Nothing insurmountable

UV 464/10,000 Nothing insurmountable Isa 45:2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: The Lord promises to go ahead of us to straighten our paths, to break down the obstructions, obstacles and seemingly insurmountable barriers on our paths. These are the paths that lead us back to God, our Creator and Father, our Lord and Redeemer. These are the paths that lead us away from the ways of the world and our short-sighted tunnel vision. The obstacles and barriers are the strongholds of disbelief that keep us from fulfilling our purpose or achieving our goals as part of the overarching purpose and will of God. The systems of the world are crooked. As a result, the children of God are often confronted with seemingly insurmountable situations in life where we have to choose between following the ways of God or to follow the ways of the world. But, the Lord knows our situations. He will find a way for us where no way exists. His presence will go ahead of us as a path-breaker and path-maker. The gates of brass are the hardened attitudes and actions of people we are dealing with. The bars of iron are the dead habits that limit our growth. It also stands for the persecution and opposition believers inevitably face in their lives. Over and over again, the Lord will demonstrate in our lives how nothing is insurmountable with Him. The Sovereign Lord does not say , “ I will send my angels or messengers before us.” Instead, it is a personal commitment, “ I will go before you.” We need to have this assurance that as He is with us, nothing is insurmountable. We only need to be aware of the crookedness or unrighteousness of the world around us. We need to distance ourselves from it and ask the Lord for help to deal with it. We need to identify the closed and barred gates placed in our paths, intentionally and willfully by those who oppose us both in the spirit world and in the real world. The Lord will break and tear asunder these obstacles and obstructions. These are very strong verbs indicative of the manifestation of the mighty power of Almighty God in our lives. Prateep V Philip

Enlargement and deliverance

UV 463/10,000 Esther 4 v 14 God is not obligated to use us Est 4:14 For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? God is not obligated to us to use us to fulfill His will and purpose. If we remain silent and ignore the plight of His people, enlargement and deliverance will arise from quite another quarter. It was an opportunity for Esther to intercede for her people, the Jews that her foster father Mordecai brought to her notice. Esther was brought out of an ordinary household to obtain royal favour and become a queen in order to play the role that she was prepared for. The Lord also used the combination of Mordecai and Esther to save the king’s life from an attempt on his life by his own guards. This would have convinced the king of their loyalty. But, Esther was afraid of breaking the rule that one should not enter the king’ s presence unless he had summoned her. She knew that the penalty for breaking this rule was death. At this juncture, Mordecai reminds her of her responsibility and of her divine calling. He also tells her that God is not dependent on her to save His people. Esther is persuaded by this warning and she prepares and fortifies herself by asking Mordecai and all the Jews to fast and pray like her for royal favour. We must pray for enlargement and deliverance for the Lord’s people everywhere. Enlargement implies positive growth, development, peace and prosperity. Deliverance implies freedom from death and other deadly threats. We must use every opportunity to work or intercede for the enlargement and deliverance of His people lest He leaves us out of His plan and uses someone else more sensitive and obedient to His call. Prateep V Philip

