HUMILITY ENGENDERS GOD’S GRACE AND EXALTATION!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY AUGUST 02, 2022.

SUBJECT: HUMILITY ENGENDERS GOD’S GRACE AND EXALTATION!

Memory verse: "Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God so that He may exalt you at the proper time.” (First Peter 5 vs 6.) 

READ: James 4 vs 4 - 8:

4:4: Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

4:5: Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?

4:6: But He gives more grace. Therefore He says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

4:7: Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

4:8: Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.

INTIMATION:

Humidity produces God’s grace and exaltation. God’s grace is extended toward those who have humbly submitted to Him (Romans 5 vs 20). Those who are arrogant will not submit their lives to the will of God. They resist submission, and thus, God resists giving His grace to them in order that they might be saved. Being humble involves having a true perspective of oneself. It does not mean you should put yourself down. Truly humble people compare themselves only with Christ, realizing their sinfulness, and understanding their limitations. On the other hand, they also recognize their gifts and strength and are willing to use them as Christ directs. Humility is not self-degradation; it is realistic self-assessment and commitment to serve. It means proper respect for God.

Obedience to God begins with humility. When we look at creation, we often feel small by comparison. To respect God’s majesty, we must compare ourselves to His greatness. This is a healthy way to get back to reality. We must believe that His way is better than our own. We may not always understand His ways of working, but by humbly obeying, we will receive His blessings. We must remember that (1) God’s ways are best; (2) God wants our obedience more than anything else; (3) God can use anything to accomplish His purposes.

Since God will not save the arrogant, the apostle James plea is that the first step in repentance must be to submit to the will of God. Only through the spirit of submission is God able to mold the demeanor of the obedient for eternal dwelling. Since God will resist those who are proud, it is imperative that one submits to the will of God. When one submits to God’s will, he or she will be lifted up. However, we must first recognize the sovereignty of God over all things before we will humbly submit to His will. 

The proud person will seek to rule his own life. They take little account of their weaknesses and do not anticipate stumbling blocks. They think they are above the frailties of common people. In that state of mind they are easily tripped up. In thinking that he or she has his or her life in control, the proud person usually tries to bear all his or her burdens without asking for the help of others. He tries to walk alone. Ironically, proud people seldom realize that pride is their problem, although everyone around them is well aware of it. The humble person, however, who has cast his or her burdens on the shoulders of God, will find peace and security in the care of God.

Let us not loose sight of the end result of all our humility and self-sacrifice; a joyous banquet with our Lord! God never asks us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He never asks us to give up something good unless he plans to replace it with something even better. Jesus is not calling us to join Him in a labor camp but in a feast—the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19 vs 6 - 9), when God and His beloved church will be joined forever.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of humility that I will cast myself upon You, knowing that I have no power of my own to accomplish much without You, give me the grace I need to live for You all the days of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Afraid of Death No More

 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

How does Christ deliver us from the fear of death and set us free to live with the kind of loving abandon that can “let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also”?

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood . . .

The term “children” is taken from the previous verse and refers to the spiritual offspring of Christ, the Messiah. These are also the “children of God.” In other words, in sending Christ, God has the salvation of his “children” especially in view. “Since the children share in flesh and blood . . . ”

he himself likewise partook of the same [flesh and blood] . . .

The Son of God, who existed before the incarnation as the eternal Word (John 1:1), took on flesh and blood, and clothed his deity with humanity. He became fully man and remained fully God.

that through death . . .

The reason Christ became human was to die. As preincarnate God, he could not die for sinners. But united to flesh and blood, he could. His aim was to die. Therefore, he had to be born human, mortal.

that he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil . . .

In dying, Christ defanged the devil. How? By covering all our sin (Hebrews 10:12). This means that Satan has no legitimate grounds to accuse us before God. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33). On what grounds does he justify? Through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:14; Romans 5:9).

Satan’s ultimate weapon against us is our own sin. If the death of Jesus takes it away, the chief weapon the devil has is taken out of his hand. In that sense, he is rendered powerless.

and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

So, we are free from the fear of death. God has justified us. There is only future grace in front of us. Satan cannot overturn that decree. And God means for our ultimate safety to have an immediate effect on our lives. He means for the happy ending to take away the slavery and fear of the present.

Our Weakness Reveals His Worth

 

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9)

God’s design for suffering is that it should magnify Christ’s worth and power. This is grace, because the greatest joy of Christians is to experience Christ magnified in our lives.

