FAITH CAPSULE: Embrace praying and giving yourself to the Word of God.

Acts 12

Prayer is simply making a petition to God. 
Faith is belief with trust and hope in God. 
Faith is belief with trust and hope in God. 
Payer and faith compromise each other. 
Jesus demonstrated the need for prayer as the constant engagement and communication with God.
Faith is what pleases God.
Faith is the evidence of having faith.
Hebrews 11:6 confirms, “But without faith, it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
One with prayer constantly is the character of remembering God for what He has done or doing in the life of such.
Isaiah 43:26 records the word of God, “Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together; state your case, that you may be acquitted.” 
The word of God encourages all to approach Him in prayer. 
How is your prayer life? Are you a believer who always approaches God in prayer? 
Challenges of this world in the past and today will respond to prayer.
Harassment, mockery, manipulation, and deception are among the representatives of the evil one.  
Any agent that represents the evil one has the goal and agenda to steal, kill, and destroy. 
Any of these evil agents will always show up because they are looking for whom to devour. 
The agents have no limitation on whom to approach, but there is a limitation in operation where prayer prevails. 
Once, harassment was accessible to James, the brother of John, and Peter, the disciples of Jesus. It is written, “Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church. Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.” (Acts 12:1-2) Harassment, an agent of evil, struck in the church against one of the disciples of Jesus. 
Inside or outside of the church, there will always be harassment, and if anyone engages in prayer and the word of God, you will no doubt become an over-comer. 
The evil success in killing James prompted him to advance his mission towards Peter. Acts 12:3, “And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread. So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.” 
After the death of James, Peter became eminent to the disciples. 
Acts 12:5 records, “Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” }
Church woke up to prayer on behalf of Peter, and the agenda of the enemy ceased. 
In the journey of life, agents of evil demand the need for the church to be constantly awake and not wait till the evil one strikes. 
How is your prayer life? 
What about your prayer group? 
Embrace praying and giving yourself to the Word of God. 

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled with constant and consistent prayer.

FAITH CAPSULE: In Him, there is orderliness, and His order is to be in the order of His expectation. 

Matthew 4:12-25

The most important reason for the calling by God is the call to follow Him.
His calling is to make the called one a fisher of men. Jesus called all to follow Him. 
He did not call us to fold up on Him and be a container or assembly where clean fish are being renewed and transferred from one assembly to another. 
Fish caught is not to become consumed for sefl but to become cleansed and live for the glory of God.
When Jesus began His ministry, it was with a call for people to repent because the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. (Matthew 4:17) 
The book of Matthew 4:18-19 records, “And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’” 
The same calling that Jesus had placed upon the first, second, and third disciples is the same calling He is placing upon disciples today. 
Have you been called? 
Have you been following Him, or have you been folding upon Him? 
If one can give an account of how many fish one has been enabled by the grace of God to catch, then yes, such must have been following Him. However, if one cannot account for a single fish by His grace, such must have been folding up. 
The most important reason for His calling is to follow Him.
Following Him is to live for His glory. 
There is order in following Him.
God is a God of order. 
In Him, there is orderliness, and His order is to be in the order of His expectation. 
Once, Hezekiah, the King of Judah, was in order with the command of God. 
Later, he placed himself out of order and became sick and near to death. As a result, he consulted Isaiah. 
2 Kings 20:1 records, “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to Him, ‘Thus says the LORD: set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live’” 
The point here is that to be out of His calling is to be out of order. 
Also, to be out of order is living a waste of life.
The order of God is not limited to any particular area of life. 
Are you taking steps out of His order into the order of the wicked world?
It is never too late to turn back from the ways out of the ways of God.
Hezekiah saw a glimpse of death, but he turned it around when he returned to the order of God.

Prayer for today: Ask for the mercy of God not to live a life of waste.

FAITH CAPSULE: Distance from God is taking place not to meet the need. 

