Help My Unbelief

 

For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. (Romans 12:3)

In the context of this verse, Paul is concerned that people were thinking of themselves “more highly than [they] ought to think.” His final remedy for this pride is to say that not only are spiritual gifts a work of God’s free grace in our lives, but so also is the very faith with which we use those gifts. “. . . each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.”

This means that every possible ground of boasting is taken away from us. How can we boast if even the qualification for receiving gifts is also a gift?

This truth has a profound impact on how we pray. Jesus gives us the example in Luke 22:31–32. Before Peter denies him three times Jesus says to him, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”

Jesus prays for Peter’s faith to be sustained even through the sin of denial, because he knows that God is the one who gives faith. So we should pray the way Jesus did — for ourselves and for others that God would sustain our faith.

Thus, the man with the epileptic son cried out, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24). This is a good prayer. It acknowledges that without God we cannot believe as we ought to believe.

Let us pray daily, “O Lord, thank you for my faith. Sustain it. Strengthen it. Deepen it. Don’t let it fail. Make it the power of my life, so that in everything I do, you get the glory as the great Giver. Amen.”

GOD’S GREATEST COMMANDMENTS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JUNE 12, 2021.

SUBJECT: GOD’S GREATEST COMMANDMENTS! 

Memory verse: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him." (John 14 vs 21.)

READ: Matthew 22 vs 37 - 40:

22:37: Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 

22:38: This is the first and great commandments."

22:39:  And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

22:40: On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

INTIMATION:

The “Ten Commandments” of God are all relationship based; our relationship with God, and six our relationship with others. Keeping God's commandments is the true demonstration of your love for Him. When you love God, you keep His commandments, and Jesus reciprocates by manifesting Himself in you. An intimate relationship is what God desires from us. It is the most outstanding truth in the universe - that our Creator wants to fellowship with us. 

God is love, and He made us to love us, hence He created us in His own image and after His likeness. He longs for us to love Him back. God says, I don't want you rituals (sacrifice), I want your love; I don't want your offerings, I want you to know Me and Love Me. (See Hosea 6 vs 6.) God deeply loves us and desires our love in return. He longs for us to know Him and spend time with Him. This is why learning to love God and be loved by Him should be the greatest objective of our lives. Nothing else comes close in importance. Jesus called this the greatest commandment. 

Jesus said that love for your neighbor is the second greatest commandment. Jesus summarized it in what is commonly known as the Golden Rule; “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” In many religions, it is stated negatively, “Don’t do to others what you don’t want done to you.” Jesus made it more significant by stating it positively. It is not difficult to refrain from harming others; it is much more difficult to take the initiative in doing good for them. The Golden Rule, as Jesus formulated it, is the foundation of active goodness and mercy, the kind of love God shows to us every day. 

The apostle James also called it “The Royal Law.” (James 2 vs 8), which was given by our great King and Messiah Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved loved you.” (John 15 vs 12.) Jesus demonstrated His love for us by giving up His life for us so that we can live. While we are still sinners He died for us. He was rich but He became poor that we might through His poverty became rich. What an awesome show of love.

By fulfilling these two commands, a person keeps all the other commandments of God. They summarize the Ten Commandments and the other Old Testament moral laws. When you love God completely and care for others as you care for yourself, then you have fulfilled the intent of the Commandments and laws. According to Jesus, these two commandments summarize all God’s laws. Therefore, if we truly love God and our neighbor, we will naturally keep the commandments. 

We should look at God’s law positively; rather than worrying about all we should do, we should concentrate on all we can do to show our love for God and others. Let them rule your thoughts, decisions, and actions. When you are uncertain about what to do, ask yourself which course of action best demonstrates love for God and love for others.

To demonstrate love for your neighbor, Jesus said: “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. “ (Matthew 5 vs 44 - 45.)

Jesus says that we should love our enemies. If you love your enemies and treat them well, you are truly showing that Jesus is Lord of your life. This is possible for those who give themselves fully to God, because only He can deliver people from natural selfishness. We should trust the Holy Spirit to help us show love to those for whom we may not feel love.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of love and selflessness, that I may love You completely and keep Your commands, and also love my neighbor as you loved me. Give me the grace to do to others as I will like them to do to me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

HOLY SPIRIT OUR HELPER IN HOLINESS!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JUNE 11, 2021.

