FAITH CAPSULE: Challenges comes with answering to God’s calling.

2 Timothy 2

It is written, “You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier.” (2 Timothy 2:3-4) As a believer that is called by God for heaven’s assignment, the called one shall answer as a soldier of Jesus with no escape from challenges. It is not an error to call challenges, hardship or affliction as identity of a believer who walks in line with God. Challenges comes with answering to God’s calling, but it is certain that called shall become an overcomer by focusing on God the only Caller of man. However, no matter how challenges persist, believers indeed and in truth shall never be in line to fail, fall or falter. God who calls man is more than able to keep and deliver those that are called. This is not to say a believer should go out and begin to look for troubling challenges where there is none. Without doubt, it is for a believer to know and be encouraged that the challenge of today is nothing above God who is above.
Jeremiah is one of God called but challenges were not separated from his calling. God called Jeremiah for a divine assignment and warned Jeremiah, “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the Lord, “to deliver you.””(Jeremiah 1:19) By God’s warning for Jeremiah, God’s calling does not give immunity against the fight of wicked ones (challenges). When God calls there will be fighting to put up against the enemy. However, those that are truly called shall never be defeated by the enemy.
Has he called you and challenges have been roughing you in your journey of life? The remarkable thing is that God is God and He will always have His way. God could have called Jeremiah for a challenge or trouble-free assignment, but He chooses not to. God is the same God yesterday, today and forever. Same God that backed Jeremiah up against all which fought against Jeremiah is certain to back you up. Challenges, afflictions and hardship are always going to show when God calls but the called ones should know that many are the afflictions of the righteous in the journey of life, but God shall deliver in all. (Psalm 34:19)
In life, it is not enough to answer God’s calling but fail to finish the assignment of calling. Certainly, know that you are called by God not by man. In your knowing, gain understanding that, “He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:24) Challenges will come, and you shall be delivered.

Prayer for today: Ask for God’s grace to enable your calling by God.

FAITH CAPSULE: Ones that keep the testimonies of God live by the ways of God.

Jonah 1

It is written, “He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel.” (Psalm 103:7) The ways of God are in the word of God. The words of God are the acts of God while His acts are His direction and His testimonies. Living life in the word of God is living in the ways of God. Also living in the acts of God is living by keeping the testimonies of God. Man should never live life in assumptions that seems right. The bible stated, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12) Are you allowing assumptions to take you for ride in the journey of life?
Just like Moses, those that walk in the ways of God walks in His law and they are blessed. Psalm119:1 buttressed, “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord!” Ones that keep the testimonies of God live by the ways of God and they are blessed. Psalm 119:2 also buttressed, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart.” The word of God cannot be broken. Get to know His way, keep His acts that are His testimonies to enable you to seek Him diligently. For those who seek Him diligently, the word of God promised, “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me.” (Proverbs 8:17) “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6) As an acclaimed believer, embrace His ways and meditate His acts to become a diligent seeker of the Lord God.
Are you answering to your calling? When the Lord calls you, is rest assured that, God does not call anyone to hide. Those that hide are those who turn their back to Him. Those that hide are those who walk away from His presence.
It is time to answer fully to the word (way) of God and not turn to your way. Jonah turned to his way despite hearing from God and the presence of God deserted Him. It is written, “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…” (Jonah 1:1-3) God has made His ways and acts known to us and it is for us to engage it and have testimonies for His glory.

Prayer for today: Ask God for His grace to constantly turn you and return you to God.

Faithful Capsule: It is good to be comfortable but not to substitute God’s promise.

