In Times like This, Look Up to God

MY DAILY COVENANT WITH GOD DEVOTIONAL

Devotion for Wednesday February 1, 2017          

Topic: In Times like This, Look Up to God           

Text: Psalm 121 (Living Bible)  

Our world of today especially the Nigerian case has so many challenges like high cost of living, irregular payment of salaries, poor power supply, fuel scarcity (as at the time I was writing), threat against Christianity, etc. These have placed so many people in a strait especially those who want to live righteously. 

Here the Psalmist started with a question: Shall I go to the mountain gods for help? In order words, do I go to where I ought not to go or do what is not right to get help? He also gave the answer as ‘No!’ He said so because he knew God and what He can do. He also knew that the righteous can never beg for food (Psalm 37:25). God holds the affairs of this universe. He has the best plan for our tomorrow. His thought far supercedes ours. His plan is to give us an expected end. Hunger, hardship, persecution, lack, etc. cannot stop God’s plan for us. 

In this new month, I urge you to look up to God to sustain you and your family. The month of January may have been a month of stress and strait. Never mind, God has already planned for you. Look up to Him. He called you and will perfect all that concerns you. We wish you a lovely month of February 2017. 

Food for Thought: Looking up to God for help is a mark which distinguishes the true believer from all other men.

Memory verse: Psalm 121 verse 2

Prayer: God, may I rely on you in every situation and not on man.       

PERILOUS TIMES ARE HERE: Devotion for Thursday September 29, 2016

PERILOUS TIMES ARE HERE: Devotion for Thursday September 29, 2016

Text: 2 Timothy 3:1 – 9          Memory verse: 2 Timothy 3:1

Perilous simply means very dangerous. The time we are in fits in to this definition. Paul’s reference to the last days reveals his sense of urgency and the need to intimate Timothy so it shouldn’t take him unawares. Such warnings about the last days were certainly not unique to Paul alone but was a common theme among the leaders of the early church (Acts 2:17; Jas 5:3; 2 Peter 3:3; Jude 1:18). Perilous times mean hard to bear, dangerous, troublesome. As Paul used it here it means a period when it will be difficult to be a Christian (2 Timothy 3:1 – Living Bible).

We need to give this warning Paul gave to Timothy the full attention it deserves because we are already in the last days. The ‘last days’ began after Jesus’ resurrection, when the Holy Spirit came upon the believers at Pentecost (see Joel 2:28, 29 and Act 2:17). The last days will continue until Christ’s second coming. Paul speaks about the last days as a present reality (emphasizing the truth that the state of depravity in the world is always ripe for harvest). Paul set out for us these signs of last days in 2 Timothy 3:2–5. 

From the above it means that we are living in the last days. It should not surprise us, then, to see the moral decadence of our society. The example Paul gave from 2 Timothy 3:ff are all manifesting today. People are now lovers of pleasure more than bible Studies, mid week services, etc. We now have children who are highly disobedient to their parents. Our society is now filled with all manner of wickedness; killing, kidnapping, ritual murder, betrayals, etc.

Paul warned us that it would happen, as Jesus Christ did too (see Matt 24). Thus we should run from them (3:5b, Gen. 39), reject their enticement (Prov. 1:10) and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them (Ephesians 5:11). We should be careful and heed to the warning of Paul in Romans 13:12 and 1 Corinthians 10:12.

Food for Thought: We shouldn’t forget the warning of Christ in Mark 13:33 which says, “Take heed, watch and pray; for you do not know when the time is.”

Prayer: Keep me to yourself, O Lord, in this perilous time so I will not backslide into sin.