DESTROYING DEVOURERS

MEMORY VERSE: And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Genesis 31-34

What is a devourer? According to Noah Webster’s dictionary 1828 edition, a devourer is one who devours; he or that which eats, consumes or destroys; he that preys on. Devourers come in different shapes, sizes and forms. There are some in the form of insects; viz, locusts, cankerworms, caterpillars, palmerworms, etc (See Joel 2:24). These horrible creatures eat up herbages, corns, and fruits of the trees planted by farmers thereby impoverishing them year after year. These farmers ,at the end of the day, have nothing to show for their hard work. A devourer can be a car or machine that breaks down regularly. You spend money that could have been saved fixing the car or machine when it breaks down. Parking fines are a type of devourer in this part of the world. What is left of your salary when you spend £240 out of your £1000 on parking fines? A devourer could be things that go wrong whenever you save money for a project. Most illnesses, if not all, are devourers. The woman with the issue of blood spent all she had trying to get a cure for her illness ( See Mark 5:26).

One of the ways to put an end to devourers is tithing (See Malachi 3:11). A story that comes to mind is that of a brother who refused to tithe after giving his life to Christ. Whenever he took his car for repairs or servicing, his wicked mechanic would take out a working part and replace it with a faulty one. A week or two later, the car would break down and the brother would take it back to him for repairs. He would fix it and replace a working part with a faulty again. This he did every time this brother took his car for repair. The Lord exposed this wicked mechanic when he began to tithe. His car broke down and he decided to use another mechanic. From that day, he observed that his car stopped developing faults. Tithing drives away devourer from one’s life.

NOTE: To put an end to some devourers, you need to go beyond tithing: Discipline and wisdom need to be applied. For instance, you may need to start disciplining your children when they act like devourers; i.e., when they destroy their textbooks or home appliances. You may need to apply wisdom when certain people e.g. those who borrow and don’t pay back, come to borrow money from you.

PRAYER: Father, please open my eyes to recognize devourers in my life and give me the wisdom to deal with them.

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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world.