Daily Devotion by Ray Stedman

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 19TH​

Two Gifts​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CORINTHIANS 7:1-9

Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.
1 Corinthians 7:5-7

So important is sex to marriage that Paul says that it takes precedence over everything else in your life except an occasional spiritual retreat for prayer. If you are going to do this, it has to be a mutual thing. You must not give up or deny your partner the right to this kind of enjoyment. To unilaterally take action to refuse to involve yourself in a sexual union in marriage is to violate this very command of God, and to hurt the marriage very severely.

I could fill that in with many experiences taken from real life. As always, the Scriptures examine us at the deepest level of our being, and here Paul puts his finger on what is one of the most frequent causes for disaster in marriage — a refusal to grant the gift of enjoyment and pleasure to one's mate. He says, Don't do that, with one possible exception. If you both agree to do so, and if you do so for a brief season, and you do so for a spiritual reason, i.e., to have more time for working out a special problem in prayer, then it is all right. But it can be such a destructive thing in marriage that Paul says, Be careful. Don't continue it very long, and by all means come together again, lest Satan be given an advantage over you.

He goes on to say that he says this as a concession, not a command. In other words, sex in marriage manifests a special gift of God. Marriage itself is a gift from God, just as singleness is, and some have one gift and some another. What he is saying is, Marriage is not for all. Paul himself glories in being single, but both states, singleness and marriage, are a gift from God, and sexuality in marriage reflects something about God. It illustrates that uniqueness of relationship within the Trinity, and, as we are told in Ephesians 5, between the Lord and his people. It illustrates a oneness of spirit that can only be manifested when two human beings, weak and struggling and failing in many ways, nevertheless learn to live together and love one another despite the problems and the heartaches they experience.

On the other hand, singleness without sex reflects another beauty of God. It permits a quality of dedication to a single goal that is often highly admired by everyone around. We all know people like this who have never married, who have given themselves to achieve a certain goal in life. This too illustrates something about God. So these states of life are gifts from God and we must view them as such, and marriage no less than singleness.

Thank you, Lord, for the gift you give to some of marriage, and to others of being single. May I faithfully live out your calling for me. Amen.

​

Life Application​

Do I recognize that both marriage and singleness are gifts from God? Am I living out my own calling with gratitude and
generosity?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 20TH​

The Gift of Being Single​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CORINTHIANS 7:1-9

I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do.
1 Corinthians 7:7-8

The single life, Paul says, is as much a gift and calling of God as is the married life. He says celibacy is a divinely approved status, and there is nothing wrong with it at all. In fact, Paul thinks so highly of it that he recommends it to everyone. He suggests they might all be like him. Some scholars feel that Paul was once married, although he certainly is not married at the time he wrote this letter, and probably had not been throughout his Christian experience. But some feel that Paul had been married and that this statement recommending single life for all is a case of sour grapes, like the old familiar saw, I never knew what happiness was until I got married — and then it was too late. But this seems doubtful. He is only indicating his approval of singleness as a perfectly acceptable and proper mode of life.

Single life is a calling from God; it is given to some to be single. God has so arranged life that for most people, as they grow into adulthood, marriage is the rule and single life is the exception. It is good that it is so, for the race would never have been propagated successfully had it been otherwise. Imagine the difficulties we would be confronted with if this were not the case.
There is a time during childhood when the two sexes are highly incompatible. They will hardly speak to one another. Boys gather with boys and girls with girls, and both groups look with mutual disdain upon each other. Suppose that condition were carried over into adult life. Imagine the shenanigans we would have to employ to get a couple together. What fringe benefits we would have to offer! But God solves the problem with the greatest of ease. An alarm clock goes off within the human system at a pre-appointed time of life, certain little glands pour out hormones, and the two sexes run into one another's arms. Wild horses cannot keep them apart!

But not all. There are some who remain uninterested or who are pushed out to the edges of the melee and end up not married. But Paul and the Lord Jesus, speaking by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, make it very clear that such individuals are not abnormal, they are not freaks. This is a designed area of life. God did not intend that all should get married; therefore, it is not failure or a mark of defeat to remain unmarried. It is a special calling of God.

Father, whether I am single or married, you desire to manifest your life and your love through me. Help me to embrace my gift and live it out to the fullest for your glory.

​

Life Application​

Am I resting in the blessing that God has given me, single or married, and am I encouraging others to live in gratitude before the Lord?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 21ST​

Undivided Attention​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 CORINTHIANS 7:29-35

I would like you to be free from concern. An unmarried man is concerned about the Lord's affairs — how he can please the Lord. But a married man is concerned about the affairs of this world — how he can please his wife — and his interests are divided. An unmarried woman or virgin is concerned about the Lord's affairs: Her aim is to be devoted to the Lord in both body and spirit. But a married woman is concerned about the affairs of this world — how she can please her husband.
1Corinthians 7:32-34

Paul does not mean that it is wrong for married people to want to please each other. He is simply indicating that they will find much more of their life taken up with their need for fulfilling each other before the Lord. It is a perfectly proper relationship, God-approved and blessed, but their time to give themselves to work is limited by the pressures and problems of married life.
Who of us that is married will deny this? But there is a special privilege single persons have in which they can find an even higher fulfillment in their work before the Lord. They can be wholly for him in whatever they do, as no married person can. They can give to their work before God an intensity of concentration that no married person can give.

