The Devotional - A Look at the Book #885

by Jesse Abel

Thoughts from Papa “J”

 

Finally my brothers and sisters, whatever things are true, noble, just, pure, lovely and of good report; if there is anything of virtue and praiseworthy, think of these things. The mind of the saint who is not thinking these thoughts is not at peace, with God or with his neighbor. Philippians 4:4-9

 

Good Morning

 

It is time to take a break from 2 Corinthians 5. It does not take much these days to catch or shift the eye from one topic to another. It is hard to stay focused; like most of us we are bombarded with mail and email from all sorts of promises and petitions that are aimed at rescuing our defunct government, stabilizing our sinking economy and restoring our crumbling Constitution. Some of these efforts or very good and some are very bad, but these all have one thing in common, give us money!

 

All ask for donations and here is the rub! I counted fifteen emails; four para church organizations, six political watchdogs, two gun associations and three retired or replaced politicians all suggesting that they have the knowledge and wherewithal to correct the government, make the economy stable and restore the value of the Constitution. The donations start at $25 dollars, yet many are asking for $35 or more.

 

That just covers the emails; then there are on any given day two or three postal mailings from some of the same special interest groups in the local area. All of which want a sizable donation. Now, far be it from me, but most of us are not ignorant of these well intended special interest groups; but with the well-intended are the scammers whom are not worthy of comment.

 

If one were to give donations to all of these human efforts; say $25 once or twice a year that would be $950.00 even so, this too is irrelevant. What a person does with ones money is their business since everything we do with God’s blessing increases the blessing and everything we do with God’s curse intensifies the curse, Proverbs 6:11; 10:15; 11:24; 13:18; 20:13; 23:21; 24:34; 28:19-22; 30:8 and 31:7.

 

So in all of this verbose or wordiness what is the issue? Americans in general are aware of America’s serious problems; but Americans including America’s saints are missing in action. What is the action? Prayer! Prayer! Prayer!

 

We often run to 2 Chronicles 7:14 and seek to fit our nation into the framework of Israel and say things like we are a chosen nation and that we are suffering the consequence of national sin. Well I agree, but should we “cut and paste this verse of scripture out of context and apply it at every American ill?

 

The context of 2 Chronicles 7 has to do with the dedication of the temple that Solomon built for God to dwell in. If you read the context you will notice the intensity of Solomon’s prayer and sacrifice. This was no small event; it lasted for days and weeks.

Not only did God notice and react, but so did the nation. 2 Chronicles 7:3 says that when God reacted to Solomon’s dedication; the nation noticed and bowed their head and worshipped and praised God. I like also what God says in 2 Chronicles 7:15. God does not want us throwing His blessings away, His desire is to see our sacrifice of repentance and hear our prayer of national restoration.

 

We should start praying folks, maybe Philippians 4:6-7 is a good place to start, or Matthew 6:9-13. So we have a choice, the choice to stay disconnected and give money to as many special interest groups that we can afford (Satan’s deception). Or to go back to our churches and offer up sacrifices worthy to the heart (eyes and ears) of our God.