FAITH CAPSULE: In asking, be exact when asking before God.

1 Samuel 1

When blind man Bartimaeus received information that Jesus was passing, he knew to cry out for his need. 
Luke 18:38-39 records, “And he cried out, saying, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Then those who went before warned him that he should be quiet; but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
To know to ask, not to know about asking. 
Bartimaeus asked for mercy with the assumption that Jesus knew his problem. 
Jesus knows all problems, but He wants all to know for asking what is needed.
Do you know how to ask, or do you only know about asking? 
Jesus wants all to know and ask. 
Luke 11:9 states, “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” 
Without a doubt, Jesus knows the needs of all but engages Him by asking for the demonstration of faith.
Bartimaeus made a noise of asking for mercy, and Jesus decided to remind him to ask, “Saying, what do you want Me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, that I may receive my sight.” (Luke 18:41) 
Making a noise without asking is not enough to gain the attention of God.
In asking, be specific and exact before God.
When are you going to start asking rather than making noise? 
Hannah could have died barren until she asked for a son from God instead of being quiet under the comfort of her husband. 
The husband of (Elkanah), Hannah, gave preferential treatment to make Hannah comfortable with her barren situation. 
However, on one miracle trip, she received her breakthrough when Peninnah (the second wife of Elkanah) provoked her. 
Hannah became provoked by Peninnah. “And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD and wept in anguish. Then she made a vow and said, “O LORD of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.” (1 Samuel 1:10-11)  
The bitter heart of Hannah urged her to ask for her needs before God.
All the while, Hannah was going to Shiloh with nothing to show off until she knew to ask, and her story changed from a barren woman to the mother of Samuel. 
Hannah testifies that she asked for Samuel from the Lord by the meaning of Samuel, “…Because I have asked for him from the LORD.”(1 Samuel 1:20)
Do you know how to ask, or do you only know about asking?
Bartimaeus and Hannah asked, and all should know to ask. 

Prayer for today: Ask God for your need, and also ask to be surrounded with songs of deliverance.

FAITH CAPSULE: Are you planning or does God do it? 

Matthew 25:1-13

God does the planning; we do the preparing. 
Seeking God is a plan of wanting to see God, but preparation is to seek God diligently to see Him.
The values you have to see God is the evidence rooted in your act and behavior.
In seeking God to find God, “What you do is what you believe; everything else is just religious talk.” 
The wise virgins value the invitation and adjust their behavior accordingly to be ready. 
They are women who have pure hearts, cultivate goodness, and guard their speech. 
They are righteous and have faith. 
In the parable, faithful waiting involves preparation and readiness, not planning and predicting.
The teaching encased ten virgins of Jesus points to being ignored by the world.
Are you preparing and ready?
Are you planning and predicting? 
Ten virgins waited.
Five virgins prepared.
Five virgins only had a plan.
Five virgins who got shut out represent irresponsible ones not prepared.
Preparation is calling upon God by seeking Him diligently.
Preparation is not seeking Him one way but having a relationship with God. 
Throughout the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus teaches people about living and growing in a relationship with God. 
Jesus stresses that being spiritually alive means not just knowing religious information or being with a denomination but doing what Jesus teaches regarding love for God and neighbor.
The biblical truth is this: God does the planning; we do the preparing.
Jeremiah 29:11 informs us what God says: For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord.
In Genesis 12, God told Abram to begin a journey and didn’t even tell him where he was going. 
Abram couldn’t plan the itinerary but prepared by telling his family, wrapping up business details, packing his tent, and setting out. 
The Exodus from Egypt is a story of prayer and preparation. 
God planned the Exodus, but no person could. 
No one would have written the story God did, and Moses didn’t get to see the whole plan ahead of time. 
The Israelites prepared by marking their doors, taking everything, they could carry, eating fast food, and waiting for the word to move out. 
John the Baptist preached: “Prepare the way of the Lord.” He didn’t say, “Plan the way of the Lord.”
Are you planning in the place of preparing before God?
Proverbs 19: 21 informs all: There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
It is the wisdom and character of one who lives by the word of God (believer) to prepare in the place of the plan. 
All are limited to planning the future, much of what happens, but to give to prepare in watching and praying.
The biblical approach to the future involves prayer and preparation more than prediction and planning.
Prayer for today: Ask that seeking God in preparation be meaningful and established in your way of life before Him. (Seeking God diligently)
Ask that the plan of God for your life shall stand all the days he has given you.

