DRAINING FOR FILLING!!

Draining for filling!

Verse for Today: Friday, March 09, 2012

Psalms 102:6 – I resemble a pelican of the wilderness; I have become like an owl of the waste places.

When a person is at the bottom of afflictions and exasperated about his condition, he finds himself in utter hopelessness. His situations drain him off his courage and strength. He then becomes a prey to miserable and agonizing thoughts. It is often like a desert experience of a pelican with anguish for a drop of water to wet its parched throat. It is the bottom of loneliness in its extremity, with no comforting words from anyone around. An owl among the ruins is never an experience sought after by anyone for any reason. But we hear the Psalmist singing a prayer to the Lord even in such a situation. It is a song of a faint heart and the lament of the forsaken and the afflicted. When we sing such painful songs to the Lord, we are amazed to see that He is already with us and listening to our lamenting prayer song in our miserably painful situations. He walks with us on the scorching desert road and among the ruins and ashes of our lives. When no one wants to come near us, our divine travel companion never forsakes us. First, He enables us to sing a prayer to Him. Second, He alerts our souls to pray. Third, He helps us to understand the depth of our situation and to know that He will never leave us alone. It is this understanding that makes us sing our prayers of lament to the Lord. This song of prayer is the confirmation to our souls that even when we look abandoned, our Lord has not and will not forsake us. He is so near as to hear even our whispers and our loud cries. Our groaning is heard by Him and our waning and draining strength is understood by Him. When we are thus made to drain ourselves of all our strength, His strength comes to us so that it is no longer we who keep going, but He who makes us going forward.

Dear reader, are you experiencing a time of loneliness and thirst in your soul? Is life treating you unfairly and making you feel like you are wasteful and on a heap of ruins? When no one else wants you, the Lord wants to continue to cherish you as His precious child. He draws you close to Himself to comfort you in your misery. As you grow weary and weak, perhaps you will realize that all your strength is draining out. This is how He makes you understand that you are sustained only by His strength. The Lord is not interested in giving you some strength so that you can add it to your own strength. His discipline for you is to help you learn that you are fully strengthened by Him and that you are not a mixture of something from the world and something else from heaven. Unless you are totally drained of your capacity, skills, efficiency, ideas, knowledge and smartness and become zero, the Lord cannot fill you with His strength, capacity and thoughts. The only way you can receive this grace of utter humility is to help you to drain all your natural capabilities and made like a pelican of the desert and an owl of wasteful places. Only when your self is in ruin and totally wasteful will you be able to get all the blessings of the Father’s House. When you admit your total depravity and are truly humble before Him in utter brokenness, He will send you His shoes and robes and make you a prince with Him. This was what He did to Jacob, Joseph and David. So dear reader, today the Lord wants you to be drained of all that you are and have and become like a pelican of the desert and the owl of ruin so that He can bestow all His best on you. Then all that you have and are become totally His which is the way by which He takes glory in and through your life. Desert and heaps of ruin are the starting point for God’s best for you to sing to the power of God in your life.

Psalms 102:13 – You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to show favor to her; the appointed time has come.

Thought for Today

Only when I am fully emptied of my self with all my human capabilities, the Lord will fill me with His power and strength to do His work.

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STRONG WIND, BUT STRONGER LORD!!

Strong wind, but Stronger Lord!

Verse for Today: Thursday, March 08, 2012

John 6:18 – A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough.

