Monday, January 27, 2020
Bible Text: Genesis 19:14 “Then Lot went to the men that his daughters were going to marry, and said, “Hurry up and get out of here; the LORD is going to destroy this place.” But they thought he was joking.” Read Genesis 19:1-21.
Memory Verse: Mark 6:4 “Jesus said to them, “Prophets are respected everywhere except in their own home town and by their relatives and their family.”.
With every relationship comes a level of familiarity and this is usually come by as a result of constant communication and strong bonding with the party at stake; there is a good level of closeness experience. You often find out that familiarity makes us think we know someone so well, their capabilities, strengths, their weaknesses and more, nothing about them feels hidden to us. Even when things changes around them, the closeness makes it impossible for us to emphasis on those changes, and if not careful, we get accustomed to seeing things a particular way with that individual, making us miss out on important things which might be a blessing or detriment to us.
Over the years, I have learnt that familiarity while it has its benefits, can likewise be extremely dangerous. One of such is what happens to lots son in-law to be in today’s bible text. They took their intending father in-law for a joke and this simply led to their distraction and end of their life. The men perished with the rest of the people at Sodom & Gomorrah.
I have realised that those who benefit the most from God’s opportunities are external individuals. They seem to put their all into the requirements and they follow all the instructions carefully until they get to the finishing line, while those in-house with a good level of familiarity, who should actually be the first set to reap the benefits of closeness simply take rules for granted assuming they have privileges which will earn them prizes.
This is a very dangerous comfort zone and we see that Jesus addresses this when he went with his disciples to His home town. Read Matthew 15:53-58. Jesus who had been performing miracles everywhere and teaching a lot of people about God could not really give out to His own people because they undermined Him and lacked faith, in other words, they thought they knew Him so well – The carpenter’s son.
While you may get carried away with friends and families, God is not one to get too familiar with. His ways are so untraceable and therefore you cannot say God did something a particular way today therefore He will repeat the same in that order tomorrow. When it comes to the things of God, His ways, dimension, approach, style remains untraceable.
Familiarity is the source of problems in many people’s lives and today and I urge you greatly to review the way you see God. Churches are impacted where the congregation starts to see the Pastor and not God through them, Marriages are impacted where partners get too familiar, Children become too familiar with parents and no longer obey or listen to them.
Are you taking people for granted because you have become to familiar? Is your relationship with God stagnant due to familiarity?
Familiarity is a mental block that closes out reality of the things in their present state. As you being your day today, I encourage you to have an open mind to everyone around you expecting that God can and will use everyone today for you in different ways for His glory.
Practice: Open a bible passage you have read so many times only this time read it as if you have never read before it and see what the Holyspirit brings to your attention today.
PRAYERS:
- Father I thank You for the grace to know you and be of you
- Help me O Lord to see You in a new way and have new experience every day of this year 2020
- I renounce and denounce every attitude of familiairty which may make be loose out on blessings and opportunities this year IJN
- Forgive my iniquities Lord and let your mercy prevail over judgement
- Thank you Father and in Jesus Name I Pray, Amen.
I’m reading the YouVersion plan ‘Bible in One Year 2020 With Nicky Gumbel’. Check it out by clicking on the caption below.
