Spiritual Espresso Volume I
Devotionals from Strength for Today
Allen Domelle
Smashwords Edition
© Copyright 2009 Allen Domelle Ministries
All Scripture quotations are from the King James Bible 1611.
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No Fear, No Commandments
“O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!”
Moses is reviewing with the children of Israel what happened years prior in the wilderness when God came and met with them at the bottom of Mount Sinai. What a moment this must have been for the children of Israel. The magnitude of this moment brought a fear in the hearts of the people so much so that they requested of Moses to go alone and receive the commandments that God was trying to hand to them. At this request, God came and used this time to teach His people the importance of keeping this attitude at all times. God said that if they would keep His commandments that it would go well with them.
Now as we look at this verse, we notice that the first requirement for keeping the commandments of God is a fear of God. O how America needs to get back to having a fear of God. This fear of God is not a trembling of fear because we are afraid. This fear is a reverential respect for the power that God holds.
As I think of having a fear of something, I am reminded of times when I have worked with electricity. I certainly, and most people do as well, have a fear of working with electricity. The reason why we have a fear of electricity is because we know what electricity can do to us. As long as we keep that fear in mind when we work with it, then we can use electricity to do many wonderful things for us. In like manner if we keep the fear of what God’s power can do to us, then we can use that power to accomplish many things for Him.
Secondly, we notice that with a fear of God comes the keeping of God’s commandments. Having a right fear of God motivates us to keep His commandments, for we know what can happen to us if we do not keep His commandments. Without a fear of God we will never be successful in keeping the commandments of God.
Now are you having problems in keeping the commandments of God? If you are, then maybe what you ought to do is get a greater fear of God. Let me just remind you, God can take you down in a moments notice. The knowledge of this ought to cause you to have a fear of God. If you have no fear you can be guaranteed to fail at keeping His commandments.
Thirdly, we see the result of keeping the commandments of God is that things will go well for us in life. This does not mean that we will not have hard times. This means that life in general will go well for us. So the decision we must make today is this, are we going to keep God’s commandments so it will go well for us or are we going to disobey the commandments of God, which will result in things not going well for us? I believe the obvious decision should be easy.
We must remember that it all starts out with a fear of God. If you will read God’s Word, you will find that this fear will be placed in you by God Himself. Spend time reading God’s Word so that you may obtain a fear of God. This will cause you to keep His commandments, and life in general will go well for you.
Principles Determine Our Loyalty
“If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and giveth thee a sign or a wonder, And the sign or the wonder come to pass, whereof he spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet, or that dreamer of dreams: for the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
It is important for every person to learn that principles must determine whether or not we are going to be loyal to someone who calls himself a man of God.
In the verses that we just read, we see God teaching His people how to determine whether or not they should follow someone who calls himself a prophet. God says that no matter what great sign a prophet gives or what great wonder a prophet may perform, if this prophet tells them to go after other gods, they should have nothing to do with this man. In fact, God says, that at times, He would allow this to happen to His people just to see how much they truly loved Him. God says He will know the love of His people towards Him by how they respond to a false prophet.
This same principle still applies to us today. In a world that is filled with television and radio preachers, we as God’s people need to be very careful who we allow ourselves to be influenced by. The most important thing that we should determine is whether or not a man is preaching the truths of God correctly. It matters not how much truth this man may give, if one of his principles pulls us away from the truths of the Word of God then we should not listen to him, watch him or read his books. We must remember that we must always be loyal to principle before being loyal to a person or an institution.
Loyalty is a wonderful thing to have as long as loyalty is being kept in check by principle. What happens to many people is they become more loyal to a man than they do to principle. Then these same people will say they are doing right because they are being loyal. This is not always true. We are to be loyal first to the truths of God’s Word. Then we are to be loyal to the man of God as long as he is loyal to the truths of God’s Word. The very second that a man of God leaves God’s truths is when we should stop being loyal to him.
God says that He will allow us to cross the paths of such individuals just to see how much we truly love Him. If we choose to be loyal to man over principles, then our love for God is not that great. Your love for God is tested by whom you choose to be loyal to. How is your love for God? Do you find yourself giving excuses as you listen to so-called preachers who preach messages full of doctrinal error? Be loyal to principles and you will never regret it in the long run.
