FAITH CAPSULE: Shiloh is a ground to remain persistent.  

1 Samuel 1

Despite opposition, obstacles, discouragement, and mockery, you continue to have hope in God for your breakthrough. 
Despite the delay and abandonment from the loved ones, your trust does not waver. 
Does any of the above describe your situation? 
If yes, you are not alone but know God is with you. 
It seems so very long that you have been waiting with no answer. 
Know that as long as you remain persistent, you insist on the visitation of God by waiting.
God promised in Isaiah 64:4, “For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor has the eye seen any God besides You, who acts for the one who waits for Him.” 
A believer of the word should trust and hope that God acts for those waiting on Him.
Keep the testimony of Hannah, seek God, and you shall see His act manifested in your favor. 
Elkanah, Hannah, Peninnah, and her sons and daughters attended Shiloh yearly to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of hosts. 
Every year they went, nothing changed in the story of Hannah. 
She was barren and coming. 
Hannah does not complain or fight anyone despite no answer to her barren challenge.
Hannah was the neediest and probably the quietest. 
Hannah kept on going with her family with no excuse. 
She was barren but trusted God for intervention, and she was persistent. You may be wondering what happened in your case. 
Are you questioning God?
Remain trusting and hopeful, continually wait and patiently, the character of persistence.
Keep calling on God without doubt, and be consistent.
Know that delay is not denial.
God is a good God. 
He is a God of the eleventh hour to make a way where there is no way.
Persistency demonstrates that you have faith that pleases God.
God is not pleased when there is no faith. 
The situation with Hannah was that God had closed her womb. 
Elkanah gave his best to make up for Hannah.
1 Samuel 1:5 records, “…Hannah a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the LORD had closed her womb.” 
Elkanah cannot be in the place of God.
Persistency often provokes the hand of God to open a closed door. 
The Lord God remembered Hannah, “So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked for him from the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:20) 
The time of preparation is the process of time.
The Lord blessed Hannah more than she expected. 
Know today that God is God. 
Let nothing seal up your open door by confessing negatively.
Go the way of persistence and understanding that God can choose to open or close the door. 
He alone is God.

Prayer for today: Ask God not to withhold His tender mercy from you. 
Ask for His loving kindness to preserve you continually.   

FAITH CAPSULE: There is more to learn in the challenge of life.

Matthew 14:22-33

Challenges come; challenges go. 
Challenges come without a warning signal, and it is not always welcome. Challenges in the life journey are like a raging storm on the sea. 
Challenges can be painful, but in the end, they can become gainful through the learning experience they deliver. 
The disciple in the middle of the storm brings forth lessons on how to react in confronting challenges.
The Bible records how Jesus made His disciples go into the middle of the sea at evening hour and not go with them. 
While in the middle of the sea, waves tossed them, for the wind was contrary. (Matthew 14:24) 
Jesus must have known what to happen to the disciples before He sent them.
Despite the challenge at sea, Jesus made His way to the disciples by walking on the boisterous wind. 
Jesus demonstrated faith in the place of fear.  
Fear will sink you while faith will raise you. 
Faith and not fear is what everyone needs to confront every area of the storm that is raging in life.
Have faith by knowing that the one who walks on the storm is the one who speaks to calm the storm. 
Peter saw Jesus walking on water amid a storm that other disciples gripped in fear. 
Matthew 14:28, “And Peter answered Him and said, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to You on the water.’”  
Jesus responded to Peter, asking him to come. 
Peter attempted to walk as Jesus walked on the storm. 
He had been with the Lord long enough; he saw miracles all along the way; he knew that faith, not fear, brought forth miracles. 
Despite all that Peter knew about Jesus, he failed to walk the walk and would have drowned if not for the outstretched hand of the Lord. Matthew 14:30, “But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, ‘Lord, save me!’ 
As a believer, talking the word, quoting the word, and hearing and not doing as spoken is not enough to deliver. 
Living by the word of God is the only way to walk in every storm, just like Jesus did. 
Also, leaving the word out of walk does not lead to the expected end. 
Get into the word of God, and faith will get hold of you because the word of God is the source of faith. 
Let faith build you up. Romans 10:17 informs all, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” 
One can be hearing and hearing the word of God daily.
Read to study or listen to ministers God has placed in your life. 
Get into the word, living by the word to be out of the world. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to keep you away from every agent of faith failure. 

FAITH CAPSULE: Seek God with all your heart and soul, and you will find Him.

