Daily Devotional

-August 30, 2021-

Good morning, happy Monday,

-Learning From The Lessons Of The Scriptures-

“For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

“Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

The OT explains the NT, and the NT explains the OT. There are so many lessons we can learn, especially from the OT. There are a positive examples to emulate and negative ones to avoid. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1-11 how with most the the Israelites God was not pleased because of their unbelief and idolatry. All the men who came out of Egypt perished in the wilderness, except for Joshua and Caleb. God brought all their children into the Promised Land.

It is so important that we learn from the past, from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. George Santayana, a Spanish Philosopher said, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” For us as believers in Jesus Christ, we have no excuses for not learning the lessons of Scripture. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:6, “Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.”

God gave us His Word from Genesis to Revelation to learn from. The Scriptures come alive when we put ourselves into the sandals of the men and women of the Bible and apply God’s Word to our lives today. The Scriptures were given for our learning and admonition so that we may have patience, comfort, and hope.

The word admonition means, “an act or action of admonishing; authoritative counsel or warning.” By heeding the lessons of Scripture we can avoid many of the pitfalls of the past and make the right choices for today. Moses, Samuel, Jeremiah, Paul, Peter, John, and James were great admonishers. Their words were authoritative and powerful. They spoke words that convicted, exhorted, warned, and encouraged.

God could have included only the good examples of Scripture but that would have made us think we could never live up to them. He included the mistakes, failures, and sins of His children so that we can relate to them. In James 5:17-18, it says of the mighty prophet Elijah, “Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.”

No one in the Scriptures was perfect. They had their strengths and weaknesses. So many of them overcame their failures to be victorious for God. It gives us hope that we too can be overcomers by the blood of Christ , the Word of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit. If and when we fail or fall, let’s get up, confess our sins, and move on. That is what Jacob, Moses, Jonah, and Peter did. God used them to do great things.

There are many lessons for us to learn from, let’s learn them. We should learn from the mistakes and failures of others as well as from our own mistakes and failures. God is patient with us and is a God of second chances. The song writer Randy Thomas wrote, “We must wait, wait, wait on the Lord, we must wait, wait, wait on the Lord. And learn our lessons well, in His timing He will tell us, what to do, where to go, and what to say.”

Have a blessed day learning our lessons from the past to gain the victory in the present and future. Stay safe and healthy.

In His grace,

Dean