Fortifying The Home
“When thou buildest a new house, then thou shalt make a battlement for thy roof, that thou bring not blood upon thine house, if any man fall from thence.”
In the days when this scripture was written, God used the architecture of homes to teach a valuable lesson that we all must apply in order to keep our homes strong.
Many times the homes built in these days had a place on the roof where you could walk around. You may recall in the Bible that David, when he saw Bathsheba, was walking on his roof. This was not an uncommon thing as most houses were built so that you could walk on the roof. Now God warned the people that when they built a house in this fashion, they were to make a “battlement” for the roof. This word “battlement” means “a wall built for fortification.” In other words, they were to build a wall on top of the house so that no one would fall to the ground and hurt themselves. Not only was this wall a protection from them falling, but it was also a protection from anyone coming into their house through the roof. This wall was of great importance for the safety of the home.
The Devil is after our homes. He throws every kind of dart he can at the home to destroy it. He knows that if the homes are destroyed then the nation is going to be destroyed as well. Never in the history of our country have we seen the attack against the home like we see today.
We must build some walls of protection in our homes to protect them from being destroyed. This means we should have rules by which our children should live. We should have rules by which mom and dad should live so they do not destroy their marriage. We should have rules for parents and children to live by so that their home is protected from any outside enemy that would try to destroy the home. O how we need to be careful to protect our homes. If needs be, being a little overboard is better than not enough. I would rather be safe than sorry. If we do not fortify our homes by establishing some rules by which to live, then we will find our homes in ruin and, oh, the heartache this will bring.
Don’t be guilty of being shamed into letting down the rules. Don’t be guilty of getting tired of fighting for the rules of your home. Always remember that those rules that you have established are there to protect your marriage, children and home. Those rules are there as a battlement to your house.
Personal Responsibility
“The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.”
As God gave out the different regulations by which He expected His people to live, God gave a command to each individual that they were responsible for their own sin. God did not want to give a crutch to people to blame their sins on someone else. God wanted His people to take personal responsibility for their own actions. God went further in this teaching and commanded that no child should bear the punishment of sin because of what their parents have done and neither should the parents be held accountable for what their children have done. Every person was to be responsible for their own actions.
How much this teaching is needed today! As you listen to the court systems of our day and hear the defense of many of the defendants, what a shame that we try to blame everyone else for what we have done. The modern politically correct society that we live in today tries to blame those from the past for the actions of those who are alive today. How absurd this is for people to blame someone who did not force them to make their decision. Until we come to the point in our society when people start taking personal responsibility for their own actions, our society will never start recovering from the shambles that it is in today.
Most people know that the first step to recovering from anything is taking personal responsibility for their actions. Your parents did not make you do wrong. Though they may have led you down the wrong path in your life, you are the one that makes the choices for your own life and are responsible for your own actions. No relative, preacher, leader or group of people is responsible for your actions; you alone are responsible for your actions.
What even seems more absurd is in Christianity we try to give people an out for their actions by saying some evil spirit caused a person to do something. There are those in Christianity who will say that a person has a spirit of bitterness, or a spirit of anger, or a spirit of jealousy and so on. The whole reason they try to do this is to take the responsibility off of the person who is bitter or jealous. No, the whole reason a person is that way is because they choose to be that way. Nobody can make you do wrong! You choose what you do, and you must live with the consequences of your own actions.
Let each of us become a person who takes personal responsibility for our actions so that we can better face our problems. Until we take personal responsibility we will never overcome our shortcomings in life. By taking personal responsibility, we can overcome our shortcomings in life.
Preparing Followers For Your Vacancy
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
Moses is in the final days of his life as we read this thirty-first chapter of Deuteronomy. In the verse that we just read, Moses is challenging Joshua and the people to be strong and to have good courage. They knew that he was about to die and I can only imagine the fear that these people faced as they wondered what they were going to do without their great leader. Moses challenged these people to be strong and have good courage in his absence. He reminded them that the same God that he served would still be there for them when he is gone. What Moses was doing was preparing the people for what they were to do once he was gone.
Every leader must first of all realize that they are not going to live forever. Every follower must realize that their leader is only human and that they are not going to live forever. Not facing this is not facing reality. One day, if you are a leader, you will die. So if what you are leading is ever going to keep on going, then you must prepare your followers for your vacancy after your death.