1 Samuel 3

What kind of believer are you?
What is the state of your heart in seeking and serving God?
The word of God describes Samuel, “So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. For the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” (1 Samuel 3: 19-21) 
The kind of one living for God is the state of his heart that describes Samuel.
He focused on God and the reason none of his words fell. 
God is not interested in how you run around or appear to your world on the ground of worship. 
The word of God points it in the pages of the Bible about how He is only interested in the state of hearts seeking and serving Him. 
Here are some Scriptural verses that buttress seeking God with all heart and not by look and appearance:  
Deuteronomy 4:29, “But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
1 Chronicles 28:9, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.”
2 Chronicles 15:12, “Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.”  
Psalm 119:2, “Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, who seek Him with the whole heart!” 
Jeremiah 29:13, “And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”
God is found able but desperate of wicked heart of all sets all far from God.
In your service unto God, are you running in the act without the heart for God? 
Know that the Lord is the God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. (1 Samuel 2:3) 
Brethren can mistake you (take you for what you are not); pastors can misrepresent you, but God is perfect to identify all. 
Are you one whose heart does not line up with God? 
Who is looking at your outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart?
Peace, joy, deliverance, victory, salvation, and breakthrough are among the blessings that identify with God. 
Let the character of God mark you as identity.
Seek God with all your heart and soul. 

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live fully in obedience to His word.

FAITH CAPSULE: God waits to act for those who wait on Him. 

Isaiah 64:1-5, Luke 18:1-8

God, in His goodness and mercy, has brought you this far.
Ignore how long you have been experiencing expectations, but wait patiently for God.
The jealous God that gives attention to those who wait on Him without doubt.
Waiting on God demands to be persistent in seeking Him prayerfully.
Jesus spoke of the parable of the persistent widow with expectation for justice from her adversary, from a judge who does not fear God.
The widow was persistent in getting the response of the unjust judge.
Jesus pointed out how all should always wait (pray) and not lose heart. He concluded the parable by letting all know that if the unjust judge could answer the persistent woman, “shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? I tell you that He will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:7-8) 
The lesson in the parable is that waiting to receive should be with persistence, the evidence of faith.   
As an acclaimed believer, is there any area of life where you are waiting and trusting God for a miracle? 
If not, there will be a time to wait on God. 
A persistent patience is what it takes to wait on God. 
It is one thing to know there is a need for patience in waiting, and another is to experience waiting on God for the manifestation of expectation. 
With needs waiting, trust God, and He will deliver; He is also the God of the eleventh hour. 
God will respond when there is no way out.
Waiting and getting the response of God is to glorify and elevate His Holy name at the top of your heart. 
God wants all to call and ask from Him because He waits to act for those who wait on Him, provoking His glory.
Isaiah 30:18 states, “Therefore the LORD will wait, that He may be gracious to you; and therefore He will be exalted, that He may have mercy on you. For the LORD is a God of justice; blessed are those who wait for Him.” 
What do you expect of a jealous God? 
The answer is to give Him unfailing attention.
He gets attention when He waits as a jealous God.
Wait, because where there is jealousy, there will be love. 
He is a loving God. 
Wait on Him, do not give up. 
Have patience for God to attend to your needs at the best possible hour. The Prophet Isaiah testifies that God acts for those who wait on Him. (Isaiah 64:4). 
Be patient in your waiting. 
He will not fail; He will act on your behalf. 

Prayer for today: Ask God to deposit in your life all that it takes for one to be patient and persistent in waiting on Him.

FAITH CAPSULE: Hearing God should be your makeup in your life journey. 

1 Samuel 3

What one hears in the morning will be the compass for the life journey of the day. 
Hearing a call from God is hearing the word of God. 
The voice of God is the sound of God.
His sound is His call.
In His call inhabits His word.
What you have heard in the word of God is His word that will carry you through your life journey. 
God called Samuel at a young age while he was lying down. 
At the initial stage, when God called Samuel, there was no understanding in place for him, but Eli helped Samuel not to miss hearing the calling of God. 
Have you been missing any calls because of a lack of understanding? 
To miss the calling of God denies revelation and access to engage the calling of God.
Samuel heard and received the calling of God in a time when the word of the Lord was rare and
had no widespread revelation. (1 Samuel 3:1) 
In the word of His calling, there is direction, deliverance, protection, and preservation of evidence of revelation. 
When one hears Him right, it will be well with such.
One should not fail to hear from him, avoiding to end wrongly. 
It is written, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint…” (Proverbs 29:18) 
The world is with challenges because the world is the evidence that the word of God (His revelation) is not spreading, not even widespread. 
When He is near, His word will flow, and man will engage restraints before carrying out evil agenda. 
There is a need to be hearing from Him daily. 
The Psalmist declares in Psalm 143:8,” Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning. For in You do I trust; cause me to know the way in which I should walk for I lift up my soul to You.” 
The Psalmist demonstrates that hearing Him in the morning will make a difference in every journey, even daily. 
When one begins to make provision to hear from Him first in the morning, trusting Him will be activated in daily endeavors, and what one hears in the morning will become a compass for the day. 
What one hears from Him first thing in the morning will show such the way to walk through the day, and it will become a weapon of deliverance and preservation from the enemy. 
No one has walked in the way of God and ended up as a failure. 
As a child of God, what are you hearing early in the day? 
In all that you hear, hear Him right, and that will experience the direction of God.
It is one thing to hear without understanding, but another will understand to gain from God.
Samuel heard and gained understanding when God called him. 

Prayer for today: Ask Him that understanding becomes your character hearing from God.