Advent Family Devotional 2024

Join us as we journey through Advent from December 1 to December 25, 2024, focusing on Hope, Joy, Love, Peace, and the celebration of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Day. This interactive devotional is designed for families, small groups, and churches to come together, reflect, and grow deeper in faith.

Marred By Your Cravings

Topic: Marred by your cravings

Text: Genesis 3:6

Key verse: The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too.

Eve was a vessel God made with his hands. She was uniquely formed and shaped to fulfil a purpose, to be the man’s help meet. She was endowed and equipped with all she needed for the assignment. When God saw all he had made in six days, he declared it was good. Eve was part of God’s workmanship.

She lacked nothing to live a fulfilling life. She had Adam by her side and the world under her feet. She had access to everyone and everything she needed except one thing, that God prohibited.

The mission was very clear, Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”

Do you have a  mission or purpose statement?

Life was going on well until, she entertained the wrong company. She started to listen to another voice, she started to doubt the genuineness of old relationships and the end result of compliance.

Beware of who you hang out with, be careful who you now spend time with!

The easiest way to destroy a God given vision, is to receive a second one. Division, occurs when you start working on two visions at a time. The bible admonishes, ” Let your eye be single!

Eve had not had time to settle on the mission of fruitfulness, she had not started working on how to multiply, what to multiply and how to exercise dominion on the territory the Lord had given her.  Yet, she found time to entertain a stranger!

Who is that person who has just walked into your life and is disrupting your prayer rhythm? Who is that person who now takes up most of your conversations? Who is that new acquaintance, who is introducing you to new habits, new company and new appetites? Is God still a central theme in this season of your life?

Man was created to receive and to give. We have gates through which we receive, and gates through which things exit our lives. Your closest companion has the ability to deliver messages into your life through any of the gates you leave open.

Do you know the gates into your life? Are you still in control of who has access? Do you have the keys to shut things or people out, if you suspect they are sending you wrong information or destructive content?

Look for those keys now, if you’ve lost them!

John Mason in his book titled “Let Go of everything that makes you stop” , has a lot to teach on managing who stays in your life. Please look for that book right away and read it to the end.

Being in the wrong company is the beginning of the end! The vessel was originally in God’s hand, but it suddenly began to receive ideas from outside God’s presence. As she listened, she began to meditate on them until her heart began to desire and crave for them.

The word “craving” is defined in the dictionary as …a powerful desire for something. Notice the word powerful! Where does that power emanate from? 

Stop and make a list now of the things you want to have and do so badly this year, where is the pressure coming from? What is fuelling that desire? Be very honest with your self.

Look back at the scars in your life, the traumatic episodes you have gone through, how did it all start? Can you trace your case to some strange cravings, a desire to belong, a desire to be known, a desire to impress, a desire to acquire new status, or maybe a desire to intimidate ?

A powerful desire starts out as a longing for something, a yearning to be or have something. Then it begins  to fill you up, till it consumes you. That powerful desire is called Lust. Lust for power has destroyed so many! What kind of power did you lust after? Financial power or spiritual power?

Sometimes, the powerful desire is for the things of the flesh. Sexual desire outside marriage, has Marred so many choice vessels. Men and women whom God had invested in their lives, several revelations, encounters and experiences, men anointed with God’s holy oil, suddenly end up in the lap of a harlot because of their inability to tame their cravings for sex! What a waste!

Some of us who are marred today, ended up here because of our appetite for food. Like Esau, a birth right as a son of God was worth nothing compared to the benefit of a couple of millions that will change our standard of living and change our diet! What did you crave to eat? An accursed thing?  Unfortunately, it was sweet then, but now it has left you with bitterness, shame and nakedness!

Shame and nakedness always follow when you yield to the power of destructive cravings!

That shame has Marred you! It has taken away your confidence. Its robbed you of your purity, taken away the bounce in your steps. It has caused you to bow your head and drop your shoulders, you can no longer stand bold before your adversaries in prayer!

You lost your garment of glory, and in its place you are naked now.

Hold it there! There’s good news!

You don’t have to cover yourself with leaves, lies or half truths! God is able to break down this marred vessel and make something new, different and beautiful, all you have to do is remain in his hands! Accept your mistakes, repent of that ungodly craving that led you into disobedience and rebellion. Make a decision to yield control only to the Lamb. This lamb is Jesus he was slain to cover your shame, just as that Lamb’s skin clothed Eve, Jesus at the cross took our shame and nakedness, once and for all. Yield control back to Jesus, he is the master crafts man , he will work on  the broken pieces of your life, education, marriage or ministry and he will make something glorious out of it again.

Blessings!

Roses&Thorns

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