DAY 22: TRUE RICHES

 PHRONESIS DEVOTIONAL

30 DAYS DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM

September 22, 2023.

Topic: TRUE RICHES

Bible Reading: Matthew 6:19-34

Verse for Meditation: 1 Timothy 6:6 NLT

Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth.

About sexual temptation, if you are struggling to break free, you must first be saved so that you can be given the Holy Spirit to empower you to live above sin. But breaking free and living constantly above sin; especially sexual sins, it take discipline and consistency. You don’t stay fit on the first day you go to the gym to work out; it takes consistent exercise and discipline to achieve that, so does exercising ourselves towards godliness (1Tim. 4:7). When you fall, you need to rise again to continue with the exercise. It was a constant practice that made that sexual habit called addiction. So you need to deliberately keep at it constantly till the appetite to sin dies.

Spiritual attack is real, but what we call spiritual attack is actually a lack of knowledge- ignorance.

The Bible says, “Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (2Cor. 2:11). Satan’s greatest advantage against the believers is ignorance. And the Bible also says, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” (Hos. 4:6). These people are God’s people but they are destroyed; or attacked, because they lack knowledge.

I remember travelling from Lagos to Osun on a bus and I was praying in tongues when the Holy Spirit told me that the reason why people struggle is because they lack light, and Psalms 119:130 came to my heart. And this is true, when there is no light we struggle through the darkness. But the moment light comes, the struggle ends. So as important as prayer is, you still need knowledge. And when you gain knowledge you will see that there’s no need to pray against spiritual attack.

And by the way John 10:10 is not a scripture that addresses the devil and his attack, but rather when you read it in context it is addressing false teachers and their false teachings.

Speaking about false teachings, the primary goal of the gospel is about Jesus Christ and His salvific work, and not about prosperity, healing, holiness or faith. Those things are the effects to Christ’s salvific work; the gospel is Christocentric.

When the church focuses more on prosperity than Christ’s salvific work, the church will raise a greedy church.

Here are two provoking facts you should know about money; there are two times more verses on money than there are on faith and prayer combined. And Jesus spoke more about money than He did heaven and hell combined. Why is that so? Because money has a lot to do with your soul; it is the only thing that the Bible says that fight for the place of God in our soul more than anything (Matt. 6:24; Mk. 8:36-37). In fact the Bible says, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” (1Tim. 6:10). When you love money you can do anything to get it; it is the root of all kinds of evil. One can lie and be dishonest to get it, one can steal to get it, or even kill. And the result this brings is not satisfaction but man sorrows and regrets. King Solomon wrote, “The one who loves money is never satisfied with money...” (Eccl. 5:10).

Whoever told you that much money brings satisfaction has told you a lie, if King Solomon in all of his wealth could say that, then there is much to learn about true riches. True wealth is to be content.

PRAYER:

PLEASE FATHER HELP MY HEART NOT TO SWAY INTO GREED IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN!

DECLARATION:

MONEY WILL NOT TAKE THE PLACE OF GOD IN MY HEART.

Bible Reading Plan: John 19:31-20:18; Galatians 2:11-3:14; Proverbs 22