Why Me?

My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. (James 1:2-3)

• Some trials are highly related. We may experience multiple trials at the same time, or a string of trials one after another.


• Having a life crisis is a very challenging and a complicated time. But our God is sovereign. He is still in control. He will still care, protect, and bless us, no matter how bad we have been.


• Tribulation is used by God to shape and change us. The testing of our faith produces patience and perseverance. We will have more staying power and the ability to endure.


• We are called to be joyful when we fall into various trials. The trial of our faith causes genuine faith to be strengthened! We are refined by fire and becoming more like Christ.

God's Way

But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. (Romans 7:6)

• When God is at work in our lives, He makes great changes in us.


• Throughout the OT, God told His people to expect major changes between Him and them.


• When God sent Jesus, the Jews felt that their way to God was being destroyed. But Jesus wasn’t destroying anything. He was completing it. The old way paved with laws became a new way paved with the sacrificial love of Jesus.


• And God is still at work replacing old ways of sin and legalism with the way of love that Jesus completed. When He removes our old ways of thinking and behaving, it may feel as if everything familiar is being destroyed. But God is not destroying anything; He is building a better way. And we can be confident that the end result will be smoother relationships with others and a closer relationship with God.


• Upheaval often precedes spiritual progress. We must expect subtle changes in our body, mind, intellect, ego, and in all spheres of life. Spiritual progress is treating people and problems God's way more than our way. If we are to be saved, we must change, and we must do it God’s way.

Remember the Giver

Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today. (Deuteronomy 8:11)

• One of the dangers of owning a lot of stuff is that it can lead to spiritual loss. The more we have and the more we feel we have all we need, the more prone we are to forget our need and desire for God.


• Yet everything we have comes ultimately from God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Sadly, our enjoyment of God’s provisions might just mean that we end up loving the gift and forgetting the Giver.


• This is why, when God was getting ready to give His people a life full of bounty in the Promised Land of good and plenty, He warned, “Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God”.


• If God has allowed us to enjoy material abundance, we are to remind ourselves where it came from. All of us, whether rich or poor in world’s goods, have much to be thankful for.


• Let us heed the warning not to forget the Lord and praise Him for His abundant goodness. Let us love the Giver more than the gifts.

Your Mission Field

Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. (Acts 8:35)

• God saves us one by one. If you have access to one, then that is your mission field. Every soul with Christ is a missionary, and every soul without Christ is a mission field. And a missionary will always be in the mission field speaking the truth of the Gospel in love to others. He wants to share his experience of Christ, his faithfulness to Christ, and how he was used by God to touch and change the lives of many.


• One person cannot reach the entire world. No missionary can go out to the whole mission field and speak to everyone. But we can speak to our neighbor. But who is my neighbor? It is the next person we meet along the way.


• The Spirit brought Philip to the Ethiopian eunuch who was reading the Scriptures and needed someone to explain them to him. The Spirit gave Philip the right words to say, and the eunuch confessed his faith in Christ. God opens doors of opportunity when we allow his call to challenge our plans in life.


• Ask God to bring you to the one He has prepared. He will get you to the right place at the right time to speak to that individual. He will speak through your lips, work through your hands, and fulfill in you the great purpose of His will.


• Oh Father, we have been called to witness; we have been called to speak of Your dear Son. Oh Holy Spirit, grant us discernment, and lead us to some seeking soul.


• To be successful in God’s kingdom is to be faithful where He has placed you as a missionary in your mission field.

The Holy Spirit

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)

• Jesus was going away. He told His disciples very soon He would not be with them. He would be arrested, betrayed, condemned and crucified. Jesus was going away to die, be raised to life and ascend back to the Father.


• But the disciples were not to worry. Jesus would not leave His disciples alone. His Father would send them the Holy Spirit in His name to live in them and to be with them. The Holy Spirit would be a successor of Jesus in His teaching of the disciples. The Holy Spirit, the Comforter, Teacher, and Helper would minister to the disciples when Jesus left. He would teach them all things from the Word. He would give them the complete understanding of God’s Word.


• The Holy Spirit would only teach what Jesus taught. Jesus had brought the fullness of revelation. He had given us all we need to know. The Holy Spirit would continue to bring to mind the things about Christ.


• As we open the Bible to read or study, the Spirit of Truth is with us to guide us into all truth. On our own we are blind, but through the guidance of God’s Holy Spirit we can see.


• We thank you Holy Spirit, because you are dwelling in our hearts and transforming us into the likeness of Jesus.

In The Love of God

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. (Jude 1:21)

• On cold days, we often find places to keep us warm.
  
  
• In our quest for holiness, we must keep ourselves in the love of God.
  
  
• We must think about God’s love. We must find ways to enjoy His radiance and warmth all day long.
  
  
• Let us dwell on the thoughts that God always love us.
  
  
• We are God’s beloved; we are God’s children.
  
  
• God loved us even before we were born. And He loved us now!
  
  
• Romans 8:39 made it clear that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God.
  
  
• The apostle John often described himself as the disciple Jesus loved. We must do the same! We are the disciple Jesus loves! This should be our theme all day long!
  
  
• Let us keep ourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. 

Preach Christ

For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. (2 Corinthians 4:5)

• The apostle Paul spread the gospel to distant regions of the world.

• He extended himself as a servant to meet the needs of others (2 Cor. 11:16-29).

• He wrote this about serving: “We do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake”.

• Not all of us are called to endure hardship to spread the gospel in distant lands.

• But each of us is responsible as a servant of God to share Christ with people in our sphere of influence.

• It is our privilege to help our neighbors, friends, and relatives.

• Let us ask God for openings to serve and to talk about Jesus who gave Himself for us.

• We serve God by sharing His Word with others.