FAITH CAPSULE: Approach God or respond to God with specificity or orderliness.

Matthew 6:5-14

Through all the pages of scripture, every of God’s command came with specificity, orderliness and with details. In the days of Noah, when He was going send rain to flood God gave His command, “Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. ¹⁵ And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.” (Genesis 6:14-16) God’s salvation plan for Noah and his family was with clear details. The same way that God gave out a well detailed and clearly specified salvation plan to Noah and his family, we also received our salvation plan from God. God will constantly and consistently expect a full compliance to every detail of His command. Also, when God sends a message through His messenger, He wants the details of His message to be delivered and not more or less than what He requests from His messenger.

After giving Jeremiah the message for His people, He commanded him, “Therefore prepare yourself and arise, and speak to them all that I command you.” (Jeremiah 1:17) God that is consistent in giving commands in details will expect His children to respond and comply obediently in detail. The point here is, God that gives command with specificity and details will also expect us to ask Him with specificity and in details so He can respond to us in full. He is God of order and He does not settle for disorder. Evidently, this must be one of the reasons why the word of God encourages us that, when we ask in prayer, we should avoid repetition. Jesus specifically said in Matthew 6:7, “And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. ”

At every time there is addition to His word, the one that adds to His words becomes exposed to the devil. God gave instruction in the Garden of Eden, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17) When the serpent approached Eve, Eve responded by adding to the command of God, “…Nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” (Genesis 3:3) The word of God cannot be reduced neither should it be added to. God is a God of order and you shall approach Him or respond to Him with specificity or orderliness.

Prayer for Today: Ask God to help you in responding to all of His instruction and teaching in the way you should go.

FAITH CAPSULE: Horrible pit is a place of pain, deprivation, and aggravation.

Exodus 3:1-10

It is written, “And the LORD said: “I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. 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. Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has come to Me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them.” (Exodus 3:7-9) Taskmasters represented horrible pit in the life of the Israelites while they were in Egypt. Horrible pit is not a beautiful place to be; it is an unpleasant location. Horrible pit is a place of pain, deprivation, and aggravation. In your life are you experiencing a though time, a challenging time under any taskmaster? Horrible pit is not a place for a believer to be quiet but to cry out unto God. To be quiet in the place of horrible pit is to have shut one’s door of deliverance. The children of Israel opened up their door to deliverance when they lifted up their voice and cried to the Lord. Psalm 81:10 buttress, “I am the Lord your God, Who brought you out of the land of Egypt; Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

The crying out of the Israelites Israel did not find a deaf ear because the Lord inclined His ear to their cry and extended His hand of deliverance through His servant Moses.  Just as the children of Israel were in the horrible pit and were able to receive deliverance, so was King David in the horrible pit. King David also cried to the Lord God for his deliverance. King David testified, “I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps.” (Psalm 40:1-2) Crying is not a sign of weakness and tears running down are not always a demonstration of crying. God heard King David’s cry and he was brought out of the miry clay. Miry clay is an indication that the horrible pit could also be a place of stagnation constant falling, a place where stability is absent in man’s life. Is your world represent a horrible pit, evidently it is time to get on your knees in waiting by crying out loud. God in His goodness and mercy shall not deny your deliverance. He is a faithful God.

Prayer for today: Cry out and ask for the outstretch hand of God for your deliverance.

FAITH CAPSULE: Serve God with commitment not at owns convenience.

Exodus 3:13-22

God called on Moses to go as a messenger of deliverance to the children of Israel. The command to bring them out is for them to come out of bondage and serve God. Exodus 3:18 stated, “Then they will heed your voice; and you shall come, you and the elders of Israel, to the king of Egypt; and you shall say to him, ‘The LORD God of the Hebrews has met with us; and now, please, let us go three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’” Serving God is a sacrifice. It is sacrifice to serve God. All through the encounters of Moses with Pharaoh was a striking message of letting the people go and serve (sacrifice) God. By the hand of God through Moses the children of Israel were brought out of bondage of over four hundred years. Like the children of Israel, believers today have been brought out of the bondage of sin and iniquities by the blood of Jesus Christ. Each and every believer is to live a life of serving God that is serving God reasonably. The grace of salvation is to enable believers to be consistent in walking with God.

God is a God with good plans for His children who will serve Him in all of their walks. As a believer, you have not been redeemed to serve or sacrifice to the god of this world. The children of Israel eventually gained freedom from the house of bondage (Egypt), but they entered into self-bondage in their journey. They failed in their service and could not pass unto the promise of God. How are you living a life of sacrifice? It is not enough that you have come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus. You also need to begin to live a life of sacrifice, serving the Lord God. Serving God should always be with commitment not at man’s own convenience.

