ENJOYING TOMORROW'S VICTORY TODAY!!

Enjoying Tomorrow's Victory Today!

Verse for Today: Saturday, July 16, 2011
Psalms 13:5 - But I have trusted in Your loving kindness; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

When God's children are faced with opposition and trouble in their lives, they have two options. One is to allow the troubles to control their thoughts to fill them with fear and anxiety and resultant loss of joy in their hearts. Such a life of various phobias drains them of their courage and confidence and makes them blown around by the wind of circumstances. It takes away the stability they should have otherwise enjoyed in their lives. But the child of God has a splendid option to follow which is to put all trust in the Lord to look after their present and future circumstances. Even when the road seems to be long and the sufferings endless, the child of God has the confidence that the Lord is there with him in all his circumstances. This is because his Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever. But when we allow circumstance to prevail over our faith, it will control our thoughts and eventually the decisions we make. When the possible fierce consequences try to penetrate our thoughts, the child of God can find victory over negative thoughts and melancholic feelings. No matter how long we wait for deliverance, we do not wait alone but the Lord helps us to wait for His time. He is in all our circumstances with us, He knows it all beforehand and has gone before we we reach there. He awaits us with His grace to meet the intimidating challenges of circumstances and will pour His grace into our hearts. Thus our hearts will generate trust and patience through His Spirit who fills our hearts. When the Lord thus fills us with Himself and His Spirit, it is as if the future has already arrived in our hearts. That is when we can sing to Lord with rejoicing because of the victory and deliverance He has already granted us. In essence we go to our future circumstances by faith and appropriate joy and victory by faith and enjoy it today.

Dear friend, has it been long since we you have waited for the Lord to give you victory over your difficult situations? Your long wait would have perhaps challenged your patience at times and caused you to develop doubts in your hearts. But the Lord has already given you victory over your situations. He is first and foremost concerned about your victory over the present emotions of apprehension, anxiety and phobia. He gives it to us moment by moment through His Spirit and Word so that our concern for our circumstances would wane away from our hearts. It will be replaced with praise in our hearts for the victory that He has already given us. Perhaps that victory is on its way in terms of time frame, but for the God who is above timeliness, the victory for you has already been accomplished. This is why we can praise God for tomorrow's victory and deliverance today itself. Such was the life of Abraham who saw the blessings God had promised him by faith from a distance. He was able to boldly sacrifice Isaac believing that He had already regained him by faith even from the ashes. Such faith helped Joseph to keep going in the wake of severe tests and persecutions. Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem by the same faith and Gideon went to war seeing victory even before it was physically accomplished. Today we are challenged by the experience of David to take God by His Word that He has already accomplished deliverance for all our present and future situations and praise Him today for it all. Such faith is the greatest driving force for us to keep going in all our circumstances because our Lord has gone before us and has already accomplished victory for us. Let us enjoy all such future victories today by faith and live accordingly, thus defeating all the fear and anxiety which try to overtake us.

2 Timothy 4:18 - The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will being me safely to His heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Thought for Today
Reassurance of future victory drives us through all circumstances with courage, confidence and strength.

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PRESERVED THOUGH INTIMIDATED!!

Preserved though Intimidated!

Verse for Today: Friday, July 15, 2011
Psalms 12:7 - You, O Lord, will keep them (safe); You will preserve them from this generation forever.

We live in a generation which is ungodly. This generation is under the clutches of Satan and sin and is opposed to any thing that God does in this world. The people of this generation are used often by the enemy of our souls against us who are God's children. We can see them in every walk of life, at work places, public places, service centers, on streets, market places and even in religious institutions. They are the best instruments in the hands of their master to intimidate and challenge God's children and their life of faith. We are often ill-treated, back bitted, gossiped about and schemed against. Our words are often misinterpreted and misrepresented. Our motives are misunderstood and we are misquoted. The enemy uses them to challenge our faith and trust in God. Their work ethic is manipulation and blackmailing. They do not have any ethics in the work place or in businesses. They say something and do something else so that they can achieve their goals of increasing their profit and other selfish desires. They win with their tongues which are twisted to say things to meet their goals in life and it is often at the expense of the children of God. These lead God's people into a lot of frustration and heartaches. They are often deprived of their rights and privileges through the people of this generation. But we are reminded today by the Word of God that this is not the end of the story. Even when the enemy tries to use people against the children of God, these brutal acts do not go unnoticed by the Lord. He watches these from above, rescues and safe keeps His children under His wings. They may suffer temporary losses of various kinds, but the Lord gives them deliverance and ultimate victory.

