Daily Devotional. If a man therefore PURGE HIMSELF from these (iniquity and dishonor), HE SHALL BE a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and MEET FOR THE MASTER’S USE, and prepared unto every good work. 2 Timothy 2:21. There are many places throughout the bible that tell us to flee from, run from, don’t partake of, turn away from, and don’t look at, because these things will try to take us down. A very hard thing to understand is, (for anyone), if I know this “thing” is going to be bad for me, why would I have to be told a second or even a third time, to run from it? If I don’t listen and obey God THE FIRST TIME, it is because I know better than God. God says “Don’t”, I say, “it’s ok God, I understand the situation and I can handle it. I’ll be careful and it won’t get me. Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing”. Ever hear that one before? And yes, I have used that one myself. We can come up with some very nice sounding excuses to give to the Lord, because we don’t want to hurt His feelings with utter absolute REJECTION of His Word. The nicer and more polite our excuse sounds, the more we feel good about politely not listening to God. Actually, we’re only trying to fool ourselves, and we don’t do a very good job of it. We still KNOW when wrong is wrong. The Holy Spirit makes sure of that. Obedience people, OBEDIENCE, that’s what this is all about. Good knows what we’re going to do long before we do. He wants us to learn to trust Him in the little things, to be Faithful in the little things, to obey Him in the little things, SO THAT WHEN A BIG THING COMES ALONG, WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN BATTLE TESTED, PASSED THE TEST, AND WILL OBEY, THE FIRST TIME. Whether you are a brand new baby Christian, or a seriously senior Sheep, this is how we learn these things. Yes, it can be first time obedience. Or there can be a learning curve and eventually full time obedience. Either way, DESIRE TO LEARN, Obey (or ask for Forgiveness in Repentance), and you will, Be Blessed.
