FAITH CAPSULE: Abraham demonstrated what it means to love God.

Genesis 22

Claiming the love of God can not be compared to any idea of loving God.
To love God should not be a non-stop engagement.
Just as having a breath of life, so should it be loving God unconditionally when there is breath within.
Loving God should not be the way of anyone but in His own way.
God does have a set standard for every area of His expectations,
Deuteronomy 6:5, “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, just as Abraham gave God all, loving God.
He loved God with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his strength.
Abraham loved God with all his heart.
Abraham was seventy-five years old when he obediently left home.
Obedience to God is the character of love for God.
Abraham demonstrated his love when he moved in obedience to an unknown location.
However, the strongest demonstration of his love for God emerged after the birth of his son, Isaac. God said to Abraham, “…take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” (Genesis 22:2)
God repeatedly asked for Isaac.
Abraham could not deny God.
Abraham demonstrated what it means to love God with all our heart when he followed through and obeyed God.
Abraham resumed the journey of obedience at an early hour.
“Then on the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off.” (Genesis 22:4)
It took Abraham three days to get to the ground of sacrifice.
Abraham took his only son, whom he loved, on a three-day journey, an exhausting journey.
Also, knowing fully well that the son was to die should have taken away all his strength as he went on for three days.
Despite all, he continued because he loved God with all his strength.
Abraham also demonstrated his love with all his soul when he carried out the sacrifice in his heart. Genesis 22:10 records, “Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.”
The attempt of Abraham called for the attention of heaven, and the angel called on Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”(Genesis 22:12)
By not withholding and being so willing to sacrifice his one and only son, Abraham clearly demonstrated how much he loved God with all his heart, strength, and soul.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you with all that it takes to love Him with all your heart for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: The kind of love Daniel had for God positioned him for deliverance and preservation from his enemies.  

Daniel 6

God is a jealous God, and the antidote to jealousy is attention.
To love God is to seek Him uniquely.
The life of Daniel demonstrates an uncommon way to love God.
Daniel loves God; he established a custom approach and relationship with God.
Evidently, Daniel could not let the day pass by without gaining the presence of God.
The kind of love Daniel had for God positioned him for deliverance and preservation from his enemies.
When he was marked for an untimely death in the den of hungry lions, he made his way out by his testimony in Daniel 6:10, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.”
How can a believer claim to love God and only pray to God when tough times and challenges arrive?
It takes more than attending church to worship God and to show love for Him.
God is a jealous God, and the antidote to jealousy is attention.
When given attention to God, God will attend to such.
When love for God counts, God will respond with His love.
In the love of God is His mercy.
Romans 9:15 records, “For He says to Moses, ‘I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”
As much as God’s mercy is for only the ones He chooses to have mercy, when you love God, you have positioned yourself for the undeniable mercy of God.
Exodus 20:6 confirmed the mercy of God for those who love Him when it stated, “…but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep my commandments.”
Among the blessings of loving God is that God will always fight on behalf of those who love Him indeed and in truth.
God will fight against every unknown and known enemy in the life of those who love Him.
When God fought on behalf of the children of Israel against Balak and Balaam, He fought their battle favorably.
When you love the Lord, He will turn against your enemy like He did for the children of Israel against Balak.
God is true as stated, “…LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. (Deuteronomy 23:5)
Also, when you love God, His blessings will pass on to your descendants. After many years of the Israelites in bondage for over four hundred years, the love of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob made God deliver the Israelites as stated in Deuteronomy 4:37, “And because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them; and He brought you out of Egypt with His Presence, with His mighty power.”

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live life, loving Him continually.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do right in prayer to gain the presence of God.

Acts 12

Among the forces that prevent one from gaining standing in prayer before God are:
1. WHEN NOT ABLE TO FORGIVE OTHERS
2. GIVING TO SLEEP WHEN TO BE AWAKE
WHEN NOT ABLE TO FORGIVE OTHERS
Forgive others so as not to be denied before God.
One force that stands against prayer states in Mark 11:25, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.”
Anyone with the spirit of not forgiving takes a position that prevents them from receiving forgiveness from God.
Not forgiving is a sin, and with sin, no one can reach God.
PRAY by asking that God enable you to forgive anyone you hold against, so that you will not be a victim of unforgiveness before God.
GIVING TO SLEEP WHEN TO BE AWAKE
The sleeping of Peter and the sons of Zebedee testify that sleeping on the ground of praying cuts off the presence of God.
At the garden of Gethsemane, during the prayer with Jesus, they all fell asleep.
Jesus came to them while they were sleeping. Matthew 26:40-41 states, “Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What! Could you not watch with Me one hour? 41 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Sleeping in the place or instead of praying will not announce its time in the life of a believer.
Sleeping instead of watching and praying can distance oneself from God.
Sleeping is taking oneself from the protection of God to sudden or untimely death.
The bible records how sleep aided the violence of King Herod against the church.
Acts 12:1-4 records, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. 2 Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword. 3 And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. 4 So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.”
Interestingly, sleeping wrongly followed Peter and the Zebedee brothers until the failure of not praying but sleeping in the place of praying killed James the Zebedee and almost claimed the life of Peter.
The book of Acts 12:6-7 records the escape of Peter from sudden death despite his sleeping, ” Peter was therefore kept in prison, but [constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church. And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.”
Prayer for today:
Pray before God to deliver you from sleeping, physical, or spiritual, so that you are not a victim of evil occurrences.
Ask God to deliver you from sleeping, in the place of watching and praying.

