FAITH CAPSULE: To fear God, to love God is rooted in faith.

Psalm 139

Through the Bible, it is clear that to FEAR God is to LOVE God. One that fears God is one that loves God. God treasures it when one fears Him. (Isaiah 33:6) What does God want from all? Deuteronomy 10:12 identified God’s requirement from all: “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” To fear God is to love God. Any man without the fear of God does not love God to follow God and to seek God diligently. Seeking God diligently is to seek Him with all heart and with all soul to walk His ways. God’s word spoke to the Israelites, what He said speaks to all man saying, “They shall be My people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.”(Jeremiah 32:38-40) For all man’s goodness, God wants all to fear Him.
God is a good God. It is a must to fear God to live life for His glory
Fear God, love God to be obedient to His word. 1 Samuel 12:14 admonished, “If you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.” Allow the fear of God to reign and rule your life. To fear God, to love God is rooted in faith. Do you have faith? Faith comes by hearing and hearing by God’s word (Romans 10:17) if you do not have faith it is not possible to fear or love God.
Are you having faith, or you are one that is faithful?
One’s claim to know about faith does not make one faithful, it is one that knows faith that makes one faithful.
Pray with a desire to be what God calls all man to be when He made you.
What did God make us be for Him? Psalm 139:14 of David testified what God made all to be: “I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well.”
If you are faithful you will be FEARFUL to live life answering as fearfully creation of God.
Be faithful with fear and love to live as fearfully and wonderfully creation of God. Fear God and love God to seek God diligently, to seek Him with all heart and with all soul to walk His ways. Today, come out of self-deception pay attention by listening to the word of God. Live life for God’s glory!

Prayer for today: Ask God that your faith will not fail.

FAITH CASPULE: In this wicked world, listen to God’s word to seek Him diligently
TO SEEK GOD DILIGENTLY is by giving self to KEEPING HIS TESTIMONIES
Deuteronomy 6:17 buttressed, “You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, His testimonies, and His statutes which He has commanded you.”
All man should be giving self to God’s testimonies to be blessed by God just like David was blessed.
Give self to God’s testimonies to gain His attention and be blessed as promised in Psalm 119:2, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!”
In the time David’s challenge of Goliath, his testimonies of God provoked the blessing of God which answered with a victory for David. 1 Samuel 17:45-47 documented, “Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.
To SEEK GOD DILIGENTLY is to declare but not to deny Him as God.
In life, regardless of the challenge, do not deny God but declare His as your God. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego the three friends of Daniel declared God as a God of deliverance. The three friends could not deny serving God but rejected not to serve gods or worship the gold image of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar, with anger, threatened to send the three friends of Daniel into burning fiery fire. The three friends responded to Nebuchadnezzar’s threat: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18) In the burning fiery furnace, the salvation of God answered for Daniel’s friend for their deliverance. Declaring God is seeking God diligently to be delivered and not to become a victim of evil agenda.
In this wicked world, listen to God’s word to be able to understand that wisdom and knowledge in the word of God is a key to live life for the glory of God. Isaiah 33:6 said it all, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times and the strength of salvation; The fear of the Lord is His treasure.” Do not take God for granted, seek Him diligently in His word, worship God and not worry.

Prayer for today: Ask God that is able to enable you seeking Him diligently.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you taking God for granted in God’s gift of life for you?

Genesis 22, Luke 5:1-11

Know, understand and be mindful of the truth that all are created by God for all to be living life for His glory. Revelations 4:11 declared, “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; For You created all things, And by Your will, they exist and were created.” When a man is not living life for the glory of God, is taking God for granted. Are you with excuses or delaying answering to God’s calling? In your service to God, are you pleasing self but displeasing God? Take note that calling God a long-suffering God is not a license for any man not to be living life for the glory of God.
Live life for God by lifting your hands as submission should be with the expectation reaching God. Continually living life for God is to remain connected with God.
God is a good God that is worth for all man to be living life for His glory.
Seeking God diligently with all heart and with all soul is to find Him. Deuteronomy 4:29 said it to us, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
What do we do to live life for God when seeking God diligently instead of taking God for granted?
TO SEEK GOD DILIGENTLY is obedience to HIS WORD
Exodus 19:5 recorded, “Now, therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine.”  The Bible spoke in the Old Testament for the Israelites’ obedience to God. Also, in the New Testament, demonstration of obedience by disciples of Jesus’ living life for the glory of God. Luke 5:4-6 records, “When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch. But Simon answered and said to Him, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless, at Your word I will let down the net.” And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking.” Obedience is seeking God to live for His glory. Disciples of Jesus obeyed Jesus to live life for God as a fisher of man.
TO SEEKING GOD DILIGENTLY is fear God not to hold self from God’s word.
Abraham lived life for God’s glory. Abraham could not withhold from God’s request but did as commanded by God. God recognized Abraham’s obedience to His word and testified in Genesis 22:12, “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.” Abraham could not take God for granted but lived life for God by seeking God with all his heart and soul.

