ENTER HIS REST
Matthew 11:25-30

Labor is inevitable or else stealing will be come acceptable to you. It is written in Ephesians 4:28 “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.” However, as a believer who confesses Christ, when your labor continuously and consistently becomes too heavy and backed with struggle, there is a need for check up. Laboring is of God but laboring that inhabits heavy laden is not of God. The word of God commands in Exodus 20:9, “Six days you shall labor and do all your work.” Apparently, any labor that is outside of God’s command becomes labor and heavy laden. Why are you allowing labor to take away your serving Him? God encourages us to labor but not to allow labor to overtake us from serving Him. In your labor, how long do you have to wait before entering into His rest? Claiming to have known Him is not enough until you begin to lay hold on the promises that He has in place for you. You have been laboring long enough and yet your burden continues to be heavy. What is it that could have gone wrong? Why does your burden remain heavy when it is supposed to be light? Jesus has not spoken and failed to do what He says He will do. There is a message of invitation in His communication when He said in Matthew 11:28, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” There is a place of rest in your labor and that place is inside of your deliberate response to His call and going to Him to let out your heavy laden. In the letting out of your heavy laden, you will exchange it for His yoke. He said it in Matthew 11:29 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” His yoke is not heavy, but it is demanding. Jesus’ yoke requires you to learn and when you are able to learn, you will live by what you have learned from Him. A failure to live with a gentle and lowly heart is evidence that you have not learn from Him. As a claimed believer, examine yourself; look at the source of all your labor that is accompanied by heavy laden and no rest. You will found out that you have not been operating what you claim to have learned. Take to the Word of God and He will take up your heavy laden. He said it all in Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Do not rust out; rest in Him.
 
Prayer for today: Cause me O Lord to be fully obedient in all of Your command. 

KNOWN IN HIM?
Daniel 1

When you sit on the past, you will not be able to stand for the present that will enable your move into the future. Daniel, despite being a young man who had entered into captivity, refused to take a sit on the past. Daniel could have entered into complaining and questioning of why God allowed him to be in such a situation. Daniel, however, chose to remain focus on God and did not allow captivity to captivate him. He took a stand and, “…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.”(Daniel 1:8) Daniel’s situation could have become more of convenient by virtue of the king’s delicacies that were assigned to him, but he rather made the decision to continue in his commitment unto God. Daniel’s focus on his purpose of his heart for God is an example of the way to seek God diligently. God responded to Daniel with favor right after his rejection of the king’s delicacies. “Now God had brought Daniel into the favor and goodwill of the chief of the eunuchs.” (Daniel 1:9) God’s favor unto Daniel was not limited only to the chief eunuchs, but it lasted all through the days of Daniel’s life. Daniel demonstrated time and time again that his focus was only on God. In the midst of all wicked plots and activities of the darkness, Daniel was a light that no darkness could bring down. He was favored of God and Godly wisdom was his compass. Daniel’s life in captivity was a testimony to the word of God as stated in Daniel 12:3, “Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament…” What do you purpose in your heart as you journey through the walks of life? When the situations of the past begin to overwhelm your present, the storms of the present and future could cause you not to stand. It is time to know that He that has brought you this far will see you through. Also, it should be considered that situations could have been worst than what it is today but the grace of God still prevails and will always prevail. Daniel lived his life as one who knows his God. Do you know your God? The truth is that Daniel knew his God and God knew him. It was evident in the life of Daniel that, “…The people who know their God shall be strong and carry out great exploits.” (Daniel 11:32) Indeed and in truth, Daniel knew his God, demonstrated great trust in Him and was able to carry out great exploits to the glory of God.
 
Prayer for today: Ask God, the enabler of man, to enable you to live faithfully for His name to be glorified in your life. 

NO FOOLISHNESS
JOSHUA 6

During the coming out of the bondage of over four hundred years, the children of Israel were bewildered by the land and were also closed in by the wilderness. As they looked back, Pharaoh drew near with his men of war. Clearly their life was in danger of dying or being taken back to bondage. At that juncture, going forward was not foreseeable and turning back could end up worst more than living. By virtue of the fear generated, they could not see deliverance in any way. It was a grave situation that demanded divine intervention of God. Moses received an order for deliverance: “But lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it. And the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” (Exodus 14:16) The order appeared too ordinary and probably sounded foolish in the ears of the children of Israel. Have you been in any predicament whereby the way of escape did not sound legit but rather sounded foolish? Among other challenges that confronted the children of Israel on their way to their Promised Land was the wall of Jericho. Having gone far in a number of years, Jericho needed to fall for their crossing over. The Bible records, “…Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in.” (Joshua 6:1) Just as divine intervention was needed at the Red Sea, so it was needed in crossing over Jericho. Joshua, the new leader, received the order of command from the Lord. “You shall march around the city, all you men of war; you shall go all around the city once. This you shall do six days. 4 And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams’ horns before the ark. But the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 5 It shall come to pass, when they make a long blast with the ram’s horn, and when you hear the sound of the trumpet, that all the people shall shout with a great shout; then the wall of the city will fall down flat. And the people shall go up every man straight before him.” (Joshua 6:3-5) The command to victory at the crossing of the Red Sea and the wall of Jericho may have sounded foolish, but the Commander who gave out the command is the only Commander of commanders. It is written in 1 Corinthians 1:25, “The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.” Have you received any word of command that seems foolish or too easy to deliver you into your breakthrough? Stop being wise in your own eyes; take a dive into the word of God and your world will become victorious.