What the world owes to the dedication of single men and women before God is impossible for us to assess. There is Paul himself. His own marvelous ministry would never have been possible had he been married. I think of Henrietta Mears, that remarkable woman in Hollywood Presbyterian Church. Through the years she picked out young men whom she felt the Spirit of God was calling to the ministry and worked with them, taught them, and encouraged them, and sent out scores of young men trained for an effective, powerful ministry. There is David Brainerd, that hot-hearted young missionary in the early days of our country, praying in the woods of New England, dedicating himself to reaching the Indians of America and becoming the instrument of God by which a tremendous revival broke out among the Indian tribes. Robert Murray McCheyne in Scotland; Florence Nightingale's great work of healing the sick — these men and women have given themselves with an intensity of concentration impossible to those who are married.

These all confirm the fact that single life need not be lonely, boring, or unrewarding, if it is committed fully and unreservedly to Jesus Christ. It can be a daily adventure of dedication and achievement that surpasses anything possible to those who are married. Thank God for those among us whom God has called to this ministry!

Father, my relationship to you is the supreme thing of my life; everything else must find its focus in that, must center in that. Whether married or single, then, help me to ever keep in mind this one supreme thing. Amen.

​

Life Application​

Do I appreciate the accomplishments of those able to be single minded in their devotion to the Lord? Have I told them that?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 22ND​

The Cure for Conflict​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 5:21-33

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Ephesians 5:21

Here is the divine solution to the problem of conflict between individuals, those areas of friction where life is rubbed raw, and the ugly sores of violence and conflict erupt. The solution consists of the recognition of two powerful and transforming factors which, if carried out in any situation of conflict, will resolve that conflict.

Those two factors are these: First, life is so constructed that we cannot find fulfillment without another person being involved. We are not made to satisfy ourselves. Though each of us has within us a drive to fulfill ourselves and to find satisfaction, we make a very grave and serious error if we think that we can ever do this apart from reacting and relating to another person. It is this matter of human relationships that the apostle is taking up in Ephesians 5, the relationships of husbands and wives, of parents and children, and of employers and employees. We vitally need these relationships. Life is made this way. One of the fundamental mysteries of life is that we cannot achieve our own satisfaction if we try to do so, but we can only achieve it if we seek to attain not our own benefits but the benefits of another. This is why Paul says, Submit to one another.

The second factor, which makes the first one possible, is that you can only subject yourself when you see a third party present in every situation — the Lord Jesus Christ. It is therefore not a case of you against me or me against you, but it is a case of Christ being present. In the case of a Christian, the great issue is the matter of my relationship to him, and my obedience to his word and to his will. This touches the matter of motivation. I never can submit to another if it is a case of you versus me or me versus you, for then my pride comes to the fore and I get stubborn and rationalize my position and justify myself, and the conflict is perpetuated. But when we see that it is a matter of loving obedience to the One who first loved us and gave himself for us, and who now lives within us as our Lord, this then becomes the primary relationship, and it is easier to give up our fancied rights in order that we may be obedient to that which is first — our relationship to Christ.

Paul will go on and apply this to husbands and wives. There is no area of life in which conflict is more widespread than this. Even in Christian homes, the degree of squabbling, bickering, coldness, bitterness, and even violence that is encountered by any marriage counselor is unbelievable. There is nothing more important than that we hear these illuminating words of the apostle as he applies this tremendous formula for peace. Subjection is not merely to be on the part of one alone, but is to be done by both. The husband is to subject himself to the wife as much as the wife is to the husband. The method will differ for each, but the principle is the same for each.

Father, let these words be illuminated in my heart by the Spirit. Grant to me the willingness to be obedient to the Lord Jesus who is with me in every circumstance and relationship. Amen.

​

Life Application​

How might the conflict I am now experiencing in a significant relationship be transformed through my decision to submit out of reverence for Christ?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 23RD​

True Love​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 5:25-33

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Ephesians 5:25-27

Perhaps there is no word in our modern parlance which needs more interpreting than this word "love." It is used to describe everything from sordid sexual passion to patriotic emotion. But here it is defined for us in a very illuminating phrase which is set in apposition to it. The apostle does not merely say, Love your wives just as Christ loved the church, but he goes on to describe what that love is: …and gave himself up for her. That is what love is! That is the way a husband is to submit to his wife. He gives himself up for her. It does not mean he is to give in to her, for that is her role toward him. If he did that, he would be subjecting himself to the wife as the wife is supposed to subject herself to the husband.

But his form of subjection is different. It is not to give in, but to give up — to give himself up for his wife. No husband is playing his proper role in marriage until he learns to give himself up to his wife, to open his heart to her, to share his emotions and dreams, his thoughts and disappointments, his joys; to fully expose himself to his wife. And there is nothing that makes a woman happier than to know that she fully enters into her husband's life.

The apostle holds up to us the example of Christ. His self-giving was deliberate and purposeful. Our Lord did not give himself up for the church without certain objectives in mind. The husband is to give himself up for his wife in order that he might make her holy. That means to be put to the proper use. The Lord Jesus gave himself up on the cross in order that the whole church, those who would be redeemed by his grace, might be put to the proper use for which God intended man and woman. This is also to be the goal of the husband. He is to give himself up for the wife in order that she might fulfill her womanhood, her purpose.

Notice that the apostle points out that the instrument by which the Lord makes the church holy is the word, by the washing with water through the word. By the Word of God, by talking to the church, by telling it things, by opening up its eyes to the understanding of reality — that is the way the Lord sanctifies his church. The same is true in a husband-and-wife relationship. It is the husband's talking to his wife which makes it possible for her to fulfill her role as a helper and a beautifier. He must, therefore, give himself up in this sense, share with her, discuss with her, and talk about things. Even though there may be obstacles to communication, he must find a way around them, for his responsibility is to open up and share with her.

Father, grant to me the willingness and the grace to be obedient to the Lord Jesus who is with me in every circumstance and every relationship of my life, regardless of what the other person does. Amen.

