Daily Treasure

“So my advice is, leave these men alone.  If they are teaching and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.  But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop them.  You may even find yourselves fighting against God”  (Acts 5:38-39 NLT).

Wouldn’t dare fight against the Lord, would you?

But we do at times, don’t we?

We argue our case:  Excuses. Reasons. The lists of pros and cons.

We whine:  Why now? Why me? Why this? Why not that?

We criticize:  We don’t like how it’s being done. Don’t care for how they are doing it. Don’t know why it can’t just stay the same.

Back to my question…Wouldn’t fight against God, would you?

Malinda Edgell
Illinois

PRAY TOGETHER:  Thank God for those who plan and who provide music for your worship services.

“So they chose one thousand men from each tribe of Israel, a total of twelve thousand men armed for battle.  Then Moses sent them out, a thousand men from each tribe, and Phinehas son of Eleazar the priest led them into battle.  They carried along the holy objects of the sanctuary and the trumpets for sounding the charge”  (Numbers 31:5-6 NLT).

Moses, because of God’s annointing on his life, knew these brave soldiers needed more than soldier gear to make it through this battle.  He placed little value in swords and shields, strength and might.  He wanted to make sure the boys he sent out to war came back alive and well—ready to continue on to the Promised Land.

So what did he do?  What simple act did God whisper in Moses’ ear that brought the guys home?  He sent with each of them a prayer warrior, some holy objects and some trumpets.

Fast forward a few thousand years to…well, today.

Are you prepared to enter the battlefield?  The war’s still raging.  Skurmishes, brawls and fights still occur between God’s people and the followers of the enemy.  The Promised Land has not yet been attained for us.

Do you have your stuff?

Do you have in your head the Word of God from last week’s sermon?  Have you in your mind a portion of Scripture from your time in the Word yesterday?  Do you hold in your heart that moment when at an altar of prayer all your sins were forgiven and you were set free?  Got the power of prayer in your satchel—has He heard from you often enough to recognize your voice?  Have you your trumpet, tuned and polished, ready to share your testimony, prepared to encourage other believers to summon power from the throne of God?

What’s in your pocket?

Oh no, don’t think He doesn’t arm us for battle.  He provides all we need. But will we empty our pockets of the world’s stuff in order to carry all He supplies?

Malinda Edgell
Illinois

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for Arkansas, California, Michigan and Missouri Women Active for Christ meeting together for state retreats.

“And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Philippians 3:9).

I find in this verse the cure for the infirmity of self-righteousness.  Paul discovered it on the road to Damascus. It was not his own righteousness, trying to just be good and follow the law, but faith in God alone that saved him.  Once Paul let go and let God have control of his life everything changed. As I shared yesterday, when Paul found Christ, nothing else really mattered.

Have you walked your own way long enough?  Is it time to turn your trust over to God and let Him transform your life?  It worked for Paul.

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for Arkansas, California, Michigan and Missouri Women Active for Christ meeting today and tomorrow for annual retreats.

“But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8).

In today’s verses we see the portrait of a man who transferred all his confidence over to the Lord.  Paul remembered what his life was like before he met Christ on the road to Damascus.  His focus changed.  His life became centered around Christ and not himself.

He counted everything else as loss, to find the priceless gain of knowing Jesus Christ as Savior. He called those losses, dung, —worthless in comparison to having Christ in his life.

The reason I chose these verses was to contrast a person who is very self-centered with a person who is Christ-centered.  Those who are self-righteous are more confident in themselves than in God.  People like Paul take the focus off themselves and put their confidence in God.  Which group leads a more victorious Christian life?  No doubt about that answer.

What about you? Are you willing to count everything else but loss that you might lead a Christ-centered life?

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for Elizabeth Hodges as she goes today to the Michigan WAC Retreat where she will speak.

“Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matthew 23:27-28).

I found this comment in The NIV Study Bible: “A person who stepped on a grave became ceremonially unclean (Numbers 19:16); so graves were whitewashed to make them easily visible, especially at night.”  This helps us further understand that with the Pharisees everything they did was to bring glory to themselves not to God. They looked good on the outside, but, on the inside it was ugly.  They might have had their fancy robes and their boastings but God pronounced woes unto them. He called them hypocrites, the word which best described them.  They had a form of godliness but their hearts were far from God.  They pretended to be so saintly before men, but God knew it was just an act.

There’s a facet of self-righteousness that we don’t always see.  We just can’t keep up the pretense. Sooner or later, our true colors show and when they do, shame and regret will be our woes.

God knows everything about us. He especially sees our hearts. Think a self-righteous attitude will fool God? Never.

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray compassion tempered with discernment for workers in area food pantries and other local ministries assisting those in need.

“And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all I possess. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).

We’ve already met those prideful Pharisees. Jesus used them as an illustration—a parable to help self-righteous people see the error of their way. We can definitely draw a contrast between the two characters in this teaching. The self-righteous tend to think much like the Pharisee. They are boastful and arrogant, considering themselves better than others.  They can’t see any good in others, because they are too wrapped in themselves. The humble realize their dependence on God. They know they can’t go through life without Him.  They have learned life isn’t all about them.

Verse 14 should be taken seriously by those who are guilty of being even a little self-righteous.  Those who tend to exalt themselves will one day be brought down while those who are humble will one day be honored.  Isn’t it time to put God before the word “righteousness?”

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for WNAC, NYC and NAFWB convention leaders as they attend initial pre-con meetings this week in Tampa.

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags…” (Isaiah 64:6a)

As we study about self-righteousness this week, we hope to learn of our need to remove   “self” from that phrase.  As a child of God, our life no longer revolves around us. It is about loving God and others.

Before we were saved, we might have thought we were pretty good. We may have even compared ourselves with others in the church. We didn’t see inside our heart like God does..  When a holy God flashed the light of His love in there, all He saw was the filth of our sins. As today’s verse states, He saw something resembling dirty and smelly old rags.

When you stand before God, you won’t want to be dressed in the rags of your own righteousness. Be able to exchange them for a white robe by coming to God while there is still time. The invitation is there for all who want to burn those old rags: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool” (Isaiah 1:18).

Sue Winchester
Missouri

PRAY TOGETHER: Pray for the Heath and Joni Hubbard family, recently reassigned to Japan.