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. Know that 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.
Persistence 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: Encased in the word of God to escape.

John 1:1-38

Are you receiving the word of God to be living by the word of God?
Look into the word to secure your destiny in the word of God.
Encased in the word of God is what it takes to escape and not be a victim of the wickedness of this world. 
One that seeks will see and be able to capture a secured future in the word of God that can not break nor return to Him void.
How do you effectively engage the word? 
Begin to see in the word of God as looking into the mirror. 
Behold the word by constantly hearing and hearing with listening ability. Begin to see and receive the word of God. 
One cannot see in the word of God and doubt. 
What you see is what you receive, and it becomes of you.  
How you see yourself in the mirror before engaging your day determines how you carry yourself through the day in all endeavors. 
One who sees self as sick first thing in the morning will walk through the day as the sick one.
However, one that looks in the mirror of the word of God and says to self: 
“I am looking strong and good today” is set to rule the day with uncommon energy. 
Make the word your daily routine.
Study the word continually, not only when it is convenient. 
Allow the word of God to impact your perspective of life; allow the word to be your mirror to identify you for a breakthrough. 
Look into the mirror of the word for what you will adhere to adjust your life so that you may have great exploits in the life God has given you.
Daniel did a great exploit. Daniel 11:12 records, “Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.” 
Among the secrets that made Daniel a difference in his life to do great exploits was praying three times daily. 
It was testified in Daniel 6:10, “Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed, he went home. And in his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.” 
Daniel must have seen Himself in the mirror of the word in the Psalm of David that states, “As for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon I will pray, and cry aloud, and He shall hear my voice.” (Psalm 55:16-17) 
Look into the word to secure your destiny in the word of God. 

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled that your eyes see and receive the word of God in your image.

FAITH CAPSULE: The eyes of God are watching and none can hide from God.

1 Samuel 2

Character counts before God. 
Testimonies of God over the life of some men like Abraham, Job, and David are evidence that the eyes of God are watching over all.
The word states evidence of the eyes of God that sees:
“Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God.” (2 Chronicles 14:2) 
“For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth…” (2 Chronicles 16:9) 
“For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous…” (1 Peter 3:12) 
The whole world is not beyond God not to see or sport out every individual. 
God does not sleep nor slumber as He sees all. 
What are you doing that is hidden from all but open to the eyes of God? 
God testified about Abraham: “And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God.” (James 2:23) 
The Righteousness of Abraham was his action before God. 
The Bible states, “For the Lord is the God of knowledge; and by Him actions are weighed.” (1 Samuel 2:3)
How are you doing before the eyes of God?
God sees all.
God sees and testifies on behalf of Job, “Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still, he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him to destroy him without cause.” (Job 2:3) 
God testifying His creation as a man of integrity must have been the result of having walked the walk and having lived the word of God. 
Besides Abraham and Job, David was referred to as a man after the heart of God. (1 Samuel 13:14) 
The same God yesterday, today, and tomorrow will not ignore anyone who lives up to His expectations. 
God is not a partial God but a God that is particular in seeing His creation live in line with His word. 
How are you living as a picture in the eyes of God? 
Are you an acclaimed believer living life for God, to be seen for His glory? 
God is not deceive-able, as many are lying, deceiving, and manipulating others in the name of God. 
Many believers today have a church, with no Christ in their message, by their way of life.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous. 
In life, God does not ignore or look away from the righteous in times of challenges but attends to the challenges of the righteous.
Psalm 34:19 buttresses, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD delivers him out of them all.”
The eyes of God are watching, but no character can hide from God.

Prayer for today: Ask that you will always listen for His lead and instruction for His glory.