​

Life Application​

As a husband, am I loving my wife sacrificially? As a wife, am I receptive to my husband's love?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 24TH​

What Every Husband Should Know​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 PETER 3:1-7

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Peter 3:7

Peter says a that a husband must exercise deliberate love toward his wife. This reflects the deepest emotional need in woman. When he says that men should be considerate, he is literally saying to dwell with their wives according to knowledge. This suggests that it is possible for men to understand women. And one of the most important things they must understand is they must feel secure in their husband's affection. It is his job to make her feel highly regarded, to honor her. He is to show courtesy to her, thoughtful consideration under every circumstance. One of the most devastating things that can occur is for the husband to become critical toward his wife, treating her with scorn or sarcasm. This causes the disintegration of many marriages, for it threatens the basic nature of woman. It is the man's job to make his wife feel important to him and to never take her for granted.

Some time ago I clipped out a humorous article that traces the tendency in marriage to drift from a height of bliss into the humdrum of routine attitudes. Called The Seven Ages of the Married Cold, it reveals the reaction of a husband to his wife's colds during seven years of marriage.

First year: Sugar dumpling, I'm worried about my baby girl. You've got a bad sniffle and there's no telling about these things with all this strep around. I'm putting you in the hospital this afternoon for a general checkup and a good rest.

Second year: Listen, darling, I don't like the sound of that cough and I've called Doc Miller to rush over here. Now you go to bed like a good girl, please?

Third year: Maybe you'd better lie down, honey; nothing like a little rest when you feel punk. I'll bring you something to eat. Have we got any soup?

Fourth year: Look dear, be sensible. After you feed the kids and get the dishes washed, you'd better hit the sack.

Fifth year: Why don't you get yourself a couple of aspirin?

Sixth year: If you'd just gargle instead of sitting around barking like a seal!

Seventh year: For Pete's sake, stop sneezing! You trying to gimme pneumonia?

This is the most common complaint of wives to counselors. They say, My husband takes me for granted. I'm like another piece of furniture around the house. She is being threatened at the deepest level of her life. She no longer feels secure in her husband's affection. She may react in ways men view as unreasonable. Perhaps he comes home with no idea that anything is wrong, and he makes some commonplace statement, and to his surprise his wife blows up and marches out of the room in a huff. The poor man is bewildered, saying to himself, What did I do? But something has threatened his wife's feeling of security in his affections and she is testing him. The wise husband soon learns that he needs to be considerate and thoughtful, and he will reestablish her security in his affection. That is why the husband's great responsibility in the home is simply to love his wife.

God, you have been so considerate towards me, even in the little things. Help me to show that same consideration to others.

​

Life Application​

As a husband, am I a student of my wife, seeking to live with her according to knowledge?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 25TH​

Heirs Together​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 PETER 3:1-7

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.
1 Peter 3:7

Peter wants husbands to understand the need for unlimited sharing of his own life with his wife. You are heirs together, he says, of the gracious gift of life. This means that a husband must recognize his wife's right to share every part of his life. All the barriers must come down between them, all the channels of communication must be open. There are no off-limit areas that he keeps separate from his wife.

This does not mean that they must always participate in everything mutually. He may be sports-minded and she may not like sports, and it does not mean that he must drag her out on the ski slopes when she would rather be home. But there must be mutual understanding in this area; there is to be no threat of rivalry to his love for her from some outside activity. This relates again to that central need of a woman to have first place in her husband's affections. He must share so fully his needs and desires with her that she understands the whole situation and feels no threat arising from it. What good is a partner if she is excluded from some particular area? Her urge to share his life fully accounts for woman's notorious curiosity — she cannot tolerate exclusion from any area of her husband's life. He is to open these doors of channel and communication to her. They are heirs together of the grace of life.

Peter has one more point to make. It is not a word of exhortation, but a word of warning. Failure by the husband to observe these things means your prayers will be hindered. If the husband's failure prevents oneness, then inevitably the marriage grows dull and the glow which the presence of God makes possible is gone. The man learns that he cannot go ahead of his wife in this respect. He cannot advance beyond her spiritually, for he discovers that he cannot grow in grace apart from bringing her along with him. Life can only be satisfying when they move together into a deeper, day-by-day contact with an indwelling God. This is what makes for richness in a home.

Father, I cannot separate my horizontal relationships from my vertical relationship with you. Teach me that how I treat others impacts the intimacy I enjoy with you. Amen.

​

Life Application​

Have I in any way hindered my prayer life by a lack of consideration for my wife or husband?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 26TH​

What Every Wife Should Know​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 PETER 3:1-7

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
1 Peter 3:1-2

No matter how often you read that, it always comes out the same: submit yourselves to your own husbands. The King James Version says, be in subjection; the Philips Version renders it, adapt yourselves to your husbands; the New English Bible says, accept the authority of your husbands. All of them are interpreting one word in Greek which literally means to stand under, to take a position under the leadership of your husband. This does not mean a tyrant-slave relationship. Scripture clearly indicates otherwise, especially in the word to husbands in verse 7. But it does mean that the wife is willingly to abide by the husband's final decisions in matters concerning the family and the home.

This necessity of the wife to submit herself to the husband's authority has been blown up to undue proportions. Dwelling on that aspect of marriage is like disliking roses because they have thorns — they also are very beautiful and have delightful fragrance. There are two important matters that Peter suggests about a woman's submission: The first is that this is necessary in order that the man might be a man. The first responsibility of a husband in marriage is to exercise godly leadership. And there cannot be two leaders. As someone has pointed out, When two people are on a horse, one has got to be behind! So in marriage, one must lead and one must follow. Thus, the degree to which the man fulfills his leadership is up to the wife! No leader can go farther than his followers permit him. It is the followers who make leadership possible. Therefore it is only as the wife is willing to permit, and even to encourage, her husband to lead, that he is able to fulfill his manhood.

