Embracing God’s ‘Nots’ - Follow Not (Daily Devotional)

Shalom and thank you for joining us to another episode of Living Supernaturally. We have been looking at commands and instructions that the Lord has for us which follow the word ‘not’, embracing God's nots. Today, we are going to be looking at follow not. When we are in a crowd or when we live in a place where there are a lot of people, being influenced by others or by a crowd is not a new concept. We may have heard the word of peer pressure. From the time of ancient Israel to today, people are influenced by a crowd. There is a natural tendency for us to conform, to hem in, to bend in, to follow what everyone is doing and that's where God commands us in Exodus chapter 23, verse 2. He told the Israelites, "You shall not follow a crowd to do evil." Many times, evil does not appear as blatant wickedness. It may just be compromising values or justifying small wrongs or sometimes even just staying silent when actually the truth needs to be spoken. This is when the crowd can pressure us, they can pressure us to gossip, to cut corners, to accept what is against God's word. But as believers, you and I are called to stand firm even when we are standing alone. We see many examples in the Bible where there are people who did not follow many others who did evil. The first example we remember is that of Noah. In a time when the whole world was corrupt, Noah chose to walk with God. He obeyed; he built the ark and was saved while others perished. Standing alone for righteousness is not often easy, but it leads to God's favor and it leads to God's protection. Another example we see is that of Daniel, where Daniel refused to eat the king's food. The three Hebrew men refused to bow down to the golden image. They stood up to their convictions about what they had learned about God and they refused to compromise. The world will have a multitude that follows its ways. But as followers of Christ, we are called to follow the narrow path. In your place of influence, in your sphere of influence, there can be many situations that you are called to compromise, to follow the crowd or to do whatever they do, but here's what God wants of us. When faced with that pressure to conform, let us remember that command- follow not a multitude to do evil. Even if the world moves in one direction, our call is to follow Christ even if it is alone. Let's pray together, Heavenly Father, we need your empowering to stand in the right, to stand alone, to follow not after evil, to not follow the crowd when they are doing evil. Father God, we pray that you will keep us fixed on you, our eyes to be fixed on your word and to be fixed on the narrow path. Empower us to do so for your glory, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Thank you for tuning in to Living Supernaturally, for more resources to strengthen your spiritual walk, please visit apcwo.org.