Every day in the Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY OCTOBER 02, 2025.

SUBJECT: GOD IS EVER CARING!

Memory verse: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (First Peter 5 vs 7.) 

READ: Psalm 103 vs 8-14 & 17:

103:8: The Lord is merciful and gracious. slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 

103:9: He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever. 

103:10: He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. 

103:11: For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 

103:12: As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. 

103:13: As a father pities his children, do the Lord pities those who fear Him. 

103:14: For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 

103:17: But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him. And His righteousness to children's children. 

INTIMATION:

God has deep interest in all that concerns you and I. We are fragile, but God's care is eternal. Too often we focus on God as Judge and Lawgiver, ignoring His compassion and concern for us. When God examines our lives He remembers the frailty of our human condition. His mercy takes everything into account. God will deal with us compassionately. God is so caring that when He forgives us our sin, He separates it from us and doesn't even remember it anymore. As east and west can never meet, so is the symbolic portrait of God's forgiveness of our sins and their separation from us. We need not wallow in the past, for God forgives and forgets.

In Matthew 6 vs 31 - 33, the Scripture states, "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' Or 'What shall drink?' For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." 

To "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" means we should put God first in all things in our lives; we should turn to God first for help, to fill our thoughts with His desires, to take His character for our pattern, and to serve and obey Him in everything. Though other things, and desires all compete for priority in our lives, and any of these can quickly bump God out of first place if you don't actively choose to give Him first place in every area of our lives.

Carrying your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares, and to admit your needs, and let God take care of you. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But when we turn to God in repentance, He will bear the weight of those struggles, including our sins. Our loving Father will never leave us as He promises. But the enemy of our souls wants us to doubt God, and to question His ability. And undoubtedly, this is the trick the father of lies—Satan—has used from the beginning of human history.

In the Garden of Eden our first parents were set up to live happily ever after, having been placed in a paradise-like setting by a Loving, Caring, and Personal God. They had been given everything they could ever want, but with only one small restriction: "Don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." We easily will say today, 'What a simple innocuous request and easy to obey.' But when they were enticed by the “tempter,” they fell into his trap of questioning the love and goodness of the One from whom they had only experienced good. What a monstrous lie! But they bought the lie hook, line and sinker! And mankind has been wretched ever since, but for God's intervention through His Son, Jesus Christ!

We do the same today. We willingly swallow the lie that we cannot trust our Heavenly Father. We allow our earthly hurts from parents or others to distrust our view and our understanding of God. Our many feelings, emotions, fears, and human experience effectively block a clean perception of God, consequently stifling all truth about Him. Pray that God will help you not allow negative human relationship and experience interfere with having a close relationship with your Loving, and Caring Father, and hindering your enjoying the never ending and limitless benefits of His care.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are so caring and loving that You gave Your only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for my sins. What a supreme sacrifice You made for me! Forever You remain my God. Endue me with the spirit of love, compassion, trust, and complete obedience to You, Who has given all for me, that I may strive to give You my all, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God Isn’t Gloomy

 God Isn’t Gloomy

The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations. (Psalm 33:10–11)

“Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases” (Psalm 115:3). The implication of this text is that God has the right and power to do whatever makes him happy. That is what it means to say that God is sovereign.

Think about it for a moment: If God is sovereign and can do anything he pleases, then none of his purposes can be frustrated. “The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; he frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of his heart to all generations” (Psalm 33:10–11).

And if none of his purposes can be frustrated, then he must be the happiest of all beings.

This infinite, divine happiness is the fountain from which the Christian (Hedonist) drinks and longs to drink more deeply.

Can you imagine what it would be like if the God who ruled the world were not happy? What if God were given to grumbling and pouting and depression, like some Jack-and-the-beanstalk giant in the sky? What if God were frustrated and despondent and gloomy and dismal and discontented and dejected?

Could we join David and say, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1)? I don’t think so.

We would all relate to God like little children who have a frustrated, gloomy, dismal, discontented father. They can’t enjoy him. They can only try not to bother him, or maybe try to work for him to earn some little favor. 

But that is not the way God is. He is never out of sorts with frustration or discouragement. And, as Psalm 147:11 says, he “takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.” So the aim of the Christian Hedonist is not to avoid this God, not to run from him, or tiptoe through the living room lest his gloominess become anger. No, our aim is to hope in his steadfast love. To run to him. To be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy his fellowship and favor.

Every day in the World

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 01, 2025.

