Fri.’s Devo - Don’t Give Up!

Read: 1 Chronicles 4:5-5:17; Acts 25:1-27;
Looking at today’s date, I pray that this will be a day we complete the things we are working on and enter into God’s rest.
Today, we read about Jabez who just showed up with no announcement. We don’t know for sure who his father was…probably Coz or Kenan but according to Jamison’s Commentary, he grew up to be a leader in teaching the law of Moses. He had such a following that they named a town after him. Although his mother named him according to her grief, he prayed to be free of that pain and of what his name meant and God granted his request. We can do that too. Whatever is in your family line, by prayer and belief in God, you can be set free.
Reuben was the first born of Israel, but because he went into his father’s concubines, he lost his rights of the firstborn. Instead of it going to Simeon, the second born, Israel gave it to Joseph, his first born of Rachel…the wife he loved. From Judah, came the kings and the King of Kings but Joseph was the one whose life was the shadow of Jesus’ earthly life.
In Acts, Festus went to Jerusalem to hear the charges against Paul. They wanted him to turn Paul over to them so they could have him killed along the way. Fetus went back and had Paul brought out to answer to the charges against him. When he was asked if he would go to Jerusalem to be tried, Paul refused. I think he knew there was no way he would get a fair trial in Jerusalem. If they killed Jesus, they would do the same to him. Instead, he appealed to go to Rome and be tried by Caesar himself. When King Agrippa heard about what Paul had said, he decided he wanted to hear him first.
Paul was not afraid to push the status quo button. He wasn’t afraid to fight for the rights of his testimony. It wasn’t that he was afraid of dying that made him fight, it was that he wasn’t going to let Satan win. He felt compelled to go to Rome so he wasn’t going to stop till he made it there.
Lord, give us the tenaciousness of Paul. Let us not give up till we have fulfilled all of our destiny.