When Will I Be Satisfied?

 When Will I Be Satisfied?

“I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (John 17:26)

Imagine being able to enjoy what is most enjoyable with unbounded and increasing energy and passion forever. 

This is not now our experience. Three things stand in the way of our complete satisfaction in this world. 

Nothing in this world has a personal worth great enough to meet the deepest longings of our hearts. 

We lack the strength to savor the best treasures to their maximum worth. 

Our enjoyment of things here comes to an end. Nothing lasts.

But if the aim of Jesus in John 17:26 comes true, all this will change. He prays to his Father about us, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” God does not love the Son the way he loves sinners. He loves the Son because the Son is infinitely worthy of love. That is, he loves the Son because the Son is infinitely lovely. Which means that this love is totally pleasure. Jesus prays that this pleasure that God has in his Son will be the same pleasure we have in the Son.

If God’s pleasure in the Son becomes our pleasure, then the object of our pleasure, Jesus, will be inexhaustible in personal worth. He will never become boring or disappointing or frustrating. No greater treasure can be conceived than the Son of God. 

But add to this what Jesus prays for; namely, that our ability — our energy, our passion — to savor this inexhaustible treasure will not be limited by human weaknesses. We will enjoy the Son of God with the very enjoyment of his omnipotent Father. 

God’s delight in his Son will be in us and it will be ours. And this will never end, because neither the Father nor the Son ever ends. Their love for each other will be our love for them, and therefore our loving them will never die.

Good News: God Is Happy

 Good News: God Is Happy

. . . the gospel of the glory of the blessed God . . . (1 Timothy 1:11)

This is a beautiful phrase in 1 Timothy, buried beneath the too-familiar surface of Bible buzzwords. But after you dig it up, it sounds like this: “the good news of the glory of the happy God.” The word “blessed” is not the one that means “praised,” but the one that means “happy.”

A great part of God’s glory is his happiness. 

It was inconceivable to the apostle Paul that God could be denied infinite joy and still be all-glorious. To be infinitely glorious was to be infinitely happy. He used the phrase, “the glory of the happy God,” because it is a glorious thing for God to be happy the way he is. 

God’s glory consists much in the fact that he is happy beyond our wildest imagination. As the great eighteenth-century preacher, Jonathan Edwards, said, “Part of God’s fullness which he communicates is his happiness. This happiness consists in enjoying and rejoicing in himself; so does also the creature’s happiness.” 

And this is a key part of the gospel, Paul says: “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.” It is good news that God is gloriously happy. No one would want to spend eternity with a gloomy, unhappy God. 

If God is unhappy, then the goal of the gospel — to be with God forever — is not a happy goal, and that means it would be no gospel at all. But, in fact, Jesus invites us to spend eternity with a happy God when he says, “Enter into the joy of your master” (Matthew 25:23). 

Jesus said in John 15:11, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” Jesus spoke, and lived, and died that his joy — God’s joy — might be in us and our joy might be full. Therefore, the gospel is “the gospel of the glory of the happy God.”

THE HEART THAT GOD HEARS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY JULY 03, 2025. 

SUBJECT : THE HEART THAT GOD HEARS!

Memory verse: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the LORD will not hear me." (Psalm 66 vs 18.)

READ: Mark 11 vs 22 - 26:

11:22: Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. 

11:23: For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

11:24: Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

11:25: "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. 

11:26: But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses."

 

INTIMATION:

When we fail to confess our sins, and repent of them, 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 committed, but our attitude should be one of confession and obedience. Our confession of sin must be continual because we continue to do wrong because we cannot be perfect.

A heart filled with the spirit of heaviness receives nothing from God. Let go, lighten your heart, free your heart to create space to receive from God. A heart crowded, and burdened with iniquity—wickedness, unforgiveness, injustice, evil, hatred etc, is so filthy, and crowded with negativities that it cannot receive anything good, especially from the Lord. Such heart attitude quench the Spirit, thereby dampening the fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Forgiving others is tough work; so much so that many people would rather do something totally distasteful in vengeance than offer forgiveness to someone who has wronged them. For a person to pray with a heavy heart, bearing grudges, is, however,  like a tree sprouting leaves and bearing no fruit, fruitful in appearance only, but is spiritually barren.

