Overflowing Gratitude

Verse for Today: Thursday, November 25, 2010
Psalms 71:22 - I will praise You with a harp for Your faithfulness, O my God.

There are times in our lives when we run out of words to thank someone who has done something great for us. At such times, our words are supported by body language of various kinds. The Psalmist is faced with such a situation when he found out that the Lord has done great things for him and that He has been faithful to the uttermost all the way relentlessly. Such faithfulness is unseen among humans. And it is all the more astonishing because the faithfulness of God is not extended to man in return for something man has done for God. Even when man doesn't deserve any thing from God, He has exhibited total and absolute faithfulness to man because God has promised certain things to man and His promises are on Himself. The God of truth stands by what He says He will do, but when man understands the depth of it, he find that he is short of words and expressions. So man takes the help of musical instruments to support his emotions as he tries to express his grateful heart before God. This is the context of why the Psalmist is using a harp to underscore his gratefulness to God. Some times our body might shake a bit or eyes either remain closed or twinkle with tears of gratitude when we express our thankfulness to the Lord. At such times, we want to tell the world what the Lord has done for us in so many different ways, and might want to keep on speaking about the benevolence of the Lord and the power of His unchanging promises. The sky and the earth will be removed and even the most powerful and influential people might change their words. But the Lord never changes and is the same yesterday and today and forever. His promises are always 'yes' because if even an iota of it changes, God's reputation will be at stake. Are we not glad that we have the privilege to serving such an unchanging and perfectly faithful Lord in this life!

Dear friend, have you found the Lord utterly and absolutely faithful? Is there any time in your experience when He did not keep His promises? If He is the unchanging Lord, have you acknowledged it to Him and thanked Him immensely? Is your life one of abounding gratitude to God for all that is happening in your life, or do you have the tenacity to think that part of your achievement is because of your smartness and intelligence? We must understand that God's ways are far above that of ours and His acts far outsmart the best that man can create. Not only that, when God does something in our lives, He takes full responsibility for its consequences also. As God leads you day by day, all He expects in return is to see that you are truly and sincerely grateful to Him. If you are grateful, God wants you to express it in as many ways as possible, personally and in the presence of other people. You may praise God in the company of God's people for their encouragement and confidence to keep on trusting in the promises of God. You may also testify to the faithfulness of God in the company of people who do not know God personally in their lives, so that it will be a challenge for them to take the right steps to get to know and trust in this Lord. Those of us who have experienced this absolutely faithful Lord in our lives several times should turn out to lead a life of thankful praise and our expression of gratitude ought to be the best advertisement for the faithfulness of God. We do not need to be embarrassed about praising God openly and can follow the example of king David. He had no hesitation to publicly express his emotions to the Lord in the open when the whole of Israel was watching. He never felt loss of dignity because he openly expressed himself before the Lord because he was so deeply moved by the faithfulness of God to him. Let us be challenged today by the zeal with which David praised God and how he used musical support to enhance the power of his expression of thankfulness to the faithfulness to God. God surely saw his heart and commended him because he was a man after God's own heart.

Psalms 71:14 - But as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise You yet more and more.

Thought for Today
A heart overflowing with gratitude seeks to abound in praise.

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You are a Wonder!

Verse for Today: Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Psalms 71:7 - I have become a marvel to many, for You are my strong refuge.

