Category Archives: Devotions

KNOW TO LOVE JESUS

FAITH CAPSULE: God sent His love for all.

Genesis 39

God cares to give His love, but the world does not care to know.
The love of the word for God is not glaring, and that prompts David with a curiosity to ask God, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm8:4)
Do you know the love of God?
Bible records, “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. (John 3:16)
Do you know about the love of God, or do you know?
To know the love of God is identified in 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.” 
Keeping the commandment of God is doing His will, and obeying the word of God. 
It takes sacrificial commitment to obey the commandment of God.
With God, there is a standard for every area of His expectation for all. 
God did not just ask for love, but He does expect a standard for love. Deuteronomy 6:5 records, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” 
To love God means to give Him all. 
Through the pages of the Bible, men, and women that gave Him all were able to live a fulfilled life and accomplish great exploits to the glory of God. 
Abraham, Joseph, Daniel, and other giants loved God and were able to do great exploits. 
The giants in the hand of God demonstrated the love of God by their way of obedience to God.
Know Jesus, the love of God, not know about Jesus? 
The truth is that God is not receivable. 
Joseph is an example of one with love for God to ignore the temptation for the wife of his master.
Joseph loves God and could not make himself become the object of the wife of his master when she could not resist asking Joseph to lie with her. 
Joseph refused to sleep with the wife of his master. 
Joseph was obedient with his love for God and had no excuse to sleep with the wife of his master, stating, “…how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God.” (Genesis 39:9)
The love of Joseph for God made him refuse and not give himself to enter into a way of wickedness towards God. 
Joseph demonstrated love for God.
Jesus, live life for God, the evidence of His love for God.
To live life for God is documented for all to live a life for God, evidence of one that loves God.
Every time the love for God overrides the love for self, heaven shall respond by lifting such. 
Joseph, by his love for God, the favor of God could not depart from him because he loved His God and demonstrated His love for God by not giving in to temptation, the sin of the wife of his master.

Prayer for today: Ask God to help you to love Him fully.

CELEBRATE JESUS CHRIST

FAITH CAPSULE: God has given, and all should be giving themself for His gift.

Matthew 2

Among the ways of seeking God is celebrating God for who He is a good and caring God. 
A God that is jealous will undoubtedly appreciate being celebrated by His creation. 
With understanding, it is safe to say celebrating the birth of Jesus is testifying to the goodness of God, making Him known.
Making Him know with testimony is seeking Him. 
The word of God demands, “But seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”(Matthew 6:33) 
It is always worth it to make seeking God a fruitful experience not a display of glamorous celebration. 
A glamorous celebration can be just an attraction that all displays in the name of celebrating God. 
In your celebration, handing gifts to families and friends is not evidence of a true reflection of love before God.
Celebrate God to demonstrate as one existing for God.
Live love as one that celebrates the love of God in Jesus.
Jesus came to offer the love of God.
1 John 4:9 buttresses, “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.” 
Jesus is the love of God for all. 
1 John 5:1 states, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.” 
Give Jesus a gift by accepting His love and abiding in Him.
What is it that you have to offer Jesus as you celebrate Him? 
At the time of His birth, he got gifts.
The Bible records, “And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.” (Matthew 2:11) 
The wise men visited the birthplace of Jesus with gifts for His coming as the savior of man. 
As an acclaimed believer, a supposedly wise one, what do you have to offer Him on His birthday? 
Besides glamorous celebrations, handing out gifts and receiving gifts, and singing songs not rooted in the heart or with a lack of understanding, what do you have to offer as a gift for the birthday celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ? 
Is your celebration meaningful? 
Does it truly reflect your confession, living life for God? 
Celebrating one that is not pleased with one could be an incomplete or unacceptable celebration. 
Do you have faith? 
It is faith that pleases God (Hebrews 11:6) but nothing else. Christianity or Christmas celebration is not just about adornment but knowing God as the Lord and savior.
Disallow adornment from occupying you from celebrating the reality of Christ Jesus. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from religion into the reality of Jesus.