Psalm 150

Challenging needs is never above the power of God to meet needs.
With challenging needs, do not worry, avoid careless sleep, and keep seeking God.
Do not worry:
Jesus specifically warned against worrying in Matthew 6:25-27, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?” 
Are you with the burden of meeting challenging needs?
Are you worrying about not worshipping God?
Worrying will prompt one to question God wrongly instead of worshiping God.  
God is a good God to meet the need.
Avoid careless sleep:
One who is asleep will miscalculate the meeting of challenging needs.
Spiritually, to not sleep before God.
One that is asleep before God keeps self at a distance from God.
Psalm 13:3-4 mentions the danger of sleeping, “Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; enlighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him”; lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.” 
Are you sleeping spiritually or physically? Be awake before God and not become a victim of lack.
Keep seeking God: 
Are your challenging needs keeping you far from God or close to God? 
In your time of challenges, keep close and not far from God by seeking God. Matthew 6:33-34 encourages, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” 
Are you giving up on seeking God in your challenges? 
Seek God diligently.
Deuteronomy 4:29 records, “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.”  
Seeking God with all heart and soul keeps the focus on God regardless of challenging needs.
The Lost Son was far from God but discovered the need to return to God like the prodigal Son. 
Luke 15:17 states, “When the prodigal son came to himself…” 
The Lost son recognized his distance from his father to repent and return to his father.
Why don’t you rise and begin to cry for the mercy of God to draw you to Himself and not be a victim of wandering into the far from God?
To be far from God is a position to be missing of meeting needs before God. 

Prayer for today: Give thanks for what He has done, what He is doing, and what He will do.

FAITH CAPSULE: Seek God diligently in His way to find Him.

Isaiah 51

Living life is to seek God diligently.
Matthew 6:33 states, “…But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” 
In this wicked world, seek God by serving God to dwell and abide in God. 
Psalm 91:1-3 buttressed, “He who dwells in the secret place of the Highest Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” Surely, He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and the perilous pestilence.” 
Seek God diligently in His way to find Him. 
Serving God is living life for God.
Seek God diligently by following righteousness. 
Isaiah 51:1 states, “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, you who seek the Lord…” 
The world of wickedness demands giving oneself to the word of God. 
One who is not giving ear to hear will not gain an understanding of Him. Jeremiah 16:12 testified, “Each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart so that no one listens to Me.”
Seek God diligently by serving Him. 
Serving God is following Him with no hidden agenda because He knows all man. The word of God demands and declares what it means to follow Him. 
John 12:26, “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” 
Give self to seeking God diligently to find God. 
Believe and know that if it is not possible to seek God diligently to find Him, He would not have asked all to seek Him diligently. 
One that follows God cannot walk in darkness  John 8:12 records, “He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness but have the light of life.” 
God is true. 
Seek God diligently to find Him. 
David was a man like us and a sought-after God. 
1 Kings 14:8 testifies, “…My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes.” 
Is it your desire to seek God diligently, following His righteousness in His word? 
Unchanging changer God, yesterday, today, and forever once warned against not seeking to follow Him in 1 Kings 9:6-7, “But if you or your sons at all turn from following Me, and do not keep My commandments and My statutes which I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land which I have given them; and this house which I have consecrated for My name I will cast out of My sight. Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.” 
Think and search who or what you have set before your way of living life outside of living life, following God. 

Prayer for today:Ask God to move you to seek Him diligently in the life He has given you.

FAITH CAPSULE: Give yourself to the word of God to become mindful of God. 

Psalm 8

Be MINDFUL of God, living life by the word of God.
The word of God is God. (John 1:1) 
One full of God (Word) will be MINDFUL of God.
Are you MINDFUL of God or MINDFUL of the world?
How can one who is not of God, the creator, be mindful of a  neighbor or family? 
Psalm 8:4 records the question of David before God, “What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” God is mindful of man, while man is mindful of the world.
Give yourself to the word of God to be mindful of God, not to become a victim of this wicked world.
Jeremiah 12:1-2 identifies one with a mouthful of the word of God with empty of God in the mind, “Righteous are You, O Lord when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth But far from their mind.” 
One with a mindless place for God will be living life as a wicked one before God.
There is nothing that goes under heaven that God does not see. 
God sees and will judge all at His appointed time.
Genesis 6:5-7 records that God recognized the wickedness of all, “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
Are you mindful of God or mindful of the world?
Consider that it is time to come out of the world by giving yourself to the word of God.
Give oneself to the word of God to gain entrance into the reality of Christ.
Today, be responsible before God.
Responsibility is the price of greatness. It is for all to know the truth of God. 
John 8:32 records, “…And YOU shall know the truth, and the truth shall make YOU free.”  
It is the responsibility of all to study, search for His word, and know the truth of God.
Responsibility before God is not making the noise of the name of God without living for God.
Responsibility before God will not tell lies to deceive and manipulate others in the name of God. 
Responsibility is for one to become MINDFUL of God, living life by the word of God.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to become full of Him by His word.