FAITH CAPSULE: Be joyful and be thankful in the Lord.

Job 1   

Rejoicing in the Lord is the evidence of one that knows to give thanks in all things for all things. Ephesians 5:20 stated, “Giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Do you know to give thanks enough to be accessible the presence of God? Be thankful and be joyful in the Lord.

It is written, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4)  Psalm 9:2, “I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to your name, O most High.” Psalm 16:11, “In Your presence is fullness of joy…” Proverbs 8:30, “…I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.” The scriptural verses testified that without joy God is not is accessible. Apostle Paul stated well, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) Apostle Paul’s call for joy was expressed with simplicity, emphasis and with a shout!
In every meeting with God, all His children must go before the Him with joy. By this virtue, coming before God is celebrating in joy with evidence of thankful heart.
Let it be clear that the evil one never shy away from where there is joy in his agenda to convert joy to sadness. Also let it be aware that our calling is to maintain our joy regardless of challenges. As regard to Job, the book of Job 1:6-7 recorded, “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come?” So Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” (Job 1:6-7) Satan’s interruption was and is always with bad intention. He is empowered to go to and fro looking for one to devour. Satan initiated pain for Job where the sons of God are gathering in His presence. It is written in Job 1:11-12, “But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!” And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.”” Can you imagine how the wicked one, at his coming out of the place of joy delivered every form of affliction on Job.
In between and through it all, Job did not complain nor did he condemn God. Job cried to God and he eventually received more blessings after his time of testing, than when he first started to enjoy the blessings of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace of rejoicing in the Lord and to know giving thanks in all things for all things.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not to stifle your cry unto God when you find the agent of bondage right behind you.

Exodus 14, Luke 4:1-13

Satan tempted Jesus at a time when He was filled with the Holy Spirit; at a time He waited in fasting. Satan is brutal in his attempt to bring man down. He tempted Jesus with every temptation. The Bible recorded, “Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.” (Luke 4:13) The point here is that Satan is persistently stubborn in his attempt to bring man down. Satan will always return or wait for chance to present itself in his attempt to strike.
Pharaoh operated as a vessel, an agent of Satan in his attempt to deny God’s timing of freedom for the children of Israel from the bondage of over four hundred years.
Despite all the miracles and the demonstration of God’s hand before the eyes of Pharaoh and his people, he would not release the children of Israel to a permanent freedom. Pharaoh let the children of Israel go because of the heaviness of God’s hand upon their lives and their land. After releasing the Israelites, the Egyptians turned around and began to pursue them.
After all the years that God had brought you out of all that represented Egypt, Egypt has not taken a step back behind you; Egypt is still pursuing you just as it pursued the children of Israel. The agent of Egypt (house of bondage) is closely behind you in an attempt to terminate the calling and divine schedule of God in your life. For the children of Israel, Pharaoh pursued them. He would not let go; he wanted to take them back as slaves. Are you in that situation? Do not to stifle your cry unto God when you find the agent of bondage right behind you. The children of Israel cried, and God heard. Joshua 24:6-7, “So they cried out to the Lord; and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, brought the sea upon them, and covered them. And your eyes saw what I did in Egypt. Then you dwelt in the wilderness a long time.” All year long, the agenda of the wicked remains persistent attempting to bring you down just like Pharaoh did against the children of Israel.
If you will remain persistent in lifting your voice in your cry to God, God will act on your behalf. God will put darkness between you and all that Egypt represents; the bondage of spiritual stagnation, sickness, financial hardship, and marriage problems, which are keeping you from total freedom. The sea will come upon them not only to get them wet, but to cover them so that Egypt will not rise again concerning all that touches you. It is not the time to give up but a time to remain persistently focus on God for total deliverance.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to remain persistent focusing on God.

FAITH CAPSULE: With wisdom and knowledge comes increase in grace and peace.