Great leadership always prepares their followers for what they are supposed to do once they are gone. Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, did this with His disciples. As you read the Gospels you see Jesus constantly telling His disciples that He is going to be gone someday and when He is gone He taught them what they were supposed to do in His absence. This is what great leadership will do. If you are a leader you must prepare those who follow you on how to carry on once you are gone. As leaders we must remind our followers, that the God we serve will still be alive and well, though we are gone. God will not leave them just because you are gone. As a leader you must remind them of this. Not only must you remind them of this, but you must also train them to do what you are doing so that what you are doing will go on after you are gone. In doing so, the work that we have spent our lives doing can go forward and continue even after our deaths.
Every leader must learn this valuable lesson. Whether you are a parent, pastor, business man or some other type of leader, you must prepare those whom you lead to do what you do all the time. This is why you are a leader. If you never train others to do what you are doing, then you are a poor leader. We never know when we will be gone, so we must spend our lives as leaders training those who follow us to do what we are doing. Leaders, if you were to die today, would your work be able to go on because you have trained someone else to take your place in your absence. If not, then start today training others to take your place. This is what great leaders do!
Every Decision Is Important
“And the men took of their victuals, and asked not counsel at the mouth of the LORD.”
We have in this verse the story of Joshua and the Gibeonites. The people of Gibeon had heard of the victories of the children of Israel, and fear had gripped their hearts about what they had seen happen to cities much mightier than they. So they came up with a plan, this plan was to get some old moldy bread and some worn out clothes and come to Joshua and the children of Israel and appear as if they came from a far country. In so doing, their goal was to make a league, or a treaty, as we would call it, with the Israelites thus saving their own lives. So they did just this and as they appeared to the children of Israel, Israel just took for granted that these people were telling the truth. The verse that we just read said they made this league with the Gibeonites without asking counsel of God. What a tragedy this was for these people who knew better. Because of this, they now would have to share part of their land with a people that God had intended for them not to share it with. All of this happened because they treated this decision as if it was not important.
Each of us can learn from this story the importance of making decisions and the importance of every decision. I do not know of a decision that is not important. If we all are just one decision away from ruining our life or from hurting our life, then I would think that every decision is important. Because every decision is important, then every decision should be bathed in prayer seeking the counsel of God as to what we should do with each decision that we face.
We should never go into a decision without spending time in prayer. We should never make a decision without spending time finding what the Bible says about this decision that we are about to make. Each and every decision is important, and we should never get so comfortable in making decisions that we do not ask counsel of God about what we should do. The day we become this comfortable with our decisions is the day when we will find ourselves making some very foolish decisions.
Every one of us who has ever made a bad decision can always trace it back to the fact that we did not treat the decision with enough importance. Because of our lack of making the decision important, we already have faced the pain of making wrong decisions. Let us be careful in every decision that we make from now on. Let us face every decision as if it is a life and death decision. Let us not be quick in making decisions. Let us get counsel from God in every decision, for He must be a part of every decision we make.
The Importance Of The Altar
“Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD.”
The two and a half tribes of Israel are now about ready to go back over to the land of their inheritance that they had been given by Moses. As they came to the Jordan River, they decided that they were going to build an altar. This altar was not about them getting right with God, but more importantly, this altar was about them staying right with God. You see, they knew that the Jordan River would become a border between them and the other tribes on the other side of the Jordan. They wanted to build this altar so that both sides would remember that they were a part of Israel and that they would never be denied the opportunity to cross over the Jordan River to go and sacrifice to their God. This altar was not only a memorial of what God had done in the past, but this altar was raised up to keep them right with God.
How interesting it is that the altar was being set up to keep them right with God and not for them to get right with God. Yes, the altar is about keeping us right with God. If a person will use the altar on a regular basis, then a person will find themselves staying right with God.
Far too many times we think the only reason why we use an altar at the church is so that we can get right with God, but this verse shows us another reason why we use the altar. The altar is a place to remember decisions we have made with God. When hearing the preaching of the Word of God, we should make decisions about things we are going to do and things we are not going to do. The altar is the place where we seal those decisions so that every time we go to church and see the altar, we are reminded of those decisions. Thus, in essence, the altar becomes a place of remembering decisions and also a place that keeps us right with God.
