Carrier of Joyfulness

[S] Psalm 105:43-45 --
    ⁴³And He brought forth His people with joy,
         His chosen ones with a joyful shout.
    ⁴⁴He gave them also the lands of the nations,
         That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples' labor,
    ⁴⁵So that they might keep His statutes
         And observe His laws,
         Praise the LORD!

[O] This is describing the land of Canaan that God promised to bring Israelites into out of Egypt. They went through a lot (due to their fault) over 40 years of wondering in the wilderness and finally were brought into Canaan under the new leadership of Joshua.  The significant picture I get from verse 43 is the joyfulness.  Sure Canaan was special with fertile grounds, etc. but most importantly God brought forth joy in the people as they entered the land and they responded with joyful shout.  How joyful am I these days such that I'm shouting with JOY!  Until Jesus returns and takes me home to the final Canaan, I believe wherever I bring forth joyful shout is my Canaan on earth.

[A] Don't get bogged down too much with my chores but look up to God and receive the joyfulness He desires for me.  And respond with my own joyful shout.  Live my life displaying such a joyfulness.

[P] Dear God, no matter what I do please grant me to display Your joyfulness from inside out.  I know that's what you desire from me at all times not because of my "good" circumstances but because You are with me in all things I do.  I desire to be known as the carrier of Your Joy!  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Got Purpose?

[S] John 20:31 --
 ³¹but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

[O] The Book of John starts out with a bold statement of the Word is God and also became flesh (Jesus).  He also recorded many signs of Jesus from water turning into the finest wine and raising Lazarus from the tomb.  The book is filled with lots of exciting stories and a very personal perspective of all that went on with Jesus as one of the disciples closest to Him.  But in the end, John leaves this verse as the ultimate purpose of why he had recorded this book -- that we may believe in God and have life in His name.  Many times, when I'm so busy with activities in a project, I may forget the end goal and get lost in the details of the process along the way.  Same is true when I'm delve into the ministry at church where there are so many components to juggle and refine, I lost the ultimate focus of why I started it in the first place.  As John closes his book here, I, too, must remember and remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing.  Is it for the sake of people drawing closer to God and eventually enjoying the fullness of life in Him?

[A] Each morning when I wake up, recite myself the purpose of my living another day in the Lord's leadership.  Remind myself it is not to make a name for myself, or for greatest gain materially, but to be conduit of the Love and Life of Jesus to many others I come in contact with.  Remind myself every morning.

[P] Dear God, I want to live purpose-driven day.s every day.  Please lead me with Your Spirit such that I may synchronize my heart each morning by reciting my purpose for that day.  This way, when I have lived a whole year of 365 days, I would have lived a year with a clear purpose.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Is the Path to Jesus Familiar?

[S] John 18:3,6 --
 ³Judas then, having received the Roman cohort and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 
 ⁶So when He said to them, "I am He," they drew back and fell to the ground. 

[O] What caught my eyes in this familiar scene was the list of things the Roman cohort and officers brought with them to arrest Jesus: lanterns, torches and weapons.  We can see from verse 2 that they came to this location often to spend time with Jesus and they certainly did not need to bring lanterns, torches to get here and definitely did not need any weapons there.  However, the Roman soldiers who were not familiar with Jesus the "Light" and His whereabouts needed their own "light" to find Him.  How ironic it is to see these soldiers confronting Jesus, the one who came to deliver the love of God, as a criminal or an enemy filled with fear -- so fearful even at His saying "I am He" push them a few steps backwards and fall to the ground.  Depending on my own perspective, Jesus can be my friend and a loving teacher, or a fearful "monster."

[A] As much as I need not try to light my way with a flash light in broad daylight, I should not try to find my own way when Jesus the Light of this world is in my heart, desiring to guide my every step.  What this means for me is to surrender my own will every morning to navigate my day's journey but for Him to light the direction I need to go, not just in "big" decisions of the day also any and all small decisions I need to make each day.

[P] Dear Jesus, I want to trust in Your Light to guide me throughout the day.  May I live out the words of Paul: less of me so more of You will be revealed in/through my life.  In Your name I ask.  Amen.