This subjection is also necessary in order for the woman to be a woman. If the husband is going to be a man, and it takes a wife's subjection to make it possible, then it also takes this subjection for a wife to be a woman. No woman is ever really content in the role of a man. The claim that women should be free to do everything that men do, and thus to express freedom by imitating men, is a misunderstanding of the relationship of man to woman and woman to man. This does not mean that a married woman cannot work in business and industry. It means, however, that she will never find there the satisfaction and fulfillment that she can find in her home, if the conditions in that home are as God intended them to be. This is not always possible, I know, but it is always best.

Teach me to walk in these things: as a wife, to submit to my husband; as a husband, to love and cherish my wife; and thus to form marriages that become examples of what was in your heart when you made man male and female. Amen.

​

Life Application​

Is my life adorned with the purity and reverence that represents a Christ-follower? Would it be possible for someone to see this and be won over by it?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

DEVOTION FOR TODAY — APRIL 27TH​

In the Same Way…​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: 1 PETER 3:1-6

Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.
1Peter 3:1-2

The issue of a wife being subject to her husband raises the thorny issue of how this is to be done. Women quite properly ask, How far should I take this? The answer of Scripture is contained in the first phrase in this passage, in the same way. This indicates that an example has already been given and that women are to conform to the example in their subjection. It is the example of Jesus Christ in his subjection to the circumstances in which the Father had placed him. Wives are to submit to their husbands as Christ submitted to the Father. The wife's submission to her husband is a kind of gauge or measure of the degree to which she is submitted to Christ.

Using the example of Christ, it is clearly evident there is to be no moral departure on the wife's part from that which would offend her conscience. No husband has the right to ask his wife to disobey her conscience. Jesus never wrestled with his conscience in his submission to the Father. He never lowered his moral standards, although it meant that there were a lot of things which he did not himself enjoy or like, that he put up with because they were the Father's choice for him. So wives must trust their husbands and follow them as far as they possibly can. Where they cannot, in good conscience, they are still to love them and submit to them in every other way.

Peter hints at a false concept of submission in the phrase, without words. In this case we have a situation where women are married to non-Christian husbands. Perhaps both were non-Christians when they got married, but the wife has since received Christ and now is married to a man who does not see eye to eye with her in spiritual matters. Wives, he says, are to be submissive to such husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won to Christ without a word on the part of the wife. Without a word does not mean she is never to speak to him, it simply means she is not to nag him. Nagging is frequently a subtle evasion on the part of the wife of her responsibility to submit to her husband. It is an attempt to take over the reins without really appearing to do so under the guise of concern for some worthwhile end. Nagging does one of two things: Either the man becomes stubborn and obstinate, or he forms a habit of giving in to keep the peace. If his reaction is one of stubbornness, it is because he feels his masculinity has been challenged. If he gives in to keep the peace, and this goes on long enough, the wife finds herself catapulted into a role that she is unfitted for and unhappy in — the role of decision-maker.

Forgive me for the many times I read through passages like this, Father, and take them lightly, as though they were merely good advice and not a revelation of such basic importance that life becomes unbearable when I deviate from them. Amen.

​

Life Application​

Do I believe that my actions are more powerful than words in changing the hearts of those who I love?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 28TH​

A Word to Fathers​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: COLOSSIANS 3:20-21

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.
Colossians 3:21

This word translated Fathers could well be translated Parents because it includes both the father and the mother. But here, the emphasis is laid on the father, for it is his responsibility to lead his family. There is nothing more dishonoring to the Christian faith than the attitude adopted by many fathers: It is my job to make the living; her job is to raise the children. Not so! The father is called to lead, but he is to do so with the gentleness of Christ. So the word is spoken to fathers: Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

The word for embitter is from the word to stir up, arouse, or irritate. This does not mean that parents are never to say or do anything that makes their children feel irritated. Discipline can often irritate a child. We must not seek to avoid every instance of that. But this word is given in the present continuous tense. Thus, it is really saying, Fathers, do not keep on irritating your children. Don't keep hammering away at it, nagging them, or they will become discouraged. This is an important lesson for fathers. One of my grandsons was a bit sullen the other day when I was correcting him about something. When I asked him why he was acting that way, he said, Because you're always accusing me. That gave me pause. I did not realize it looked like that to him. I did not think I was always accusing him; I am sure I was not, but to him it looked that way. I realized I had better change and approach things differently. That is what this word to fathers is about.

I have discovered, through long experience, that there are three things which fathers do that are particularly irritating to children. The first is to ignore them. A father who has no time for his child soon creates in him a deep-seated resentment. The child may not know how to articulate or explain the problem, but he feels unimportant and worthless. A second source of irritation is to indulge your children, giving them everything they want. That soon will make them restless and dissatisfied.

Children long for guidance and direction; for intimacy, not for superficial indulgence. Such indulgence will frequently create a deep-seated, sometimes lifelong feeling of resentment. Insulting them, calling them names and putting them down, is also a source of resentment in children. They will become discouraged and be put off from the things of God. Many a child sooner or later becomes resentful if their fathers do not obey the word of the apostle, Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

I am thankful, Lord, to have you as my Heavenly Father. Teach me to build up my children instead of embittering them.

Life Application​

What are the specific ways that I can build up the generation behind me rather than embitter them?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 29TH​

Don't Exasperate​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 6:1-4

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Ephesians 6:4

It has been pointed out that this word translated Fathers could well be translated Parents because it includes both the father and the mother. It is also true that the emphasis is laid largely upon the father, for it is his responsibility as to what the children become. That is sobering, is it not, fathers? But it is true. Mothers may enforce policy, but it is the father's task to set it, and to see that his children are raised properly. There is nothing that is more dishonoring to the spirit of Christianity than the attitude adopted by many fathers: It is my job to make the living; her job is to raise the children. Not in the Word of God! In the Bible, the ultimate responsibility for what a home becomes is the father's.