There are times when a child of God is written off by the people around because of the unbearable challenges that he or she goes through in life. They think that we will not make it to the other side of the lake and that we will be sunk deep down in the sea of life. They do not expect any thing good to happen to us because we are often not as smart as they are and our means are different from theirs. But as they wait and watch, like the islanders waited for Paul to drop dead with a snake bite, they are amazed that we are still around. Many in Babylon thought the three Hebrew young men would never survive the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar or that Daniel would never come out alive from the lion's den. It was hard for the onlookers to expect David to be alive after the encounter with Goliath or Saul. It was unthinkable for Potiphar and his wife to see Joseph come out of the dungeon and even to become their boss. Joseph's brothers were flabbergasted to see him alive and well and rule the Egyptian civilization as its second in command. No one thought John would come back alive from Patmos. Our situations are also often very similar to these servants of the Lord. But we are sustained through the fire, waters, dens of people who behave like lions, storms, snake bites, Roman imperialistic oppression or persecution of various kinds by the marvelous grace of our Lord. To others it is a miracle that we keep going as a witness to the Lord in this world. They marvel at the great deliverance we experience, but we only praise our Lord for rescuing us from experiences like that of the red sea. For us, it is the hand of the Lord which is always extended to save His beloved children from all peril. He is our strong refuge and bulwark and He keeps performing mighty and powerful acts for us so that we can continue to fulfill His purpose for us in this world. Some of the onlookers wonder how it is possible for us to be alive and continue in this world basically because they do not know the power of our Lord.

Dear friend, have you seen surprise and shock in the people around you as they watch the way the Lord delivers you from all snares? Have they been able to see how the Lord works as our refuge? This is the greatest demonstration of the power of our Lord exhibited in and for us every day. The people around know very well that we in ourselves do not have the strength to withstand the pressures of the enemy and the difficult situations that we are confronted with. So when we testify to the power of our Lord and communicate it to the people around, they would have awareness about how strong a refuge He is to His people. All these notwithstanding, we often have our own tense moments as and when we go through the difficult situations that we are in. But even when we do not seem to find any quick escape, and sometimes when all hope seem to be in eclipse, we should not forget that we are still in the hands of the Almighty. Without his permission, no one can touch us because we are His special people. It cost Heaven its best to redeem us. God the Father had to allow His Only Begotten Son to become like one among us for a short period so as to make our redemption possible. It cost our Lord Jesus His very life to redeem us. When we are thus redeemed, we are also sustained for the glorious future that is planned for us. Our difficulties are the crucible for us to go through so that we can be tempered in our faith and strengthened in our trust in the Lord. This is how our hope for eternity is built up. When all hope is gone, there is still hope for us in the Lord because He is overseeing our affairs which are part of His plan for us to grow in our trust in Him. Yes, we are often a marvel or wonder for the people around us because of the way the Lord delivers us in difficult situations. He is our refuge in all our situations for His glory. The Lord uses our lives as a testimony to His wonder working power and takes glory to Himself.

Psalms 107:15 - Let them give thanks to the Lord for His loving kindness, and for His wonders to the sons of man.

Thought for Today
What we experience as the wonders of God are His loving kindness to His beloved children.

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Seekers and Finders

Verse for Today: Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Psalms 70:4 - Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You; and let those who love your salvation say continually, "Let God be magnified".

Those who seek God are always able to rejoice and be glad in Him because they always find Him. They that search for Him find Him near to themselves. When we knock at His door, the benevolent God always opens for the knockers. But if we seek after the 'gods' of this world, they cannot be found even though they make us believe that they are always available for us. They give us the illusion that they are there, but are only a shadow. They create their own mirages and give false impression of their existence, and utterly disappoint the seekers. They offer possessions, positions, prestige and prominence which they promise will satisfy us, but these will only make us thirsty for more and plunge us into perennial thirst. What they offer has a great price to pay, with our time, efforts, abilities and commitment, and yet what is offered gives utter frustration. What the world offers is something that looks real, but is only a shadow. Those who seek happiness sometimes go after the entertainments of this world and become frustrated because such happiness is artificial, hollow and momentary. They make people laugh at cheap jokes which are like a vapor or bubble that disappears within seconds. All the possessions this world gives look real, but are momentary and finally we have to leave it behind without even knowing as to who will enjoy it after we are gone. But what is found in God is everlasting, eternal and permanent. It never disappears over time, but stays with us in this world and is translated into eternity with us. King Solomon found this truth out very late in his life and so he only could lament about it at his twilight years. All through his youthful life, he ran after what the world could offer. He didn't use the wisdom God gave him and went after the mirages. But he had an opportunity to come back to his senses like the prodigal son and settle with God. But his father David knew very well that all who seek after God definitely and certainly find true happiness and contentment. Such people would be able to live a life of praise. They have the experience of magnifying the name of God who is the be-all and end-all of all that they are and have.

