Good news to welcome your 2024- This devotional warrants an eyebrow-raising headliner: Someone Can Make The Dead Alive!
Feeling the ‘D’ emotionally from the 3Fs (Frustrations, Fears, and Failures) of the modern-day struggles: Dumb, depressed, denied, disapproved, demotivated, disappointed, discouraged, disillusioned, disenfranchised, depreciated, despondent, desperate, demoralized, defeated, debilitated, depleted, deserted……
Actually so much of our stress is self-imposed:
Accumulating the ‘D’ from obsessions:
With our world obsessed with getting more, spending more, doing more. How much is ever enough……
Feeling the ‘D’ from fixations:
We know that the past is no longer in our control, yet we dwell over it. We also tend to believe that we hold the future in our hands, yet we fret about what may come, with joy or pain……
Bearing the ‘D’ from assumptions:
When life sucks, we often wish we can change our present circumstance, whether we are living ok (hoping for something better) or not ok (seeking for a breakthrough)……
Before the year ends, it is high time to give life a clean slate by bidding ‘D’ goodbye. For a certainty, we will not live a life free of trials. Trials are served for purposes to test if our faith holds real, or simply barely surviving on empty words.
At any point in time, our level of faith will unveil how much we trust God – there are some circumstances which we have no control over – He allows such circumstances to happen in our lives in order to give our faith opportunity to be proven, through situations like a compromised business dealing, a project that suddenly turn awry, plans that go south, unexpected persecution, an unreasonable boss, a difficult colleague, or a challenging relationship that requires unconditional love – so as to unravel what is in your mind in order to reveal what is your heart: the “head-ware” or “heart-ware” issue.
That is life. We have our fallibilities and flaws, living with imperfections and inconsistencies, day to day. We will be confronted on any front emotionally, physically, financially, relationally and socially, where we will face the harsh reality that challenge our faith in our natural responses:
Shock: Why did this have to happen?
Anger: Why me?
Grief: What have I lost?
Fear: What is going to happen next?
So what is the case in point- In reality, we often leave God at the periphery of our lives and look for Him only when we are desperate and have no other options. We mess up, rebel and ignore His Truth, then want Him to bail us out. This carnal self-centeredness has been hardwired in our human spirit, since the Fall of Adam.
The reason why our public life is so disordered and our private life so hampered by anxiety is because we will not be still and know God. – A. Maude Royden
Just as a doctor must cause pain when he sets a broken bone so it may heal, so God’s discipline is not capricious but curative, and ultimately life-giving.
God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did. (Romans 4:17)
For He is a Master Fixer. He is a Master Surgeon.
It is a clarion call for us to surrender and buck up, there is no neutral ground. We can trust that God will reveal what we need to know. So long as our faith rest totally in God, we need not weigh the risk of failure, for only He can turn your setbacks into comebacks. Let Him ride with you through your storms and tide over life’s irascibilities.
The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. (Proverbs 16:4 ESV)
P.S. The afterglow of Christmas may have dimmed to welcome 2024, but if you have Jesus in your heart, every day can be celebrated.
After working in a Finance department for 6 months, I am inspired to pen this devotion with accounting terms.
“INSUFFICIENT FUNDS!” sounded ominous that can grip us in total paralysis – You’re OVERDRAWN!
You spent more than you had to spend. You gave more than you had to give. What would you do if you don’t have any money?
Our PAY day is always a good reality check where we usually get more pragmatic if our SAVINGS ACCOUNT be in the SURPLUS or DEFICIT by end of the month after all the minuses….. In addition, our stack of the latest CREDIT CARD statements may add on to our woes……
Our BANK ACCOUNT is God’s business. He is concerned what is in our balances: Have we been managing our finances prudently and wisely? Did we conduct due diligence in checking our EXPENSES, and trace our accountability? Are we in good CREDIT health?
It is time for RECONCILIATION and CONSOLIDATION of all our BANK STATEMENTS. For a certainty, we are all in some sort of financial DEBT due to LOANS and other commitments.
Aside to finances, we are also in debt spiritually and relationally, and our book of life will somewhat have records in the “red”. The crux is, does our book of life record more entries on the negative or the positive?
Don’t be one of those who enter agreements, who put up security for loans. If you have no money to pay, even your bed will be taken from under you.
Proverbs 22:26-27 (HCSB)
Let’s meet The Payee whose name is Jesus, who has paid for everything we owe. He allows us to DRAW and OVERDRAW from God’s heavenly Bank Account with unlimited assets, anytime. God has set aside an ACCOUNT RECEIVABLE where we can receive by faith, and an ACCOUNT PAYABLE where we can pay our due with simple faith:
Debit WORRIES, credit TRUST; Debit FEAR, credit TRUST; Debit INSECURITIES, credit TRUST. Simply MINUS all the negatives and PLUS more positives.
Unload all your burden on to Him, since He is concerned about you.
1 Peter 5:7 (NJB)
So you are going to spend the rest of your days huffing and puffing to get to the drive-through window before the bank closes each month.
P.S. Two more weeks to go and we soon be crossing over to the new year… It is time to have our books in check before the year ends. And the good news is, there is no withholding tax on God’s “with” promise!
Treasures In Jar Of Clay 