Belief is counted as Righteousness

Uni-verse 462/10,000 Genesis 15 v 6 Belief is counted as righteousness Uni-verse 462/10,000 Genesis 15 v 6 Belief is counted as righteousness Gen 15:6 And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. It is our belief that enables us to be, to become and to have. Our beliefs influence and determine all our being, becoming and having. It is our belief in the Lord our God that enables us to be counted as righteous. It is righteousness by imputation. The Lord knows that if we are judged by our thoughts, words or actions, we will fall short of His standards. Instead, He adopted the standard of belief to judge whether each individual human being is righteous or non-righteous. Do we believe in His Word, His character, His promises, His provision of salvation and all other needs, His visions and prophecies? The very word “ belief” is comprised of two roots: the quintessential verb “ be” and “lief” that means kingdom. In life when we believe, we are qualified by His grace to be citizens of His kingdom. Is it easy for human beings to believe? No, it is not easy to believe as there are many distractors, ‘red herrings’ or misleading cues and circumstances that make it challenging to believe, to hold on to the belief, to let go of our inherent disbelief and to nurture our faith to grow. In some versions, the words “ He counted it to him” is translated as “ He credited it to him as righteousness.” This is a banking metaphor: when we believe the Word, a spiritual balance of righteousness is credited to our accounts. Though we are born in debt and end in death, He gives us a credit balance in accordance with the measure of our faith. Sometimes through our negative thinking, disobedience and lack of faith, we run the spiritual balance into negative but the Lord keeps topping up our accounts. How much does the Lord credit to our accounts? The visible declares the glory of the invisible. The Lord took the childless and heirless Abraham out of the tent that limited his outward and upward vision into the open and asked him to count the stars that are countless. With the then limited knowledge of astronomy, even Abraham knew that the stars could not be counted. The lesson in astronomy fully persuaded Abraham to believe that God is able to do whatever He had promised including a childless couple beyond the age of child-bearing a child, to raise a whole new nation Israel from that solitary child. His experience that far did not justify his belief but his faith justified his experience. The word ‘justify’ means to set right, to correct, to make straight. Similarly, we can neither predict nor count the magnitude or extent of the Lord’s grace, love and blessings in our lives. Our faith will justify our lives even though a lot of things may be crooked as of now. The Lord pointed out the stars to show Abraham the extent of His power not just to underline the infiniteness of His power to create, to manifest and to answer prayers of believing mankind but to tell us that we need to be stars shining in a dark universe. We need to be star performers in whichever orbit He has placed us today. We need to excel by contrast. Prateep V Philip

Repairer and Restorer

UV 461/10000 Isaiah 58 v 12 Repairer and Restorer Isa 58:12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in. We are called to rebuild, to stand in the breach in the wall around the kingdom of God, to restore the paths of God. We rebuild the kingdom and the church by fervent and constant prayer and by training the people belonging to many generations in the ways of God. We stand in the breach to bridge the gap between God and people by interceding for them. The words, “ they that shall be of thee” refers to the persons we minister to, serve, teach, train or mentor. By our lives we become signboards for them the paths they should take in life in order to be blessed of God. In this way, we lay the foundations of many generations in the kingdom of God. The foundations of faith are prayer that connects us with God, the Word through which God communicates with us, fellowship through which we communicate with each other and witnessing through which we communicate the love of God to those who do not know of it or have not experienced it. Every believer needs to be taught, trained and strengthened in these basic disciplines. In the Old Testament, Nehemiah the cupbearer to the king used his earthly influence to get permission and provision to rebuild the ruins and walls of Jerusalem. Similarly, we must do all that we can with the influence and power that is within our reach to build the kingdom and to rebuild the church. We must observe and survey as Nehemiah did the breaches in the wall and muster or marshall all the children of God to rebuild the ruins and the broken down walls. Then, we will be commended by God Himself as repairer of the breach and restorer of the paths of God. Prateep V Philip

Casting down our burdens, lifting our spirits

UV 460/10,000 Psalm 55 v 22 Casting our burdens and lifting our spirits Psa 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved Each of us have our own professional, familial,financial, social, emotional, psychological and spiritual burdens. It could even be a physical burden- a health issue or ailment. It can be the burden of guilt and regrets from the past. These burdens can weigh us down and make us weary and distressed. But, the Lord invites us to cast our burdens upon Him. He promises to sustain us. He promises that He will not allow any of these burdens or cares to destabilize us. We must stay our attention on Him. We must pour out our hearts to Him about all that troubles us daily and not keep it to ourselves. We must also cast out the spirit of despondency or hopelessness, the feeling of despair and helplessness. The saying that we must learn to endure the things that we cannot change does not apply to us. The Lord can change those very things so that we will be able to not only endure it but also enjoy His love and care. If it is a financial burden, He will send miraculous or providential help and support. If it is an emotional burden, he will send a word of healing as His touch to heal the deep wounds in our psyche or inner being. If it is a familial burden, He will cause the change in the relationship or person so that we will enjoy our relationships with our spouse and children. If it is a professional burden or challenge, He will give us a breakthrough in unexpected ways. If it is a spiritual burden, He will uplift us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Our responsibility is to take the burden to the Lord in prayer with praise, thanksgiving and earnest expectation. We will then begin to see His response. We will feel the sense of burden being lifted from our minds and hearts. Things will weigh us down but the wings of worship and prayer and the Word will lift us up. Symbolically, every day in our devotion times, we can lift a heavy weight to represent a particular burden in our minds and cast it down, laying it at the feet of Jesus. Jesus having walked in the shoes of man empathises with us. He knows the root or cause, the dimensions or magnitude and the solutions or answers to every one of the issues we face in practical life. With one hand He will lift the burden and with the other, He will point out the way we should take. Prateep V Philip

