Hello! A blessed and refreshing day to you my dearly beloved! I
welcome you to ARISE devotional for today, Friday the 22nd of
March 2024 on the platform of the Builders Forum. My name is
Abraham Olufemi Ojeme
Today is the fifth day on our devotional series for this week
with the topic,
UNDERSTANDING THE SUBTLE HINDRANCES TO WALKING
WITH THE LORD
Let me give a summary of our deliberations since the beginning
of the week as follows;
1) Our focus since the beginning of the year has been how to
maintain an intimate walk of faith with the Lord.
2) The purpose of this walk is much to be like God than to
take from Him.
3) We however discover that one major intention of the devil
is to disrupt the walk of the believer with God.
4) We therefore began to look at the hindrances to walking
with God.
5) We discovered that the hindrances the devil often uses are
the subtle ones.
6) We classified these subtle hindrances into three categories
as follows; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the
pride of life.
7) Yesterday, we deliberated extensively on the pride of life.
The take away in looking at these subtle hindrances is the
deception of the subtlety.
That is where the enemy misleads the indiscernible believer.
All he wants is for you to violate the word of God and in doing
that, he deceives with the things you may consider not too
terrible.
Of course he won’t push you into obvious sins like fornication,
adultery, stealing, murder and all those heinous crimes.
But we understand that for the believer, the definition of sin is
different from unbelievers.
Take a listen to 1 Jn. 5:17 and please permit me to read the
AMP translation.
(AMP)“All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not
lead to death [one can repent of it and be forgiven].”
By scriptural definition, all unrighteousness is sin before the
Lord.
Righteousness simply means right standing before the Lord. It is
not just about what you did or didn’t do.
It is a matter of your standing before God in thought, words or
deeds.
It goes beyond action and begins from intentions.
Take a listen to Jer. 17:10 and please permit me to read the
ERV translation.
(ERV) But I am the LORD, and I can look into a person's heart.
I can test a person's mind and decide what each one should
have. I can give each person the right payment for what they
do.
This is where the pride of life comes in.
The intention in the heart of man is often completely different
from what you see on the surface and this includes believers.
Take a listen to 1 Sam. 2:3 and please permit me to read the
GW translation.
(GW) "Do not boast or let arrogance come out of your mouth
because the LORD is a God of knowledge, and he weighs our
actions.
One of the most grievous manifestations of the devil these days
is pushing believers into making pretentious proclamations in
the name of confident faith.
Particularly when you can’t vividly see God in such boastings.
When you see boasting that portrays the boaster more than
Jehovah, it is a red flag of the pride of life.
Any boasting that points people to the capacity of the man of
God more than the God of the man, is the pride of life in action.
We saw this in Nebuchadnezzar and Herod the tetrarch. We
know how they both ended their lives.
The pride of life is a dangerously subtle weapon in the hands of
the devil. Caution!
Please listen again and again to all the earlier editions of the
week. Hallelujah!
One of the best ways to learn the lesson on how to avoid
hindrances in walking with the Lord is to look at the history of
God’s people in the Bible.
Take a listen to Ps. 78:40-42.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and
grieve him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the
Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he
delivered them from the enemy.
Let me give a background narration of what David was saying in
this portion of scriptures.
If you read the following verses of scriptures, David recounted
the experiences of the children of Israel as they journeyed
through the wilderness on their way to the promised land.
They had uncountable interventions of God in diverse areas of
their lives. From provisions, to protection and direction across
land and seas.
But check all through that journey of 40 years, all you hear from
these people were complaints and grumbling.
The scripture says they provoked and tempted the Lord.
And I imagined that how did they do that?
Take a listen again to Ps. 78:42.
They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he
delivered them from the enemy.
This is one of the most subtle of hindrances in walking with the
Lord.
The word remembered in that scripture is zâkar in Hebrew and
it means to to recall, recount and mention.
It begins from your mind, expressed with your mouth and
behaved with your life.
Remembering is a whole body language. It can be perceived
and felt. It can’t be hidden.
But unfortunately, we are quick to remember the promises of
God yet to be fulfilled in our lives and quick to forget the ones
He has done.
This sense of ingratitude is a subtle hindrance to walking with
God.
How many believers begin the day with a heart of gratitude to
the Lord for the gift of a brand new day?
Take a listen to King David in Ps. 3:5.
I laid me down and slept; I awaked; for the LORD sustained
me.
My dear friend, does it occur to you that you didn’t wake up in
the morning because it is a new day?
You woke up because the Lord sustained you.
That same morning, many people didn’t wake up. Not because
of sickness or accident, they didn’t wake up because the Author
and Giver of life wasn’t fabourable to them.
Now, you that woke up, what makes you think you deserved to
wake up?
That is why we must remember to be grateful for the tender
mercies of the Lord.
Take a listen to 2 Cor. 4:7 and please permit me to read TPT.
(TPT) For what makes a distinction between you and
someone else? And what do you have that grace has not given
you? And if you received it as a gift, why do you boast as
though there is something special about you?
Oftentimes we are carried away by the goodness of God in our
lives forgetting to remember that He is the Author and reason
for that goodness.
A wise man said it well when he said;
The human memory is utterly distorted because we forget
what we should remember and remember what we should
forget
My dear, don’t allow that subtle ingratitude become hindrance
to your walk with the Lord.
Deal with it today as you make intentional gratitude a lifestyle.
Let it be in your thoughts, words and action as a lifestyle.
Hallelujah!
Am gonna leave behind for you this prophetic worship song by
Clint Brown – If Not For Grace!
Enjoy and be blessed in this new day given to you by the grace
of God. Happy weekend. Shalom!