When Paul was told by the Lord Jesus that his “thorn in the flesh” would not be taken away, he supported Paul’s faith by explaining why. The Lord said, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). God ordains that Paul be weak so that Christ might be seen as strong on Paul’s behalf.

If we feel and look self-sufficient, we will get the glory, not Christ. So, Christ chooses the weak things of the world “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:29). And sometimes he makes seemingly strong people weaker so that the divine power will be the more evident.

We know that Paul experienced this as grace because he rejoiced in it: “Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9–10).

Living by faith in God’s grace means being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus. Therefore, faith will not shrink back from what reveals and magnifies all that God is for us in Jesus. That is what our own weakness and suffering are meant to do.

WHEN GRACE IS DENIED US!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY AUGUST 01, 2022.

SUBJECT: WHEN GRACE IS DENIED US! 

Memory verse: "And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in Me." (Matthew 1I vs 6.) 

READ: Philippians 2 vs 14 - 16:

2:14: Do all things without complaining and disputing.

2:15: that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,

2:16:holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain.

INTIMATION:

Grace is denied us due to our bad attitudes such as short-lived gratitude, complaining, murmuring, seeking sympathy, self-pity, grumbling, fault-finding, nit-picking, jealousy, envy. Ignorance—not knowing enough to call on the Lord, asking Him to pour out His grace in time of need, and so on. Many times the reason we are not able to tap into the grace of God is simply because our attitude is all wrong. Such attitudes can never mix with grace. Many times the mistake we make is griping and fussing from daylight to dark, at the same time we are trying to activate the power of God in our life to help us solve a problem. You and I cannot expect God to intervene on our behalf in a situation if we are constantly displaying unacceptable attitudes before Him.

There is no way to receive God's grace while seeking sympathy from others or fellowshipping with self-pity. God will heal our wound if we don't seek others to nurse them. Many times we want the power of God to come upon us and solve some problem for us, but at the same time we want all our friends to feel sorry for us. Seeking pity becomes more important to us than seeking God’s grace to take us over. For instance, if we are having money problems, we may go into our prayer closet and cry out to the Lord, "O Father, please help me. I'm over my head financially, and I need Your help so bad. I'm trusting You to help me, because without You I have no hope. Lord, You are the only One who can save me!"

Then, as soon as prayer time is over, you get on the phone telling your friends, co-workers, and relations, how tight it is for you and family, how hard you have worked and nothing is happening, how your husband or wife has not been helping and is idle, how underprivileged you are, how nobody is helping you, on and on. You want God to help you, but you also want everybody else to feel sorry for you. 

It is not wrong to share your burdens in a balanced way and with right motives. But beware of seeking pity. God never leads us where He cannot keep us. His grace is always sufficient for us in any and every circumstances of life. There is no sense in our griping and complaining, worrying and finagling, constantly trying to figure out things, working ourselves up into a stew and getting all frustrated and confused. If we do, that shows that we have no faith at all in God's abiding grace. If we want to receive God's grace, we have got to learn to depend upon Him totally and not upon others' sympathy or our own self-pity. 

As human beings, believers and unbelievers, we are subject to selfishness and ingratitude. We can pray and believe God for something, and even be very thankful and grateful for it when we receive it. But it doesn't take us very long and we are no longer thankful and grateful for them, but actually come to complain about them. We should be grateful and thankful to God always. In the event of our desiring something more, we then go to the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of grace and supplication, which is the power of God coming into our life to meet evil tendency that we have, and help us solve every problem that we encounter, as well as helping us institute any changes we desire.

As an example of how quickly and easily we can fall prey to a bad attitude, is inherent in the following illustrations: You are believing God for the fruit of the womb, and thankful and grateful when you got pregnant and delivered to a baby. In a few years you are griping and complaining and questioning God for giving you "a stubborn child." Or you are praying, fasting, and believing God for husband or wife, and soon God showed up and the partner came. A few years down the road, you are complaining of your husband or wife, questioning God why He had allowed this partner into your life. 

It is noteworthy that this kind of bad or negative attitude was the major problem that caused the nation of Israel to wonder in the wilderness for forty years before entering the Promised land, in a journey that should have lasted forty days. God calls it unbelief. Learn to trust God in all things, not being anxious for anything, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, presenting your problems or concerns to God.