Let us all use the altar regularly so that in days to come and generations to come our decisions will be remembered. Let us not be guilty of being a people who never use the altar. You will find that those who never use the altar are usually people who have a harder time staying right with God. The altar is important! It is important because it is a place where we get right with God, but it is also a place where we stay right with God and a place that reminds us of the decisions we have made in the past.
A Good Formula For Success
“And the LORD looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house. And the LORD said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.”
These verses come from the calling of Gideon as God reveals to Gideon that he is to deliver Israel from the hand of the Midianites. We see in the story of Gideon that instead of fighting for their food, they were hiding it. As God called Gideon, He called him a “mighty man of valour.” What a compliment for God to give Gideon this title.
I must remind you, as I always remind people, the characters of the Bible all had the same fears and worries that we have today. The Midianite army was a huge army that no one had been able to conquer. On top of this, the children of Israel were afraid of these people. Yet, when we come to these verses, we see that God gave Gideon a formula for success. This formula will certainly help us today to be successful in the endeavors that we pursue.
First of all, we see that in order to be successful you must have the right strength. You will notice that God tells Gideon in verse 14 to go in the might that he has. Way too many times we are waiting for God to give us the strength to do something great for Him when God has already given us the strength we need. You may wonder, what is the right strength to be able to do the task that God wants you to do? That strength is the strength that you presently have. God wants you to step out on your strength, and as you step out on your strength, God will step in and give you more strength as you serve Him. Stop waiting for the strength, and just step out by faith with the strength that you presently have.
Secondly, in order to be successful you must have the right attitude. Notice the attitude of Gideon. He did not feel worthy to be used in such a great way. This is the right attitude and one that every Christian should have. God can use people who have a humble spirit. God cannot use in a great way those who believe God is honored to have them. Success is highly dependant upon the right attitude. Not only should you have an attitude of humility, but also I believe you should have a positive attitude and believe that God can use you. Yes, you should be humbled that God would use you, but you should also believe that God will use you.
Thirdly, in order to be successful you must have the right companion. Now who is the right companion in order to be successful? That companion would be God. As Romans 8:31 says, “…If God be for us, who can be against us?” When God is on your side you need not fear, for you have the right companion. But let me also expound even further and say that not only must God be your companion in all endeavors, but also your other companions must be right to keep you from failure.
So the three things we learned that are necessary for success are the right strength, the right attitude and the right companions. Without these you will never find success in your life.
Sin Is Ugly No Matter How You Paint It
Judges 17:3-4
“And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee. Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.”
What a tragic story we find here in the seventeenth chapter of Judges. Here we find a young man by the name of Micah who had stolen eleven hundred shekels of silver from his own mother. I do not know how it all came about, but it seems as if his conscience had gotten the best of him, and he came to his mother and told his mother that he had the money for which she was looking. As he restores the money to his mother, we see that his mother told him that she was going to use this money, that she had dedicated to the LORD, for the purpose of making an idol to worship. Now how in the world can you justify wrong by trying to spiritualize the wrong that you are going to do? This is exactly what this lady was trying to do. She was trying to paint her sin in a pretty way by saying that she had dedicated this money to the LORD. No matter how she tried to paint this picture, making idols is a sin.
It does not matter how a person may try to paint their sin, sin is always going to be sin. No matter how you try to paint sin, sin is always going to be ugly. Many times people try to spiritualize the wrong that they are doing so that they can justify this wrong in their own conscience. Let me say, it matters not if you can paint wrong in such a way that you justify it with your conscience, wrong is still wrong and sin is still sin no matter how you paint it.
Giving your tithe money to another good cause and not giving it to the church is still wrong. Compromising what the Bible teaches to see more people saved is wrong no matter how you do it. Letting up on your preaching and standards to have bigger numbers in the church, so you can influence more people, is still wrong. We could go on and on with illustrations of trying to paint sin in a pretty way. We must always remember that God is not impressed with our sin even if we paint it in a good way. In 1 Samuel 15:22 God says, “…to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” God desires obedience to His Word more than He desires anything else. If we are not careful, we will paint sin in such a way that it appeases our conscience to the point that we will do this wrong and in so doing we will anger God. No matter how you paint sin, sin is sin and sin will always be ugly.
