Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 03, 2026.

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING GOD’S FAVOR!

Memory verse: “And having come in, the angel says to her, ‘Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women." (Luke 1 vs 28.)

READ: First Samuel 2 vs 26; Luke 2 vs 40 & 52:

First Samuel 2:26: And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men.

Luke 2:40: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon Him.

2:52: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

INTIMATION: 

Favor is described as kindness; approval, friendly regard from a superior. Favor is, objectively, the grace in a person. When the favor is of God, it is known as divine or supernatural favor—the grace or power from God in a person that enables him act graciously or favorably. And grace is described as unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor; the power that comes from God through the Holy Spirit indwelling us to help a person overcome all life’s challenges, and to meet every of our needs. 

The word “grace” and the word “favor” are both translated from the same Greek word “charis.” So, the grace of God is the favor of God. And favor of God is the grace of God—that which causes things to happen in our life that need to happen through the channel of our faith. It is the power of the Holy Spirit we receive to change us and to change our circumstances. One of the twenty-five names of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible is "The Spirit of grace." It is by God's Spirit of grace that we find favor with God and with man.

To be favored is to be featured—you attract a special attention or presented prominently; the Lord shining His light upon you, all to His glory. Although that light is real, it is usually invisible to the human eyes. Most of the time people don't even know why they look upon you with favor. They don't know why they like you, accept you, trust you, approve of you, enjoy being around you, prefer you over others. They just do, because God shines His light of grace upon you and gives you favor. If we keep our attitude right; giving God the glory, instead of becoming haughty and proud, then He will continue to pour out His favor upon us and treat us like His favorite.

Being featured, in my considered opinion, is not pride when the favored or featured position comes from God, not from our own personal ambitions or our own selfish efforts to call attention to ourselves. In all honesty, I find it very delightful to be featured by God. I like to see God move on my behalf, and I think everyone feels the same way. I must admit that it is fun to watch God single out someone for special attention and preferential treatment, especially in the presence of others. 

It is always enjoyable to have favor from God. It just seems that it doesn't happen as often as we would like. Part of the problem is us. There are so many things that God would love to do for us, but He cannot because we won't ask. One reason we won't ask is because we don't feel worthy. We don't have nearly as much fun with the Lord as we should. We should have more freedom and liberty, and less fear and legalism. The only time we will go to God and ask for special favor is when we are absolutely desperate, when we have gotten ourselves into a situation that we cannot possibly handle on our own.

The Lord wants to be personally involved in our lives. He wants to be involved with us in the gas station queue, He wants to be involved with us in the grocery store checkout line. He wants to be involved with us when we get caught in a traffic jam and can't move and so on. God is interested and wants to get involved in everything about us. God wants to give us supernatural favor because it provokes genuine praise and thanksgiving which are very delightful to God because it is the only thing He can't do for Himself.

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is that Your Spirit of grace rest upon me always, that I may continually obtain Your favor in my life in all the things I do, owning all circumstances that may confront me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The “I Will” of God

 The “I Will” of God

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There are mornings when I wake up feeling fragile. Vulnerable. It’s often vague. No single threat. No one weakness. Just an amorphous sense that something is going to go wrong and I will be responsible.

It’s usually after a lot of criticism. Or maybe after a lot of expectations that have deadlines, and that seem too big and too many.

As I look back over about 50 years of such periodic mornings, I am amazed how the Lord Jesus has preserved my life. And my ministry. The temptation to run away from the stress has never won out — not yet anyway. This is amazing. I worship my great God for this.

Instead of letting me sink into a paralysis of fear, or run to a mirage of greener grass, he has awakened a cry for help and then answered with concrete promises.

Here’s an example. This is recent. I woke up feeling emotionally fragile. Weak. Vulnerable. I prayed: “Lord, help me. I’m not even sure how to pray.”

An hour later I was reading in Zechariah, seeking the help I had cried out for. It came.

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There will be such prosperity and growth for the people of God that Jerusalem will not be able to be walled in any more. “The multitude of people and livestock” will be so many that Jerusalem will be like many villages spreading out across the land without walls.

Prosperity is nice, but what about protection?

To which God says in verse 5, “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord.” Yes. That’s it. That is the promise. The “I will” of God. That is what I need.

And if it is true for the vulnerable villages of Jerusalem, it is true for me a child of God. That is how I apply the Old Testament promises to God’s people. All the promises are yes to me in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). There is a “how much more” after every promise for those who are in Christ. God will be a “wall of fire all around” me. Yes. He will. He has been. And he will be. 

And it gets better. Inside that fiery wall of protection he says, “And I will be the glory in her midst.” God is never content to give us the protection of his fire; he aims to give us the pleasure of his presence. I love the “I wills” of God!

Devastated and Delighted

 Devastated and Delighted

“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

What would the doctrines of grace — the old Puritan term for the Calvinistic teaching of God’s sovereign grace in our salvation (TULIP) — what would those doctrines of grace sound like if every limb in that tree were coursing with the sap of Augustinian delight (that is, “Christian Hedonism”)?

