Thanks, but No Thanks

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading, titled, Thanks but No Thanks, was written by Poh Phong Jia. A Christian school for autistic children in India received a big donation from a corporation. After checking that there were no strings attached, they accepted the money. But later, the corporation requested to be represented on the school board. The school director returned the money. She refused to allow the values of the school to be compromised. She said, it's more important to do God's work in God's way.

There are many reasons to decline help, and this is one of them. In the Bible, we see another. When the exiled Jews returned to Jerusalem in Ezra 3, King Cyrus commissioned them to rebuild the temple. When their neighbors said, let us help you build because like you we seek your God, the leaders of Israel declined. They concluded that by accepting the offer of help, the integrity of the temple rebuilding project might have been compromised and idolatry could have crept into their community since their neighbors also worshiped idols.

The Israelites made the right decision as their neighbors then did all they could to discourage the building. With the help of the Holy Spirit and the Council of Wise Believers in Jesus, we can develop discernment. We can also be confident to say no to friendly offers that may hide subtle spiritual dangers because God's work done in his way will never lack his provision.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Ezra chapter 4 verses 1 through 5 and verse 24. When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, let us help you build because like you we seek your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria who brought us here. But Zerubbabel, Joshua and the rest of the heads of the families of Israel answered, you have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia, commanded us. Then the peoples around them set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to go on building. They bribed officials to work against them and frustrate their plans during the entire reign of Cyrus, king of Persia, and down to the reign of Darius, king of Persia.

Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius, king of Persia. Let's pray. Loving Father, you know our needs. Help us to be wise and discerning in knowing when to partner with others and when help comes with strings that may cause us to compromise our trust in you. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Toni Collyer and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.