Strength, in the face of hopelessness

In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides]. Ephesians 6:10 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. In the face of current realities, it is becoming increasingly difficult not to have a Plan B or a second opinion. Not a Plan B in terms of investment or income, but a Plan B in respect of help and support. Salaries no longer cover needs, family needs do not follow any known pattern and the economy has defied all known logical solutions. Is it possible to look only to God, in these very odd times?

2. God asks me to be strong in Him alone. I must depend on God alone, to the exclusion of all others. I must seek God alone for strength, sustenance and support, even when everything around me is going to pieces. Things will test your faith, circumstances will test your stand, situations will test your convictions. If there was no potential trouble ahead, God would not warn me to stand firm in Him. Like it has been said, it is not when trouble comes that your reaction is determined, but in the days when things seem to be going well. If you do not have convictions when you have all you need, you will definitely not have any when trouble comes.

3. Your strength must be in God alone. Isn't it amazing how we allow men to deceive us, by offering us placebos and palliatives that cannot help us? A man takes something that has been created, says a few things and gives you as protection, or as your source of wealth. Nobody considers that anything created, no matter how powerful or connected, can ever be greater than the One who created it. Why chase after the temporary appeal of the created, when you have all the power, strength, support, protection and provision that the Creator of the whole universe can give you? His might is boundless, his wisdom is beyond searching out, his understanding is unfathomable, his love is beyond searching out. That is just a tip of the greatness and power available to you when you make God your one and only option. His time of favour is here.

Making your stand known!

Anyone who confesses (acknowledges, owns) that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides (lives, makes His home) in him and he [abides, lives, makes his home] in God. 1 John 4:15 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. There is an open invitation to the whole world. It has been settled that the world, as we see it today, will not last forever. Everything will be destroyed by fire, and the heavens and the earth will pass away. However, there is just one assuring knowledge - Jesus lives forever, and all who know him and have received Him will also live with Him forever.

2. The invitation is for all to acknowledge, own and confess that Jesus is the Son of God. Every word is important here - you must acknowledge his rulership and authority over your life, you must surrender total control to him and accept him as Lord and Saviour of your life. It is not enough to agree with his claims of Lordship or accept that he is King, his reign and rule must be true in your own life first. It is not enough for the world to call you a follower of Chirst, God must truly know you as his own, and he must be sure of your allegiances.

3. Your confession of Jesus as Lord is the key to the abiding presence of God in your life. God wants to dwell in us, take charge and direct our affairs into his perfect will. However, he does not force himself on us; we must willingly and consciously give over control to Him. You then enjoy a mutually benefitting relationship with God, where you stand to gain much more than you could ever give.

Have you made your home in God? Is God living, abiding, residing and dwelling in you? Have you received Jesus as Lord, and surrendered control to Him? That is the pathway to joy, peace and eternal life. His time of favour is here.

God's Placing

I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm 16:8 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. God's place in your life will determine the resources that will be available to you. Some people have made God one of many options or the fallback plan, just in case the main plan and the plan B does not work. Unfortunately, things may have gotten irretrievably out of hand before you get to the God-option.
2. Have you determined with certainty God's place in your heart? When things threaten to get out of control, where does your mind go? You can choose to see the amazing size of your problems or you can choose to see the amazing size of the God who can do all you think are impossible. It is a matter of focus. It is not an option or a temporary or occasional thing. At every point in time, whether things are hard or easy, God is the only focus and the continual point of our affection.
3. If you will remain unmovable, you must sort out your heart long before the problems start. You do not get to the middle of the river and complain about the wetness or the volume of water; you have to settle in your heart where God fits in your life. The three Hebrew men didn't make that speech on total commitment just on a whim; they had taken time to know God and to develop a relationship with him. Daniel couldn't have been calling on God because a lions' den was waiting for him; he had developed and consistently nurtured a living, breathing relationship with God. It is the same with us today: don't wait until the problems start. Know God now, seek him now, wait on him now, learn to trust him now. The days of testing and shaking are coming. Your standing then is determined by your priorities and focus now. His time of favour is here.

Taste and See

O taste and see that the Lord [our God] is good! Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man who trusts and takes refuge in Him. Psalm 34:8 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. God can be tasted, literally. When you take stock of all you have been through, and truthfully examine the impact of God's hand on all your situations, do you not feel God at work in all situations? Have you not seen his invisible yet strong hand leading, guiding and protecting you even in the valley of the shadow of death?
2. The invitation is out there, asking that I come, taste and see. It is a picture of assurance from God's perspective, stating with certainty that with Him, you cannot have anything else except good. It is not seeing from the dim light of your own limitations, but seeing as God sees. I must approach the throne of grace with confidence, I must open my mouth to ask and my arms to be carried. God does not force himself on anyone, but he will move heaven and earth for anyone who trusts in Him. I must not define life by what I see, but what God wants me to see.
3. Trusting in God always leads to blessings. Trusting in God always opens doors that nothing else can open. Abraham was blessed by God beyond what any man could give him, simply because he trusted God. Isaac was blessed beyond the country where he was living because God blessed him. You cannot take your eyes away from God and fix it on the shallow, temporary circumstances that surround us daily.
4. Taking permanent refuge, not temporary residence in God, is what qualifies you for blessing. Too many times, we see God as one of many options, thinking we do have a choice. God is not at our disposal, to be used and dumped as we please; he is the One who alone must be served, worshipped and trusted. If I must end well, and if I must enjoy God's divine favour, I must just trust completely, absolutely and wholly on God alone. His time of favour is here.

