FAITH CAPSULE: How is it with your heart before God?

Daniel 1

What is your desire for God?
What one thinks is what one asks.
Ephesians 3:20 records, “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.”
Do you want a heart for God?
One with a desperate heart to live life for the glory of God shall experience the backing of the good hand of God.
No, that there is heart activity hidden from God. 
Psalm 44:21 buttresses, “…God knows the secret of the heart.” 
The Bible records about the heart, “The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” (Proverbs 20:27)
How desperate is your heart for the glory of God? 
Daniel demonstrated his heart to live life for the glory of God. 
The hand of God backed Daniel up to do great exploits for His glory. 
Daniel 1:8 states, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore, he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” 
Daniel purposed in his heart for God to live life to do great exploit (Daniel 11:32) 
How is it with your heart before God?
God sees all. 
Know that “As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.” (Proverbs 27:19)
Give your heart to God that sees heart with desire for His glory.
Nehemiah, a cup-bearer had a heart for God.
The heart of Nehemiah was with genuine concern for the welfare of Jeremiah but not for self-interest. 
The heart of Nehemiah was a desperate heart for a better life for his brethren.
Nehemiah had a heart for God to see his desperate desire to touch lives for the glory of God. 
God invested in Nehemiah as a vessel for reconstructing the broken wall of Jerusalem. 
The report of Jerusalem caused a burden on the heart of Nehemiah.
Nehemiah, with a heart for God, intercedes on behalf of the land and his people. 
The Bible records in Nehemiah 1:3-4, “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.” 
A caring heart is a heart for God.
Nehemiah had a caring heart that poured out in prayer on behalf of his people and his homeland. 
He asked for nothing that had to do with selfishness but petitioned for things that had to do with a better life for his people. 
A believer should have a heart for God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to have the heart for God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Focusing on God is waiting on God, the evidence of having faith.

Isaiah 64

Focusing on God will wait on God by not wasting time focusing on man.
The word of God might sound foolish but never fail to deliver those who believe in the word of God.
It is the word of God to ask, seek and knock. 
Asking, Seeking, and Knocking for the answer from God is evidence of having faith and looking up to Jesus. 
Hebrews 12:2 records, “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” 
Jesus, the author of faith, has given all the way to receive by stating, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8)
Waiting on God demands to trust and hope by asking, seeking, and knocking before the manifestation of expectation. 
When there is no waiting for God, there will be rushing away from God to experience waste. 
King Saul could not focus on God, not wait as instructed but to become wasted. 
To obey and wait is to trust and hope in God, but Saul could not gain direction from God.
Waiting for God is giving attention to a jealous God. 
Psalmist admonishes, “Indeed, let no one who waits on You be ashamed…” (Psalm 25:3) 
A believer in God must understand to wait and endure a period. 
Waiting can be a delay but never a waste of time. 
Saul failed to wait on God. 
God spoke to the disobedience of Saul through Samuel, “But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for Himself a man after His own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over His people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you.” (1 Samuel 13:14) 
David, know the heart of God, the evidence of waiting on God.
The prodigal son in the parable of Jesus could not wait.
The Bible records the prodigal son: “A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So he divided to them his livelihood. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living.” (Luke 15:11-13) 
The younger son could not wait for the appointed time of God to receive a portion of the good. 
The prodigal son moved out of the word of God because he could not wait. 
Waiting on will ask, seek and knock persistently for God’s appointed time.

Prayer for today: Ask for His power upon you to be waiting on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Understanding and knowledge will gain wisdom and the presence of God.

Psalm 8

Are you spending time on the Word of God to gain understanding with knowledge in life?
When there is a lack of knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, failure in the walk of life becomes inevitable. 
The Word of God is for all to hear, receive, and believe to experience victory over the challenges of the wicked world. 
Jesus is wisdom, the Word of God, and the instruction for all. 1Corinthians 1:30 communicates to all, “But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God…”
Give self to wisdom from God!
The Word of God heals and delivers from destruction (Psalms 107:20). 
The Word of God gives life abundantly to one that will receive and believe the Word of God.
Worldly life and unending chores, including other activities, denies understanding and knowledge.
Among such are:
· Being too busy, having no time to study the Word of God.
· Preferring to take care of the activities of this world before giving self to the things of God.
· Having a dislike for the Word of God does not accept the truth.
. Living a worldly life is taking the Word of God as foolishness 
Will you consider the Word of God as the evidence of His wonders?
Understand and know that the Word of God is the key to the presence of God. 
The Word of God visiting Moses is the glaring presence of God with Moses. (The way of God is in His Word; His presence. (Exodus 33:13-14) 
Understanding and knowledge of the Word of God are having the revelation getting a clear and unfailing direction in life journey. 
Come out of all that is keeping you away from the Word of God, the wonder of God?
What a wonderful God we serve!
Wonderful God made man wonderfully with honor. 
One with a lack of knowledge and understanding of the wonder of God sets to become perish.
The Psalmist said, “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20) 
The one with understanding and knowledge of the wonders of God will know what it means to have been made with honor by God. 
The Psalmist testifies to the glory of God in His creation of man, “God is mindful of man; man is the one that God pays a visit to; man is made a little lower than the angels; man is crowned with glory and honor.” (Psalm 8:4-5) 
The Psalmist further states, “God made man to have dominion over the works of His hands; all things were made to be under the feet of man.” (Psalm 8:6-7) 
Gain understanding and knowledge that God invests much into the life of all, and He deserves attention from all living life for His glory.