Prayer for today: Ask God to draw away from every agenda for you not to live for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: God’s preference should always prevail over our best reference.

Judges 7

Jerubbaal (Gideon) was camped with his people and set for a confrontational war against the Midianites when God spoke to him, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claim glory for itself against Me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ Now, therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousands of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.” (Judges 7:1-3)
In every battle, there is a need for high numbers of soldiers to emerge victoriously. God sounded to Jerubbaal with instruction for Jerubbaal to reduce the number of soldiers. Without hesitation, the Word of God prevailed as instructed. God’s direction called for the number of soldiers to be reduced by more than half, from twenty-two thousand to ten thousand. The God of battle that does not share His glory with no man called on Jerubbaal after he had cut down the numbers saying, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water, and I will test them for you there…” (Judges 7:4)
If you are Jerubbaal communicating with friends about God’s instruction to reduce your soldiers, how would you react? Jerubbaal’s obedience to reduce the number, without doubt, His friends would have wondered and even considered Jerubbaal as foolish, spiritually insane, overzealous and unrealistic.
Jerubbaal led the people to the water as directed by God with the intention to have the number reduced the second time. At the water, God spoke again, “Everyone who laps from the water with his tongue, as a dog laps, you shall set apart by himself; likewise everyone who gets down on his knees to drink.” And the number of those who lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, was three hundred men; but all the rest of the people got down on their knees to drink water.” (Judges 7: 5-6). In going against the Midianites, one that considers assigning men that lapped from water over ones that got on their knees to drink water would have been considered foolish.
At all times, regardless of how foolish it sounds, God’s preference should always prevail over our best reference. The number of men to go to battle against the Midianites was eventually cut down to three hundred men from thirty-two thousand; this is foolishness by human reasoning. For any man, it is suicidal to go to war after ending up with such a small number. Thirty thousand seems to be the right way and not the foolish way. Always remember the word of Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man but its end is the way of death.” Jerubbaal did not take the path that seems right, he simply obeyed God’s word without complain nor doubt and went with three hundred men to fight a battle which initially called for thirty-two thousand men.
Are you fighting a battle yet looking to human wisdom to sustain you?
The wisdom of human should not replace God’s wisdom.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s wisdom to reign and rule your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: The enemy of all man is the master of deception.

2 Samuel 11

Enticement is a cunning device of the devil with no respect for any man under heaven.
The agenda of the devil is to engage enticement to bring his victim down into a pit of sin.
Enticement and temptation are same.
Know and not dance to the sound of enticement but remain the focus on the word of God.
One of the weapons of the enemy’s most deadly weapon is “enticement.” To be enticed is to be lured away from the point of focus. The temptation is not sin but falling for temptation will cause a man to sink in sin. King David did not accidentally fell for the sin of sexual immorality which he committed with Bathsheba (Uriah’s wife). It was through seeing (which is the anchor of enticement) that King David entrapped himself into sin. The Bible recorded David’s avenue to sin, “Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” (2 Samuel 11:2) David, at the right place at the wrong time trapped himself with sin. David fell for sin when he saw woman bathing. David could not resist the temptation of sin but went on to inquire about woman belonging to another man. Getting carried away by enticement will lead to a deadly avenue of sinning before God. David was identified as a man after God’s own heart but could not avoid sin.
Are you paying attention to avoid the wrong place not to become a victim of sin against God?
The enemy of all man is the master of deception that has been around long enough to draw one into the sin of destruction.
Jesus had the experience of enemy’s enticement but could not become a failure like the Eve.
Today, be warned and wise to know that if Jesus experienced enticement of the enemy, no man is above cunning enticement of the enemy.
Which of your need is leading you to become a victim of devil’s enticement?
Did the word not promised that my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus? (Philippians 4:19)
Do you believe?
Take to Paul’s admonition as stated in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  Abstain from seeing in the wicked world; take to the Word of God.
Today, open your mouth wide and begin to give Him thanks for all He has done; praise God for entire He is doing and all that He will do. Live life by giving thanks and praise and not become a victim of enemy’s enticement of sin.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of God not to expire over your life to become a victim of the enemy.