Series: From Pastor’s Desk
Number: Vol. 14, No. 46
Beloved: grace, mercy and peace be yours from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. I am delighted to welcome you to another week of the month of March 2026. My prayer is that God will make the week beautiful for you and your family. Amen.
As we begin this new week, I want to enjoin you to be one who always encourages the people of God around you to do His will through your words and actions. See, all that some people need to give themselves to fully doing the will of God is just a word of encouragement from someone. In like manner, all that some people need to excuse themselves from doing the will of God is just someone that will discourage them, either by their words or actions.
And if you should allow yourself to be used by the devil to discourage anyone from doing the will of God, you can be sure that God will deal with you accordingly.For example, when the children of Israel were coming close to entering the Promised land, having wandered in the wilderness for forty years, the Reubenites and the Gadites came to Moses with a request. And it was that he should permit them not to cross the Jordan river over to the land of the Canaanites. Why? The reason was that the place before the Jordan was suitable for their livestock. And they had very large flocks and herds. (Cf. Num 32:1-5)
How, then, did Moses respond to their request? Look at what is said about that in the bible:“Moses said to the Gadites and Reubenites, “Shall your countrymen go to war while you sit here? Why do you discourage the Israelites from going over into the land the LORD has given them? This is what your fathers did when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to look over the land. After they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and viewed the land, they discouraged the Israelites from entering the land the LORD had given them.”” (Num 32:6-10NIV)
Did you see that? Moses told the people that what they were up to would discourage the other Israelites from doing the will of God by crossing the Jordan to possess the Promised Land. He, in fact, used the occasion to remind them that the reason they all spent forty years wandering in the wilderness was that their parents also discouraged one another from possessing the Promised Land. Those Reubenites and Gadites, then, had to assure Moses that they would first cross the Jordan to help the other Israelites in possessing the Promised Land before they would come back to settle in their own land before he freely granted their request. (Cf. Num 32:16-23)
What is this teaching us? It is that God never looks with favour on anyone who discourages others from doing His will. Instead, He always judges them. And since we cannot tell how He would judge us if we should discourage anyone from doing His will, we need to be careful not to be the reason anyone will not do what God wants or enjoy His provisions for their lives through what we say or do. And may the Spirit of God always strengthen us to act accordingly. Amen.Have a lovely week.