Do You Want To Walk By Faith Badly Enough To Not Hang Around Friends Who Pull You Down And Cause You To Compromise?

26/02/25

GOSPEL CORNER

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word

Today’s Scripture
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
Matthew 5:6, NIV

Hungry?
How hungry are you to live a life that honors God? Do you want to walk by faith badly enough to not hang around friends who pull you down and cause you to compromise? “But I like being with them.” You don’t want it badly enough. God is not going to free you until you step away from their influence. When He sees you doing all that you can, He’ll make things happen that you can’t. But if you’re not willing to do the natural, He’s not going to do the supernatural. Your destiny is too important to spend it with people who are not making you better.

Who are you allowing to influence you? Are they inspiring you, challenging you, pushing you forward? Life is too short for you to waste it with people who bring out the worst in you. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means to put God first in everything, to pursue Him with your whole heart. When you stir up your passion and diligently seek Him, your life will be filled with His presence and blessings.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You that I can come to You by faith, knowing that as I seek You and hunger and thirst for righteousness, You will provide everything I need. Thank You for the blessings and favor that are mine as I keep You first place in my life. I believe that I will be filled with Your presence. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

Beloved, when you depend on God’s wisdom to succeed today, you will see whatever you do prosper. Simply observe how our Lord Jesus always flowed in divine wisdom in His earthly ministry. For example, look at what happened when the Pharisees brought the woman caught in adultery to Him.

The Pharisees came to Him and quoted from the law, saying, “Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?” (John 8:4–5).

They thought that they had succeeded in trapping Jesus because if He told them to stone her, then they would accuse Him of not demonstrating the forgiveness and grace that He had been preaching about. If He were to say that they should not stone her, then the Pharisees would accuse Him of breaking the law of Moses and bring a charge against Him.

The Pharisees were probably gloating over the clever trap that they had devised. That is why they confronted Jesus in the public area around the temple. They wanted to embarrass Him in front of the multitudes that had come to hear Him teach.

Now, observe the wisdom of Jesus in operation. He simply told them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7).

What majesty! They came to Jesus with the law of Moses and Jesus gave them the perfect standard of the law. Without flinching, He simply challenged the person who was perfect before the law to cast the first stone.

The Pharisees who had come to ensnare Jesus began to walk away one by one, completely silenced. This same Jesus, with all His wisdom, is today our ascended Christ, who is seated at the Father’s right hand, and whom the Bible says is “made unto us wisdom!”

From this and other accounts of Jesus in the Gospels, we see how in everything He does, our Savior is altogether lovely. He is never early, never late. He is always at the right place at the right time. He is always in perfect peace and there is no sense of hurry about Him.

When it was time to be tender, He was infinitely gentle, gracious, and forgiving—we see this from His response to the woman caught in adultery (John 8:10–11). When it was time to overturn the tables of the money changers, He did it with passion.

He was never frazzled by the Pharisees’ attempts to trip Him up and was always flowing with divine wisdom. He is steel and velvet, meekness and majesty, perfect manhood and deity.

This is Jesus and you are in Him! Begin to see yourself in Christ, who is always flowing with divine wisdom, always in control of the situation, and the same wisdom that flows in Him will flow in and through you.