FAITH CAPSULE: Worshipping God is a sacrifice to honor God.

Daniel 6

Sacrifice is as to offer.
That is to give up as an offering to God.
David reacted by offering God a costly sacrifice (offering) to God for the deliverance of His people. 2 Samuel 24:24 records, “Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.” 
Abraham was willing to sacrifice even his son to God.
Sacrifice is costly, not cheap.
Worshiping is a sacrifice to God.
Worshiping God is giving honor to God. 
Honoring God is not in quoting the word of God but in living and behaving in the word of God. 
God does not move by just the words of mouth but by the actions behind His word of mouth. 
1 Samuel 2:3 records the character of God to actions before Him, “…For the LORD is the God of knowledge; and by Him, actions are weighed.” 
Worshiping God is an action that measures before God.
God is a faithful whose word does not return to Him void.
God confirmed the validity of His word when He spoke, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)
Know that honoring God counts before God. 
Through the pages of scripture, is learn and identify what it means to be honoring (be worshipping) God. 
Are you worshiping God from the heart to find God?
God responded to all that honored Him with honor beyond their imagination. 
Daniel and Joseph are examples that honored God through their action.
Daniel knew the gravity of denying other gods to honor his God.
Action of Daniel provoked his enemies when he went to his upper room with his windows open toward Jerusalem. 
Daniel knelt three times a day to pray and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since the early days. (Daniel 6:10) 
Daniel honored God, and God shut up the mouth of the lion not to hurt Daniel.   
Joseph had a good reason to despise God, but he honored God. 
Joseph was in a position to become the master of the house when the wife of his master persistently attempted to lie to him. 
Genesis 39:11-12 records, “But it happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand, fled, and ran outside.” 
Joseph dishonored the wife of his master to honor his God. 
Make honoring God your way of life like Joseph and Daniel.
God gives attention to those who honor Him.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live a life honoring God.

FAITH CAPSULE: The news of joy will only settle when there is a place for rejoicing.

Psalm 16

Living life for the glory of God is the key to retaining the presence of God. Living for the glory of God demands knowing and understanding God by His word. 
With desire, give yourself to studying the word and not skimming through the word. 
Apostle Paul repeatedly used the word rejoice in his speech because he knew the effectiveness of the word as a source of revelation to living life to the glory of God. 
It is indeed to get the revelation of rejoicing. 
The book of Philippians 4:4 states, “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!”
Rejoice can also be joy activated. 
Are you one that possesses reason to be in joy but remains dormant? 
For example, one that accepts Jesus as Lord and Savior will be the reason for having joy in the heart. 
The joy accepted is not written over the forehead of the one who gives self to Jesus. 
The only way joy can be evident in the life of one that accepts Jesus is joy activated by rejoicing. 
Again, the joy of not rejoicing is the same as one lacking to gain the presence of God.
For Mary to receive news of joy, the Angel Gabriel commanded Mary to rejoice. Luke 1:28, “And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 
The news of joy will only settle when there is a place for rejoicing.
Think of it: when the water tank is not in place, there will be no place to retain water for storage.
The above analogy is the same in that Angel Gabriel delivered favorable news of joy where there was a place for rejoicing.
Very importantly, joy and rejoicing maintain the presence of God.
Psalmist buttresses, “…In Your presence is fullness of joy…” (Psalm 16:11) 
“Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing, always before Him.” (Proverbs 8:30) 
God cannot be in a joyless environment. 
The revelation about joy and rejoicing maintains a believer in the presence of God.
The attributes of God are visible around anyone that chooses to acknowledge Him. 
Psalmist describes Him, “Good and upright is the Lord…” (Psalm 25:8) 
He is a good God that does no evil but good. 
With the understanding that He is a good God, living life should always be with rejoicing. 
Living life by rejoicing is trusting in God, knowing God does no evil but good.
Psalm 33:21 testifies, “For our heart shall rejoice in Him, because we have trusted in His holy name.” 
Without a doubt, there is no way to gain His presence without rejoicing.
Praising and thanking God magnifies God, the character of having the joy to rejoice before God.

Prayer for today: Ask to continually rejoice by praising God by magnifying Him with thanksgiving.

FAITH CAPSULE: The calling of God cannot progress without His word of direction.

