Daily Devotional
Word of the Day
A Hero For God
Pastor Scott
Sunday, May 30, 2004
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"Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock."
(1 Peter 5:3)
We need to be watchful and guard ourselves against the enemy of our souls-- Satan, the father of lies. Do you believe the devil's report card on you? Peter says to be a pattern to the flock. Be a pattern of watchfulness, observing what's going on around you. People are very aware of the things that attract them and catch their eye. If you have an appetite for spiritual things, who has caught your eye? Who in the Scriptures is one of your heroes? Who do you want to pattern your life after? Who of the contemporaries of the last centuries are people that you've been captivated by-- the George Muellers, the praying Hydes? Who have you looked at--the Wesleys, the Whitfields? Have you observed what God can do through earthen vessels? God, Who is no respecter of persons, took common men, and was glorified in them because they were yielded. Are you alert? Are you watchful? Do you see these people whose lives are examples?
Who are you patterning your life after? Of course Jesus. Many of us have different Bible characters that we identify with (hopefully it's not Judas). Who's your favorite Bible character? In the Old Testament we all look at our father Abraham--men subject to like passion just like you and I. There were times they were discouraged, fearful, and moved by their flesh and carnality; but they had a heart for God. Moses pursued Him that is invisible, forsaking the riches and the wealth of this world for the greater treasures. Do you admire the young Daniels? Today is the day for some of you teenagers to be a hero for God. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were not much older than a teenager. Mary probably would have been a sophomore. God appeared to a young fourteen or fifteen year old and said she would be overshadowed by the Holy Ghost. What a call! What an anointing!
What's got your attention? What are you focusing on today? What excites you? Is it young people that are willing to stand up and say, "Our God will deliver us, and even He doesn't, we won't bow our knee"? Who is your hero? Who do you want to identify with? That's the watchfulness. How seduced are we? My heart was grieved about a class in which every kid's goal in life was to be rich. As parents that ought to cause you to step back and say, "My God, what am I portraying to my children? What are they seeing in me?" They're watching. Everybody is watching something. What's got your attention? What are you following? Are you aware of the condition of your heart? Just watch the direction of your life and you'll know what's in you in abundance.
Fathers, can you stand before your kids and say, "Be just like me. If you do what I do you're going to make it to heaven"? What are you doing today--not what you did or the sacrifices you made twenty years ago when you were saved-- to be a pattern? Is everything you do a part of representing the kingdom of God and declaring the lordship of Jesus Christ? Beloved, for those of us that are citizens of this kingdom there is nothing secular or mundane. If we are holy, we are set apart. We have nothing in this world that attracts us or possesses us. Everything we have has been given to us by God. This world has not given me anything. I am not a friend of the world. I'm in it, but I'm not of it.