A Devotional by Pastor Cesar Castellanos
Today’s Bible Verse
“…Did I not send you?”
Judges 6:14b
The Blessing of Enthusiasm
The Bible is full of examples of men who may not have been the cleverest or the strongest, but still became powerful men of God. They won great victories for Him because they chose to be enthusiastic, a trait that comes from the Father. One such man was Gideon, whose life we will look at shortly.
We should look to approach every area of our lives with an attitude of enthusiasm, our personal lives, our families, our businesses, and our ministries. Enthusiasm should accompany us in all facets of life, because by having this attitude, great men and women of God have left deep footprints in history.
The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek word entheos. This word can be broken into two parts. The beginning of the word, “En” which means ‘in’ or in this context, ‘inside’. The second part, “theos” means God. When we put these together it literally means, “to be filled with God.” Our Father God wants us as His children to understand that all great battles are won when we depend totally on Him. Although God has clearly given us the strength and ability to do many things, He desires for us to surrender all of our strength to His will and depend totally on Him.
In the Bible, we can find many examples of men and women that God chose to use. We can see that many of these had been through similar things in their lives such as rejection. Though many of them had lived through difficult experiences, because they surrendered their lives to serve God, all of them were used in an extraordinary way. One such man was Gideon. His own brothers had rejected him because he was an illegitimate child. Nevertheless, the Lord dared to trust in him, and gave him the difficult task of liberating his people from the oppression of the Midianites.
Something to Think About
It took eight years for the German sculptor Dannecker to finish sculpting his famous Statue of Christ. Through this statue he managed to express such a degree of love and sadness that all those who examined his work were moved to tears. He was later asked to invest his great talent in forming a statue of Venus, to which he replied, “After looking at Christ’s face for so long, do you think I can now focus my attention on a pagan goddess?”
Prayer
“Lord, I draw near to Your presence and ask You to pour out Your Spirit over me. I want to be filled with Your life, and Your power in order to fulfill Your purpose. Thank You for trusting in me. I love you, Amen.”
Declaration
“Everything I do today, I chose to do with great enthusiasm.”
Today’s Bible Reading
- Old Testament: Deuteronomy 27-28; Psalm 69:1-18
- New Testament: Matthew 27:45-56; Romans 14
