Category: Daily Devotional

“For which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” – 2 Timothy 2:9-10

Since the day Paul encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus, his life radically changed. Paul, who was a very prominent Jew and a Roman citizen, who once persecuted and killed Christians, is now willing to suffer all kinds of pain and shame so that Christ, who changed his life forever, could be preached to the ends of the world.

He willingly gave up everything he was, and he had for the sake of the Gospel.

Paul could do that because He knew the price paid for him on the cross of Calvary. Christ, the Prince of Heaven, gave up his position, left His heavenly glory, and humbled himself to the point where he was despised, rejected, and tortured by His own creation.

And despite all that shame and pain, He still endured the cross for our sake, to present us holy and blameless before God and obtain for us a place in heaven.

Brothers & sisters, what is stopping us from sharing Christ with our family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues? In the light of what Christ has done for us, would we be willing, just like Paul, to give up everything we have and to suffer pain and shame for the sake of this glorious Gospel. Using every means and opportunities God gives us, whether in person or through social media or Whatapp or any other digital mediums where you are part of a community.

“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.” – 1 Corinthians 9:22

Lord, help us to reflect on the sufferings you endured for my sake and let that encourage my heart to share your love with someone I care about.

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last, he will stand upon the earth.” – Job 19:25

The above words were uttered by a man called Job who lost everything; his children were struck dead, and if that wasn’t enough, even his wealth and possessions were destroyed. All of this happening with the consent and permission of God Almighty.

In the eyes of the world, he had every right to reject and accuse God of abandonment and unleashing these catastrophes over him, yet he said “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.”

During those most painful moments, he remained alive and hopeful because he knew for sure that his Redeemer lives.

The dictionary meaning of the word Redeemer or redeem is “atone or make amends for”, “gain or regain possession of (something) in exchange for payment.”

Before even the coming and advent of Christ, Job could say “I know..” He doesn’t say “I hope so…”, no ifs, buts or perhaps, but he knows, undoubtedly, that His Redeemer lives and will one day deliver Him from his sin and make him stand blameless before our Heavenly Father.

Friends, we have great hope. There is no need for a debate or an argument to prove it. From the other side of history, we can see what Job and other men in the Old Testament longed for and hoped to see. Christ, the Son of the Living God came down to earth, lived a perfect and holy life, and redeemed us by exchanging His perfect life with us and taking on our unrighteousness and paying the penalty of our sins to present us holy and acceptable to God.

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus”. Let us rejoice in this truth all the days of our lives.

Lord, through the good times and in the bad times, help us to trust in your son Jesus, to know that our redeemer lives.

“…and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:32

Truth can be Subjective or Objective. Subjective truths are based on one’s personal belief, opinion and experiences, and it may be true or false; whereas Objective truths are confirmed by study and are universally accepted. Then there is ‘Absolute Truth’, which is beyond the reach of humans; let’s call it a mystery.

The Gospel of Jesus – God the Son becoming human and living among us to carry the sin and its repercussions on the whole world upon himself – past, present & future is not just a subjective truth spoken and confessed by individual believers based on their experiences, but it is also an objective truth verified by pieces of evidence produced through various streams of study and research.

It is, therefore, crucial for every man and women to be introduced to this truth because knowing the truth of the Gospel is what gives meaning to life and an all-consuming purpose to pursue. It also allows us to filter out all other subjective truths passed on to us through traditions, fables and fairy tales, allowing us to live in true freedom.

Brothers & Sisters, let’s cherish the truth of the Gospel, hold it closer to our hearts and count its rewards and benefits not just in this lifetime but for eternity in heaven.

Lord, help us cherish the truth of the Gospel every day and every night without ceasing.

“I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.” – Isaiah 57:15

The God who dwells in the High and Holy place also promises to dwell in us – but only those with a humble and contrite spirit.

To dwell means to take possession or occupying the space. In the above passage, God reveals to us that He desires to occupy the space in our heart but to occupy the space in our heart it needs to be empty – no other occupant demanding possession of that space.

In man, the self has possession, the self-will has mastery, and it is simply impossible for God to dwell or rule when self is on the throne.

If we are not careful, even in believers, our self tends to secretly not allow God to make our heart his dwelling place because for God to take control means losing our ability to control.