Prayer for today: O Lord, cause me not to despise the word of victory, deliverance and preservation when it sounds in my direction.

TERMINATION IN ENTERTAINMENT
Acts 5:1-11

Lying, deception, and manipulation are some of the means and ways that lead one to entertain the devil. However, anytime you entertain the devil you are set to be terminated. A man named Ananias and his wife, Sapphira, did the right thing in a wrong way. The couple entertained the devil and they were terminated in their journey of life. It is recorded in Acts 5:1-2, “But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. 2 And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” Ananias and Sapphira were not forced to sell their possession; it was a voluntary act. It was a good act but was done wrongly when they backed it up with lie. Everywhere there is light, darkness will not comprehend but fail. Where there is light, the activity of darkness will have no other choice but to be exposed. Telling lies is not of God; it is of the devil and it is an activity of darkness. Ananias and Sapphira lying to Peter, a disciple of Jesus, can be compared to darkness playing around where there is light. In their lying, it did not take forever neither did it require an inside informant for Peter to respond when he said, “…Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? 4 While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.” (Acts 5:3-4) Could it be that Ananias and Sapphira had been lying long before it finally caught up with them or was it just their first time? One thing is certain, telling lies can go for a long period or a short period of time but it only takes just one day for truth to overcome. How have you been entertaining the devil among the body of believers? Ananias and Sapphira’s story can be likened to a believer who is paying less of their ten percent income in the name of paying tithes. Before God, there is no small or big lie. A lie is a lie and the end therefore is sin. Sin offers nothing but death. Peter did not place any curse on Ananias but all that Peter did was exposed the lie of Ananias. “Then Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and breathed his last. So great fear came upon all those who heard these things.” (Acts 5:5) Lying does not have a place in the presence of God and if you are one that has been conversant doing the right wrongly, it is time to begin to do all that is right.         
 
Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you from every spirit of lie, deception and manipulation.

BOOK OF REMEMBRANCE
Esther 5, 6

To be blessed with being honored is directly rooted in God’s kindness. Mordecai was a Jewish man whose frequent spot was at the king’s gate. He did the right thing when he uncovered a plot against King Ahasuerus. Esther 2:21-22, “In those days, while Mordecai sat within the king’s gate, two of the king’s eunuchs, Bigthan and Teresh, doorkeepers, became furious and sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 22 So the matter became known to Mordecai, who told Queen Esther, and Esther informed the king in Mordecai’s name.” At the same king’s gate, Mordecai was marked for evil by the evil agent named Haman. After Haman had spotted Mordecai for not bowing and paying homage to him, he went further in his plot to destroy all the Jews just because of Mordecai. As Haman’s position becomes more favorable with King Ahasuerus so his pride and ego grew and he could not resist his bitterness against Mordecai. Haman elevated his plot against Mordecai. “…When Haman saw Mordecai in the king’s gate, and that he did not stand or tremble before him, he was filled with indignation against Mordecai.” (Esther 5:9) With suggestion from his wife, Haman then came  to the king requesting, ”…Let a gallows be made, fifty cubits high, and in the morning suggest to the king that Mordecai be hanged on it; then go merrily with the king to the banquet.’ And the thing pleased Haman; so he had the gallows made.” (Esther 5:14) At the approval of Haman’s plot, Mordecai became marked with an untimely death and there was no way out for him except by God’s intervention. A night before his death sentence, “…The king could not sleep. So one was commanded to bring the book of the records of the chronicles; and they were read before the king. 2 And it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. 3 Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this…?’” (Esther 6:1-3) Earlier in life, the good act of Mordecai that prevented the king from being terminated by an evil plot was not in vain but rather was in a book of remembrance. God, in His kindness, never slept nor slumbered and could not have allowed King Ahasuerus to sleep over a plan of wickedness against His own. Just as God could not sleep nor slumber in delivering Mordecai, so He will do unto you against every area of life that you have been marked with an untimely death. As God will have it, with delights to honor, King Ahasuerus promoted Mordecai in the presence of Haman. Haman, the agent of wickedness, ended up becoming the victim of his wicked plan for Mordecai. Do you have a book of remembrance? 

Prayer for today: Ask God, to answer on your behalf just as He did for Mordecai.