ESOCS Devotional 5 September 2024 – Know Your Limit and Be Satisfied With What You Are
MEMORY VERSE: “So John said to all of them, I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater. I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire.” Luke 3:16
TEXT: LUKE 3:15-22
Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not, 16 John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
18 And with many other exhortations he preached to the people. 19 But Herod the tetrarch, being rebuked by him concerning Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and for all the evils which Herod had done, 20 also added this, above all, that he shut John up in prison.
21 When all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. 22 And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are My beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.”
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It is deadly to take up a task which your capacity cannot execute. The best is to do those things which you can afford to do. There should be no shame about being who you are. In our text today, John the Baptist, through his prophetic activities had gained a high regard for himself in the eyes of the people. It was such that “people’s hope began to rise and they began to wonder whether John might be the messiah” (Luke 3:15).
But alas, John was satisfied with the position of the ministry that God has allotted to him. He owned up to the extent of his mission and acknowledged the one with a higher anointing and a superior mission: “…I baptize you with water, but someone is coming who is much greater that I am. I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 3:16)
God has an organized plan for the salvation of men on earth. From the time of Abraham to the coming and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we see a progressive unfolding of God’s purpose for our salvation. Men of God are raised in different ages to perform a portion of the task to actualize God’s purpose. In all situations, we see anointed men working together but each according to the portion of the mission given to him, ending it with the desired result. In Ephesians 4:11, Apostle Paul stated that it was God who gave gifts to people to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers.
The early apostles had this diversity of gifts and worked together, supporting each other and they had the result that we all in Christian faith enjoy today. They knew their limits and acknowledged and supported each other. In this way, “they reached to the very height of Christ’s full stature” (Eph. 4:13).
Let us therefore, who have received Christ a portion of his anointing be satisfied with the measure that we have. Tolerate, acknowledge and support others. The same way that every star has a space to occupy in the sky, so has God provided space for every one of us to operate.
- Are you satisfied with what God is doing in and through you?
- May I live to grow to the full stature of Christ, in Jesus name. Amen.
Further Reading: Deuteronomy 34 :1-end; Daniel 3:19-end; Acts 15: 1-21
ESOCS Devotional 5 September 2024