SUBJECT : HOLY SPIRIT OUR HELPER IN HOLINESS!

Memory verse: ""Sanctify them by Your truth, Your word is truth." (John 17 vs 17.) 

READ: John 14 vs 15 - 18; 25 - 26:

14:15: If ye love Me, keep My commandments.

14:16: And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—

14:17: the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him: but you know Him; for He dwells with you and will be in you.

14:18: I will not leave you orphans: I will come to you.

14:25: These things I have spoken to you while being present with you.

14:26: But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

INTIMATION:

A follower of Christ becomes holy (sanctified) through believing the Word of God. He or she has already accepted forgiveness through Christ's sacrificial death. But daily application of God's Word has a purifying effect on our minds and hearts. Scripture points out sin, motivates us to confess, renews our relationship with Christ, and guides us back to the right path: "For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of heart." (Hebrews 4 vs 12.)

We cannot become holy on our own, but God gives us the Holy Spirit to help us obey and to give us power to overcome sin. We rely on God's power to free us from the grip of sin. Don't use the excuse that you can't help slipping into sin to continue in your sinful lifestyle, for God has made available His power, through the Holy Spirit, to overcome our evil desires. There is life-changing power in the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is the embodiment of that power of God. The Holy Spirit convicts people of sin, and also assures them of the truth of the gospel. The Holy Spirit is the power of our new lives in Christ. He begins a lifelong process of change, making us more like Jesus. 

A message about holiness without a message about empowerment simply produces pressure. Because it causes people to go out and start trying to live a holy life without knowing how to do what they know they should be doing. If we don't know about the power of the Holy Spirit to help us do what He has revealed to us to do and not do, we would be overcome. 

For insistence, we see the commands, such as in First Peter 1 vs 14 - 16, “an obedient children not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy for I am holy,” which about not conforming to the former lusts that governed us before, when we were in ignorance and didn't know the requirements of the Gospel, and about being holy even as God is holy, we then realize out inability to do all that without help. Hence the need to go back to our empowerer, the Holy Spirit. 

If you study the subject of holiness, for instance, you will learn that there is no such as a person becoming holy apart from a great involvement with the Holy Spirit in his or her life. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is the power of God given to us to do in us and through us and for us and to us what we could never do on our own.

Jesus said in John 15 vs 5, "....Without Me you can do nothing." We are not capable of anything in our own power or strength, "....For by strength no man shall prevail" (First Samuel 2 vs 9). To make available His power to help mankind, God became a man in Jesus so that Jesus could die for our sins. Jesus rose from the dead to offer salvation to all people through spiritual renewal and rebirth. When Jesus ascended into heaven, His physical presence left the earth, but He promised to send the Holy Spirit so that His spiritual presence would still be among humankind. All believers have the power of the Holy Spirit available to them. It's only the power of God in the Holy Spirit given to us can the believers have the strength to do all things (Philippians 4 vs 13).

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus Christ our Messiah, and the Holy Spirit our Helper. For without the Holy Spirit empowerment I am capable of doing nothing. Give me the grace to always listen and obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit at all times, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Faith for the Future

 

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

If “all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus],” then to trust him now in the present is to believe that his promises will come true.

Those are not two separate faiths — trusting him, and believing in his promises. Trusting Jesus — believing in Jesus for salvation — means believing that he keeps his word. Being satisfied in the crucified and risen Jesus includes the belief that at every future moment, to all eternity, nothing will separate us from his love, or keep him from working all things together for our good. And that “good” is ultimately seeing and savoring the beauty and worth of God in Christ as our supreme Treasure.

The confidence that this all-satisfying good will be there for us forever is based on all the glorious grace of the past, especially the grace that God did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all (Romans 8:32).

We need to taste now the spiritual beauty of God in all his past achievements — especially the death and resurrection of Christ for our sins — and in all his promises. Rooted in this past grace, our confidence and trust lay hold on all that God himself will be for us in the next moment, and in the next month, and in the endless ages of eternity.