SUBJECT: FORGIVENESS IS KEY IN OUR LIFE’S JOURNEY!

Memory verse: “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.” (Mark 11 vs 25.)

READ: Matthew 5 vs 23 - 24:

23 Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remembers that your brother has something against you;

24 Leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

INTIMATION:

Forgiveness is to pardon or acquit for sin. It is the release from the mind and heart of the offended feelings of resentment toward the offender, which feelings, if continued, will hinder the spiritual and emotional growth of the offended. Also, to bestow a favor unconditionally is used of the act of forgiveness, whether divine (Ephesians 4 vs 32; Colossians 2 vs 13; 3 vs 13), or human, (Luke 7 vs 42 - 43; Second Corinthians 2 vs 7; 12 vs 13). 

Human forgiveness is strictly analogous to divine forgiveness (Matthew 6 vs 12). If certain conditions are fulfilled, there is no limitation to Christ’s law of forgiveness (Matthew 18 vs 21 - 22). And the conditions are repentance and confession (Matthew 18 vs 15 - 17; Luke 17 vs 3). God will judge without mercy the one who has shown no mercy. Those who are subjects of the kingdom reign of Jesus should be of a forgiving nature. God does not answer the prayer that comes from an unforgiving heart. Therefore, forgiveness is a condition for answered prayer. 

One should always view forgiveness in relation to how much God has forgiven us. The extent to which God has forgiven us should make our forgiveness of others limitless. We shouldn’t even keep track of how many times we forgive someone. We should always forgive those who are truly repentant, no matter how many times they offend us and ask for forgiveness.

Forgiving others is tough work, so much so that many people would rather do something totally distasteful than offer forgiveness to someone who has wronged them. For a person to pray while bearing a grudge, is like a tree sprouting leaves and bearing no fruit (Mark 11 vs 13). True faith changes the heart. Real prayer dismantles pride and vengeance, filling the holes with love. Real faith speaks peace. For our churches to have prayer power, there must be harmony and forgiveness evident in the body of believers. Let go of hurts, abandon grudges, and forgive others.

Jesus gives a startling warning about forgiveness. If we refuse to forgive others, God will also refuse to forgive us. Why? Because when we don’t forgive others, we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. However, God’s forgiveness of sin is not the direct result of our forgiving others, but it is based on our realizing what forgiveness means. It is easy to ask God for forgiveness but difficult to grant it to others. Whenever we ask God to forgive us, we should ask, “Have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?” 

In the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18 vs 23 - 35), Ten thousand talents would be about sixty million denarii. One denarii was about one day’s wage. So much money is indicated that it would be impossible for a mortal man to work every day of his life in order to repay such debt. The spiritual implication of the parable is clear; we owe God more than we can pay in reference to our eternal salvation in heaven. We will receive more in heaven than we can possibly earn through works on earth. Salvation is truly by grace. 

The unforgiving servant showed no appreciation for his own forgiveness. Instead of manifesting mercy in his heart because of the mercy that was extended to him, he only thought of himself in reference to his fellow man. Because God has forgiven all our sins, we should not withhold forgiveness from others. As we realize how completely Christ has forgiven us, it should produce an attitude of forgiveness toward others. When we don’t forgive others, we are setting ourselves above Christ’s law of love.

God’s mercy toward us should stimulate the same in our lives toward others. Those with unforgiving spirits cannot inherit the heavenly environment of a forgiving God because they are not of the nature of the Father. God will render judgment without mercy on those who do not show mercy. Therefore, we must store mercy for judgement by exercising mercy toward others in reference to their sins against us. One must keep in mind that the ability to forgive is a necessary quality that one must possess in order to be a candidate for heaven. It is the nature of God to forgive, His children must have the same nature.

The spirit of forgiveness guards one against becoming bitter. It guards the joy that must be characteristic of our hearts. An unforgiving attitude will destroy a Christian’s spirit. Therefore, one must forgive for his own benefit. If he does not forgive he will often become bitter. 

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me Your excellent spirit of mercy, love and compassion, that I may manifest all these toward others in my journey of life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The All-Satisfying Object

 The All-Satisfying Object

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4)

The quest for pleasure is not even optional, but commanded (in the Psalms): “Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4).

The psalmists sought to do just this: “As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God” (Psalm 42:1–2). “My soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).

The motif of thirsting has its satisfying counterpart when the psalmist says that men “drink their fill of the abundance of Your house; and You give them to drink of the river of Your delights” (Psalm 36:8 NASB).

