Shared as an offering devotion on 17 April 2016
2 Corinthians 8:1-7
"And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people.
And they exceeded their expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on you part. But since you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you - see that you also excel in this grace of giving"
3 Principles of giving:
1. Grace of giving
2. Generosity in our giving
3. Attitude in their giving. Giving is a privilege & sharing in the service of the Lord's work
The key to the 3 principles:
Give ourselves to God first
Give ourselves to others by the will of God
Paul told the Corinthian church about the example of the Macedonian church and how they excelled in their giving.
They had the grace to give, the generosity in their giving and most of all they counted giving a privilege. In fact they pleaded to be given a chance to share in God's work by their giving!
What a great attitude they had in giving! In fact, Paul said that they pleaded for the chance to give to him.
However Paul also mentioned that the key to having this grace in giving, the generosity in giving and the right attitude in giving is firstly to give ourselves to God. In giving ourselves to God first, we will surely be able to know where to sow our funds by the will of God.
May we have the grace of giving, a heart of rich generosity and a right attitude in our giving viewing giving as a privilege & an opportunity to share in God's work.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Sharpen through prayer and fasting - God assures VICTORY!
For the third time, the children of Israel went up to the house of God and wept. This time they did a few more things they did not do before:
- they fasted that day until evening
- they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord
It would mean one thing - for the first 2 battles they did not fast and they did not offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Judges 21:28 "and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying "Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?"
Did they ask the same question of the Lord? Yes
Did they spend the same amount of time in prayer? Yes
In fact the children of Israel were ready to give up fighting against the Benjamites.
How could they keep on losing and suffer casualty? They could not afford to carry on the war against the perversion committed by the wicked men of Benjamin.
Today there is much perversion in the spirit in the lives of our children and young adults. We pray and we pray and we see that they fall more and more into sin. The attack of the enemy continue unabated. More and more of our loved ones are backsliding. Should we continue to battle in prayer or should we just give up 'fighting in prayer'?
Why did they fail the first 2 times? It's not because they did not pray or seek the Lord. It's because the enemy was too strong for them! The children of Benjamin was a formidable tribe.
There were 26,000 men who "drew the sword" and "seven hundred select men who were left-handed; everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not miss. Israel had 400,000 men.
26,700 v 400,000 = on sheer numbers alone, Israel should win but the skill of the children Benjamin exceeded that of the children of Israel.
Overall casualty on Israel's side = 40,000.
We can get just as discouraged as the children of Israel who became casualties of war.
This time the preparation was intensified. This time they did something different.
They fasted and prayed. They cleansed themselves before the Lord. They did things that pleased the Lord. They surrendered themselves to the Lord. They got their lives right before the Lord. If there was any unforgiveness they forgave those who hurt them. If there was any sin in their hearts, they repented of it. If there was any pride, the prayer and fasting broke it.
This time they heard the Lord SHARPLY & CLEARLY in Judges 20:28 "And the Lord said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand".
The rest of Judges 20:33-48 reads like a war novel and "the battle was fierce" - Judges 20:34. What happened after that was exactly as what the Lord had said "The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed that day 25,100 Benjamites; all these drew the sword" Judges 20:35.
Only 600 survived and they hid in the wilderness of Rimmon for 4 months.
From reading this story, I realise that when we are fighting a losing battle (even while doing God's will) there is only thing left to do - to sharpen our prayers through fasting.
There is nothing more intense than adding fasting to your prayers. When facing a very tough work situation, retreat to your War Room and commit the situation to the Lord in fasting and prayer. Confess your sins to the Lord. Ask God to purge us and cleanse us of any covetousness, greed, pride, lasciviousness, lethargy, complacency. Ask God to help us forgive all who have hurt us!
We have prayed the right prayers.
We have spent sufficient time interceding.
We have sang warfare songs.
But one thing is needful - fasting and prayer to guarantee the 100% breakthrough!
When the enemy is too strong for us, we need to fight in fasting and prayer!
- they fasted that day until evening
- they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord
It would mean one thing - for the first 2 battles they did not fast and they did not offer burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Judges 21:28 "and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days), saying "Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of my brother Benjamin, or shall I cease?"
Did they ask the same question of the Lord? Yes
Did they spend the same amount of time in prayer? Yes
In fact the children of Israel were ready to give up fighting against the Benjamites.
How could they keep on losing and suffer casualty? They could not afford to carry on the war against the perversion committed by the wicked men of Benjamin.
Today there is much perversion in the spirit in the lives of our children and young adults. We pray and we pray and we see that they fall more and more into sin. The attack of the enemy continue unabated. More and more of our loved ones are backsliding. Should we continue to battle in prayer or should we just give up 'fighting in prayer'?
Why did they fail the first 2 times? It's not because they did not pray or seek the Lord. It's because the enemy was too strong for them! The children of Benjamin was a formidable tribe.
There were 26,000 men who "drew the sword" and "seven hundred select men who were left-handed; everyone could sling a stone at a hair's breadth and not miss. Israel had 400,000 men.
26,700 v 400,000 = on sheer numbers alone, Israel should win but the skill of the children Benjamin exceeded that of the children of Israel.
Overall casualty on Israel's side = 40,000.
