OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL: MONDAY, MAY 29TH 2017- BREAD OR CRUMBS?

Memorise; Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me. Proverbs 30:8
Read: Proverbs 30:7-9
7 Two things have I required of thee; deny me them not before I die:
8 Remove far from me vanity and lies: give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food convenient for me:
9 Lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord? or lest I be poor, and steal, and take the name of my God in vain.
Bible in one year: Acts 16-17, Jeremiah 38:1-13

1. What you get from God depends on how contented or dissatisfied you are.
2. While some people ask nothing from the Almighty God who has all things and who can do all things, some others ask for crumbs.
3. Your desire and request go a long way in determining what you get in life. In Matthew 15:21-28, when the woman whose daughter was tormented by demons met the Lord, all she asked for was crumbs: “And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Matthew 15:27
4. Even today, after Jesus had said that the children of the Kingdom are meant to eat at God’s table, many of these children still prefer the crumbs that fall from the Master’s table (Luke 12:32, Matthew 15:26). Where is your focus: the table or the crumbs?
5. Similarly, there is a correlation between your desire and your trust in God. If you really have faith in God, you will be able to ask big. The Bible says those who know their God shall do exploits (Daniel 11:32).
6. In other words, when you know little or nothing about God, when asked to make a request, you will be afraid of asking for too much, and so you will be confined to asking for so little.
7. However, when you know how inexhaustible the resources of God are, it will stir up courage in your heart to ask for big, great and impossible things. Therefore, if you are asking for a used car, a tiny rented apartment or a job that can barely take you away from starvation, it is very possible that you do not know or trust God enough.
8. In today’s Bible reading, Agur made a very humble request. He asked for neither poverty nor wealth. He feared poverty, lest he might be tempted to steal; and he also feared wealth, lest he deny God. Just enough was that he asked for.
9. Using the children of Israel as a model of God’s plan for your life, you will observe that God took them from the wilderness, where they had Manna that was just enough for each day, to a land flowing with milk and honey, where they had more than enough (Exodus 16:15-19, Deuteronomy 6:10-11, Joshua 5:12).
10. Just enough might mean not having reserves to take care of emergencies. That means, in an emergency, you may be forced to go cap in hand borrowing.
11. Are you asking but asking for too little? How can your joy be full if all you have is little? Are you asking for little in consideration of others who are also asking God for the same things?
12. You can never exhaust God’s resources. Ask big and stop limiting yourself!

God’s riches is inexhaustible. He is the All sufficient one and He is available to meet all our needs. We are left with the option to take as much as we want from our father. The woman in our Bible reading who demanded for the grace to eat crumbs got her desire. How much more we who have been saved by grace? Let us see God as He is and not deprive ourselves of what God has provided for His heirs. God bless and strengthen Pastor E.A Adeboye in Jesus name.

Action Point
Ask God for something really big that only He can do for you.
HYMN
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.
Refrain:
Showers of blessing,
Showers of blessing we need:
Mercy-drops round us are falling,
But for the showers we plead.
There shall be showers of blessing,
Precious reviving again;
Over the hills and the valleys,
Sound of abundance of rain.
There shall be showers of blessing;
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing,
Come, and now honor Thy Word.
There shall be showers of blessing:
Oh, that today they might fall,
Now as to God we’re confessing,
Now as on Jesus we call!

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