FAITH CAPSULE: One who does not love God cannot love.

1 Corinthians 13

With faith, there is love. To love will have faith.
It is a question that Jesus will find faith when He comes back.
Luke 18:8 records, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
Search your heart if you love God.
Do you love God?
What does it mean to love God? The word of 1 John 5:3 identifies what it means to love God, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments.”
Keeping the command of God is keeping His commandment, the evidence of love.
One who does not love God cannot love and does not love by the standard of God.
Do you love your neighbour like yourself?
Loving your neighbour is a sacrifice, the evidence of obedience to God.
Loving God is a sacrifice.
Sacrifice is not cheap, but it is giving unto God what is costly.
King David once stated in 2 Samuel 24:24, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.”
King David was responding to Araunah, who had offered him a free land to make a sacrifice to God. The sacrifice was meant to deliver the children of Israel from death that was caused by David’s census. At that time, David’s census was against the command of God. David’s rejection of free land was a clear demonstration of what a costly sacrifice before God should be.
A costly sacrifice is a proven mark of love for God.
Sacrifice to God is worshiping God.
To be faithful to God is to worship God, and faithfulness is about loving God.
Jesus’ questioning faith is also questioning love.
He questioned, “…when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”
With faith, there is love.
Is there love between children and parents, between husband and wife, between children, between neighbors, between believers?
Exchanging gifts in the name of Valentine is not a testimony of the love that Jesus wants to see when He comes.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 identifies what love should be, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”
Worshipping God, loving God, is supposed to be a non-stop engagement when there is breath within one.
God gave a standard of acceptable love when He stated in Deuteronomy 6:5, “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.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the spirit to love God with heart, soul, and strength.

FAITH CAPSULE: Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are like a package.

Proverbs 2

Seek the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of God.
A man with wisdom cannot lack knowledge and not be without understanding.
Wisdom, knowledge, and understanding are like a package that cannot be separated.
What one does not know will not work for one.
Whatever fails to work for one can work against it.
In life, it is a lack of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding that will make a man with a loaded gun in his pocket and being chased around by an ordinary one with an ordinary like a table-knife.
Are you an acclaimed believer with power, yet living as a victim of wisdom, knowledge, and understanding, running away from the enemy with a table knife at hand?
The word states in Psalm 49:20, “A man who is in honor, yet does not understand, is like beasts that perish.”
The word of the psalmist identifies one with power, yet becomes a victim of one with less power.
Hosea 4:6 informs, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…” Clearly, many claim to know God, but know about but do not know.
Those who know about God will lack knowledge.
Do you lack knowledge? Knowledge is not scarce, but man is scarce in finding knowledge.
Knowledge is available for anyone who cares to find it.
Today, know God with understanding.
Proverbs 2:5, “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.”
Seek the knowledge, wisdom, and understanding of God, and the fear of the Lord will not elude you.
Based upon all the evil and wickedness that takes place throughout the whole world today, one can clearly see that man no longer has the fear of God dwelling in the inside of man.
Knowledge is not common without knowledge application.
In challenges, with no knowledge, one is set for the evil of the wickedness of the world.
Do you know God? Are you one who engages the pressing challenges of your life with knowledge?
God testifies that He knows His goodness towards us when He spoke, “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.” (Jeremiah 29:11) Regardless of how difficult and challenging your situation is, what you know about the promises of God across the pages of the Bible will give you the knowing edge in the face of confronting evil challenges of the world.
Today, take to the word of Proverbs 2:10-14, “When wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you; understanding will keep you, to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perverse things, from those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness; who rejoice in doing evil, and delight in the perversity of the wicked…” 

Prayer for today: Pray to be filled with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding to walk worthily to the glory of God.