Prayer: Abba Father, with You all things are possible, and there is nothing difficult for You including my problems and concerns. Forever my trust and confidence is in You, even when I am at my wits’ end. I pray that nothing will ever take away my focus on and trust in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

GRACE INHIBITORS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 31, 2022.

SUBJECT: GRACE INHIBITORS!

Memory verse: "And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matthew 11 vs 6.) 

READ: Psalm 37 vs 8 - 9; 39 vs 1 - 2; Philippians 2 vs 14 - 15:

Psalm 37:8: Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; Do not fret—it only causes harm.

37:9: For evil doers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, they shall inherit the earth.

39:1: I said, “I will guard my ways, lest I sin with my tongue; I will restrain my mouth with a muzzle, while the wicked are before me.”

39:2: I was mute with silence, I held my peace even from good; and my sorrow was stirred up.

Philippians 2:14: Do all things without complaining or disputing,

2:15: that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world.

INTIMATION:

There are several things that can keep us from receiving the grace of God. One of these is ignorance, not knowing enough to call on the Lord, asking Him to pour out His grace in time of need. The prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” (Hosea 4 vs 6.)

Others are our attitudinal problems; worrying, complaining, murmuring, anger etc. They can never mix with grace. Many times the mistake we make is griping and fussing from daylight to dark, at the same time we are trying to activate the power of God in our life to help us solve our problems. Many times the reason we are not able to tap into the grace of God is simply because our attitude is all wrong. We cannot expect God to intervene on our behalf in a situation if we are constantly grumbling, angry with ourselves, or with others.

Fault-finding, complaining, murmuring, nit-picking, jealousy and envy. All these bad attitudes are very destructive emotions. They reveal a lack of faith in God—believing that God loves us and is in control. We should not do all that. Instead, we should trust in God, giving ourselves to Him for His use and safekeeping. When you dwell on your problems, you will become anxious and angry. But if you concentrate on God and His goodness, you will find peace and inner strength to tarry.

Like King David, resolve to always keep your tongue from sin; not complaining about anything to anybody, even when you have reasons to complain. Instead take your complaints directly to God. We all have complaints about our job, finances, and other unfavorable situations in our lives, but complaining to others may make them think that God cannot take care of you. It may also look as if you blame God for your troubles, and it may result into your turning away from Him. Take your complaints directly to God, turn to Him in times of troubles, for only Him can take it and provide an answer.

There is no way to receive God's grace while seeking sympathy from others or fellowshipping with self-pity. God will heal our wound if we don't seek others to nurse them. Many times we want the power of God to come upon us and solve some problem for us, but at the same time we want all our friends to feel sorry for us. For instance, if we are having financial problems, we may go into our prayer closet and cry out to the Lord, "O Father, please help me. I'm in over my head financially, and I need Your help so bad. I'm trusting You to help me, because without You I have no hope. Lord, You are the only One who can save me!"

Then, as soon as prayer time is over, you get on the phone telling your friends, co-workers, and relations, how tight it is for you and family, how hard you have worked and nothing is happening, how your husband or wife has not been helping and is idle, how underprivileged you are, how nobody is helping you, on and on. You want God to help you, but you also want everybody else to feel sorry for you. If we want to receive God's grace, we have got to learn to depend upon Him totally and not upon others' sympathy or our own self-pity. 

It is not wrong to share your burdens in a balanced way and with right motives. But beware of seeking pity. God never leads us where He cannot keep us. His grace is always sufficient for us—in any and every circumstances of life. There is no sense in our griping and complaining, worrying and finagling, constantly trying to figure out things, working ourselves up into a stew and getting all frustrated and confused. If we do, it shows that we have no faith at all in God's abiding grace.

Our lives should be characterized by moral purity, patience, and peacefulness, so that we will “shine as lights” in a dark and depraved world. A transformed life is an effective witness to the power of God’s Word, and a magnet for His grace. Don’t let dissensions snuff out your light. Shine out for God. 

Prayer: Abba Father, the earth is Yours and all its fullness. My needs are known to You from the very beginning because You are my Maker. My sufficiency is in You. Engrace me with the right attitude of total dependence on You in all things, in Jesus’ Name I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Suffering That Strengthens Faith

 

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. (James 1:2–3)

Strange as it may seem, one of the primary purposes of being shaken by suffering is to make our faith more unshakable.