It is he and he alone who will satisfy the soul in the future. And we must be sure of this future, if we are to live the radical Christian lives that Christ calls us to live here and now.

If our present enjoyment of Christ now — our present faith — does not have in it the Yes to all God’s promises, it will not embrace the power for radical service in the strength that God (in every future moment) will supply (1 Peter 4:11).

My prayer is that reflecting like this on the nature of faith in future grace will help us avoid superficial, oversimplified statements about believing the promises of God. It is a deep and wonderful thing.

When Reason Serves Rebellion

 

The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!” (Proverbs 22:13)

This is not what I expected the proverb to say. I would have expected it to say, “The coward says, ‘There is a lion outside! I shall be killed in the streets!’” But it says, “sluggard,” not “coward.” So, the controlling emotion here is laziness, not fear.

But what does laziness have to do with the danger of a lion in the street? We don’t usually say, “This man is too lazy to go do his work because there is a lion outside.”

The point is that the sluggard creates imaginary circumstances to justify not doing his work, and thus shifts the focus from the vice of his laziness to the danger of lions. No one will approve his staying in the house all day just because he is lazy. But they might excuse him if there is a lion in the street.

One profound biblical insight we need to learn from this is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what we want. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right, even if they’re wrong.

This is what the sluggard is doing. He deeply desires to stay at home and not work. There is no good reason to stay at home. So, what does he do? Does he overcome his bad desire — his laziness? No, he uses his mind to create unreal circumstances to justify his desire.

Jesus said, “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil” (John 3:19). We love the darkness so that we can keep on doing what we want without exposure. In this condition, the mind becomes a factory of darkness — a fountain of half-truths, equivocations, sophistries, evasions, and lies — anything to protect the evil desires of the heart from exposure and destruction.

Consider and be wise.

KNOWING HIM GIVES YOU ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY JUNE 10, 2021.

SUBJECT : KNOWING HIM GIVES YOU ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE!

Memory verse: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17 vs 3.)

READ: First John 5 vs 20: 

5:20: And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

INTIMATION:

Knowing Him gives you eternal perspective, especially when you wholeheartedly understand the fact that you will spend eternity with Him! This simple yet deep revelation allows you to live every aspect of your life with an eternal mindset, giving way to your purpose. In our memory verse, Jesus tells us clearly here—by knowing God the Father Himself through His Son, Jesus Christ, you will get eternal life. It requires entering into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. When we admit our sin and turn away from it, Christ’s love lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

How incredible it is to know that God weaves His purpose and tasks for us into the reality of eternity! These factors should motivate us to partner with Him in changing nations far more than anything else. No amount of money or fame can ever compare with the promise of eternity and the calling He has prepared for us to advance His eternal Kingdom.

In reality, this life is just the introduction to eternity. How we live this brief span determines our eternal state. What we accumulate on earth has no value in gaining eternal life. Even the highest social or civic honors cannot earn us entrance into heaven. When we don’t know Christ, we make decisions and choices as if there were no afterlife. Everyone should evaluate his or her life from eternal perspectives because not even the gain of the whole world can compare or equal the value placed on your soul and eternity with God.

Some people are repulsed by the idea of eternal life because their lives are miserable. But eternal life is not an extension of a person’s miserable, mortal life: eternal life is God’s life embodied in Christ given to all believers now as a guarantee that they will live forever. In eternal life there is no death, sickness, enemy, evil, or sin. Receive the new life in Christ by faith and begin to evaluate all that happens in life from eternal perspective. 

Always maintain an eternal perspective! Allow this to be an anchor for how you live your life and minister to others. Ask the Holy Spirit to help you keep the reality of eternity in your heart. Life is short no matter how many years we live. Don’t be deceived into thinking that you have lots of remaining time to live for Christ, to enjoy your loved ones, or to do what you know you should. Live for God today and everyday! Then, no matter when your life ends, you will have fulfilled God’s plan for you.

Jesus said, “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10 vs 39). This verse is a positive and negative statement of the same truth: Clinging to this life may cause us to forfeit the best from Christ in this world and in the next. The more we love this life’s rewards (leisure, power, popularity, financial security), the more we will discover how empty they really are—“both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up” (Second Peter 3 vs 10). Realizing that the earth and its works will be sometime useless, we should put our confidence in what is lasting and eternal and not be bound to earth and its treasures and pursuits. 

