BIBLE IN A YEAR: Josh 1-3
VICTIM OF PASSION
MEMORIZE: "Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus" (Acts 4:13)
READ: Mark 3:13-19
A hunter went out for gaming and killed a big leopard. Then he discovered its prey had a small baby. Out of sympathy, he took it home. When the chief of the community saw the baby leopard, he asked the man why it was spared and domesticated, and he replied it was only a little innocent and harmless creature. The little leopard began to grow, and played with children in the neighborhood. The son of the hunter could even take a ride on its back. With time, the community dwellers had lost all sense of danger posed by the young leopard. After it had grown into a big leopard, the son of the hunter was taking a ride on its back when he fell and bruised his legs against thorns. He began to bleed. The leopard licked the blood and suddenly the leopard instincts that had been sleeping, woke up. The hunter's son became its first victim!
If you do not destroy the little leopard in your life, it will surely destroy you. Now is the time to tame and mortify anger, lust for strange flesh, love of money, and love for worldly things. Whenever we talk of purity, we also mean that contamination has been removed. One way such contamination can be removed is through fire because of its ability to purify. Peter was a beneficiary of this. He was number one among those called by the Lord. He had great potentials. But then he had one little problem - fear. Satan discovered it the day Peter walked on water, hence after the arrest of Jesus, a little girl confronted him and he denied his Lord three times. Fear could have robbed him of his destiny, but for the intercession of the Master. On the day of Pentecost when the fire fell, it roasted fear out of Peter's life. From that moment, Peter moved from fear to faith, cowardice to bravery (Acts 4:13).
Is fear lurking somewhere in your heart? Ask God to consume it with His fire. Fear is one enemy that overcomes its host. You cannot accomplish much for God if you have fear. It will always come between you and your tasks. It will also come between you and your glorious destiny. Is bitterness in your life? It will stop you from tasting the joy of the Lord. It can prevent you from sweetness. Has anyone offended you but you have not forgiven him? Arise and forgive the fellow now. Do not allow any contamination! Don't become the victim of your passions!
ACTIONPOINT: Anyone in bitterness cannot know the taste of sweetness because even when sweet things come, they will mix with bitterness in the fellow and the end result will be bitter
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When I was younger…from like age 6 to 12, I used to have nightmares, I’d wake up feeling my heart was about to jump out of my mouth. I used to dread night time, I tell you, if I had the power to keep the sun up forever…honestly, I wouldn’t have hesitated. My mom and dad tried everything…okay, come sleep on our bed; don’t watch scary movies before bed, we even had a no telling of horror stories rule in the house (and don't get me started on all the visits to Wolis) but nothing worked. I was afraid of everything, a bump, a knock, a scratch, you name it…as long as it happened at night, I would freeze up and heaven help us if Nepa took the light and they didn’t start the generator on time…forget it, no one was sleeping that night.
This fear almost crippled my life, I couldn’t spend the night at other people’s house, I wasn’t sleeping at all (I believe that’s the reason I’m still a night owl till today) but most importantly, I couldn’t go to boarding school, which was like a tradition with all the girls in my family, instead I was enrolled in a day school. Then in my 1st year of secondary school my mom gave a list of psalms to read for fear, even though I wasn’t really born-again, I believed in the powers of the Almighty, so I read these psalms religiously. Gradually, I went from reading 5 psalms to reading 1 in particular and in less than 3 months, I knew the whole thing by heart. I would recite every night before going to bed. I even started reciting during the day and before I knew…this peace of mind came over me and I started sleeping through the night. The next year, I was enrolled in boarding school and that was the end of it.
And the reason for this long-winded story…you’re thinking, right? Well, first is to give my testimony…to be quite honest I don’t think I’ve ever shared this story with anyone…at least not in the form of a testimony anyway. Secondly, I’m telling you this because today’s devotional struck a chord in me, I wonder what my life would have been like, if I hadn’t destroyed that little leopard. I can assure you that I most likely won’t be here today…probably still in my father’s house, sleeping on my parents' bed…now that would be a sight, a 20 something yrs old still clutching the pillows, afraid to go to bed (yeah, laugh it up) and thirdly, I felt like writing (Lol…just joking). I’d like us to do an internal examination…look for the little leopards in our livse and pray for the Holy Ghost fire to destroy it before it overcomes us. May God help us all. Amen
And if anyone is interested, the psalm that helped me overcome my fear is (Drum roll please) Psalm 27
Auntie Shola...that touched me personally..cuz i used to have fear of sleeping at night too...but you know...watching your back everytime takes a lot of energy man...lol..but now i thank God that i dont have to do that anymore...FEAR is not a good thing o...it can turn a very successful living life to a complete nightmare. I thank GOD that that is not our portion for HE has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of sound mind.
Aww, Fiyin...Thank God you got over your fear too. It’s a horrible feeling being scared and not knowing the reason. I should also mention that it wasn't just reciting the Psalm that helped me; it was I believing every word of it. I try to imagine what David overcame to pen such a deep Psalm about his confidence in God. Seriously, if you can, read that psalm...slowly and try to picture what David was feeling as he wrote every single line and remember that it’s the same God we are serving. If that doesn’t up your confidence…I don’t know what will.
On a side note, I've been trying to figure out the reason I zeroed in on that particular Psalm and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because of the 1st line which says “The Lord is my LIGHT and my salvation”, it makes sense seeing as it was the dark i was afraid of.
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