FOLDING HANDS? - Open heavens devotional by Pastor E. A Adeboye

BIBLE IN A YEAR: Obad; Jonah 1-4
FOLDING HANDS? Saturday, June 26, 2010
MEMORIZE: “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch” (Prov. 11:28) READ: Proverbs 6:9-11 “He that trusteth in his riches shall fall: but the righteous shall flourish as a branch” (Prov. 11:28). It is possible for you to flourish. If you have been recreated in Christ, then God has given you the nature to enable you flourish. How can you flourish? You can flourish through finding favor in God’s sight. Also, to flourish, you need to work hard. In Luke 5:5, it is on record that Peter toiled all night. Lazy people do not work at night. The lazy find it difficult to do hard work. That is why they cannot flourish. If you want to flourish spiritually, you must be prepared to work hard on your spiritual life. If you cannot wake up at night to pray for one, two or more hours, how can you rule your night so that you can reign during the day? This is one reason the poor and the rich maintain status quo: while the poor is enjoying sleep at night, the rich is strategizing against the next day. You do not conquer your day while it is day but when it is night. Jesus and His Father are hard workers (John 5:17). If you are lazy, go and look for your father; it is definitely not the Creator of the Heavens and the earth! Proverbs 6:9-11 says the sluggard loves sleep. He looks for every opportunity to take a little sleep. With his table full of untreated files, he will be dozing. The sluggard is full of reasons for not doing his job now. He believes that the work will somehow take care of things on its own. The sluggard expects God to come down from Heaven to do what he or she is supposed to do; that is why the fellow is always folding the hands. If it is taking you so long to take a single decision, you may be a sluggard. If you can afford to do nothing in the midst of so much work, you are a sluggard. If you are ever expecting somebody else to do that particular assignment, you are a sluggard. If there are many restitutions yet to be settled in your life, you are a sluggard. If you continue to fold your hands, God will also fold His. But if you want God to swing into action in your life, start something today. For the one who will flourish, there is no excuse, no matter how legitimate that will keep the fellow in idleness. If you are lazy, the deliverance you need is to start something immediately. ACTION POINT: In what areas are you folding your hands today? Rise up and start doing something and God will back you up.