Therefore, if we truly desire to experience God’s nearness within our hearts, a breaking down of self is necessary and such breaking down could be painful.

Friends, humility is not just a posture we take on the outside but its the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance. In our case having a low view of our self and a high view of God who wants to use our earthen bodies for His glory by making it His dwelling place which He can mould, shape and direct according to His will to accomplish great things through us.

Lord, help us value this invaluable reward of humility, allowing you to take full control of our lives and use it for your glory.

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” – 2 Chronicles 7:14

Have you ever wondered why humility is such a big thing for God? Why do we see Him often calling out His people to humble themselves before Him?

In the context of the above verse, God has been time to time sending judgment upon His people in the form of drought, locusts, or pestilence. But the people were ignoring his commands and doing what they thought was right in their own eyes. What God wanted to do for them was to show them his act of kindness, love and care through the instructions He was giving them. But instead, people were exhibiting pride and self-reliance.

It is challenging to experience God’s grace, goodness and favour when we exhibit pride through our words, attitude and actions. A person with a prideful heart will always resist others from showing them acts of kindness because he/she thinks that they know it better, that they are self-sufficient, wiser than others and capable of taking care of themselves without the help of others. Their pride always hinders others from approaching them in love.

Brothers & sisters, if we are not careful, there is always a tendency in our heart to display pride and resilience towards God and others. As a result, even when God wants to approach us with love, care, concern and show his favour, He is unable to do so. This is not because He is incapable of blessing us but because of the resistance in our heart displayed through pride and expressed in our words, actions and attitude.

If that’s how the condition of our heart is, then we will fail to experience the full measure of His grace and love towards us. Isn’t that’s why He calls us to first humble ourselves before Him?

And maybe even in this season of a pandemic outbreak, God is calling us to humble ourselves, pray and seek His face and turn from our wicked ways so that He can give a listening ear from heaven, forgive our sins and heal our land.

Lord, help us to humble ourselves before you and approach with a heart of total surrendering.

“Love one another; as I have loved you” – John 12:12

One of the things we desire the most in times like these is to be at peace with God. When we are at peace with God, the same transcends into every other aspect of our life, in our relationship with our spouse, our children, our extended family members, our spiritual family and other relationships. It helps deal with conflicts, mishaps, misunderstandings and all sorts of difficult circumstances.

To be at peace with God is to know that we have a right standing with Him. Most importantly, to feel His loving embrace and forgiving heart even when we make silly mistakes or get into big troubles.

Thankfully, when we sit down to pray, read and meditate on the scriptures, we realise that God’s loving-kindness towards us is bigger than what we thought and imagined. The extent of His great love blows our mind. We see how Jesus, while he walked on the earth hanging out with the twelve disciples whom he knew, had selfish motivations, were self-absorbed in their world, and that some of them would even betray Him. Yet, He invested in their lives, showed them his immeasurable love by carrying theirs and our sins on himself and suffering a brutal death on the cross for our sake.

Brothers & sisters, this is how we ought to be loving one another and all other people in this world whom we come in contact. They may be selfish and self-absorbed, have wrong motivations, some may even betray our trust, but our call is to show love and treat them in a manner in which we expect Jesus to show love and treat us. We might even have to endure pain for their sake, but that’s how we ought to love them in our heart. At times we may also have to distance ourselves and stay silent, but do it all in love.

Lord, help us to love one another just as you have loved us.

“… his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground…” – Luke 22:44

On the Mount of Olives, while Jesus was praying and asking His Heavenly Father if He would be willing to take the cup of suffering away from Him, the scripture says his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. The mental pressure arising from our Lord’s struggle with the temptation to give up burst opened his pores and sent forth great drops of blood which fell on the ground. Yet He did not give up on us, rather pleaded with His Father for His will to be done.

Brothers & sisters! This gives me great hope. Our Lord so dearly loves us that he endured such great pain and agony for the sake of our sin, rebellion & iniquities. This should give us great confidence that no matter what our circumstances look like, Jesus will never give up on His beloved children, even if we die today He promises a great future in heaven, we have a room for us in heaven. John 14:2 “In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?”

Our response in return should be 100% trust in Him and His saving grace for everything in this life and eternity. This should also give us the courage to withstand all sorts of temptations, endure the mental pressure to give in, but never give up. Instead, go to our heavenly Father for help and ask for His will to be done, no matter what the consequence may look like.

Lord, Thank you for not giving up on us and help us also to follow your example when faced with temptations of any kind.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23

Every day is painful, it comes with its share of pain and sorrow and no one is exempted. Often times we think money and fame can take away this pain, unfortunately, that’s not true either.

The reason for this pain is the brokenness within us, a broken relationship with the One who created us for His good pleasure. After creating this wonderful world, God created us in his image and likeness and gave us a free will to choose between right and wrong because He wanted us to willingly choose Him over our sinful desires.

Unfortunately, the pain we experience in our day to day life is because the first man and women God created made the wrong choice and thereby, fractured our relationship with our loving heavenly Father which had its repercussions like the punishment of death, not a physical one but spiritual death.

{repercussion: an unintended consequence of an event or action, especially an unwelcome one}

How else do you expect spiritually sick people to behave? Nasty, abusive, liars, crooks, selfish, thieves, rapists, adulterers, even eat unhealthy food for self-pleasure causing sickness and diseases in the human body.

Thankfully God himself came to our rescue by sending his only son, Jesus Christ to bear the punishment of our sinful choices and to die a terrible death that we deserved, once and for all – past, present & future. Those who repent and believe in Jesus’s life, death & resurrection are made spiritually alive, and even though our physical bodies will perish, our soul will enjoy eternity in heaven with our loving Father.

Yet though we are spiritually saved, as long as sinfulness in the heart of men exists, this brokenness will always rub on us. Hence, we need Christ more and more each day to cleanse, heal and revive our hearts.

Lord, we are thankful that you receive us in your Kingdom through your son Jesus, help us also to daily repent of our sins and trust in you as we walk through this broken world.

“Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” – Hebrews 11:1

When life looks uncertain – whether its a risk of losing a job, risk of losing a loved one, risk of suffering for the sake of the Gospel, risk of contracting a deadly disease, what we really need is a sense of strong connection with God, an anchor to hold on, and without it, we can easily crumble under pressure, fear, anxiety and depression.

Beloved, it is our strong faith in God that enables us to have this strong connection with heaven. Firstly, our Faith in Christ, him calling us out of sin and justifying us, him sanctifying us daily from our indwelling sins, his promise that he will take us with him to heaven. Secondly, in his providence and protection over us while we are on this earth, preserving our lives for the Glory of His name until he decides to take us away. 

Faith is the hope and strong assurance that even though when we can’t experience the blessing we always wanted, the healing we always longed for, the kind of job we dreamt about, the life partner we always yearned for with our naked eyes, we still live and breathe knowing that God will surely bring it to pass at the right time accordingly to His will, and if by any chance it is delayed or cancelled, having faith that He has something better planned for us. – It is this kind of Faith that honours Him and helps establish a strong relationship with Heaven.

Therefore, let us also have faith that soon everything will change, the threat of Coronavirus will be subdued and eliminated from this earth and we will live and breathe freely.

Lord, help us to activate our faith and never lose hope in difficult times.

“Jesus wept” – John 11:35

When Mary and Martha lost their brother Lazurus “Jesus wept”.

Death is inevitable, our life on earth is for a moment and before we understand it fully it can be taken away.

Recently, the death of a friend’s wife made me realise the futility of this life on earth. We plan and gather putting an endless amount of energy to achieve things and make life more comfortable; finding the best job with high pay, get married, have children, buy a house etc, to realise all efforts are vain and meaningless at the end of the day. In this broken world, sorrow is our constant companion.

Jesus came to this earth and lived as a human to identify with our sorrow. He understood the futility of our everyday labour by working as a carpenter, investing His time and efforts in making items of furniture that never lasted. Eventually, He laid down His life for the redemption of God’s chosen people on the command of His Heavenly Father. He experienced more pain than any of us, His Sorrow was greater than our sorrows, yet He endured it for our sake to earn for us a better life on the other side.

He knows what it means to be in sorrow and pain. In difficult times as these, He is our comfort, He is our anchor to which we hold on – through storms, in death, in sufferings, He is our Hope, the one who said “I will never leave you, nor forsake you” – take heart.

Lord, help us lean on you and find comfort in your loving arms.