Prayer for today: Ask that you be enabled to gain understanding and knowledge, to live life for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you complaining to prompt negative confession before God?

Numbers 14:1-38

The word of God is His promise that delivers to one that lives by His word.
To live by the word of God demands commitment.
Without a commitment to the word of God, one shall give to complaining.
One that complains will confess negative, experience negative results, to become denied in the promise of God.
Complaining does not have a place before God.
Complaining instead of complementing God shall arrive outside of the plans of God.
Consciously or unconsciously, are you complaining before God? 
Complain is the expression of dissatisfaction with God, the avenue to experience a painful life journey, to fail and not pass.
One thing God cannot do is: He cannot fail!
In every way of life, a complaint or the expression of dissatisfaction with a negative confession is not acceptable before God. 
The word of God warns: “Do not let your mouth cause your flesh to sin, nor say before the messenger of God that it was an error. Why should God be angry at your excuse and destroy the work of your hands?” (Ecclesiastes 5:6)
The written word of God is a manual of life, to lead with direction to arrive at the destination of the life journey.
Importantly, give self to the word of God, not to look away from God, the evidence of taking distance from God.
The complaint before God is against God that set the Israelites on a painful life journey.
The Bible records the complaints of the Israelites, “So all the congregation lifted up their voices and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness! Why has the LORD brought us to this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and children should become victims? Would it not be better for us to return to Egypt?” So they said to one another, “Let us select a leader and return to Egypt.” (Numbers 14:1-4) 
The complaint of the Israelites prompted negative confession as they reacted to the discouraging report by the spies. (Numbers 13:26-29) 
Are you complaining, confessing negatively before God?
One with the complaint will rebel before God.
The Israelites complain before God after their deliverance from over four hundred years of bondage.
The complaint testifies to them as rebellious before God.
As a believer, avoiding complaining before God is rooted in trusting and hoping in God. 
One that knows to trust and hope in the Lord shall experience the blessing of God as Jeremiah 17:7 states, “Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord.” 
Calling on God for His intervention is trust; waiting on God, without doubt, is evidence of having hope in God.
Do not complain to avoid negative confession before God.

Prayer for today: Ask God not to become a victim of complaining.

FAITH CAPSULE: Jesus hides in the word of God.

Luke 4

The word of God is in the record for all.
All should learn, living life by the word of God, to the glory of God.
The word of God is like a manual for instruction for all to engage and not fail before God.
The word of God is like a mirror for looking into a dress or readdress not to become a victim of evil.
Romans 15:4 records, “For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.”
Are you giving yourself to the word of God to live life for God not to live a life of waste?
Do not be exposed to the world by not giving yourself to the word of God.
Jesus is Lord did not expose Himself to the devil when He made the word of God His hiding place.
The Bible records that, after fasting for forty days of Jesus, the devil approached Jesus three times to tempt Jesus, at first the devil said, “If You are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” (Luke 4:3) 
Jesus hides in the word of God.
Jesus responds to the devil: “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.’” (Luke 4:4) 
The demonstration of hiding in the word of God is for all to learn.
Jesus does not need to hide.
Understanding and knowledge gained in the documentation of the hiding of Jesus in the word of God is the way not to become a victim of a wicked world.
The first documentation of the three temptations attempt of Satan against Jesus failed just as the other two temptations failed.
Jesus hides in the word of God, quoting against Satan.
The Bible records how Jesus hides physically, not because there is no way for Him to avoid Satan but for all to know and understand that hiding is not evidence of weakness but wisdom.
Jesus also demonstrated physical hiding in the face of wicked agenda: “Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” (John 8:59)
Keeping to the word of God will keep one from untimely termination by evil agenda. 
Are you a simple believer or a prudent one?
Provers 14:15 speaks to all, “The simple believes every word, But the prudent considers well his steps.”
With understanding, “A prudent man foresees evil and hides himself, but the simple pass on and are punished.” (Proverbs 22:3)
Keep the word of God (testimonies of God) diligently not to become a victim of the wicked world.
Jesus hides, and all should know to hide.

Prayer for today: Ask to give entrance for the word of God to live life by His word.