Daily Manna: Don’t Misuse it!

Thursday 18, July 2013

TEXT: MICAH 2:1-6

KEY VERSE: “Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand” (Micah 2:1).

Every day and almost in every sector of life, we find the assertion of Lord Acton which states that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely” coming true. There is just the misuse and abuse of power among most of those who have been privileged to wield one form of power or the other. One very obvious way in which they abuse power is in oppressing the less-privileged who are seemingly defenceless.

This is what God frowns at in our text today. He pronounces judgment on those who use their power to oppress the poor and dispossess them of their lawful belongings. They take advantage of their weak and poor nature to harass and afflict them because they consider them as lacking the ability to resist or fight back. God rises as the Defender of the defenceless and the great Advocate of the poor. He vows to personally judge all those who have acted in oppression. The Lord graciously acts just as it is commonly said that the cow that has no tail will have God driving away the flies that try to perch on it.

While it is bad enough to have the ungodly act in oppression against his fellow man, it is sad and very discomforting to know that some professed Christians act in oppression against their fellow Christians. They use their privileged position in the church to oppress, deprive and deny the weak and less-privileged believers of their rights.

If God has given us a privilege or position which others do not have, it is not to serve our own purpose but His. We must see ourselves as mere stewards and custodians of God’s gifts and privileges and use them as people who shall give account of them one day. Those who use their power to oppress and harass others are mere sadists, wishing only to drag others into their sad and melancholic state. Those who bring joy to others are those who have the spring of joy within them.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The wicked shall be silent in the night!

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