Today’s 333 Devotional: “Look For God’s New Way”

After King Jeroboam set up the false altar in Bethel, God called a prophet to go and cry out against the abomination. After the prophecy was confirmed through miraculous signs Jeroboam invited the man of God back for something to eat.

The prophet refused saying, “It was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water, nor return by the same way you came.’” (1 Kings 13:9)

Afterwards another prophet asked the man of God to come to his house, and while the man God sent gave the same answer, the other prophet lied saying God had told him it was okay to come.  And so, he went back with the prophet.

Because he had disobeyed the word God had directly given to him, a lion killed the man of God that very day.

The first lesson is obvious. Follow God’s word even though someone says differently. If it doesn’t match, don’t believe it.

The second lesson is don’t return to the same old ways.

We often think God will work the same way again. But God has a new way. This is not to say that God’s word isn’t valid, or that we should stray from the basics, instead we are to inquire of the Lord and allow Him to show us the road He wants us to travel down.

This is how it worked for King David. When the Philistines attacked a second time, instead of going back to what worked prior, David inquired of the Lord, and the Lord told him a new way, and when David followed God’s new way he succeeded (1 Chronicles 14:10-16).

The Apostle Paul said we are to forget those things that are behind and press forward toward the goal of God’s upward call in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).

Jesus said, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)