Dear reader, are you experiencing persecution of some sort in the hands of the people around you? Perhaps you are going through bitter experiences at your place of work or business. You might be looked at as a failure and an unintelligent person because you are not smart enough to win over their tactics. Do not let the intimidation of the enemy through the people around you downcast you and make you despair. You are going through these experiences because your values are that of the Lord and His Word. Your methods are not of flesh, but of Spirit. You cannot use fleshly and worldly tactics to win over your situations. You also have to realize that these people who are used by the enemy are not your real enemy and that the real enemy is only using them in his hands as puppets. He wants to scratch our skins and bleed us so that we might be tempted to react like the worldly people. But you and I have the consolation that we are preserved by the Lord in His mighty hands. We might temporarily experience setbacks of different kinds in the hands of the perverse generation in the midst of which we live. But the Lord makes sure that our ultimate spiritual interests are never affected. He keeps us in His peace which passes all understanding. He helps us to forgive our detractors and forget the temporary losses through their hands because no one can thwart us of our permanent inheritance in Heaven. He keeps our hearts and minds in peace and comfort in Him so that we will have the spiritual strength to bear with any of the intimidation of this generation with the spirit of forbearance, patience and peace. Joseph, David, Nehemiah, Ezra, Jeremiah, Paul and others had similar experience and they got victory over their situations through the Lord. The same Lord is alive for us today and He will give us His grace in abundance to weather away the intimidation of the enemy for His name' sake.

Psalms 12:5 - "Because of the oppressions of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord. "I will protect them from those who malign them."

Thought for Today
The strong shield of the grace of God around His children will preserve them from the fieriest darts which come through the ungodly around them.

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FOUNDATION UNSHAKABLE!!

Foundation Unshakable!

Verse for Today: Thursday, July 14, 2011
Psalms 11:3 - When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?

We see the foundations laid by God in this world being destroyed day by day. The moral law that God instilled in the hearts of men have already been mutilated. The laws of God which once governed all human relationships seem to be crumbling fast, if not already crumbled. Rebellion in families is ever on the increase. All norms of godliness have been questioned under the shadow of freedom and spirit of independence. The inquiry methods of education have come into question everything that God has taught man. There is a counter-argument for every doctrine and teaching of the conservative pulpit. There are seemingly innovative approaches to everything which do not seem to need the power of the Spirit of God to accomplish. Christendom is increasingly challenged to use modern methods to accomplish great human goals with guaranteed success. Ministers and Christian ministries use modern marketing methods to achieve objectives. Organizations have come to replace the role of the church, and their growth rate is intimidating. Great men are tempted to join the crowd lest they will be shown the way out of ministry. Faith is replaced by sight and technology. Sin has become a 'weakness' for which someone else is always responsible. Gospel has new ingredients like 'prosperity' and 'social reformation'. Very few know God who is the 'consuming fire' because they think He is full of love who cannot punish sin. The church is full of 'pharaohs' who have not seen 'Joseph' and might not learn until the plagues come and devastate everything. When foundations are thus destroyed inch by inch, God's people get exasperated and wonder what to do to keep going. But such exasperation need not crumble us, and instead lead us more often to the holy temple where our Lord is seated on the Throne righteously. He has guaranteed consolation and hope to all who go to Him for strength and comfort even when the foundations are destroyed.

