A WORD FOR TODAY 11 OCTOBER 2019

A WORD FOR TODAY

DO GOOD ALWAYS AND DON'T BE DISTRACTED BY DETRACTORS

In fulfilling His mandate and mission on earth, Jesus went about everywhere healing the sick and setting the captives free, even on the Sabbath day and this ruffled a lot of feathers among those in authority and they were always out to detract His name even when they knew in their heart that He was doing a good work.

The authorities became jealous and envious of Jesus, because of the good work He was doing which has endeared Him to the greater number of the people. His popularity grew and many see Him as the Messiah, because He was doing what others have never done. His goodness and kindness was real and the people could feel it, but this made some of them angry and they started spreading lies about Him just to tarnish His image and personality.

They attributed the good work He was doing to the power of demons and as a result of that could not believe in Him and give praise to God. We must always be careful not to ascribe God's power and work to the devil. God is supreme and He can do all things and when He uses anyone of us genuinely to do what we cannot do, we must not be jealous, but be appreciative of God and give Him praise.

Jealousy, slander, malicious and derogatory remarks and envy could creep into our heart if we do not fill our soul with God's word and live a holy life. When people are successful and achieve somethings we have not achieved, there is no need to look down on them and speak ill of them, instead, we should rejoice with them and give God the glory. We should complement them and be glad with them for it is God who is doing His work in them and through them.

God is free to bless anyone He chooses and He can make use of anyone as an instrument at different times. No one dictates for Him, therefore, we must be disposed always to let Him make use of us as He wills and there is no need to be sad or downcast when He makes use of others instead of us or when He makes them to possess what we do not have. All we need is to be content with what we have and who we are in Christ and that will bring glory to His name.

The jealousy of the people did not stop Jesus from doing the good He has come to do. He was healing the people and saving lives, even when they were doing all they can to destroy His integrity with lies. We must learn from Jesus not to quit or run away when people become jealous of us and speak evil about us, instead, let their words serve as a motivation for us to do more good in God's name and they can remain sad if they choose to.

God should be praised in the work we do and we must shine out as the light always and not let the works of darkness dwell in us and in this way we shall be possessed by God's Spirit and there will be no space for the demons to operate in us and fill our hearts with attitudes of jealousy and envy, rather the Holy Spirit will help us to shine out as the light and spread God's love everywhere.

Good morning dearest one. Smile😊as you do your work and do have a magnificent day. May God's grace be sufficient for you so that you will continue to do good works in His name. Amen. And may the Almighty God bless you: the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Meditations: Joel 1:13-15;2:1-2/Psalm 9:2-3,6, 8-9,16/Luke 11:15-26

Watch-Word: The Lord will rule the world with Justice.

Jealousy does not kill the one who it is projected to, but the one who projects it, therefore stay clear of jealousy, slander, malicious and derogatory remarks about others and you will be happy.

(Friday of the 27th Week in the Ordinary Time, Year 1)