The heart bearing grudges, can never at the same time harbor blessings. Don't deceive yourself; God cannot be mocked; for whatever you so in your heart, that you shall also reap (Galatians 6 vs 7). Therefore, make your choice. You cannot be on the two sides of the divide at the same one time. 

Effective prayer involves; an attitude of faith—complete dependence on God. Faith filled prayer changes the heart, dismantles pride and vengeance, filling the holes; the spaces occupied by grudges, hatred, injustice, wickedness etc, with love, and speaks peace, forgiveness, and harmony. 

Our prayers must have a bias for God's kingdom, and must not be with selfish motives. Our prayers are often motivated by our own interests and desires. When we pray, we can express our desires, but we should want His Will above ours. For instance, Jesus, our role Model, prayed thus; "Abba, Father, all things are possible to You; take away this cup from me: nevertheless, not what I will, but what You Will" (Mark 14 vs 36). Jesus prayed with God's interests in mind.  Check yourself to see if your prayers focus on your interests or God's.

The attitude of faith in God is not something we can obtain without help from Him. Faith is a gift from God. The Scripture, in Ephesians 2 vs 8 - 9, clearly says:- "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." No matter how much faith we have, we never reach the point of being self sufficient. Growing in faith is a constant process of daily renewing our trust in Jesus Christ. 

Therefore, God will answer your prayers, not as a result of your mental attitude, but because the following principal conditions, amongst others, must be met;

1. You must be a believer.

2. You must not hold a grudge against another person.

3. You must not pray with selfish motives.

4. Your request must be for the good of God's kingdom.

Prayer: Abba Father, my total trust, and confidence is in You. I come to You with a heart of love and peace. I forgive all that have offended me, believing You have forgiven me my trespasses. Therefore, attend to my cry, and deliver to me my needs according to Your Will, not mine, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

GOD CAN PREVENT YOU FROM SINNING AGAINST HIM!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JULY 02, 2025.

SUBJECT : GOD CAN PREVENT YOU FROM SINNING AGAINST HIM!

Memory verse: "But God had come to Laban the Syrian in a dream by night, and said to him, “Be careful that you speak to Jacob neither good or bad.” (Genesis 31 vs 24.)

READ: Genesis 20 vs 2 - 7:

20:2: Now Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” And Abimelech king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah.

20:3: But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, “Indeed, you are a dead man because of the woman you have taken, for she is a man's wife.”

20:4: But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, “LORD, will You slay a righteous nation also?”

20:5: Did he not say to me, “She is my sister?” And she, even she herself said, “He is my brother.” in the integrity of my heart and innocence of my hands I have done this.”

20:6: And God said to him in a dream, “Yes, I know that you did this in the integrity of your heart. For I also withheld you from sinning against Me; therefore I did not let you touch her.

20:7: Now therefore, restore the man’s wife; for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you and you shall live. But if you do not restore her, know that you shall surely die, you and all who are yours.”

INTIMATION:

God, in His infinite mercy and love for us, can prevent us from sinning. He does this in so many ways unknown to us. Have you ever tried to imagine how many times God has done same for you, holding you back from sin in ways you can’t even detect? It is obvious we have no way of knowing—we just know that He can. God works just as often in ways we can’t see as in ways we can. 

In our anchor Scripture, God appeared to Laban in a dream and warned him concerning Jacob, thereby preventing him from doing anything contrary to His plan and purpose in Jacob’s life. If Laban’s intentions were to harm Jacob, surely this would have been a nightmare. In order to strike fear in the heart of Laban, God warned him not to speak harshly to Jacob, the heir of Abraham and the one through whose seedline the promises would be fulfilled. 

In the passage we read today, Abimelech had unknowingly taken a married woman to be his wife and was about to commit adultery. But God somehow prevented him from touching Sarah and held him back from sinning. What a show of mercy on God’s part! Through some providential manner God kept Abimelech from touching Sarah, or else he would have reaped the judgement of God. 

In First Samuel 25, Nabal, Abigail’s husband, and very rich, rudely refused David’s request to feed his 600 men, not withstanding is the fact that David and his men had been protecting Nabal’s workforce, and part of Nabal’s prosperity was due to David’s vigilance. David was greatly outraged by his action and planned to take vengeance on Nabal’s property, and to kill all the males in his household. 