Dear friend, are you exasperated about the way things get out of control around you? Do you feel deeply frustrated that you are unable to do any thing about the destruction of the foundation of life situations? Is the enemy sowing the seeds of despair in your heart? But there is no need to plunge into despondency because the Lord is still on the Throne in Heaven and He controls everything. When people break the chains of love that God has put into their lives, they will plunge into chains of slavery of various kinds and will suffer for it. Even when there seem to be nothing we can do about the evil that pervades all walks of life, we can always go to the Throne of Grace and draw strength and hope from the Lord. He controls our lives with His love and grace and wants us to continue to depend on Him for all our affairs. When we submit ourselves to Him without loosing hope, He will take hold of our hearts and minds to strengthen us through His Spirit and Word to face the hopeless situations that we are in. He deals with us as He examines us to see if we are right with Him. Let us live without getting stuck with the blemishes that are around. Let us believe the Word rather than question it. Let us take God and His Word by faith and hold on to it to strength us when the foundations shake. Let the Word be the only foundation for our faith because when all things pass away, the Word is eternally secured in Heaven. When life seems to be at a standstill, let the golden rays of the foundations of the Word give us hope to keep going. Let Jesus alone be our hope in this hopeless world to provide us with the spiritual energy that we need to hold on until He comes to take us Home with Him.

Isaiah 6:1b - .......I saw the Lord seated on the Throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

Thought for Today
When all foundations around us crumble, we have a sure foundation in the Lord who is our only hope and strength.

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INVISIBLE YET INVOLVED!!

Invisible yet Involved!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Psalms 10:1 - Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

When we wait for long for the Lord to answer our prayers and when the answers do not come even after we tarry for a long time, it is likely that we become exasperated and desperate. At such times, doubts and confusions come and knock at the doors of our hearts. It is possible that words of unbelief might come out of our souls in such situations. We become like little children who wait in impatience and speak impulsively because of intense feelings of despair and pain of suffering. Sometimes we wonder whether God had heard our prayers and supplications. These doubts and apprehensions tend to dim our eyes so that we would even loose our spiritual insights. Isaac had a time of dimmed vision and so also Eli, the high priest. Such dimmed visions drove them into serious spiritual problems. The enemy will use our weak flesh to plunge us into deep depression and despair and we might not even know what we utter in the presence of the Lord. But if we look unto the Lord through the spiritual eyes, it won't be difficult to see that He is very near us and still holds us in His mighty hands. We might not be able to see the way He works in our lives and in our situations because these actions of our Lord are often hidden to us. But our Lord is working wonderfully for us behind the curtain which will be revealed at the right time. Till that time, we need to exercise faith and patience. When we lack faith, we have the freedom and opportunity to ask the Author and Finisher of our faith to increase our faith and trust in Him. We can thus challenge the forces of the enemy that there is nothing impossible with our Lord and that He will come to our rescue and answer our prayers at the right time. He is not standing far off in hiding, but working behind the scene to meet your need and help you to face the challenges in life.

Dear reader, there were times when great children of God like David, Hannah, Abraham, Jacob, Paul and others got exasperated and wondered whether our Lord was far off. We are sometimes tempted to utter words of faithlessness which are en embarrassment to our faith. But the Lord knows that it comes out of our weak faith because we are dust and do not have much strength in ourselves. We are all people with feet of clay. So in our times of despair and faithlessness, He prays for us as in the case of Peter. His Spirit intercedes before the Father for us. He speaks to us daily through His Word to strengthen us and help us to see the way He works for us even when we are not aware of it. Even when we sleep, He works for us. As we are involved in other things and forget about His mighty work in progress for us, He still works for us. He works in us with the same power with which He created the Universe and all that is in it. His ears will never be shut from our prayers nor will His arms be short that they cannot accomplish His purpose in and through us. If we cannot see the Lord near us, it is our spiritual problem and not His neglect of His beloved children. On the authority of the Word of God and on the basis of the experiences of millions of His children throughout the past centuries, we can confidently say that the Lord is near to us and He stands by us to help us in all our situations. He is in all our situations with us and will never forsake us. Let us see Him today by faith in His full glory and power and put all our trust in Him to deliver us from our difficult situations and thus take glory to Himself through our lives.

Psalms 145:18 - The Lord is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth.

Thought for Today
When we focus our eyes and attention on the Lord, we will be able to see Him working in all our circumstances all the time.

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YOU WON'T BE WRITTEN OFF!!

