A TIME TO HIDE

READ: MATTHEW 2:12-15

God is the greatest planner. In His custom-made plan for your life, He has alloted time for every event that will take place. According to Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, there is a time for your birth as well as for your death. This is why I know that I shall not die before my time is up. In that plan, among other things, God has determined when you should lie low as well as when you should stand out. If you draw near to Him enough, obey Him and worship Him adequately, He will always guide you on what is next in His plan for you. This year the Lord will guide you specifically and order your steps into greatness.
In 1 Kings 18:1-2, after a three-year period of silence, God asked Elijah to go and show himself to king Ahab. Why did Elijah have to go into hiding? Was it because God could not protect him? No. There is a time to hide and a time to be exposed. Usually, before God exposes His servants, He would first lead them into a wilderness experience or a period of silence like John the Baptist (Luke 1:80). When God asks you to lie low, it is because He wants something He has planned to come to pass which your presence may interfere with.
In a dream, God warned the wise men not to return to Herod. Then He asked Joseph to escape with Jesus into Egypt. Does this mean God cannot protect His son? No. But because He had planned for Jesus to grow up in Egypt. After the death of Herod when Joseph was asked to return, he was led to stop over at Nazareth for a few years before returning to Bethlehem. Why? It was because God planned that He would be a Nazarene. Today, we call Him Jesus of Nazareth. Do you know that nothing happens to God’s children by mistake?
As long as you are in God’s perfect will, whatever happens to you is in accordance with His plan for your life. Jesus allowed Himself to be killed. For three days, He laid low. Just when the enemies were beginning to celebrate His death, God suddenly showed up and they received their greatest disgrace. There is a time to hide. A Christian who is exposed when he should be hidden, would be a victim of satanic forces. Have you been lying low? Have you been in hidding? Your moment of glory has come. Your time of victory, prosperity, frutifulness has come and there is nothing Satan can do about it. Arise and possess your victory.

MEMORIZE: PROVERBS 2:8 –He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of His saints.

ENVIOUS?

READ: PSALM 37:1-2

One sin that has frequently led Christians into trouble is envy. Envy is a feeling of dissatisfaction or discontent with oneself because of somebody else’s good fortune or success. Envy is sin because it is a mark of absence of love. According to 1 Corinthians 13:4, it is impossible to envy someone you truly love. Charity is active love. If you do not have love, it follows that you are not a child of God whos other name is Love. Have the progress of others around you provoked you to envy? Have you been seriously craving to have what your colleagues have? Watch it lest you are led into a trap.
According to today’s reading we are warned never to envy sinners. No matter how financially, materially, intellectually or socially successful they may be, evil doers are not to be envied. They are being fattened for the slaughter slab (Psalm 73:1-19). Those who envy them may end up abruptly like them. Proverbs 3:31-33 tells us God has placed a curse on the house of sinners. The presence of God’s curse or blessing in a man’s life is what determines his fate. According to Numbers 23:23, nobody can curse the one God has blessed. It also follows that nobody can bless the one God has cursed. That does not stop people from verbalising their blessing on the cursed. It also does not mean that they cannot amass wealth and other material blessings. It simply means that any blessing that comes to their house is automatically cursed.
Some believers regularly envy fellow believers who appear to be making more progress. This is wrong. This does not mean that you cannot admire good things in your brother’s life. But to wish that the promotion your brother just received come to you instead is envy. Envy is a type of robbery. When present in a man, before long the person will take steps towards either stealing the object of envy or destroying it, so that neither he nor the true owner benefits from it. Envy is destructive. Why are you envying your brother? Whatever he has, God can give you even more. Are your colleagues enjoying certain opportunities you do not have access to? Do not envy them. Your own will come. Wait on God for your time. Rejoice with others over their progress. Yours will come soon.

MEMORIZE : PROVERBS 3 :31 –Envy you not the oppressor and choose none of his ways.

