KEEP ON CALLING
Psalm 91

“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.” (Psalm 91:15) A believer’s knowing to call on God is rooted in the understanding that God is faithful to bring His word to pass. Knowing to call on Him will provoke His hand for an undeniable miracle because He is God that is true to His word. Isaiah 58:9, “Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am…’” King David, because of his trust in the Lord, declared in 1 Samuel 22:4, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” It takes the heart that trusts to remember to call in the midst of unbearable challenges. King David is an example of someone who did not hesitate to ask when the need called for it. David did not go to war without seeking God first. Twice in 1 Samuel 23, verses 2 and 4, he repeatedly went and inquired from God before going to war against the Philistines. David knew to ask God rather than assume before making a move against his enemies. When there is a cry, He will move His hand of deliverance. The children of Israel, in bondage of over four hundred years cried to God, “And the LORD said: ‘I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 8 So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians…” (Exodus 3:7-8) God is consistent with His word. When you ask by calling on Him, He will answer; when you cry to Him, He will show up on your behalf. However, there are some questions you want to ask yourself when asking. Have you actually been begging, when you have been told to ask? In your asking have you been asking amiss? James 4:3, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” God is not a partial God, but He is a faithful God. He is a God of order and demands complete obedience to His Word before the Word can work for anyone. When there is confidence to wait and receive, do not ask amiss, but trust in the name of the Lord God; call on His name and He will answer. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower…” (Proverbs 18:10) Personalize the Word of God and trust in Him, and the peace in His Word will be your portion. Remember, they that trust in the Lord are like MountZion. Consider yourself to be MountZion, which cannot be moved.
Prayer for today: Help my unbelief O Lord my God and my father.

 TIME AND TIMING
2 Chronicles 28

What does your time says? Which time are you living in? Different times come and go and time waits for nobody. However, God is the only One who is in control all of time. He alone is the Alpha and Omega; the beginning and the end; the ancient of days and the great I Am that I Am. He alone dwells in an unapproachable light. Above all, God is the only One who inhabits eternity. There are times of challenges, times of disruption, times of isolation, times of celebration and many more of different times that go on in the life of every man who dwells under the heavens. The perfect and consistent thing about God’s time and timing is that there is no man who can turn back or turn forward the time and timing in God’s divine schedule. God sits and reigns as the stage director; the writer and the producer of man’s life on the stage of life. The Psalmist describes Him in Psalm 29:10, “The LORD sat enthroned at the flood, and the LORD sits as King forever.” All that happens to man does not catch God by surprise because He has taken a seat forever before the creation of His hand. Man can possibly and perfectly take control of turning the clock back and forth, but it will have no effect on God’s timing. God alone brings time to pass, but how time is being spent by all of His creation is what makes the difference. What time are you into at this stage of your life? How you are responding to the current time that you are passing through before the only One who controls the time will determine the mark of your life? Ahaz became king of Judah at twenty years of age, reigned sixteen years but he did not what was right before God. The time of his not doing right increased even more when he became in distress. 2 Chronicles 28:22-23, “Now in the time of his distress King Ahaz became increasingly unfaithful to the LORD. This is that King Ahaz. 23 For he sacrificed to the gods of Damascus which had defeated him, saying, ‘Because the gods of the kings of Syria help them, I will sacrifice to them that they may help me.’” Those gods, however, were the ruin of him and of all Israel. Like a twinkling of an eye, times of challenges can terminate the journey of life. Ahaz allowed the time of distress to derail his faith and all that he had done was derailed. In your present time, know that whatever you are dealing with, God is not asleep concerning you. Keep focus on God and He will cause His face to shine on you.
Prayer for today: In this time of my isolation, develop me to be a dedicated worshiper and an obedient vessel of Yours, in Jesus Name.

PRETENDING IS WICKEDNESS

Matthew 15:1-20

Wickedness is defined as evil by nature and in practice; highly offensive or obnoxious. Wickedness is an ungodly sin. It is what provoked the hand of God to destroy man from the face of earth during the time of Noah. Genesis 6:5, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Just as it was then, so it is still today. Today, wickedness knows no bounds. It reigns outside the church and it reigns inside the church. Within a group of believers, in the house of God or outside the house of God, if there is a request for who should be considered as wicked, so many would refuse. As a self-proclaimed Christian or born-again believer, have you ever considered or seen yourself as one who dwells in wickedness? There is none who wants to be identified as wicked yet many are actually living a life that testifies to wickedness. Let us see how Jeremiah pinpointed who and what qualifies one as wicked (especially within the church).  Jeremiah complained why the way of the wicked prospers. In Jeremiah 12:2, “He brought before God by saying to God, ‘You have planted them, yes they have taken root; they grow, yes they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth but far from their mind.’” In his question, there is a clear indication that the wicked are those who speak the Word of God but do not carry it in their mind. They are mouthful of the Word of God but mindful of their own self. Does this sound like you? It is important to be able to observe oneself in the mirror and doing this can enable the necessary correction. To operate wickedness can be extensively deceiving because one can grow and prosper but yet nothing is written over their forehead that identifies them as wicked.  This makes it more deceiving among believers of today who are having misconceptions of what prosperity is. Clearly, the wicked are those who could be highly conversant in speaking the Word of God although the Word of God is absent or far from their mind. Jesus referred to them as hypocrites when he was debating the Scribes and the Pharisees. Matthew 15:7-9, “Hypocrites!  Well did Isaiah prophesy about you, saying: ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, and in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” Do you consider yourself as a hypocrite? Wickedness and hypocrisy are birds of the same feather; they both inhabit the spirit of pretending.

Prayer for today: Have mercy O Lord and let every iota of pretending not have a trace in me all the days of my life.

LONG JOURNEY           

Deuteronomy 1

In every man’s journey to the promise land, the favor of God is inhabited to see every sojourner through. There are giants designed by the enemy to hinder and to deny. Also in the journey, the route can be discouraging because it is through the wilderness. Giants will not show up in the physical because their place is in the mind and they often pass through the mouth. The giant of delay, denial and destruction is in every man and if any would let him, he will not let that man arrive at their expected end. The name of that giant is the spirit of complaint. In the company of complaint, is the spirit of discouragement. Deuteronomy 1:27-28,  “And you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the LORD hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us. 28 Where can we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, “The people are greater and taller than we; the cities are great and fortified up to heaven; moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.”’ It is clear that when complaint sets in you, discouragement will also settle inside you. God has promised and He can not fail. As much as it is important to understand that there are giants on the way to Canaan, then passing through the wilderness should be with diligence so as to gain possession. The passage through the wilderness is a necessary experience. One, however, does not have to live there. For the children of Israel, an eleven day journey became a forty year agony. The wilderness became a habitation when it was only meant to be for a learning experience. The experience is to be added to you and become your make-up in living in the promise land and also in carrying out God’s divine schedule in life. The wilderness experiences are not to break you if you do not break yourself down and make the wilderness your habitation. God is a faithful God. He will go before you and He will fight for you just like He has done in the past. God is a God of promise and the promise that you have received is an assured one because He has never fail. Also, the Word of God that is leading cannot fail; will not fail. In your case, God is up to something good in your life; do not weigh yourself down to nothing. Arise and take on your journey to the promise land and He will carry you through.

Prayer for today: In the journey of life, Father, deliver me from every evil work and let me be preserved that I may see your glory.