FAITH CAPSULE: Always look up to God that acts for those who wait on Him.

Exodus 14

Looking up to God is waiting on God.
Are you looking up to God that waits to act for those who wait on Him?
One that does not wait on God will be living life in worrying.

To become worried and troubled in the face of challenge is the evidence of not worshiping God. Any time man keeps eyes on confronting challenge man is set to misplace focus on God for His divine intervention.
Are you beholding your challenge or you are looking up to God?
Exodus 14:10-12 speaks to the issue of looking away from God by looking into the challenge: “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.”
Do the verses above speak to you?
The miracle of God brought the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt but the Israelites could wait for God by giving themselves to fear of their enemy.
The Israelites were worried and troubled as a result they gave to negative confession.
Solution for challenges demands to focus on God.
Are you focusing on God?
Despite all the powerful teachings of Jesus against fear and worrying, the disciples went ahead and locked themselves up in fear of the Jews. Bible 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.” (John 20:19) While they were being locked up in the state of fear, Jesus showed up and declared peace. Jesus the Word of God is the Prince of peace. If you will look up to Jesus as Lord and Savior, He is always around to uphold you.
Faith in Jesus will give peace in the place of trouble for those who keep the focus on Him.
After Jesus had spoken peace into His disciple’s life, the eyes of their mind were opened to see the mark of crucifixion. “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) Seeing the mark opened up the disciples to come out of fear. If you will begin to see the marks of crucifixion and believe that the marks were registered on Jesus for us to be able to have life abundantly, the fear about all that is going on around the world will not have its place in your life.

Prayer for today: Ask in for the grace to be opened up and see His presence in the time of challenges.

FAITH CAPSULE: Love should be considered as the anchor which every other gift of God holds on to.

1 Corinthians 13

Love belongs to God.
Love is demonstrated by action but rooted in faith.
The purpose of God’s command is love.
God gave His commandment so that love can exist among man. When a brother abstains from stealing, lying or deceiving his brother it becomes a testimony of love. Loving in God’s way is God’s love. The standard for love is by God’s standard not by any man’s standard.
The book of 1Timothy 1:5 identifies God’s love: “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.”
Are you living life with love, as commanded by God?
Loving by God’s standard is not common especially in a world where man is full of self. Claiming to love without loving with pure heart, good conscience and sincere faith is empty love. In a world where living life is without good conscience love is evidently not a way of living life. In a world where man is desperately concerned about self, engaging others with sincere faith is a strange thing.
Are you loving by your standard or as commanded by the word of God?
Among the gift of God, love is the greatest gift. Love should be considered as the anchor which every other gift of God holds on to. When love of God is not in place for man, fulfilling the command of God becomes questionable.
Paul the apostle clearly drew out the importance of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” It is clear in Paul’s word that though a believer can demonstrate the gifts of God such as: speaking in tongues, prophesying, reaching out to the needy but yet not with love. All demonstration of love but not rooted in the heart is empty and carries no weight before God.
Many know about God’s command.
Few that knows God’s command are ones identifiable by God. The word of God speaks to ears that will hear in Matthew 7:22-23, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” From today, every believer needs to examine and search the self’s heart.
Have you been demonstrating any of the gifts while you are entertain lying, deception, and manipulation? Man can always deceive man but God cannot be deceived.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you with grace to love according to His standard.

FAITH CAPSULE: The way to move forward is in the word of God

Jeremiah 7

The way to move forward is in the word of God while the way backward is in the wicked world of man.
With you, which way are you?
Are you going by the dictates of your heart or by the living word of the living God?
Going by the dictates of the heart of man can be of the world.
The way of the world is the way which seems right to man not the way of God. Proverbs 14:12 makes us realize that “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” The way that seems right to man comes from the dictates of the evil heart.
There is no going forward in the way that seems right to man. The way that seems right is a wrong way; the way that seems right is always a way of assumption with no certainty to lead right.
As a child of God, have you thought about the reason why you have been going backward instead of forward?
The possibility of your going back is following the dictates of your heart. God was speaking to Jeremiah about the disobedience of the Israelites in Jeremiah 7:21-24, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.  For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.  But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’  Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.”  God called it an evil heart. Evil heart belongs to wicked.
The word of God is true and alive. Take to the word of God and it will see you through in the journey of life. In the journey of life is to avoid counsels and dictates from the evil heart as mentioned by God.
Evil heart or wicked heart only leads to the wrong way. The word God says the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9)
Why should a God-fearing person want to keep going back to the evil heart for counsels and dictates? Going back and away from God will lead to the wrong way. From today, begin to take your counsels to the Lord in prayer; He alone is the living God.
Avoid the wrong way by taking the right way.
In your journeying of life, allow God to guide and lead you through.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s instruction, His leading, and His guidance to be your way.

