The Satisfaction That Defeats Sin

 The Satisfaction That Defeats Sin

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” (John 6:35)

What we need to see here is that the essence of faith is being satisfied with all that God is for us in Christ.

Defining faith this way emphasizes two things. One is the God-centeredness of faith. It is not merely the promises of God that satisfy us. It is all that God himself is for us in Jesus. Faith embraces God in Christ as our treasure — not just God’s promised gifts.

Faith banks its hope not just on the real estate of the age to come, but on the fact that God will be there (Revelation 21:3). “I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.’” 

And even now what faith embraces most earnestly is not just the reality of sins forgiven (as precious as that is), but the presence of the living Christ in our hearts and the fullness of God himself. In Ephesians 3:17–19 Paul prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith . . . that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

The other thing emphasized in defining faith as being satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus is the term “satisfaction.” Faith is the quenching of the soul’s thirst at the fountain of God. In John 6:35 we see that “believing” means “coming” to Jesus to eat and drink the “bread of life” and the “living water” (John 4:10, 14), which are nothing other than Jesus himself. 

Here is the secret of the power of faith to break the enslaving force of sinful attractions. If the heart is satisfied with all that God is for us in Jesus, the power of sin to lure us away from the wisdom of Christ is broken.

HOW TO SEEK GOD AND FIND HIM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY JUNE 21, 2025.

SUBJECT : HOW TO SEEK GOD AND FIND HIM!

Memory verse: "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul." (Deuteronomy 4 vs 29.)

READ: Jeremiah 29 vs 11 - 14:

29:11: For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

29:12: Then will you call upon Me, and you will go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

29:13: And you will seek Me, and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

29:14: I will be found by you, says the LORD: and I will bring you back from your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD; and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

INTIMATION:

God promises us that we will find Him when we search for Him with all our hearts and souls. God is knowable and wants to be known, but we have to want to know Him. In seeking the Lord to find Him, our acts of service and worship must be accompanied by sincere devotion of the heart. As Hebrews 11 vs 6 says, “He who comes to the Lord must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” God will reward those who pursue a relationship with Him. God promises great blessings to His people, but most of these blessings require our active participation in seeking Him. 

Now, many will ask, “How do I seek God with all my heart and all my soul?” Moses gave an elaborate answer regarding this to the children of Israel. He said, “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to  keep the commandments of the LORD, and His statutes, which I command you this day for your good?” (Deuteronomy 10 vs 12 - 13.)

In the above verses, Moses gives a summary of what God expects us to do. They are simple in form and easy to remember. Here are the essentials: (1) Fear the Lord (reverence Him; give Him profound respect and esteem mingled with fear and affection as for a holy being). We must fear God’s Awesome Being. (2) Walk in His ways; We must obediently walk according to His Will, follow the road He sets out for us. (3) Love Him; We must respond to His Being with love. (4) Serve Him; our lives must be one of service to His glory with everything we have in us (with all your heart and soul). (5) Keep His Commands; We must know and obey His commandments and regulations He has given us. Compliance with all that God requires results in our well-being on earth among ourselves.

The Bible interchangeably uses fear of the LORD, for seeking the LORD. The fear of the LORD in the Scriptures denote reverential fear of God, not to dread Him, or being scared of Him. It is to show Him deep respect, reverence, and honor, demonstrated by a humble attitude and genuine worship. Reverencing God should be a controlling motive of our lives in spiritual and moral matters. It is not mere fear of His power and righteous retribution, but a wholesome dread of displeasing Him. A fear which banishes the terror that shrinks from His presence, and which influences the disposition and attitude of one whose circumstances are guided by trust in God through the Spirit of God indwelling us. 

Most often we complicate faith in God with man-made rules, regulations, and requirements; we strictly obey the man-made laws, but give partial obedience to God’s commands, apparently because man is seen, but God is unseen.

Our relationship, and fellowship with God starts with prayer. It is our lifeline to God, hence we should pray regularly to ensure that our line of seeking God is open at all times. The apostle Paul echoed it thus, "Pray without ceasing." (First Thessalonians 5 vs 17.)  Seeking God in prayer regularly ensures the availability of His guidance and strength that is needed at all times. It also aids us to appropriate His promised blessings to ourselves. Regular and constant praying habit ensures a disciplined life of prayer. 

David was one of the people in the Bible who sought the Lord and found Him. His reverence to God was exemplary; three times a day he would pray to God, he constantly inquired from God before engaging on any battle, and consequently, never lost even one, he was never perfect in his moral and spiritual life, but never failed to turn to God in genuine repentance whenever he sinned. 

These acts made God adjudged him a friend to Himself and a man after His heart. God is not strict with us about our leading a perfect life because He knows no one is perfect, but demands our reverencing Him. Are you frustrated and burned out from trying hard to please God? Concentrate on His real requirements and find peace. Respect, follow, love, serve, and obey God, and you will seek Him and find Him.. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with a humble spirit of rightly seeking You at all times; respect, follow, love, serve, and obey You in all things, and in all my ways, that I may find You, and appropriate to myself Your promised blessings, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Grace Is Pardon — and Power!