In serving God, a high standard of a reasonable service should be in place. Those who serve Him reasonably seek Him diligently because seeking Him diligently is the evidence of a faithful believer. God attends to those who seek Him diligently with reward. Hebrews 11:6 buttress, “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.” As a believer, turn yourself right unto God with reasonable sacrifices that cost you and He will return unto you with a priceless blessing.

Prayer for today: Ask the Lord God, the enabler of man to enable you answering to a reasonable service.

FAITH CAPSULE: Doing what is good wrongly in the name of God is an error.

2 Samuel 6

Error is a deviation from accuracy as in mistake, as in action or speech. Error is the condition of believing what is not true. Error is a moral offense; wrongdoing; sin. It is an error to violate the word of God and it can be a conscious or unconscious error before God. Error is despising the word of God. The bible makes us to realize it that, “He who despises the word will be destroyed…” (Proverbs 13:13)
Have you in any way violated or currently violating the word of God? (I pray that the grace of God will open your eyes to avoid or come out of conscious or unconscious error.) Before God, there is no excuse for error.
Before God, Adam and Eve committed error by believing the serpent enough to eat against God’s command not to eat from particular tree in the Garden of Eden. They both violated the word of God by their error (a wrongdoing).

When God showed up (just as He will show up on all man) both Adam and Eve attempted to justify their action before God by stating, “Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Genesis 3:12-13) Their excuses were not enough as they were judged by God. The error committed by Adam and Eve eposes man to numerous pains today.

Doing what is good wrongly (that is engaging the heart with a wrong act) in the name of God is an error with no reasonable excuse to be delivered from destruction. Uzzah engaged his heart with a good act which led to his destruction.

During the transfer of the Ark of God from the house of Abinadab, Uzzah and Ahio drove the cart. In the process of driving the cart Uzzah, out of a good heart committed an act for his life terminating error. Bible recorded his error, “And when they came to Nachon’s threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. ⁷ Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his error; and he died there by the ark of God.’ (Genesis 6:6-7)
The bible called Uzzah’s act of a good heart an error. Uzzah despised the word of God as stated in Numbers 4:15, “And when Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all the furnishings of the sanctuary, when the camp is set to go, then the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them; but they shall not touch any holy thing, lest they die.” Despising the word of God is positioning self for destruction.

Prayer point: Ask for grace not to engage a life terminating error.

FAITH CAPSULE: Your frequent falling into temptation is directly rooted in too much sleep.

Luke 22:39-46

Sleeping and prayer does not correlate. Every believer that is not consistent in prayer should be considered as a sleeper. When a believer, who is at a place and time of prayer, cannot stay awake to pray, it can be regarded as “sorrowful sleeping.” Jesus demanded from His disciples at the Garden of Gethsemane, to stay up and pray. What He said to them still speaks now to us as believers. Luke 22: 39-40, “Coming out, He went to the Mount of Olives, as He was accustomed, and His disciples also followed Him. When He came to the place, He said to them, ‘Pray that you may not enter into temptation.’” Are you a prayer-less or prayer-full believer? If you are indeed a prayer-less believer, you have allowed temptation to become your constant companion. Jesus wants to know why you sleep in place of prayer. While He was busy in prayer, His disciples were busy in sleeping. Jesus responded to the disciples by saying to them, “…Why do you sleep? Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation.” (Luke 22:46) There is a place for prayer and it is not a place to sleep. One of the places of prayer, as Jesus has said, is where two or three gather together in His name. Matthew 18:20, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Watch out for sorrow sleeping, because it can terminate a miracle.

Sorrow sleeping will substitute the blessings of the sleeper with temptation. Your frequent falling into temptation is directly rooted in too much sleep. That is, your time is limited in the Word, and a limited time in the word will result in powerless prayer. Luke 22:45, “When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found then sleeping from sorrow.” So many activities in the church and among believers but achieving for the Lord are what counts. With prayer, much is achievable but with sleep nothing is achievable. Prayer not sleeping is all that makes the difference and all that prevails in a Christian journey. It is possible for one to be awake and active but sleeping in sorrow because one’s prayer life is not where it should be. Paying attention to the world around us is enough to tell the time we are living. Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep. Awake, you who sleep and know that the days are evil challenges and trouble cover every ground. The first book of Thessalonians talks about sleep when it stated, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober.” (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

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