TOO PRECIOUS TO ABANDON!!

Too Precious to abandon!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Isaiah 49:15 – Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.

The compassion God has for His children is illustrated by Him to us through the strong bondage a mother has for her baby. His love is far greater and stronger than that of an earthly mother to her child. Mothers are well known and well recognized for their strong bondage to their babies and children. They endure all possible sacrifices to see to it that their babies are borne healthy and reared healthy and wise. Their whole attention is on the baby and its welfare. They are filled with compassion to the baby and are ready to forgo all comforts and rest for the welfare of the baby. This is the greatest human bondage which man can understand. God comes to tell us that His bondage to us is far greater and deeper than that of a mother to her child. So when we cry or feel lonely, He feels for us and shows compassion to us by wiping our tears and filling us with His presence. He is absolutely committed to our welfare here on earth. He wants to provide for all our needs and help us to grow in stature in His grace and love. When we are persecuted by our situations and circumstances, He comes to our rescue and deliverance. When we face the enemy, He comes to fight for us. When we are restless, He comes to give us rest and sleep. Even if the whole world rejects us, He accepts us. He is interested in our exercise in faith so that we would grow in trusting Him for all our needs. He gives us newer visions through His Word about what He has prepared for our future and eternity. He reassures us and rebuilds us when we are broken in our spirits. His compassion and care for us thus provokes and prompts us to follow Him and walk in His footsteps here on earth.

Dear friend, are you feeling forsaken by others and rejected by those who are dear and near to you? Do you feel that your clan has forgotten you and deprived you of all your rights and privileges? Do you feel all alone and are you locked up in the caves or dungeons of circumstances and situations? Perhaps you are locked up in unusual situations like prophets Jonah or Jeremiah. But you need not loose hope because your Lord has not forgotten you. He comes to meet you in your lonely experiences at your Patmos. He visits you when you are depressed and fearful and sitting under the juniper trees in the wilderness and He sends His angels with water and bread to refresh you. He keeps watching over you when you are in the den of cruel people. He has prepared a feast for you in the midst of your enemies and sends you meat and bread in your experience of the brooks of Cherith. He will never forget you and reject you. He will never leave you alone nor forsake you. His fountain of compassion will always be with you in all your circumstances and situations. He is the same yesterday and today and forever and He is the unchanging Lord even when all things and all others change. How fortunate it is that we are called upon to be the children of this great God and be members of His family where He is our Father! His promise of uninterrupted and eternal companionship is as sure as He lives. Let us today find solace in His presence and get ourselves lost in the wonder of such a great Lord. Let us comfort ourselves that our Lord will never forget us even when all others reject us.

Deuteronomy 4:31 – For the Lord your God is a merciful God; He will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your forefathers, which He conformed to them by oath.

Thought for Today
The Lord cannot abandon you as He suffered the greatest pain on the Cross of Calvary to secure you as His precious child because of His perfect love for you.

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FOUNTAIN OF PRAISE!!

Fountain of Praise!

Verse for Today: Monday, October 10, 2011

Psalms 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord.

Praise is an expression which comes from a life that is grateful to the life-giver. Praise acknowledges a heart full of gratitude for favors received. When the favors are unmerited, it provokes greater praise. There are a lot of people for us to give thanks for the various ways by which they touched our lives. But it is God who created us and used all these people to touch our lives and so God deserves greatest praise from us. God not only created us, but He also re-created us on the Cross of Calvary. So we are bound to praise God doubly for being the Lord of our lives. We praise Him for giving us life and allowing us to live each moment of our lives. He has granted us the privilege to live for Him. He facilitates us to touch the lives of others for Him. He makes us His instruments to serve others on His behalf. He teaches us great lessons in life which are of eternal value. He meets all our physical, emotional, intellectual and social needs. He has created us as unique individuals with unique talents, abilities and characteristics which are all meant for us to serve the Lord’s interests here in this world. Looking back into our past, there are innumerable reasons for us to praise Him. When we go through the rough patches of life, there are always enough reasons to look back and praise Him for bringing us thus far. Such an understanding of our past helps us to be grateful to Him and to keep trusting Him for the future also. As we trust the Lord for our future, we can praise Him for all our days that He grants us. There is always cause for us to thank the Lord for each moment of our lives because we exist, move around and progress towards our eternal home because of Him.

Dear reader, is your life a joyful procession of praises to the Lord or a boring heap of grumblings? Are you finding enough reasons to thank the Lord for each moment in your life? This is the way to stop grumbling and start living. Grumbling is backward looking and negative which creates destructive thinking in us. A grumbler would find it difficult to observe any thing positive in one’s own life, in the life and events around us in the world. But God has created enough reasons for us to be thankful. Above all, He deserves gratefulness in our hearts because He has quickened us from our low estate where we were dead in our sins and trespasses. He gave us a new life with new opportunities and purposes. He takes us to new vistas of life to live for Him. He opens new avenues for us to touch the lives of others. He makes us help others to become alive to the realities of a life for Him. Let us make use of each new day that He gives us to exhibit His life in us. Let our lives become a festival of praise for Him who has brought joy in our lives. Let our joy find its vent out into this depressing world and let it influence the melancholic lives of the people of this world who have no hope in life. Let us each day count our blessings of the past, continue to praise the Lord and get ourselves lost in the wonder and awe of Him who made it all possible in our lives.

Psalms 63:3 – Because Your lovingkindness is greater than life, my lips will praise You.

Thought for Today
The fountain of ceaseless praise will emanate from a heart full of gratitude.

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OUR CALLS ANSWERED!!

Our calls answered!

Verse for Today: Sunday, October 09, 2011
Lamentations 3:57 – You came near when I called You, and you said, “Do not fear”.

Our call to the Lord is an expression of our desire, need and desperation for our Lord. It is based on our inner needs and outer situations. Our inner needs are often controlled by our emotions like loneliness, fears, apprehensions, doubts, confusions and feeling of inadequacies. Outer needs come from our understanding of our situations and circumstances which are unfavourable. In both these spectrums, we need someone to come and help and support us to keep going. But often our inner needs cannot be truly understood by those around us or those who are closely linked with us. It is often not easy to share our innermost feelings, thoughts and fears to any one else in this world. Our external environment which intimidates and threatens us is not always understood by others. They often explain it away or take it lightly. In such circumstances, we need an anchor for our souls so that we can lay all our internal and external needs, desires, inadequacies and fears on the anchor and rest. When people fail us, and when wealth doesn’t come to our rescue, or when our positions and prestige do not bail us out of our inner needs or external circumstances, we need an unchanging and strong pillar to lean on to. It is at such times that we call out to the Lord. He never disappoints us. When we call Him, He comes to our rescue. He comes with His peace and love in the wake of all our inner needs and tough external circumstances. When no one else is able to come and help, He will definitely come to deliver us and give us rest. When others do not understand, He understands us. When others take us lightly, He understands us fully and sympathizes with us. When other power centers fail to provide us with the kind of resources we desperately need, He comes with heavenly resources like peace, compassion, love and grace to help us with our needs. He comes to command us not to be boggled with our situations as He comes to take control and dispels all our fears, apprehensions, restlessness, frustrations and confusions.

Hello dear reader, the Lord wants all of us today to realize that when other helpers shy away from us in times of dire need, there is a place of quiet rest and peace near to the heart of God. He responds to our earnest call for help and support. His love for us would not let Him keep away from us or take us lightly. We are His greatest concern here on earth. Our business is His business. Our hurts are taken seriously by Him. Our situations with all the implications are quite well understood by Him. What lies ahead of us is known to Him with all its ramifications and so He acts on time to prevent any untoward things in our lives. We need to be like the two blind men on the side of the road Jesus took to go to Jerusalem. When there was too much noise around, they called all the more loudly until there was a response from Jesus. The depth of our needs ought to make us call loudly, again and again, as David called, until He got an answer. The sincerity and importunity with which we call is very well understood by Him. He stops for us as He stopped for His servants when they were in caves, deserts, dungeons, fire, water, waves, storms, chains and in sicknesses of various kinds. He answers us to meet our needs and bless us with His presence and promises. He commands our fears to disappear and brings our situations under control. He reestablishes peace and rest in our lives according to His measure. So dear reader, why do you delay in calling Him today? He listens and will respond to you with His mighty hands to deliver you and dispel all your fears.

Psalms 34:4 – I sought the Lord, and He answered me; He delivered me from all my fears.

Thought for Today
Our calls are always answered by the Lord to reassure us of His nearness to us in times of need.

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SEEK, WAIT AND ARRIVE!!

Seek, Wait and Arrive!

Verse for Today: Saturday, October 08, 2011

Lamentations 3:25 – The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.

It is wonderful to see how God fills the weeping prophet Jeremiah with hope. Jeremiah speaks from his experience that even in the most painful and miserable situations, his hope is in the Lord. He has sought the Lord in his distress and found Him real in his life. The life and ministry of Jeremiah reaffirm the great truth of the generations of God’s people that our situations are never hopeless. Our wait always ends with God’s path in our lives. When we are all alone and go through deep frustrations, we must seek after the Lord and His ways. God will speak and His Word will come to us to tell us which way to turn and how we should step out in faith. The Lord will not forsake us or leave us without direction and guidance. The Lord fills us with His goodness when we seek after Him and wait for His time to come. His goodness is most powerfully demonstrated to us as we wait for Him. Even when our waiting is too long, it is never too long because we are waiting for the Lord whose time will never be too late. Even as we wait, He will fill our hearts with His goodness which will purge us off our grief, weeping and weariness in waiting. God did this ministry to His great servants like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and David while they waited for His time. He confirmed to them that there was no disappointment in waiting for Him. Our waiting is for the Lord who is above our time frame and so for Him it is not waiting and delaying, but perfect timing. He gives us the strength to wait. He keeps us from getting tired of waiting. He fills us with hope and confidence as we wait for Him. We go forward with Him to His time frame for which He prepares us as we wait. The Lord is more concerned about our process happiness as we wait rather than our destination happiness. He wants us to enjoy His goodness while we wait for Him rather than wait to enjoy His goodness at the end of the tunnel. There is grace in the tunnel because the Lord is there with us every step of the way.

Dear friend, perhaps you are waiting for the Lord to answer your prayers for quite long. Remember, He is making you wait for His time. As you wait, the Lord performs several ministries for you. First of all, He gives you the strength and patience to wait. Secondly He fills your heart with hope and keeps renewing your hope on a daily basis. Thirdly He extends His goodness to you so that you will not loose heart and fall frustrated. Fourthly He keeps reassuring you that His answers will come to you at the right time. Fifthly He will pour out His grace to strengthen you in your seeking. Sixthly He will come to you at the right time to give you the desires of your heart. When He gives, it will always be the best and will be sufficient to make you forget all your weariness as you waited for Him and will cause you to praise Him. It took Joseph 13 years of seeking and finally his moment of truth arrived for God to bring him to the place of fulfillment of his dreams. Abraham waited for about a quarter of a century for the promised child who came when it was a human impossibility. Moses had to wait for 40 years to deliver Israel from Egypt, but it was God’s time. We find a satisfied Simeon and Anna in the temple in Jerusalem who waited for the Lord Messiah for a very long time. Yes, our Lord knows that we are waiting and that we are genuinely seeking for His answers to our anguishes. His delays are not delays of inactivity and indifference, but full of His goodness and grace as we wait for Him. He is out there waiting for us with His best at His best time for our best.

Isaiah 40:31 – But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and no grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Thought for Today
When God makes us wait, He also takes away our weariness in waiting and puts His hope in our hearts.

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DAILY VICTORY MARCH!!

Daily Victory March!

Verse for Today: Friday, October 07, 2011
2 Chronicles 20:15 – This is what the Lord says to you: “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s”.

God’s children are always confronted by the enemy of their souls whose objective is to defeat, destroy and devour them. He fights us directly and also uses his agents to fight us. His fights are more in the emotional and psychological realms with subtle tactics like fear and anxiety by manipulating our situations and circumstances. He tries to drain us of our confidence and courage. He casts doubts and confusions to shatter our minds. He blurs our vision through situations and superstitious thinking. He depresses our minds to think that everything is against us. He makes us paranoid with suspicion and restlessness. All the while, the Spirit of God wants to speak to us with words of comfort and encouragement. God wants to dispel all our fears and discouragements by reassuring us that His invisible army which is around us in power and strength to defeat all the tactics of the enemy. He also wants to remind us that we do not fight against the enemy, but that the Lord is fighting the enemy by using us as instruments in His hands. We are also reminded that this battle belongs to the Lord and not us. He confirms to us that He is already a victor over the enemy. Our Lord wants us to keep building up our confidence in His power to help us enjoy victory in all our battles with the enemy. He wants us to praise Him for the privilege to be engaged in the battle of the Lord against His enemy. Our Lord also wants us to renounce all fear, doubt, confusion, anxiety, fear and perplexity and claim victory in His name to live without apprehension all the days of our lives.

Dar friend, are you gripped with fear and anxiety about the outcome of the war you are engaged in your circumstances and situations? Have you lost confidence and courage to face the uncertain future? Remember, even when you are uncertain about your present and future situations, it is not uncertain to the Lord, because He has gone before you and handled your future concerns for you. All you have to do is to reach that point in the future with courage, confidence, composure, faith and trust in the Lord to meet Him at that moment in the future. He will greet you with His special love and compassion and welcome you to all your tomorrows which you feared. Your Lord will be with you in all your present and future situations to give you victory. Perhaps the situation will be too tough and overwhelming for you. Perhaps you do not have the skills required to handle it. But your Lord will equip you to handle all things for His glory. He will bend and break the arrows of the enemy for you. He will stop the enemy at the right time from hurting you. He will stand between you and the enemy so that the enemy’s attacks fall on Him and not on you. He will encompass around you so that all your interests will be protected through His supernatural power. This was how the Lord enabled Nehemiah to complete the refurbishment of the walls of Jerusalem. He lifted up David from the caves and put him on the throne in Jerusalem. He promoted Joseph from the dungeon to become the Prime Minster of Egypt. He appointed Daniel as the governor of Babylon. The same Lord with the same power is with you to use you in the war with the enemy in all your situations and guarantees your victory for His name’ sake. As He leads you into victory, you will experience His peace, joy and contentment and your heart will overflow with confidence and courage. He will take away your fear and fill you with His peace which passes all understanding irrespective of circumstances.

1 Samuel 17:47 – All those who gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s.

Thought for Today
The Lord fights our battle His way by using His power to accomplish His purpose in us.

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WHO'S IN CONTROL?

Who’s in control?

Verse for Today: Thursday, October 06, 2011

Isaiah 6:1 – In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

The intensity of our difficulties in life often makes us loose hope and plunge us into despondency. Especially when our spiritual strength dwindles and the power centres that we counted on to help us are quickly removed from the scene, it is possible for us to become despair and distressed. This was what happened to Israel when their powerful and efficient king Uzziah died. But the servant of God went instead to the presence of God and saw the glory of the Lord who was seated on the throne and was in control of the situation. This scene gave Isaiah courage to go forward in times of general hopelessness. As we face general hopelessness in the economic and social environment of the world today, we can see our Lord seated on a throne in Heaven because He has received all power and authority in this universe. Rulers come and go, but He sits in authority forever. If we trust in rulers, leaders, possessions, positions, prestige and prominence, they will all be removed. But the Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever. He is the unchanging Lord whose throne is above all thrones in this universe. His glory fills the whole universe and will fill our hearts also if we trust Him to handle our situations. He will take away all fears and perplexities if we are surrendered to Him. If we go to His presence in times of heartache, loss, failure, rejection, mockery, despising and dishonor, He will give us the vision about His glory through His Word to fill our hearts and give us courage to face our situations. We need to realize that our Lord is with us in all our situations and He controls our circumstances. If we submit all our situations to Him, He will control our hearts and minds and put us at ease with His peace.

