DO WHAT YOU WANT

It is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose. Philippians 2:13

A great man once said: ‘ *If you love God, you can do as you please.’* What he meant was that if you love God, what pleases you will be what pleases God.

When we love the things God loves, and hate the things God hates, we can live as we please. The Psalmist wrote, ‘Take delight in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart’ (Psalm 37:4), not meaning he will give you anything you desire but that the desires themselves will be God-given desires.

This is a good way to live. God leads us by working in us to will and act in order to fulfill His good purpose, so that He puts His Will into our minds and hearts. I am sometimes asked the question about an issue, ‘Do you think this is God’s Will or mine?’ I sometimes answer, ‘Have you ever considered it might be both? It is your will because it is God’s Will, and He has put this desire into your hearts.’

There are other checks for discerning the Will of God – the Scriptures, our circumstances, wholesome advice from those who know us well – but often His leading us begins with giving us right desires.

What God works out through us,
He first works in us.

How do you think God is molding your mind to His?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, please help me to live according to your will. In Jesus' name I humbly ask....Amen🙏🏼

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LIVING THE WORD

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

We must live the Christian life by the Word of God. This is a recurring theme in Paul’s two letters to Timothy. Paul is encouraging young Timothy, saying, ‘Timothy, both in the operation of the church you have been sent to Ephesus to lead and in the operation of your own personal life, you must live according to the Word of God.’

This Word is God-breathed, authoritative and life-giving.
But that doesn’t mean it is easy.
In 2 Timothy, Paul talks about the challenges of living according to the Word as being like a soldier (disciplined), an athlete (determined), a farmer (patient), and a workman (conscientious) (see 2 Timothy 2:3,5-6 and 15).

In those pursuits, there is discipline, perseverance and hard work. Timothy was timid, so Paul reminds him, saying he must cast aside his timidity and with the Word of God,  *correct, rebuke and encourage - with great
patience and careful instruction* (2 Timothy 4:2).

Timothy must have been exasperating Paul because he writes some rebuke to Timothy, exhorting him not to slacken, but on the grounds of the authoritative Word of God to ‘Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season’ (2 Timothy 4:2), which is to take
opportunities (‘in season’) and make opportunities (‘out of season’).
How are we doing in these areas?

Is the Word of God your foundation?

As disciples we must live by the Word of God.

PRAYER: Almighty God, I humbly ask for a strong desire to study your word in other to know and to live by it. In Jesus' name..Amen🙏🏼

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YOU ARE LOVED BY JESUS CHRIST.

TOO ADULT

Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 18:4

Who is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven? I think Jesus surprised, if not shocked, His disciples when He answered by calling a little child and telling His disciples that this child was the model of greatness in His Kingdom.

In Jesus’ day children were to be seen and not heard; they were non-entities waiting to become something. There are many aspects to childlikeness. We love their innocence, their sense of wonder, their joy, their quick delight in things, but above all, children are marked by their innocent dependence.

Jesus told His disciples they had to ‘change and become like little children.’ In normal life, there comes a time when we tell children they must change and become like adults and grow up.

In the spiritual life, the reverse is true. *The danger is that we become too adult, too clever, too sufficient in ourselves, and too self-contained.* A return to childlike wonder, love and dependency is essential for spiritual growth. *This is not to be childish, but childlike.*

Jesus told His disciples, ‘Whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 18:4). The bar is not going high, it is coming low.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I humbly ask that you help me to be more child-like in Jesus mighty name.....Amen🙏🏼

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GOD CARES FOR YOU AS MUCH AS HE CARED FOR JESUS

DESPITE OURSELVES

I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised.... whose weakness was turned to strength. Hebrews 11:32-34

Hebrews Chapter 11 is a catalogue of men and women who lived by faith. We may think of them as the heroes of the faith, but if we are honest, it’s more like a police collection of photography of known suspects. How does our grandfather Samson get a mention? You look almost in vain for his redeemable features. Rahab was a prostitute who lied on behalf of the Israelite spies and yet is commended for her faith.

Faith is a disposition of trust in God that looks to God to work. If I put faith in a chair, I let the chair do something for me. If I put faith in a car, I let the car do something for me. Putting faith in God is passing the responsibility to God and letting Him do something.