Dear friend, are you a seeker of true happiness and contentment? Do you knock at the door of the Lord each day for making you contented with what He has given you so that you could make your life one of perennial praise for this Lord? Have you lately been tempted to go after the mirages of this world which offer instant happiness through entertainment or technology to challenge your intriguing mind? You must realize that all that we see around is a passing show, vapor or smoke, and will disappear in no time and finally lead you to frustration. But all that the Lord offers is everlasting happiness which increases day by day in its intensity in your experience. This kind of a life of happiness is available to us if we seek the Lord because if we have Him who is the source of all bliss, we will have unexplainable joy and excitement starting with this life which will be with us throughout eternity. The Lord has abundance of happiness to give to those who seek Him and earnestly ask for it. The happiness that He gives is in spite of situations and circumstances. It is peace in the midst of storms and clouds. It is joy in the midst of the roaring of the enemies around to devour us. It is joy which replaces all our tears, fears and apprehensions. It is excitement about the experience of Heaven that we are able to enjoy even while we are here on earth. When we thus have the Lord and all His heavenly blessings in its fuller measure, we would be able to continue to praise Him and magnify His holy name, for He is the ultimate source of this happiness. Let us today seek all that we need from the Lord and receive it from Him by faith. Let this joy reflect in our practical lives for others to see so that they will also want to attain this happiness. Remember, He makes Himself available to any one who seeks His face.

Psalms 63:7 - For You have been my help, and in the shadow of Your wings I sing for joy.

Thought for Today
He seeks and saves us so that we can search and find in Him true joy in life.

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PRISONS MADE PRISMS

Verse for Today: Monday, November 22, 2010
Psalms 69:33 - The Lord hears the needy and does not despise His captive people.

The Word of God confirms the heart of God through the experience of all His children all the time. King David learned about mercy and compassion in the heart of God and heard so much about it from his previous generations. But he realized through his varying experiences that whatever he learned about his God were absolutely true, as proved day by day in his own life. Our God does not despise the needy and the poor. He will not forsake the poor in spirit who go to Him admitting their inadequacies and utter depravity and ask for help. God knows that many of His beloved children are prisoners of the forces of the world and their spiritual enemy, and some are imprisoned by their own flesh which is a chief agent of the enemy. When His children suffer in the hands of these enemies and the difficult circumstances created by them, God has compassion over them. He hears their heart cry for a release and timely deliverance. He sees their tears and meets their needs. Many of God's choice servants were prisoners of different types. Jacob was a prisoner of circumstances who lost all his freedom and had to run away for life and became an exile. His son Joseph was a literal prisoner for almost a decade in Egypt. Jeremiah was a prisoner because he stood for the truth and spoke the Word of God courageously. David was an exile for several years and ran for his life like a stray dog. Peter, Paul, Silas and others were literally prisoners. John was an exile and the Baptizer was in the prison. John Bunyan was a prisoner for Jesus and George Matheson was a prisoner of blindness all his life. There are scores of others who have been in prisons because they belonged to the Lord. There are many who were put in prisons without any cause and some were set up and eliminated from the scene by circumstances. All of them have gone to the Lord and presented their needs and situations to the Lord. He doesn't despise them, but give them the strength to convert their prisons into prisms through which the glory of the Lord reflects. In these prisons, they testify to the power of the Lord and make it an opportunity to welcome fellow prisoners or guards to the kingdom of Heaven. These prisons thus become centers of spiritual miracles and prompt these saints to sing and praise the Lord.