Exasperate means to provoke anger which results in a rebellion. It is the word from which we get our English word paroxysm. Fathers, do not provoke your children to the place where they completely lose control and break out against authority. There are two things which provoke a child ultimately to rebel against his parents: Indulgence and harshness. These two things are the negative of the two things Paul instructs the father to do: Bring them up in the training and the instruction of the Lord. The opposites of these instructions are indulgence and harshness. Indulgence will make a child insecure, miserable, and self-centered. That is what we call a spoiled child — one who grows up to expect to have his way in everything and who rides rough-shod over the feelings of everyone else. The other extreme is harsh, demanding discipline which is never accompanied with love, concern, or understanding. Rigid, military discipline which says, Do this, or this, or else, will inevitably drive a child to revolt as he comes to adolescence.

I once asked some high school students, What are the areas which create the most resentment toward your parents? The one thing that was most widely experienced was this: They don't let us take a chance. They don't let us make mistakes. Most Christian parents think we are there to keep them from making mistakes. We are not. We are there to help them make mistakes early enough that they can learn from them while they are still not too serious. If we keep them from making mistakes until they get into adolescence, then the ones they make will ruin them. A parent's job is to help his children have an opportunity to make mistakes and thus learn. Provide counsel in an informal setting. Spend time to build a relationship which makes our counsel acceptable. Set limits. Build in some restrictions. But discipline demands a context. You have no right to discipline unless you have also given them time and interest.

Father, you are not just the God of the present and of the future, but also the God of the past. Thank you that you can change the mistakes I have made as a parent into opportunities for advancement in my children's lives, as well as in mine. Amen.

​

Life Application​

How can I provide training and instruction for my children that will build them up rather than exasperate them?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR APRIL 30TH​

Why Obey?​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: EPHESIANS 6:1-4

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother—which is the first commandment with a promise — so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
Ephesians 6:1-3

This is not a simple exhortation to children to obey, much as you might find in a booklet on parent-child relationships written from a secular point of view. It is not simply Children, obey your parents. It is Children, obey your parents in the Lord. The key to the whole command is in the Lord. Children are to obey their parents, for Christ's sake. They are to obey, not because this is what their parents want so much as because this is what the Lord Jesus wants. This is their responsibility to Christ. They cannot possibly fulfill their desire to reflect his life unless they are willing to obey their parents. This is the ground upon which the apostle puts it.

The Scriptures never give us exhortations like this without a reason. Many children are constantly reminded to obey their parents, but rarely are they given the reason to do so. Paul adds a reason: Obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. There is a tendency on the part of young people to read that and to slough it off as though it meant, Obey your parents because this is just the way we do it. But it does not mean that. This is not merely an appeal to custom. It means, rather, that this is in accord with a fundamental reality; this is one of the basic laws of life. If you refuse to do this, things will go wrong, because it is a violation of a fundamental law of living.

The apostle presses even deeper into this subject. He says it is not only important to obey, but to obey in such a way as to honor your father and your mother. The attitude of obedience is exceedingly important. It is possible to obey with a heart seething with disobedience and hatred. That kind of obedience is not obedience at all because it is dishonoring to the father or mother. It treats the parent as a thing, an obstacle, certainly not as a person from whom life has come. It is to ignore every generous gift of parental love and to treat them as though they were nothing but an obstacle in the way. That is why the first commandment with a promise was the commandment, Honor your father and thy mother, (Exodus 20:12a). The promise that was linked to it was this: …that it may be well with you and that you may live long on the earth (Exodus 20:12b). This simply means that glad obedience, willing obedience, is a blessing to the children who obey. But sullen, reluctant, rebellious obedience injures you. Sullen obedience is really resentment and bitterness, and there is nothing more destructive in a human heart than resentment or bitterness. It does not injure the one you are bitter against; it injures you.

Lord, thank you for my parents. At this particular stage of my life, teach me honor them.

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Life Application​

What does it look like, at this stage in my life, to honor my parents?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 1ST​

The Cure to Loneliness​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: JOHN 12:20-26

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.
John 12:24

Jesus is speaking of himself in this parable. He is the grain of wheat. He is the Son of God, compelling, compassionate, living the life of God in the midst of men, and yet wholly as a man. Crowds everywhere left their work and followed him. They sensed that here was a man who possessed the secret of life. He had nothing that men thought was necessary to living. He had no material possessions. He did not even have a place to lay his head. He had no influence with the authorities. Yet, everywhere he went, people sensed that he understood the secrets of life. So he was like a grain of wheat, alone amidst other grains of wheat, sharing nothing with the others.

He could have remained that way. He did not need to die. He was no martyr to a failing cause. He was not forced to the cross. He had no need to lay down his life, for he could have returned to the Father. There would have been no blame attached to him if he had. He could have chosen to return to the Father, having demonstrated before men exactly what God wanted man to be, and left us with that demonstration and gone back to heaven. But, as he says, if he had done that he would have remained alone. For the rest of eternity, though he would have been thronged with angels and all the other created beings of God's universe, he would have been alone. There would have been no one else like him in all the universe.

This is very important, because it gives us our first clue as to what our Lord is really unveiling here, the problem that affects so many of us — loneliness. There is a difference between being alone and being lonely. One can be alone and not be at all lonely. Or you can be in the midst of a crowd, and be utterly lonely. This is what Jesus is referring to. He is not talking about being alone; he is talking about being lonely.

