DCLM Daily Manna 28 December 2021
Topic: Sobriety In Celebration
TEXT: Isaiah 25:1-12
KEY VERSE:
“O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.” – (Isaiah 25:1)
DCLM Daily Manna 28 December 2021 OUTLINE
Modern man gets caught up in a wild rat race and festivities during the days and weeks leading to the close of the year. There is massive shopping and a lot of travels for social and business activities. As he is boxed into all these engagements, man has little time to look back and reflect on the goodness of God on his life so that he can sing songs of gratitude to honour the Creator who has seen him through the year.
Prophet Isaiah did not fall into the category of people who forget God after a victory. He broke into a song of celebration to honour the love of God. After the Lord had delivered Judah from the captivity of the enemy, the prophet looked back and discovered that the Lord he served had been “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall”.
We must also learn from this messianic prophet that the time of celebration at the point of victory or as we mark the end of the year should not be a period of abandonment to worldly pleasures and carnivals that pull us from the presence of God. The heaven-bound believer must acknowledge that these are days we should be closer to God’s holiness to mark us out distinctly from the multitudes who give in to the demands of the flesh.
The Bible predicted that in the last days, “men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy…” (2 Timothy 3:2,3). God is not expecting the sincere Christian to be among this madding crowd fulfilling the apocalyptic prophecy.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Celebrate reasonably!
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Revelation 12-14
