I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
Micah 7:9
When we sin, God corrects us with love, and He patiently waits for us to turn back to Him, and even when He's angry, we know once we turn back to Him, He'll be there to hold us in His arms. He'll make things right for us and lead us to the light.
His anger last but a moment, But His Favour last a lifetime. Turn to Him!
But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the LORD charged you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.
Joshua 22:5
Loving God and keeping His commandments goes hand in hand. Keeping His commandments does not mean we'll never "not keep it", it just means we'll strive to keep it and please Him, more than doing what we want. Pleasing Him will come first for us, and with time we'll find that we want only the same things He wants.
God does not want us to serve Him only in the physical realm for others to see, He wants us to serve Him spiritually, not bothering about others thoughts of us but concentrating solely on Him.
It's not just enough to say we love Him, It's better to show we love Him.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11
There's def a vast and obvious diff btw how we were when we were young and how we are now and there'll be a diff btw now and the future as well, it's called "growing up".
Same way, there should be a diff btw how we were when we were just saved and how we are now, we have to daily grow spiritually. God hates stunted growth, and He does not want us to dwell on past glories. Spiritual growth accounts from spending more time in the presence of God, letting His Word reflects in our lives and in all that we do, such that others around us will notice and emulate us.
Salvation is the first step to knowing God, the knowing is a daily process that will never end, so keep growing!
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
1 John 3:21
There's a difference when we go to God's presence with a clean heart and when we go with a tainted spirit.
When our hearts are clean, we go with confidence and happiness, there's joy and serenity. We go to Him with boldness.
But when we are not clean, there's shame and doubts, and the doubts are mostly about if God will hear us since we are sinful.
In as much as it's better to go to God's presence with clean hearts, even if our heart condemn us, we can still go into His presence with confidence knowing that He'll make us clean.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
We sometimes feel we can't carry on or we just can't do it anymore. Mostly, this happens when we rely on our strength.
Salvation is free, yes, we have to work on it, yes, but no where was it said that we could do it by ourselves. We needs God's strength as an anchor to hold on to, else we'll fall. He has also commanded to come to Him and He'll give us rest, Also His yoke is easy and His burden is light, and most importantly He'll be with us through every step of our journey only if we rely on Him...
Do u feel weary or tired, or is "enough" the only word u can think of, then go to Him, He's waiting with open arms.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 chronicles 7:14
We spend our time worrying if things will get better, doubting if God will listen to us and thinking if it's even possible at all for all to be well. While all God is waiting for, is for us to call unto Him.
He doesn't want us to call with doubts in our hearts, instead, He want us to call believing He's more than capable. It doesn't matter how unrighteous or unfaithful we think we are, all that matters is that we trust in Him and leave Him to make the necessary changes, cos He's always faithful even when we are not. Although this doesn't give us permission to remain unfaithful, it gives us confidence and boldness to go into His presence knowing He'll accept us and make us whole.
Call unto Him, He's waiting to hear from you.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15:13
Have u ever hoped for something that even u know it's almost not possible, but yet, just hoping give u peace and satisfaction about it. Even if what u hoped for does not happen, u don't have to loose the peace u had hoping, cos u know God is in control.
Also, it depends on who u place ur hope in, If we hope in ppl, we are bound to get disappointed but even when God says no, we know it's cos he has greater things in store.
Abound in Hope always and The God of Hope will fill you with joy and peace.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthian 12:9
Instead of dwelling on our limitations, we can trust in God to strengthen us to carry on the race, and sometimes, God allow us to go through certain things so that we can learn to trust Him. His grace is always sufficient for us, and neither will He allow us to suffer. Trust Him always!
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
We tend to read the part of the Bible that suits us, only the blessings and parts where God has promised to do sth and not the parts where we have to do sth.
For everything God has promised us, we have a part to play, we can't expect to do things as we wish and expect things to be the same. Yes, all things will work together for our good, but it's as long as we do things according to God's will.
No matter how bleak the situation may look, no matter how hopeless, as long as we do things according to God's will, we need to be rest assured things will work for our good, remember, His ways and thoughts are higher than ours, So He knows best.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.
Proverbs 18:21
There's power in the tongue, so we need to be careful what we prophesy with it. We don't have to be negative even if the situation warrants it, The Bible says "out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh". So whatever we speak with our mouth, it means our spirit agrees with it.
No matter how bad the situation may be, we can always be optimistic and one way to sanction this is by prophesying positive things. The whole universe was created by God speaking, and since we are made in His likeness, we also can make or break with our tongue.
Proverbs say "u shall eat the fruit thereof" If u plant a positive fruit, u shall eat good fruit else u shall eat negativity.. Let's be positive in all situation no matter how bleak it looks.
But godliness with contentment is great gain.
1 Timothy 6:6
It's not enough for us to be godly, we need to be content with whatever we have also. We are allowed to want more but it shouldn't be a priority neither should it be our driving force, 'cos if are not content, we will always grumble and the Peace of God will not be able to reign in us. 'sides God hates grumbling.
Whatever Lil or much, we have, we should Be Content, knowing that we can get more only if it's God will. Also we should not be with God only for what we want from Him, or what He can give. It limits Him...
