Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

June 12, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO BEAR US (part 1)

Deuteronomy 1:30 The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you, according to all that he did for you in Egypt before your eyes; 31 And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place. 32 Yet in this thing ye did not believe the LORD your God,

What a journey. They were just on the other side of the Jordan River. As you see in the passage, Moses recalls all that God did in Egypt, in the wilderness, and then here just outside the promised land. Moses reminds the people of how God fought for them. All that Pharaoh did to keep them in captivity, yet God delivered them. Think of it this way:

IN EGYPT
1. God FOUGHT for them. God fought the battles that they could not win. Does that not sound like the God we serve? He fights the battles for us that we cannot win. Our enemy is stronger than us, but our God is stronger than our enemy. This does not mean that we quit fighting. We must do our part. Faith without works is dead. And works without faith is a waste of time. We must fight with all our might and rely upon the power and strength of God as we do. The problem occurs when you and I think that we won the battles. That is what angers God. That we could arrogantly think that we conquered anything would be a huge mistake. When I used to lift weights a lot, I would use a spotter. This is an individual that would help me lift a weight too heavy for me. I could get it started, and I would continue to push with all my might, but I could not get the weight up without some help. If the spotter lifted all the weight, I would never build any muscle, but without the spotter, I would never complete the task. You see, God’s grace is sufficient. He wants us to work with all our might, but He is there to do what we cannot on our own. We just can’t let ourselves think that we lifted all the weight.

2. God FREED them from chains that they could not break. They had been in captivity
for years in Egypt and just could not get freedom from it. They had just accepted it
and grown comfortable with the chains. Just like us and our sin. We were enslaved
with no way out, but Jesus freed us from the chains of sin. The children of Israel did
not have to be in bondage. God never wanted them to be there, but stubbornness and sin put them there. That is exactly what puts us there. God has given the victory already, but we choose to be in bondage. “Dear friend”, enjoy the freedom that God sacrificed so much for. Do not put the chains back on. God freed us.

• John 8:36 If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.