Category Archives: Praise
Rejoice Still
Psa. 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it”.
At the beginning of the year 2016, God gave us a Word – Rejoice. You and I must never forget this instruction because the Word of God is cumulative and we are on a journey with God. From establishment, to bloom, to victory and then rejoice; the beauty of it all is that God is still speaking and His Words will accomplish His desire in our lives, in Jesus Name. And because we are still in the season of rejoicing and rejoicing will never cease from our homes, we must understand a few things.
Your Focus
Luke 1: 46 “Mary: My soul lifts up the Lord! 47 My spirit celebrates God, my Liberator! 48 For though I’m God’s humble servant, God has noticed me. Now and forever, I will be considered blessed by all generations” [Voice].
The closing thought from yesterday’s devotion was that Mary’s response to what will scare most of us was to praise God. Mary is teaching us that when you do not know what to do and the situation looks hopeless, look up – lift up your eyes. God, your salvation is here. Sometimes people are unable to relate with the characters in the Bible. So I will share a true story with you today so you will know that it is possible to rejoice even in uncertain situations.
Open Doors
Deut. 28:12 “The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow”
Everything you are not grateful for will eventually exit your life. You are there waiting on God to do xyz for you to be happy. An anonymous quote reads, “It’s not happy people who are thankful. It’s thankful people who are happy”. Stop waiting for that promotion, the open doors, a child or marriage to happen before you show gratitude to God. God is saying be grateful then you will be happy. We often let “what could be” rob us of the joy of what will be or already is.
Praise God!
Ezra 3:11 With praise and thanks, they sang this song to the Lord: “He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Then all the people gave a great shout, praising the Lord because the foundation of the Lord’s Temple had been laid.” [emphasis added]
Scripture says, they sang this song to the Lord: “He is so good! His faithful love for Israel endures forever!” Remember that these people had just come from captivity to meet Jerusalem in shambles, in rubbles. They had just managed to lay the foundation of the temple. Note that they did not just say for the Lord is good, which would have been fantastic. But they said for the Lord is so good. How do you say, “God is so good” when all you see is rubbles? How do you say, “God is so good” when you are at the beginning of the Read the rest of this entry
Trigger
1 Kings 3:3-5 “Solomon loved the Lord and followed all the decrees of his father, David… so the king went there and sacrificed 1,000 burnt offerings. That night the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream, and God said, “What do you want? Ask, and I will give it to you!”
I was talking to a little girl and our conversation touched on the subject of crying. So I asked her if she ever heard an adult cry, and she said yes. So I asked who? And she said her father. So I kind of mentally tried to prepare myself for what would come next. Then I asked her who? And she said, “My Dad!” I asked again, “You’ve seen your Dad cry?” She said, “yes!” Why, what happened? I asked. And she said, “My dad cries Read the rest of this entry
Worship Him!
“Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.” Matt.2:1-2
Over the next few days we will be learning about worship. It is my prayer that as we engage daily, the throne of our Heavenly Father will be established in our hearts and lives.
As a believer the act of worship is very significant. Some people love to pray and that is fantastic. I Read the rest of this entry
Acknowledge IV
‘For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation’ Ps.100:5
The fourth thing that you and I must acknowledge is that He is good. This is very profound. You can own something and be mean to that thing. But God is not mean. God is good. Say it out loud – God is good all the time. The Lord is good. So you and I can approach God knowing that we are approaching a good God. We can come to God knowing that we are coming into the presence of a good God that made us and owns us, and He is God. Read the rest of this entry
No Falsehood
‘As he entered a village there, ten lepers stood at a distance, crying out, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” Luke17:12-13.
Please read Luke 17:11-18. It is an amazing story. Sometimes we read this kind of stories and we say in our heart “what an ungrateful bunch!” “How can anyone treat Jesus like that?” “Don’t they have home training, couldn’t they just have gone back to say thank you to Jesus?” But we need to check our lives, how grateful are we ourselves? The ten lepers saw Jesus coming and they said “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!”. That was the beginning of their turning point. I am here to tell you that you are only a Read the rest of this entry
In Perspective
‘But the people replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires’ Jer.18:12.
In today’s scripture reference, these people had made up their minds that they will be hardened clay. Have you ever seen or heard of a potter work with hardened clay [set clay]? It is not possible. The potter will have to break the piece to work with it. It is like someone who says, ‘I am an adult, I can make up my own mind, what I want to do is what I want to do. Nobody should tell me what to do. I am not a baby. I am a full-grown man/woman’. Yes we know that; but that means you are not a Read the rest of this entry
Established Value
‘For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago’ Eph.2:10.
Clay really is just worthless dust. Its value is the value that the Creator, the Maker gives to it. One potter can decide to sell his work for five million that is the value he has placed on the work. While another other potter can choose to sell his work for five hundred that is the value he has placed on it. Our value is established in the hands of the Living God.
‘So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel’ Jer.18:3. The potter’s wheel in this story can be likened to life. Life just seems to go in cycles. January, February, March, April, May, June, July, and so on then it starts all over. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and so on then it starts all over. Then the fashion of the 90’s is the fashion of the 70’s. Things just seem to go in cycles and at times it seems like you have seen it all before. For us, as clay in the hands of the Potter, it is not about time passing or the cycles. It is about who you become, what you become, the experiences, the things you should learn as God is taking you through life, and how you respond. Plus how you mature irrespective of the fact that certain things in life are in cycles. Every potter has a wheel and the wheel does not have a mind of its own. The wheel is controlled by the potter – its rotation, the speed, everything. Just as seasons and time are in the Almighty God’s hand, so also are our lives in God’s hand. The wheel’s job is just to go round and around like life. Life seems endless sometimes and the older you get, the more things seem to repeat themselves. We don’t always like the way life turns out and we want to have deep endless conversations with God about life. But He is the One who is molding us as we go through life. He is the One who is creating something of excellent value as we go through life. So my advice is to stay on the wheel. Many times the experiences we have had in life want to take us away from God, make us feel like there is nothing new. The reality is that God is using your experiences, He is using the time, He is using the things that you think don’t matter, to mold you into something beautiful. Read the rest of this entry