Dear friend, are you a prisoner of circumstances complicated by the enemy of your soul and his agents? Do you feel suffocated by the suspicion that is created by these enemies to tarnish your testimony and image? Remember how the agents of the enemy tried the same strategy against Joseph and Jeremiah who were innocent, yet thrown into prison! The Baptizer was put in prison because he stood for the truth and preached the truth even to the kings and rulers! It doesn't matter what the people around you think about you. It matters most what the Lord thinks about you, and so trust in the Lord to exonerate you at the right time. Some of the Lord's prisoners have to wait until they reach the Bema to be exonerated and recognized, but a few are declared innocent here in this life itself. We will have to leave it to the Lord, but to continue to do what He wants us to do even in the prisons so that His kingdom will enlarge. These prison experiences are often Satan's way to dislodge us and make us unusable in our faith. But let us confide in the Lord and tell Him all our heartaches and ask Him to give us His power to become victorious in spite of the efforts our enemy makes to taint us. The Lord has enough of comfort, blessings, courage and strength to give us to keep going. Even in a situation of captivity, we have ministries to perform and lead people to the Lord. We have to comfort the weary and the discouraged saints with the courage with which our Lord encourages us. During our times of loneliness in our captivity by the circumstances, we can still go to the presence of the Lord to recharge our spiritual batteries and gain courage and confidence to fulfill the Lord's purpose even in the prisons. This was what Joseph, Jeremiah, Paul and John did and what scores of His beloved children are doing even today. Many of God's choice servants are still preaching the Word and encouraging others from the prison cells of circumstances, sicknesses, poverty, loneliness, rejection, misrepresentations and hyper-criticism even from co-believers. Let us follow the pattern of the Man of Sorrows who sends even a thief to paradise even while He was suffering on the cross.

Psalms 69:35 - For God will save Zion and rebuild the cities of Judah, that they may dwell there and possess it.

Thought for Today
When the enemy tries to lock a child of God up in the prisons of circumstances, the Lord converts the prisons into prisms through which the glory of the Lord will reflect.

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DELIVERANCE FROM ENTANGLEMENTS

Verse for Today: Sunday, November 21, 2010
Psalms 68:20a - God is to us a God of deliverance.

Deliverance is the need of all captives. When the captives are weaker than those who captured them, they need someone to come from outside to deliver them from the cruel hands of the forces who oppress and threaten these captives. The enemy of our souls tries to make us captives of our circumstances, attitudes, habits or influences of various kinds. He knows that He cannot make us his captives because no one can pluck us out of the hands of the Lord who is our sole owner. So the enemy uses his agents to capture our minds and put us into fear, anxiety, habits, attitudes, behaviors and frustrations to slowly take control over our spiritual lives. When we become slaves to these forces, they make us do what they want us to do and thus we are slowly made puppets in the hands of these emotions and practices. But there is no need for us to allow ourselves to be captives because we are made free by the blood of the Lamb of God. We are purchased with the highest price that could be offered for a human soul and that is the very life of the Son of God. So when these captives come to capture and defeat us or manipulate our situations and relationships, we need to be careful. We should realize that we are unable to deal with these forces of the enemy in our own strength. We need the strength of the Lord to face these tactics of the enemy and become victorious. The Lord has made His power available to us through His Spirit. The power of the Spirit is the greatest power in this Universe and if we get ourselves filled with the Spirit, we will be able to deal with the enemy no matter what strategy he uses to defeat us. When we submit ourselves in the hands of the Lord, He will use us to fight His battles and make us victorious over these forces of frustration, depression, anxiety, anger, habits, attitudes and conflicts which are all agents of the enemy. If we persist in prayer and allow the Spirit of God to fill us, the Lord will deliver us from the hands of these forces which try to devour us. The Lord is our deliverer and He gives us freedom from all these entangling sins and hindrances, but it is made use of by those who crave for it and submit themselves to Him to give us victory.

