FAITH CAPSULE: A selfish-minded one is not with a mind for God. 

One that is doing good in help for others is doing good to provoke the hand of God to gain the favor of God.
One with the mind of God to do good, to help others, is doing indirect good for self.
It is good to keep others in prayer, actually praying for self indirectly.
The word of God encourages, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16)
One with a mind for God does not hold to self, not taking to mind confessing trespasses to another, giving way to pray.
One given to self does not to God to experience the goodness of God.
There is no way to describe one giving to self than calling such a selfish or self-centered one. 
Who are you before God?
Are you selfish or one-minded for others to the glory of God?
Are you mind-full of God or mind-full of yourself, living as a self-centered soul?
A selfish-minded one lacks consideration for others and looks to profit more than others. 
A selfish-minded one is not with a mind for God. 
The character of a selfish one is about self and will not give self to what benefits more to other than self.
Selfish-mindedness and self-ambition are like birds of the same feather.
The word of God speaks against self-ambition, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” (Philippians 2:3)
Think about yourself to answer if you are selfish. 
Ask God to flush out any trait of selfishness in your system.
Selfish-minded is not of God.
The character of a selfish-minded one is of sin before God.
James 4:17 identifies, “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not to do it, to Him it is sin.”
A selfish-minded will hold to selfishness in place of the need to do good.
Is selfish-minded your character, your way of living life?
Who are you before God?
Search yourself, and know to live life by answering to the word of God consistently.
Make it a desire to do good for yourself favor indirectly by doing God for others.
Mordecai and Esther deny selfishness by giving themselves to their people when the Jews are about to be destroyed by the conspiracy of Hamman.
Out of selfishness, Mordecai discovered the evil plan of Hamman and sent his message to Esther in her comfortable location.
Out of selfishness, Esther responded to Mordecai for the sake of the Jews:
“Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!” So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther commanded him.”
Mordecai and Esther put themselves away to provoke the deliverance of their people, the Jews.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live for God, not yourself.

FAITH CAPSULE: The temptation of the devil is a deception of interaction for Adam and Eve to violate God. 

Genesis 3

Deception is dangerous. 
God has created all not to be a victim of the way of deception.
Deception encases lying and manipulation covered in pride.
Pride is the garment of the devil. 
Are you living a life of deception?
The word of God does not accept deception. 
Adopting deception is disengaging the word of God; deception is despising the word of God. 
Without a doubt, despising the word of God is the avenue of destruction as Proverbs 13:13 declares, “He who despises the word will be destroyed, but he who fears the commandment will be rewarded.” 
The majority frequently adopts deception to deliver deceitful messages in the name of God. 
Devil is the author of liars, and the master of deception interacted deceitfully to derail all from the route journey of life through Adam and Eve. 
God gave a word of command to Adam, “…Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17) 
The skill of deception, twisted the word of God, “And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’” Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:1-5) 
The temptation of the devil is a deception of interaction for Adam and Eve to violate God. 
The devil deceitfully added and took out from the word of God to twist the word of Eve.
As a result of evil deception, “…the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:13)
Deception is of the way of the devil that many acclaimed believers and non-believers adapt to. 
Living life as a victim of deception or operating as an agent of deception is a way of getting displaced in the presence of God like Adam and Eve got displaced from the presence of God. 
Genesis 3:24 states, “…He drove out the man, and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.” 

Prayer for today: Ask that the grace of God shall not enable you to become a victim or an agent of deception.

FAITH CAPSULE: The Israelites did not give to the word of God. 

Numbers 13

Listen attentively to no man but to the word of God.
Listening to the word of God is the key to understanding and doing according to the word of God.
Only listen attentively to the word of God. 
A failure to listen and gain direction or to look forward in the promise of God will dislodge and displace one from the destination in the promise of God.
Trouble in life might be too hard, but God can resettle one for the better. 
Listen attentively to the word of God, wait on the word of God, be renewed in strength, and not faint. 
God made the heavens and earth by His great power that cannot fail. 
Will you listen to wait on His word?
For over four hundred years, the Israelites got displaced into bondage. 
It was like no way out for the Israelites.
God spoke through Moses, “…I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Exodus 3:17)
With attention to the word of God, failure is an impossibility.
God has spoken, still speaking, and what He says is a done deal. 
Are you listening to His word? 
The Israelites could not listen attentively.
Since the pollution of man in the Garden of Eden by the deceiver, man has continued not to listen attentively to God. 
The Israelites did not give to the word of God.
They failed to move and possess all the promised word of God. 
Numbers 13:1-3 records, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men to spy out the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel; from each tribe of their fathers you shall send a man, everyone a leader among them.’” 
Moses played his role in relating the word of God to the Israelites.
The Israelites needed to spy out the land which God was giving them.  
In life, listening will deliver results in the promise of God. 
The spies saw the land and returned with a negative report. 
Sharing any negative report against positive ones is making God a liar, the evidence of a lack of faith by the spy. 
The spy reported a negative confession, “…The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants, and all the people whom we saw in it are great men of great stature. There we saw the giants (the descendants of Anak came from the giants), and we are like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we are in their sight.’” (Numbers 13:32-33) 
The negative report delivered by the spy to the Israelites provoked a rebellious response that caused many not to arrive at the promised land.
Listen attentively to no one but to God in His word. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to listen attentively to His word for your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: There is security in the word of God. 

