PEPI Thought to Ponder: Anger Disqualifies Us To His Promise

 PEPI Thought to Ponder: Anger Disqualifies Us To His Promise

 

Numbers 20:8-12 

 

8 Take the rod, and gather thou the assembly together, thou, and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock before their eyes; and it shall give forth his water, and thou shalt bring forth to them water out of the rock: so thou shalt give the congregation and their beasts drink.

9 And Moses took the rod from before the Lord, as he commanded him.

10 And Moses and Aaron gathered the congregation together before the rock, and he said unto them, Hear now, ye rebels; must we fetch you water out of this rock?

11 And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their beasts also.

12 And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.

Anger also hinders us to receive God's blessings. Remember Moses when GOD instructed him to speak to the rock so that water may gush out so that the Israelites might be able to drink including their livestock. But Moses got out of his temper to the point that he was disqualified to enter into the promised land along with those who rebelled against GOD.

I remember that though I have a point against my previous boss, but due to my anger I lost my position, and I lost my job. If we may be able to control our feelings, we a long time ago arrived to our promised land.

The same happened to the rest of the Israelites due to their anger against GOD, GOD's answer consumed them, save Joshua and Caleb who were the ones who enter into the promised land because they believed and put their trust, hope, and faith with GOD. In our journey to life, there are times that it only lacks a few steps as we step into GOD's blessings but because of our temperance issue, we are disqualified from the blessings that GOD hath set for us. Anger is an issue of heart it is my prayer that as we ask GOD for His grace, may we ask also from GOD to grant us patience to the point that we may enter into His rest, His blessings, that He hath allocated for us, in this present world, and in the future life to come, as we dwell in His presence. Amen.

PEPI Thought To Ponder: You Cannot Put GOD On The Sidelines

 You Cannot Put GOD On The Sidelines

 

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money". (Matthew 6:24)

This day I learned a lesson that to be involved in God's ministry needs your full time and attention only to God. Yes, what the Lord said in His Word you cannot serve God and other material things, or money. In my context, I cannot do my work each day and along with it you just include God. I reasoned to God that I need to finish out my work first before getting my time with Him. Most often my time is consumed with work and failed to prioritize God as He convicted my heart to do something about it. As a result of the day, it's not good, and always fall short as if you failed.

"When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus' knees and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8)

When Peter starts to prioritize God's ministry as he allow his boat to be used as a platform so that our Lord Jesus can preach the Gospel, later our Lord Jesus told Simon Peter to where they can catch fish during day time, as Simon Peter obey, They, (Peter and his fishermen partners) caught a large number of fish, for the first time in the entire history, to the point that their nets almost broke, and called other fishermen partners who are not with him to help them haul the large number of fish. Simon Peter saw with his own eyes the blessings of God to the point that he cannot accept the grace that God has given him, for he thinks for himself that he don't deserve it.

I realized that when I prioritized God in the first hour of the day, and as I commit all of my schedules, tasks, and decisions that I needed to do for the day, He blessed the day ahead of me as I experienced that it is only God who can make all things to work out together for good. Like what happened to Simon Peter. I need not prioritize for the work as I need to prioritize God first in my first hour of the day, as He blesses my whole day including all the work that I needed to do for the day. Our daily devotion to God sometimes we take it for granted, and we least prioritize God as we see the urgency of our work, that we need to accomplished for the day, but we don't realize that it is a privilege to be in the presence of God, and God blesses His children when we prioritized Him. As Simon Peter allow his boat to be used for proclaiming God's work, the blessings God in return to Simon Peter overwhelms him, to the point that he committed his whole life to the ministry of God. God don't want us to put Him on the sidelines, He wants your time to be with Him, so we must commit our first hour of the day totally in prayer and devotion to Him. Finally, I leave my work and decided that I need to delegate the work to my staff and trust God that as I follow Him, He will take care of the rest including my business and work to be done.

It is my prayer that our struggle to live each day caught in between God and business or work will be solved, as we intentionally prioritized God in our first hour of the day. That our Lord may grant us wisdom and strength as we come into His presence as we prioritize Him each day in our lives. Also, His blessings to carry each day's work that we need, and to use our business as a platform for God's glory. Amen.

Obedience Versus Devotion

Obedience Versus Devotion

Matthew 21:28-32

28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

The parable of the two sons above is an illustration of obedience and disobedience. As a believer, the issue is no longer obedience but our true devotion to our living God.

Complying to God's Word needs everyday discipline that sometimes we feel that we're just complying it by mere physical effort minus the presence of the Holy Spirit within us.

As we take time to commune with God in prayer and by meditating upon His Word, God reveals His Word to us and convicted us by His Word, the reason why there's a true change in some believer's life because they take time to commune with God daily.

The pressures of this world are too great like a current of a wild river that will derail you from walking with God unless we are fully aware of God's truth in our hearts to always seek for Him day in and day out.

Without His Divine intervention and His Divine awareness in our daily life, we may become entrapped again by the concerns of this world, and our joy and happiness in Him are zapped and snatch away from us.

It is my prayer as once upon a time in our lives, we experienced how those joy were snatched away from us, when we failed to make time with the LORD in meditating upon His Word and taking time with Him in prayer, and have gone through the busyness of this world. We don't want to happen again, that's the reason why we want to make time with God each day as God strengthens us through His Word, and by His Spirit Who now lives in us, that empowers us to live a victorious life each day. Amen.

PEPI Thought to Ponder: Awareness of GOD's Provision

Genesis 21:19 KJV
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

When Hagar and her son Ishmael dismissed by Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael travel in the dessert to the point that they exhausted their food and water. Hagar in her desperation set her son just few meters away for she don't want to see the boy dying out of dehydration.

God heard the cry of the boy and God speaks to Hagar and open her eyes to see the water just besides them in order for them to survived and travel to where they are going.

In 2 Kings 17:20 Elisha's servant was terrified for they were surrounded by their enemies but Elisha prayed to open his servant's eyes and so God opened his eyes and the servant see that behind their enemies were more than them, to protect them.

2 Kings 6:15-17 KJV
And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?  And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

Same thing happened to the servant of Elisha when they were surrounded by their enemies. Elisha prayed that God may open his eyes to see God's mighty armies.

God's protection and provision are always with us. We just need to be aware to see His provision.

It is my prayer that God may open our spiritual eyes to see His provision in our daily life or much more in this pandemic situation. To see His working hands, His provision, To help us out of these situation. And in the end we bring Him glory, praise, and honor. Amen.