SERVICES: SATURDAY 6PM | SUNDAY 9AM & 10:45AM. 

We Livestream at www.FaithFellowshipWeb.com/livestream, through the FFC App, and YouTube.

Discovering You Are Dead Wrong

Words of Faith Final

Discovering You Are Dead Wrong

Words of Faith 12-21-2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2020

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

www.faithfellowshipweb.com

To unsubscribe, follow the directions at the end of this devotion.

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

 

Matthew 1

    [18] This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. [19] Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

    [20] But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. [21] She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

 

     Sometimes we set out to do the wrong thing for the right reason.  Take Joseph, for example.  The Bible says that he was a righteous man.  No doubt he was heart-broken when he learned that his betrothed, whom he understood to be a virgin, was pregnant!  Many would have been enraged at such a betrayal. 

    The betrothal process included a contract called a ketubah signed between Joseph's family and Mary's father.  A price was paid, and a guarantee of her virtue was backed by her family name.  All that had been betrayed and, according to the law, Mary could have been stoned to death for such a transgression.  She appeared to have disgraced her family. 

      But Joseph was a righteous man.  The Greek does not mean that Joseph was without sin or that he was justified before God, but rather that he was an equitable and just man.  He sought to do the right thing for a merciful reason.  Rather than demand a stoning, he instead determined to exercise his right under Rabbinic law to break the ketubah contract and divorce her quietly.  Joseph was certain, as he lay his head down to attempt to get some restless sleep, that he was doing the right and merciful thing in such a shattering situation.  But he was in for a surprise.

      The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.  It was a time of correction.  "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." 

       No matter how righteous and merciful Joseph had thought he was being, God had something quite different in mind.  In fact, Joseph was wrong.  Dead wrong.  He would have to swallow his pride and change his decision to be in God's will.  We can learn a lot from that.

      Sometimes we set out to do the wrong thing for the right reason.  There are times when we just can't see what God is really up to.  We are certain that we are right, maybe even merciful!  By every logic and legal reasoning, we may set out to do what we think is the merciful and righteous thing, only to find out that we are wrong!  We are missing God's will. 

     The only way to know the difference is to listen.  The only way to correct things is to swallow our pride.  We need to be more in tune with God than we are with our logic.  We must listen more carefully to the Spirit than we do to our own sense of righteousness. 

       Are you listening to God?  Have you set out to do the right thing for all the right reasons, but God is showing you otherwise?  His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts. 

 

        Lord, I am listening.  Reveal Your will and Your way to me.  Show me Your path.  Dispel from me my prideful decisions and instill in me Your righteousness and mercy.  In Jesus' name.

 

<>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <>< <><

© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2020

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)       

2820 Business Center Blvd.

Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SUBSCRIPTIONS - To receive the Words of Faith devotion five days a week, send an E-mail message addressed to join-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org. To stop receiving Words of Faith, send an E-mail message addressed to unsubscribe-words-of-faith@hub.xc.org.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -     

The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.