Dear friend, are you being made a captive of certain attitudes, behaviors, anxieties, frustration, negative thinking pattern or proneness to conflicts? Is the enemy use any or all of these to make your life miserable like a captive in a dark dungeon with feet in stocks so as to hinder all freedom for you to live as a child of God? Do you feel that you have become least useful to the Lord because of these bondages? There is no need for you to continue to live in this bondage because your Lord is your deliverer. No matter how long you have been in bondage, He can deliver you from out of the clutches of these entanglements and encumbrances. First of all, you need a craving to get free from these dungeons which have taken away your joy in the Lord. He is not only the Savior of your souls, but also your Deliverer from all entanglements so that you can enjoy freedom from the control of the forces and agents of the enemy of your souls. When He convicts you of your failures, go to Him in true confession and repentance. Help yourselves to be washed by the Word of God by soaking yourself with the Word. Ask that you be filled with His Spirit so that the controls of your lives will rest solely with Him. This is the deliverance that He wants to give you in all areas of your life so that you will be a free person to live for the glory of God in the power of the Lord and His Spirit. True deliverance belongs to the Lord. No effort at reforming the human nature through training in Psychology will help you. What you need is to grow in the likeness of the Lord Jesus daily and that is possible only when you allow the Lord to transform you. Today let us get deliverance from all areas of bondage that we are in. Let us allow the Lord to break our bondages and entanglements, and make use of us for His glory so that He can make use of us to help others who are in similar bondages.

Psalms 32:7 - You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.

Thought for Today
We will enjoy true freedom from entanglements only if we allow the Lord's hands to deliver us.

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Mutual Inheritance

Verse for Today: Saturday, November 20, 2010
Psalms 68:9 - You gave abundant showers, O God; You refreshed your weary inheritance.

Our Heavenly Father showers abundance of goodness on His precious and beloved children. When they are parched because of the heat of the weary land through which they sojourn, His showers cool them off. His rain gives them living water to drink. It refreshes the bodies and minds of His children. God's children look up to Heaven from where the rain comes. If they look for rain from any source in this world, they would not get it. All that this world promises is a series of mirages which end up in perennial frustration. But God's showers of goodness gives them qualitative contentment. God's showers include His promises, His precious Word and all the goodness that He sends through His Spirit. One of the greatest reasons why these showers of blessings are sent to them is that the children of God are God's inheritance which He secured in His eternal wisdom, mercy and grace by transacting the very life of His Only Begotten Son on the cross of Calvary. So when God deals with His children, He deals as they are His precious and priceless possession. How wonderful it is that the Almighty God, the creator and sustainer of this universe considers us as His precious inheritance. In the process of sending His blessings to us, God has given Himself to us as our precious, marvelous and loving Father to possess and to cherish. We look up to Him for all our needs and seek His help in all that we attempt in this life. We express our indebtedness to Him through the sacrifice of our praises to Him and commit to live for His glory alone. God is our inheritance as our loving eternal Father through the rebirth that we are privileged to experience. At the same time, we are His inheritance through the death of His Son on the cross to purchase us as His special people to possess and to cherish In essence we owe it to God to possess Him as our inheritance and live for Him while He possesses us as His inheritance and keeps us safe and secure in His grace and love. This is the most beautiful of all the relationships that exist in this Universe, and it is designed for eternity.

Dear friend, are you making use of your relationship with God in your daily life? Do you consider Him as your inheritance and live in such a way that your relationship with Him is the most important in this life of yours? Are you seeking His help, support, strength, grace and mercy as you take each step in your life day after day? Do you look up to the Heaven for all your help to come from, in the form of the showers that He sends your way? Do you crave for His showers and torrents, or are you going to the broken cisterns of this world to quench your thirst? The water this world gives is contaminated and will make you spiritually sick and weak, and will cause you to slowly but steadily drift from His path. If you drink the water of power, possessions, positions, popularity, prestige and prominence that this world offers, it will defeat you spiritually.. Let us each day look expectantly at Him for all the help we need. Let us exercise our hope in faith to get all that we need from Him for which we need to look up to Him. He sends rains at the appropriate time. Only those who wait on Him will get what He sends their way. Only those who seek will find Him. Only those who knock at His door will have the opportunities open for them. If you search the precious things that come from Him, you will find it. But if you seek after the riches and the seemingly glittering things of this world, they will definitely disappoint you. The satisfaction this world offers is a hollow without any substance and quality in it even though the world will offer it to us in very attractive wrappers, bright colours and beautiful designs. But they will not stand the test of spiritual quality and will make you feel sleepy in the vanity fair of this world. Let us seek after the showers of blessings offered by the Lord on a daily basis and live with the greatest satisfaction that He offers for our spiritual welfare. As the Lord showers daily blessings on us who are His inheritance, let us shower authentic worship on Him who is our Heavenly inheritance.

Deuteronomy 11:11 - But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven.

Thought for Today
God's showers of goodness soak us in His blessings and refresh our souls as we walk through this weary land.

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Songs in the Lonely Nights

Verse for Today: Friday, November 19, 2010
Psalms 68:6 - God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity; only the rebellious live in a parched land.

The greatest bondage in the lives of human beings is loneliness. It is worse than living alone in an island with no possibility for any contact with any other humans in the world. One can be lonely even in a crowd. This is the feeling of being all alone and not having any one to communicate with. It is a situation of friendlessness. It gives one a sense of detachment from others. It is as if one is desolate, and is isolated from others, with no one to share or express any human emotions with. This happens for geographical reasons, but also because others isolate and reject us from their communities. It is perpetuated when the enemy of our souls maligns and misrepresents us, to create and to keep a wall between us and others around us. The enemy wants to frustrate us so that out of our feeling of solitude, we would lose togetherness and thus push us into despair, to ultimately slip away from faith and trust in God. The Psalmist had to go through such experiences when he was made to run around like a stray dog and live in caves, wilderness and mountains. But he had the privilege to trust in the Lord who broke his bondage of loneliness. Even in his solitude, the Lord gave him company and fellowship and made him rejoice in the Lord. It was in those years that the Lord enabled David to pen and to sing several sweet songs of salvation and write melodious hymns about the grace and mercy of the Lord. The Lord also renewed His promises to David that His love would make even the desert a cool garden and green pasture. David learned that with the Lord, even prison is a palace and desert is a banquet hall. He also had the assurance that the promises of the Lord will come true according to His divine plan and that the Lord would pull him out of his place of loneliness and make him live in the warmth of a home where there is immeasurable prosperity and goodness. David also learned that even in a palace, the rebellious and wicked sinners live as if it is a prison and a desert. But David enjoyed Heaven in a desert while his detractors lived in palaces which were places of torment.

Dear friend, do you feel lonely today? Perhaps you are a prisoner of your situations and that you are friendless. Perhaps there are very few who understand you and sympathize with you. It is likely that others including fellow brethren think that your situation is God's punishment on you. You probably find that all around you is only misrepresentations and misinterpretations. There might be people who would not like you to ever come out of your sad situations. But even there, the Lord is with you and He is your refuge and comfort. He will see to it that your prisons and loneliness are times of great spiritual blessings like the experience of Paul in the Arabian Desert or Peter and Joseph in the dungeons. Perhaps you are going through times like that of Job when even the best of friends come to find fault and not find reasons to pray with you to strengthen your soul. It might be a time when the enemy of your soul would come and whisper in your ears that there is no hope for you and that you will end up in these caves or dungeons. But remember that our Lord has great purposes in even permitting you to be alone for a time. It is used by the Lord to teach you that His fellowship is sweeter than that of the company of any number of people around you. He gives songs in the night even in the dark dungeons of life. It was in the prison that John Bunyan wrote the best of his works including "The Pilgrim's Progress". It was in prison that Paul was blessed with the writing of some part of the Bible. Most of the greatly comforting Psalms came out of the lonely days and nights the Lord allowed David to go through. Let us today thank the Lord for the sweet songs in the night that He gives us when we are in the parleys of solitude. So let us not waste our loneliness and detachment, but use it to commune with the Lord and receive great revelations about the beauty and the glory of the Lord who was once a lonely man for us on this earth. He will teach you wonderful lessons about how to convert your friendless nights to Heavenly bliss. Your prison cells of loneliness will become prisms through which the glory of the Lord will be reflected. We will soon be in our Heavenly Home which will take away all our loneliness, wipe all our tears and give us inexplicable joy and satisfaction.

Song of Songs 2:4 - He has taken me to the banquet hall, and His banner over me is love.

Thought for Today
When I commune with the Lord all alone in a dungeon or cave, these become Heaven for me.

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