Total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to God’s beauty, and deadness to the deepest joy.

Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed, as the overflow of God’s joy in the fellowship of the Trinity.

Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for God’s people by the blood of the new covenant.

Irresistible grace is the commitment and the power of God’s love to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights.

Perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God not to let us fall into the final bondage of inferior pleasures, but to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of fullness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand forevermore.

Of those five, unconditional election delivers the harshest and the sweetest judgments to my soul. That it is unconditional destroys all self-exaltation (that’s the harsh part); and that it is election makes me his treasured possession (that’s the sweet part).

This is one of the beauties of the biblical doctrines of grace: their worst devastations prepare us for their greatest delights.

What prigs we would become at the words, “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6), if this election were in any way dependent on us. But to protect us from pride, the Lord teaches us that we are unconditionally chosen (Deuteronomy 7:7–9). “He made a wretch his treasure,” as we so gladly sing.

Only the devastating freeness and unconditionality of electing grace — followed by all the other works of saving grace — let us take and taste such gifts for our very own without the exaltation of self.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 01, 2026.

SUBJECT : GOD KNOWS YOUR HEART!

Memory verse: "Then He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your heart. For that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” (Luke 16 vs 15.)

READ: Matthew 23 vs 23 - 27:

23:23: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the other undone.

23:24: Blind guides, who strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel! 

23:25: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.

23:26: Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.

23:27: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness.

 

INTIMATION:

God knows our hearts and relates with us in the heart where the spirit in us dwells. Therefore, the content of our hearts not seen by anyone is what matters to God in our relationship with Him and His assessment of our true worth before Him. One may self-righteously approve of himself as right in the eyes of God, and also be approved by men, but God knows what is in one's heart. 

One may seek to gain the approval of others by religious performances, but what is important is what is in one's heart. Our acceptance by others in the religious world should not determine how we really are. What is most important is being accepted by God, and we can know that we are accepted by God if we love Him and keep His commandments. 

In the passage we read today in the Scriptures, the Pharisees acted piously to get praise from others, but God knew what was in their hearts. Jesus condemned the Pharisees and religious leaders for outwardly appearing upright and holy but inwardly remaining full of corruption and greed. Living our Christianity merely as a show for others is like washing only the outside of a cup while the inside is unclean. When we are clean on the inside, our cleanliness on the outside won't be a sham. 

The Pharisees considered their wealth to be a sign of God's approval. Even among Christians today material possessions are often seen as an approval or acceptance by God. However, just as God detested the wealth of the Pharisees because it caused them to abandon true spirituality, so it is for Christians today. Though prosperity may earn people's praise, it must never substitute for devotion and service to God. 

The Pharisees lived from the contributions of the people. In doing so they neglected the weightier matters of the law that are justice, mercy, and faith. They were emphasizing an outward form of religion without concentrating on holiness of life in the heart. We observe such things in our fellowship and churches these days, where emphasis are laid on the financial and material contributions of members while neglecting the weightier matters of spirituality and obedience to God's commandments by members. 

It's possible to obey the details of the laws and be very active in religious rituals such as going to church, being puntual and present at every fellowship meetings, paying tithes and giving offerings, sowing seeds etc, but still with a heart filled with wrong emotions such as hatred, unforgiveness, malice, lies, envy, covetousness etc. What this meas is that you can be meticulous about the details of ceremonial cleaniness, and lose your perspective on inner purity. Before God such persons have lost the mark and are unacceptable to Him. Although they were ceremonially clean on the outside but had corrupt hearts. 

For example, we could be very precise and faithful about giving 10 percent of our money to God but refuse to give one minute of our time in helping others. Tithing is important, but giving a tithe does not exempt us from fulfilling God's other directives. Christians should emphasize spiritual purity that is relevant in eternity with God, and their outward attitude of services to man and God be a reflection of their inner purity. 

Prayer: Abba Father, strengthen me heartily to desire to do Your Will at all times, and that I will serve You and others from my heart as a reflection of Your nature and my inner purity, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

He Does All That He Pleases

 He Does All That He Pleases

Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. (Psalm 115:3)

This verse teaches that whenever God acts, he acts in a way that pleases him.

God is never constrained to do a thing that he despises. He is never backed into a corner where his only recourse is to do something he hates to do.

He does whatever he pleases. And therefore, in some sense, he has pleasure in all that he does.

This should lead us to bow before God and praise his sovereign freedom — that, in some sense, he always acts in freedom, according to his own “good pleasure,” following the dictates of his own delights.

God never becomes the victim of circumstance. He is never forced into a situation where he must do something in which he cannot rejoice. He is not mocked. He is not trapped or cornered or coerced.

Even at the one point in history where he did what in one sense was the hardest thing for God to do, “not spare his own Son” (Romans 8:32), God was free and doing what pleased him. Paul says that the self-sacrifice of Jesus in death was “a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2). The greatest sin, and the greatest death, and the hardest act of God was, in some profound way, pleasing to the Father.

