When Someone Walks Away

20/03/25

Gospel Corner

JOEL OSTEEN MINISTRIES
Today’s Word

Today’s Scripture
Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica….Only Luke is with me.
2 Timothy 4:10–11, NIV

When Someone Walks Away
Demas had been a trusted traveling companion of the apostle Paul, sharing in some of the hardships of his journeys. But Demas left Paul sitting in his prison cell and turned his back on the work they had been doing. There will be times when friends whom we’re counting on are going to disappoint us and walk away. It’s easy to get frustrated and discouraged by people who aren’t there for us when we think we need them. Sometimes we end up spending our energies trying to win them over when they’re not going to be won over.

But notice that Luke was still with Paul. You don’t need everyone you think you need. God has already ordained the right people to come into your life to help you reach your destiny. When they’re the right people, you don’t have to play up to them, you don’t have to manipulate and try to convince them to stay. They’ll be for you through thick and thin. They’ll show up when you didn’t ask. They’ll encourage you when nobody else is around. God will send you divine connections.

A Prayer for Today
“Father, thank You for the people You’ve placed in my life to help me move to my destiny. Help me to not become dependent upon their approval or try to get my value from them. I declare that You have ordained divine connections for me just as You did for Paul. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

If you look carefully at the Scriptures that Satan used to try to get our Lord Jesus to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple, you will find that it has nothing to do with endangering yourself to test God’s protection.

Psalm 91:11–12 is not encouraging you to throw yourself in harm’s way. It is saying that as you go about the course of your daily life, “in all your ways” the Lord will protect you. The Hebrew word for “ways” in verse 11 shows this clearly—it is the word derek, which means path, road, or journey.

As you go about your daily path, there are times when the enemy may have put snares ahead of you that you are unaware of. But God will give His angels charge over you, to go ahead of you to protect you from those snares.

It doesn’t mean that you should go and do something foolish and harmful to yourself to test God’s protection! Even as we trust the Lord for His divine protection, let’s exercise wisdom as well.

You may be familiar with Mark 16:18, which says, “If they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them.” Now, if someone challenges you to drink poison and you willfully drink it to show that it will not hurt you, that’s just being foolish.

Psalm 91:11 is talking about the paths you take as part of your normal life. Drinking poison intentionally is certainly not part of your normal life. What Mark 16:18 is saying is that should you drink something harmful without realizing it in the course of your day, the Lord will protect you from being harmed!

I have a missionary friend who told me how someone had tried to poison him while he was in the mission field. In the end, the person became a believer in the Lord Jesus because he saw the missionary innocently drinking the entire glass of poison—and suffering no ill effects. That’s how Mark 16:18 applies !

And I hope you realize that God’s protection does not always have to come in the form of spectacular angelic interventions. I believe that every day, His protection over us is so supernaturally natural that many of us don’t even realize that we have been protected.

Perhaps as you were stepping off the curb, you felt something hold or pull you back, and right then, a car sped past you. What do you think held or pulled you back? It may well have been an angel, not necessarily spectacularly, but supernaturally protecting you!