Numbers 32

Giving self to world’s comfort over giving self for commitment to God will deny or derail man from God’s plan. In the journey of life, desire for living comfortable is encased in commitment to God. However, when man make the choice of world comfort ahead of commitment to God’s direction in the journey of life, one is set not to arrive at the center of God’s divine agenda. God, in His goodness and mercy brought the children of Israel out of the bondage of over four hundred years with plan to settle them in the Promised Land. It is written, “So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.” (Exodus 3:8) God wanted to place the Israelites from bondage to abundance when He promised them a land which flows with milk and honey. In the place of giving self to commitment of God’s promise, the children of Gad and of Reuben turned to comfort at the East of Jordan. The children of Gad and of Reuben had a very great multitude of livestock and that prompted a request for a settlement in the East of Jordan which was a place for livestock, a place limited to milk not milk and honey as promised by God.
Children of Gad and of Reuben’s lack of understanding of God’s plan prompted choice to wander from the way of God’s promise for land that flows with milk and honey. Are you attempting to wander from the way of understanding gained from the word of God? Proverbs 21:16 admonished, “A man who wanders from the way of understanding will rest in the assembly of the dead.”
The children of Gad and the children of Reuben approached Moses and stated their desire, “…the country which the LORD defeated before the congregation of Israel,is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock.’ Therefore they said, ‘If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan.’” (Numbers 32:4-5) It is clear that where there is livestock milk will flow, but not honey. God promised a land flowing with milk and honey, but the children of Gad and of Reuben attempted to settle for their own comfort land. The land which flowed with milk was a comfortable choice over milk and honey. It is good to be comfortable but not at the expense of God’s command which demands our commitment. Placing our comfort above God’s command is a direct avenue to becoming insensitive to the move of the Spirit of God. Spiritual insensitivity will reduce and not increase a believer. Are you operating the mind of the children of Gad and Reuben as you engage your journey to the Promised Land? Disallow comfort from clouding your commitment to God’s command.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from lack of understanding commitment to God’s promise for your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: what are you giving back to God?

Genesis 22

God the perfect creator is a true giver. King David’s testimony of God as a true giver stated, “What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him?” (Psalm 8:4) By virtue of David testimony, evidently, God loves us. In God’s love is God’s giving to man. God gave us is beloved One for our salvation stating, “And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”” (Matthew 3:17) In other places, Jesus, the beloved is identified as the gift of God. Romans 5:18, recorded, “…even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.” Jesus is the indescribable gift of God to man.
To God the good giver, what are you giving back to God?
What is it that you are set to get rid but turn to as gift for God? It can be a wrong gift! God deserves our best as gift and giving self to God for His glory is a worthy gift. Think of it, can a door be opened with a finger? When a man is giving gift to God with one finger instead of a whole hand (whole heart) the chances to an open door is limited. Giving gift to God with a finger is like giving without the whole heart. God is the giver of all and He alone can take all away. It is more than worthy to always give back to God with all heart. Man must understand and know to always give to God in His name and not in any man’s name.  Are you giving back to God by mouth or giving to Him by Heart? Answer to the question will no doubt determine believer’s journey on earth. Abraham’s gave to God with his whole heart which is the evidence of his love for God.
God called Abraham to deliver a sacrificial offering, “Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “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 22:1-2) Without hesitation, Abraham delivered his offering to God. Abraham’s obedience allowed Abraham to have an open door of communication from above.
Offering delivered gift without hesitation is the evidence of cheerful giving to God.
In all your giving, give back to God cheerfully.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace of giving cheerfully in all of your giving.

FAITH CAPSULE: When God remembers, He also rescues.

Psalm 34

God alone but not man is in position to deliver man in all challenges. Regardless of world challenges or affliction it is worthy to give self to trust and hope in God. Psalm 34:19 encouraged, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Indeed, with trust and hope in God, captivity will not captivate man. Jehoiachin had been in captivity for thirty-seven years when God raised his head and brought him out of captivity. “Now it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, that Evil-Merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison.” (Jeremiah 52:31) God used Evil-Merodach, the king of Babylon and son of Nebuchadnezzar, to lift up the head of Jehoiachin. It is man that God will empower to carry out His deliverance agenda in man’s challenges. Evil-Merodach was in the hand of God to lift the head of Jehoiachin. When God remembers, He also rescues. Having used Evil-Merodach to rescue Jehoiachin, God in His awesome power changed the garment of Jehoiachin from garment of prison to garment of God’s preserved. From being fed with prison food he began to be eating regularly before the king all days of his life. God is true to perform and He performs to perfect.
There is nothing which God is incapable of doing and His capability has no measure. It is the same God that visited Daniel in the den of hungry lions. The same God delivered Peter from the sudden death of Herod. God’s divine intervention broke the chain of prison over the life of Paul and Silas. Are you waiting on God by praying with understand? Concerning your challenge, it is not time to stop waiting on God prayerfully. God is a prayer-answering God. With understanding, know and make it a note in your heart that the One and only capable God brought out the Israelites out of the bondage of over four hundred years is more than able to silent your challenges. God is perfect to perform miracle in the place of mockery.
There is none like God, He makes a way where there is no way and He alone reverse the irreversible. God’s name is not share-able by any god. Hallow Him, adore Him as the King of kings; the Lord of lords. King David testified, “The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood, and the Lord sits as King forever.” (Psalm 29:10)
Prayer for today: Ask God for His divine intervention in all areas of challenges.