The Hand of The Lord - The Hand of the Lord as Help and Strength (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and welcome to Living Supernaturally. Thank you once again for giving us this opportunity to come your way, spend a few moments in the word and in prayer. This week, we're talking about the hand of the Lord and today, we look at the hand of the Lord as help and strength. Acts chapter 11 and verse 21, ‘The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed…’ The Jewish leaders hoped that by persecuting the church of Jesus Christ, they would extinguish people's faith in Him. But persecution only caused the Christian faith to spread like wildfire. Believers who were scattered did not leave their faith behind in Jerusalem but wherever they went, they talked about their newly found faith in Jesus Christ and a great number of people believed. Now what was the reason for this widespread growth of the church? Our reading today says that the hand of the Lord was upon them. The same is true for us today. The mission of the church is to spread the good news of Jesus all over the world. But how do we do that? In whose name or whose power are we trying to win the world for Christ? Today, we so often put our emphasis on programs, events, conferences, planning, strategies, which are all important, but we often forget the most important strategy in evangelism and church growth, that is to rest in the power of God's hand. The testimony of Joshua to the children of Israel as they entered to the promised land reminded them of the tremendous strength in the mighty hand of God and they needed to trust Him forever. This was only one of the 20 references in the scripture to God's mighty hand. Moses often recalled to the Israelites how the Lord brought them out with His mighty hand and redeemed them out as bond men from the land of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So how does He impart this strength to us? He changes our thinking; He increases our faith. We begin to trust Him fully, we trust and rely on God, we live in God's strength. When we position ourselves in the right hand of God, He just does not reveal His power through us through His right hand, but He also reveals His power in unique and personal ways. In our situations, in our fears, in our concerns, in our needs, the right hand of the Lord is always available for us.

Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your word, we thank you for exhorting us that without the hand of the Lord, we will be a failure. We pray that you will teach us to trust in your hand, to believe and to know that even as we go about building your kingdom, we will trust and depend on your hand. We thank you for your promise, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen.

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