 Grace Is Pardon — and Power!

By the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

Grace is not simply leniency when we have sinned. Grace is the enabling gift and power of God not to sin. Grace is power, not just pardon. 

This is plain, for example, in 1 Corinthians 15:10. Paul describes grace as the enabling power of his work. It is not simply the pardon of his sins; it is the power to press on in obedience. “I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

Therefore, the effort we make to obey God is not an effort done in our own strength, but “by the strength that God supplies — in order that in everything God may be glorified” (1 Peter 4:11). It is the obedience of faith. Faith in God’s ever-arriving gracious power to enable us to do what we should.

Paul confirms this in 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 by calling each of our acts of goodness a “work of faith,” and by saying that the glory this brings to Jesus is “according to the grace of our God” because it happens “by his power.” Listen for all those phrases:

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The obedience that gives God pleasure is produced by the power of God’s grace through faith. The same dynamic is at work at every stage of the Christian life. The power of God’s grace that saves through faith (Ephesians 2:8) is the same power of God’s grace that sanctifies through faith.

GOD'S UNPARALLELED LOVE FOR US!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY JUNE 20, 2025.

SUBJECT : GOD'S UNPARALLELED LOVE FOR US!

Memory verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3 vs 16.)

READ: Romans 5 vs 6 - 11:

5:6: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

5:7: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

5:9: Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

5:10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

5:11: And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

INTIMATION:

God is love, and wants us to realize we are loved and cared for by Him. This is one of God's most outstanding and obvious characteristics. The message of the Gospel comes to a focus in His love for us as is stated, and demonstrated in His choice of His Son being a propitiation for our sins—taking our place in death for our sins. The Scripture says, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5 vs 8). 

God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ to die for us, not because we are good enough, but just because He loved us. “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (First John 4 vs 10). Here God sets the pattern of true love or passion for others, setting the pattern for all true love relationships. 

When you love someone dearly, you are ready and willing to give freely to the point of self-sacrifice. For His love for us, God paid dearly with the life of His Son, the highest price He could pay, and such is unheard of in history. Jesus accepted wholeheartedly to take our place, paid the wages we owed for our sins (Ezekiel 18 vs 4 & Romans 6 vs 23). He exchanged something of inestimable value for something completely worthless—our sins—and offered us the new life that He had bought for us with His blood.

The apostle Paul, in the passage we read today, expounded the love of God for us. He explained that when we were weak and helpless because we could do nothing on our own to save ourselves, Christ had to come to rescue us. He came at exactly the right time in history in accordance with God's plan and schedule. It is God that controls all history, and He controlled the timing, method, and events surrounding Jesus' death. God sent Jesus to die for us, not because we were good enough, but just because He loved us and is passionate about our well being.

The apostle Paul explained that the love that caused God to create the world for an extension of His kingdom, and caused Christ to die in our place, is the same love that sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us daily. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that saved us, and is available to us in our daily lives. 

God is a Passionate Father. In Psalms 103 vs 13 the psalmist reminds us: "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him." Jesus demonstrated this the day the disciples found themselves on the Sea of Galilee, and a storm was brewing, which is typical of the Sea of Galilee, even today. The boat containing these disciples started to take in water because of the turbulence. With the boat beginning to sink, these terrified disciples asked the ultimate question, "Lord, don't You care?" Of course He cares!

Many of us have at one time or the other felt like that, "Lord where are You when I really need You?" "God, I'm going under, don't You care?" But a believer and a child of God will remember the promise stated in First Peter 5 vs 7, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you."

Be assured that, having begun a life with Christ, you have a reservoir of power and love to call on each day for help to meet every challenge or trial. Too often, in our spiritual life, although we may need to love God more, there is a much higher need to recognize just how much He loves us. When our relationship is such that we feel God's love and His passion for us—His children, we naturally begin to love Him more. You can pray for His power and love as you need it.

In Psalms 145 vs 18 the psalmist tells us, "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." What this means is that He is never too busy for you. When you pray, you will never get busy signal. He hears you and ready to meet your real need. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for Your love for me. You have daily loaded me with Your benefits, always forgiving me my iniquities, healing me all my diseases, redeeming my life from destructions, satisfying my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's, and crowning me with loving kindness and tender mercies. Give me the grace to toe my path of life in You, in Jesus' Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Offense of Fearing Man

 The Offense of Fearing Man

Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.” (1 Samuel 15:24)

Why did Saul obey the people instead of God? Because he feared the people instead of God. He feared the human consequences of obedience more than he feared the divine consequences of disobedience. He feared the displeasure of the people more than the displeasure of God. And that is a great insult to God. 

In fact, Isaiah says it is a kind of pride to be afraid of what man can do while we disregard the promises of God. He quotes God with this piercing question: “I, I am he who comforts you; who are you that you are afraid of man who dies, of the son of man who is made like grass, and have forgotten the Lord, your Maker?” (Isaiah 51:12–13). 