And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.
Mark 10:27
"With God, all things are possible" is written on a plank. My friend read it as "With God nothing is impossible". I realized it doesn't matter how we wanna interpret it, what matters is that we know that "without God, nothing is possible". Whatever it is our need might be, no matter how small or how big, only God can do it all.
If He says yes, then no one can say no.
Just Believe n U'll Receive.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matthew 6:24
We live in a world of compromises, where ppl try to compromise btw diff lifestyles and try to balance all. But God is not a god of compromises. He wants us to have the same lifestyle everywhere and it should be one ppl can vouch for and even emulate. He does not like lukewarmness, we can't be somewhere in btw with Him, it's either we are there or not..
So eliminate any other ways that are not of God, so u can be fully n truthfully called one if His.
This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15
Though we have to watch those we walk with, we should be careful not to shun sinners totally, cos Christ came to this world to save sinners and since we got saved, we are to carry on that legacy. If we also had been left alone without being shown The Way, then we would still be lost.
We have to show others the right way, we should not be scared to stand for the truth no matter what. They don't have to like us, Christ wasn't liked much, but we have to keep doing our part and one day God will come through for them.
We were once sinners, so never look down on anyone, but be an influence rather than being influenced.
Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.
1 Corinthians 15:33
There's a saying, "Show me your friends and I'll tell you who u are". Though this is not always true, it is about 98% true. Those we walk with, directly or indirectly influence our lives. Now, it depends on how much allowance we give them, but even without our permission, some allowance filter in.
Psalm 1:1 says "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly...." there's no point in tempting our self by hanging with bad grps, are we trying to find how long it will take us to fall or what...
It's better to be with good counsel, who will give us proper advice and add positively to us than spend all our days fighting temptation.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10
The Lord almighty is with us, and He has promised to strengthen us. Whenever we feel we just can't carry on, let's rely on Him for strength. And even when we feel we are strong enough, we should still rely on Him, The Bible says "Take heed, lest a man who thinks he stand, fall".
The secret to running this race successfully is to know that we CAN'T run it without God. So whether we think we are strong enough or not, we all need His strength to stand upright in His sight.
Also, He'll uphold us with His Hand of righteousness, only if we rely on Him to take control of the journey.
Let Him take the fore front in your life and you will never want.
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:16
The Bible says "you cannot serve 2 masters" as one will be preferred over the other.
Same way, we can't feed our flesh as well as our spirit. One will be more fed then the other. And even when we feed our spirit, the flesh is always in conflict with it. And if we concentrate on our flesh, the spirit dies out.
I urge us to hereby feed the spirit constantly, so we can withstand any conflict of the flesh. Also, it's by God's Grace.
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10
We should not focus only on our physical or material blessings, as children of God we have far more spiritual blessings to rejoice for. And once we are beautiful spiritually, it reflects in our physical life. There'll be a glow on us that will not be amiss to ppl around us and even they will partake from our blessing.
Rejoice in the Lord your God always!
And a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.
John 10:5
We can recognize false prophets if we have a discerning Spirit. Yes, they are sometimes so good, u can't just say they are false but I feel as a true sheep who knows the voice of The Shepherd, we should be able to know when the spirit and anointing of the Lord is missing.
And it's also easy to hear from God, if and only if we listen hard enough. We know He won't shout and even when He speaks, the noise in our busy lives sometimes drown His voice.
So to listen to God, we need to be quiet. Our quiet time is not only the time to read the word or pray, it's also the time to listen. He can't speak when we are speaking, we should therefore give Him time to speak and He'll never speak anything out of His will. And the more we ask Him to speak, the more He'll converse with us but if we don't wanna hear Him, He'll def not speak to us.
So ask, that He'll speak and listen, that u might hear.
Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:12
Who we are when no one is watching is who we truly are. We can't live as diff personality whenever we choose, that just make us hypocrites. Ppl should have good things to say about us wherever we go, either in church, at home, among friends or colleagues. It's not about others watching us instead it's about God.
We are to do God work cos we wanna please Him and do His will and not cos we wanna get into others good grace. It's not about what we do for God but our intentions for doing them.
It doesn't matter what others think about us But it matters what He thinks.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalm 23:4
The psalmist understood that God didn't promise Him a life full of bed of roses but he also understood that no matter what situation arises, he has nothing to fear cos God will be with Him.
We also need to have this confidence in God, half of the year is gone and though we might have encountered some problems on the way, we are still here. It wasn't 'cos we know how to handle situations or cos we know ppl who can help, It's by God's Grace we are not consumed, So also TrUsT Him to take control of the remaining Half.
His rod and staff comforts us always and He's always with us. He NeVeR disappoints. Have a wonderful month!
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23
God never stops loving us, whether we do the right things or not, His love for us never fails, He loves us unconditionally.
So also His mercies never fail and His grace is abundant, but shall we continue in sin 'cos of abundance grace, def not. Though His love for us never fails, He hurts when we do things against Him and it's just like crucifying His Son all over again.
Never take His love nor His grace for granted, Stand firm on His Word and trust Him for directions and u will never go astray.