Are there some things in your life that you have tried to spiritualize so you can justify doing it even though you know it is wrong? Let me simply remind you that sin has a price tag. No matter how you paint sin, sin will always bring heartache. Instead of trying to spiritualize your wrong, why don’t you just do right and you will see the blessings of God.
Be Good To Everybody
“Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens: Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn. Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.”
A wonderful truth we find in these verses come from the life of Ruth. As we know the story well, Ruth was the daughter-in-law of Naomi. Naomi’s husband and two sons died, and she was left alone. With nothing left to her name, she told her daughters-in-law to go back to their families and their gods. Though Naomi tried to get Ruth to go back, she would not leave her mother-in-law but instead decided to stay with her and take care of her. When they came back to the homeland of Naomi, she told Ruth to go and glean in the field of a wealthy relative whose name was Boaz. When Boaz came out to see his employees working, he saw this young lady out there gleaning from the leftover crops that the servants had left behind. After finding out that this was the daughter-in-law of Naomi, Boaz told his servants to leave her alone and to even leave a little more than they usually do because he had seen how she treated her mother-in-law. Ruth never knew that her treatment of Naomi would lead her to the lineage of Christ. Because she was good to everyone, she was blessed in a great way.
How we must learn ourselves to be sure that we are good to everyone with whom we come in contact. We just never know to whom we are being good. It may be we are being good to the next great preacher of our nation. It may be we are being good to a future employer who will take care of us for the rest of our lives. It may be we are being good to someone who will be a future leader in a nation. We never know with whom we are talking. Because of this we should just be good to everyone. Would it not be sad if we were not good to everyone we came in contact with and ended up hurting our own future? Yes, you may be having a bad day, but you can still be good to everyone.
Be careful with how you respond to people. Your sharp response just may cause them to remember who you are, and that person with whom you are sharp may be the one who God intended to help you somewhere down the line. It does not take much to be good to people. We must make it a daily habit to be good to everyone. We just never know to whom we are being good, and they just may be someone who will help us later on down the road.
Don’t Be Satisfied
Psalm 17:14-15
“From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes. As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.”
As the psalmist prays to God in this Psalm, we find him reasoning with God about the wicked people of the world and how they seem to be satisfied with what they have. He talks about men who seem to have everything in life. They seem to have hidden treasures that never seem to end. They seem to have a family with which they are fulfilled. They seem to have enough monetarily to do in life what they want to do and still have enough left over to give plenty to their children. As the psalmist talks of this, he seems to infer that these men are happy and satisfied with what they have.
Then we come to the psalmist himself. The psalmist, after talking about how the heathen are satisfied with possessions, says he will only be satisfied with one thing; being like Christ. He makes the statement, “I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.” O what a statement the psalmist has made here. Only one thing in life would satisfy him; being like Christ. Money would not satisfy him, though we know he had money for the psalmist was King David. Possessions would not satisfy him, though he had all the possessions that a person could desire. Having full families with several children is not what satisfied him, though he even had that. The psalmist wanted only one thing in life; to be like God. He said until the day he awakes in the likeness of God, he will not be satisfied.
O how this ought to be the prayer of every Christian. How every Christian should not be satisfied with where they are in life until they are completely like Christ. Yes, we preach that we ought to be satisfied with what we have, but there is one area I believe we should never be satisfied with; how far we have gone spiritually. The day you become satisfied with your spiritual growth is the day you stop growing. The day you become satisfied with the heights of your spirituality is the day you stop reaching new heights. We should every day have a hunger to be more like Christ. We should never be satisfied until we awake in His likeness.
Are you satisfied with your life? If you are, then can you honestly say you are like Christ? If you are not like Christ, then you should never be satisfied until you awake in His likeness. Let us, Christians, always be dissatisfied with our spirituality until we awake in the likeness of Christ.
Your History Does Not Determine Your Blessings
1 Samuel 2:30
“Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.”
The man of God, Eli, is now getting old, and his sons are in line to take over the office of the priest. The problem with this is that the sons of Eli are wicked men and have polluted the sacrifices of God. God comes to Eli and warns him of the impending judgment upon his family if he does not straighten things out. God reminds Eli, in this verse, that He had promised that Eli’s house would be able to hold the office of the priest as long as they served God, but because of their disobedience, God is now only promising that they can hold this office as long as they honor Him. God said that those who would honor Him, He would honor. Those that despised God and His commandments, God would lightly esteem. What God was trying to get across to Eli was that past blessings don’t guarantee present blessings if we do wrong. He wanted Eli to realize that if God was going to continue to bless his family then his family would have to do right.