Dr. F. B. Meyer once said, Many people complain of lonely and solitary lives. They suppose their condition is due to the failure of other people. It is, however, attributable to the fact that they have never fallen into the ground to die, but have always consulted their own ease and well-being. They have never learned that the cure for loneliness comes from sowing oneself in a grave of daily sacrifice. There he puts his finger upon the cause of this distressing loneliness that bothers so many today. It is an attempt to hold on to life, to grasp it for oneself, and this results in an undeveloped life.

Our Lord knew the craving of the Father's heart; that he might bring many sons to glory. But to do that it was necessary that he die. There was no other way by which what he was could be given to us. John 1:12 says, As many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. As many as received him, to them he gives the power to share his own life. But how is that life made available? It is only available by dying to ourselves. But we fear such dying, do we not? What the Lord Jesus is saying to us is that there will be no deliverance from the loneliness and emptiness of the world's life until we learn to renounce that kind of living.

Lord, thank you for showing me that the way to life is through dying to myself. I confess that I fear such dying, so I ask that you help me to live this out.

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Life Application​

Am I lonely? What is the source of my loneliness? Have I bought into the lie of this world that fulfillment is found in holding onto my life?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 2ND​

Seed Thoughts​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: MARK 4:26-29

He also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain — first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.
Mark 4:26-29

Jesus is speaking of how his kingdom increases. He explains it as a coming to harvest by a patient expectation that God will work. The key of this whole passage is, …the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain. There are forces at work which will be faithful to perform their work — whether a man stews and frets about it or not. He does what he can do. But then God must work. And God will work. In that confidence, this man rests secure.

As Jesus draws the picture, this farmer goes out to sow. It is hard work as he sows the field, but this is what he can do. But then he goes home and goes to bed. He does not sit up all night biting his fingernails, wondering if the seed fell in the right places. Nor does he rise the next morning and go out and dig it up to see whether or not it is sprouting. He rests secure in the fact that God is at work, that he has a part in this process, and he must do it; no one can do it for him, and he will faithfully perform it.

The farmer rests and waits as the seed goes through observable stages: …first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. It is only when the grain is ripe that he is called into action again.

This is the way we ought to expect God to work. He sows our witness first, perhaps a word of teaching or exhortation to someone — or to ourselves. And then a process begins, which takes time and patience, and allows God to work. One of the most destructive forces at work in the church today is our demand for instant results. We want immediate conversions, immediate responses, immediate dedications every time we speak. We tend not to allow time for the Word to take root and grow and come to harvest.

I have been watching a boy growing up since grade school. I watched him come into adolescence and enter into a period of bitter rebellion against God. I watched his parents, hurt and crushed by his attitudes, saying what they could to him, but above all holding him up in prayer. I watched the whole process as the seed which had been sown in his heart took root and began to grow. There were tiny observable signs of change occurring. Gradually he came back to the Lord. Just this past week he asked me to fill out a reference for him to go to seminary. That is the Word growing secretly. The sower knows not how it happens, but he can rest secure in this.

Lord, grant me patience and faith that you will do your work through your word in your own good time. Amen.

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Life Application​

Do I trust that that God is at work, and outcomes do not all depend on me? Having done what God has given me to do, do I then rest, since God is working?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 3RD​

God and the Unthinking​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 15:1-7

Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn't he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep. I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.
Luke 15:3-7

There is something unusual about sheep. Unlike other animals they do not often deliberately run away. A dog who wants to be free, given a chance, will leave, just like that. But sheep do not. They only wander away. They do not mean to. This is the picture our Lord gives us of certain people who do not intend to get lost; they do not intend to waste their lives. They do not intend to wander off into something dangerous and destructive. But, little by little, concentrating only on the present, they wander away.

Eventually they wake up to realize that they are lost, that life is suddenly empty, that their hearts are burdened and heavy with guilt — and they do not know how it happened. They are not happy to be lost; they hate it. They long to belong. There are millions like this today. Some are poor and obscure. Some are intent on simply making a living, on feeding themselves. Some are rich and prominent. All over this country, people are suffering from destination sickness, i.e. the sickness of those who have already arrived at their destination, who have all they want; but they discover that they do not want anything they have.

Notice the shepherd's response. He left the ninety and nine in the wilderness and went after the one. That pictures the activity of God, as expressed in the person of the Lord Jesus himself. He left something to come and find us. As Paul states it so wonderfully in the letter to the Philippians, he did not count the fact that he was equal with God a thing to be held on to, but instead emptied himself, took upon himself the form of a servant, and was found in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6-7). He left, and he came.

Finally, notice the rejoicing over the recovery of the lost. This reveals the value that God sets his sights on lost men and women. They are not worthless in his sight. They are made in his image and are of unspeakable value to God. They bear his own image, marred and ruined as that image may be, and he longs to find them and reach them and restore them.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for this glimpse into your own heart, for the knowledge of your concern for those who are lost.

​

Life Application​

Do I feel the same compassion as the God who longs to reach the lost? Am I involving myself in the great enterprise of God to find these people?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 4TH​

Lost at Home​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 15:8-10

Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn't she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin. In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luke 15:8-10

There are three revealing movements in this story. The first is the circumstance of the lost coin. The coin referred to here is a small silver piece worth about 16 cents. That is not very much, but more than simply money to this woman, it had great sentimental value. This was part of her dowry. When a woman married she took money that she had accumulated throughout her life and sewed it into a headdress which she wore on her wedding day. Therefore, these ten coins were of tremendous significance to her as a woman. They represented not just the value of the money, but all that she had to contribute to the marriage.

