WHAT PRAISE TO GOD IS AND DOES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY DECEMBER 17, 2024.

SUBJECT: WHAT PRAISE TO GOD IS AND DOES!

Memory verse: "I will praise You, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will tell of Your marvelous works." (Psalm 9 vs 1. )

READ: Psalm 149 vs 1 - 6:

149:1: Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, and His praise in the assembly of saints.

149:2: Let Israel rejoice in their Maker: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

149:3: Let them praise His name with the dance: let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.

149:4: For the LORD takes pleasure in His people: He will beautify the humble with salvation.

149:5: Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud on their beds.

149:6: Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;

INTIMATION:

Praise is expressing to God our appreciation and understanding of His worth. It is saying thank you for each aspect of His divine nature; His mercy, love, kindness, faithfulness etc. Our inward attitude becomes outward expression. Praise starts with a right understanding of God based on God’s own Word. Praise includes a growing reverence for who God is, which, in turn, imparts true wisdom to us. 

When we praise God, we help ourselves by expanding our awareness of who He is. Our worship should begin by acknowledging God’s love. Recalling God’s love and mercy will inspire you to worship Him daily. Praise God first, then you will be prepared to present your needs to Him. Praise God by singing, dancing, or playing musical instruments. God enjoys His people, and we should enjoy praising Him. 

Our praise should be focused on the good things God has done, is doing, and yet to do for us. It is easy to complain about life, but we have so many things to praise God for. For instance, He forgives our sins, heels our diseases, redeems us from death, crowns us with lovingkindness and tender mercies, satisfies our desires, and gives righteousness and justice. We receive all of these without deserving any of them. 

No matter how difficult your life’s journey, you can always count your blessings—past, present, and future. When you feel as though you have nothing for which to praise God, look at the aforstated list. In all of these instances, praising God is simply giving Him the recognition He deserves. One way we can define what we mean by praising God is to consider the end result. And the end result of giving God praise is to exalt Him and His name. 

Praise and thanksgiving should be a regular part of our routine, not reserved only for celebrations. Praise God continually, and you will find that you won’t take His blessings for granted. David made a vow to praise God each day. David continually praised God through both the good and difficult times of his life. 

Do you find something to praise God for each day? As you do you will find your heart elevated from daily distractions to lasting confidence. Beginning any task by praising God can inspire us to give Him our best. Develop the practice of giving praise to God, and you will experience greater joy and strength to face anything. 

Praise should be a sacrifice of our lips which we can offer anywhere, anytime. Prophet Hosea said, “Take away all iniquity; receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.” (Hoses 14 vs 2.)  We can also praise God in dance, prayer, studying God’s Word, proclamations, and the list goes on. No matter how we praise God, we must be sure to lift up His name above all else. “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods” (Psalm 96 vs 4.)

Praise takes our minds off our problems and shortcomings and helps us focus on God who is in control of all circumstances. Praise causes us to consider and appreciate God’s character. Praise lifts our perspective from the earthly to the heavenly. Praise prepares our hearts to receive God’s love and the power of His Holy Spirit. Praise expresses our gratitude to God, and from the depths of our gratitude, we must praise Him, thank Him, and tell others about Him. Praise leads us from individual meditation to corporate worship. 

Songs of praise focus our attention on God, give us an outlet for spiritual celebration, and remind us of God’s faithfulness and character. Whether you are experiencing a great victory or a major dilemma praises to God can have a positive effect on your attitude. Praise is not just a song about God, it is a song to God. In praising God we can use many word pictures such as rock, lamp, light, shield, and so on to portray God’s marvelous attributes. 

