DCLM HIGHER EVERYDAY 1 DECEMBER 2021 — Personal Persuasion
DCLM Higher Everyday 1 DECEMBER 2021 Devotional by Pastor W. F. Kumuyi — Personal Persuasion
TOPIC: PERSONAL PERSUASION
BIBLE TEXT: ROMANS 8:35-39
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
MEMORY VERSE: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come…shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (ROMANS 8:38-39).
MESSAGE:
A popular chorus reads:
“I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
I have decided to follow Jesus,
No turning back,
No turning back.”
The call to follow Jesus is a personal and not corporate one. It is a call to suffer pain, hatred, rejection from friends, and sometimes, even from family members. The world is against any youth who wants to follow the way of the cross, but our Lord embraces, supports and strengthens him or her despite the raging storms of life.
Personal persuasion is born out of personal experience from seeming difficulties in the Christian race. From our text, you can see that as you persevere through distress, peril, famine, persecution, loss, lack, etc., your faith is perfected and your persuasion in Christ as His child deepens, and unquantifiable joy oozes out of your heart ceaselessly.
In spite of persecution and ridicules from the people of the world, if you are born again the Lord will see you through. Indeed, tribulations and trials ratify and validate our faith. Earthly and eternal rewards await all who remain firm in their resolve to follow Christ till the end.
QUOTE: It is a call to suffer.
CHALLENGE: Can your faith withstand fiery trials?
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, give me the rugged faith of overcomers.
1. Admit that you are a sinner. "For all [humans] have sinned, and comes short of the glory of God....[and] the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 3:23)
2. Repent now. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out ...[for] if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness " (Acts 3:19, 1 John 1:9)
3. Believe that God loves you and Jesus died for you. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8)
4. Invite Jesus into your life through prayer of faith. Jesus says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me" (Revelation 3:20)
