FAITH CAPSULE: What is causing you to hold back a regular thanks giving and praise to God?

Psalm 136

When you acknowledge, you show or express appreciation. Dictionary describes appreciation as the act of estimating the qualities of things and giving them their proper value. Appreciation is an act of giving thanks. Giving thanks is a sacrifice. Hebrews 13:15 states, “Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.” Sacrifice is an offering to God. Jealous God desires and deserves a reasonable sacrifice in every area of worshiping God. The book of Romans 12:1 admonish us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Sacrifice to God must be a reasonable sacrifice. To sacrifice means to give up something of value. Sacrifice is costly and it is not convenient if we are to give a reasonable one.
Giving thanks and praising God is easy when life is full of happiness with no challenges. However, when challenges shows up and manifestation in any area of living life is not what we are getting, giving thanks and praising God can be very difficult. The writer of Hebrew specifically requested from us to continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.  What is holding you or stopping you to continually give thanks and praise on a regular basis rather than to continually give thanks and praise on annual basis? Is discouragement a factor that is causing you to hold back a regular thanks giving and praise to God?
Giving thanks and praising God for the grace of God is enough reason to keep on thanking God at every breath. Psalm 150:6 do not ask for too much when it states, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.” One who knows to think will know to give thanks. The ones who know to keep heart with all diligence are the ones who do not stop to regard the works of God with appreciation. However, those who do not “…regard the works of the Lord, nor the operation of His hands, He shall destroy them and not build them up.” (Psalm 28:5) Regard the works of God by giving Him thanks and praise. There is no limitation giving thanks and praising the Almighty God. He can be praised in the day and in the night. Apostle Paul states, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” (Philippians 4:6) Giving thanks and praising God covers a multitude of ground in our relationship with God. Giving thanks and praising God at every moment is gaining acknowledgement of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of constant appreciation to Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Giving self to hear and do the word is God’s expectation from man.

Exodus 20:1-21

All that the Lord God asks from us is to obey His word. God does not ask for more or less, but complete obedience. He has set His standard, and it will not be lowered or excused under no circumstances. Jesus, through His ministry, He repeatedly emphasized on hearing and obeying the word of God. Once, He was being sought by His mother and brothers but he could not be approached because of the crowd. The Bible recorded His response, “But He answered and said to them, ‘My mother and My brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.’” (Luke 8:21) Jesus said “who hear the word of God and do it” If there was any way to emphasize on obeying the word of God, Jesus has presented it repeatedly. Despite that, obeying which is to hear and do the word of God has been reduced to the minimum, and obeying His words continue to be the least among man that confesses Christ as Lord and savior.
Are you one that has subjected yourself to the dictates of your heart–which is an act of wickedness? God is a merciful God and His sentencing against evil work is not speedily executed (Ecclesiastes 8:11).
Taking the privilege of prolonged sentencing against evil is taking the risk of heading into eternal damnation. God will move and He will not fail to respond just as He did not look over the acts of disobedience of the children of Israel. God once said to the children of Israel in Jeremiah 2:19, “Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and the fear of Me is not in you, says the LORD of hosts.” What the children of Israel did that led them into captivity is what the church today is doing today. There is only one way of serving God in deed and in truth: obey His word (give hear to the word of God and do it).
God gave the Ten Commandments to man and all ten but not one is to be dutifully complied with. Every time we draw out our own way of obeying His commandment, it ends up being disobedient to the commandments of God. You can take or add to the commands of God in your own way. Man can color God’s commands at self-will and still be in riches. However, the truth is, if you have fallen short in obeying it all, His timing will catch up with you. The Kingdom life is guided by God’s command, not man’s command or the dictates of man’s heart.

Prayer for today: Today, give thanks to God for Jesus Christ our Lord and savior; the word of God for our salvation.

FAITH CAPSULE: A failure not to trust God for His word will cause one not to have hope in Him.

