Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

"He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name."¹

Michael Josephson tells how "management guru Peter Drucker advocates a practice he calls planned abandonment. He stresses how important it is that managers develop the wisdom and courage to regularly review what the organization is doing and determine whether it's worth doing. He urges executives to note and resist the systemic and emotional forces that make it difficult to abandon activities that drain resources, detract from central goals, or otherwise impede progress."

This same principle needs to be applied, not only in the business world, but also to many areas of life. Some of us, for example, who are codependent need to come to our senses and abandon our neurotic need to rescue an addict from the natural consequences of his/her self-destructive behavior.

Sadly, some so-called Christian churches that teach a toxic type of religiosity that controls people and keeps them in the bondage of legalism also need to be abandoned.

Remember the religious people of Jesus's day? They were expecting and waiting for their long-promised Messiah (Savior), but, because Jesus didn't come the way they expected Him to come and do what they expected Him to do, they failed to recognize their Messiah when He came, rejected Him, and had Him crucified. They were blinded by their own man-made religious traditions and, instead of abandoning them, they clung to them tenaciously. How tragic.

Unfortunately, some are still doing this today.

If our religious beliefs and/or traditions are man-made and are not in harmony with God's Word, we need to summon our courage to abandon them and come to Jesus, the Savior of the world, and follow Him.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please help me to see any self-destructive behaviors I may have and give me the good sense and courage to abandon these ways. And if any of my beliefs and faith are not in harmony with Your Word, please help me to see the truth, abandon my long-held misleading religious beliefs, and come to Jesus and follow Him. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

Note: For god's way of salvation see "How to Be Sure You're a Real Christian" at: http://tinyurl.com/real-christian.

1. John 1:10-12 (NKJV).

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