FAITH CAPSULE: Daniel’s purpose in the heart set him for great exploits in life.

Daniel 1

Here are some scriptural verses of what the bible has to say about the heart:
Psalm 44:21, “…God knows the secret of the heart.”
“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
“The spirit of a man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the inner depths of his heart.” (Proverbs 20:27)
Ecclesiastes 8:11 stated, “Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.”
The bible identifies the fool, in Psalm 14:1, “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God…”

What is it about your heart?
The bible recorded, “As in water face reflects face, so a man’s heart reveals the man.”(Proverbs 27:19) It was heart that revealed Nehemiah to God as God’s eye travels. (2 Chronicle 16:9)

One thing was clear about Nehemiah: he had the concern for Jerusalem’s welfare and its inhabitants at heart. Nehemiah, a cup bearer with big heart desired a better life for his brethren. If a cup bearer could provoke great change, all of us that are having life should be able to do the same. God saw Nehemiah’s heart and He acknowledged him. God in His awesomeness invested in him as a vessel for reconstructing the broken wall of Jerusalem. The report of what was going on in Jerusalem caused a burden in Nehemiah’s heart and he began to intercede on behalf of the land and his people. The bible recorded in Nehemiah 1:3-4, “And they said to me, ‘The survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.’ So it was, when I heard these words that I sat down and wept, and mourned for many days; I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah poured out his heart in prayer on behalf of his people and his homeland. He asked for nothing that had to do with himself, but rather petitioned for things that had to do with a better life for his people. God is a God whose eyes are always traveling to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong. (2 Chronicle 16:9) Nehemiah’s heart was in line with what God was looking for. Is your heart self-centered?
Bible recorded about Daniel in Daniel 1:8, “Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.” He was able to purpose in his heart for God’s sake and he lived to do great exploit (Daniel 11:32) because of his heart activity. Daniel’s heart set him for great exploits in life.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to set your heart right before God all the days of your life.

FAITH CAPSULE: He is the God that remembers to favor and God that visits with salvation.

1 Samuel 3

A psalm of David stated, “When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? (Psalm 8:3-4) Are you consciously seeking Him with the knowledge that He is God that is mindful of you? Do you know Him as a God that visit? The psalmist requested in Psalm 104:6 “Remember me, O Lord, with the favor You have toward Your people. Oh, visit me with Your salvation.” The verse above testifies to the truth that God is indeed a caring God that remembers and visits His own. Are you consciously expecting His visitation when need calls for it? Any believer that is not consciously waiting to hear from God does not recognized God as a caring father who visits His children.

At a point in time in Shiloh when Eli was the priest, we are made to understand that, “…the word of Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” (1 Samuel 3:1) The word of God is His presence; God’s communication is His revelation and where there is no revelation, transformation ceases. The journey of life without transformation will lead to termination.

It is only the one who has the understanding for the need of God’s revelation that will consciously seek after His revelation. How is your revelation experience? Revelation from God will bring forth deliverance and salvation will reign. The situation of no revelation in Shiloh called for the return of God. The Lord’s return is His appearance and it took the coming to life of Samuel for revelation to come back to Shiloh. It is written, “Then the LORD appeared again in Shiloh.For the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD (1 Samuel 3:21). God, who appeared again in Shiloh, will also appear again to visit you if you have lost contact with Him. He is the same yesterday and today. Obviously, where His word becomes rare, widespread revelation will cease. He is a faithful God! Call on Him and state your request to Him. The Psalmist wanted Him to remember and to visit him because when God remembers or visits, one will be enabled to see the benefit of His chosen ones. When God remembers or visit one will be able to rejoice in the gladness of His nation and will be able to glory with His inheritance. (Psalm 106:5) God is forever consistent. He is God that returns to reveal. He is the God that remembers to favor and God that visits with salvation.

Prayer for today: Ask God to remember you and to visit you in all your going and coming.

FAITH CAPSULE: They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you.

Jeremiah 1

Accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and savior is not without challenges. As a matter of fact, it should never be an understatement or over statement to state that, challenges do not stop from following Christ followers. Believing God and answering to His calling will draw the enemy’s attention. However, the challenges of the world today are not enough to tag life as difficult. As a believer that knows Jesus as Lord and savior, confessing that living life is difficult is a wrong and a negative confession.

