Help Me To Understand

Jonah 2:6 (NIV) I sank down to the very roots of the mountains. I was imprisoned in the earth, whose gates lock shut forever. But you, O Lord my God, snatched me from the jaws of death!
>> Here we hear the words of Jonah’s prayer while he was still in the fish. It was a prayer that tells so much of his knowledge of God. He knew the power of God to save him and to save the people of Nineveh. He was also confident that God will snatch him from the jaws of death. Jonah was a reluctant preacher who knew God will save the people of Nineveh but he could not understand the very heart of God. There is that subtle difference in knowledge and understanding. We may have knowledge of God but yet failed to understand why God did what He did. Proverbs 2:3 “Cry out for insight, and ask for understanding.” Wisdom is applied knowledge and I believed understanding is gained in the wisdom applied. May I seek to be an understanding person rather than a knowledgeable person. Help me to understand, Lord! ¿>

Taking Things For Granted

Amos 8:11 (NIV) “The time is surely coming,” says the Sovereign Lord, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of the Lord.
>> One of the greatest ills in life is to take things for granted. We lived in a generation of entitlement. Our children want what they wanted because they are entitled. They tend to take things for granted. A day will come when God will bring about a famine on the hearing of the words of the Lord. God is going to stop speaking to us when we continue to take His words for granted. How terrible that would be when God is silent. You will never treasure things which are avaliable freely but when they are gone, then you begin to miss and by then it would be too late. Relationship is also one of those things we tend to take for granted. It’s time of the year to reflect and to do better in the coming year and not to take things for granted. Things that matter to us most – our relationships with God (spent time reading His words) and with people (spent quality time with people close to you). May we learnt to treasure things not take them for granted. ¿>

Pursue Righteousness

Hosea 10:12 (NIV) I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’
>> Life is about doing something long enough that it becomes a part of you. You need to plant the seeds of righteousness (doing what is right even if it cost you something) and you reap a crop of love (that’s how you have more love). It is going to take hard work (cos is not easy) by plowing the hard ground of your heart (the hardened heart caused by sins) and to seek the Lord and it says that the Lord will sower you with righteousness. You reap what you sow (Universal truth) Proverbs 21:21
“Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love will find life, righteousness, and honor.” Seek Jesus because He is our righteousness. Amen. ¿>

Press In And Press On

Hosea 6:3 (NIV) Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know him.
He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”
>> Hosea issued the call to repentance, a call to know God and to press on to know Him. The promise is that God will respond like the arrival of dawn… Dawn speaks to me about the arrival of first light… from darkness to light.. the notion of illumination, of revelation and of God showing us the path through knowing Him. The rain speaks to me of the Holy Spirit, the promise to help us to know God more and when the rains comes… It is not just for the physical body but for your spirit as well. Oftentimes we do not have the motivation to know God, there are a thousand and one thing to distract us from knowing God. The key word today in my journey in knowing God is simply to press in and press on. God will respond.. God will refresh us and gives us light if you seek Him long enough. ¿>

To Love Again

Hosea 3:1 (NIV) Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.”
>> The parallel that this verse is that God’s love for His people is similar to that of Hosea’s love for Gomer. God instructed Hosea to love her again even though she commits adultery with another lover just like Israel turned to other gods and worship other gods. I believed this verse says so powerfully that love can change people’s hearts. Love can transform people. God’s love transformed us. To love again those who have failed us, those unloveable and those have gone astray and worshipped other gods. The command from God is to go and love again. Love bears all things. If we continue to love again, things will change and we must build on conviction that love will win and change lives. May the Spirit of God gives us an even bigger heart to love again. Amen. ¿>

The Measure

Daniel 5:27 (NIV) Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.
>> As I read this passage, to be found wanting, there must be some form of standards you measure against. How do God measure us? I found a couple of things spoken by Jesus and Peter:- 1) By the measure we judge others (Matt 7:2), 2) By the measure of our giving (Luke 6:38),  by the measure of joy within us (John 17:13),  the measure of Godly character (2Pet 1:5-8) and by the measure of our faithfulness (Matt 25:21). Finally two measures of spiritual maturity (John Orteberg) : Am I easily irritated nowadays and do I have God’s peace within me? May the Spirit of God cause us not be judgmental, to be sacrificial in our giving, to rejoice at all times and to be faithful in letting God transformed us to the likeness of His Son. Amen. ¿>

The Humbling

Daniel 4:37 (NIV) Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.
>> In James 4:10, “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”  But if you exalt yourself then probably God may humble you. This episode in Daniel 4 is about the humbling of King Nebuchadnezzar so that he may acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes (Dan 4:25). He was brought down from being a king to the lowest of being a ox eating grass and living along the animals. The right posture to adopt in our achievements no matter great or small is to be thankful to God. In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus (1 Thess 5:18). Be thankful before God humbled you. ¿>

Unwavering And Sustaining Faith

Dan 3:17 — Dan 3:18 (NIV) If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”
>> Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego have such an unwavering and sustaining faith in God. They do not waver even by the threat of death. They believed God will deliver them and even if God does not, they are not going to worship to the image of gold. Many times we want God to answer us in the way we wanted and if somehow when the answer did not come, we tend to waver and our faith dampen. May the examples of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego help us to have unwavering faith in God that He is sovereign and faith will sustain us in the face of unanswered requests. Help us Lord, to grow deep in faith in You. ¿>

Mercy & Grace

Daniel 2:18 (NIV) He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
>> Daniel asked the king for time (vv 16) so that he and his friends can pray. The thing that they asked God for was mercy from God of heaven to solve this mystery. In their prayer, they ascribed that only God who is all wise can give them the wisdom not only to tell the king his dreams but also the interpretation of the dreams. Only by his grace are humans able to achieve anything or to understand the “deep and hidden things” or what “lies in darkness.” May we once again find the needed grace and mercy in our times of needs from the God who is gracious and merciful. ¿>

The Tenacity Of “No Compromise”

Daniel 1:8 (NIV) But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way.
>> Daniel was a man of no compromise. When he was confronted with an intricate issue of having to obey the pagan rule and defiling himself with the king’s food and choice wine (probably most of the meat items on the regular menu were from animals sacrificed to the gods of Babylon) or to obey God, he chose the latter at the risk of being expelled from the courts of the king. But God caused the official to have favor and compassion on Him (vv. 9)and also God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds (vv. 17). God honors Daniel’s faith and obedience when he does not compromise with the fundamentals of his belief and this tenacity of “no compromise” stayed with him throughout his life and made him a great example to follow. ¿>