Praising God has several aspects to it. We praise God when we (1) Say thank you to Him for each attribute of His divine nature. As you read the Bible, look for other characteristics of God for which to thank Him. (2) Focus our hearts on God. Take one attribute of God, such as His mercy, then concentrate on it for an entire week in your meditation and prayer. (3) Thank God for His many gracious gifts to us. Make a list and count your blessing. (4) thank God for our relationship with Him. Through Christ you has been given the gift of salvation. Tell God afresh how mush you appreciate it.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are the only God, before You there is no God, with You there is no other God, and there will be no other God after You. You are the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last. There is none like You in heaven and on earth. I will praise You everyday of my life, and Your praise will never depart from my mouth. You are great, and greatly to be praised. May my praise come to You as a sweet smelling savor, acceptable to You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God’s Most Successful Setback

 God’s Most Successful Setback

Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9–11)

Christmas marked the beginning of God’s most successful setback. He has always delighted to show his power through apparent defeat. He makes tactical retreats in order to win strategic victories.

In the Old Testament, Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, was promised glory and power in his dream (Genesis 37:5–11). But to achieve that victory he had to become a slave in Egypt. And, as if that were not enough, when his conditions improved because of his integrity, he was made worse than a slave: a prisoner.

But it was all planned. Planned by God for his good and the good of his family, and eventually for the good of the whole world! For there in prison he met Pharaoh’s butler, who eventually brought him to Pharaoh, who put him over Egypt. And finally, his dream came true. His brothers bowed before him, and he saved them from starvation. What an unlikely route to glory! 

But that is God’s way — even for his Son. He emptied himself and took the form of a slave. Worse than a slave — a prisoner — and was executed. But like Joseph, he kept his integrity. “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow” (Philippians 2:9–10).

And this is God’s way for us too. We are promised glory — if we will suffer with him as it says in Romans 8:17. The way up is down. The way forward is backward. The way to success is through divinely appointed setbacks. They will always look and feel like failure.

But if Joseph and Jesus teach us anything this Christmas it is this: What Satan and sinful men meant for evil, “God meant it for good!” (Genesis 50:20).

You fearful saints fresh courage take

The clouds you so much dread

Are big with mercy and will break

In blessings on your head.

PROVIDENTIAL WORK OF GOD FOR US!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY DECEMBER 16, 2024.

SUBJECT: PROVIDENTIAL WORK OF GOD FOR US!

Memory verse: "For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place; but you and your father's house will perish. Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (Esther 4 vs 14. )

READ: Esther 3 vs 8 - 14:

3:8: Then Haman said to king Ahasuerus, “There is a certain people scattered and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of your kingdom; their laws are different from all other people’s, and they do not keep the king's laws. Therefore it is not fitting for the king to let them remain.

3:9 If it please the king, let a decree be written that they be destroyed, and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver into the hands of those who do the work to bring it into the king's treasuries.”

3:10 So the king took his signet ring from his hand, and gave it to Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the enemy of the Jews.

3:11 And the king said to Haman, “The money and the people are given to you, do with them as it seems good to you.

3:12 Then the king's scribes were called on the thirteenth day of the first month, and  a decree was written according to all that Haman had commanded— to the king's satraps, to the governors who were over every province, according tothe officials of every people, to every province according to its script, and to every people in their language. In the name of king Ahasuerus it was written, and sealed with the king's signet ring.

3:13 And the letters were sent by couriers into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to annihilate all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to plunder their possessions..

INTIMATION:

Providence is foresight; care; especially, the foresight and care which God manifests for His creatures; hence, God Himself, regarded as exercising a constant wise prescience. It is a manifestation of the care and superintendence which God exercises over His creatures; an event ordained by divine direction. It is noteworthy that God is constantly behind the scenes working for the good of His people—His children who believe in Him.

Probably there is no book, in the entire Bible that portrays the providential work of God in the lives of His people more than the book of Esther. When considering the plan of God to bring the Mesiah into the world, the book of Esther gives a vital historical view of how God providentially preserved the returned exiles in order that they be the foundation upon which He fulfilled His promises to the seed of Abraham. The key figures—Mordecai and Esther—were of the God’s chosen race—the Jews. Ironically God or His name wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the book of Esther, 

Though there is no mention of God in the book, the lives of Mordecai and Esther exemplify the lives of people who are committed to God and His purposes. When the skeptic would consider coincidences in the lives of these two characters of the book, the believer stands in wonder at how God worked all things together for the good of His people. The book shows how God worked in the events surrounding His people in order that they survive to bring about His purpose for their existence. 

