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Faith

On Many occasions Jesus said, “your faith has made you well” when He healed people. For example, He said this to a leper that He healed (Luke 17:19) and a blind man (Luke 18:42). Jesus complemented people for their faith, such as a centurion who asked Jesus to heal his servant (Matt 8:10), and a woman begging Jesus to cast a demon out of her daughter (Matt 15:28).
In the Acts of the Apostles Peter brought God’s healing to a lame man, stating that he was healed by faith in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:16). Looking down through the annals of time Jesus said, “when the Son of man comes will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8; NKJV). If Jesus returned to earth today, would He find us living by faith in Him?
In Galatians 3:11 we read that, “the just shall live by faith” (NKJV); that’s us! God has given us all faith (Rom 12:3b) but we need to grow it and of course He has given us the means to do that. Firstly, we can grow our faith by immersing ourselves in His word (Rom 10:17) and also by praying as directed by the Holy Spirit, in our own words and in tongues (Jude v 20). I think the following is my favourite definition of faith “through the leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness” (2 Tim 3:15; AMP). Amen.

One Thing

“The ONE THING I ask of the Lord—the thing I seek most---is to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, delighting in the Lord’s perfections and meditating in His temple” (Ps 27:4; NLT). This was obviously a cry from deep within David’s heart. In the New Testament, Luke 10:42 we read, “There is only ONE THING worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42; NLT). What was the one thing that Mary was doing? She was sitting at the feet of Jesus, listening to His teaching; she was in His presence. This is exactly what David was desiring. Moses said that if God’s presence did not go with them on their journey through the wilderness, then he didn’t want to move (Ex 33:15). Psalm 16:11 tells us that fullness of joy is found in God’s presence. God’s presence also strengthens our spirits and brings us rest (Ex 33:14).
When we read the word, pray, worship and spend time with God, we are in His presence. Let’s ask God to help us make “one thing” our priority, and ask Him to give us a hunger like never before for this “one thing”. Then we can be like Paul who said, “ONE THING I do, forgetting those things that are behind and reaching forward to those things that are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:13,14; NKJV).

Worry and concern.

Does anybody ever worry or have anxiety? Worry and anxiety are completely unproductive and will only wear us out. In Psalm 23 we read: “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul (Psalm 23:1-3a; NKJV). That speaks of peace and tranquility. It is the devil that comes: “to steal, kill and to destroy (John 10:10; NKJV). He wants to steal our peace and destroy that tranquility. Jesus defeated satan and took back all power and authority from him (Col 2:15; 1 Cor 15:57) and we as Christians walk in Christ’s victory and authority over satan. James, the brother of Jesus said we could “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7a). We resist the devil by reminding him of God’s promises for us and refusing to receive his thoughts and imaginations.
In Matthew 6:25-34, Jesus told us not to worry but to focus on Him and He would take care of all of our needs. The apostle Peter exhorted us to cast every care over on God because He cares for each one of us (1 Peter 5:7). That does not mean cast our cares on Him in the morning but then pick them up and worry later in the day! It means give all your worries and anxiety to God all of the time! “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You. Because he trusts in You (Isa 26:3; NKJV). Do we get the picture?

Bear the Fruit of love

In Galatians 5:22-23, there is a list of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit. The list starts as follows: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love………” Love is first and foremost in the list of 9. Love is a fruit and fruit will grow slowly and surely given the right conditions. We don’t even need to pray for love because love has been “poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” if we are born again Christians (Rom 5:5; ESV).
The apostle Paul admonishes us to “walk in love” (Eph 5:2; NKJV), abound in love (Phil 1:9) and to “increase and overflow with love for one another and for everyone” (1 Thess 3:12; CSB). This suggests that we need to allow the Holy Spirit to grow this fruit of love in us. The Spirit will do this if we allow Him to. We can enable that growth by immersing ourselves in the word which gives a great deal of instruction on how to love. For example, in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Paul talks about the agape love of God. In that passage, we learn that love is patient, kind, not jealous, arrogant or selfish. It is not easily irritated, does not keep grudges, hides the faults of others, believes the best of people, endures under stress and never fails! Wow!!! These words were written long ago but are still very applicable for us today.
Prayer: Dear God, today I commit to express the love You have put in my heart and with Your help, to walk in love to those around me, in Jesus name I pray, amen

A Servant’s heart

“But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matt 23:11-12; NKJV). Jesus was saying things here that may have seemed backwards to the multitude and His disciples. Jesus said the great person or leader should be a servant and that the person exalting himself or being haughty and arrogantly prideful, would be humbled or made low. The humble servant hearted person God will honour.
Jesus came to earth to serve, not to be served, to the point of dying on a cross as a sacrifice for sins (Mark 10:45). I am always touched by Christ’s humility and servanthood as he washed the disciples’ feet (John 13:1-17); He said we should do the same. The apostle Paul and the Lord’s brother, James, regarded themselves as servants of God (2 Cor 4:5; James 1:1). Likewise, we are called to serve one another (1 Peter 4:10). I love Phil 2:3-4, Paul exhorts us not to be selfish or full of vanity but to be humble putting others first, considering the needs of others before our own. However, we don’t look to find favour or popularity with man but simply be servants of God (Gal 1:10). We are expected to be an example of humility and servanthood (1 Peter 5:3), did I hear that an ouch or an OK?