See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise. - Ephesians 5:15 REFERENCE Ephesians 5:8-17 William Shakespeare said, “All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” It would have been much more true to say that "All the world is a market, and all the men and women buyers and sellers." Every day is a MARKET-DAY, and every evening brings its BALANCE-SHEET to us: things bought and things sold, with the net GAIN, or, it may be, LOSS. FOOLISH people are always selling the BETTER things for the WORSE; while the...
But Simon answered and said to Him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net.' – Luke 5:5 REFERENCE Luke 5:1-7 ‘Between you and the result you desire is an act of obedience.’ We continue today with this same thought. Another person who obeyed the word of God and saw His miracle was the widow of Zarephath. Imagine what went through her mind when Elijah told her to “make for me first,” it may have seemed like a very callous statement coming from a man of God that should...
But Simon answered and said to Him, 'Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net' – Luke 5:5 REFERENCE Luke 5:1-7 Every time you hear the word of God, you have a choice to obey or not. You can’t negotiate your way through obedience; it may be a simple or a relatively hard instruction but you have to obey it nonetheless to see the desired result. When Jesus told Simon to launch into the deep for a catch after a night of toiling, you could imagine the expression on...
This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles. – Psalm 34:6 REFERENCE Psalm 34:1-10 The title of today’s devotional looks paradoxical and you may be tempted to ask, "What blessing can be associated with pain?" Without a doubt, pain is a part of life mostly related with suffering and hardship. As humans, we would rather avoid pain. However, if properly channeled, pain can become a pathway to progress. How? Most of the Psalms were written by David during those painful years when he was running from Saul or fighting one...
Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God: 'None of My words will be postponed anymore, but the words which I speak will be done,” says the LORD God.' - Ezekiel 12:28 REFERENCE Ezekiel 12:26-28 God does not want you to take His promises casually or lightly, they are true and sure words which will definitely come to pass. You should so believe in their certainty and the inevitability of their fulfilment that you should always adjust your life accordingly. The word of God should always provoke you into an action, whether a change in your behavior or to...
The sick man answered Him, 'Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.' - John 5:7 REFERENCE John 5:1-9 This man in our text has been left as last in the race to be healed. For 38 years, someone had always outsmarted him, outrun him, outperformed him and outwitted him. He must have felt like a failure and a good-for-nothing. He must have despaired of ever getting healed, because he was for once, confronted with his limited abilities, compared to...
All of this is the land which I, the LORD, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. Go and occupy it. – Deuteronomy 1:8 REFERENCE Deuteronomy 1:5-8 We conclude our discuss from where we left off yesterday about breaking free from the familiar and shifting gears to better levels. Our text has also shifted from (Verse 6) where God ‘told the children of Israel that they have stayed too long in a particular mountain’ to (Verse 8) where He tells them to ‘go and occupy the land He has given them;’ so we...
At Mount Horeb the LORD our God spoke to us. He said, 'You have stayed at this mountain long enough.' - Deuteronomy 1:6 REFERENCE Deuteronomy 1:5-8 In our scriptural reference today, we saw that God told the children of Israel that they needed to move or shift gears because they had been in the same place for too long. God realized that they were settling in the familiar and may never strive for the spectacular…so He went to stir their nest and woke them out of their complacency. They spent 38 years going about the same mountain, satisfied with...
BEFORE I MADE YOU in your mother’s womb, I KNEW YOU. Before you were born, I chose you for A SPECIAL WORK. I CHOSE YOU TO BE a prophet to the nations. - Jeremiah 1:5 (Emphasis mine). REFERENCE Jeremiah 1:4-10 It's a new day in the new year and I feel 'led' to remind you that you are not here by mistake. God INTENTIONALLY sent you here for a specific task. You are a child born out of DUE SEASON. You are here for such a time as this. What do you know you are supposed to do? Is...
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, 'Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it.' – Numbers 13:30 REFERENCE Numbers 13:16-33 Our devotional today is centred on the very popular story of the time when Moses sent out 12 spies to the land of Canaan – their promise land, so they could possess it. God had already given them the land but Moses wanted them to have a vision of the land before they could possess it. It is interesting that 10 out of the 12 spies came...