CAC Living Water Daily Devotional – You Are On A Pilgrimage

CAC Living Water Daily Devotional |  Saturday, December 18, 2021 | You Are On A Pilgrimage

Topic: Saturday, December 18, 2021 [International Migrants Day]

Read: Nehemiah 2:1-6

Nehemiah 2:1-6 In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad before in his presence.

So the king said to me, Why do you look sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart. Then I was very much afraid

And said to the king, Let the king live forever! Why should I not be sad faced when the city, the place of my fathers’ sepulchers, lies waste, and its [fortified] gates are consumed by fire?

The king said to me, For what do you ask? So I prayed to the God of heaven.

And I said to [him], If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you will send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ sepulchers, that I may rebuild it.

The king, beside whom the queen was sitting, asked me, How long will your journey take, and when will you return? So it pleased [him] to send me; and I set him a time.

MEMORISE: 

The king, beside whom the queen was sitting, asked me, How long will your journey take, and when will you return? So it pleased [him] to send me; and I set him a time. (Nehemiah 2:6).

EXPOSITION

Is it not mysterious that one would embark on a journey that one knows not when it would end? Can someone actually be on a trip he/she is unaware of its terminal point? An answer to these is what the Holy Spirit wants to communicate to us today, which commemorates International Migrants Day.

Nehemiah providentially became the kings cupbearer in Shushan palace of the foreign land of Persia that succeeded the Babylonian empire which exiled the Jews (Neh.1v1). The report of the ruins and devastations of his country home, Israel was brought to him, and this made him so sorrowful and his countenance so unattractive that the king had to ask him about his worries (2v2). Having let the king know what bothered him, Nehemiah was graciously granted permission to travel to Jerusalem to remedy the situation as he had wished. When the king asked him, How long will your journey be? And when will you return?* Nehemiah set him a time he would return to his services.

Conversely, you definitely don’t know the actual time your sojourn here on earth will end. Do you know the actual time you will return to Your Maker? It is a mystery that no one knows his death-day, talk less of the exact type and place of death (cf.Lk.12v20). However, we are privy to the reality and certainty of the end brought through death!

Death shouldn’t be dreaded than what happens after it-judgement (Heb 9v27). You are on an assignment here on earth that you don’t have all the time to carry out. There is a set time to leave (Eccl.3v2). We must therefore be fast at what He gives us to do individually and corporately (Jn.9:4).

What do you do with the ‘short’ time (cf.2.pet.3v8)allotted to you? Frivolities and unnecessary distractions have taken so many people time that they no longer have time for God and His purposes for them. Take an exception to this. Invest your life entirely to place God and do well to all men (1 Cor. 10:31). May we end well.

PRAYER POINTS:

1. Lord, help me to be wise on my earthly pilgrimage.

2. Lord Jesus, help me to rid myself of all frivolities and distractions that can make my sojourn here a waste.

3. Pray for our aged ones that God should help them to be fully prepared to meet Him at their different appointed times.

EXTRA READING FOR TODAY: Hosea 12:11 – 14:9, Joel 1:1 – 2:14, Revelation 6:14 – 7:17

Author: Christ Apostolic Church  [Worldwide]