Faith is like muscle tissue: if you stress it to the limit, it gets stronger, not weaker. That’s what James means here. When your faith is threatened and tested and stretched to the breaking point, the result is greater capacity to endure. He calls it steadfastness.

God loves faith so much that he will test it to the breaking point so as to keep it pure and strong. For example, he did this to Paul according to 2 Corinthians 1:8–9,

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.

The words “but that was to” show that there was a purpose in this extreme suffering: it was in order that — for the purpose that — Paul would not rely on himself and his resources, but on God — specifically the promised grace of God in raising the dead.

God so values our wholehearted faith that he will, graciously, if necessary, take away everything else in the world that we might be tempted to rely on — even life itself. His aim is that we grow deeper and stronger in our confidence that he himself will be all we need.

He wants us to be able to say with the psalmist, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Psalm 73:25–26).

THE GRACE TO LIVE HOLY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JULY 30, 2022.

SUBJECT: THE GRACE TO LIVE HOLY!

Memory verse: "For God did I not call us to uncleanness but in holiness.” (First Thessalonians 4 vs 7.) 

READ: First Peter 1 vs 13 - 16:

1:13: Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

1:14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;

1:15: but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 

1:16: because it is written, “Be Holy, For I am holy.”

INTIMATION:

Grace, as undeserved (unmerited) favor, is one aspect of grace, we are probably most accustomed to hearing about, and it is wonderful. But we have also seen that grace is power—the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives—that enables us overcome our problems. It is the power of God available to meet our needs without cost to us. There is nothing more powerful than grace, and it is received by believing rather than through human effort.

What is holiness? Holiness is being "separated to God,"—being consecrated or set aside for sacred use. It is standing apart from sin and evil. It is a separation that should result in "conduct befitting those so separated." It is the characteristics or nature of God, especially the third person of the "Trinity." 

Holiness is a demand on us by God. We are to separate ourselves from the world's sinful values, and be devoted to God's desire rather than our own, and carry His love and mercy into the world. God's plan for us ab initio, is to be like Him, hence His creating us in His own image and after His likeness (Genesis 1 vs 26). He wanted us to live like Him. Unfortunately, sin separated us from Him. In His love, mercy and grace, He sent His Son, as a propitiation for our sins (First John 4 vs 10), and through His blood reconciled us back to Himself, to live for Him and be like Him. 

But while God wants us to be holy, He realizes our weakness and inability. He knows that without help we can never be what He desires for us to be or wants us to do. That is why He has sent His Spirit to help us to fulfill His design and purpose for us. Jesus has gone to prepare a place for us, and the Holy Spirit has been sent to prepare us for that place. That is not a Scripture, but it is scriptural, that is, a truth based on the Word of God. This process through which the Holy Spirit makes us holy, or leads us into holiness is called sanctification. 

Sanctification therefore, refers to the process that God uses to do a work in us by His Holy Spirit to make us more and more holy until finally we become just like His Son Jesus. It is God's grace (the power of the Holy Spirit) we receive that enables us to meet the need of sanctification—the transformation process to holiness.

In Hebrews 10 vs 14, the Bible says, "For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." We have been made perfect, yet we are being sanctified (made holy). Through His death and resurrection, Christ, once for all, made His believers perfect in God's sight. At the same time He is making them holy (progressively cleansed and set apart for His special use) in their daily pilgrimage here. We should not be surprised, ashamed or shocked that we still need to grow. God is not finished with us yet.

Sanctification is a progressive venture. The finality of that process will never occur while we are in these earthly bodies. But we don't need to be concerned about that. The only thing we need to be concerned about is progress. The question we must ask ourselves is, “Are we making progress toward holiness, are we cooperating with the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to do what He wants to do in our lives?” 

As believers we are not to be anxious about holiness or the process of sanctification ('be anxious for nothing' (Philippians 4 vs 6)), but we are to be serious about it. We are to recognize that it is God's Will for us. We are to desire and thirst for it with all our hearts, and sincerely ask God for it in our fellowship with Him. We are to make every effort to cooperate with the Holy Spirit Who is working to bring it to pass in us day by day.

Prayer: Abba Father, in Your loving kindness, and the riches of Your grace You saved us from the bondage of sin and Satan to live for You, and be like You. I thirst for the endowment of Your Spirit of grace for my sanctification, to lead a holy life as You desire, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!