FRIDAY 5TH AUGUST, 2022*OPPRESSION DISPLEASES GOD*
OPPRESSION DISPLEASES GOD
It is advisable you read the text first
📜TEXT:MICAH 2:1-6📜
🔑📖KEY VERSE: "Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand" (MICAH 2:1).
King Solomon wrote that God "hath made everything beautiful in His time" and that is true. All one has to do is observe the order in nature. The sun shines during the day and the moon at night; the sea may roar but it keeps its boundary. Despite climate change, the seasons follow their courses routinely. But man has invented many evil things and altered God's ordained order.
God gave the Israelites civil and moral laws to guide their interpersonal relationships. But they violated God's laws by subscribing to a culture of moral corruption. They became a nation of social injustices, thus sinning against God. Prophet Micah pronounced doom on the rich and powerful who heartlessly exploited others for personal enrichment. Through scheming and bribery, they expropriated the people of their property; thereby impoverishing and enslaving them. He prophesied that God would bring calamity upon those who gained wealth through oppression and wickedness.
God still frowns at oppression. As He lifts us in life, privileged positions should not be an opportunity for personal aggrandisement. Greedy pursuit of financial or material gain should not make us trample on people's rights. Injustice is reprehensible in God's sight. Always remember the divine law of retribution; what we sow is what we reap; here on earth and or in eternity. Zacchaeus said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold" (Luke 19:8).
✍🏽THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: God hates oppression; oppressors dare Him.
📜THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: JOHN 10-12📜
*MEDITATION*
Dangerous smartness
✅ Beware of your night*
Many evils are planned in the night. Satan and demons intensify their activities and engage the human mind, both in the conscious and subconscious, in the night.
Take good care of what you do at the night and what transpires before you sleep. Avoid idleness and commit your thoughts, heart and life into the pure hands of God while you go to sleep, v1.
"The enemy does this while men slept".
Question
Do you give time to the meditation of the word and prayers, no matter how short, before you sleep?
✅ Bad activities in the night*
Some open their minds to flowing and perhaps overwhelming evil thoughts and suggestions at the cover of the night, vv2,3.
Questions
i What were some of the evil devices and strategies these people were doing in the night which today is called smartness? vv2,3.
ii How do you engage your mind and use your night and pre-sleep night?
What you allow or disallow in the night determines how the following day will look like🤷♂️
✅ Biblical reward for what you do in the night*
The text concentrates on those who spent their night wrongly. The reward is "woe" which can also be transferred to their children, vv3-5.
Never allow the evil ones to hijack your night through evil thoughts, unbelief, despondency, worry and anxiety, fears, self-pity, etc. Be in control.
Question
What are the just devices God plots against the smart night evil strategists in the text?
Prayer points
Lord, break every evil power influencing and manipulating the way I spend my night🙏God of power, I hereby break every cycle of evil experiences in my night🙏
Lord, I ask for strength and power to always be alert in the spirit every night🙏
Lord, who neither sleep nor slumber, always arise to fight for the brethren during the battles of the night🙏
HYMN Yield not to temptation
Reference: Daily Manna Pastor Kumuyi