When Samson was attacked by a lion, ‘The Spirit of the Lord came
powerfully upon him, so that he tore the lion apart with his bare hands’ (Judges 14:6); and ‘the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully upon him’ (14:19), when he attacked the Philistines in Ashkelon. This doesn’t
justify the mess he was making of his personal life, but it does mean that when he cried out to God, God intervened. We don’t have to get ourselves cleaned up to trust God, we come as we are. But as He works in us and through us, His holiness will begin to permeate our lives. *Righteousness is never found in ourselves, it is found in God.*

Are you living the Christian life by works or by His strength?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for hearing me anytime I call upon you.... Amen🙏🏼

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GOD LOVES YOU AS MUCH AS HE LOVED JESUS

THE AWFUL REALITY OF HELL

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10:28

The idea of hell is abhorrent to us. How can it be otherwise? The primary teaching about hell comes from Jesus Himself. Paul, in his thirteen letters, talks about judgment and spiritual death, but he never uses the word hell.

There is clearly some ambiguity about the nature of hell. On the one hand it is a lake of fire (Revelation 20:14), on the other it is a place of darkness (Matthew 25:30).
Fire and darkness present conflicting images, for fire gives light. It is also described as a place where the ‘worms that eat them do not die’ (Mark 9:48), and yet it is a second death (Revelation 20:14).

‘Not dying’ and ‘death’ are again conflicting images. I suggest the reality is that there are no words, images, or concepts that adequately describe hell. Its essential nature is that it is a *place of separation from God.*

Paul writes, ‘They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord’ (2 Thessalonians 1:9). It is this being ‘ *shut out from the presence of the Lord’ that is the most horrific description of hell.*

We must treat hell with humility. A well-known British preacher by name R.W. Dale once said, the only man he knew who had the right to preach about hell was D.L. Moody because he never spoke of it without tears.
That is the authentic attitude towards hell.

Believe and trust totally in Christ for eternal separation from God will be the most awful consequence of not trusting Christ.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I thank You that my eternal destination rests on Your work on the cross....Amen🙏🏼

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FINDING PEACE

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. Philippians 4:6

If someone says to you, ‘Don’t be anxious about anything,’ you might well respond by saying, ‘You live in a different world. I have utility bills to pay and a visit to the doctor coming up'.

Yet this is exactly what Paul wrote to the Philippians.
The key word in this verse is the little word ‘ *but* .’
This word acts as a hinge on which doors swing.

Paul is not just saying, ‘Don’t be anxious about anything,’ he goes on to say, ‘…but in every situation
by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God’ (Philippians 4:6).

Get hold of your anxieties and present them to God. We can
pray about things but never give them to God. We worry just as much afterwards as we did before. To do it ‘with thanksgiving’ is an expression of trust and confidence in God, to the extent we thank Him in advance for taking the issue that is the cause of my anxiety.

When we do that, there is the promise, ‘And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus’ (Philippians 4:7).

It is not a peace that may solve the issue immediately but a peace that guards our hearts and minds.

 *Our peace comes from passing the responsibility to someone bigger – God.*

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, I release my anxieties to You. I present them to You today in Jesus mighty name..... Amen🙏🏼

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Exodus 13:17-14:31

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SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

THE IMPOSSIBLE IS POSSIBLE

But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John".
Luke 1:13

When God speaks to us, He rarely talks to us about the things that are humanly possible. Both Mary and Elizabeth faced this very thing when God brought both of them a message through the angel, a message that was totally outside the realm of possibility.

Mary was to have a baby but was a virgin and Elizabeth had the
opposite problem; she was to have a baby but was old.
For Mary having a baby was too soon, for Elizabeth it was too late and both were human impossibilities.

We have a choice to either live in the realm of the natural where everything is reasonable, human and explicable, or to live in the supernatural where we take seriously the Word of God and depend on Him for its fulfillment. If we chose to live only in the realm of the natural, and never allow God to take us into the realm of what only He can do, which is what makes it supernatural – then we’ll never know the joy and excitement that is possible in an adventurous, obedient and trusting Christian life.

We have to fully trust in God, knowing that He that has called us will never disappoint.

Enjoy your life with Jesus Christ.

PRAYER: Eternal King of glory, I thank you for my life and pray that  your Spirit will help me trust you in all my endeavors....In Jesus name.....Amen🙏🏼

1 YEAR BIBLE READING PLAN: Exodus 11:1-10; 12:29-36

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