Please Get Used To My Voice

[S] Jeremiah 11:14 --
 ¹⁴"Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not listen when they call to Me because of their disaster.

[O] What a scary concept of God not listening to my prayers especially when I call out in my distress.  In this context His people blatantly worshiped other idols and veered away from following God and that attributed to this result, however, if these people were like me most of them probably got into this point gradually by compromising their spiritual boundaries little bit at a time.  My reason for this thinking is that if they had totally turned away from God intentionally why would they even bother to call on God in their own disaster?  Deep inside they probably never gave up God but distracted by other idols that seem attractive on the surface.

[A] Just having a wishful thinking of wanting to draw closer to God and follow Him is not going to make me a true and faithful follower of God because more so than what I wish for, I how I align my daily living according to God's principles is what's going to please God's heart and He will answer prayers coming from such people.  The question is:  will I call on His name every day and fall at His feet instead of calling on many other gods when things are going well and call on God when things are not going well?  Practice calling His name daily!

[P] Dear God, I want to not only get to know Your voice daily but I also would like for You to get used to hearing my voice calling Your name.  Please hear my prayers every moment I call on Your name.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Deceptive Habitual Words

[S] Jeremiah 7:4 --
 ⁴"Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'

[O] This verse reminded me some of my prayers where I keep repeating things I want or want to believe -- e.g., bless You, Lord, bless You, Lord, ....  If I live a life that will bless God then shouldn't that be sufficient?  Doing some psychological analysis of my own brain, I tend to repeat in the areas that I have not been too victorious in or in-confident about.  So I ramble on hoping that would "claim" His support in those areas.  This passage labels that "deceptive words" and that seems to describe it perfectly.  Just because I try to claim it by repeating empty words, it doesn't mean I will have it in the end; in fact, the opposite will happen.

[A] Be careful of what I say in my prayer even though prayer is a casual and open conversation with God, I must articulate my thoughts to Him with accurate and sincere words.

[P] Dear Heavenly Father, continue to teach me how to pray such that what's at the core of my heart is spoken up to You in sincerity.  May I not repeat deceptive words just out of my (bad) habit.  I love You, and please teach me how to pray as the one in love with You.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

The Rejected Silver

[S] Jeremiah 6:30 --
    ³⁰They call them rejected silver,
         Because the LORD has rejected them.

[O] Whether silver is buried in mud or placed in a brightly lit display case, its value does not change as long as it is pure silver.  However, the silver that is rejected by God is worthless and in fact God will discard it all together.  There are so many "silver" that we hold on to in this world which God had rejected deceiving ourselves to believe we are holding on to valuable things because they look so good on the outside.  The lesson here is that I need to see (and believe) that the true values I should gather and cling on to is what God deems valuable no matter how good things may look in my own eyes.

[A] In order to have the same gauge as God on the values of things in and around my life, I need to first learn the standards of value system from God's instructional manual, the Bible.  Even if I do not understand everything, I need to soak them up into my mind such that God may use that knowledge to guide my gauging.  So keep up my daily Life Journaling of reading the volumes of Bible.

[P] Dear God, thank You for the Bible to teach me how to put right values on the things I treasure in this world.  I wouldn't want to hold on to any things You rejected just because they resemble things of true value.  Grant me the discernment to know which is Yours and which You rejected.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.

Guess Who's Working Real Hard?

[S] John 10:1 --
 ¹"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.

[O] This familiar passage about distinguishing the good from the false "hired" shepherd shed a new light for me today.  It is obvious for the good shepherd to work hard to keep his sheep protected and cared for, but wouldn't you know it that the false shepherd or the thieves work very hard also?  In order to climb up into the sheep pen, they not only have to physically do the climbing but also have to make sure they don't get caught.  This reminded me that our spiritual enemy works very hard also to lure us away from following God closely and so I should be complacent about following God because there is a force working real hard to distract me from doing just that.

[A] Don't take following God lightly.  It requires discipline and discernment to know the thieves working hard to steal my heart away from God.  So, take spiritual inventory frequently to make sure I'm not derailed from being God's pathway.

[P] Dear God, please allow me to see the enemy's schemes well in advance and not fall for its traps.  I want to not lose sight of my Good Shepherd's voice so I may stay close to Him.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.