“In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes, and some for ignoble” - 2 Tim 2:20 (NIV)
A certain family had two cars, and normally used the one in best condition. However, whenever this family received a request for a car to help out some visiting missionaries, it would send the best car and settle for the one that was less desirable. What is here remarkable that on the other hand many other families at church when asked would just send the car they did not need to help out stranded missionaries.
Isn’t that interesting and don’t we see it so often! How often do we preserve the best for God’s work? In our time keeping do we give God the best hour? Of our finances do we give God the best portion or just the left overs? In our work do we begin by honoring God or we simply recognize God at the end, when all is spent!
Just as in a house there are special vessels for special occasions, let us always keep the best aside for God’s work. After all God has given us the best, our lives, and why assign Him anything less.
Prayer for today: Lord Father in heaven today I pray that you always enable me reserve the very best for your work and glory!
Related upcoming events
-
19/04/2024 - 20/04/2024 All day“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland” ( Isaiah 43:19).
Just before fire was unleashed down on Sodom and Gommorah, Lot was told to pack up with his wife and two daughters and leave their homestead. Now, once out of danger, “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt” ( Gen 19:26). Perhaps here we might pause and ask why she was bothered to look back.
Of course it could have been that old “curiosity killed a cat” mistake! Yet, it could also have been Lot’s wife was not sure where she was going and longed for her old life back. This is a common error. There was nothing stirring to look back. Just before Lot’s neighbors had attacked his house eager to rape his visitors. “They called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them” ( vv 5). Was there anything worth looking back to!
The case of Lot’s wife could be anyone else’s experience. The Lord has plucked you out of some mess. You have been delivered to a new life. Yet, somehow you decide to look back, as though there was anything good and worth longing for. Sometimes it is a bitter past you have been delivered from. Other than rejoice in your new blessings you keep being drawn back!
A wise caution goes, “As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly” ( Proverbs 26:11). If the Lord has just led you out of a certain mess why look back like it was much better! Instead look ahead, for “he who made a way through the sea, a path through the mighty waters, who drew out the chariots and horses, the army and reinforcements together, and they lay there, never to rise again, extinguished, snuffed out like a wick: Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past” ( vv 17- 18).
Prayer today: Lord Father God of Abraham, maker of heaven and earth, I thank you for delivering me from the darkness of the past and I look forward to a bright new future in you, this I pray in Jesus’ name!
