SWEET BABY JESUS
December 05, 2022
Prayer: Lord of my life, King of Kings, gracious Heavenly Father, I give You glory and honor on this day. Despite how things around me may look, I will praise You. I thank You for the strength to keep making strides forward. I pray that You will continuously lead me in the right direction. I am grateful that You go before me and have a plan for my life. I don’t ever want to move without You. I surrender every aspect of my life to You. I offer my heart to You. Father, mold me. Shape me. Purge me of anything that’s not like You. Help me to love what You love and hate what You hate. Renew my mind. In Jesus’s name I pray. Amen
Scripture: He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. Revelation 1:16 NKJV
Some of us only like to think of Jesus as the sweet, smiling, nice Jesus. Some of us like to only think of Him as the loving Jesus who hugged the children and let them sit at His feet while He taught. Or we like to think of Him as the gracious Lord who blessed and multiplied the five loaves of bread and two fish to feed thousands of people (Matthew 14: 18-21; Luke 9:16-17; John 6:11; Mark 6:41). We even like to only look at the miracles of healing He did such as causing the lame to walk and the blind to see (Matthew 15:30; Matthew 21:14). Don’t get me wrong. These are wonderful characteristics of our Savior and I love Him dearly.
But when you’ve been going through hardship; praying and crying; having more month than money; your children sick; family members dying every couple of months; (I am speaking from experience!) chaos at work; people trying to take your teaching license; trying to stop you from graduating; your character being assassinated; people lying to or about you; being faced with losing your home, and all this happens while serving God….What do you do? The enemy is whispering lies through all of this and asking “Where is your God?” With all this going on we need a Jesus who FIGHTS! You see, sometimes we forget about this Jesus! This Jesus saw the foolishness going on in the temple, flipped the tables over in anger, and declared with authority that His house is a house of prayer (Matthew 21:12-13).
He is the Lord who rises up and fights for me. He’ll fight on your behalf as well. Sometimes we forget that He is our vindicator (Psalms 54:1; 35:24; 26:1). He is the righteous judge (Psalms 7:11). He is Jehovah-nissi (Exodus 17:15). He threw hailstones from heaven to help Joshua win a battle (Joshua 10:11). He is the God who trained David for war (Psalms 144:1). He’s the God who had a donkey die in the exact spot where Samson stood and slew 1,000 men with its jawbone (Judges 15:14-16)! Samson didn’t do that in his own strength. The Word clearly states in verse 14 that the “Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him.”
The Word of God isn’t a menu at a restaurant. We don’t just choose what we want to focus on. He has instructed us to meditate on His Word day and night (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:2; Deuteronomy 28:1). He didn’t say meditate only on the amazing miracles. We are to study the Word in its entirety, because we are in a battle. Jesus wasn’t just going from town to town with a huge smile plastered on His face and doing miracles. Jesus has always been a bold warrior who is always victorious.
Copyright Niccori Thomas-Brown. Email niccorithomas@gmail.com
If you’ve enjoyed this devotion, Niccori has more topics in her book, Doing All God Has Called You To Do: A Devotion For Novice Teachers. Available for purchase here.
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