Well the same is true for us today. We cannot rely on the past blessings that God has given to our nation. If our nation is going to continue to have the blessings of God upon her, then she is going to have to do right. If we as Christians are going to be blessed of God, then we cannot rely on the past blessings of God upon us or our family. If we are going to continue to keep the blessings of God upon us, we must live right today.
As I travel around the country, I run into people daily with the mentality that God will continue to bless us because of what we have done in the past. We must remember, God does not look at the past to determine the blessings of today. God looks at what we are doing right now to determine whether or not He will bless us right now.
Let me ask you this question, if God looked at your work for Him in the past month and determined the amount of blessings that He was going to give you, how many blessings would you receive? We must constantly live our Christian lives trying to win the blessings of God upon our lives. We must live in such a way that every action we do is to try and get God’s attention so He may bless us. Are you living so God can bless you or are you relying upon the past for God’s blessings? Only what you do today will determine how much God will bless you.
When Doing Good Doesn’t Pay
Judges 20:26
“Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.”
Has it ever seemed in life that doing good doesn’t pay? Have you ever come to the point in your life when it seemed as though every time you did good bad came out of your good? There is a reason why God allows this to happen.
In this story, the children of Israel were trying to do right. The tribe of Benjamin refused to correct a problem that happened in one of its cities, so the rest of the tribes of Israel went to God and asked counsel of God whether they should go up against Benjamin and destroy the men of this city. God told them to go up against this city, and when they did, several thousand of their men died. The men of Israel did not despair and asked God again if they should go up against this city; God told them to go up. Again, the battle turned against them, and they lost several men. It seemed as if every time they obeyed God something bad happened. Finally, we see God came through for these people, and they won the battle.
I give credit to the children of Israel because they did not give up on doing right and listened to God even when everything didn’t seem to turn out right. Let me give you several quick thoughts that will help you when good does not seem to pay back good dividends.
First, God is always right! When good doesn’t seem to pay, you must realize that God is always right. We don’t always know why God doesn’t allow good to immediately pay, but we must always realize that God is always right.
Second, God may be testing you to see if you truly trust Him. Many times God doesn’t allow good to immediately pay just to see if we truly trust Him. God’s silence in our life is a test to see if we will continue to do right whether or not right seems to pay. We must be careful that we don’t do right just because it pays well, we must do right because right is the right thing to do. God not coming through immediately may be a test that He is putting us through to see if we truly do trust Him.
Thirdly, if we will continue to do right, good will pay good dividends. Let me remind you that Romans 8:28 is still in the Bible and that it still says “…all things work together for good to them that love God.” “All things” means even what you are going through. Let me also remind you that Galatians 6:7 still says, “…for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” Good will eventually pay back good dividends if you will just keep doing right.
I do not know what you are facing today. I know at times it seems that doing good may only bring bad, but let me remind you that God’s Word is always right and has NEVER been wrong. Let me encourage you that whatever good you are doing, God notices it and you will eventually reap what you have sown if you will just keep doing right. Whatever you do, DON’T GIVE UP!
Be On Time
1 Samuel 13:11-12
“And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou camest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash; Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the LORD: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.”
When I read this story, I believe many times we blame the wrong man for what has happened in this story. Saul, I believe is not wholly to blame for his wrong doing. Now don’t misunderstand me, I don’t believe in passing the buck to someone else and blaming our shortcomings on others. I am a big believer in taking personal responsibility for our own actions. One thing is missed in this story and that is that Samuel did not come at his appointed time. Samuel apparently had promised Saul that he was going to come at a certain time, and Samuel did not keep his own appointment. Because of Samuel not being on time, Saul offered a burnt offering which he had no business doing. Though Saul was ultimately to blame for his own wrong, I believe that the tardiness of Samuel led to this wrong. If Samuel would have been on time, maybe he could have salvaged Saul from doing wrong. We will never know. We do know one thing; Samuel’s tardiness certainly hurt many others.
