Daily Devotion: Prosperity Is Double-Edged
đź“śđź“śTEXT:ISAIAH 9:8-21đź“śđź“ś
🔑📖KEY VERSE: “The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars” (ISAIAH 9:10).
Many who cry to God asking for riches and promotion do not appear to be ready for the price needed to retain the wealth while simultaneously maintaining a “meek and quiet spirit”. They do not understand that prosperous times are trial times.
Will you have more or less time to serve God when riches arrive? Will your newly-found wealth replace the Lord as your new love, such that the zeal for His work will take second place as long as you are able to give the church what it needs for its building projects? Will arrogance set in?
The people of the northern kingdom of Israel ran into such a challenge that became their undoing. They exhibited “pride and stoutness of heart”. They felt they did not need God. From their narrow point of view, they were self-sufficient.
But the Lord would not overlook iniquity not sincerely repented of. He pronounced punishment that would come through military attacks from Israel’s traditional enemies, Syria and the Philistines. The wickedness of Israel was widespread and God’s fury ravaged the land as the logical consequences of the people’s transgressions. He kept on reminding them that “his anger is not turned away, but his hand (of judgment) is stretched out still”.
Has God withdrawn His hand of judgment over the sinful across the world? No; because in Isaiah 13:11, He repeats what He has always told the world: “…I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible”.
The only way to escape this inevitable and fast approaching day of the outpouring of the Lord’s wrath is to confess and forsake sin, accept Jesus Christ as Lord and personal Saviour, and settle for humility and righteousness.
✍THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Prosperous days are tricky times!
đź“śđź“śTHE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: NUMBERS 22-25đź“śđź“ś