And on his way to Calvary, Jesus himself had legions of angels at his disposal. “No one takes [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord” (John 10:18) — of his own good pleasure — “for the joy that is set before him,” as it says in Hebrews 12:2. At the one point in the history of the universe where Jesus looked trapped, he was totally in charge doing precisely what he pleased — dying to glorify his Father in justifying the ungodly, like you and me.

So, let us stand in awe and wonder. And let us tremble that not only our praises of God’s sovereignty, but also our salvation through the death of Christ for us, hang on this: “Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.”

Happy New blessed Month of September 2026

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY AUGUST 31, 2026.

SUBJECT : GODLINESS IS PROFITABLE FOR ALL THINGS!

Memory verse: "For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” (First Timothy 4 vs 8.)

READ: Mark 10 vs 29 - 30:

10:29: So Jesus answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My sake, and the gospel's,

10:30: who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time—houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions—and in the age to come, eternal life.

INTIMATION:

Godliness is to be devoutful; it is that piety which is characterized by a Godward attitude. It is doing that which is well-pleasing to God. The power to lead a godly life comes from God. God allows us to be partakers of His divine nature (Second Peter 1 vs 3) in order to keep us from sin and help us live for Him. When we are born again, God, by His Spirit, empowers us with His own goodness. 

In godliness there is great reward. The apostle Paul, in his letter to Timothy (his true son in faith) noted that godliness is profitable unto all things both here, and in eternity. The benefits of loving God is here now, and in the future. However, you can’t follow God if you don’t love Him. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.” (John 14 vs 23.) Imagine where you have God the Father and the Son make their home with you! Life definitely will be at its best.

Jesus told the disciples that no follower of Him will ever lose anything at the end. For whatever loss you may suffer in following Him, you will undoubtedly recover several times over at the end. Knowing all these, what will ever stop anybody from following Him. Godliness is key to spiritual growth and personal fulfillment. We should honor God and center our desires on Him, and we should be content with what God is doing in our lives.

Godliness cannot be possible in the life of a believer without the help of Christ. We can’t please God on our own; we must depend on Christ, and His divine nature. As a man, Jesus lived a perfect life, and so He is a perfect example of how to live. As God, Jesus gives us the power to do what is right. It is possible to live godly life—through following Christ. 

Because we don’t have the resources to be truly godly. God allows us to be partakers of His divine nature in order to keep us from sin and help us live for Him. When we are born again, God by His Spirit empowers us with His own goodness. 

God has supplied us with everything in this life that is necessary for living according to His directions and for developing a nature that prepares us for eternal dwelling. One of these things certainly includes the Word of God. It is through the Word that we learn how to conduct our lives according to His Will. The Word is certainly the guide that we must follow in order to be certain concerning the conduct of our lives in godly behavior and living. 

Though bodily exercise is not wrong, however, focusing on the admiration of the flesh as opposed to concentration on the spiritual development of the inner man is profitable only a little because our physical health is susceptible to disease and injury, Therefore, we should concentrate more on exercising the soul unto godly health than on our physical body. Godly health profit is not only in this life, but also in the life to come. Those who focus continually on the flesh, have turned their thinking inward to themselves, and not on that which will dwell throughout eternity. 

Godliness must be expressed in our behavior, not just in appearance. A pious or godly look can be deceitful. The appearance of godliness includes; going to church, knowing Christian doctrine, using Christian cliches, and following a community’s Christian traditions. Such practices can make a person look good, but if the inner attitudes of belief, love, and worship are lacking, the outer appearance is meaningless. The apostle Paul warned us not to be deceived by people who only appear to be Christians at first, but their daily ungodly behaviors will give them away. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of godliness, exercising myself in my inner man for spiritual growth, godly living. Give and me the grace to follow You to the end, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Lion and the Lamb

 The Lion and the Lamb

“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.” (Matthew 12:18–21, quoting Isaiah 42)

The Father’s very soul exults with joy over the servant-like meekness and compassion of his Son.

When a reed is bent and about to break, the Servant will tenderly hold it upright until it heals. When a wick is smoldering and has scarcely any heat left, the Servant will not pinch it off, but cup his hand and blow gently until it burns again.

Thus the Father cries, “Behold, my Servant in whom my soul delights!” The worth and beauty of the Son come not just from his majesty, nor just from his meekness, but from the way these mingle in perfect proportion.

When the angel cries out in Revelation 5:2, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” the answer comes back, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

God loves the strength of the Lion of Judah. This is why he is worthy in God’s eyes to open the scrolls of history and unfold the last days.

But the picture is not complete. How did the Lion conquer? The next verse describes his appearance: “And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Jesus is worthy of the Father’s delight not only as the Lion of Judah, but also as the slain Lamb.

This is the peculiar glory of Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son — the stunning mingling of majesty and meekness.