Those who know me best know one thing that I am a stickler for and that is being on time. I do not believe there is a good excuse for being late. Being tardy is nothing more than a lack of character and a sin against God. We must understand, if we say we are going to be somewhere at a certain time, then we have given our word. For us to not be on time is nothing more than lying. We never know what our tardiness will cause others to do. We never know if our being late will cause others to do wrong. I would hate to think that my being late caused someone to go into sin. I know you may think this is being petty, but God has always been on time and I believe we should be on time as well.
Being on time takes planning. You must figure out what time you are supposed to be at a place. Then, you must figure out how long it takes you to drive there. Then, you must figure the time it takes you to get ready to go. Once you have all of this figured out, then you can subtract that time from the time you are supposed to arrive and that is when you must start getting ready. Being late is simply poor planning. You can be on time if you choose to be on time.
Whatever you do, be on time for everything that you are going to do. Be on time for church. Be on time for work. Be on time for school. Be on time for soul winning. Be on time for a lunch engagement. Just be on time. Don’t fall trap to the flaw in life of constantly being late. Be a person who is known for being on time. Don’t ever let it be said of you as it was of Samuel; that because of your tardiness you caused another to do wrong. Just be on time all the time, and you will never have to worry about this being said about you.
Jealousy Kills Teamwork
1 Samuel 18:8
“And Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him; and he said, They have ascribed unto David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed but thousands: and what can he have more but the kingdom?”
Nothing will destroy teamwork more than jealousy. Inside this verse is the story of David and Saul after the slaughter of Goliath. What a great victory God had given to Israel through the hand of David. With Israel working together they were able to do great things. Now as they come home from the battle, the ladies of the city were singing the song, “…Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” I can only imagine King Saul as he heared the first part of the song, how his heart must have been lifted up in pride as he thought the ladies of the city were welcoming him back. Then came the remainder of the verse where they ascribed to David ten thousands. When Saul heard David getting more praise than he, we immediately see the ugly eye of jealousy creeping into the heart of Saul. What a tragedy that Saul let this little song destroy his spirit toward a very loyal servant. What a tragedy that Saul was willing to let jealousy kill what teamwork had done for Israel.
Yet, the same thing happens on the job, in the church and in our society all the time. If we are not careful, we can get more wrapped up in the accolades of people than realizing how much teamwork can accomplish.
When trying to accomplish something, we cannot get jealous of someone because they get more praise than us. We must realize that we are all on the same team and though one may get more praise than the other, without the team the victory would not have been won. It takes teamwork for great victories to be won. It takes teamwork for the giants of life to be defeated. It takes teamwork for great causes to flourish. Superstars do not win championships. Teamwork wins championships, but jealousy can destroy a championship team.
In our churches, we must be careful not to let the praise of others cause us to become jealous. If we let jealousy creep into our churches, then our churches will cease to accomplish great things. Pastors cannot become jealous of another pastor who gets recognition because his church is bigger. That will kill us! We all need to work together to accomplish great things for God. When someone receives praise, we should be excited that God has blessed someone in that matter. When we get past the stage of worrying about who will get the recognition for the work being done, then great things can happen. I love the quote that says, “It is amazing how much you can accomplish when it doesn’t matter who gets the credit.” When everyone is concerned with just doing the work of God and not about who is going to get the credit for doing the work, then it is amazing the unity and the work that will be accomplished.
Let us be careful not to let our jealousy over someone else’s recognition destroy the teamwork that we have going for us. Let us remember, in God’s work there is no place for jealousy, there is only place for teamwork. When jealousy starts creeping in, great works cease because jealousy kills teamwork. Teamwork in the work of the Lord will accomplish great things.
Better Things To Come
Hebrews 11:13-15
“These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.”
One of the most important things that we can learn in life is the principle of burning our bridges. We notice that in this passage of Scripture that all the saints of God looked for a better city. We notice that it says they embraced being a pilgrim and confessed that not only were they pilgrims in the land they dwelt in, but also strangers. In other words, they did not get too comfortable in the land in which they dwelt. Instead, they lived in that land looking for a better city, but then comes the key to them continuing on in this manner. The Bible states in this verse that they stopped being mindful of the country from which they came, and instead, accepted the seeking of the city in which God wanted them to dwell.
Herein is one of the keys of the Christian life. First of all, we must firmly settle in our hearts that we are not of this world. We must stop embracing this world, and start embracing the world to which we are going. We must stop getting so comfortable in this world that we stop looking for the city of promise. Too many Christians are setting up stakes in this old world. No wonder they have not the faith to step out and do great things for God. If you are ever going to do something great for God, you must not get too comfortable in this world. In other words, stop living for the possessions of this world.
