pressed on to the end in the midst of the fiery trials we read here. They would have fearfully caved in and submitted to the evil one in the evil people he used to unleash such sufferings on them.
But they were never fearful in the midst of it all because the LORD God of Heaven and earth sat at the center of their lives.
As we bring this to a close, I want us to understand that to terminate fear sometimes (especially a fear induced by loneliness), God will either bring us to the right people or have the right people brought to us. That is why many have found themselves becoming bold and fearing no more by even joining the right church.
I pray the LORD use these words to keep building us up and giving us an inheritance among they that are sanctified.
MAKE THIS SCRIPTURE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR THE DAY!
“But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the LORD.
“Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and [a]prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the [c]earth. 6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called:” Jeremiah 23:3-6 NKJV