Category: Devotion of the Day

Claiming our Rights

I appeal unto Caesar.
Acts 25:11

We are to render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and there are times when we may appeal unto Caesar. Not claiming our own rights does not mean that we should not avail ourselves of certain privileges as citizens and otherwise. Paul did not court martyrdom, and he defended himself ably on trial. He used all his standing as a Roman citizen and employed every means to get fair treatment.

When persecuted in one city we are to flee to another. We may honor God more by living than by dying. A supine acceptance of circumstances that could be, and ought to be, changed is not a mark of piety. We are not always to remain quiet and expect God to intervene when He has given us common sense to ask for normal rights to which we are entitled. Christians are not to go to law with each other, and for the sake of our testimony it is better at times to suffer ourselves to be defrauded. But the cause of the Gospel is often advancd, as it was with Paul in our text, by asserting our claim to certain rights. Some may have thought it nobler if Paul had let things take their course, without speaking up for himself. God did not think so, for He wanted Paul to go to Rome.

There is a time to appeal unto Caesar.

Resignation or Acceptance?

It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.
I Samuel 3:18

Eli was resigned to the will of God as revealed by Samuel. Resignation is better than rebellion or a stiff-upper-lip Stoicism, but it is not the highest attitude. We acquiesce and resign to the inevitable because we have to! After all, there isn’t much we can do about it.

Resignation may bring a martyr complex and a selfish pride at putting up with whatever comes. Better than all this is acceptance: accept the will of God when adversity comes, learn whatever lessons are in it and believe that it works for our good. That is a wholesome and healthy spirit. Rebellion or a mere endurance of affliction may wreck us. Resignation may make us “proud that we are humble.” Acceptance falls in with God’s plan and purpose and enables us to safely trust, even though we may not fully understand.

Some things, of course, are never meant to be accepted. They are the will of the devil and must be resisted and defeated. But that which cannot be changed may be turned to God’s glory and our good if accepted and transmuted from a burden into a blessing.