However, the wife Abigail, sensible and capable, by her swift action and skillful negotiation, kept David from taking vengeance upon Nabal. Both Abigail and David saw the hand of God in all that transpired between them. Abigail said to David, “Now therefore, my lord, as the Lord lives and as your soul lives, since the Lord has held you back from coming to bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hand, now then, let your enemies and those who seek harm to my lord be as Nabal.” (Genesis 25 vs 26,) 

David said to Abigail, “For indeed, as the Lord God of Israel lives who has kept me back from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely by morning light no males would have been left to Nabal!” (First Samuel 25 vs 34.) David sensed that Abigail was sent to him by God, for he expressed gratitude to her for her wise advice. The tender heart of David was here revealed because he accepted the advice of a woman who pled for the case of her foolish husband. 

David was in no mood to listen when he set out for Nabal’s property. Nevertheless, he stopped to hear what Abigail had to say. If he had ignored her, he would have been guilty of taking vengeance into his own hands. Abigail did not want him to regret any rash actions on his part that would lead to killing innocent people. In this case, the rest of the clan of Nabal would have been innocent victims of the unrighteous Nabal.

God works in all things for His children. What you may consider as a “coincidence” or that “It just happened,” I call or term “God-incidence.” “For all things work together for good to them that love Him.” (Romans 8 vs 28.) Therefore, all glory must be returned to Him at all times.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so merciful and Your mercy endures forever. Lord, even in our unfaithfulness You remain faithful. Your compassion never fails us. Endue me with the spirit of complete obedience to, and trust in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

How Well Do You Know God?

 How Well Do You Know God?

“Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable.” (Job 36:26)

It is impossible to know God too well. 

He is the most important person who exists. And this is because he made all others, and any importance they have is owing to him. 

Any strength or intelligence or skill or beauty that other beings have comes from him. On every scale of excellence, he is infinitely greater than the best person you ever knew or ever heard of. 

Being infinite, he is inexhaustibly interesting. It is impossible, therefore, that God be boring. His continual demonstration of the most intelligent and interesting actions is volcanic. 

As the source of every good pleasure, he himself pleases fully and finally. If that’s not how we experience him, we are either dead, or blind, or sleepwalking. 

It is therefore astonishing how little effort in this world is put into knowing God. 

It’s as though the President of the United States came to live with you for a month, and you only said hello in passing every day or so. Or as if you were flown at the speed of light for a couple of hours around the sun and the solar system, and instead of looking out the window, you played a computer game. Or as if you were invited to watch the best actors, singers, athletes, inventors, and scholars perform their best, but you declined to go, so you could watch the TV season’s final soap.

Let us pray together that our infinitely great God would incline our hearts, and open our eyes to see him as fully as we can and seek to know him more.

God’s Pleasure to Do You Good

 God’s Pleasure to Do You Good

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12:32)

Jesus will not sit by and let us disbelieve without a fight. He takes up the weapon of the word and speaks it with power for all who struggle to believe.

His aim is to defeat the fear that God is not the kind of God who really wants to be good to us — that he is not really generous and helpful and kind and tender, but is basically irked with us — ill-disposed and angry. 

Sometimes, even if we believe in our heads that God is good to us, we may feel in our hearts that his goodness is somehow forced or constrained, perhaps like a judge who has been maneuvered by a clever attorney into a corner on some technicality of court proceeding, so he has to dismiss the charges against the prisoner whom he really would rather send to jail. 

But Jesus is at pains to help us not feel that way about God. He is striving in Luke 12:32 to describe for us the indescribable worth and excellency of God’s soul by showing the unbridled pleasure he takes in giving us the kingdom. 

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Every little word of this stunning sentence is intended to help take away the fear that Jesus knows we struggle with; namely, that God begrudges his benefits; that he is constrained and out of character when he does nice things; that at bottom he is angry and loves to vent his anger. 

Luke 12:32 is a sentence about the nature of God. It’s about the kind of heart God has. It’s a verse about what makes God glad — not merely about what God will do or what he has to do, but what he delights to do, what he loves to do and takes pleasure in doing. Every word counts. “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”

GOD CAN USE YOU TO ACHIEVE HIS PURPOSE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JULY 01, 2025.