The point of the illustration is that something was lost — but lost at home where you would not expect lost things. This coin did not wander off. It was in the place of apparent safety. Nevertheless, it was lost — through carelessness or neglect, although it may have been by some accident. The woman is unaware that the coin is lost until suddenly she discovers that it is gone. When she realizes that the coin is missing she is stirred to a flurry of activity to recover it because it is of extreme value to her.

This story has meaning to us today only as we apply it to our own situation. Is someone lost in your home — a child, perhaps, who you have taken for granted is a Christian, but, as he grows up, something makes you realize that he is not? You may wake up to realize that these who you have taken for granted to be safe and sound in your home are not; they are lost.

The second movement of our story takes us immediately into the efforts of this woman to find what was lost. When she realized that this valuable coin was lost, she went into action. Her activity in this story reveals the heart concern of God for people who are lost like this. God's heart moves out to them.

The third movement of the story brings us at last to finding and rejoicing. Our Lord described the joy that was in the heart of this woman when she found this coin which was lost. She called all her neighbors and friends to share with her this overwhelming joy. Jesus said that joy is shared in heaven, as well. There is a celebration in heaven when one of these who are lost at home opens up his or her heart and finds a living Lord. They shoot off cannons, they ring bells, they swing from the chandeliers. It is a great time of unrestrained joy before God over a lost one who is returned.

What a revelation of the heart of God this is! How God longs to see those who are lost at home, where they seemed to have been in a place of safety. Yet all of us know of instances of those who have been raised in Christian homes, but who had been lost all that time.

Father, I pray that my own heart may be filled with the joy that is described in this parable when one who was lost at home is found.

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Life Application​

Am I taking the steps that are necessary to find those that are lost at home, before it is too late?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 5TH​

The Waiting Father​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 15:11-24

But the father said to his servants, Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found. So they began to celebrate.
Luke 15:22-24

Here is the joy of the father when his rebellious son finally comes home. What a happy note where this story ends — for everyone but the fatted calf! The father's joy is unrestrained. He sees the lone figure on the horizon and runs to meet him. He throws his arms about him and kisses him. The boy starts his little speech, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son. The father knows what he is going to say and he stops him. He calls for the robe, the mark of sonship. He calls for a ring, the sign of authority. And he calls for a feast, the display of honor. He puts this boy right back into the full relationship of a son within the family circle. He begins to honor him and treat him as a grown son.

How can this father be so joyful? For many years when I read this parable I could understand fully the feeling of this boy. I too had been a rebellious son, and I could identify with him. I knew what the far country was like, and what the joy of coming home was. But now, as I read the parable, I find myself identifying with the father, and understanding something of what went on in his heart. Why is this father so joyful? It is because the boy had been dead, but now is alive. He was lost, but now is found. He had almost given up and lost hope. Behind the joy of the father is the dark background of agony which he endured while this boy was gone.

Helmut Thielicke's title for this parable is not The Prodigal Son, as we call it, but The Waiting Father. What Jesus is after is not to show us the boy's heart, but the father's. The father's agony began when he first realized he had to let this boy go. He did not want to. He knew what needless trials lay ahead. He could have spared this boy the heartache, loneliness, shame and degradation of the far country. Had the boy been patient and allowed his father to work out his purposes, he could have had the full enjoyment of liberty he sought, without the heartache. Yet the father knew he could not do it without the boy's full cooperation. The boy had to agree to the father's plans. But if he would not wait, the father could not make him do it. So there came a time when, with his heart breaking, he gave the boy the money and let him go.

If we can see the father's agony as Jesus intended us to see it, then we will have the answer to the question many ask about this parable — How can Jesus tell the story of a rebellious son returning to his father, without a reference to his own cross and his redemptive love? The answer is that the agony of this father's heart, running through the background of this story, is the picture of the cross. The cross is the expression of God's agony over the rebellion of man.

Father, break the back of rebellion within me. Help me to wait when you ask me to, and learn to trust, knowing that freedom, now, means slavery; but freedom when you give it means liberty in all its fullness.

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Life Application​

Have I experienced the full restoration possible only because the Father has borne the hurt and quenched my rebellion in the blood of his own heart?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 6TH​

Respectable and Lost​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 15:25-32

The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!
Luke 15:28-30

We all can identify with the rebellious son who went into the far country. But now we stand in the shoes of this elder brother. There is not one among us who has not felt what this brother felt when he found himself gripped by jealous rage.
Perhaps it would help to analyze this a bit, to more clearly recognize the symptoms of this reaction. Three characteristics are always present when this attitude is expressed. The first one is a sense of being treated unfairly, of being ignored, forgotten or disregarded. This feeling of unfair treatment is always the initial mark of a self-centered attitude. It is the sign of crushed pride — a wounded ego — revealing the centrality of self.

The second mark is that of an over-inflated view of self. Notice how the older brother describes his own superiorities. Self-righteousness is always full of self-praise: Look! All these years I've been slaving for you. There is no recognition whatsoever of what he has learned through these many years, or how much he has profited by the relationship with his father. In his view it is all one way. And I never disobeyed your orders. Certainly that is not true. No one has ever lived up to that kind of a standard. It is remarkable how conveniently he forgets the many times the father has forgiven him. Yet his view of himself is that of being completely and wholly in the right. That is always a mark of self-righteousness.

The third mark is his blame of and contempt for others. This son of yours… You can hear the cutting edge of contempt in that. He does not call him his brother, and there is no gladness at his return. He views him as someone vile and contemptible. Also there is no love or respect for his father. Oddly enough, the father ends up with all the blame. You never gave me a goat, that I might make merry with my friends; but you killed the fatted calf for this son of yours, this contemptible wretch! How many times have we heard that reaction expressed?