Deuteronomy 1:23-46

The Israelites have gone far enough in their journey and they wanted to map out how to move forward outside of God’s promise. For the Israelites, instead of going forward in the direction of Promise Land, they call on Moses stating, “Let us send men before us, and let them search out the land for us, and bring back word to us of the way by which we should go up, and of the cities into which we shall come (Deuteronomy1:22).” Has He brought you far enough and now you are taking things in your own hands? It is wrong to start thinking how you will make it through the journey from where you are. Their plan pleased Moses; so he took twelve of them to go and spy the land (Deuteronomy 1:23). With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, all that went to spy came back with a negative report that was discouraging. By virtue of the negative report, the children of Israel entered into complaining and they could not confess or see anything positive. The report generated from spying had them engaged in negative confession. Despite all miracles that were witnessed at the time of their coming out of the bondage of over four hundred years, they lost faith and could not believe God for His word of promise. An act of complaint is an act of rebellion before God. God responded to their rebellious act in Deuteronomy.1:34-35, “And the LORD heard the sound of your words, and was very angry, and took oath, saying, surely not one of these men of this evil generation shall see that good land of which I swore to give to your fathers.”
A failure not to trust God for His word will cause one not to have hope in Him. Also, not looking up to God will cause man to look down and away from God’s way. For the Israelites, what should have been eleven days journey became forty years journey. At the point of entering the promise land, they entered into deep wilderness. God does not run out of mercy, but they ran out of God’s mercy. In a journey that they overcame giants and all kinds of hindrances, it was the sound of their mouth that denied them from claiming God’s Promised Land. What kind of sound are you producing in your journey of life? Are you confessing negative or positive? Can you ignore the world around you and hold firmly to the pattern of confessing positive in the place of negative? Proverbs 18:21 warned, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue…” The spy gave report which provoked the Israelites’ negative confession which is the evidence of doubt in the promise of God for their journey. Today, make the choice to engage the word of God that does not fail. The word of God shall surely come to manifest regardless of the magnitude of your challenge.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace that God’s lamp of God for you shall answer in your journey of life.

FAITH CAPSULE: Live life to be pleasing God and He will lift you up.

John 15

We do not please self to please God but to please God to please us. Obedient to the word of God is to please God while disobedient is pleasing self in seeking God. Do you LOVE as commanded by God? Today, man does have ways of loving but not the way God wants man to love.
Jesus was speaking in Luke 6:27, “But I say to you who hear; love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Jesus was not talking about speaking love to one another, but He was instructing and teaching on love as the only way to the fulfillment of God’s command. It is easy to talk love than actually demonstrating it, especially to a stranger or the neediest. Absolutely nothing can be done to substitute love, and that is why Jesus emphasized on His message of love so as to be heard. Undeniably, to love is to obey God and to obey God is to love. God is love. He sent His only begotten son because He loves us. Just as it is among the unbelievers, there are also believers that go around with a diary of grudges and bitterness. In entering the church, they are the ones who praise the loudest. Indeed, it is good to worship God, but worshiping God in emptiness is worthless and does not amount to power. It is written in 1 John 2:9-10, “He, who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now. He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him.”
God is not a fool, neither is He a God who does not hear or see. God has given His word and He has fulfilled His salvation plans for us. It is now left for man to turn unto God and obey all that He has commanded. He knows when love is not genuine and sincere. Loving has to be in God’s own way. The book of 1Timothy 1:5 stated, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith.” Love is what Christianity is all about. Often, believers have walked away where love needs to be demonstrated. Love can never be harmful especially when it is demonstrated with a good conscience and sincere faith. Romans 13:10 says, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” It is clearly demonstrated that the diary of bitterness, anger, and animosity will not prevail; it will only unveil the owner of the diary to eternal damnation. Also, it will only take the grace of God to live a life of loving others. It is possible to please God by doing His word as commanded.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His grace to be pleasing God in your ways of  life He has given you.

FAITH CAPSULE: Confession without belief, or belief without confession, is incomplete.

John 1:1-13, 3:1-21

It is written, “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Jesus is the grace of our Lord God for every man that chooses to believe and receive Him. John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12)  Knowing about Him is different from knowing Him. Those that know Him know Him enough to receive and believe Him as their Lord and Savior. Have you received and believed in Him? It is possible to believe Him and not receive Him. Many saw and many heard about the work He did; they know about Him but they choose not to receive Him as their Lord and Savior. It is written, “…Among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.”(John 12:42) Inability to confess Him is a demonstration of not having received Him. To confess Christ is living a life that demonstrates the confession that is made about Him. Confession without belief, or belief without confession, is incomplete. Jesus is the unconditional love of God, the grace of God that came to give life abundantly to those that care to receive and believe in Him. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” Clearly, Jesus is the unconditional love of God and the grace that came for all. However, to enter into the unconditional love of God, there is a need for us to condition ourselves by taking the right position. Whenever there is inability to take the right position, there will be disability to enter the abundance of His grace.
The position that needs to be taken is to love and forgive. Many times in the pages of the Bible, the command to love is constantly and repeatedly emphasized. We are to love our neighbors and to know how to forgive. Clearly, loving and forgiving cannot be separated; neither can the love for God be compromised. Deuteronomy 6:5, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” There is no any other way to enter into the fullness of His abundant grace without being fully obedient to the command to love and to forgive. Jesus taught His disciples how to pray when he stated, “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12) Loving and forgiving is the central focus of His coming. He wanted us to know that without forgiving, salvation will be stagnated. How much one knows, and how long one have known Him will not count except one knows Him.

 Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to receive and believe Jesus.