Day 119: A Memorial of God’s Victory

Today’s Scripture: Judges 8:27

Central Thought: The focus of our worship should be God Himself-not the signs of the victories He has won.

God caused the great company of Midianite soldiers to turn and fight each other when Gideon and his small army of three hundred men believed God and did exactly what God told them to do. They believed God not only could, but that He would destroy this formidable foe with these few fighters. And God brought victory.

After the victorious battle, each warrior gave Gideon an earring from his plunder. With the gold from the earrings, Gideon made an ephod as a memorial of this victory. Rather than being used to determine God’s will for the people, this ephod became a snare. To Gideon and his family, it replaced God as the object of worship (Judges 8:27).

Peter Kuzmic made the statement, ‘Spiritual gifts are tools for the task—not toys to be played with.” God’s grace, His work, or His gifts must not hold first place in our lives. Let us be careful that our records of church attendance and the number of salvations and spiritual victories are for God’s praise alone. Satan can easily bring out the braggart in us when we give in to the temptation to focus on the memorial rather than the victory.

Devotional Prayer: Lord, give me spiritual ‘blinders” so the focus of my worship will be on You alone—rather than on the work or the gifts that bring spiritual victory.

Today’s Bible Reading: Judges 8:18-9:21; Luke 23:44-24:12; Psalm 99:1-9; Proverbs 14:9-10