November 18
O God, we thank You for a new week ahead of us, You are good to us, thank You for Your Divine Provisions, Protection, Preservation over our lives and families. We are grateful to You, Who can do all things, blessed be Your Holy Name. You have done that which seemeth impossible to men to do for us, when all visible helps are gone; Father, You remained faithful to us, glory be to Your Holy Name.
Still in line with last week teaching, beloved, can you be counted faithful? Put in another way “how faithful are you”? Can you like Paul give thanks to God for finding him faithful for His use? There are things in your life’s you must asked the holy Spirit to help you preserve if you must run your race to the end…read more
I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry. . . —1 Timothy 1:12
From a human perspective, the apostle Paul’s record as a zealous persecutor of Christians should have precluded him from being used in God’s service. Paul was known as the “chief of sinners,” a blasphemer, persecutor, and violent aggressor (1 Tim. 1:13–15). Everything changed when God saved Paul. He embraced the Christian life with the same fervency in which he had opposed it. Paul labored to be faithful in every assignment, no matter how small or large. Ultimately, because of Paul’s faithfulness, God entrusted him to be one of His foremost promoters of the gospel.
Paul understood that everything he ever accomplished for God’s kingdom was due to the enabling power of God. He was not deceived into thinking that his own intelligence or personal drive brought about God’s will. Rather, Paul was grateful for the opportunity to be tested and found faithful in any assignment, regardless of its size.
Your ability to serve God is not based on your past, but on your faithfulness today. If you are faithful with the task God entrusts to you, God will enable you to accomplish it. Don’t distinguish between big and small assignments from God. Paul saw every one as a privilege he did not deserve. Whether God has asked you to pray for someone, to minister to a person in need, to lead a Bible study, or to care for those who are sick, strive to be faithful. You will experience His enabling as you serve Him. If you are faithful in a little, God will entrust you with more. You will be able to join Paul in praising God for having counted you faithful, putting you into His service (Luke 16:10).
As a believer, there are many things about your life that you must guide with all carefulness by the help of the Holy Spirit but we are going to consider four now. Don’t live your life loosely, read more in the message below:
“A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.” Song 4:12
In this metaphor, which has reference to the inner life of a believer, we have very plainly the idea of secrecy. It is a spring shut up: just as there were springs in the East, over which an edifice was built, so that none could reach them save those who knew the secret entrance; so is the heart of a believer when it is renewed by grace: there is a mysterious life within which no human skill can touch. It is a secret which no other man knoweth; nay, which the very man who is the possessor of it cannot tell to his neighbour.
The text includes not only secrecy, but separation. It is not the common spring, of which every passer-by may drink, it is one kept and preserved from all others; it is a fountain bearing a particular mark—a king’s royal seal, so that all can perceive that it is not a common fountain, but a fountain owned by a proprietor, and placed specially by itself alone. So is it with the spiritual life. The chosen of God were separated in the eternal decree; they were separated by God in the day of redemption; and they are separated by the possession of a life which others have not; and it is impossible for them to feel at home with the world, or to delight in its pleasures.
There is also the idea of sacredness. The spring shut up is preserved for the use of some special person: and such is the Christian’s heart. It is a spring kept for Jesus. Every Christian should feel that he has God’s seal upon him—and he should be able to say with Paul, “From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.”
Another idea is prominent—it is that of security. Oh! how sure and safe is the inner life of the believer! If all the powers of earth and hell could combine against it, that immortal principle must still exist, for He who gave it pledged His life for its preservation. And who “is He that shall harm you,” when God is your protector?
Such a comforting words from our God, he will not let your feet be move neither will He leave your life without preservation for He neither sleep nor slumber, glory be to God.
Dearly beloved go in that knowledge that He is the Almighty God, He is so Dependable and All- Sufficiency. Your week will be blessed of the Lord, surly He answer you and bless you. The remaining days of this year He put a seal of protection over you and all that concerns you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu
