FAITH CAPSULE: One who does not follow is bound to miss the kingdom of God. 

Genesis 22

Living life by the word of God is the character of following God.
The word of God is God. (John 1:1)
The works of God are His word created.
The word of God is His command.
One who has the choice to work the work of God is described as one who believes in God.
Jesus was asked about what it means to work the works of God, and He responded as is recorded in John 6:28-29, “Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”
Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”
One who believes by the word of God lives by the word of God.
To live by the word of God, work the word of God.
Are living by the word of God, the character to work the word, and become living by the word of God.
Given self in submission to the word of God will follow God and will not miss the kingdom of God.
In the life journey, there is no exception for the rich or poor to walk with God and make it to the kingdom of God.
In the life journey, whoever goes against the command of God will not walk with God to make it to the kingdom of God. 
What are you holding on to and not giving yourself to the command of God?
Abraham is an example who does not hold back from following God.
He followed the command of God as he attempted to sacrifice his only son when God spoke to him. Genesis 22:12 records, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now, I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” 
Abraham fears God to follow the command of God. 
God testifies to the fear of Abraham for His name.
Whatever holds you back from giving yourself to the word of God will keep you from following God.
One who does not follow is bound to miss the kingdom of God. 
Are you with desires to make it to the kingdom of God, a life of eternity?
In your life journey, what is it that is holding you back from following God?
Is it your property or family that is holding you back from following God? 
Jesus identifies what it takes to follow Him when he says, “…you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:28-30)
From today, live life for God by following His command to make the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God that is not a fiction.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to live for His glory.

FAITH CAPSULE: Ignorance is a lack of knowledge that makes a believer destitute.

2 Samuel 6

When there is understanding, one will demonstrate a knowing edge.
A lack of knowledge and understanding is the state of being ignorant.
God knows all!
No pretender can escape the knowing of God.
God alone is the creator of all.
God sees heaven and earth, and no one can successfully hide from God.
Before God, there is no excuse for ignorance.
The lack of knowledge and understanding is engaging in a journey of self-destruction.
Hosea 4:6 records, “My people are destroyed, for lack of knowledge.”
Ignorance is a lack of knowledge that makes a believer destitute.
Among believers, doing right in the wrong way or doing wrong instead of doing right does not have an excuse before God, but prompts consequences.
The ignorant do not have a place before God.
Romans 10:3 states, “For they, being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.”
Set yourself before God:
Study to know God and not be an ignorant believer.
Always do right and know there is no excuse for ignorance before God.
Taking the doings of God for granted is unacceptable and constitutes ignorance.
Do not take God for granted.
Taking God for granted is disobedient to His word.
Abraham demonstrated not taking God for granted by obeying God.
The word of God speaks to Abraham, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now, I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.” (Genesis 22:12) 
Abraham obeyed God, not withholding from the word of God.
Answering Abraham to command is the character of seeking God diligently.
One who seeks God to find Him does not give an excuse for being ignorant.
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.” 
Abraham found God.
One who seeks God with all heart and soul is seeking God diligently.
Abraham could not take God for granted; he obeyed God and lived life for God by seeking God with all his heart and soul.
Are you taking God for granted?
The life of Uzzah is evidence of ignorance with no excuse for doing wrong in the place to do right before God.
Uzzah made a wrong choice in an attempt to save the ark from falling.
When returning the Ark of God to Jerusalem, Uzzah touched the Ark of God.
Uzzah was ignorant when he touched the Ark of God and lost his life.
The bible records that Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God, and God struck him there for his error, and he died there by the ark of God. (2 Samuel 6:6-8)
The ignorance of Uzzah led to his untimely death.
There is no excuse for not having experienced wrongdoing before.

Prayer for today: Ask not to become a victim of ignorance before God.

FAITH CAPSULE: He did not command what is impossible to obey. 