PREPARE FOR JESUS

FAITH CAPSULE: Know to prepare your inn 

Luke 1:26-56

Jesus is the Lord and Saviour.
At His birth, there was no available in the inn for Jesus.
Jesus was not received at His birth.
Do you have an inn available to receive Jesus?
Know to prepare your inn, and be available for the Saviour to occupy your inn once and for all.
Let it not be once a year of allowing the in and out of Jesus.
In the past days, Jesus did not force any into the unavailable inn, and today He will not.
What is holding you from giving your inn to Jesus?
Live life continually with an inn filled with the word of God. 
From today, allow Jesus to take His place in your inn.
Many know about the coming of Jesus but do not know to have an inn for Jesus.
Do you have an inn for Jesus?
Have an inn for Jesus, and celebrate Him all year, not for a season in a year.
Having Jesus in your inn is sharing Him with your world as the gift of God for all.
Jesus was born in a manger because there was no room for Joseph and Mary in the inn. 
The inn that matters to Him is the inn of all, not the commercial inn that is filled and not has a place for Him. 
It does not matter the kind of gift of this world that occupies your inn, waiting to be delivered, as a gift to acclaimed loved ones. 
Let the love of Jesus fill your inn as a meaningful gift. 
Jesus said in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.” Jesus came to have a place in our inn so that we overcome and be granted a seat with Him on His throne.”
As you celebrate daily, let your inn open up for Him.
When one is full of self, living life for self by lying, deceiving, and manipulating with all sorts of selfishness will not open an inn for Jesus.
What are you full of not to have a place for the coming Lord and savior in your inn?
Many are with what will not carry them when the trumpet sounds. 
Some are filled or occupied with desires that will not grant salvation. 
The opportunity for the inn to become the most acknowledged inn in the history of creation came knocking, but it was too full to be opened for the birth of the Lord. 
How full are you to deny your inn for the Lord Saviour?
Delete to clean out your inn with the desire to live life for God.
Prepare your inn for the coming back of the Lord and Savior.
Prayer for today: 
Ask that your inn be open and be occupied by Jesus, always.
At the arrival of Mary and Joseph, with the expectation for having the birth of Jesus.

KNOW JESUS

FAITH CAPSULE: Seek Jesus diligently to know Him, not to know about Him.

John 21

All to hear directly from God to know and answer the calling of God.
Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli.
Until he heard directly from God, he could not resume at the center of divine assignment. 
Samuel did not know the calling of God when God called him three times while he was answering Eli. 
After the third time of calling, Eli redirected Samuel to go and hear and answer directly to God.
1 Samuel 3:9 records, “Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.”  
Samuel heard directly to know and answered God for the calling over his life.
Disciples spent time with Jesus but evidently could not hear to know Him enough and could not resume the calling of divine assignment upon their life.
Jesus repeatedly appeared to His disciples before they heard, saw, and knew Jesus to resume their divine assignment.
After the resurrection of Jesus, he appeared to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, where they were on fishing business.
The Bible records, “But when the morning had now come, Jesus stood on the shore; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus” (John 21:4)
Disciples and all that do not know Him are those who read and do not see Jesus in the physical and are bound not to know Him.
Many celebrate the rise of Jesus with a lack of knowledge.
Many spend time in the church but very far from Jesus while He is in their presence. 
Today, so many answers are titles, but there is no evidence of engaging the task of the calling.
When not knowing God is in place, destruction shall be in place. 
Hosea 4:6 records, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”  Seek Jesus diligently to know Him and avoid self-destroy. 
Jesus is the living word of God.
Know Him by encountering the word of God. 
Ezekiel encountered the word to gain knowledge of God. 
Ezekiel 2:1-2 recorded, “And He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak to you.” Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him who spoke to me.”
No man hears God indeed and doubts Him. 
Having doubt is the evidence for not being built by the word. 
Allow the word of God to build you. 
Before all the build-up, Jesus was there in the beginning, and there He is forever. 
Jesus is the Master builder. 
The word that brought forth creation is still the same that is building those who receive and believe in Him. 
Get to know Jesus.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to know Him more diligently.

PRAYER

FAITH CAPSULE: Prayer gets the attention of God.

Psalm 40

A prayer that will not miss the attention of God is when asking to be doing the will of God.
In the prayer lesson, Jesus taught His disciples to pray for the will of God. (Matthew 6:10)
The will of God is His plans or thoughts concerning the life which God has given to His creation.
God confirms in Jeremiah 29:11, “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.”
God is a good God with good thoughts toward His children.
The good thoughts of God are not in the assembly line but already in place.
Understand and know to ask for the will of God over your life.
Jesus encourages, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9)
The word did not ask to beg for what is in place for all. But with the evidence of having a desire for the will of God, you ask, seek, and knock to receive from Him.
Asking is praying or calling on God through the name of Jesus Christ.
Asking sometimes requires consistency or persistence, but the bottom line is that children must ask to receive.
Prayer does not have to be in multitudes of words or colorful words.
Prayer is not limited to time or location but prays with understanding.
A prayer encased in the word of God is with power prayer that moves mountains.
Faith has its source in the Word of God, and the Bible testifies mountains cannot resist, but the prayer of faith moves mountains.
Do you carry the word of God?
In your prayer, the word you carry will answer as fire to burn off the agenda forces against you, to the glory of God.
Jeremiah 23:29 confirms, “Is not My word like a fire?” says the Lord…”
The word of God is fire.
With the knowledge and understanding in the word of God, know to ask and not fail to receive.
The way to receive from God is by positioning self by waiting patiently before God.
The prophet Habakkuk did not hide the secret of waiting on God to receive from God.
Habakkuk 2:1 records, “I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected.”
When you ask before God, do not fail to take the position to receive.
Know and understand to pray and receive.
Waiting with the patient is the way to receive.
Know to wait patiently, a way not to miss an answer.
King David testifies in Psalm 40:1, “I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry.” In his waiting, he positions himself to receive by being patient regardless of how long it takes him to receive an answer.

Prayer for today: Ask by thanking God for answered or yet-answered.