WAIT FOR GOD’S APPOINTED AND PERFECT TIME!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JUNE 25, 2023.

SUBJECT : WAIT FOR GOD’S APPOINTED AND PERFECT TIME!

Memory verse: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie: though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.” (Habakkuk 2 vs 3.) 

READ: Daniel 8 vs 16 - 19:

8:16: And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of the Ulai, who called, and said, “Gabriel make this man understand the vision.”

8:17: So he came near where I stood, and when he came I was afraid and fell on my face; but he said to me, “Understand, son of man, that the vision refers to the time of the end.”

8:18: Now, as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep with my face to the ground; but he touched me, and stood me upright.

8:19: And He said, “Look, I am making known to you what shall happen in the latter time of the indignation, for at the appointed time the end shall be.

INTIMATION:

God is our Creator, and is 'All-Knowing’—perfect in knowledge. The end of all things are known to Him from the beginning (Isaiah 46 vs 10.). Even when we are yet unformed in our mother’s womb, He knew us and everything about us. God created all things, and planned all things according to His purpose and timing; "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”

(Ecclesiastes 3 vs 1). And at the fullness of His time—at His appointed time—He will cause things to happen according to His predetermined purposes. For this reason, He is always on time.

God is perfect (Matthew 5 vs 48), and consequently, everything about Him is perfect. 

He knows us better than we know ourselves, and He knows us perfectly. We may sometimes wonder if God will ever respond to our prayers, but we must never doubt Him or give up hope. At the right time He will respond. Trust His judgement and trust that He has your best interests in mind (Jeremiah 29 vs 11). God is omnipresent—He is present everywhere. Consequently, you can never escape from His Spirit. 

From our perspective, God sometimes seems slow to intervene on our behalf. But what might appear slow to us is good timing from God’s perspective. It is easy to become impatient while waiting for God to act, but we must never give up on Him. When God is silent and you are in deep anguish, be patient and know that “all things work together for good to those that love God, to those who are the called according to His “ (Romans 8 vs 28). All you need do is sit down and review your life; what God has done for you, and also review the great acts of God throughout biblical history. This will remind you that God is at work, not only in history, but also in your life today.

God will act when He is ready. For instance, children have difficulty grasping the concept of time. “It’s not time yet” is not a reason they easily understand because they only comprehend the present. And as His children, and as limited human beings, we can’t understand God’s perspective about time. We want everything now, unaware that God’s time is the best. When God is ready, He will do what needs to be done, not what we would like Him to do. We may be as impatient as children, but we must not doubt the wisdom of God’s timing. Wait for God to reveal His plan. Don’t take matters into your own hands.

God’s answer doesn’t always come the moment we want it. but God answers us when He knew the right time had come. God knows the best time to act. When you feel that God has forgotten you in your troubles, remember that God has a time schedule we can’t see. God may have seemed slow to you when in distress, and every day longed to be delivered. But God is not slow, He is just not on our timetable. God is not limited by time. It is easy for us to get discouraged when years pass and the world doesn’t get better. But for God, He can never be discouraged, and at the appointed time the change will come.

We sometimes wonder if God is able to see the future. But don’t assume that God has our limitations. God is completely unrestricted by time. Because He is eternal, we can depend on Him. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently for it, for surely it will take place, if God has assured about it. Of course, it isn’t easy to be patient but; “though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come.” (Habakkuk 2 vs 3.) We must trust God even when we don’t understand why events occur as they do.

For instance, who will imagine the Savior of the world working in a carpenter’s shop in a small town until He was 30 years old! It seems incredible that Jesus would have been content to remain in Nazareth all that time, but He patiently trusted His Father’s timing for His life and ministry. Like Jesus, we need to resist the temptation to jump ahead before receiving the Spirit’s direction. Are you waiting and wondering what your next step should be? Don’t jump ahead—trust in God’s time.