Fear of man may not feel like pride, but that’s what God says it is, “Who do you think you are to fear man and forget me your Maker!”

The point is this: If you fear man, you have begun to deny the holiness, the worth of God and his Son, Jesus. God is infinitely stronger than man. He is infinitely wiser and infinitely more full of reward and joy. 

To turn from him out of fear of what man can do is to discount all that God promises to be for those who fear him. It is a great insult. And in such an insult God can take no pleasure. 

On the other hand, when we hear God’s promises and trust him with courage, fearing the reproach brought upon God by our unbelief, then he is greatly honored. And in that he has much pleasure.

OUR EVER MERCIFUL GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY JUNE 19, 2025.

SUBJECT : OUR EVER MERCIFUL GOD!

Memory verse: "But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." (Matthew 9 vs 13.)

READ Isaiah 1 vs 18 - 20:

18: "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

19: If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land;

20: But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword", for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.

 

INTIMATION:

Mercy is the outward manifestation of pity. It assumes need on the part of him who receives it, and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it. Mercy is used of God who is rich in mercy. He is merciful to those who fear Him (Luke 1 vs 50), for they also are compassed with infirmity, and He alone can succor them. Hence they are to pray to Him boldly for mercy (Hebrews 4 vs 16). 

God’s desire is to show mercy to deserving guilty persons. The ‘deserving guilty persons’ are those who are guilty of sin, acknowledge their sin, and have come to Him to ask for forgiveness. They are aware they cannot help or save themselves, and that only Him can save them. God is so merciful that no matter the guilt or sin, He is willing to forgive those who genuinely come to Him for forgiveness. 

Never let guilt feelings of sin keep you from praying (seeking the face of God), which is your only means of restoration, because only God forgives sin. Do you feel that you could never come close to God because you have done something terrible? God can and will forgive you of any sin, except the sin against the Holy Spirit, that is, the deliberate refusal to acknowledge God, and His power in Christ, expressed through the Holy Spirit. It indicates a deliberate and irreversible hardness of heart. It reveals a heart attitude of unbelief and unrepentance, that attributes to Satan the work that the Holy Spirit accomplishes. 

Those with the hardened heart have turned their back on God, have rejected all faith, and are unwilling to ask for forgiveness. Even when they receive the prompting of the Holy Spirit, convicting them of sin, they reject it. And the deliberate rejection of the work of the Holy Spirit is blasphemy, because it is rejecting God Himself. Such people remove themselves from the only force that can lead them to repentance and restoration to God.

No matter how long you have been away from God, He is ready to hear from you and restore you to a right relationship with Him. Every situation can be salvaged if you are willing to turn to God. For instance, in Judges 16 vs 28 - 30,  we would observe that in spite of Samson's past, God still answered his prayer and destroyed the philistines' heathen temple and worshipers. He killed more people at his death than he did in life because of the mercy of God when he turned to Him in prayer.

In the list of corrupt kings amongst the Israelites, Manasseh would rank near the top. His life was a catalog of evil deeds including idol worship, sacrificing his own children, and temple desecration. Eventually, however, he realized his sins and cried out to God for forgiveness. And God, full of mercy, listened. If God could forgive Manasseh, surely He can forgive anyone. Are you burdened by overpowering guilt? Do you doubt that anyone could forgive what you have done? Take heart my beloved, until death no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy and forgiveness.

One of the effects of sin in our lives is keeping us away from praying, but it is noteworthy that perfect moral behavior is not a condition for prayer. Though the stain of sin seems permanent, but only God can remove such stain of sin from our lives. We don't have to go through life permanently soiled. God's Word assures that if we are willing and obedient in turning to Him, Christ will forgive and remove our most indelible stains of sin.

Christ came for sinners like you and I, and He expects us—the sinners—to come to Him for mercy. We can only go to God in prayer, acknowledging our need and admitting that we don't have all the answers, and God will come to our help. He desires to show mercy and His mercy endures forever.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are our Merciful Father, always desiring to show mercy to the guilty who desire Your forgiveness of their sins. Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving kindness, and tender mercies, and forgive me all my iniquities. Thank Lord for forgiving me, in Jesus name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How to Plead for Unbelievers

 How to Plead for Unbelievers

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)

Paul prays that God would convert Israel. He prays for her salvation! He does not pray for ineffectual influences, but for effectual influences. And that is how we should pray too. 

We should take the new covenant promises of God and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and our neighbors and on all the mission fields of the world. 

God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give them a new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)

Circumcise their heart so that they love you! (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Father, put your Spirit within them and cause them to walk in your statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)

Grant them repentance and a knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil. (2 Timothy 2:25–26)

Open their hearts so that they believe the gospel! (Acts 16:14) 

When we believe in the sovereignty of God — in the right and power of God to elect and then bring hardened sinners to faith and salvation — then we will be able to pray with no inconsistency, and with the confidence of great biblical promises for the conversion of the lost.

Thus, God has pleasure in this kind of praying because it ascribes to him the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is in election and salvation.