You won't be Written-off!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Ruth 1:6 - When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of His people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

Even though there was a famine in Bethlehem, the house of bread, that was not the end of its fate. The famine was a direct reprimand from God for the wayward life of the people of God when they all did as seem fit in their eyes. People like Elimelech and Naomi even fled the land of God to a cursed gentile country for survival, just like their father Abraham who went to Egypt. But the emancipation from God's land only brought them more tears and depravity. At such times the ungodly people around would say that God had forgotten His people and the land He had given them. But once the people of God learned their lessons, God remembered the remnant and His covenant with Abraham and sent a time of abundance to His people. Such is our God who will not forsake His children forever. He has special ways to teach us great lessons, often through pestilence, poverty, war, captivity, crop failure and the like. These are never to wipe us out of the land of the living. When we learn the lessons that God intends us to learn, He will bring back a time of normalcy in our lives. He will not forget us forever nor will He forsake us completely. He is mindful of us and knows that we are but just and worms. So He shows compassion to us and comes back to meet our needs on a daily basis. But it is equally important that we also live a life of faithfulness to the Lord and His Word.

Dear reader, have you ever felt that God has forsaken and forgotten you because of the seemingly repeated adversities that strike you? But these adversities are often a way by which God is speaking to us and asking us to straighten out our lives. Any thing that God allows in our lives is a way by which God speaks to us. We need to humble our hearts and give ears to the messages that He so loudly speaks. All events that happen around us have a message to us. Some times the events are due to the attack of the enemy which ought to make us sharpen the armor of God that He has given us and use it according to His instructions to fight and become victorious. At other times, we go through the experiences of Ai when failures in our lives make us fumble and mumble. At such times, adversities point us towards our failures so that we can become right with God. Through all that happens to us, we should listen to God and obey unconditionally. When these pestilences blow on us or other believers, we must also realize that after these winds stop, there will be a time when we will enjoy a time of peace and rest. But this rest is available to us today in spite of the winds and storms that blow on us because we are already seated in the heavenly places. We can today be comforted along with the Naomi's and the Ruth's among us that God will not forsake us forever and that even when all around write us off, there will be time when God will once again open the windows of Heaven to shower His providence, peace and protection on us in a special way. Yes, Bethlehem will once again be filled with bread and God's people will once again enjoy a time of spiritual abundance as they confess their failures to Him and wait for Him to act. Perhaps that day will begin in your life today for you to continue to enjoy the favor of the Lord.

Psalms 136:23 - Give thanks to the Lord who remembered us in our low estate.

Thought for Today
God will never write off His children but will show grace and loving kindness towards us when we repent and go back to Him.

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A THOUGHTFUL AND CARING GOD!!

A Thoughtful and Caring God!

Verse for Today: Monday, July 11, 2011
Psalms 8:4 - What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

The glory of the creation of God is so great that it exemplifies the glory of its Creator. The universe is so vast and varied with relative magnificence and excellence in its characters and movements. Considering all the vast creations of God, man is but a puny creature and in comparison less than an amoeba. But it is amazing that God considers man greater than all His other creations. It seems that all of creation works for man who lives on the earth which is one of the smallest planets. Even after man committed sin and had fallen short of the glory of God, it is amazing that God is still mindful of man. God controls the movements and interrelationships of the stars and the planets in such a way that the environment of this earth is conducive for man to live. This is because God loves man and is interested in his well being. God wants the fellowship of man and desires that he responds to the love of God demonstrated on the cross of Calvary through the death of His Son. God is mindful of man and his welfare. God is infinitely interested in the affairs of man because God envisages an eternal plan for man. The life that He has given to man is a time of preparation for man to be with God forever. So man's life on earth is of tremendous importance to God. God speaks to man through His entire creation and declares His glory to man to challenge man to respond to God's love. God has great provisions to meet all the earthly needs of man, for water, air, energy and environment which are all built in the universe through the skillful arrangement of His creation.