1 Corinthians 13

Without exception, all should love their neighbor as themselves.
One not loving by word or by action is evidence of the agent of evil.
Anyone without love is not with God, and at a distance from God.
Are you loving others as the word of God commands?
Paul the apostle states the importance of love in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.” 
The word of Apostle Paul identifies that demonstrating the gifts of God, such as speaking in tongues, prophesying, reaching out to the needy, and making oneself available when or where there is a need, but without having love, is empty, and nothing counts before God. 
To love is commanded by God.
Preaching love and not living by loving others is not complete before God.
Jesus meant what He said, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’”(Matthew 7:22-23) 
Are you obedient to self-selected but not to all of the commands of God?
It is possible to be deceived or lie in the presence of God, manipulating brethren, but God can see the heart of all.
The apostle Paul also describes what love is about, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”(1 Corinthians 13:4-7) 
The description of love, as Apostle Paul identifies, is that the world will turn around for the better.
To love as commanded by God must be in truth and deed.
To love is not impossible, but love as God expects from all.
God is a good God; He did not command what is impossible to obey. 
One who loves as commanded by God will count before God as one who fully obeys God, as Galatians 5:14 speaks to all, “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 
Always know for yourself if you love as commanded by God.

Prayer for today: Ask to be enabled to live a life of loving as obedience to the command of God, avoiding a life of waste.

FAITH CAPSULE: Giving oneself to prayer with understanding.

Matthew 25

Prayer is labor and is rooted in expectation for manifestation. 
Prayer is not a funfair or an engagement to impress, but a means to gain the attention of God.
Jesus demonstrates praying with labor as Luke 22:44 records, “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”
Prayer engagement is labor with earnestness, sweating profusely, the evidence of expectation that God will not ignore one.
Trust and know that God answers prayer.
Yes, no, or wait are the options of answers to prayer.
Ask God will enable you with the strength of prayer, so that you will not be a victim of evil occurrences.
Prayer is always the answer to challenges.
Are you giving yourself to prayer?
Giving to prayer demands consistency.
Giving oneself to prayer with understanding will unfailingly get an answer.
The word of Apostle Paul encourages stating, “but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” (Acts 6:4)
What is your prayer like during challenging or non-challenging times?
In times of challenge, are you giving yourself to praying or sleeping?
Matthew 25:1-3 documents the case of sleeping, “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. 3 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, 4 but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. 5 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept.
6 “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ 7 Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. 8 And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ 9 But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ 10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.
11 “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ 12 But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’
13 “Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.
The majority answered that believers are flooding in the name of God as they please, sleeping or awake. 
Also, they are equipped with things of God or not.
The ten virgins in the parable are composed of five who are well-equipped with lamps and oil, while the five foolish are without oil for lamps.
As the bridegroom delayed (but not to deny), all were slumbering and slept at the place of watching.
Which speaks to you? 

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you not to be shut out from missing His presence.

FAITH CAPSULE: Do not become faith failure, think about identifying what stops you from becoming humbled before God.

2 Chronicles 7

Being humble will enable one to run the race of life without becoming a vessel of faith failure.
One who knows God will be humble, not a vessel of faith failure. 
Are you humble?
God knows all.
God pays attention to how all conduct themselves in the life journey. 
James 4:10 testifies that God pays attention to humble ones, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” 
One who is humble is one with a meek spirit.
The Bible identifies the meek ones:
Psalm 37:11, “But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
Matthew 5:5, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “
God is consistent and committed to His promise as 2 Chronicles 7:14 records the promise of God for humble ones, “…if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
Are you humble and glaring by your way of life?
With the desire, give yourself to become humble, to claim the promises of God over the life of the humble one.
Be humble in this challenging trouble and not become a vessel of faith failure. 
Philippians 2:3-8 identifies several ways to be humble, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” 
The way to live life for the glory of God is to be humble.
Jesus, our Lord and Savior, humbled Himself and was obedient to the point of death on the cross. 
What stops you from becoming humbled and living life for the glory of God?
Numbers of people in the Bible were humbled to walk with God. 
Paul was humbled.
Moses was humbled, and Numbers 12:3 testifies, “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.” 
Make it your way of life to be humbled, keep your eyes on God, and not become a victim of faith failure in this challenging trouble of today.

Prayer for today: Ask God to enable you to become humble before Him.