Topic: Staying True To God [DCLM Daily Manna 25 October 2020 Devotional By Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi]
Text: Psalm 119:57-64 (KJV)
57 CHETH. Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.
58 I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.
59 I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.
60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.
61 The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.
62 At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.
63 I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts.
64 The earth, O LORD, is full of thy mercy: teach me thy statutes.
Key Verse: “The bands of the wicked have robbed me: but I have not forgotten thy law.” – (Psalm 119:61)
MESSAGE:
A Christian named Ivan endured all the horrors of a Soviet prison camp during the period believers were persecuted by the Russian Communist regime. One day, he was praying with his eyes closed when a fellow prisoner noticed him and said with ridicule, “Prayers won’t help you get out of here any faster.” Opening his eyes, Ivan answered, “I do not pray to get out of prison but to do the will of God.”
The passage under consideration focuses on obedience and submission to the will of God. The Psalmist appears to have one time drifted away from divine precepts but turned again to the path of faith. Even when he was attacked and robbed by bands of wicked men, he retained his confidence in God and kept true to His precepts.
Some people are dropping out of faith these days because of economic hardship and the trials of faith. Truth is, Christianity is not a bed of roses. It involves cross-bearing, temptations and persecution. And the Lord expects us to stay strong when they come. The proof of our faith comes when we keep true to Christ even though we suffer for His sake. We keep pressing on after many have given up and called it quit. We need to understand that the closer we get to the cross, the fewer the crowd becomes. The thousands of followers who ate the miracle bread and fishes were not present by the cross of Christ. Most joined with the world to call for His crucifixion. Even Peter followed afar off, and denied Him thrice.
We must remain true to our faith and be prepared to die for it if necessary. Like Ivan, and many who endured intense persecution in the Russian Gulag, we must commit our ways into God’s hands and ask Him to uphold us in steadfastness till the very end. “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Matthew 24:13).
Thought For The Day: The closer we get to the cross, the lesser the crowd.
The Bible In One Year: Jeremiah 10-12
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.