Dear friend, isn't it amazing that the God of this Universe is interested in you and that He is mindful of your welfare? Do you realize that He moves the universe to meet your needs while you have the challenge to search and find God and His love? Are you aware of the extent of care He has for you and your affairs? Yes, He is interested in you and your affairs because He has eternal purposes for you. He wants to accomplish certain purposes with your life here on earth as well. He desires to use your life as a great investment for the spiritual welfare of others around you and will reward you for allowing Him to use your life as a springboard for Him. While you are mindful of Him and His affairs, He wants to be mindful of your affairs. He thinks about you all the time because you have His Son dwelling in your heart. He has also deposited His Spirit in you. So God has something at stake in your life and He is interested in the spiritual investment in you to grow and fruit so that God can use these fruit for others. But He can use you only if you surrender your life to God to use it the way He wants for His glory alone. He guarantees that He will meet all your needs while you allow Him to use your life for His glory. When you reach your eternal home, He will help you to find your life with all the investment that you allowed Him to have in your life. This is both an opportunity and a challenge. If we acknowledge God as our creator, rightful owner and redeemer of our lives, we would have no hesitation to give our lives back to God to use it the way He wants. Considering our nothingness and sinfulness, there is no reason for Him to be mindful of us, but He remembers us because of His loving kindness and compassion. Isn't it wonderful that while we look after His interest on this earth, He will look after our needs and interests here and now and forever in eternity as well? It is then that we are able to live without anxiety about our earthly affairs because He is mindful of us and our affairs.

Psalms 27:13 - I would have despaired unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Thought for Today
When we are mindful of God and His business on earth, He will be mindful of our business on earth.

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A COOL DESERT!!

A Cool Desert

Verse for Today: Sunday, July 10, 2011
Song of Songs 8:5 - Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover?

Desert is a picture of intense dusty heat which makes travelers weary, thirsty and miserable. The life of a child of God is often depicted as a journey through the desert. It is a difficult journey which makes the travelers frustrated. They feel like wanting to run fast, but they can't because of the pressures of the desert. There are no trees for shade and the way itself is not clearly marked out. It is so easy to loose the way and travelers get confused about which direction to go forward. This world puts great pressure of heat on the travelers and intimidates them with great challenges of life. The world doesn't give the traveler any rest, but make them intensely thirsty. Often the world gives them wrong things to drink to increase their weariness. In the midst of it all, there is a thrill for the child of God because he is traveling with the Lord who is the Lover of his soul. As the Lord walks so close to us, we can always lean on to Him and find comfort and rest in Him and cast all our burdens on Him. When we lean on to Him, He keeps comforting and encouraging us to keep going. But we need to watch out to make sure not to lean on to the pseudo-lovers like possessions, positions and prestige who are out there to attract us to them. They only offer bondage of various kind and infected lukewarm water to drink. They give us entertainment to make us joyful which will be like soap bubbles. They offer sleeping pills to help us sleep instead of sleep and peace. They give us false sense of satisfaction which evaporates in the heat of the desert. But our Lord, the Lover of our souls, is with us and He invites us lovingly to lean on to Him to find rest, comfort and coolness in Him. When we lean on to Him, we can cast all our cares and burdens on Him. He will put His arms around us and comfort us with His Word which is the living water for us to regain the lost energy as we walk through this desert.

Dear friend, are you a weary traveler through this world which is a desert with its hot wind and sand that make you miserable? Are there times when you feel that you might not make it through the journey? Do you often get confused and feel intimidated by the pressures and tensions of this desert journey? Just look behind you to find the Lover of your soul walking beside you. He wants to talk to you and walk with you to help you tread this path with joy in your heart and rest for your soul. He wants you to lean on to Him and put all your burdens on Him so that you can relax. He wants you to trust Him to be your travel companion who carries your baggage for you. As you lean on to Him and put all your weight on Him, you will be completely relieved of the burdens. He is the Rose of Sharon whose fragrance will take away the weariness from your soul. He is like an apple tree in the desert and you have the privilege to sit under its cool shadow to enjoy the sweet melons which will take away all your weariness and give you the spiritual energy to keep going. When the desert tries to confuse and defeat you and make you take detours in your walk with the Lord, your Lover is ever beside you to hold your hands and take you to your destination. Walking with Him even through the desert is a great thrill. You have the privilege of singing love songs of praise to the Lover of your soul as you keep walking with Him. Then you will not feel the harsh desert weather, and your weary soul will be rejuvenated. Let us enjoy this walk in spite of the unfavourable situations in this desert because we have our Lord to lean on to.

Psalms 91:4 - He will cover you with His feathers, and under His wings you will find refuge; His faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

Thought for Today
Leaning on the Lord will take away all our burdens and release our souls to express our love to Him through spiritual hymns.

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