August 21, 2023
Daily Devotion:
"Complete Dependence with God"
Ezra 4:1-3
New International Version
4 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said,
“Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, “You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us.”
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 Patiently, Wisely guide others toward godliness. Follow scriptural principles, 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.
