Daily Devotional

DELIVERANCE THROUGH BLESSING OTHERS

March 17

hild of God, do you want to know how to really get set free from bondage? Look again at my servant Job. In the very minute that he ceased to concentrate on his terrible trials, and began to focus on and pray for others, he was set free. (Job 42:10) Read the verse in Job and you will see the "turn" in his life. One of the most serious sins in the life of the believer is the sin of self-absorption! That is, it is the sin of concentrating so heavily on "me" and my problems that we forget that "it is more blessed to give than to receive." (Acts 20:35) Please note the words "more blessed." In these words, you are told that if you "give" (that is turn away from self, and reach out and touch someone else with prayer or acts of loving care, you are stirring up the greater favor of your Father toward you than if you receive even a spiritual gift or blessing from God). Well, aren't you ready to come out of the trouble that you are in? The large bondage and sickness of Job was immediately "turned" (he started the journey out of his troubles) when "he prayed for his friends." Here's what you can do: outline the main bondages and personal sins which seem to continually bind you and "push you off the target" of walking in the Holy Spirit. Now take that list and ask the Father how you can reach out to others and touch the lives of others through prayer or care. Then do it! Pray for other brothers and sisters with persistent sins! Love, pray for them, call on God on their behalf, do whatever it takes in prayer and focusing away from yourself and your needs, and with Job concentrate your prayer over the next few days on people who have similar needs and troubles as your own. You will feel true strength within yourself rise. Child of the King this kind of reaching to others and "sowing" to their needs will not seem easy or even the "natural" thing to do. It may be hard at first, especially if you have spent your life complaining or concentrating on yourself and your needs. Remember, that the Lord Jesus in His great love did exactly this in His life and even in the final moments on the cross. Even while hanging on the cross, in the most painful and agonizing time of His last few minutes there He turned away the focus on himself and said to John, "Son behold thy mother (speaking of Mary), woman, behold thy son." (John 19:26, 27) When the Lord Jesus should have been blinded by his own agony and unspeakable pain, he took the focus off himself, and gave His dear mother a home with John for the rest of her life. Are you getting the picture? It is time for you to say, "It is not all about me. It is all about Him, Jesus, and all that he has to offer to the broken, ruined, lost people of this world." If you want to be the most like the Son of God and glorify your Father in Heaven, then determine to develop a lifestyle of doing just exactly what the Lord Jesus did--- he came to "seek and save that which was lost." (Luke 19:10) You go and "seek and save" the lost in your world around you, and you will never lack for fruit to offer to your Father in this world!

Prayer

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Father, in Jesus’ name I have sinned by my focus on myself and my "problems." I am now ready to turn away from me and focus in on you and your little lambs--- others. Help me do this in Jesus' name, amen!