The Planting

UV 459/10,000 Hosea 2 v 23 The planting Hos 2:23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God. Each human being is a planting of the Lord on the earth. Those who recognize this truth and seek the mercy of the Lord who is the Creator and Redeemer will obtain mercy. Jesus is the Prince of the Kingdom of God who became the Prince of peace on earth by paying the price of peace that we earthlings might become princes of His people. This is the first and foremost lesson of human history. This is the seed of the gospel and when it is planted with faith into the bed of our belief system, it transforms our value system. Our value system will lead to our choices and actions on earth or the fruits of our being sown by the Lord. The transformation of our value system after the planting of the gospel seed in our hearts and minds is evidenced in the fact that we now give highest value to the personal relationship that is made possible with the absolutely holy and powerful, wise and otherwise unapproachable God. God will take pride in declaring us His people formed out of all the people on earth. He will revel in revealing His splendour in us, the planting of His hands. The sense of the words ,” my people” and repeated in “ my God” is a sense of ownership, of adoption, of identification,of mutual affirmation, of complete absorption in each other. As the Song of Solomon echoes this in the words, “ My beloved is mine and I am His.” It is a more intimate and personal a relationship than a relationship between lovers for if lovers were to share all their secrets, scarcely any relationship would withstand the shock of such revelation. The relationship between lovers goes through several swings of up and down. But, the relationship with God is a constant growing in awareness, acceptance, affirmation and love. He has complete knowledge of us, more than we can ever know ourselves. We, too can grow in our knowledge and understanding of God by studying His Word, line by line and precept by precept. Prateep V Philip

The Character of the Godly

UV458/10,000 The character of the godly Act 10:2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always Cornelius was not a Jew. He was a Roman soldier who held in his hands the authority of the empire and power over a hundred men. Yet, he was devout and his sense of devotion and dedication won the favour and attention of God. His example had even inspired his family as well as the men under his charge to similarly fear God. It even led some of them to move to the next level- to be devout or to serve God with a spirit of love and gratitude. It manifested in practical acts of service and charity to the needy. Cornelius prayed to God always. It was not a ritual prayer of religious practice or something taught to him. He feared God- his fear of God and his faith in Him led him to always pray. It did not mean that he was always on his knees and neglected the affairs of state or his soldierly duties as a captain of many men. It meant that he was always in an attitude of prayer, knowing the limitations of his own power and abilities and the infinite power and goodness of God. Scripture goes on to testify that Cornelius was a just man. He never abused his authority or power to ill treat his subordinates or to exploit the people. He had a good reputation among all the subject people- the Jews. The Lord showed by his act of sending a messenger from heaven, an angel to Cornelius that he is not a respector of persons or of races or of religious background. He did so that Cornelius could now move to the next level of spiritual maturity by learning the truth about Jesus from the apostle Peter. Once we are found to be faithful, the Lord will move us to the next level of spiritual knowledge and maturity. The example of Cornelius proves that one can equally be a faithful servant of God and at the same time, an effective Government servant or police officer or army officer or judge or legislator. Cornelius highest allegiance was not to the state but to God, his obedience was not only to the rules and laws of the state but to the Word of God. He obeyed the vision and direction of the angel in sending his servants to find Peter in Joppa. Prateep V Philip