Mordecai’s family was deported to Babylonian empire. He was probably born in Shushan, a city that became one of Persia’s capitals after Cyrus conquered Babylon. Mordecai then inherited an official position among the Jewish captives that kept him around the palace even after the Babylonians were driven out. At one time, when Mordecai overheard plans to assassinate King Ahasuerus, he reported the plot and saved his life.

Mordecai was in conflict with the king’s second in command, Haman. Although willing to serve the king, Mordecai refused to worship the king’s representative. Haman was furious with Mordecai . So he planned to have Mordecai and all the Jews killed. His plan became a law of the Medes and Persians, and it looked as though the Jews were doomed. 

Esther was a Jewish orphan girl who eventually became the queen of Persia. She was brought up in Shushan by her uncle, Mordecai. Esther’s beauty and character won Ahasuerus’ heart, and he made her queen. At the instruction of her uncle, Mordecai, Esther didn’t disclose her whole identity even in the position of the queen of Medes and Persia. 

Mordecai, willing to be God’s servant wherever he was, responded by contacting Esther, and telling her that one reason God had allowed her to be queen might well be to save her people from this threat. But God had also placed him in the right place years earlier. In Mordecai’s life, God blended character and circumstances to accomplish great things. He has not changed the way He works. For believers, God can use the situations they face each day to weave a pattern of godliness into their character. 

God was working behind the scenes. God denied the king sleep, and consequently revealed to the king through his nighttime reading of historical documents that Mordecai had once saved his life, and the king realized he had never thanked him. Ahasuerus lost no time in honoring Mordecai for that act. The great honor then given to Mordecai ruined Haman’s plan to impale him to a pole. God had woven an effective counter-strategy against which Haman’s plan could not stand. There is grim justice in Haman’s death on the pole he had built for Mordecai, and it seems fitting that the day on which the Jews were to be slaughtered became the day their enemies died. 

God presumably made Haman to introduce the Jews to the king as ”a certain people.” The king was greatly infuriated when he learned that Haman’s  plan would have caused the death of the queen after Esther disclosed she was among the people he was to kill. All these things were working together for the good of God’s people, and for His purpose of preserving a remnant of the seed of Abraham through which the Messiah will come, so that His promise would be fulfilled.

As a child of God, always know that God is providentially working behind the scenes for your good, the circumstances you found yourself notwithstanding. Again, God has not placed you in your present position for your own benefit. He put you there to serve Him. As in Esther’s case, this may involve risking your security. Are you willing to let God be your ultimate security?

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my refuge and my fortress. Surely You will deliver me from hidden traps, and shield me from deadly hazards. I will not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flies by day, nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness; nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at my side, and ten thousand at my right hand; but it will not come near me. Only with my eyes will I see the reward of the wicked, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Life and Death at Christmas

 Life and Death at Christmas

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. Marion and her husband Elmer had been part of our church longer than most of our members had been alive at the time. She was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.” 

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears — for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections — both in life and death? But oh, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. Oh, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life? Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I — that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY DECEMBER 15, 2024.

SUBJECT : WHEN THE RIGHTEOUS SUFFER!

Memory verse: “Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and shuns evil?” (Job 1 vs 8.)

READ: Job 1 vs 13 - 19:

1:13: Now there was a day when his sons and his daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house;

1:14: and a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them,

1:15: when the Sabeans raided them and took them away—indeed they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

1:16: While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The fire of God fell from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

1:17: While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

1:18: While he was still speaking, another also came and said, “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,

1:19: and suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

INTIMATION:

The world view of life is that misfortune comes as a direct result of sin. Suffering can be, but is not always, a penalty of sin. When the righteous suffer, it is obvious that it is not sin related. Though, some people try to say that if you suffer, it’s because you have sinned and angered God. But this outlook is incorrect. For instance, Job did nothing to deserve what happened to him. The Scripture says that Job was “blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” (Job 1 vs 1.) It is noteworthy that those who love God are not exempt from trouble. Simply because one is a child of God does not mean that he will escape hardship in this life. 