I found that the goodness of God, the very foundation of worship, is not a thing you pay your respects to out of some kind of disinterested reverence. No, it is something to be enjoyed: “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” (Psalm 34:8). Taste. Taste! And see.

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” (Psalm 119:103).

As C.S. Lewis says, God in the Psalms is the “all-satisfying Object.” His people adore him unashamedly for the “exceeding joy” they find in him (Psalm 43:4). He is the source of complete and unending pleasure: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

Every day in the Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 30, 2025.

SUBJECT: THE FORCE OF FAITH IN PRAYER!

Memory verse: "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that comes to God, must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." (Hebrews 11 vs 6.)

READ: Hebrews 10 vs 19 - 23:

10:19: Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, 

10:20: by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,

10:21: and having a High Priest over the house of God,

10:22: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

10:23: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

INTIMATION:

Building up your faith is a prerequisite for effectual communication with God. Faith is a potent force without which prayer will be absolutely unproductive. The Bible defines faith as "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11 vs 1.) You are holding in confidence the things you have asked in prayers, and perceiving as real facts what is not revealed to the senses. It is the ticket on which you take delivery of anything from heaven.

Your confidence in God must first be in place before you ask Him for anything, because though His Word presented before Him grants you audience in the Throne Room, your faith in Him and in His Word are what motivate Him to act on your behalf. Therefore, it is you, not God, who determines whether your prayer gets answered or not. Though ‘He is ready to perform His Word’ (Jeremiah 1 vs 12), He demands your faith that leads to a personal, dynamic relationship with Him.

You don't only approach God with His Word, you must come with an unwavering assurance that ‘He abides faithful and cannot deny Himself’ (Second Timothy 2 vs 13). Therefore, your approach to the Throne Room must be with unwavering faith. The apostle James, in James 1 vs 6 - 7 says, "But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord."

Once faith and trust in God is established, you can rest assured of results when you pray. You will not only believe in the existence of God, but also believe in His loving care. That is relying on God with full expectations that He will hear and answer when you pray.

In Matthew 9, two blind men prayed to Jesus for the restoration of their sight. Even though Jesus heard them, He did not heal them until He was assured of their faith in Him: "When Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out and saying, "Son of David, have mercy on us!" And when He had come into the house, the blind men came to Him, and Jesus said to them, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" They said to Him. Yes, Lord. Then He touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith let it be to you." And their eyes were opened...." (Matthew 9 vs 27 - 30.)

Jesus didn't respond immediately to the blind men's pleas. He waited to see if they had faith. They followed Him all through to the house, pleading with Him to heal them, and that shows believe and commitment. Not everyone who says he wants help really believes God can help him. Jesus may have waited and questioned these men to emphasize and increase their faith. When you think that God is too slow in answering your prayers, consider that He might be testing you as He did the blind men.

Jesus, by His death and offering of His blood in atonement for our sins, has made it possible for us to approach God in the Throne Room directly. We must come not halfheartedly or with improper motives or pretense, but with pure, individual, and sincere worship in faith. We can know that we have “a true heart” If we evaluate our thoughts and motives according to His Word. Christians can approach God boldly, free from our “evil conscience” and in full assurance because of the work Jesus Christ did for us in redemption.

Under the new covenant of accepting the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, our hearts and consciences are cleansed completely, not partially or temporarily, from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9 vs 14). Christ’s sacrifice transforms our lives and hearts and make us clean on the inside. Our clean conscience allow us to enter God’s presence with boldness. We have a personal access to God through Christ and can draw near to Him without an elaborate system, and growing in faith to deepen our relationship with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, my trust is in You who made heaven and earth. Forever You are my God and in You I live, and move, and have my being. Whatever You cannot give me, let me not have it. Whatever You cannot do for me, let it remain undone. My absolute faith is in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Most Liberating Discovery

 The Most Liberating Discovery

Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord. (Philippians 3:1)

No one had ever taught me that God is glorified by our joy in him — that joy in God is the very thing that makes our praise an honor to God, and not hypocrisy.

But Jonathan Edwards said it so clearly and powerfully:

God glorifies himself towards the creatures also [in] two ways: (1) by appearing to . . . their understanding; (2) in communicating himself to their hearts, and in their rejoicing and delighting in, and enjoying the manifestations which he makes of himself. . . . God is glorified not only by his glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. . . . 

[W]hen those that see it delight in it: God is more glorified than if they only see it. . . . He that testifies his idea of God’s glory [doesn’t] glorify God so much as he that testifies also his approbation of it and his delight in it.