The best way to enjoy life, therefore, is to loosen our greedy grasp on earthly rewards so that we can be free to follow Christ; spending more time striving to develop Christ-like character rather than spending time piling up possessions. In doing so, we will inherit eternal life and begin at once to experience the benefits of following Him.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You, most precious Father, for the privilege of sonship, and spiritual wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of You, the hope of Your calling, and the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in the believers.Give me the grace, O Lord, to live for You, that I may obtain the crown of glory—eternal life with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

GOD IS THE FOUNT OF THE RESOURCES OF THE BELIEVER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 9, 2021.

SUBJECT : GOD IS THE FOUNT OF THE RESOURCES OF THE BELIEVER!

Memory verse: "But of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God—and righteousness and sanctification and redemption." (First Corinthians 1 vs 30.)

READ: Galatians 2 vs 20; Colossians 2 vs 9 - 10:

Galatians 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

Colossians 2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; 

2:10: and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. 

INTIMATION:

God is the fount of our resources as believers because He is the strength of our life. He is the source of, and the reason for our personal and living relationship with Christ. Our union and identification with Christ results in our having God's wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2 vs 3), possessing right standing with God (righteousness, Second Corinthians 5 vs 21), being sanctified (First Thessalonians 3 vs 3 -7), and having the penalty of our sins paid by Jesus (redemption, Mark 10 vs 45).

God is our ability. He is the Author and Finisher of our faith. We are partakers of His divine nature. His wisdom is given to us in Christ without measure, so we can safely say He is our ability. Jesus told His disciples, to wait in the city of Jerusalem until they are endued with power from on high (Luke 24 vs 49). The word "power" comes from the Greek word "dunamis." Some translations call it "ability." They were to tarry in Jerusalem until they received the ability of God.

In the new birth, we have become one with Christ, and His experiences are ours. Christian life began when, in unity with Christ, we died to our old life (See Romans 6 vs 5 - 11). And yet the focus of Christianity is not on dying but on living. Because we have been crucified with Christ, we have also been raised with Him (Romans 6 vs 5). Legally, we have been reconciled with God (Second Corinthians 5 vs 19) and are free to grow in Christ’s likeness (Romans 8 vs 29). And in our daily life, we have Christ’s resurrection power as we continue to fight sin (Ephesians 1 vs 19 - 20). We are no longer alone, for Christ lives in us—He is our power for living and our hope for the future (Colossians 1 vs 27).

Christ has come into the believer in His fullness; with all His completeness. The limitless One has come into the believer to take over. He gave His ability, His completeness. Now, we can understand John 1 vs 16 that says, "Of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace." 

All that the believer requires is to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. When we have spiritual wisdom and understanding, we will walk worthily of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, bearing fruit unto every good work and continually increasing in this exact, and perfect knowledge of God, strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power. (See Colossians 1 vs 9 - 13).

This new light has given me a new responsibility in the prayer life. I can understand now why He said, "Come boldly unto the Throne of Grace" into the Throne Room (Hebrews 4 vs 16), where He and the Father are seated together. I am not to come as a servant or a slave, but I am to come as a lover, a son. 

Now, prayer of course, is not going to be what it was before I knew who I am in Christ, and what my privileges are. Prayer is coming boldly in the Throne Room, in fellowship with our Father and the Son—our first born among many brethren, and putting Him into remembrance of His promises—His Word, contending together with Him, and stating my case clearly to obtain His promises (Isaiah 43 vs 26).

Now, the believer should boldly go to sit with Him in the Council room, call His attention to His or her needs, and also present the needs of the brethren who are sitting in the darkness of sense knowledge. While such brethren pray for faith and seek for power, as a believer you ought to know that you are a child, beloved; that you have your place in the Father's presence.

Prayer: Abba Father, I will ever remain grateful for the privilege of my sonship with You, I pray that You may endue me with spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of You, and my eyes of understanding being continually enlightened that I may know the hope of a Your calling, and the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!