FAITH CAPSULE: The heart is like a playground for the devil. 

Luke 22

Invariably, faith will fail when the enemy attacks the heart.
The heart is like a playground for the devil when not kept diligently from becoming a victim on earth.
About the heart of all: 
The Bible describes the heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) 
Ecclesiastes 9:3 records, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun: that one thing happens to all. Truly the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; madness is in their hearts while they live, and after that, they go to the dead.” 
Is anyone excusable from being exposed to becoming a victim of an evil attack on the heart?
Judas spent time with Jesus, but his heart is a testimony of one a victim as a target for the act of Satan in his life. 
The Bible records, “Then Satan entered Judas, surnamed Iscariot, who was numbered among the twelve. So he went his way and conferred with the chief priests and captains, how he might betray Him to them.” (Luke 22:3-4) 
Satan went after the vulnerable heart of Judas, and he was able to establish his plan to betray Jesus. 
Invariably, faith will fail when the enemy attacks the heart.
Peter was close to Jesus, but he was not the exception of becoming a victim of the devil. 
Once Jesus said to Peter: Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. (Luke 22:31-32) 
The heart of a man is always a target for the strike of Satan.
Ananias and Sapphira were not forced to sell their possession but lied about the proceedings of their selling. 
Acts 5:3 records the response of Peter to the lie of Ananias and Sapphira: Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep part of the price of the land for yourself? (Acts 5:3) 
A heart that engages in meditating on the word of God will keep the heart from negotiating with the devil. 
Determination is not enough to deliver from keeping the heart from the devices of the satan.
Why?
It was a determination that failed Peter in his attempt to deny Satan, not to deny Jesus. 
Thank God that Jesus prayed for Peter because He knew that determination is not enough against the devices of Satan. 
In your daily journey, to be diligent in keeping your heart away from the devices of Satan, pray as David prayed before God: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)
In this challenging world of wickedness, what is the state of your heart? 
Prayerfully, meditate on God to be the keeper of your heart diligently, from becoming the devices of Satan.
God answers prayer.

Prayer for today: Ask that God will enable you, that you will not become a victim of the devices of Satan.

FAITH CAPSULE: Prayerfully, continually, know to ask for the hand of God.

Exodus 3

Without a doubt, the hand of God is mighty to deliver and preserve a believer of God.
The character of a believer is to acknowledge God for His hand that is not short to deliver and preserve.
Isaiah 59:1 records: “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear.”
Know the hand of God to trust and hope for in life.
In your journey of life, this month and years to come, desire for the hand of God. 
Prayerfully, continually, know to ask for the hand of God.
The word of God encourages all to give themselves continually to prayer and the ministering of the word. 
Why not pray the word of God that does not return to Him void?
Ask, reminding God to extend His hand to you, as was in the Bible days. God is not a partial God to deny your prayer but will answer yes, no, or wait. 
God is not talkative, and the only thing God cannot do is that God cannot fail. 
Matthew 7:7 speaks to all, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” 
Ask God to extend his stretch-out hand to strike every representative of Pharaoh in your life. 
The hand of God did not fail when it brought the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years. 
God is not a partial God, and He will not fail to answer your calling for His stretch hand.
In these coming days, weeks, and years, whatever it is that holds one down not to gain motion, experiencing stagnation, the stretch-out hand of God that such calls on shall not deny such in the name of Jesus. 
Exodus 3:19-20 records the word of God for the deliverance of Israel, 
” But I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go, no, not even by a mighty hand. So, I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My wonders…”  
There is no mighty hand that will militate against you when the stretch-out hand of God answers for you. 
Prayerfully, meditate on the stretch-out hand of God for deliverance and preservation.
Is it your desire to experience the stretch-out hand of God over your life?
What one does not seek before God (that is good) is what one will not see to receive and become for such.
What one fails to claim will not be passed to one.
It is assurance in the word of God that what one does not think or ask will not be activated.
God is not a careless giver but gives what anyone desires before Him when it is the will of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the stretch-out hand of God over your life. 

Faith Capsule: Challenges can provoke worrying.