These are the three marks of self-righteousness — the world's most deadly sin. Our Lord spoke of this more frequently and dealt with it more severely than of any other sin. He could be tender and gracious toward those who were involved in adultery or drunkenness, but when he faced self-righteous Pharisees in their smug complacency, his words burn and scorch. This sin is deadly because it is so easily disguised as justifiable. It reveals that this son is actually more lost than the other was. He, too, is in a far country — a far country of the spirit — far removed from the father's heart. He has never learned to share the same spirit his father has.

Father, you were gracious and compassionate when I returned from the far country. Now, Lord, save me from turning harsh or judgmental and full of blame toward those who are like what I once was.

Life Application​

Have I seen in myself this feeling of being treated unfairly? Of an overly inflated view of myself? Of contempt for others?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 7TH​

Get Smart with Money​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 16:1-18

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
Luke 16:9

These words follow a parable about a steward who lived by his wits. He has no hesitation in pulling a fast one on his master in order to feather his own nest. A report came to his master that this man was guilty of shady practices, and so it was wasting his goods. Without any investigation, the master called the steward in and dismissed him, but required an account of the stewardship before he left. And so the steward faced the bleak alternative of either having to go to work and dig ditches for a living, or begging his living from someone else.

Neither of these alternatives suited him at all. So he suggests a third alternative that he decides to follow. He cleverly decides to put his master's debtors in his own debt. Evidently they owed the master a certain amount of rent. So he called those debtors in and reduced their debts. All of this finally comes to the attention of the master who, instead of being angry when he hears what his clever servant has done, commends him for this dishonest action.

He regards him as a clever scoundrel. Jesus concluded the parable by saying, For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light.

Within the limits of their view, people of this world are often more consistent in obtaining their goals than Christians are. Here is this steward, and although he is a scoundrel, at least he thinks of the future and prepares for it. He anticipates what is coming and he spends time getting ready for it. Our Lord clearly suggests that we Christians should take seriously the fact that this life is but preparation for a far greater life to come. What we learn here is what prepares us for living there, and if we fail to learn here we will not be ready, as we could be, for that life to come. The trouble with Christians is that they will not take their view of life seriously. If they did, they would imitate the assiduous effort that children of this world put into preparing for the future, even though that future will crumble apart at death.

Our Lord's conclusion is: Be wise about money, use it to make friends for yourselves, so that when the money fails — and it will — that money spent well will provide friends who will welcome you into the eternal habitations. Use money while it still has value. Do not avoid it, or pretend it is beneath you, as something unspiritual. On the other hand, do not save it up as though it were an end in itself. The thing about this steward is that he understood that money is to be used. It was not to heap up in a bank account and watch it grow; it was to be used for something. The believer also is to use money as a temporary vehicle to accomplish permanent good. If this clever steward understood to use money to serve his own best ends, how much more must Christians do the same in their life? Make friends by the proper use of money while it still has value, for there is coming a day — and it is absolutely certain — when it will lose its value.

Lord, you have spoken plainly and clearly. Grant that I may have the grace to take this seriously and live not for this world but the next.

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Life Application​

Do I understand that this life is a preparation for the life to come? Does that conviction show up in my use of money?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.

 

[Obadiah]

A DAILY DEVOTION FOR MAY 8TH​

The Main Thing​

READ THE SCRIPTURE: LUKE 16:19-31

If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.
Luke 16:31

These words conclude a parable Jesus tells of a rich man, and a poor Lazarus who lay at his gate, desiring to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. When they both died, Lazarus was brought to Abraham's bosom, while the rich man went to hell. In hell, being in torment, the rich man saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom. He called out to Abraham to send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool his tongue. But Abraham refused, reminding him that between them lay a great fixed chasm that no one may cross it. The rich man begged Abraham to send him to his father's house to warn his five brothers, lest they also go to hell. But Abraham replied, They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them. But he said, No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent. Abraham replied, If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. (Luke 16:16-31)

Here in hell, for the first time, this rich man feels concern for his brothers. Yet his torment is increased since he can do nothing about it. Many feel this is unfair; if God really does not want men to go to hell, then why not allow a warning to help keep them from hell? But that misses the point of Abraham's words. This rich man's request is not denied because God is unwilling to give as much opportunity as possible; he is denied because it is useless; it will not work. As Abraham points out, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, they won't be convinced if someone rises from the dead.

How accurately this portrays our desire for the spectacular! Many feel that if they could only see a miracle, or be spoken to by an angel, then they would believe. But how many who saw the miracles in our Lord's day still believed in him at the end of his life? Even when Jesus himself returned from the dead, men did not believe. Abraham is right. The most convincing proof is Moses and the prophets — the Word of God, especially that Word made flesh, come to dwell among us.

The rich man was in hell because he refused to heed the words of Moses and the prophets. Lazarus, on the other hand, was in heaven simply because he did believe Moses and the prophets, and he made God his helper and trusted in him.

The main thing in life is to heed what God has said, to heed Moses and the prophets. You and I are the five brothers who are left behind. You may be young, sauntering through life like these five brothers thinking, I'll enjoy life now; I'll handle the next life when it comes along. But the point of this story is that our then is determined by our now. You are here now to learn reality, to distinguish good and evil, and to appropriate God's method of deliverance. Unless you learn these things now, there will be no glorious life to come. Thus the main thing is Moses and the prophets, especially the last and greatest of the prophets, who tells this story!

Lord Jesus, thank you for these clear words that bring life into focus again. May I listen to Moses and the prophets, and the One of whom the prophets spoke, the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Life Application​

Am I looking for a convincing sign from God or preparing for the life to come by listening to Moses and the prophets?

Daily Devotion © 2024 by Ray Stedman Ministries.