OPEN
HEAVEN DAILY DEVOTIONAL
GOD'S
COMMANDMENTS
MEMORISE:
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his
commandments are not grievous". 1 John 5:3
READ: Luke 11:27-28 (KJV)
27 And it came to pass, as he
spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and
said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast
sucked.
28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the
word of God, and keep it.
BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Hosea 1-4
MESSAGE:
When God gives a commandment,
many people think that it is for His own good, whereas every commandment that
He gives is for our good. When you disobey God, you are actually hurting
yourself; He remains God whether you obey Him or not. Those who choose
to disobey God are the ones that are actually losing, not God.
When
God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son to Him, it was not because He wanted to
eat the boy for breakfast; it was because He wanted Abraham’s obedience to open
the door to irreversible blessings for him and his seed. If
Abraham had disobeyed, he would have missed out on such a great blessing.
When Elisha told Naaman to go and wash in the river Jordan, it was not because
he wanted to humiliate him, it was because he wanted him to be healed of
leprosy.
Naaman almost missed his
healing because of his pride. If he had not gone to wash, Elisha would not have
lost anything, but Naaman would have died a leper. When
God gives you an instruction, no matter how difficult it seems, you stand to
gain a lot more from obeying it. God
gave man a special gift, and that is free will. This free will is one of the
things that makes us more special than all His other creations.
You can decide to obey or
disobey Him if you want. However, to justify any blessing that He wants to give
to you, He wants you to obey Him out of your free will. If
you disobey His instruction, you are using your free will against Him, and that
will disqualify you from receiving the blessings that are attached to the
instruction.
When God sent Elijah to the
widow of Zarephath for food, he told the woman to give him her last meal. It
was not Elijah who needed a miracle; God had already been feeding him
supernaturally up until that time. God
wanted to test the widow to see if she would use her free will for herself or
Him. She passed the test, and in return, she had more than enough food to last
her through the famine.
Also,
when her son died in 1 Kings 17:17-22, because she had obeyed God, Elijah was
there to bring him back to life. Beloved,
obeying God is always for your good.
KEY POINT
Never miss an opportunity to
show God that your free will is for Him.
© 2024 Open Heavens Daily Devotional Lessons was written by
Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of
God, one of the largest evangelical Churches in the world, and also the
President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.