Your Refreshing Daily Devotional

Recently, I shared with a servant of God a standard practice whenever I am in need of guidance. In the absence of direct “thus saith the Lord”, I would normally list the options open to me. I would proceed to check the pros and cons of each option while thinking them through and at the same time praying. God guides His people through various methods, including their thoughts. Even if our thought does not provide complete guidance, it may form the foundation from where God will pick us up. That was what happened to Joseph. He was mindful of cutting ties with Mary, but nothing was to be done hurriedly. He gave considerable thought to his plan. It was then that the Holy Spirit interrupted his plan and urged him not to break off from Mary. Thinking through the options was all the opportunity God needed to speak to him.

In our text, Peter did not immediately comprehend the meaning of the trance which he saw. He fixed his thoughts on this rather strange revelation, trying to decode it. It was while he also was thinking through that the Spirit of the Lord latched to his thoughts and gave him direction. It has been my own experience in many cases that the thoughts I take during or immediately after prayers have always indicated the direction of the Lord.

The more we get our minds purified, and the more we study to be quiet, the quicker it is for the Spirit of the Lord to invade our thoughts with divine ideas, concepts, and solutions to the questions we face.

Believers who have cause to go through pain can console themselves with the truth of Scripture that God does not take pleasure in their misery. Lamentations 3:33 says, “For he does not enjoy hurting people or causing them sorrow.” (NLT). Moreover, whenever God allows any of His children to endure difficulties, it is because He can redeem it for some good ultimately. This fact played out in our text. For a good job done on a damsel, Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into jail for delivering a demon-possessed girl. How did they handle that experience? They did not question God. They rose in the middle of the night to sing praises to God, and pray. In response, the Lord sent an earthquake to rend the prison asunder. Their bonds were loosed; but they did not hurry for the exit door. Had they done that they would not have seen the full end God had in mind for that incident. The jailor, seeing the miracle, believed, and his entire household with him.

As believers we can handle our pains in one of two ways – immature way or with maturity. Immaturity is when we begin to question, “why me?” or wondering, “how long?” A more mature way will be to ask, “What?”

This is trying to find out what purpose God wants to make out of the unjust treatment we have received and of the pain we bear. It is amazing to find in the case of Paul and Silas that their brief pain resulted in deliverance for several individuals. If your pain produced either salvation or peace or healing in someone else’s life, then you have not suffered in vain. Viewed in the right perspective, even our troubles can be instruments in God’s hands.

My attention was drawn to a lady who showed up in our Church one Christmas season. The welfare department had put resources together to distribute food to people for the Yuletide. However, she disappeared after the freebies were over. I did not hesitate to describe her as a “rice convert”. Before we are quick to judge her, we should ponder and consider how many people are of this frame of mind. For example, how many people will remain in our churches without the “goodies” which the pastors “hawk” on their pulpit all year round? The fact remains that many people go to seek God to satisfy their temporal needs. This was what Jesus rebuked in our Bible passage for today.

Those who had eaten of the miracle loaves combed everywhere in search of Jesus; apparently in search of another meal. Jesus taught them to seek after the food that can uphold the soul.

When all our preoccupation in places of worship is informed by how to feed, clothe, and meet other needs of life, we are going in the way of the Gentiles.

In our previous meditation, we learned that the love of money can be expressed in several ways. While it is not forbidden to seek for money or material benefits from God, they must never be the focal point of our spiritual journey. Also, seeking these things must never be in the same way that the gentiles go about it or for the same reason. The gentiles are anxious for all of these things, and they mainly desire them for vain glory.

When Paul wrote to Timothy and noted that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, he was not referring to those who have plenty of it already. The love of money is a pit which both the rich and yet to be rich can fall into. The subject is a matter of the heart.

The love of money may manifest in the way people search for it and how they spend it. It may even manifest in how people withhold from using it even when it is to bring some benefits.

The untimely death of a woman had something to do with withholding. She was diagnosed with appendix. She had some terrible pains and was to be operated upon. She was to make some financial commitment for the procedure, but she told everybody she had no dime anywhere. Eventually, she gave up the ghost.

After her death, it was discovered that at the edge of the wrapper she had on was tied some thousands of naira. Not as if that would be sufficient for all the medical expenses; but that perhaps would have been enough to jumpstart the process of saving her life. The neighbours simply used the money to buy a coffin! Talk of being penny wise and pound foolish! You need biblical understanding of money. It is meant to be a tool; a servant of some sort. Money is to be used to solve problems and honour God. When we flip this and turn it to object of worship, we will find ourselves on a slippery path.

Curiosity plays a major role in some people’s quest for the miraculous. They have heard of miracles and are wondering if there is any truth to what they are being told. Herod belonged to this category. ”Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad; for he had desired for a long time to see Him, because he had heard many things about Him, and he hoped to see some miracle done by Him.“ ‭‭Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬. Others seek for miracles because there is no known way of man that can handle their situations. These people are desperate, and for good reason. From Bible accounts, it is this group of people that normally attracts God’s intervention.

Miracle is the way God makes available when man has come to his wit’s end.

Finally, there are those who want miracles so they can abandon the legitimate duties of life. The Samaritan woman in John 4 fits into this lot. The woman asked Jesus to give her His brand of water so that she would not thirst, neither have the need to come to the well again to draw. To begin with, the woman showed total ignorance of spiritual language. When Jesus spoke of water, it was not the typical water for everyday use that He had in mind. He meant the spiritual water that can satisfy the longing of each soul. What this woman wanted was any magic wand that would deliver her from rigour of drawing water for household use. In other words, she looked at miracle as one escape route from the responsibility of life. This might be hard to take, but God doesn’t have this kind of miracle. God will never provide you the miracle that will absolve you of your legitimate responsibility.

When my last child was about 11 years of age, he asked when he would start to drive. All his senior ones in the car, including me, were bemused. I had to inform him that, by law, he still had some seven years to go before he could legally handle the steering. His was a case of a burning desire that was expressed prematurely. He is now in his mid-20s and has gained quite some proficiency in handling the wheels. When he asked about driving more than a decade earlier, it was a desire expressed prematurely.

Sometimes, we have things like this occurring in our prayers. In the passage before us, Paul warned that believers should not engage in premature judgment of issues, events, and persons. Perhaps this same admonition can serve for the prayers we make and their timing. The Lord Jesus stated in Matthew 7:7-8 that we should ask, seek, and knock; with the assurance that what we ask for will be granted. However, this is not a license for frivolous requests or premature scrambling for things. James put paid to this in his writing. He explained why people ask God for things and they do not receive; it is for the singular reason that they ask for wrong things. The Message Bible says it even better: “And why not? Because you know you’d be asking for what you have no right to. You’re spoiled children, each wanting your own way” (James 4:3).

Asking for things that we have no right to is an exercise in futility.

Even when we have right to what we are asking, we should still keep it in mind that God only makes all things beautiful in His time.