THE FINAL SAY
Luke 5:1-11

Once, four professional fishermen that knew the right time and the right place to fish failed to catch fish. Though they did not give up until day break; yet they caught nothing to show forth. Having failed in their area of expertise, they were in the process of packing up for that day. While they were washing their nets, the One which is in charge of every creation showed up. “Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, and asked him to put out a little from the land. And He sat down and taught the multitudes from the boat.” (Luke 5:3) Despite the fishermen’s lack of success and having suffered long for not catching fish, their kindness was intact as they allowed the stranger to use their vessel without any repudiation. Are you allowing your current condition or challenges to dictate how you relate to people around you or strangers who come your way? After the stranger had finished taking care of His business, it did not take too long for the stranger to turn unto the fishermen and give them His Word to “…Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luke 5:4) In response to the word of the stranger, one of the professional fishermen lamented about toiling all night with nothing to show forth. Are you in any situation where all your turning has turned out wrong? Have you found yourself on a ground where you have been grounded due to lack of positive result? The Word that sounded in the direction of the fishermen is still loud and clear if you will listen and hear. The fisherman responded to the Word and after he had let down where they had been let down by not catching any fish all night, “…they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” (Luke 5:6-8) Is there any area of your life where you have been toiling? It does not matter how long you have been toiling if you will listen and hear the living Word of God. The fishermen listened and heard the Word that terminated their struggle. With God, nothing is too difficult or too late. Whatever you know does not have the final say. Only Jesus has the final say over every situation or condition. Give it all up for Jesus and He will see you through.   

Prayer for today: I ask for the delivering and preserving Word of God to sound in my direction in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

ARE YOU HIS SOLDIER?
2 Timothy 2:1-13

An eligible and qualified soldier for Christ has to be a sold out soul for the cause of the cross that Jesus carried to Calvary when He was crucified. A soldier can be described as a person who contends or serves in any cause such as a soldier of the Lord. Soldiers are to persist steadfastly in one’s cause and to persevere (to soldier on until the work is done). Paul, the apostle, admonished Timothy by using an illustration of a soldier.  “You therefore must endurehardship 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) The first notable statement in Paul’s illustration for faithfulness is that a soldier (follower of Christ) must endure hardship. Unfortunately, Christian soldiers today do not want to endure hardship, but rather want to enjoy worldly pleasures or live lives of convenience and commitment. Endurance can be painful and can possibly generate unwanted suffering. However, enduring hardship is what qualifies a Christian soldier as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Every Christian soldier will have to know how to endure because a committed one cannot escape hardship in this world of wickedness. The Christian soldiers who will not have to endure or face any of the challenges of this world are the ones that often entangle themselves with the affairs of this life. The apostle Paul emphasized that no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life because it is not possible to serve two masters. Are you a Christian soldier by mouth or by act? A Christian soldier need not to be introduced as a soldier because his warlike disposition will always point him out as one who is operating as a sold-out soul for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. What kind of a soldier are you? Are you a soldier who will always need constant introduction as a soldier? Are you wondering what could be an affair of the world that is being strongly warned against? 1 Peter 2:11, “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” Without any doubt, fleshly lust is a prime target that every Christian soldier needs not to take for granted because it launches its attack on a regular basis. Fleshly lust will lead to the grave via ever great and small temptation. It is so deadly that it only goes after its target which is the soul of every Christian soldier. Once a soul is captured, the role as a soldier becomes incarcerated in the hand of chief of all wickedness; the evil one himself.

Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to have your soul be protected from every fleshly lust that you may please One that enlisted you.

THE TRUTH IS TRUE
John 1:1-28

Jesus declared in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” Jesus is not just coming to give life, He came already and it is for us to take all that He brought for us. “For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) Jesus is the grace of our Lord God for every man that chose to believe and receive Him. John 1:12, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (John 1:12) Knowing about Him is different from knowing Him. Those that know Him know Him enough to receive and believe in Him as their Lord and savior. Have you receive and believe in Him? It is possible to believe Him and not receive Him. Many saw and many heard about the work He did, they know about Him but they choose not to receive Him as their Lord and savior. For example, “…Among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.”(John 12:42) Inability to confess Him is a demonstration of not having received Him. To confess Christ is living a life that demonstrates the confession that is made about Him. Confession without believe or believe without confession is incomplete. Jesus is the unconditional love of God, the grace of God that came to give life abundantly to those that care to receive and believe in Him. Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,” Clearly Jesus is the unconditional love of God and the grace that came for us. However, to enter into the unconditional love of God, there is a need for us to condition ourselves by taking the right position. Whenever there is inability of taking the right position, there will be disability of taking the right position that leads into entering abundance of His grace. Right positioning will deliver unto us the fullness of His abundance grace. Positions to be taken are: to love and to be forgiving. As a believer that worships the living God, we are to love and not hate. Many times in the pages of the Bible, the command to love is constantly and repeatedly emphasized. We are to love our neighbors and to know how to forgive, “You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18) Clearly loving and forgiving cannot be separated neither can the love for God be compromised.