Job was a righteous man in the Bible who went through many trials, but his faith in God was staunch even through all of them. According to the book of Job, the reason the righteous suffer is to test their faith in God, to make them more like Him, and to bring Him glory. Throughout all the drama that took place in Job’s life, he did not sin with his lips (Job 2 vs 10). As a reward for his faithfulness throughout the calamity in his life, God gave him an additional 140 years of life, plus restitution in double of his possessions that he had lost, with more sons and daughters.

The suffering that God allowed Satan to unleash on Job was to prove the point that the righteous can remain faithful in the presence of great personal suffering. Job was a model of trust and obedience to God, yet God permitted Satan to attack him in an especially harsh manner. Although God loves us, believing and obeying him do not shelter us from life’s calamities. Setbacks, tragedies, and sorrows strike Christians and non-Christians alike. But in our tests and trials, God expects us to express our faith to the world. How do you respond to your troubles? Do you ask God, “Why me?” or do you say, “Use me?”

Through no fault of his own, Job lost his wealth, children, and health. For Job, the greatest trial was not the pain or the loss; it was not being able to understand why God allowed him to suffer amidst all his righteousness. God alone knew the purpose behind Job’s suffering, and yet He never explained it to Job. In spite of this, Job never gave up on God, even in the midst of suffering. He never placed his hope in his experience, his wisdom, his friends, or his wealth. Job focused on God.

Job showed the kind of trust we are to have. When everything is stripped away, we are to recognize that God is all we ever really had. We should not demand that God should explain everything. God gives us Himself, but not all the details of His plans. We must remember that this life, with all its pain, is not our final destiny. Although we may not be able to understand fully the pain the righteous experience, it can lead us to rediscover God. However, knowing that God will not allow His children to be tempted beyond what they are able to endure encourages the faithful to remain true to their faith.

God does not punish us through our trials. He sends us those trials to test and deepen our relationship and faith in Him. Job says, “Put him to test every moment” (Job 7 vs 18). The apostle James says, “Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.” (James 1 vs 3 - 4). God wants us to run the race with endurance, and testing our faith is one reason He sends us trials. In sharing in Christ’s sufferings, we also become more mature in the faith, and we begin to imitate His character.

God sends us trial to make us more like Himself. So then you should, “…rejoice as you share in the sufferings of the Messiah,” (First Peter 4 vs 13) because our character matures through trials. If you ask anyone who has recently had a hard time, they will never say that it hurt them or they have bad character because of it. Those people will say it has made them stronger and more mature by refining their character. In the end, we’ll be refined and purified by the fire of trials. We’ll come out as sparkling gold. Job said, “When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold” (Job 23 vs 10).

Everything we do as Christians should glorify God. But you might be asking, “How could suffering bring God glory?” When the righteous endure until the end, praising God amidst tribulation, and trusting in His control, He gets glory. He even gets glory at the end when we witness to others and we testify of how faithful He has been through it all. The apostle Paul says, “..that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death.” (Philippians 1 vs 20). 

You may ask, Why should God be glorified? Because God deserves all our glory and praise, even when we can’t see what He is doing. Suffering affects all of humanity. But we as Christians have hope through Christ. We learn from Job that we shouldn’t fear the outcome, because God is in control of our trials, and He is right there with us through it all.

 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are the Lord that controls all circumstances, and by You all things consist. I know nothing can separate me from the love of Christ! Yes, neither tribulation, nor distress,nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword. In all these things I am more than a conqueror through You who loves me. I am an overcomer, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Making It Real for His People

 Making It Real for His People

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood — the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20) — finally and decisively purchased and secured the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God, according to the new covenant promises, brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works this transformation in us through faith — faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in accord with the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So, the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the Reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation under the tree, so to speak, for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts it in your heart and in your mind and gives you the seal of assurance that you are a child of God.