Jesus in His ministry walk on the earth, demonstrated God’s timing in events when His friend Lazarus was sick and died. He loved this family and often stayed with them. He knew their pain but did not respond immediately. His delay had a specific purpose. He said, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” (John 11 vs 14.) God’s timing, especially His delays, may make us think He is not answering or is not answering the way we want. But He will meet all our needs according to His perfect schedule and purpose (Philippians 4 vs 19.) Patiently await His timing. 

God is with us through every situation, in every trial; protecting, loving, guiding us (Psalm 46 vs 1; 59 vs 16), and has promised He would never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13 vs 5), and will be with us always, even up to the end of age (Matthew 28 vs 20). He knows and loves us completely. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my Faithful Companion, and Loving Father. I know You have the best plan and time for me. Let it be to me according to Your appointed and perfect timing, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Death Trap Called Covetousness

 Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. (1 Timothy 6:9)

Covetousness can destroy the soul in hell forever. 

The reason I am sure that this destruction is not some temporary financial fiasco, but final destruction in hell, is what Paul says three verses later in 1 Timothy 6:12. He says that covetousness is to be resisted with the fight of faith. Then he adds, “Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession.” What’s at stake in fleeing covetousness and fighting for contentment by faith in future grace is eternal life. 

So, when Paul says in 1 Timothy 6:9 that the desire to be rich plunges people into ruin, he isn’t saying that greed can mess up your marriage or your business (which it certainly can!). He is saying that covetousness can mess up your eternity. Or, as 1 Timothy 6:10 says at the end, “It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs” (literally: “impaled themselves on many pains”). 

God has gone the extra mile in the Bible to warn us mercifully that the idolatry of covetousness is a no-win situation. It’s a dead-end street in the worst sense of the word. It’s a trick and a deadly trap.

So, my word to you is the word of 1 Timothy 6:11: “Flee these things.” When you see it coming (in a television ad or a Christmas catalog or an Internet pop-up or a neighbor’s purchase), run from it the way you would run from a roaring, starving lion escaped from the zoo. “Take hold of the eternal life.”

SIN AND GOD’S FORGIVENESS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JUNE 24, 2023.

SUBJECT : SIN AND GOD’S FORGIVENESS!

Memory verse: "If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land." (Second Chronicles 7 vs 14.)

READ: Second Chronicles 6 vs 36 - 39:

6:36: When they sin against You, (for there is no one who does not sin), and You become angry with them, and deliver them to their enemies, and they take them captives to a land far or near;

6:37: yet  when they come to themselves in the land where they were carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to You in the land of their captivity, saying, ‘We have sinned, we have done wrong, and have committed wickedness’;

6:38: and when they return to You with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have been carried captives, and pray toward their land which You gave to their fathers, the city which You have chosen, and toward the temple which I have built for Your name:

6:39: then hear from the heaven Your dwelling place, their prayer and their supplications, and maintain their cause, and forgive Your people who have sinned against You.

INTIMATION:

Sin is a condition we all share, and we all should acknowledge it. The Bible makes it clear that no one is exempt from sin. The Scripture says, “What is man, that he should be clean? and he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight, How much less man, who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water!” (Job 15 vs 14 - 16.) 

No one but God is perfect, all of us stand guilty before Him (Romans 3 vs 23) and need His forgiveness. No matter how well we perform or how much we achieve compared to others, none of us can boast of his or her goodness when compared to God’s standard. God not only expects us to obey His laws, but He wants us to love Him with all our heart. No one except Jesus Christ has done that perfectly. Because we all fall short, we must turn to Christ to save us (Romans 10 vs 9 - 11). 

The Scripture says, “For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.” (Ecclesiastes 7 vs 20.) No one can say I am pure from my sin. As soon as we confess our sin and repent, sinful thoughts and actions begin to creep back into our lives. We all need ongoing cleansing, moment by moment. Thank God for He provides forgiveness by His mercy when we ask for it. Make confession and repentance a regular part of your talks with God. Rely on Him moment by moment for the cleansing you need. 

The four conditions God has given us for forgiveness are: (1) Humble yourself by admitting your sins. Humbling yourself before the Lord is the first condition for seeking God’s forgiveness. God hears and dwells with the humble: “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy; “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (Isaiah 57 vs 15.) 

