ESOCS Devotional 8 January 2021
TEXT: MATTHEW 24:29-51
MEMORY VERSE: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:37 NIV
We are witnesses to the fulfilment of the words of our Lord concerning the times we live in, the End Time. There have been wars and rumours of wars. Nations have risen against nations. Knowledge has increased greatly, even to the detriment of human existence, wellbeing, and peace. Wickedness and evil have risen to such alarming rate that it seems the era before the flood and the ungodliness of Sodom and Gomorrah were a huge joke. Demonism, Satanism, witchcraft, and occultism have become common practice. Corruption and unbridled immorality are much fashionable, and are now the ideal, to the extent that anyone who lives a virtuous lifestyle appears odd among others. The world is simply upside-down, and standing on its head. All forms of criminality and bloodletting are now almost normal occurrences, so much so that someone dying does not evoke grief anymore, virtually.
““As it was in the days of Noah,” is a recurrent theme in our time. People have shut up their minds against reason, and concern themselves with the things that gratify the desires of the flesh. Genuine spirituality has no meaning anymore. Hypocrisy and falsehood reign everywhere; and chastity and sanctity have been slain on the altar of lasciviousness and moral bankruptcy. Sin is trendy, and those who glorify it are given preference to the pious. Everything replicates the days of Noah, or even worse.
What standard of life does God expect us to live at this End Time? Knowing too well that the time is short and that the Soon Coming King would soon be here, what should be our attitude? Even the devil, knowing that his time has come, is desperate to destroy more souls and wreck evil on humanity. How about us? How conscious are we of living the right kind of life, as the world is coming to an end, and judgement would follow after? Have we taken time to search ourselves to ensure that we identify those characters in us that are not found in our Lord Jesus, and eliminate them from us? What is our sincere response to God in His clarion call to us to abandon the world and run into His kingdom? As it was in the days of Noah ….
Read yesterday’s ESOCS Devotional here
The times we live in are not the times for complacency and revelling. We are in a desperate moment. Like a drowning man struggles to save his life, even more than so, let us be anxious to save our souls. The Bible says, “Deliver yourself, as a roe or gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler” (Prov. 6:5 AMP). No one would do it for us. Let us determine to walk the path of righteousness, which is the pathway of Christ, and His everlasting kingdom. On that road, we would have much gain. He would guide us to the end, and nothing shall harm or hinder us. We would be His friends, and the sheep of His pasture. We would be members of the Fathers holy family in which He is the Firstborn Son (Rom. 8:29). There is no better relationship we should have and maintain, with utmost care and devotion. Let us understand that the world profits nothing; but the kingdom of God is everything to us.
Let us fight with avowed commitment and zeal, the battle that is set before us. When we win eventually, we would cease from all our labours, and cares, and worries. We would enter into the Lord’s rest (Heb. 4:10-11). The Bible says, “[We] shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun smite [us], nor any scorching heat. For the Lamb Who is in the midst of the throne will be [our] Shepherd, and He will guide [us] to the springs of the waters of life; and God will wipe away every tear from [our] eyes” (Rev. 7:16-17 AMP).
CHALLENGES
Try as much as you can and create the world of Jesus Christ for yourself and live in it only.
PRAYER POINT
Lord, help me to live according to your word, and not according to the ways of the world.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 7:1-25; 5:18-30; 2 Timothy 3:1-4, 8
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ESOCS Devotional 8 January 2021