One great victory in our walk with Jesus doesn’t guarantee that trouble will never visit us again. Past experience of victory is to make us stronger to face greater tests and trials. But we must be quick to realize that our past victories were not because we were strong, but because our Lord demonstrated His power in our affairs. Our past success is to make us humbler before the Lord and to trust Him more for the future. Past successes ought to declare our total inadequacy and the faithfulness of our Lord to take us through future challenges. As we keep rowing our boats of life in the ocean of this world, winds will again blow against us. The wind will come against us when we least expect it and are least prepared for it. Mighty wind will come our way soon after we witness the miracle of the fabulous feeding of the hungry masses. The grace that we need to face the wind and rough waters is quite different from the grace we enjoy when faced with shortage of food. But the Lord Jesus calms our hearts to face all our situations boldly and with faith. Our experience at the sea of life ought to equip us to expect mightier winds and rough waters any time, but there is no need for us to be afraid because our Lord is out there on the billows of the rough sea. He seems far away, but His presence is with us always. The wind will not come without His knowledge. He has seen the wind from its beginning to the end. The wind has to come and it will have to pass by. We might go through it, but we are protected from its ill-effects because we are in the Lord’s hands. It is amazing to see the layers of protection we keep enjoying in our lives. He is with us and all around us. His presence is in our boats. His angels encompass around us. In the midst of the darkness that prevails around us in this dark world, our Lord is our light and so we can go forward with full trust in Him to take us forward. He has seen our journey from its beginning to the end and He knows when we will reach the other side of the lake. He will not forsake us halfway in a whirlwind in the ocean. He commands us today not to be afraid of the wind and the rough waters.

Dear friend, are you in the midst of a mighty wind and on rough waters of life today? Perhaps there is utter darkness around you which prevents you from seeing the way forward and you might be groping for direction. Remember, the invisible hands of the Lord are with you. The same hands which created the sea and the wind are your protection and strength in times of fear and frustration. Remember, the Lord is your way forward and He will lead you even through the darkness that is around. The Lord is sufficient for you in your cloudy, dark and rough circumstances. Just open your eyes to see the Lord coming towards you to strengthen and encourage you to go forward. As He interacts with you in the darkness, you will see that you reach your destination unhurt. Perhaps you are tired of rowing a few miles through turbulent weather. Just trust Him to give you the strength to row hard. It is not your rowing that takes you across the lake, but the power of God that He has bestowed upon you. It is your faith in the power of the Lord that helps you to keep going when the going gets tough and rough. Today He comes to take away your fears about the wind, rough waters and the utter darkness around you and increase your faith to march forward.

Psalms 107:30 – They were glad when the sea grew calm, and He guided them to their desired haven.

Thought for Today

We are granted supernatural vision to see the Lord in His glory in the midst of utter darkness on our pathways of billows and hurricanes.

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HELP FOR CURRENT NEEDS!!

Help for current needs!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Psalms 121:2 – My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.

We are prone to enquire from where shall our help come. Our concern is mostly about our future care rather what is being experienced at present. We are so futuristic that we often loose track of the present and focus on our tomorrows. But we are reassured today that help is being provided by our Lord here and now. Help is already with us and more help is being given every moment. It is a present continuous experience that our Lord gives us. If help is coming to us now, it would have started some time ago and definitely before we probably started to pray about it. It has started flowing even before we have become conscious of a need. This is because our Lord knew all about our needs long before the need occurred. Such is the depth of care our Lord has for us. He meets a lot of our needs without our knowledge and awareness. Our Lord has a plan to meet our needs for which help starts to flow from His heavenly treasure house long before the need is felt by us. When we have such a benevolent Lord who is always with us and looking after us so well, is there any scope for us to be anxious and troubled about our affairs? If we still allow ourselves to be under the tyranny of anxiety and invite different psychosomatic disorders to creep into our bodies and minds and subsequently infect our souls, it is because of our shallow understanding of a great and benevolent Lord. There is no need to knock at the doors of the world, its influential people and its technology to help us. His help reaches us moment by moment, at the right time and place and in the right measure. It comes from a great Lord whose personal credibility is in the mammoth moving heavenly bodies He made. The maker of such great objects which are sustained over a very long time will have no difficulty providing little things like food, clothing and shelter for His beloved children.

Dear reader, are you searching after what the Lord would do for you to meet your needs? But there is no need to be anxious about what would come your way from the Lord in the future because His help is coming to you day after day. More help is flowing to you at various stages of each of your needs. It is not something you are anticipating, but is already there and emerging in incremental fashion as the needs keep unfolding. Noah preached about salvation because he knew that the flood was on its way, and the boat was emerging. Abraham knew very well by faith that Isaac was on his way. God started working in his scenario and preparing him for a child when it was impossible according to any human diagnosis. Joseph knew very well that God was working towards taking Israel back to Canaan. Nehemiah knew that the walls of Jerusalem would reemerge and the help was coming in step by step. David knew that the Lord was working according to His plan to make Him king of Israel. To feed the five thousand, the bread, fish and the boy were there and at the right time these entire variables fell into the right Hands and the feast started. Our Lord is at work long before we feel a need and meets that need at the most relevant time. He grooms us day after day to lead such a life of hope and faith. Yes, His provisions of strength, courage, support and materials are being supplied to each of His children to meet their needs on a time bound manner. His provisions take the right shape and quantity because they are created by the same hands which created big as well as small planets and stars to meet specific needs in the universe. Today the Lord’s help is reaching us in appropriate measures to meet our specific needs.

Hebrews 4:16 – Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may find mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Thought for Today

God’s help starts flowing to us long before a need is felt by us.

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WAIT! YOU ARE BEING MOLDED!!

Wait! You are being molded!

Verse for Today: Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Psalms 139:5 – You have enclosed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me.

There are times when we feel that we are blocked from all sides without freedom to move. The clock seems to be at a standstill for us. We cannot go back or sideways and the way forward is impossible. We wonder why this happens to us and often get frustrated. It is like a holy imprisonment. This experience is not like the traps of the enemy or his dark dungeons. But when we are blocked all around, the loving hand of the Lord is still upon us. He stops us from moving forward because we are not yet ready for the next step. Probably we are a bit ahead of the Lord’s plans for us. If we go ahead of the Lord, we will stumble. So the Lord blocks us all around at such moments so that we would not be temped to move backward or go sideways and take detours. His hand of love encompasses around us and teaches us the discipline of patience, peace and rest. His hand is protecting us from falling into the trap of running around or running away from His path. His hand gives us the patience to wait till He releases us and enables us to go forward. This delay is not waste of time, energy or opportunity, but a spiritually profitable time to learn from the Master. His hand upon us is the hand of concern, compassion and love. His hand of restraint is on us to mature us under His discipline. When the Lord thus holds us from moving, He expects us to surrender to Him in utter humility and brokenness as in the case of Jacob at Peniel. It is a time to submit to Him all our urges to fast track and be a go getter and high achiever. It is a time to declare our unconditional submission to be molded by the fingers which created the heavens. It is our moment of truth to learn patience in our walk with Him and be reshaped by Him according to His design for us. It is not easy to wait in utter silence with the Lord, but it is worth the time spent in these great parentheses of our lives.

Dear reader, do you feel frustrated that you are restricted on all sides of your life and that you have lost all freedom of movement? Are you getting agitated about this blockade that you are experiencing today? Are you tempted to break the Lord’s hand open to move forward? Just look around and see that the blockage has come from your Lord because He loves you intensely. His hand is keeping you tight because you are probably not ready to move forward. It is likely that your way forward is under preparation by your Lord and that He doesn’t want you to run before Him and stumble. He is teaching you patience and maturity. His lesson for you today is the art of peaceful waiting with inactivity while your soul finds quiet rest in the palm of His hand. While you are unable to move forward, you are being taught how to patiently submit your ways to the Lord. It is your time to learn to trust your Lord for your future even when nothing seems to happen. Joseph and Paul learned these lessons in life while they experienced the parentheses that the Lord allowed in their lives in the dungeons. Daniel learned it while waiting in the face of danger in a lion’s den. Nehemiah learned these truths while he waited with fasting and prayer as the Lord prepared people and circumstances to help him to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. Moses had to learn the hard lessons of maturity and patience in the desert for forty long years while tending sheep. He had to learn these lessons all over again during the forty years of wilderness journey with the Israelites. Today you may be learning these lessons while on a wheelchair or hospital bed or being unemployed. It is not a time to rebel against the Lord’s hand, but to enjoy it. Today is your privilege to be in His hand and enjoy His restful molding for greater usefulness in the future.

Lamentations 3:26 – It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

Thought for Today

The mark of spiritual maturity is waiting patiently and quietly for the Lord’s time to come for us to enjoy a release from the straights where He teaches us.

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HE LIFTS ME UP!!

He lifts me up!

Verse for Today: Monday, March 05, 2012

Mark 9:27 – But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

There are millions of lives which are in hopeless condition because of the work of the enemy of human soul. He fights with those who have become God’s children to distract them and make them stumble in their walk with the Lord. He also uses his best strategies so that those who are not saved become totally insensitive to the gospel call. There are times when some children of God become emotionally and spiritually sick and withdraw from all spiritual activities. There are many Ishmaels among us who lie in the desert without water and nourishment, and no one is there to lift them up. There are Eutychuses among us who sleep and fall down dead even in spiritual gatherings. We also find many in the families of God’s people who are spiritually dead and need a special lift. But the most serious fall of all is that each one of us is prone to as we live in this wicked and evil world. We often come across God’s children who camouflage themselves with a religious color but are emotionally and spiritually insensitive to the working of the Spirit of God in their lives. When all efforts to revive such spiritually weak and fainthearted people fail, there is still hope for them. We need to prevail over the Lord Jesus to come over and touch them and lift them up. The extent of influence the world has on people can only be broken through consistent and relentless prayer and fasting. Jesus will turn our failures in reviving the fainthearted to success if we approach Him with importunity. He is willing to come if we are willing to sincerely invite Him to our situations. If there are spiritual hindrances for Jesus to come in, we have the responsibility to remove it through confession, repentance and restitution. We must prepare our hearts for Jesus to come in. He is asking us today to take all our fainthearted people to Him so that He can lift them up. No matter how hopeless their situation is, Jesus will fill it with His life and Spirit.

Dear reader, are you confronted with a hopeless situation that you are unable to handle in your life or in the life of any of your dear ones? Is there a situation in your own life that needs drastic and radical change? Are you frustrated that there is no change in your scenario in spite of best efforts? If so, it is time to hand it over completely to Jesus and wait in prayer for Him to resolve it. It is also vital that we put all our hope in the Lord and have faith in Him that He will impact our situation according to His divine plan. It is particularly important for us to cling on to Jesus like the Phoenician woman rather than relent and get frustrated with previously failed attempts. Jesus will come and lift you up from your present predicaments. He will make you stand again and come alive. If there have been setbacks in your ministries, don’t give up, but hand it over to Jesus. If there are unsaved dear ones in your circle, take them for the Lord Jesus to lift them up. If you need victory over temptations or desire a revival in your own soul, Jesus will grant it to you. He can transform your hopeless situations to times of rebuilding and revitalization. He wants to make your life and testimony lively and energetic again. He can supply you with the spiritual energy you are lacking today to be of use to Him. He will help you to come out of your religiosity to true spirituality. He will transform you from backsliding to true discipleship. He is faithful and powerful to revive your sagging situation and fill it with hope.

Matthew 14:31 – Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” He said, “why did you doubt?”

Thought for Today

Our Lord’s hands are powerful to lift up the most hopeless scenarios of our lives and re-energize us.

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INEXHAUSTIBLE RESOURCEFULNESS!!

Inexhaustible Resourcefulness!

Verse for Today: Sunday, March 04, 2012

Psalms 118:9 – It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.

It is considered a normal response by the needy to reach out and seek help from people who are greatly resourceful. They have wealth and influence which might be of use to the needy in times of their predicaments. These resourceful people in the social, political and religious echelons of society are out there to give to the needy through their charitable corridors. But they do not know us nor the depth of our needs. They have a general concern for the needy, but their resources do not reach all the needy people. They give to the poor, but the poor do not know them personally. When their priorities change or resources exhaust, their help cease to flow. These princes of the world have a lot of limitations and do not provide us with a sustainable source of help. But our Lord is greater than all these princes and donors of the world. His motive in helping us in our times of need is His love, compassion and grace. He knows all of us by name and understands all our needs in depth. He alone knows what it would take to meet our needs. He gives to us to meet our emotional, spiritual and physical needs whereas the princes of this world give only to meet a small part of our physical needs. Our Lord has the greatest and inexhaustible reservoir of resources to meet all our needs. His help is fully sustainable and will not be turned on and off for any reason. He comes to meet our needs directly and will use His servants to distribute it to us just as He did at the feeding of the Five Thousand. He gives until we are fully satisfied and have leftovers. When He gives, it is according to His status, dignity and greatness. His measurement is the palm of His hands which hold the oceans. He meets all our needs according to His riches in glory. When we are in His fold, it becomes His responsibility to give us all that we need to lead a life of testimony to His faithfulness. His giving is on the basis of His never-changing promises which portray His character.

Dear friend, have you ever come to the Lord and find Him inadequate to meet all your needs? On the other hand, it is most likely that the world’s sources you have approached for help would have squarely disappointed you. They always come short of the depth of your needs because their resource base is exhaustible. Not only that, they cannot meet your emotional and spiritual needs, but might give you alms of some sort. But your Lord has limitless resources to meet all your needs. He loves you and wants to make you the inheritor of all His resources from which you are given the freedom to draw according to your need. He doesn’t fix any schedule for you to draw from Him, but would expect you to fix your own schedules according to your needs. If you are lonely, sick, poverty-stricken and bankrupt, know that He has already made you rich. Today you are a prince or princess as you are the child of the Great King of kings. He gives you His resources like peace, joy and rest for all your situations and circumstances. Money from a Charity will not buy these divine resources which are given yours free of charge. But you need to go to the Lord and draw from His resources. He will not thrust His supplies on to you by force, but would expect you to go to Him and enjoy all that you need to live with contentment. So dear reader, there is no need for you to waste your opportunity or waste time by going to the princes of this world who have limited resources. Go to the Lord today and be blessed so that you can become a blessing to others.

Psalms 34:8 – Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him.

Thought for Today

There is no limit or disappointment with the way the Lord gives to His children to meet all their needs at all times.

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UPHOLDING MY CAUSE!!

Upholding my cause!

Verse for Today: Saturday, March 03, 2012

Psalms 9:4 – For You have upheld my right and my cause; You have sat on Your Throne, judging righteously.

God’s children sometimes go through lament and say that they do not have any one to vouch for them and stand with them. We often feel all alone and think that we do not have any support for our right causes. We might go through situations when no one comes around to openly support us or throw their allegiance around us. But when we realize how we are sustained day after day and how our Lord stands with us to look after our cause here on earth, we find confidence to go forward. He deals with those who try to deny us our rights and privileges. He makes our righteousness shine like midday sun. He influences our situations and circumstances to prove to the rest of the world that we are precious to Him. He shows how we live day after day because He lives. He confirms to us how He meets all our needs according to His riches in glory. He sends help when there is none else to help. He works in all our affairs as our Shepherd. He is our silent advocate in this world to give us justice. He also reminds us that this world is a place of injustice and that true justice can be found only in Him. As He stands with us, He rules in our hearts to give up desire for justice for the sake of the Gospel that we preach. That is why we do not need to react in kind when ill-treated. Instead, we consider it a joy to suffer injustice and depravity for the sake of our Lord who suffered injustice for us. When we are denied our rights in this world, our Lord gives us greater eternally sustainable rights and privileges in His presence. Our Lord understands us in all situations and gives us the grace to suffer injustice for Him. He will one day make us work with Him to impart justice to this world when He rules the world as the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Dear friend, are you going through experiences of injustice, unfairness and isolation by those around you? Are you discriminated against in all walks of life? Are people trying to incriminate you in matters you have not been involved? Is the enemy using people to create false evidences and accusations against you? This was what Jezebel tried against Prophet Elijah. Sanballat and Tobias tried these cruel tactics against Nehemiah in order to stop his ministry of rebuilding. The enemies of the Gospel used subtle methods to stop the Apostles from preaching. They did the same to our Lord and tried in vain to make Him like a criminal. Your presence in your office, factory, hospital or school as the salt of the earth irritates the enemy who desperately wants to stop you from being a silent or eloquent influence. One of his subtle strategies to stop you from impacting your surroundings is to level false accusations against you and deny justice. But your Lord has already exonerated you and declared you righteous. He has clothed you with His clothe of righteousness. He comes to comfort you through His own experience in front of the High Priest, Pilate, Herod and the masses and help you to stand strongly for Him. No matter who accuses or abuses you, the Lord will stand with you in all your difficult circumstances. He will uphold your just cause and make you shine like a star to give light to the dark lives around you. You have the privilege today to look up to Him for justice, support, strength, comfort and rest.

Psalms 97:11 – Light is shed upon the righteous and joy on the upright in heart.

Thought for Today

Our God makes our righteousness burn like a lamp for those who are in the dark alleys of life.

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