(2) Pray to God, ask for forgiveness. Prayer is to make supplication or petition to God. It is a call of love of the Father to come and fellowship with Him. Prayer is our need crying out for help with the voice of faith to the Father. Prayer therefore, is born out of the sense of need, and the assurance that the need will be met. In summary, prayer is God's Will and part of His program for us, to come before Him with our needs. 

(3) Seek God continually. To seek the Lord is to search for Him, and desire to know Him, even the more. It is God’s delight that we seek Him; The Lord said, “Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and did not forsake the ordinance of their God: they ask of Me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching God.” (Isaiah 58 vs 2). The Scripture says, “Seek the LORD and His strength, seek His face continually.” (First Chronicles 16 vs 11.) 

(4) Turn from sinful behavior. True repentance is more than talk—it is changed behavior. Turning from your sinful ways is actually acknowledging that your former ways are unacceptable, and you genuinely desire to change. True repentance also involves a commitment not to continue in sin. We wouldn’t be genuinely repenting from our sins if we planed to commit them again, and just wanted temporary forgiveness. We should also pray for strength to defeat temptation the next time we face it. 

God will answer our earnest prayers, and knowing we have a tendency to sin should keep us close to God, seeking His guidance and strength. When we realize we have sinned, we should quickly ask God for forgiveness and restoration. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so merciful; forgiving my sins and remembering them no more. I desire to be in fellowship with You always, and for the endowment of Your grace to live a purposeful life in line with Your Will, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

I Can Be Content in Every Circumstance

 

I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:11–13)

God’s provision of day-by-day future grace enables Paul to be filled or to be hungry, to prosper or suffer, to have abundance or go wanting.

“I can do all things” really means “all things,” not just easy things. “All things” means, “Through Christ I can hunger and suffer and be in want.” This puts the stunning promise of Philippians 4:19 in its proper light: “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.”

What does “every need of yours” mean in view of Philippians 4:11–12? It means “all that you need for God-glorifying contentment.” Which may include times of hunger and need. Paul’s love for the Philippians flowed from his contentment in God, and his contentment flowed from his faith in the future grace of God’s infallible provision to be all he needed in times of plenty and want.

It’s obvious then that covetousness is exactly the opposite of faith. It’s the loss of contentment in Christ so that we start to crave other things to satisfy the longings of our hearts which only the presence of God himself can satisfy. And there’s no mistaking that the battle against covetousness is a battle against unbelief in God’s promise to be all we need in every circumstance.

This is so clear in Hebrews 13:5. Watch how the author argues for our freedom from the love of money — freedom from covetousness — the freedom of contentment in God: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’” Faith in this promise — “I will never leave you” — breaks the power of all God-dishonoring desire — all covetousness.

Whenever we sense the slightest rise of covetousness in our hearts, we must turn on it and fight it with all our might using the weapons of this faith.

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THE NEED FOR CONFESSION OF SIN!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JUNE 23, 2023.

SUBJECT : THE NEED FOR CONFESSION OF SIN!

Memory verse: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (First John 1 vs 9.)

READ: Psalm 32 vs 5 - 6; Proverbs 28 vs 13::

Psalm 32:5: I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden.

32:6: I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You forgave the iniquity of my sin.

Proverbs 28:13: He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.

INTIMATION:

To confess our sin is to agree with God, acknowledging that He is right to declare what we have done as sinful and that we are wrong to desire or do it. It means affirming our intention of forsaking that sin in order to follow God more faithfully. The feeling of guilt cannot be disregarded by those who seek to be godly. Such people cannot continue to be living in the knowledge that they have deliberately sinned against God. Relief can only come when you acknowledge your sin, and ask for forgiveness from the Lord who only can forgive sin.