SUBJECT: GOD CAN USE YOU TO ACHIEVE HIS PURPOSE!

Memory verse: "Now Joshua the son of Nun sent out of two men from Acacia Grove to spy secretly, saying, “Go view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and came to the house of a harlot named Rahab, and lodged there.” (Joshua 2 vs 1.)

READ: Acts 23 vs 16 - 22:

23:16: So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul.

23:17: Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, “Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.”

23:18: So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.

23:19: Then the commander took him by the hand, went aside, and asked privately, “What is it that that you have to tell me?”

23:20: And he said, “The Jews have agreed to ask that you bring Paul down to the council tomorrow, as though they were going to enquirer more fully about him.

23:21: But do not yield to them: for more than forty of them lie in wait for him, men who have bound themselves by an oath that they will neither eat nor drink till they have killed him: and now they are ready, waiting for a promise from you.

23:22: So the commander let the young man depart, and commanded him, “Tell no one that you have revealed these things to me.”

INTIMATION:

God has no favorites; none preferred above others, liked or loved above others. We are all created in His own image and after His likeness. We are equally loved by Him; “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). God’s work in history is not limited by human failures or sins, and He works through ordinary people. He can use anyone, of any age, and any background, who is willing to yield to Him. Just as God used all kinds of people to bring His Son into the world, He uses all kinds today to accomplish His Will. And God can use you and is willing to use you. Nobody is excluded from God’s love, but we appropriate it to ourselves by believing in His Son—Jesus Christ—He sent to us. 

Several heroes in the Bible were common people: Jacob was known as a deceiver but God used him to “father” the Israelite nation (Genesis 27 - 28). Joseph was a slave in Egypt, but God used him to save his family, and the birth of Israelite nation (Genesis 39). Moses was a shepherd in exile and a murderer, but God used him to lead Israel out of bondage to the Promised Land (Exodus 3). Gideon was a farmer but God used him to deliver Israel from the Midianites (Judges 6 vs 11 - 14).Jephthah was the son of a harlot, but God used him to deliver Israel from the Ammonites (Judges 11). 

David was a shepherd boy and last-born of the family, but God used him exceedingly to defeat the enemies of the Israelites, and he became Israel’s greatest king. Esther was a slave girl, but God used her to save her people from massacre (Esther). Mary was a peasant girl, but God made her the mother of Jesus (Luke 1 vs 27 - 28). Matthew was a tax collector, but God used him as one of the apostles and Gospel writers (Matthew 9 vs 9). Paul a persecutor of Christians, but God converted him to be the most influential of the apostles (First Corinthians 15 vs 9 - 10).

Our memory verse relates to the use of a prostitute by God to accomplish His plan. Rahab was a prostitute in the city of Jericho. As a prostitute, she lived on the edge of society, one stop short of rejection. Her house, built right into the city wall, provided both lodging and favors to travelers. God used her and gave her the courage to hide the spies and lie to the authorities. God works through people like Rahab whom we are inclined to reject. God remembered her because of her faith, not her profession.  If at times you feel like a failure, remember that Rahab rose above her situation through her trust in God. You can do the same.

In the passage we read today, God used a child to accomplish His plan to save the apostle Paul’s life. It is easy to overlook children, assuming that they aren’t old enough to do much for the Lord. But this young man played an important part in protecting the apostle Paul’s life. Even Jesus made it clear that children are important (Matthew 18 vs 2 - 6).

The encounter of Jesus with the woman of Samaria in John 4 vs 7 - 42 clearly emphasizes God’s character of not being particular about your background, and loves us equally. The woman: (1) was a Samaritan, a member of the hated mixed race, (2) was known to be living in sin, and (3) was in a public place. No responsible Jewish man would talk to a woman under such circumstances. But Jesus did, her social status, sins, and her race notwithstanding. The same woman was used to convert a whole city—the city of Samaria. Jesus selected “ordinary” men with a mixture of backgrounds and personalities to be His disciples. He can use you!

Prayer: Abba Father, I love You, all I have is Yours, Yours I am, Yours I want to be, use me as it pleases You. My utmost desire is to serve Your designed on this earth. Here I am, use me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!