This was a stunning discovery for me. I must pursue joy in God if I am to glorify him as the surpassingly valuable Reality in the universe. Joy is not a mere option alongside worship. It is an essential component of worship. Indeed the very essence of worship — being glad in the glories of God.

We have a name for those who speak their praises of God when they have no pleasure in what they praise. We call them hypocrites. Jesus said, “You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’” (Matthew 15:7–8). This fact — that authentic praise means consummate pleasure and that the highest end of man is to drink deeply of this pleasure for God’s glory — was perhaps the most liberating discovery I have ever made.

Every day in the Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY SEPTEMBER 29, 2025.

SUBJECT : IT IS ALL BY THE GRACE OF GOD.

Memory verse: "But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me." (First Corinthians 15 vs 10.)

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 3 - 10:

1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,

1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

1:5: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His Will,

1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,

1:9: having made known to us the mystery of His Will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,

1:10: that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. 

INTIMATION:

The dictionary definition of grace is; beauty, kindness, good-will, mercy, reprieve, and pardon. God's grace objectively means, that which bestows or occasions pleasure, delight, or causes favorable regard on a person; that is beauty, kindness, good-will, mercy, reprieve, and pardon on a person. For instance, referencing Jesus the Bible says, “And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2 vs 40.) 

Then, subjectively on the part of God the bestower, it denotes the friendly disposition from which the kindly act proceeds; graciousness, loving-kindness, goodwill generally. For instance, the Bible states about Joseph, “And the patriarchs, becoming envious, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him and delivered him out of all his troubles, and gave him favor and wisdom in the presence of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and he made him governor over Egypt and all his house.” (Acts 7 vs 9 - 10.) 

Regarding the divine nature of God’s grace or favor, the Scriptures stress on its freeness and universality, its spontaneous character, as in the case of God’s redemptive mercy, and the pleasure or joy He designs for the recipient—a sense of favor and feeling of gratitude for the sum of earthly blessings. These blessings of God are freely, and undeservedly given to sinful humanity. 

God poured out the riches of His grace. Grace was sufficient to save us from sin and deliver us out of the condemnation that was brought on ourselves through sin. It was in the wisdom and understanding of God that His plan of grace was revealed to men. It was God’s initiative, not man’s work, that brought about the revelation of the plan of God’s grace through the cross.

God’s grace therefore, can be defined as the free, and unmerited power of God available to sinful humanity to meet our needs without any costs to us. it is received by believing rather than through any human efforts. 

The simple and uncomplicated nature of God's grace, and being a free gift, make many people to miss it. There is nothing more powerful than grace. In fact, everything in the Bible—salvation, the infilling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with God and victory in our daily lives—is based upon the grace of God. Without grace, we are nothing, we have nothing, and can do nothing. If it were not for the grace of God, we would all be miserable and hopeless. And there is grace for everything we do of feel.

In our memory verse, the apostle Paul tells us that everything we are and do and have is by the grace of God. You and I are one hundred percent helpless without the grace of God. That is why we must not trust our own abilities, and initiatives because apart from Him, (cut off from vital union with Him), we can do nothing (John 15 vs 5). The writer of Hebrews tells us that, by the grace of God, our works were prepared for us by God and finished from the foundation of the world, and It is in the consciousness, and believe in God's grace that we will "enter that rest" already fashioned for us by Him (Hebrews 4 vs 3).

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul reminds us that God’s, by His grace “had blessed us with every spiritual blessings in the heavenly places” which means that in Christ we have all the benefits of knowing God—being chosen for salvation, being adopted as His children, forgiveness, insight, the gifts of the Spirit, power to do God’s Will, the hope of living forever with Christ. Because we have an intimate relationship with Christ, we can enjoy these blessings now. The “heavenly places” means that these blessings are eternal, not temporal, and all by the grace of God.

Haven known the blessedness of God’s grace, we should start each day by praying to God and saying, "Lord, Here I am, ready for whatever You have for me to do. I empty myself, as much as I know how, to allow Your grace to flow in my life, to cause me to be able to do whatever it is that You desire for me. I cast myself totally upon You. I can be only what You allow me to be, I can have only what You Will for me to have, I can do only what You empower me to do, and each victory is to Your glory, not mine."

Prayer: Abba Father, without You I am nothing. In You I live, and move, and have my being. Give me the unction to function according to Your Will, not by my strength, but by Your grace upon my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!