FAITH CAPSULE: Praising and thanking Him shall cause you to have a favorable lifting.

Psalm 145

What He says to one speaks to all. God spoke to the children of Israel, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord…” (Jeremiah 29:11-14) God wants peace for us; He wants a hopeful future for us; He wants our attention by communicating with us; He wants us to seek Him constantly. Out of His goodness and mercy He sent His son so that His entire plan for us shall be manifested.
It is written, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

The point here is that God invested so much in us while but we extends so little to Him. After many years of privilege life which the Lord God bestows on upon you, how much have you extended to Him?
It is written, “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2) In this season of a new beginning, begin to think of living a life to glorify God. Allow your expectation to change from material gain to walking in the ways of God. Deuteronomy 5:33 states, “You shall walk in all the ways which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.” Walking in all the ways of God’s command is seeking God first. Seeking God will no doubt fulfill every of your desire in a New Year. Jesus buttress when He said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:33-34) A better way to seek God is in praising Him to glorify Him and thanking Him to magnify Him. Let your New Year be in constant thanks giving. Make it a year to thanking Him for all things and thanking Him in all things so that you may experience favorable uplifting.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of engaging non-stop thanksgiving.

FAITH CAPSULE: January to December is a journey of life.

Numbers 20:1-13

Living life from January to December is a journey of life. To be alive through the year is the mercy of God and not merit of man.
The beginning of every journey is important and how journey comes to an end is the summary of the whole course of the journey. The journey of life does not run straight. It has peaks and gorges. There are always twists and turns before getting to one’s expected end. Are you experiencing twist and turns? God is faithful to the core and His word is true to perfect. It is written, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19) As the year rolls out, trust God to convert every twist and turns to triumph. God is the only God that converts frustration to celebration. As the new journey is about to unfold God’s favor shall become your portion.

As a new journey is about to unfold there will be a need for one to become fully engaged with the living word of God which is able to instruct, guide and lead one to an expected end. Moses as great as he was in the hand of God could only see the Promised Land at distance but could not step on the Promised Land. Moses despised the word of God when he struck where he was commanded to speak. It is written, “Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ^“Take the rod; you and your brother Aaron gather the congregation together. Speak to the rock before their eyes, and it will yield its water; thus you shall bring water for them out of the rock, and give drink to the congregation and their animals.” So Moses took the rod from before the Lord as He commanded him. And Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly together before the rock; and he said to them, “Hear now, you rebels! Must we bring water for you out of this rock?” Then Moses lifted his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came out abundantly, and the congregation and their animals drank.” (Numbers 20:7-11) It is crucial for one be focus and not fail; to depend and not despise the word of God. To despise the word is to be destroyed.
Moses, by virtue of his entire exploit by the hand of God upon his life was not allowed to get to the end of the journey that he so strongly desired. As you cross over in your journey, allow the word of God to be your garment. As you engage a new journey ask God to remove any force or agent of derailment that is set to deny you from getting to expected end.

Prayer for today: Ask God to remove any hindrance that would deny you from getting to your expected end.

FAITH CAPSULE: It is not time to think thanks but to give God thanks.

Luke 1:26-56

It is not an ordinary grace but a great grace to be alive. It is mercy but not of merit to have been through twelve months of the year. It is indeed a privilege not of right to be standing. At the time King Saul was after David to kill him, David pointed out in his conversation with Jonathan, “…but there is a step between me and death.” (1 Samuel 20:3) From January to December you have taken uncountable number of steps by great grace not by great act. It is time for man to begin to count blessings instead of counting one’s need. It is time to come out of every area of worry and begin to engage a reasonable worship.
Is there any need for worrying in your life? Worry can possibly take the place of worship in the life of acclaimed believer in Christ Jesus. At every time a believer is not positioned at the feet of Jesus where the word of deliverance and preservation is in place, believer will fall from worship to worry. Distraction is an agent of disruption. One that is distracted is disrupted and will not hear what it takes to engage worship instead of worry. Martha was worried while she was having the Unchanging changer in her house. She was worried because of so much distraction. It is written, “Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.  And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.  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.” (Luke 190:38-40)

Are you worried? Is it too hard not to worry? It is important to know, “For with God nothing will be impossible.” (Luke 1:37) Your worrying is an evidence of your attempt to carry your yoke and your burden by yourself. Hear the word of Jesus, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) The word of God is simple enough for you to let Jesus take charge of your yoke and your burden. It is not the time to think giving thanks but to give God hearty thanks for the grace of life.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to be consistent in praising and giving thanks.

FAITH CAPSULE: Mediate on the word to work and walk in line for His glory.

Matthew 7

Jesus stated in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”  Getting work done in His name for His name without walking in His ways will get no one to be recognized by Jesus when it matters the most.
Who are you? Can you honestly question and answer to yourself who you are?Jesus once asked His disciples, saying to them “who do men say that I am” (Mark 8:27) It is not that it matters to Jesus who the people say He was or He is today. However, it is glaring by virtue of His walk, where He sat and what He stood for, He is the King of kings; the Lord of lords.

Does your life reflect Christ? Are you a bible which people can read? Is the word of God rooted in you? Man can be deceived but God cannot be deceived. It is possible for man to be well decorated before man but naked and empty before God. Forget about your titles, it is how you engage God’s task for you that matters before God.
In life, your walk, where you sit and what you stand will answer to the question about who you are.

It is written, “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)
Once the psalmist attempted to protest his innocence by stating, “Vindicate me, O Lord, For I have walked in my integrity. I have also trusted in the Lord; I shall not slip. Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart. For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, And I have walked in Your truth. I have not sat with idolatrous mortals, Nor will I go in with hypocrites.” (Psalm 26:1-4)

It is the walk we walk that identifies us before God because it is what defines who we are. It is important for us to know it that the walk we walk also marks us for God’s blessing. It is written, “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) The only way to redirect our walk before God is to constantly and consistently engage ourselves in the word of God by meditating His word. The word admonished us that there is delight in the law when meditating in the word is in place day and night. (Psalm 1:2) Mediate on the word to work and walk in line for His glory.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace not to miss His way where it matters.

FAITH CAPSULE: Loving our neighbor perfects loving God.

1 John 4

The gift of God to man is unconditional love. Jesus is a sacrificial gift which God sent so we do not miss eternal life. In return for His love, we are to love Him just as He loves us. The kind of love He wants from us is identified in the Parable of the Good Samaritan. A young lawyer approached Jesus asking for what to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus asked him what was written in the law and he responded, “…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27) The lawyer prompted Jesus to tell the parable when he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29) Jesus identified who is neighbor is in the parable. A certain man that fell in the hands of thieves lost everything to thieves and was left helplessly wounded. A priest and a Levite that supposed to know better about compassion crossed to other side of the wounded man but a certain Samaritan (a supposedly unbeliever) showed compassion where the religious leader could not. Jesus answered the lawyer’s question of what needs to be done not to miss eternal life by asking the lawyer to go and do just as the Good Samaritan did.

The Good Samaritan is a measure of the gift we should be giving back to God who gave us the best gift in His begotten son. A yearly glamorous celebration of the gift of God to us is far from enough as a measure of our giving back to God if loving our neighbor is out of place in how we live life.
1 John 4:7-11 admonished us, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent His Son to be propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
The picture of loving others is clear in the parable of the Good Samaritan: Loving our neighbor perfects loving God. Celebrate Jesus the gift of God by giving yourself to living life by having compassion for neighbors.

Prayer for today: Ask God to open your understanding; to know to do right and never to miss the chance of living as a vessel of blessings to others.