FAITH CAPSULE: Obedience and thanksgiving before God is a combination that provokes miracle of God.

John 11:17-57

With obedience and thanksgiving to God’s word having lack will be turned to abundance.
At the feeding of 5,000, Jesus asked His disciples not to let the people go away with an empty stomach. It was a desert with no provision to meet the need of the people. Jesus attempted to meet the need of the people by asking in John 6:5, “Jesus asked Philip, where shall we buy bread that these may eat?” Jesus’ disciples informed Him that a lad has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?
Are you speculating how your pressing needs shall be met?
Are you at a juncture of life experiencing a representative of desert life, with challenges of meeting your need?
It is important to gain understanding and knowledge in the word of God that there is always possibility out of impossibility.
Jesus responded to Philip’s answer to the lack of bread for the people at the desert as stated in John 6:10-11, “Then Jesus said, make the people sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So, the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.”
The people obeyed to the command of Jesus which called for them to sit down. There was obedience in the people’s response, and there was a thanksgiving offering unto the Lord for the little (five barley and two small fish) which became abundance. The people’s obedience and thanks were offered to God which provoked God’s provision of abundance for the people.
The combination of obedience and thanksgiving brought Lazarus out of the grave of life. John 11:41-44 documents clearly demonstration of obedience to God’s command and thanksgiving:  Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead man was lying. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!” 44 And he who had died came out bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Loose him, and let him go.”
At Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus’s command for the stone to be removed was faithfully engaged and Jesus’ thanksgiving replaced death with life.
Engage full obedience, extend a hearty thanksgiving concerning every area of your challenge to provoke the extension of God’s hand over your challenging life.

Prayer for today: Ask God to become your reason for obedience and thanksgiving all times.

FAITH CAPSULE:

1 Samuel 17

With understanding and knowledge, boasting about God is glorifying God.
Who are you boasting about besides God?
Are you boasting about your strength?
In your boasting, allow God to be your strength.
David was a shepherd boy with an assignment to be caring for sheep when he killed a lion and bear by his strength and his might to deliver sheep in his care. Despite David’s strength and his might, he did not boast in himself, but he identified God as his strength and might to boast in God. Are you bosting about your strength?
With David’s boast in God, he confronted Goliath at his war of Philistines against the Israelites.
At the time of war between the Israelites and Philistines, Goliath repeatedly despised the Israelites and their God but David boasted in God to convince Saul for his permission to fight against Goliath. David stated before King Saul: “Your servant has killed both lion and bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he has defied the armies of the living God. Moreover, David said, “The Lord, who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear, He will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said to David, “Go, and the Lord be with you!” (1 Samuel 17:36-37)
David’s boast in the Lord did not allow him to boast in his strength.
David’s boast in God was the evidence of why he was able to kill a lion and bear by his hand.
David’s boast in God is the testimony of David’s attention for God over his life.
One that gives attention to God will provoke God’s attention for one.
Against Goliath, David’s weapon was not of man but was the hand of God.
What is your boast about in life?
Among the things man boasts about consciously or consciously in life are their wisdom or riches. What to boast or what not to boast is stated in Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these, I delight,”
In life, getting understanding and know that God matters the most.
In life, not boasting about God testifies not having an understanding or knowing God. Making your boast in God is a way of glorifying God with praise. To be acknowledging God is praising God. Psalm 50:23 buttress, “Whoever offers praise glorifies Me; and to him who orders his conduct aright I will show the salvation of God.” Allow boasting God to become your way of life.

Prayer for today: Ask that God will enable you to be boasting Him.