February 19
Thank You father for today. You gave us lives that we will glorify Your Holy Name. God of mercy and hope, we come before Your Throne this day to seek Your face. We call upon You because we know You answer us when we call. Thank God for Your mercies that abide forever more. Glory be to Your Name now and ever more.
I look upon the hill where cometh my help, my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. Indeed You are the Helper of those that fear You -Ps145:19
Beloved, when we neglect the place of mercy and grace in our lives, we operate under the law. And no one can please God under the law. Hear this, Beloved, there is a great difference between law and grace. Law demands; grace bestows. Law commands, but gives no strength to obey; grace promises, and performs, does all we need to do. Law burdens, and casts down and condemns; grace comforts, and makes strong and glad. Law appeals to self, to do its utmost; grace points to Christ to do all. Law calls to effort and strain, and urges us towards a goal we never can reach; grace works in us all God’s blessed will.
Until we sink down before God in utter helplessness, that would be the place where we would learn to surrender to Him, unless grace given unto us for deliverance and strength, we will not fully grasp the totality of God. You cannot please God by self-effort but by the help of the Holy Spirit will you please Him. Please read Rom 7 & 8. Come with me and discover more about this mercy that knows no bound:
“Thus saith the Lord God; I will yet for this be enquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them.” Ezekiel 36:37
Prayer is the forerunner of mercy. Turn to sacred history, and you will find that scarcely ever did a great mercy come to this world unheralded by supplication. You have found this true in your own personal experience. God has given you many an unsolicited favour, but still great prayer has always been the prelude of great mercy with you.
When you first found peace through the blood of the cross, you had been praying much, and earnestly interceding with God that He would remove your doubts, and deliver you from your distresses. Your assurance was the result of prayer. When at any time you have had high and rapturous joys, you have been obliged to look upon them as answers to your prayers. When you have had great deliverances out of sore troubles, and mighty helps in great dangers, you have been able to say, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”
Prayer is always the preface to blessing. It goes before the blessing as the blessing’s shadow. When the sunlight of God’s mercies rises upon our necessities, it casts the shadow of prayer far down upon the plain. Or, to use another illustration, when God piles up a hill of mercies, He Himself shines behind them, and He casts on our spirits the shadow of prayer, so that we may rest certain, if we are much in prayer, our pleadings are the shadows of mercy.
Prayer is thus connected with the blessing to show us the value of it. If we had the blessings without asking for them, we should think them common things; but prayer makes our mercies more precious than diamonds. The things we ask for are precious, but we do not realize their preciousness until we have sought for them earnestly.
Thank God, Whose mercy abideth forever, My Father never fail and will not fail you. He did not abandon Israel forever, He pardoned and forgave them and yet allowed them to be fruitful again.
Are you experiencing any challenges now, my father bid you come, any situation in your life that is asking you where is your God. never mind there is a hope for you. Read this Ezekiel 36 and you will sure from the place of hope to the place of Faith if you believe.
Though Thy Father has afflicted Thee, will He afflicts you no more. Come and be encourage with the message below and ensure you read the rest of the chapter:
“Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.” Nah. 1:12
There is a limit to affliction. God sends it and God removes it. Do you sigh, and say “When will the end be?” Remember that our griefs will surely and finally end when this poor earthly life is over. Let us quietly wait, and patiently endure the will of the Lord till He cometh.
Meanwhile, our Father in Heaven takes away the rod when His design in using it is fully served. When He has whipped away our folly, there will be no more strokes. Or, if the affliction is sent for testing us, that our graces may glorify God, it will end when the Lord has made us bear witness to His praise. We would not wish the affliction to depart till God has gotten out of us all the honor which we can possibly yield Him.
There may today be “a great calm.” Who knows how soon those raging billows will give place to a sea of glass, and the sea birds sit on the gentle waves? After long tribulation the flail is hung up, and the wheat rests in the garner. We may, before many hours are past, be just as happy as now we are sorrowful. It is not hard for the Lord to turn night into day. He that sends the clouds can as easily clear the skies. Let us be of good cheer. It is better on before. Let us sing Hallelujah by anticipation.
See this child of God:
“Prayer makes the darken’d cloud withdraw;
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw;
Gives exercise to faith and love;
Brings every blessing from above.”
All these will the prayers of the saints do if we neglect not our prayer altar. Though it might look as if nothing is happening, don’t give up, your Father is aware of you and that pressing situation, depleting health, oppressions and wickedness around you.
He will surely fight your battle if only you will be still and know that He is God. He will make His mercy abound in your life; in my life. Amen!
Remain blessed in the Lord.
Evang. Ifeoma Ohondu
