DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 10 May 2025: Contrasting Habits
Text: Luke 22:1-13 (KJV)
Now the Feast of Unleavened Bread drew near, which is called Passover. 2 And the chief priests and the scribes sought how they might kill Him, for they feared the people.
3 Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. 4 So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them. 5 And they were glad, and agreed to give him money. 6 So he promised and sought opportunity to betray Him to them in the absence of the multitude.
7 Then came the Day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover must be killed. 8 And He sent Peter and John, saying, “Go and prepare the Passover for us, that we may eat.”
9 So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?”
10 And He said to them, “Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. 11 Then you shall say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ’ 12 Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.”
13 So they went and found it just as He had said to them, and they prepared the Passover.
KEY VERSE: (Luke 22:3)
“Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.”
A famous proverb among a large language stock in West Africa says that when wicked persons act out their evil thoughts and later protest the devil’s influence, we should disbelieve them. Their act is the product of an ingrained habit not allowed to be uprooted by heaven. The tendency to do evil is always present in them; they only need someone to prod them.
Judas had always been a covetous fellow. Satan reminded him of the old habit, and he fell for it. Contrast that with the attitude of two other disciples, Peter and John. They had always been faithful to the Lord. Christ asked them to prepare where to observe the Passover. True to character, they did so. Both parties acted on inbred nature: Peter and John on what Christ had built in them, and Judas on a satanic trait.
Testing times may emerge at decisive stages when we walk with the Lord. Here is Christ, about to observe His last Passover Feast with His disciples. The devil works on Judas’ old habit of betraying his Master. He feeds on that characteristic which Judas has refused to release to Christ to uproot. But here we have John and Peter. They have “left all”, including their hereditary behaviour, for Jesus to trash. Unlike in Judas, where he locates a home of greed, Satan comes and finds nothing to exploit for evil.
In order not to fail the critical tests of our salvation in Christ, we must constantly ensure that we have truly forsaken the luggage of the old nature: greed, worldliness, pride, lust, self-righteousness, self-will, prayerlessness, not heeding the signs of the times, not giving quality time to read and study the Bible, harbouring an unforgiving spirit, selfishness, spiritual laziness and so on. These cannot cohabit with the new life in Christ. Otherwise, the devil will readily find what to latch onto in us to lure us back into sin.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: It’s important to examine what you do and, more importantly, what you are.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Corinthians 5-7
Daily Manna 10 May 2025