Exodus 14

Challenging can be the root of worrying that makes one run where to walk or walk to where to run.
Often, worrying is the reason for not looking up to God.
Are you worried and not looking up to God?
A failure to look up to God in the face of the challenge will misplace focus on God. 
Are you beholding your challenge or looking up to God? 
Exodus 14:10-12 documents, “And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel lifted their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians marched after them. So they were very afraid, and the children of Israel cried out to the Lord. Then they said to Moses, “Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness? Why have you so dealt with us, to bring us up out of Egypt? Is this not the word that we told you in Egypt, saying, ‘Let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that we should die in the wilderness.” Does that sound like you? The Israelites experienced the testimonies of God but to fear when they failed to lift their eyes unto God. 
The Israelites were worried and troubled when they gave a negative confession.
The solution to challenges is focusing on the promises of God in His word. 
Despite all the powerful teachings of Jesus against fear and worrying, the disciples entertained worrying by locking themselves in worrying.
John 20:19 records, “Then, the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.”  
Disciples of Jesus were locked up in fear, but Jesus showed up and declared peace. 
One that will look up to Jesus as Lord and Savior shall not be worrying and not be a victim of fear.   
Faith in Jesus will gain peace to overcome worrying. 
After Jesus speaks to the disciples, they see the mark of crucifixion. 
The Bible records, “When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.” (John 20:20) 
With the challenges of today, consistently set your mind to see the mark of crucifixion on Jesus to remind you that He has paid the price to uphold not to become a victim of challenges.
The marks of the crucifixion on Jesus should occupy the minds of all.
With marks of crucifixion in the heart, one shall become an overcomer of challenges.
Believe and receive Jesus into your life to carry you with evidence of salvation.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to look up to God constantly.

FAITH CAPSULE: To be careless to the word of God is reckless to become wrecked in the life journey.

Job 21 

The word of God located Jeremiah saying, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)
All created belongs to God, and there is no place to hide from the only creator of all man.
As a creation of God, are you living life in His way?
Are you living life by keeping to the ways of God or living life in the ways that seem right to you?
The word of God warns about your way that seems right to you.
Do you have your way?
Proverbs 14:12 records the warning of God: There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.
Jonah, a prophet of God that supposedly knows God, did not go by the direction, the way of God as directed by God. 
Jonah 1:1-3 documents the choice of the way of Jonah over the way God before him: “Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.” But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.”
Jonah was careless and reckless when he responded in a way that seems right to him. 
His obedience to the only God was to obey as commanded by God, regardless of what seemed right to him or not.
The disobedience of Jonah placed him in the position of untimely death, but he cried out to God to gain the mercy of God for his deliverance.
God knows you more than you know yourself, and you should know to live every moment by the ways of God, not to become a victim of untimely death. 
It is an act of wickedness to know the direction of the word of God for His way, to move in a different direction.
The word of God that is not hidden but clear enough for any, but taken differently, is the evidence of ignoring God.
Are you living life to ignore your creator directly or indirectly?
Again, without any doubt, walking against the way of God is telling God to depart from you.
Serving God is living life in His way.
Job addresses the wicked: Yet they say to God, ‘Depart from us, For we do not desire the knowledge of Your ways. Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? (Job 21:14-15)
Are you living life by your ways instead of the ways of God?
Come out of wickedness to live for God.

Prayer for today: Ask that God will enable you to live life in His way.

FAITH CAPSULE: Loving God is not possible for one that does not love a neighbor.

1Timothy 1 

Do you have a conscience that can access you to the presence of God?
Conscience can be described as an awareness of right and wrong to guide actions to do right.
A good conscience is an action that is before God and all to see.
God sees all actions as 1 Samuel 2:3 testifies, “…For the Lord is the God of knowledge; And by Him, actions are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)
What is your conscience before God?
What does it mean to have a good conscience before God at all times?
The inner sense of doing right according to the word of God is a good conscience.
Having a good conscience before God is living obediently before God as commanded for all to love.
One with good conscience will not fail or falter from finding God.
The commandment of God for all is to love one other. 
To love all is possible for only one with the understanding and knowledge of the love of God. 
Loving God is not possible for one that does not love a neighbor.
1 John 4:8 states, “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.”
Do you love God?
Do you love all?
The Bible records, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:14)
Among the reasons for the commandment of God for all is to love from a good conscience.
1Timothy 1:5-6 admonishes, “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk.” 
Having a good conscience is having God in thought continually to carry a mark for God.
Among all of the will of God is the purpose of the commandment from a good conscience.
Do you have a good conscience in all your ways before God?
Having love from a good conscience comes with action and is not hidden from God.
One with a good conscience is the sense of doing right but not doing wrong before God. 
It is a good conscience that governs thoughts and actions.
Conscience is what convicts man to turn from wrong. 
One with no conscience will live life with pride, the evidence of the lack of love as commanded by God. 
Conscience is responsible for conviction.
The Bible points out the Pharisees as an example of the lack of good conscience when they approached Jesus for judgment over a woman caught with adultery. 
The need for good conscience for the Pharisees was in the response of Jesus.
John 8:9 records, “Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one…”  
All should strive for a good conscience, not to become a victim of a lack of love as commanded in the word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to have a conscience.