Prayer for today: Let Your hand become my help, for I have chosen Your precepts.

ONLY PRAISE HIM
Psalm 100

When there is understanding in our calling the name of God to give praise, He will raise us above challenges of the wicked. King David was speaking from his life time experiences when he testified, “I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praise; So shall I be saved from my enemies.” (2 Samuel 22:4) David understood quite well what it meant to be constantly praising God. He knew what he was saying when he mentioned enemies. Praise will stop every hand of enemies not just enemy. Every enemy that confronts us on a daily basis requires constant praise for them to fall down flat. Through the Bible, there were numbers of war that were fought just by praising God that is worth of praise. Praising Him is not in the mouth, but in the heart through the mouth. David was confessing the kind of praise that delivers him from every hand of his enemies. Is your praise rooted in the heart? The praise that provokes the hand of God is the praise that is embedded with understanding. Psalm 47:7, “For God is the King of all the earth: sing praise with understanding.” Have you been singing your praise with understanding? The understanding that you have in praising God is the one that will carry you into His court. Access into His court will give you an edge over every area of life. Praise is power, if you will be constant and consistent in praising Him, you will be constant and consistent in being raised by God. Psalm 100, “Enter into His gates with thanks giving, And into His courts with praise, Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” It is clear that thanksgiving will get all that call on Him into His gates, but praise is what will actually get man into His court. Praising God has won battles and also creates ways where there was no way. Once in the journey of the children of Israel to the Promised Land, they encountered a wall of hindrance. It was the wall of Jericho. The wall did not just come down, but it came down flat when the praise began to get to heaven. Praising God can never be too much. Praise Him when you’re going out and praise Him when you’re coming in. Praising God in the morning, afternoon and night will get a believer into the presence of God. God inhabits the praises of His people. Psalm 22:3, But you are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel.” What will it cost you to let praising Him be your only language as you enter into a new day, and a new week? Constantly praising God is what will make all the difference in every walk of life. Praise the Lord!!

Prayer for today: I ask O Lord for the grace to be constant in praising your gracious and merciful name.

GIVE HIM PRAISE
Exodus 7

God alone is worthy of all our thanksgiving and praises. He is the God of gods; the King of kings and He alone inhabits eternity. Give thanks to Him and praise Him because He inhabits the praises of His people. Are you ready to praise Him today? If your answer is a resounding yes, you have invited Him into all that are before you. He is God of miracles; He is a miracle working God. Miracles are of God, while magic is a device of the enemy. Miracles lasts forever and run deep. If magic glitters it will only be for a moment and magic never lasts neither does it runs deep. Despite not being able to see in the physical that you have come too far and close to your breakthrough, let not magic come into play. Magic will fail you no matter how it glitters; waiting on the miracle hand of the Almighty God is the only way out of every failure. Pharaoh was reluctant of letting the children of Israel go and serve the Lord at the request of God through Moses, “So Moses and Aaron went in to Pharaoh, and they did so, just as the LORD commanded. And Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh and before his servants, and it became a serpent. But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.” (Exodus 7:10-11) The magic worked for the magicians and Pharaoh, but it could not answer or match up with the hand of God in the rod which Moses carried. Any power demonstration outside of the name of God will not stand but fail. The enemy can copy but he cannot coordinate for the result to be established. Imagine what would have been the reaction to the children of Israel if they were in the place at the time the magician’s rods were dropped down and became serpents just like that of the rod of God in Moses’ hand? Doubt would have built up in the hearts of the children of Israel and they would have increased complaining against Moses. Magic could not last as the rod of the magician failed to survive. “For every man threw down his rod, and they became serpents. But Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.” (Exodus 7:12) If you will look up and hope in the Lord your miracle will come at a set time and every distraction of the wise men, the sorcerers and the magicians of Egypt will not have its way in hindering your breakthrough. Magic is a fake and it will fail but miracles will not fail you.

Prayer for today: Keep me from the snares they have laid for me and let the enemy be the victim of their snares in Jesus name.