Check It

Heb.11:¹³  (KJV) 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.

In your walk with God, you will inevitably get to points where you will need to choose. The Bible talks about it in Heb.11:¹⁰ (KJV) “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” The Bible says they saw the city, the promise from afar off so they could not settle. Many of them died without entering the promise but God still called them generals of faith. Jesus spoke about such faith in the parable of the persistent widow in Luke 18. He said in Luke 18:⁸ “…But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” The kind of faith that will persistently push for a favourable judgment and not buckle or back down.

I have heard people give God ultimatums. One lady in particular said, “God, I am giving you this year to perform. I have been a good girl since I got born again. If after this year you do not perform, I cannot guarantee You anything. Whatever happens from then on is Your fault!” When she is far gone and forgotten, God will still be God! We have to embrace the Sovereignty of God and understand that it is for our own good. We always win at the end. If we have not won, then check, it is not the end yet. Look at the list of temptations below, identify the ones you struggle with and tick them. If yours is not stated here, then write it in the space provided and tick it. Remember, this is between you and God. Admitting is the first step to freedom;

• Cheating at play or at work
• Going to “prayer houses”, “spiritual consultants”, etc. [instead of trusting God yourself].
• Laziness
• Crossing boundaries with the opposite sex
• Drinking
• Gossiping about others
• Others: ___________________________________________________________________________________________

Daniel and his friends were far away from home, they could have rationalized any behavior. The paradigm in the Old Testament was that God is in one location, the temple. For us in the New Testament, our paradigm is that our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit, we carry God around. Daniel and his friends were kilometers away from the temple but still feared God. We are carrying the temple, carrying God around and we do not fear God. Something is wrong with that!

Prayer: Father, fill me afresh with the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord so that I will delight in obeying You at all times, in Jesus Name. Amen!