Memorise: Having a good
conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be
ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 1st
Peter 3:16
Read: 2nd Samuel
12:7-14 (KJV)
12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith
the Lord God
of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the
hand of Saul;
12:8 And I gave thee thy master's house, and thy master's
wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if
that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such
things.
12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed
Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and
hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine
house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the
Hittite to be thy wife.
12:12 For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing
before all Israel, and before the sun.
12:13 And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against
the Lord. And
Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt
not die.
12:14 Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great
occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is
born unto thee shall surely die.
Bible in one year: 2nd
Chronicles 1-4, Ezekiel 34:11-24, Hymn: Sing hymn 9
MESSAGE:
A
true representative of a good family will do everything possible to protect
name of the family. For this reason, Proverbs 22:1 says,
“A good name is rather to be
chosen than great riches and loving favour rather than silver and gold.”
If
you are a worthy child of God, you will do all you can to honour God’s Name,
and you will never bring it into disrepute. Honouring God’s Name goes beyond
lip service; God expects you to prove that you honour Him through your actions.
In 1st
Samuel 17:1-51, David was angry that an uncircumcised Philistine
could boldly insult the God of Israel, and yet nobody could do anything about
it. He therefore took up the challenge of defending God’s Name. What have you done
to defend or honour God’s Name? In what way has your nation, state, community
or even your workplace recognised the Lordship and greatness of God above all
other gods because of your presence there? The patriarchs of old were not
ashamed to stand for this same God, even at the cost of their lives (Hebrews
11:36-37). But how is it with you today? Are you even ashamed to
publicly associate yourself with Jesus Christ, so that your peers and superiors
will not look down on you?
If
you truly hallow God’s Name, then under no circumstance would you defile that
Name. When someone looks at you and say, “How could you do this? And you call
yourself a child of God!” Those words will go through you like a hot iron if
your conscience is alive. If those words were spoken to you because you truly
did err from the faith, you would feel pain in your heart, become miserable and
feel ashamed of yourself. If indeed your conscience is alive, in such a moment,
you would see yourself as a wretched sinner and immediately run to the cross of
Calvary for mercy and forgiveness. If your conscience is however dead, you may
not feel a thing and just move on as if nothing ever happened. Is your
conscience still alive? Does it warn you before you do any evil? Does it prick
you when you sin? In 2nd Samuel 11, David and Bathsheba
fell into the sin of adultery. By the time Nathan confronted David over this
evil act, he felt horrible. He was broken and in pain. God told him that his
actions had brought shame and disgrace to His Name (2nd Samuel 12:14).
David genuinely repented, and God forgave him. At what stage do you realise you
have sinned, and what is your response to this realisation?
Prayer Point
Father, from now on, may I
never bring shame to Your Name by my deeds.
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