YOU HAVE NO EXCUSES NOT TO SERVE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY DECEMBER 14, 2024.

SUBJECT: YOU HAVE NO EXCUSES NOT TO SERVE!

Memory verse: "For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that." (First Corinthians 7 vs 7.)

READ: Romans 12 vs 4 - 8:

12:4: For as we have many members in one body, but all members do not have the same function, 

12:5: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 

12:6: Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 

12:7: or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 

12:8: he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

INTIMATION:

All God’s works are marvelous, and all His creations are wonderful and are useful to Him for His predetermined purposes. Nothing that He created is useless to Him. All natural positions are gifts from God. And none is morally better than the other, and all are valuable to accomplishing HIs purposes. It is important to us to accept our present situation, knowing that your present situation is a tool in God’s hands to achieve His purposes. Our limitations does not limit God, therefore, cannot be an excuse in your ministry or service.

If you're not involved in any service or ministry, what excuse have you been using? No excuse is admissible in ministry. All the people used by God in the Bible had their limitations which never excused them in ministry or service. Abraham was old, Jacob was insecure, Leah was unattractive, Joseph was abused, Moses stuttered, Gideon was poor, Samson was codependent, Rahab was immoral, David had an affair and all kinds of family problems, Elijah was suicidal, Jeremiah was depressed, Jonah was reluctant, Naomi was a widow, John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least, Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered, Martha worried a lot, the Samaritan woman had several failed marriages, Zacchaeus was unpopular, Thomas had doubts, Paul has poor health, and Timothy was timid. 

Enumerated above are quite a variety of misfits, but God used each of them in His service. He will use you if you stop making excuses. We have our different callings to serve, and each service is significant. God created us for His specific purposes, and it is His desire that we identify our pathway and follow it to achieve His purpose of creating us. But He left us a choice—to choose His pathway or ours. Obviously, your choice is made when you give your life for something. What will it be; a career, a sport, a hobby, fame, wealth? Or God's pathway for you to serve Him, and others. No choice you make, outside God's pathway of service destined for you, will have lasting significance. 

When you identify your own gifts, ask how you can use them to build up God’s family. At the same time, realize that your gifts can’t do the work of the body of Christ all alone. Be thankful for people whose gifts are completely different from yours. Let your strengths balance their weaknesses, and be grateful that their abilities make up for your deficiencies. The apostle Paul uses the concept of human body to teach how Christians should live and work together. As the human body is, so is the Body of Christ. Each human part finds its significance on its vocation, but all function under the direction of the brain. So Christians are to work together under the command and authority of Jesus Christ, using our different gifts. 

Service is the pathway to real significance. It is through ministry that we discover the meaning of our lives. As we serve together in God's family, our lives take on eternal importance. In human body, the eyes cannot do the work of the legs, nor the tongue the work of the stomach. When any part tries to do the work of another, it fails, and loses its significance. The Bible, in First Corinthians 7 vs 7, 20, 24, says, "..But each one has his own gift from God, one in this manner and another in that. Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was called." 

When you are in the state you were called, God remains with you, hence your significance, because It is only in Him your hope of glory lies (See Colossians 1 vs 28). When one is outside of his calling, you hear people complain; "Upon all I am doing nobody notices me," "I am putting in my best, but it seems like nothing is done," "nobody sees my contribution, but when the other person does the same thing, people will be full of praise for him."

God wants to use you to make a difference in His world. He wants to work through you. What matters is not the duration of your life, but the donation of it. Not how long you lived, but how right you lived. What you might look at as a disadvantage may turn out to be an advantage in your ministry. 

In acknowledging God's uniqueness and goodness, the psalmist in Psalm 139 vs 14 says, "I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows very well."

God is perfect, and His works also are perfect. He never makes mistake, and is forever the same. Find your God's ordained path and follow it, and you will find real significance.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You, most precious God, for Your marvelous works in me, and how You fearfully and wonderfully made me for Your predetermined purposes. Give me the grace and divine wisdom to identify my ordained pathway that I may walk in it, and be relevance in service to You and others, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!