Discipleship Devotional, January 20th, 2025
The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
-Numbers 20:7-8, 11 (NIV)
It’s not uncommon to find believers holding on to certain wrong doctrines just because they claim it is working for them. Even when they are shown the right teaching, some insist on holding on to that wrong doctrine because of the perceived feeling that it works for them. This is a wrong disposition to have. In our anchor text, we find that Moses struck the rock when God told him to speak to it, and water still came out.
What this tells us is that results don’t always mean that we are in the right. A lot of times, such results are just the mercy of God in spite of our actions, not because of them. The mindset that results are all that matters is not true. We must be diligent enough to patiently seek and follow the right counsel of God’s word. The truth is that even unbelievers have a measure of results, but that does not mean that they are living right.
Another danger of the “it works for me” ideology is that people become results-centered instead of God-centered. This is one of the reasons many people hop from church to church and eventually end up among charlatans. As they have no regard for sound doctrine, all they want to hear is what will deliver the results they are seeking. This is indeed a great danger.
We must therefore seek to obey and follow God in all that we do, knowing that the end does not always justify the means. We must do God’s things God’s way. Otherwise, regardless of the results we see, we will still have a case to answer before God.
PRAYER:
Heavenly Father, help me to obey You always in all things. Help me to carefully follow the right counsel from Your word.
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