Jeremiah 1, Acts 9:1-9

With direction, man will be guided and not respond like a headless chicken in the wrong direction.
Have you been called by God or called by man?
God is a God of order and will not call you without giving you direction.
Are you experiencing challenges in your calling? 
In life, challenges are unavoidable when there is a miss in hearing or following the direction of God. 
Among the called ones were Jeremiah and the apostle Paul. 
The calling of God over Jeremiah and Paul was not rooted in emotion or past evil agendas.
Is your calling self-acclaimed or rooted in emotion?
No vehicle can indeed progress in the journey without fuel and the calling of God with no word direction that will experience progress.
The obedience of Jeremiah and Paul to the word of God was the root of the direction to arrive at the calling of God.
When God called Jeremiah, emotion was not a hindrance, nor the age denied Jeremiah to answer God. Jeremiah 1:7-8 states, “…Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you…”  
The direction of God and the obedience of Jeremiah caused him to become established in the calling of God.
The calling of Paul was different from his background. 
He was on his way against the business of Jesus. and the bible records, “Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.” (Acts 9:1-2) 
When He called Paul, it was with the light of God. 
The light sought him out on his way to commit more crimes against the Lord. 
Paul could not hide (because of his past evil) to allow hindrance for his direction that was in place to the divine assignment. 
Paul did not miss out on direction but received direction by stating in Acts 22:10, “So I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise and go into Damascus and there you will be told all things which are appointed for you to do.’”
From where you are, it is not too late to ask and into the direction of God.
Do not allow emotion or past wicked agenda to hinder the calling of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to deliver you and not miss out on the direction to your divine assignment.

FAITH CAPSULE: Feed on the word of God to grow in the things of God.

John 15

The same word that brought forth creation is still the same that builds up those who receive, believe, and abide in the word of God. 
The word of God is Spirit that gives life. 
John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are life.” 
It is worth remembering that the same word that created everything is there to give more than one can imagine. 
One can know and memorize the word.
One can also know and memorize and meditate. 
One that does not know to memorize and meditate is empty and activates power in the word of God. 
Meditation will cause one to observe and do according to what the word of God requires one to do.
Meditation is communicating with God.
In relating with God, there is no substitute.
The word of God is power, and it can never deny itself nor fail, but one can fail by not abiding by the word of God.
The work (creation) of God is in the word of God. (John 1) 
The disciples once asked Jesus, “…What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” (John 6:28) 
Jesus responded, “…This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.” (John 6:29)
Again, being believed in the word of God cannot be compromised if one desires to become built by the word of God. 
Just as there is no substitute for food to eat and grow physically, there is no substitute for the word to grow spiritually. 
Jeremiah confirmed that the word is food when he testified, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart…” (Jeremiah 15: 16)
As a believer, how often do you feed on the word of God? 
In life, feeding on the word of God on Sunday alone shall amount to nothing. 
What is it that you are giving your ear? 
Bible admonishes, “Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, For the LORD has spoken.” (Jeremiah 13:15) 
Whatever man gives ear to will build man up. 
Also, what one receives will become such. 
God testifies Job as a man that there is none like him on earth, a blameless and upright man, and one who fears God and shuns evil. (Job 1:8) Despite the stand of Job before God, he testifies of himself, “I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.” (Job 41:5) Job points out that the hearing of the word should be the greatest priority and to live life with testimonies that God moves by His word.   

Prayer for today: Ask for the ear that hears the word of God.

FAITH CAPSULE: God is always looking for loyal ones.

2 Chronicles 14, 15, 16

Jealously will give respond to attention unfailingly.
God is a God of jealousy.
Exodus 20:5 records the word of God, “…for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God.”
An antidote for jealousy is attention.
One with loyalty to the things of God is giving attention to God.
Where is your loyalty to the only One, the only perfect Creator?
Are you rendering your loyalty to the One and only Creator or your possessions?
Power belongs to the One and only Creator. 
Revelation 7:12 states, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and power, and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
Are you loyal to your Creator? 
Are you faithful or faithless before God?
Every walk is before the One and only Creator, the eternal God.
One can deceive the world, but God cannot.
How is your walk, your testimony of loyalty to God?
Are you loyal to God?
One loyal to God is full of the word of God and is fearful of God.
King Asa of Judah was full of God (faithful and fearful of God) 
Asa was identified for his loyalty to God and did what was right in the eyes of God. 
Bible documents of Asa, “Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God, for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and the high places, and broke down the sacred pillars and cut down the wooden images.  
He commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to observe the law and the commandment.  
He also removed the high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.” (2 Chronicles 14:1-5) 
Asa sought God and was right before God.
God backed Asa up with His eyes in all areas of his life. 
Later in life, king Asa turned away from God and was identified as disloyal. The turning of Asa away from God made God withdraw His eyes from Asa.
Walking with steadfastness before God is the evidence of faith, the testimony of loyalty to God. 
The eyes of God are always on the loyal ones.
When Asa was loyal to God, the eyes of God were on him.
Psalm 34:15 and 1 Peter 3:12 mentions, “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry.”
It is important to note that, just as His eyes are on those who are right before Him, it is against those who are wrong before Him. 
Psalm 34:16, “The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”
God is always looking for loyal ones.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable your walk in loyal to His glory in all your life.