No contest!
Verse for Today: Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Genesis 26:22a – (Isaac) moved on from there and dug another well.
The world contests God’s people in anything and everything. The world wants to take credit for what is done by us and tries to thwart us of even our legitimate rights and privileges. They confront us with false claims and baseless arguments to drive us out of our ground. They want to take away what is rightly ours and frustrate us by taking away our peace. They try to drag us into baseless arguments. Their desire is to deprive us of our standing as God’s children and make a mockery of us in the world. They often successfully deny us justice. Isaac was a prey to such shadow warfare of the enemy who sent his people to stake claim on anything that Isaac’s servants attempted. But Isaac being a peace-loving person willingly left his legitimate rights behind him and moved away. The enemy couldn’t win over the patience of Isaac the second time also. Isaac was probably considered a fool by the people because he left behind what was legitimately his. But His Lord was watching the unfolding events of how Isaac sought peace and suffered loss for the sake of his testimony. As a reward, the Lord blessed him with Rehoboth. He got a vision of the Lord and the renewal of the promises given to his father Abraham. Isaac’s attitude to the worldly assets and privileges led him to draw closer to the Lord to worship Him. Isaac later found that God blessed him with more water when he settled in Beer-Sheba. Today Isaac stands out as a great example for us to trust the Lord even when the world takes away what legitimately belongs to us. Just like Isaac, we should also be looking forward to the eternal rather than the temporal. We must find satisfaction in that our Lord will give us what we need even when the world takes away all that we have.
Dear friend, are you in the midst of situations where the world is taking away what is legitimately yours? It could be your property, money, job, promotion, position, rank, ministry and even self-respect. Sometimes the enemy will use even believers to deny us our rights. When you are thus confronted, you might be wondering how to handle it. Your ego might make it difficult to give up what is genuinely yours. But if you willingly give up what is yours for the sake of peace and testimony, your Lord will help you to find better things for His name’ sake. He will show you that it is more important to know the Lord intimately than possessing some things that will pass away. If the Lord is your priority, and if you tell Him how you are being deprived, He will give you the grace to give it all up without contest or argument. Remember, when King Soul tried to pierce David with a javelin, he moved away rather than fight back. When Joseph was deprived of his rights, he kept quiet and never fought back. When people accused Daniel, he kept silent and left all things to the Lord. When our Lord Jesus Christ was deprived of even fundamental human rights, He kept quiet and left all things to the Father who is the righteous judge. Perhaps you are challenged by your ego or your kith and kin to fight back for your rights. But Apostle Paul gives us the admonition that we must crucify all temptations to fight back and submit our case to the heavenly appeal court. We must pray for those who try to deprive us, and ask God to forgive them. We must look to the Lord for leading to move on and to seek His kingdom and righteousness so that all our needs will be met according to His riches. Let us learn to joyfully give up without a contest and move forward to our Rehoboth’s and Beer-Sheba’s to enjoy the greater blessings that await us. Let our loss lead us to a time of greater worship and to enjoying newer vision about what the Lord will do in and through us.
Psalms 34:10 – The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Thought for Today
The world can only take away the visible and temporal things from us and not the riches that are in store for us in heaven.
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