TUESDAY - 22ND MARCH, 2022
MORNING WINGS DAILY DEVOTIONAL GUIDE - Olusola ADEJUMO
THE BEGINNING OF MY STRENGTH
Genesis 49:3, KJV
"Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power".
I have heard people speak of the very first thing they possess in this life. They've spoken of the first car they used, first house they lived in, first job they got and the first naming ceremony they did. What is first in our lives is unusual and even if the celebration of its appearance is lowly, after we might have grown into the future of our years, we still recall them as the peculiar unto which others that follow can't aspire to. While it is the predecessor of modern day events or happenings of same nature in our lives, yet we accord it the place of being the foundation on which others were casted. To you parents, try remembering how the birth of your first born went. What joy filled your heart; how you felt with your first pregnancy e.t.c.
Jacob said of Reuben as his first born and might. He can't speak of Joseph or Benjamin that way because they were children of his old age. Meanwhile, it was Reuben that changed his status and for the very first time, same made people to turn to him and address him as a "father". The first time they were knowing the joy of parents, Reuben brought them into it. It is like the very first time you'll have the taste of sexual ecstasy, somebody will bring you into it. That first experience of what happened and how you were brought into it can't just be forgotten. That's why God calls sex sacred and restrict it to marriage because of the memory of it that if you cleanse can't go. Till Reuben's birth, Jacob was only a husband but when Reuben was born, a testimony went forth about him as a man of no more mean status.
He said, "Thou art my first born, my might and the beginning of my strength..." What a thing! I have looked at albums and I have found the pictures of my parents with my sister and I. I saw that indeed, they were in the days of their strength compared to when children of later days came into their lives. At that time also, they didn't have many things they later possessed but they would always be forever grateful for that beginning that sets them in motion. If Jacob said Reuben was the child of his strength, it means the child of his youth. There's a time a young man is new, strong and full of vigour. There's a time he's just starting out on the road of who he'll finally become and be known for - you call that the beginning of his strength. The beginning of the manifestation of the greatness and successes that he'll later accrue and be altogether celebrated for. For instance, Jacob had thirteen children but it was one, this particular Reuben that sets him on the motion and journey of being a father. Before being a father to the other twelve, he was first to one. Before your earning in millions today, you probably earned in thousands which whenever you remember, you'll laugh and say, "those good old days" though those good old days is smaller in manifestation to what/who you have become now. I pray for you that your number one will delight you. Number one is always incomparable to any other thing. My undergraduate days aren't to be compared with any other days of education. Those days were the beginning of my academic journey. A time that if you had looked at my face or see it in the picture, you won't even agree that Bro Sola is the one in the picture. I was just a young chap with a face that's likely to be despised. I knew nothing much about life. I was just stepping out but I have found grace to go ahead.
Everything that a man would become someday and somewhere would begin with the manifestation of a drop that would finally make an ocean there. That's why the plan of every parent for their first born is always but special. If Reuben was the beginning of his father's strength, his might; don't you think he looked forward to seeing him do well. Imagine you seeing your face on someone else for the first time with a knowing that this is mine. Reuben was the product of Jacob's very first achievement and then at the very beginning of his life. He would still give birth to other children but this child, this Datsun or Benz he first used sets in motion a line for others to come. You could see him posing beside it then with blessings of the elders and pastors. I pray that when you look back to behold the beginning of your days, the beginning of your manifestation somewhere and the exhibition of your strength and might somewhere, it would be for joy because that's what it should be. A first born is who the Papa wants to easily make a friend, confide in, groom up to take over and to cater for the rest. May what confers on us our first happiness not be a curse. It will just be intolerable.
BIBLE IN A YEAR: Numbers 32:1-33:39; Luke 4:31-5:11; Psalm 64:1-10; Proverbs 11:22
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