Where are you resident?

You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You. So trust in the Lord (commit yourself to Him, lean on Him, hope confidently in Him) forever; for the Lord God is an everlasting Rock [the Rock of Ages]. Isaiah 26:3‭-‬4 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. God does the guarding and the keeping, while we are expected to do the staying, the committing, the leaning, the hoping and the trusting. This picture is one of absolute assurance of your own limitation and the confidence that God is able to do all he has promised. If you have options, God also has staying power. He can wait, after all, he has been existing long before this earth was created, and he will continue to exist long after this present world ends. You don't have that luxury, so your options are truly limited.
2. In trusting God, what seems to be key is that your mind, both in inclination and in character, is stayed on God. Your mind does not consider options first, before deciding who to trust, but it sees God as the only one that is worthy of trust. Your mind is stayed on God alone, not seeking temporary residence in a lot of options. God is not a spare tyre, to be used only on emergencies, and completely ignored and forgotten most times.
3. God's peace cannot be defined by the world, because the world does not understand its foundations. Peace that God gives does not shield us from issues, but it gives us calm in the face of the most distressing of circumstances. Don't let the world define what peace means; God has been defining it since the days of Joseph in the prison, the three Hebrew men in the furnace of fire, and Daniel in the lions' den. That is peace - God's presence in the face of the most distressing of circumstances, and joy in the midst of the strongest discomfort.
4. When you hear someone make a promise, you watch out for the capacity, capability and ability of the person promising to fulfil what s/he has promised. God sets out his ability,capacity and capability in these few words-he is the Rock of Ages. That is deep. Long before the problems came, God has been God, and long after the problems would have ceased, and life itself as we know it would have ended, God would always remain God. He can be trusted to keep his promises. His time of favour is here.

Who are You?

The Lord is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the [consistently] righteous (the upright, in right standing with Him).  Proverbs 15:29 AMPC

Few Lessons:
1. God has already established his will, desire and purpose for us. His Word is the map, the plan and the compass. If his Word does not back you up, you are simply pursuing your own agenda. As you read the Word of God, not the compilations of men, you see God's consistency in dealing with sin and unrighteousness. God punishes it wherever it is found, either in Israel or in Babylon, either in David or in Nebuchadnezzar. It really does not matter how close to God you claim to be; what really matters is that you know, approve and follow what God has established as his will and purpose for your life.
2. Wickedness is not the conscious committing of evil, but a constant rejection of God. As long as you are a friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. It does not matter if the world stands to applaud you; it does matter whether God approves of you. Man's approval is always temporary and hypocritical; God's favour is always eternal and generational. God is far from the wicked, and when he is far, he does not hear their prayers. Unfortunately, the wicked will appear to prosper, they will have all the physical, outward signs of success. However, beyond the surface you see is an eternity in jeopardy, an awaiting of eternal loss if there is no return to God. Pause here and seriously consider: are you living to please man or seeking God's approval and mercy?
3. God's ears are always attentive to the prayers of those who have made him their only trust. Righteousness cannot be bought or transferred; it is given by God to all who have come to trust him alone, and who constantly rely on him alone. That word "consistently" is key here. You do not start in Him and attempt to finish it on your own. You do not depend on him most of the time and try to work it out by yourself the other times. There must be a continuous, unending dependence on God.
4. PRAY! There is amazing power in talking to God. Man cannot help, no matter how noble his/her intentions may be. God is waiting for that conversation, that connection with you. He promises to hear, and to respond to our earnest desires. We may not always like what we hear, but beyond our getting all we need, we have a friend in God, the author, maker, sustainer and perfecter of all that concern us. Isn't that just perfect? His time of favour is here.

Learning God's Way

May the Lord lead you into a greater understanding of God's love and the endurance that is given by Christ. 2 Thessalonians 3:5 GNB

Few Lessons
1. God always leads us to a deeper understanding of who he is and how he works. God is not content with our good start; he also wants us to grow deeper, stay longer, work harder even as we get to know him more.
2. God's leading as described above is encompassed by his love. All he does is in love, even when events around you speak otherwise. One of the hardest lessons that we need to learn is that God is powerful enough to cause even the 'evil' events around us work out for our good.
3. My understanding of God's love is key to how I see life. Do I see life from God's perspective or from the narrow prism of my own experiences? Do I summarize God's dealings with me just on the basis of what I go through? Do I trust God enough that his love for me is far greater than the pain and trouble that I may face?
4. You will learn endurance by walking with and working for God. I am yet to see a man being used of God without being tried and tested. I am yet to see a man who God took a long way without first approving the depth of his convictions and the quality of his endurance. As God tries and tests, he's preparing you for higher assignments. Take the lessons, learn all you can about God. The lessons you pick up now will speak for you in the places God has been preparing you for. His time of favour is here.