WATCH THAT ROBBER

READ: 1 KINGS 17:17-24

The son of the widow of Zarephath took ill one day. We are not told whether they prayed. His state of health deteriorated until he died. Thereafter, his mother accused Elijah of bringing her sin into remembrance. Although the sin is not mentioned, we know there was something she had done wrong sometime ago which she thought was responsible for the loss of her only son.
“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
When you toy with sin, you are eventually toying with poision. Sin not only makes you sick, it also kills and destroys. Many people think that because they are clever they can sin and get away with it. Some people even think it is okay to sin as long as you don’t get caught. But Proverbs 11:21 says no sinner can escape punishment. True, nobody saw you. But God did. True, nobody can produce the proof or evidence of your evil. But Heaven has the evidence. You can lock everyone else out of the room but you cannot lock out the omnipresent God. He is everywhere.
Sin is a robber. It is worse than the physical armed robbers people dread. Why? It can rob you of material, financial, and intellectual blessings. It can also rob you of spiritual blessings. Worse still, it can rob you of eternal blessings. But people do not fear sin because it comes as a pleasurable thing. It comes looking harmless, nice and promising. But by the time it is done, it shows its true colours. Sin robbed the widow of Zarephath of her only son. Thank God for His intervention. Sin robbed Adam and Eve of the Garden of Eden. Sin has robbed many believers of their promised land. And it is still robbing millions of eternity in Heaven. What has sin robbed you of? Our God is a Restorer. If only you can humble yourself and make your ways right before Him, He will restore what sin has stolen. Any blessing God has given to you, be it spiritual, material, financial or intellectual, is the target of sin. The reason your flesh is driving you hard into sin is to make you lose the blessings. If you co-operate with the flesh, your blessings will go. It is an irony that Christians have turned their greatest enemy into a toy; are you one of them?

MEMORIZE: ROMANS 6:23 –For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ.

OUR SURE DELIVERER

READ: PSALM 124:6-8

“Surely, He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence” (Psalm 91:3). Our God is a mighty Deliverer. In the above passage, He gives us the assurance that we shall be delivered. When God says ‘surely’, it means you do not have to doubt or worry anymore because His word is forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89). Once He has spoken, the case is closed. When He says, ‘surely, it will be well with you,’ nobody can change it. Steadfastly hold on to whatever he has assured you of in His word.
As long as you dwell in the secret place of the Most High, and abide under the shadow of the Almighty, surely, all shall be well. It does not matter how hard the devil is pushing against you presently. It also does not matter what people say or think about you; it shall be well with you. Surely, you will succeed. Surely, you shall not die, no matter how close you are to death. The fowler is Satan. He is the hidden enemy who uses snares and baits to lure unsuspecting believers into his traps. 1 Timothy 6:9 says Satan can use wealth to lure you into his trap of destruction. Those who will be easily preyed upon include the careless, prayerless and all who cannot wait to enter their promised land in God’s time. There is an appointed time for your elevation. There is a time for you to have the answer to that persistent need. Your time will surely come. Your time of fruitfulness shall not pass you by. Wait patiently for it. If you cannot wait, you may fall victim of Satan’s traps. Be careful.
anyone taken in Satan’s traps is first overwhelmed with fear. When he attempts to escape, he will discover he cannot easily do so. Then feelings of helplessness, hopelessness and sorrow begin to set in. May you never fall into the trap of the devil. If you are already taken in one of his several traps, there is good news for you. Our mighty Deliverer will deliver you. Repent of the sin that led you into the trap and expose it to someone who can guide you spiritually. Shun all evil opportunities and satanic options. Have you become pregnant after falling into fornication? Go ahead and have the baby. Abortion is a worse pit. Abondonment of baby at a dump site is a greater evil. If you truly repent and keep the child, God will deliver you. He will make a way for you.

MEMORIZE: PSALM 91:3 –Surely, He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

REPERCUSSIONS OF LIES

READ: REVELATION 21:22-27

“Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same” (Job 4:8).
This world is like a very large farm and everyone in it is a farmer. Everything you think of, do or say are seeds for the farm. The seeds may be good or bad. Once you do something, it means you have sown a seed. Automatically, the laws of harvest begin to operate. That seed dies in the ground and begins to bud and grow up as a plant. This plant over time becomes a tree which is firmly rooted to the ground. At a point it begins to bear several fruits, in twos, hundreds or thousands of what was sown. The farmer who planted the seed begins to harvest the fruit of his labour. If it was a good seed, he will reap lots of joy and celebration. But if it was a bad seed, he will have lots of sorrow and anguish. What are you sowing today?
The first repercussion of lies follows the law of harvest. If you tell lies to cheat your boss, for instance, someday, you will be a victim of great loss due to several lies that those under you will contrive. Another result of lies is that there is punishement awaiting every liar (Proverbs 19:5).
Whatever is built on falsehood is built on the sand. Sooner or later, that house will crumble and lead to great loss, shame, disgrace. Proverbs 12:22 says that God hates liars with a passion. Infact, according to Psalm 101:7, He does not want to see them at all. Every liar is fathered by Satan (John 8:44). Each lie leaves a space for you in hell. After booking your eternal reservation in hell, how do you think you can ever make it to heaven? Today’s reading as well as Revelation 21:8 clearly teach that no liar will enter heaven. Heaven is serious business. If you think lies are little, harmless, and do not matter before God, Ananias and Sapphira will tell you they ended their Christian race in hell because of lies. Do something about it today!

MEMORIZE: JOB 4:8 –Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.