Great reward from dependency on God versus total loss on my own way (Continuation of yesterday’s devotional)

 An Emoji Devotional for Thu 17 November, 2022

Topic: Great reward from dependency on God versus total loss on my own way (Continuation of yesterday’s devotional) 

By Hans Wenger

Highlights:‘Watch out that no-one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am the Messiah,” and will deceive many.’ (Matthew 24:4 – 5) 

‘No-one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are healthy,[generous] your whole body also is full of light. But when they are unhealthy,[stingy] your body also is full of darkness. See to it, then, that the light within you is not darkness. Therefore, if your whole body is full of light, and no part of it dark, it will be just as full of light as when a lamp shines its light on you.’ (Luke 11:33 – 36) 

And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell. (Matthew 18:9) 

‘The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)‘He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” ‘Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.’ Matthew 25:45 – 46) 

When the disciples asked Jesus about the end times, he foremost warned them not to be deceived. They are to cling to the written word of God and to be filled with the Holy Spirit to have the right discernment. Our eyes can easily deceive us. Satan can be camouflaged as an Angel of light and we are in danger to fall for it, if we do not stay with what the scriptures tell us and what the Holy Spirit reveals to us out of the word of God. Even for many people, who call themselves Christians it is more important, how they look at the word of God in their own understanding, than to ask what God meant with it. For example many think that perfect love allows everybody to live according to their own will. True love, however, warns against reckless living without observing God’s rules for fruitful living. The light we mean to have can therefore be darkness before God. If so, we need to repent and to radically turn around. Not my point of view is the measuring stick, but God’s point of view. Often times we would rather follow our opinion, because it may sound much less radical than what the Bible is telling us. “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives for ever.” (1. John 2: 15 – 17) Jesus is therefore very clear in Matthew 18. If you can’t avert your eye from the deception, throw it away. It is much better to be saved with only one eye than losing your reward or even your eternal life. In Matthew 25 Jesus makes it very clear that missing from action leads as well to the loss of eternal live. Jesus acknowledges that the people to his right have fed him, visited him and so on. Only these people do not remember such incidents and so they ask him, when that was. They did it to one of the least of his brothers and sisters and so they did it for him. Those who are sent away, they did not do it at all and so they get condemned. They were concentrated on themselves only. Whoever lives to please Jesus in the present body tent will be richly rewarded. Matthew 10:42 teaches us: “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.’ On the other hand people who do not search to live according to the word of God, will be in for big losses and may even miss life eternal. 

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, lead me to walk in your light and reveal every dark spot to me. Keep me from sinning against your love and help me to let my little light shine under you, as you shine as the light of the world. Thank you, that you even promise reward for what I am only able to do through you. Amen