Honest confession should precede worship to the Lord because we cannot have a right relationship with God if we hold on to certain sins. And anything you do to honor God is an act of worship. However, reading and studying God’s Word should precede confession because God can show us where we are sinning. The psalmist said in Psalm 66 vs 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." When we refuse to repent or when we harbor and cherish certain sins, we place a wall between us and God. We may not be able to remember every sin we have ever committed, but our attitude should be one of confession and obedience. 

As imperfect being we are, we are always sinning; knowingly or unknowingly. Therefore, we need to continually be confessing our sins so as to receive forgiveness of our sins from the Lord, and to ensure continued fellowship with the Lord. As enumerated in our memory verse, God is so faithful that if we confess our sins, we are assured of His forgiveness and cleansing from all unrighteousness, and our fellowship with Him is restored.

Most believers are plagued by guilt; they may have committed a sin unknowingly; done something good with selfish intentions, failed to put their whole heart into a task, or neglected what they should have done. With an attitude of confession, we will always present ourselves to God as sinners that needs forgiveness. God fully and completely forgives us—even for those sins we do unknowingly.

We must take full responsibility, admit our wrong, and ask God for forgiveness. Many people want to add God and the benefits of Christianity to their lives without acknowledging their personal sin and guilt. But confession and repentance must come before receiving forgiveness. We must take full responsibility for our actions and confess them to God before we can expect Him to forgive us and continue His work in us.

God cannot be found by those who refuse to repent. It is not that God has hidden Himself from the sinner, but that the sinner with unrepentant heart seek to hide from God. God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able to endure, and thus one can always come to Him through repentance. (First Corinthians 10 vs 13.) When our sins are forgiven, we can stand boldly in His presence and make our petition. Therefore, it is to our own advantage that we ask for forgiveness of sins, so that our Heavenly Father can hear our prayers.

David confessed his sin and prayed, "Cleans me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins (Psalm 19 vs 12 - 13.) Presumptuous sins are the sins we commit unknowingly, or when we take certain things for granted; when we believe that something is true without proof. Most times we end up apologizing for the wrong done unwittingly.

Christ has made it possible for us to go directly to God for forgiveness. But confessing our sins to each other still has an important place in the life of the church—the Body of Christ. (1) If we have sinned against an individual, we must ask him or her to forgive us. (2) If our sin has affected the church, we must confess it publicly. (3) if we need loving support as we struggle with a sin, we should confess that sin to those who are able to provide that support. (4) If we doubt God’s forgiveness, after confessing a sin to Him, we may wish to confess that sin to a fellow believer for assurance of God’s pardon. In Christ’s kingdom, every believer is a priest to other believers (First Peter 2 vs 9.)

Prayer: Abba Father, I will stop at nothing to confess my sins to You, knowing that You are so faithful to forgive my sins and cleanse from all unrighteousness, that my fellowship with You is restored. Endue me with the spirit of humility and total obedience to You in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Faith Honors Him Whom It Trusts

 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith giving glory to God. (Romans 4:20)

Oh, how I long for God to be glorified in our pursuit of holiness and love. But God is not glorified unless our pursuit is empowered by faith in his promises. 

And the God who revealed himself most fully in Jesus Christ, who was crucified for our sins and raised for our justification (Romans 4:25), is most glorified when we embrace his promises with joyful firmness because they are bought by the blood of his Son. 

God is honored when we are humbled for our feebleness and failure, and when he is trusted for future grace. That’s the point of Romans 4:20 where Paul describes Abraham’s faith, “No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith giving glory to God.”

He grew strong in his faith, thus giving glory to God. Faith in God’s promises glorifies him as supremely wise and strong and good and trustworthy. So, unless we learn how to live by faith in the promises of God’s future grace, we may perform remarkable religious rigors, but not for God’s glory. 

He is glorified when the power to be holy comes through humble faith in future grace. 

Martin Luther said, “[Faith] honors him whom it trusts with the most reverent and highest regard, since it considers him truthful and trustworthy.” The trusted Giver gets the glory. 

My great desire is that we learn how to live for God’s honor. And that means living by faith in future grace, which, in turn, means battling unbelief in all the ways it rears its head.