FAITH CAPSULE: It is important to know oneself in God.

Mark 8

Live life for the glory of God to answer who you are.
Who are you before God or before your world?
Who are you?
Can you identify yourself?
It is important to know oneself in God.
Jesus wanted to know what or who He is by asking,                                                                                            “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27) 
Jesus’ question was not to evaluate Himself but to teach all to be aware of who they are.    
On a serious note, who are you? 
Are you a believer or just a claiming believer?
Are you one with a mouth full of the word of God, with an empty heart of the word of God?  
Does your life reflect Christ? 
Are you a Bible that people can read, or just an acclaimed Bible that no one can read?
Man is deceivable, but no one can deceive God. 
Many are with promotion, with titles inside and outside the church, but not promoted before God. 
There are self-acclaimed figures with titles such as prophet and apostle, but they cannot answer who they are. 
All should know who they are before God. 
One who deceives the neighbor, the family, or the world can live to lure deceptively; God cannot be a victim of deception devices. 
Without a doubt, the walk, the stand, and where one sits are pointers to who one is like before God.
Who are you in all endeavors?
Psalm 1:1 records, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful.” (Psalm 1:1) 
When the word of God declares blessing, it is established in heaven and on earth. 
It is how one walks, sits, and stands by the standard of God that will determine who one is.
Life is a journey, and who you surround yourself with shall determine what you get out of life. 
Think, on a serious note, who are you? 
Whose word do you believe? 
Are you living life by the word of God or the word of this world? 
The word of God is an assurance to lead man to be walking, sitting, or standing for the name of God, if one will turn back to the wicked world. Assurance and reliance on God matter to be delighted in the life of one who lives by the word of God.
Meditating on the law (word of God) is the avenue not to walk outside the way of God. The Psalmist identifies the blessing of walking, sitting, and standing in line with God, stating, “He shall be like a tree, planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” (Psalm 1:3)
Get to know who you are.

Prayer for today: Pray that God enables you to live life for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: Pride prompts snubbing God.

1 Samuel 15

Proverbs 14:3 states, “In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them.”
Proverbs 16:18 identifies pride: “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Pages of the Bible describe pride in various ways, but it is clear that pride is empty and has no place before God.
Giving attention to the word of God that is against pride and all that branches out of pride is a way of not ignoring God.
Ignoring the word of God is as snubbing God.
Know that living a life snubbing God can be a character of pride. 
Pride will deny one to hear and give ear to do by the word of God.
Jeremiah 13:15 buttresses, “Hear and give ear: do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken.” 
Are you with the pride not to give to the word of God?
Living a life of disobedience is a pride of self-destruction.
Disobedience to the word of God is like feeding on poison that terminates life.
Search yourself to identify what is denying you to do the word of God by giving yourself to a route of self-destruction. 
Pride is snubbing God to engage in what seems right, but not what God commands, which is not right before God. 
Proverbs 14:12 warns, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.”
Pride is not of God but the identity of walking against what is right before God.
Pride is self-destruction.
It is pride that prompts one not to wait on God when there is a need.
Snubbing God is not waiting on God: 
A failure to wait on God is seeking outside of God.
One who does not remember God does not wait on God for His promise. Hebrews 13:5 states the word of God, “Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Remember always that God will not forsake His children.
A failure to wait on God is the character of not remembering God for His works.  
The works of God are in His word. 
Psalm 106:13-14 testifies, “… soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tested God in the desert.” 
It is a route to failure in life when one does not remember God, the character of not giving regard to His work.
Isaiah 5:12-13 records, “The harp and the strings, the tambourine, and the flute, and wine are in their feasts; but they do not regard the work of the LORD, nor consider the operation of His hands. Therefore, my people have gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge; their honorable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst.”  The Israelites repeatedly ignored (snubbed) the works of God, so God substituted the Promised Land for the wilderness Journey of forty years. (Numbers14) 

Prayer for today: Pray against the spirit of snub in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Live life to find God.

Exodus 19

Not to find God is the character of a wasted life.
To live life outside of the word of God is to live a wasted life.
Live life for God, the creator of all.
How are you living?
What or who are you living for?
God, the creator, the unfiling God, the only God that has mercy in His hand, creates all to exist for His name.
Revelation 4:11 testifies, “You are worthy, O Lord, To receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.”
Mercy belongs to none but the perfect God who creates all for His glory.
No one belongs to themselves but belongs to God.
Live life, strive to live for God, not to miss the hand of God in life.
To find God is to strive.
To strive is to seek God diligently.
One who seeks God is going to find God.
John 12:26 identifies serving God:“If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” 
If seeking God is not possible, the word of God will ask for seeking Him.
God is true to seek Him, follow Him diligently, and find Him.
David is an example that followed God with his heart, and the Bible records, “…My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes.” (1 Kings 14:8) 
Are you with the desire to seek God diligently, following His righteousness by His word? 
Deuteronony 4:29 identifies with seeking God diligently, not to settle for seeking God in a standard that will not find Him.
It states, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
One will find God with the condition that is: seeking Him diligently with all heart and soul. 
Obedience to the word of God will walk the way of righteousness.
Obeying the word of God is also a way of seeking diligently to keep oneself in God as a treasure to God. Exodus 19:5 confirms,“Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.” 
With faith, it is possible to obey the word of God and diligently seek to please God.(Hebrews 11:6)
Among the ways of seeking God are:
To come out of the wickedness to find God.
One who lives right is not wicked to seek and find God.
The wicked one does not live by the word of God to find God.
In all your ways, follow God to be standing in His word.
Seek God diligently to please Him and be rewarded to see Him.

Prayer for today: Ask for the strength to seek God diligently.

FAITH CAPSULE: Answering God fully demands unfailing focus.

Job 2

The documentation of Terah, the father of Abraham, is an example of distraction that prevents one from arriving at the desired destination in life.
Genesis 11:31-32 documents about the father of Abraham, “And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot, the son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan; and they came to Haran and dwelt there. So the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in Haran.”
The father of Abraham was set for the land of Canaan, but dwelt at Haran until he died.
Distraction can be a denial, an agent against focusing on the right endeavours in life.
Answering God fully demands unfailing focus.
Without doubt, distraction will occupy where there is no focus.
In every area of life, distraction must not be allowed.
Distraction can operate as the paralizer of effort, not to be paralyzed in an area of life.
The source of distraction for one not to live life for the glory of God can be from the closest one as an agent of evil.
For example, the wife of Job was his force that attempted to distract Job, and failed in the presence of God.
Job 2:9 records, “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!”  
Job resisted the device of distraction from his wife when he responded:“You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) 
Are you avoiding the patterns of distraction in your way of life?
Know and understand how to deny distraction, from close ones and those at a distance.
Deny distraction, to focus on your way of life, and not become a victim of the evil of this world.
Claiming to have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior does not exempt you from encountering distraction, but watch and pray not to become a victim of distraction.
Many have received Jesus as Lord and Savior, but the agents of distraction are in place to deny attention to God.
Does that sound like you?
Martha was a victim of distraction. 
When Martha welcomed Jesus into her house, she could not avoid distraction from denying her to gain a position in the presence of Jesus. 
Luke 10:38-40  records,“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village, and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore, tell her to help me.’” 
Just like Martha, have you welcomed Jesus into your house and become distracted? 
Martha welcomed Jesus into her house, but a distraction prevented her from being in the presence of Jesus.  
Who or what is your distraction? 

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to remain focused in your way of life.