Psalm 37

What secures you in this world where wickedness is active?
Evil is continual.
Evil is where wickedness branches out and does not relent.
Genesis 6:5-6 records, “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. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” 
Wickedness reigns all over, and none is safe but ones that abide in God.
The word of God does not lie nor return void to God but delivers promises for security and stability in this wicked word.
One that abides by the word of God is in of stability.
1 John 3:24 states, “Now he who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in Him. And by this, we know that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.” 
The word refers to now, not just in the past.
Today, keep the word of God to gain the position of security.
The word of God is wisdom. 
1 Corinthians 1:30 states that Jesus is our wisdom: “But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God…” 
Why not give yourself wisdom from God for security in the wicked and instability world of today? 
The word of God promised security: “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation…” (Isaiah 33:6) 
The living word of God is the stability of God.
Many know about the word of God but do not know the word of God (there is a difference between knowing and knowing about the wisdom of God) 
Many are conversant with the word of God by the mouth but are far from the word in the heart. 
Without knowing the wisdom of God in truth, to become one with an edge over the wicked world shall not be in place. 
What is your security or your stability in this wicked world of today? 
The word of God is the secret for one that does not know God.
One that knows that secret of God will abide and dwell in the word of God for security and stability in the wicked world.
Psalm 91:1 records, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” 
Make the right choice, give yourself to the word of God, to gain security to be stable in the wicked world.
Listen and hear what is true about God as stated in Isaiah 64:4, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.”
For your security, seek God by waiting on Him.

Prayer for today: Ask to enable continually dwell and abide in the word of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Come out of selfish motives to set your heart on doing good before God.

Nehemiah 1

Many believers or unbelievers live as egoistic (self-centered) ones in every corner of the world. 
Who are you? 
Are you a believer or unbeliever devoted to or caring only for oneself, concerned primarily with self-interests to be regardless of others? 
Are you one with the character as selfish? 
Indeed, life should not be only about self but considerate of people around self.
Nehemiah was a non-entity. 
He was not a pastor, he was not a bishop, and was not a prophet, nor was he the son of a prophet. 
Nehemiah was an ordinary cupbearer to the king in the Persian palace. 
He got to where he was because he was a captive. 
One thing was clear about Nehemiah: he was concerned for the welfare of Jerusalem and its inhabitants at heart. 
Nehemiah was a cupbearer who desired a better life for his brethren. 
Nehemiah was not self-centered. Who are you? As a cupbearer, he wanted a change for others but not to be a liar or manipulation in the name of God. God saw the heart of Nehemiah, and He acknowledged him. God invested in the life of Nehemiah as a vessel to reconstruct the broken wall of Jerusalem.
Nehemiah 1:3-4was the report that burdened Nehemiah, “And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’ So it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” 
Nehemiah poured out his heart in prayer on behalf of his people and his homeland. 
He asked for nothing for himself, but he petitioned for his people to have a better life for his people.
The heart of Nehemiah was in line with what God looks for. 
Who are you in the eyes of God, that is traveling over the earth, searching for a heart that lines up with His glory? 
Jeremiah 17:9 confirms: “The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it?” 
God alone knows every heart, and He will not overlook both the good and evil of the heart.
All should not be of selfish motives.
All should center their hearts on all that will glorify God, and God will not limit such to excel for His glory. {
Nehemiah was not self-centered but set himself for his people, and God deposited in him what it takes to bring glory to the name of God. Nehemiah, as a cupbearer, turned the issue of his nation around. 
Life is not to be about self but to the glory of God in all life endeavors.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled not to live life as a selfish one.