Seek First Wisdom ...

UV 4257/10000 Seek First Wisdom Wisdom and knowledge have been granted you. I will also give you riches, possessions and honour, such as none of the kings who were before you has possessed nor will those who will come after you." 2 Chronicles 1 v 12 Solomon, yet a teenager, asked the Lord for wisdom to rule and administer justice. God was pleased with what Solomon asked for. Hence, Solomon is the only trillionaire in history. He was given wisdom and knowledge and in addition, wealth, possessions and honour in abundance. The Lord gives wisdom not to the foolish but to the wise and knowledge to those who seek understanding. He honours and preserves from troubles those who fear Him, love Him,worship Him. When we seek the Lord with all our hearts and love Him with all our strength, all our mind and all our soul, He adds to us what we have neither asked nor sought. We need the child-like humility and faith of the young Solomon to trust God and pray for wisdom and understanding. The Lord has revealed time and again that He is very pleased with such child-like faith. We need to believe fully and without the shadow of doubt that God is able to give us wisdom and that He would give it to us generously in abundance. Solomon, in later years erred in His relationship with God chiefly due to the fact that He was unequally yoked with women of different faith backgrounds. Unlike Solomon, we need not a one time seeking of wisdom of God but we need to seek it daily and before any major venture or decision. The lesson that we learn from the life of Solomon is that even the wisest can be deceived. We need the constant guidance of the Holy Spirit to remain victorious in life. The blessings of the Lord made Solomon non-pareil or without equal among the kings and leaders of the world. Even though Solomon departed from the path of faithfulness to the Lord, the Lord remained faithful and did not withdraw the grace and blessings He extended to him. The wisdom that God gave Him was not withdrawn but remained in him. Through his experimentation with learning, pleasure, fame, posessions, Solomon proved to humanity for all time the vanity and emptiness of pursuing such things in the absence of a personal relationship with the Creator God and the Saviour Jesus enabled by the Holy Spirit. Jesus later summed it up in His word, " Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you." My life is a testament to the truth of this promise as the Lord met my needs and wants in abundance, without any lack or shortage over the past many decades of my life as I sought His will and His wisdom in every circumstance through the years.

From Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God

UV 4294/10000 Slaves of Sin to Slaves of God And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What does this mean?" you shall say to him, "With a strong and powerful hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, from the house of bondage and slavery.." Exodus 13 v 14 The Lord redeemed the Israelites from Pharaoh's hand. The word redeemed means "to buy back." One has to pay a price to buy back anything and to buy back one's freedom from slavery takes a heavy price. The Lord God redeemed Israelites from slavery and bondage with a strong and powerful hand but He chose to buy all mankind back with the heavy price of His first born Son Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Having bought, redeemed by God, we should not now choose to go back to bondage to sin and to being slaves of sin and satan. We are now slaves of God who are crowned with the gift of salvation. We are freed from the law of sin to live in obedience to the law of love of God. We are to enjoy or rejoice in the new freedom we have in Christ. Egypt is a metaphor for the foreign land where we were formerly enslaved and in bondage. Instead of bondage, we are now bonded with God in Christ. Like God used Moses to lead the Israelite slaves to freedom and the promised land, we are led by Christ into freedom and eternal life. We should always be aware of the invisible crown that the Lord has placed on our heads. Our hearts should always overflow with love and gratitude for so great a gift that we receive by grace. Every time we yield to sin and temptation we are trying to regress, retrace our steps back to Egypt. There are deserts and mountains to cross and formidable enemies to battle and conquer even as we travel towards eternity but our triumphant entry into the promised land is guaranteed. In times to come, when the next generation asks us what it means to be redeemed, we need to leave our answer that the Lord has redeemed us by His grace. We need to leave a legacy of faith such that they do not ever forget what the Lord has done for us at such huge cost.