Daily Devotional

Where are our watchmen today? Where are those prepared to die for speaking truth to power? Have we become carried away by the Gospel of prosperity or sold our conscience by collecting bribes from those in power? When will we realise that worshipping God goes beyond merely trying to make people feel good? It is easy to point fingers at priests and religious for not condemning the government in their sermons, but let us ask ourselves: what stops me from becoming a watchman for God?

Although we cannot separate obedience to God’s commandments from worshipping God, we risk not worshipping God at all if we focus only on obeying the commandments. For instance, every household has rules. While children obey out of love for their parents, servants obey with bitterness in their hearts. Jesus wants us to have the child mentality rather than the slave mentality. He wants us to go beyond religion (observing rules) to spirituality (a deep connection with God).

To those who were on Paul’s side, he said, “Who are you to declare me a saint?” and to those who were against Paul, he said, “Even though I am not aware of anything against myself (my conscience is clean), I am not thereby acquitted.” Paul’s overall intention here was to break division, to make the people refrain from taking sides, and to make them realise that both Paul and Apollos are imperfect yet powerful instruments in the hands of God.