Then secondly, we will never be successful in the Christian life until we burn the bridges to the past. Notice, if they had been mindful of the country from whence they came, the Bible says they would have gone back. Sometime in your life you must burn your bridges to the past. Accept and embrace the present. Until you embrace the present, you will never do great things for God. Too many people leave something in the past and always hold on to the hope of just maybe going back someday. This will never work in the Christian life. You must decide to completely burn your bridges and settle in your heart that you will never go back. Embrace the stage of life you are in or the place of life in which you dwell. Until bridges of the past are burnt, you will never completely be able to do for God what He wants you to do.
The success of your Christian life is dependent on these two things: not getting too comfortable in this present world and embracing where you are by burning the bridges to the past. Do you have bridges that need to be burnt? Is there still something you hold onto from the past? Decide now that you will never go back to the past, and embrace where you are in the present. Set up stakes in the present, seeking a better country. If you will stop living in the past and getting comfortable in this world, then that better country is waiting for you.
Don’t Dig A Pit For Yourself
Proverbs 26:27
“Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.”
In the Bible, we find that God classifies sin in different ways. For instance, God calls some sin iniquity, some transgressions and some sin He calls evil. The worst of all sin is evil. Now I know that all sin is wrong and all sin is bad, but evil is especially wrong because of the degree to which it affects others. Evil is doing wrong with the intent to hurt someone. Evil is not just sinning, but it is committing sin with the purpose of trying to hurt someone.
God warns us in this verse to be careful about digging a pit for someone else to fall into because very likely we will be the one who falls into the pit. He again intensifies the warning by telling us not to try and roll a stone upon someone to hurt them because the stone will end up coming right back on us. What God was trying to get across to us is, when we make plans to try to hurt someone or to destroy someone it will end up backfiring on us, and we will be the one who is destroyed.
I think of several stories like this in the Bible. I think first of the story of Haman and Mordecai. Haman had such a hatred for the Jews that he had moved the king to have all Jews destroyed. Yet there was only one Jew that he despised and even hated. This Jew was Mordecai. His reasoning for hating Mordecai was because Mordecai would not bow down to Haman as Haman would pass by. This ate Haman up to the point that he started building gallows to have Mordecai hung on. To keep this story short, the very gallows that were built to kill Mordecai ended up being the gallows that Haman was hung on. Why? Because when you dig a pit to destroy someone else you will end up falling into that very pit.
I also think of the story of Joseph’s brothers who had literally dug a pit and thrown Joseph in it. Their intent was to sell him into slavery and let the hand of his master kill him. This plot turned on them as years later their lives were at the mercy of the hand of Joseph. Joseph could have had them killed but did not because he was a better man than they. Again, they dug a pit to hurt someone else, and the pit ended up being the hurt of those who dug it.
All I am trying to say is, never become a person who sets out to destroy someone else. This is a very evil sin. It matters not what a person has done to you, never be guilty of living to see someone destroyed. We must realize that God writes everything down, and God will reward them for their deeds and what they have done to you. Though we may not like God’s timetable of justice, God’s justice is much better than what we could ever do to a person. You see if you try to destroy someone, then you have become no better than them. We must live with ourselves, and we must be able to sleep at night. We will have a hard time doing this if all we do is live to destroy someone else.
Just remember that life is too short to live with this type of attitude. Decide to let whatever has happened to you go, and move on realizing that in God’s timing He will take care of them. If you don’t, you will one day find yourself in the very pit of life that you wanted them to be in. That pit is misery. Trying to make someone else miserable will only make you miserable. Don’t be guilty of digging a pit for someone else.
“Thank You” Is Not Hard To Say
Esther 2:21-23
“In those days, while Mordecai sat in the king's gate, two of the king's chamberlains, Bigthan and Teresh, of those which kept the door, were wroth, and sought to lay hand on the king Ahasuerus. And the thing was known to Mordecai, who told it unto Esther the queen; and Esther certified the king thereof in Mordecai's name. And when inquisition was made of the matter, it was found out; therefore they were both hanged on a tree: and it was written in the book of the chronicles before the king.”