In Touch Daily Devotional for 20 August 2023
In Touch Daily Devotional for 20 August 2023 – Sunday Daily Devotional Message Written Dr. Charles Stanley
TOPIC: Relying on the Spirit in Our Work
SCRIPTURE FOR TODAY: Ezra 4:1-5
Now when the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the people of the exile were building a temple to the LORD God of Israel,
they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we, like you, seek your God; and we have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”
But Zerubbabel and Jeshua and the rest of the heads of fathers’ households of Israel said to them, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God; but we ourselves will together build to the LORD God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.”
Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah, and frightened them from building,
and hired counselors against them to frustrate their counsel all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.
In Touch Daily Devotional for 20 August 2023 MESSAGE
The Israelites had returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. But many opposed their efforts, and were, in fact, quite clever. First, they offered to help. What better way to cause things to go wrong than to get involved in the work? When their aid was rejected, the enemies set out to discourage and scare the Israelites. They were successful in stopping the work—temporarily.
But “the eye of their God was on the elders of the Jews,” and the work was finally able to proceed (Ezra 5:5). The Lord took care of the mountain of opposition before them. What that means is, sometimes He will remove the problem; at other times He’ll walk with us through it. But either way, He wants us to depend on Him. This means choosing to …
• Patiently love friends and family.
• Wisely guide others toward godliness.
• Follow scriptural principles about finances.
• Have divine contentment in our current circumstances.
• Do God’s work His way.
Our work should be characterized by dependence on the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:16). While that mindset is countercultural, it’s the only way to live as a child of God. Seek out others who regularly try to follow the Spirit’s leading, and spur each other on to live it out.
Bible in One Year: Jeremiah 37-40
In Touch Daily Devotional for 20 August 2023. Charles Stanley is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church Atlanta and founder of In Touch Ministries, both located in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Stanley’s heart’s desire is to get the gospel to “as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, as clearly as possible, as irresistibly as possible, through the power of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.