Memorise: Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: Hebrews 3:8
Read: Hebrews 3:7-19
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Bible in one year: Job 25-29, Matthew 16:5-28
AS REVEALED BY PASTOR E.A ADEBOYE IN TODAY’S DEVOTIONAL
1. Unbelief has been a reoccurring problem of mankind in spite of the abundant signs and wonders which the Almighty has demonstrated over the years. It is even more pronounced in this generation, where knowledge based on observations has tremendously increased as indicated by the Holy Spirit (Daniel 12:4).
2. Because the human mind is crafted from childhood to be built around sense-based observations and not on faith, unbelief reigns supreme within the natural man. No wonder the Lord Jesus Christ in Luke 18:8b asked this question: “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?
3. You may think unbelief is just a problem of the world, since anyone who comes to God must believe that He is, according to Hebrews 11:6. Well, let me announce to you that more than ever before, the problem of unbelief is now characteristic of the church.
4. The early church also had this problem and this was why the Holy Spirit sent us this warning in Hebrew 3:12 “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any if you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”
5. The devil has craftily repackaged this old menace of unbelief in our time. When the authenticity of the Bible is being questioned and the relevance of its contents to the 21st century Church is being debated among high ranking church councils and leaders, should we be looking for unbelief elsewhere?
6. Decades ago, some scholars sowed the seed of unbelief, and the Church seemed to be careless about it. They suggested that the New Testament needed to be “demystified”, so that the modern man could embrace the divine literature. In essence, certain things such as the accounts of miracles should be removed from the New Testament so that Christianity could sound logical to the modern mind.
7. The Evangelicals and Pentecostals never thought that this is evil seed would find its way into their fold. Now we know better.
8. Today, we have a situation where several Church leaders don’t believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Several so-called archbishops don’t believe Jesus is the only Way that leads to salvation. Several Christians don’t believe in the reality of eternal punishment in hell fire. These and several other forms of unbelief have taken hold in the hearts of many simple hearted Christians who are too lazy to search the scriptures to experience the truth of God’s word themselves.
9. Little by little, the core of our faith as Christians is being eroded away. The question that Jesus asked about faith, which seemed so farfetched in His day, is increasingly becoming real in our day. This is why the Holy Spirit is saying to us in Habakkuk 2:4b: “…but the just shall live by his faith.” What is the state of your faith in God and His immutable word today?
SHORT REFLECTION BY THE LIGHT POINTERS
James 1:6-8 “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Without faith it is impossible to please God. Also, doubt will deprive its carrier of receiving from God. This the man in the man in Mark 9:24 realised and he cried out. “Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” My counsel to any believer harbouring unbelief is to discard it totally and embrace faith in God for all things are possible with God! May God continually uphold and strengthen Pastor E.A Adeboye in Jesus name.
Prayer Point:
Father, please help me so that my faith may not be eroded by unbelief under the guise of ‘modernism’.
Hymn
There shall be showers of blessing:
This is the promise of love;
There shall be seasons refreshing,
Sent from the Savior above.
[Chorus]
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.
[Chorus]
There shall be showers of blessing:
Send them upon us, O Lord;
Grant to us now a refreshing;
Come, and now honor Thy Word.
[Chorus]
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!
[Chorus]
RECENT COMMENTS
Joesphine Ehigie
TJ