SUNDAY – 13TH OCTOBER, 2024
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL - Olusola ADEJUMO
I HAVE FIRST RECEIVED - HUMBLED AT HEART SERIES 001
John 3:27, KJV
"John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven."
Stop the boast! Shut the swelling and show off! There's nothing you have that you have not first received. When we know this, we can be full of gratitude to God and acknowledge God as the source of all we have or who we have become. Our becoming is not without God. Memorize this by saying, "I cannot receive anything except it is given me from above." That'll sit and cool you down!
When you boast about something in your life as if you're sovereign on your own, you ought remember that if it was not first given, impacted or received, you could never have had it. If the receiver who should be abased so boast of his prowess, what should the Giver do? Should He not more glory over what He has given and to whom He has given it?
The Bible says, "and of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16).
John the Baptist knows this. Anyone who refuses to submit to the fact that no one can have anything except it's given to him from above would be full of jangling, contest and competition. He might contest that truth and it'll immediately show in his action. Such would immediately be filled with jealousy and might begin to slander or persecute the other who has received something from the Lord. Even when others are trying to help him cool down that it is the Lord's doing because it was God who had given that visible manifestation to that other one, he would disagree. He might go ahead to cook his own up in order to rival or stand tall to the other person. However, fake or false would be discerned and judged.
However, John tells them that what was happening - in everybody going to Jesus isn't unusual because He couldn't have had that if it was not given Him from above. John didn't fight Jesus because he knew that it was God's act to Jesus. He acknowledges that it wasn't Jesus' wisdom, strength or sweet persuasion that was drawing men to Him but the fact that they were people allocated to Him from the Lord. So, Jesus is just a manifestation of what He was given and had received; not what He thought of founding, starting or creating by His own will. All of us would do well knowing what we have received and operating in it and the measure in which it was given. Never compare yourself with another.
All of you who have been puffed up like puffer fish because of one gift or the other that God impacted to you, do come to remembrance that there's nothing you have that you haven't first received. If you had said you'll stop being generous with it, remember, it wasn't yours in the first place. So, you didn't start it at all. It didn't originate with you or any of us. It came from God. You couldn't have been sufficient or extraordinary if you were left to yourself. If you had not received, you'll have been as ordinary as those who don't have that gift or grace to exercise. Recall Samson when the Spirit that stirs him to strength and great ability leaves him. He assayed to do like before but it was all futile. That's how anyone becomes when he's no longer worthy of what he had received from above and the thing not worthy of him in return. It suddenly turns sour and what was once working would stop! Who we are is thanks to God who made us and from whom we have received - not even once but overtime as John 1:16 puts it.
So, always fall before your face when you're tempted to think "all begins with you and ends with you." Always remind yourself that there's nothing you have that you haven't first of all received. It'll also fill you with a grateful heart (Psalm 103:1-5) and makes you not exceed your measure. Knowing you have first received from God without which you could do nothing makes you a dependent on Him too even if some people are dependent on what you have received, and by same hope on you. It'll be your acknowledgment of God as your fountain. Is it wealth, it is God who gives you power to make it (Deut.8:18)? Is it a spiritual gift or ability (I Cor.12:1-11)? That also is administered to you by God. So, if you'll look all around carefully, you'll indeed see and acknowledge that there's actually nothing left or new that you could lay hold on as having wrought individually for yourself. You have received everything, including your salvation as a free gift though at the expense of God by the laying down of His one and only begotten Son (John 3:16, Rom.5:8,18). See this and be a grateful creature, always owing God and doing unto men just like it has been done unto you.
PRAYER: Let me always be reminded that you made me Lord. May people's dependence and hope in me lead me to dependence on you.
1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN
I Thessalonians 4:1-18 & Isaiah 59-60
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