Dear reader, is your heart troubled because the people or resources that you counted on have been removed from the scene quite unexpectedly? Has your situation brought in shockwaves in your body and mind and are you deeply discouraged? If you go to the presence of the Lord, you will see His glory and majesty which will put hope back in your heart and life. He is still the King of kings and Lord of lords. He has all the authority in the whole universe. All forces on earth are in His control and they obey Him all the time. So your situation is also under His control. He is able to meet your needs and protect your interests according to His will if you trust Him to handle it. There is no need to loose heart because someone or some resource that you expected to come to your rescue is wiped out in the matter of a few seconds. Your Lord is in control of your situation. He can meet your needs in mysterious ways through His power by using His resources in His own way. If you need protection, you can go to Him and hide under His wings. If you are anxious, He will fill you with hope. If you are distressed, He will comfort you and put a fence around you so that no force on earth will come to create tension in your heart. He will fill you with His glory in times of sagging confidence and give you courage to face your situation. He will go before you in all your circumstances and prepare your way for you to move forward. Remember, our Lord is still in control of all our situations and will do all that is required for us to enjoy His peace and strength in all our adverse circumstances. Today is another day for us to dwell in His presence and move forward with confidence and faith in Him.

Isaiah 40:4 – Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

Thought for Today
The Lord is seated on the throne and all His children are seated with Him with the privilege to share in His glory to enjoy and His authority to exercise over all situations.

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FROM PIT TO PODIUM!!

From pit to podium!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Psalms 71:20 – You who have shown me many troubles and distresses, will revive me again and will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

The experience of troubles and distresses that the Lord allows us to go through are wide and varied. These events and circumstances prove the faithfulness of the Lord towards His children. He speaks to them during these experiences to reassure them that He will never forsake them nor allow them to be swallowed up by these troubles. He gives them enough grace to go through these trials. There are times when the world around us declares that our case has been written off by God also. This was what the Jewish community thought about the crucified Christ. Jesus told the disciples that in this world they will all have troubles and tribulations. But He has commanded us not to be afraid of these experiences because He has already sent enough and more grace for us to handle the depth of anguishes that we encounter. As we go through these experiences, we learn that our Lord is faithful and that He will deliver us from these trials at the right time. Yes, He will definitely bring us out of the depths that we are in. The Lord of Joseph made Joseph comes up out of the pit to make way for him to go to Egypt to be ready to become the Prime Minister. The experiences of the pit and the household of Potiphar taught Joseph that he could count on the Lord to lift him up. Jacob was a runaway youngster when the Lord picked him up through a vision at Bethel. He gave him twelve sons who were to become Patriarchs. Their names are going to be inscribed on the twelve gates of the New Jerusalem. Jacob went through trials and tribulations. He was rejected by Laban, and he was afraid of Esau, but the Lord drew him closer to Him and made him a prince with God. Through trials and threats to his life, David was picked up out of the caves to become the king of Israel whose throne is the forerunner to the Throne of Jesus to be established in Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom. We can also be confident that our Lord who delivered Jacob, Joseph and David will lift us up from our present distresses and make us exuberant.

Dear reader, are you in distress in the pits of circumstance that you are in? Are your troubles making you exhausted, weary and miserable? There is no need for you to give up or give in to your circumstances. There is still room for hope for you in the Lord. His shoulder can accommodate all who are weary and heavy laden. His strong arms will hold you and lift you up out of the pressure cooker that you might me in. You probably think that there is no hope for you because you are blocked from all sides. But there is nothing impossible with our Lord whose powerful hands will lift you up and place you on level grounds. The God who lifted up Ruth from her lowly position as a gentile to become the earthly great grandmother of Jesus Christ will place you also in spots of responsibility for His kingdom’s sake. The God who lifted up Esther to become the savior of the Jewish people will use you also. Remember, God is not through with you yet. You are being formed and recreated by the Master Craftsman to be part of His great purpose and plan here on earth. He wants you to touch other lives like yours and encourage them to keep going. Your experiences are not to be wasted in wallowing and weeping, but in rising up and shining for the Lord. It is time for you to challenge the present pits of circumstance in the name of the Lord and confidently move forward. Your time to rise up and shine for Jesus has arrived.

Psalms 107:20 – He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their pits.

Thought for Today
God will revive our sagging emotions and lift us up out of the pits the world puts us in so that we can shine for Him.

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