Topic: Is It Perfect? [Wednesday August 2, 2017]
Text: 2 Kings 14:1-7
Key Verse: ” And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, yet not like David his father: he did according to all things as Joash his father did” 2 Kings 14:3
David Livingstone, the great missionary to Africa, made an attempt to compare the efforts he put into the preaching of the gospel in Africa with the sacrifice Jesus made to redeem mankind from eternal damnation and concluded that there was no ground for comparison. In his words, “People thought of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa.
Can that be called a sacrifice which simply paid back a small part of the great debt owed to our God, which we can never fully repay? Hence, one of the ways of paying back the debt owed to our God is rendering perfect service to Him” Amaziah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord but not like David. He acted well in some measure like Joash, his father. He began well but did not persevere. He kept his attendance to God’s altar and his attention to God’s word, yet not like David.
It is, therefore, not enough to do that which our pious predecessors did, merely to keep up the usage, but we must do it as sincerely as it ought to have been done. “Howbeit the high places were not taken away: as yet the people did sacrifice and burnt incense on the high places”. This was his great handicap! The scripture sternly warns: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Dear reader, have you taken away those ‘high places’ of idol in your heart (worldliness, evil association, forgery and the likes)? Whatever it is that you esteem above God in your heart is a ‘high place’; it is an idol! You cannot serve God and mammon. The modern day attitude that says it-doesn’t-matter in Christian living and services are to be avoided like plagues! Perfect service unto God is a forerunner to the believer’s daily victory and a guarantee of eternal bliss.
Thought for the day: The minutest stain on a white garment marks a blight that subtracts from its immaculate beauty.
Bible Reading in one Year: 2 Corinthians 5-9
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