God spoke to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5) It was God that called Jeremiah not man. Being called by God is not an evidence to be free from encountering challenges but an assurance that challenges shall not prevail and the called shall overcome. Despite the truth that Jeremiah was called by God, God spoke to him that “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) Among challenges is the enemy’s fight against man. However, God promised that He shall never forsake the called in time of challenging confrontation.

As a believer it is worthy to begin to see and engage life challenges through the lens of faith. Know it that life can be challenging, but the grace to overcome the challenges of life shall not cease from causing one to prevail over confronting challenges. Jesus is the way to live life and to live it abundantly; Jesus is the way to live life and to live it with challenges that will not overtake one. It is time to come out of religion into Christ reality; it is time to begin to attend to the word of God in full obedience. Take a step of faith into the living Word of God that stated, “I am the door, if anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”(John 10:9) Jesus is true to His word; there is no race requirement or color qualification to enter into Him. Why not try and enter through Him? Anyone with the claim of having entered through Jesus as the door should not allow challenges to dictate how to live life. As a believer, allow your time of challenging confrontation become your time of continual confession. He is faithful to deliver and cause man to prevail over confronting challenge.

Prayer for today: Ask for help against life consuming confrontation that sets against man.

FAITH CAPSULE: Can you tell if and when your oil is running out?

Matthew 25:1-13, Luke 22:39-46

Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins depicts two different kind of believer that are waiting for waiting. Matthew 25:1-5, “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.”
The ten virgins were all purposeful in their agenda. They all went out to meet the bridegroom. Having gone that far in their pursuit for an encounter with the bridegroom, sleeping should have been avoided by getting busy in their waiting and watching. They fell asleep and foolishness became their identity.

How are you waiting? Can you tell if and when your oil is running out? You have come too far in this journey to begin to entertain foolishness. How would you have known that your oil is running out when you are asleep and not awake?
A believer that is on ground of prayer and goes down away from prayer into sleeping is having a sorrow sleep. Disciples of Jesus were on prayer ground at Gethsemane, when they were asked by Jesus to pray so that they would not enter into temptation (Luke 22:40). They all slept and could not hold on in prayer. Jesus came back and found them sleeping. He then questioned them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46)

Are you awake? The only way to avoid temptation is to be awake in the Lord. Is rest assured that the trumpet is going to sound and Jesus will return sooner than expected? When the bridegroom’s return sounded for the Ten Virgins at midnight, the Bible stated, “Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’  But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with Him to the wedding; and the door was short.” (Matthew 25:7-10) They all slept, and they all arose to meet Him. No one shall escape from seeing Him but not all will enter in with Him. Are you waiting or sleeping a foolish sleep? (That is living a life that demonstrates there is no God…Foolish says that there is no God.) The bible declared, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. (Matthew 25:13) Watch in your waiting.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to increase your to increase in it takes to wait on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Waiting on God is waiting on His word which cannot be broken.

Judges 16

It is written, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.  And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”  Without doubt, the word of God is God.
The word of God is the command of God; His word is His wisdom; His word is His strength and in His word there is life to live abundantly. Paul the apostle, by virtue of his encounter with the word admonished us in Acts 20:32, “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.”  One that is not spending time in the word is spending time in the world. Not spending time in the word of God is the evidence of inability to keep His command. Also, not spending time in the word of God is to be living life carelessly. Proverbs 19:16 buttressed, “He who keeps the commandment keeps his soul, But he who is careless of his ways will die.”  Samson could not keep the commands of God when he allowed Delilah to violate God’s command over his life. He was careless and he died. (Judges 16) Saul could not wait for seven days and he went and violated the command of God which does not allow kings to carry out burnt offering. (1 Samuel 13)

The word of God (command of God) cannot be emphasized enough; it is consistent across the pages of the bible to reflect over the life of man in the journey of life. Proverbs 6:23, “For the commandment of God is a lamp and the law is a light; reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”
Are you waiting on God? Waiting on God is waiting on His word which cannot be broken. How do you wait on God?
Spending time on His word and going to church counts as waiting. God is faithful to answer to those whose waiting is a reasonable sacrifice. Isaiah testified to what is at stake for those who wait on God when he stated, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who wait for Him” (Isaiah 64:4) Wait on Him according to His word (command) that will keep you and position you not to miss Him when He comes back unexpectedly.

Prayer for today: Ask for the grace to be spending time on His word.