2 Peter 1

The Bible records that after God had created sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind and every winged bird according to its kind, “…God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”” (Genesis 1:22-23) God pronounced the first blessing and it was a blessing of multiplication. Clearly, God is the God of multiplication. He is the God that desires to see progress in the work of His hand. Also, He is not a stagnant God; He is a God of increase. Evidently increasing must be His character. Simon Peter’s greeting in the book of 2Peter 1:2 states, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.” (2 Peter1:2) Peter must have been praying with understanding that was rooted in the fact that multiplication is a significant part of God. The prayer of Peter points to the truth that grace and peace also needs to be multiplied in us in the knowledge of God and of Jesus. With the increase of knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and Savior in us, there will be multiplication of grace and peace. Without the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord and Savior, one is bound to be stagnant and not increase in grace and peace. In these days of wearing challenges that keeps man from gaining the knowledge of God there is obvious need for wisdom and knowledge to increase in one’s life.

The importance of wisdom and knowledge: Isaiah 33:6 states, “Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, and the strength of salvation; the fear of the LORD is His treasure.” Spending time in the living word of God is gaining increase in the wisdom and knowledge which is the source of stability in the unstable times we are in the world. With stability comes increase of grace and peace of God. It is worth to desire gaining or finding the knowledge of God that brings forth increase in grace and peace in these days of challenges where all kinds of wickedness reign.
The Word of God also points out, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Proverb 9:10) The Word of God is the wisdom that we need to incline our ear to. When we begin to increase in the hearing and hearing of the Word of God, understanding the fear of God will undoubtedly increase and it will lead to gaining the knowledge of God. With wisdom and knowledge comes increase in grace and peace.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the increase in grace and peace. Also pray for His Word to have its place in your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is awesomely awesome.

Luke 2:1-14, 1 Corinthians 1:18-21

It is written “Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:20-25) Paying attention to the references of foolishness is enough to activate fear as regard to how God works. It is easy to consider it foolish that among the various vocations that were in existence at the time of Jesus’ birth, God used shepherds as His messengers. When the announcement of the birth of Christ came, the shepherds in the fields were not only qualified but were also in just the right locations. There was no millionaire in place; no prophet in place and neither was there any doctor in place but shepherds were some of the first ones to see the Christ child. It is written, “Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2:8)
In their watching day and night, God visited them with the assignment that made them a part of the story of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The shepherds were taking their professions seriously and God took them seriously; He gave them a very important assignment which would be recognized by all people for all time. In your waiting and watching are you serious and committed or you are operating in convenience? When He comes back again, He will not come as a baby born in a manger. It does not matter what you do for a living; but it matters how you live for the Lord in all that you do. God is very much interested working with committed ones. Live for God and He will assign you for His name to be glorified. In your living for the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation and continue steadfastly in prayer (Romans 12:12). Truly, the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” (1 Corinthians 1:25) God is awesomely awesome.

Prayer for today: Ask God to take over your days and moments that you become concentrated only on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: God remains consistent overseeing and overriding the affairs of man.

Daniel 1

It is written, “…Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!” (Revelation 19:1) Thank God for God. He alone answers to His entire gracious and powerful name. He was God yesterday, today and tomorrow. God is not an author of evil but the evil one himself is the author of evil. The evil one has what it takes to operate as the author of evil but he does not have what it takes to execute any of his evil acts outside of the Almighty God. Job’s situation testifies to the truth that every of the evil one’s act is not without God’s knowing about it. The evil one could only strike at Job after asking and getting permission from God. It was not a permission to kill him but a permission to afflict Job. God testified, “…There is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8) Despite God’s testimony about Job, affliction could not avoid Job but visited him. Affliction visited because the evil one was permitted by God. Thank God for God. His word states, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19) The word of God is true to perform.
It is written, “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with some of the articles of the house of God, which he carried into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.” (Daniel 1:1-2) The point here states that, “…The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.” Imagine the king of Judah becoming a captive in the hand of evil king. Evidently, God remains consistent overseeing and overriding the affairs of man. The fall of Jerusalem led to the captivity of Daniel and his three friends. The request of the evil one led to Job’s affliction. Whatever is not going the way of your choice is not an evidence of wrong doing on your part and it is not to take your attention away from God. Keep hope and stay focus on God. God is sovereign in all affairs around you and outside of you. Daniel in the midst of all did not digress neither did he defile his God. Above all, Daniel remained purposeful to the glory of God. Also Job refused to curse his God as suggested by his wife (Job 2:9) God of Daniel and Job will glorify His name in your entire endeavor if you will not digress or defile Him. Thank God for God.

Prayer for today: Ask this day for the grace that enables one to remain focus and purposeful.