We can get just as discouraged as the children of Israel who became casualties of war.
This time the preparation was intensified. This time they did something different.
They fasted and prayed. They cleansed themselves before the Lord. They did things that pleased the Lord. They surrendered themselves to the Lord. They got their lives right before the Lord. If there was any unforgiveness they forgave those who hurt them. If there was any sin in their hearts, they repented of it. If there was any pride, the prayer and fasting broke it.
This time they heard the Lord SHARPLY & CLEARLY in Judges 20:28 "And the Lord said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will deliver them into your hand".
The rest of Judges 20:33-48 reads like a war novel and "the battle was fierce" - Judges 20:34. What happened after that was exactly as what the Lord had said "The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel. And the children of Israel destroyed that day 25,100 Benjamites; all these drew the sword" Judges 20:35.
Only 600 survived and they hid in the wilderness of Rimmon for 4 months.
From reading this story, I realise that when we are fighting a losing battle (even while doing God's will) there is only thing left to do - to sharpen our prayers through fasting.
There is nothing more intense than adding fasting to your prayers. When facing a very tough work situation, retreat to your War Room and commit the situation to the Lord in fasting and prayer. Confess your sins to the Lord. Ask God to purge us and cleanse us of any covetousness, greed, pride, lasciviousness, lethargy, complacency. Ask God to help us forgive all who have hurt us!
We have prayed the right prayers.
We have spent sufficient time interceding.
We have sang warfare songs.
But one thing is needful - fasting and prayer to guarantee the 100% breakthrough!
When the enemy is too strong for us, we need to fight in fasting and prayer!
Sharpen through prayer and fasting - Facing more problems....
- they wept before the Lord until evening
- they prayed for a long time (until evening)
- they asked an almost similar question of the Lord "Shall I again draw near for battle against the children of my brother Benjamin?" Judges 20:23
Did they ask the same question? Yes.
Did they prayed for a long time? Yes
Did they cry before the Lord? Yes
They did the same things all over again. They sought the confirmation of God's will the second time to make doubly sure that they were doing what God wanted them to do.
God assured them that they were indeed to go up and fight the Benjamites "And the Lord said, "Go up against him" Judges 20:23.
However instead of winning, this time the children of Israel lost a more of their mighty men "And Benjamin went out against them from Gibeah on the second day, and cut down to the ground 18,000 more of the children of Israel..."
This means that all in (for the 2 battles within 2 days) 40,000 men have lost their lives! Are you sure that this is your will God? I thought doing your will I will be 100% assured of victory!
What is happening Lord? What did we do wrong? We heard from you twice but why did we lose more men the second time round? It was because Benjamin was too strong for them!
Sharpen through prayer and fasting - Facing problems doing God'swill
For e.g. you know that God called you to resign and to take up another job offer but once you have joined the company you started experiencing insurmountable odds and difficulties. Did you hear from God correctly? If yes, then why do you seem to be facing so many challenges in your job?
The fact is that doing God's will may not be necessarily smooth. In fact I believe that God allow the testings and difficulties to shape our character and build our faith!
The story of the Levite whose concubine was murdered in Gibeah by a group of useless men gives us some precious lessons on this. When the Levite lodged at the home of an old man in Gibeah, a group of useless men came knocking on the door asking to have sex with the Levite.
Instead of protecting his guest, the old man pushed the concubine out of the door to meet their demands. She was raped all night and collapsed at the door in the morning - dead.
Without judging whether the old man did right or wrong (for indeed in those days, Israel was a lawless nation), the death of the concubine was 'published' throughout Israel by the Levite. As no newspapers existed during those days, he decided to do one thing - he cut up her body in 12 pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all Israel.
It was so awful that all who saw it said, "No such deed has been done or seen from that day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak" - Judges 19:30
Speak they did, considered they did and conferred they did. The decision of the leaders of all the tribes of Israel was to raise up and army by recruiting volunteers from all over Israel to go to Gibeah in Benjamin to repay all the vileness that they have done for Israel (Judges 20:10).
The one good thing that came out of it was the great unity among them. It was going to be a corporate war. Judges 20:11 "So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, united together as one man".
Although Benjamin was given a chance to avoid the civil war they refused to deliver the perverted men who committed the crime. Instead they gathered to war, 26,000 of them. Israel outnumbered them as they had 400,000 men who drew the sword.
Now this comes the important part. Did Israel seek the Lord whether going to fight their brothers were God's will?
Indeed they did! In Judges 20:18 "Then the children of Israel arose and went up to the house of God to inquire of God. They said, "Which of us shall go up first to battle against the children of Benjamin?"
Did God answer them? Yes, he did! In the same verse "......The Lord said, "Judah first!"
Was it God's will for them to attack Benjamin?
Yes it was. In fact God asked them to put Judah at the head of the army.
However is verse 21, it was told that 22,000 men were cut down by the children of Benjamin! How could they have lost the battle when God clearly told them to let Judah go up first?
Was it because they asked the wrong question?
Was it because they did not spend long enough praying in God's presence?
Was it because they heard wrongly?
No! It was not because they did not pray. It was not because they did not seek God's will before they rose up to fight Benjamin. It was because Benjamin was too strong for them!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)