Be a Worm

God has chosen to use human beings as his vessels through which to flow. Through the ages, each one of God’s choice men and women have had to deal with an area that has a tendency to rise up when any type of accomplishment is realized.

Sometimes, when a miracle occurs from your hand, in comes the army of inquisitive onlookers. They begin to interrogate everyone you know. “How did it happen? How he got it”. Everyone points to you whom God used. At that moment, you have the sole responsibility of deflecting any honour and glory off yourself and onto the one who is the rightful recipient of the praise – Jesus Christ.

Herod relished the praise of man. He sought the honor of man above the honor of God, which brought deadly results. The worms of pride and conceit began their destructive work the moment he ceased to give God the glory.

Never forget, God is the one who gave you breath. If you sing magnificently it is because he gave you the ability. If someone pays you a compliment on your physical attractiveness, remember that it was God who knit you together in your mother’s womb. If God uses you mightily in healings, remember that Jesus took the beatings. He was bruised; He was wounded; He was the one hurt for our healing.

Humble yourself with the knowledge that our great and mighty God chooses to let us participate in his plans and purposes. Be a worm.

Conditions

A condition is a provision upon which the carrying out of an agreement depends. Conditions of employment might be that you must have a degree or must not have a criminal record. If you qualify in meeting these requirements, there is a chance you could be employed by the company. Most every promise in the Bible exists with conditions. 

If you exercise and eat right, your body will last longer and work better. If you don’t drink alcohol, you won’t be arrested for drunk driving. If you bathe regularly and brush your teeth, you won’t cause people to avoid you. These are all results of conditions being met.

God’s promises are full of conditions. “If my people, which are called by my name , shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” – 2 Chronicles 7:14. Here are some conditions the Lord sets before us: I will allow you to find me, if you will search for me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13, 14); I will draw near to you if you draw near to me (James 4:8);; I will save your soul if you will call out to me (Romans 10:13)

If you want to see more on God’s conditional promises, read Deuteronomy 28. Throughout the Bible we find God saying, “I will if you will”. Be prepared to get something from God if you are willing to do something for him. If your choice.

Rejoice

Everyone wants to be happy. If you ask people around what their ambition in life is, most of them will say, they want to be happy. For that happiness, people are working hard, some going to the extent that they break laws. Always having to appear happy creates stress. Many people fake happiness than living reality. Not everyday scores a perfect 10. Some days are disasters. Let’s be honest about it. 

Happiness depends on happenings. Joy goes deeper. It is an attitude, a choice. It is your choice to rejoice. Joy is what makes life well, enjoyable. It is one of the fruits of Holy Spirit. Since it is the fruit, you need to have it to go ahead in your spiritual or earthly life.

“But the fruits of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” – Galatians 5:22

To have Joy in our life, you need to have Hope. For a believer in Christ, no situation is completely hopeless. The hope we have in Christ is the first reason we can rejoice, even in difficult situation. “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer” – Romans 12:12.

 

If you believe in Christ, you rejoice because you know God has a purpose in every situation. “We also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance” – Romans 5:3. Joy is learning to enjoy life in spite of problems. It is not the absence of suffering, but the presence of God in the midst of sufferings. 

The trials and sufferings have value. It is easier to handle sufferings when you know there is a purpose in it, that it is not in vain. No matter whether a problem is brought on by you, by other people, or by the devil, God allowed it. Grasping the fact that there is a purpose behind the problems is vitally important. Perseverance, character and hope are produced in us only when we choose the right attitude. 

You can rejoice in any circumstances because God is always with those who believe in him, no matter where you are or what you are facing. “We rejoice because of what God has done through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has now made us God’s friends” – Romans 5:11. Since God is with you, should thank him all circumstances, the attitude of gratitude. 

Two ways to overcoming the trials and tribulations, and achieve joy is to serve and share. Give your life to help others in the midst of problems also. Help someone to get out of their problems and rejoice in Christ. There is rejoicing in heaven when a person comes to faith in Christ. Commit your life to Christ and introduce others to him. Feel the joy in you which will override all your problems.

“When you pass through deep waters, I(God) will be with you; your troubles will not overwhelm you. When you pass through fire, you will not be burned; the hard trials that come will not hurt you” – Isaiah 43:2.

Mustard Seed

“The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches” – Mathew 13: 31, 32.

This is a parable which Christ told when talking about the Kingdom. The scope of this parable is to show, that the beginnings of the gospel would be small, but that its latter end would greatly increase. Most of the time, the growth of gospel will be very weak and small at first, like a grain of mustard seed, which is one of the least of all seeds. The Kingdom of the Messiah, started with Christ and the apostles, compared with the grandees of the world, appeared like a grain of mustard seed, the weak things of the world.

There are places where the gospel were preached by uneducated, unhealthy or untalented people and shook that place. Even though if a person is uneducated or good for nothing, when accepts Christ as his personal saviour and repent his sins, the faith will start growing and his character and personality will be moulded for a greater work. A grain of mustard seed is small, but however it is seed, and has in it a disposition to grow. Grace will be getting ground, shining more and more. Gracious habits as the fruits of Holy Spirit will grow and faith become more confirmed. “The path of the righteous is like the morning sun, shining ever brighter till the full light of day” – Proverbs 4:18.

When it is grown to some maturity, it becomes a tree, larger. With a simple faith when a man of God starts preaching the gospel, it will start growing and enlarge into other parts, which is like a tree. Grown Christians must covet to be useful to others, as the mustard seed when grown is to the birds; that those who dwell near or under their shadow may be the better for them.

“People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine – Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon” – Hosea 14: 7.

The question asked is who is going to be like the mustard seed? God wants anyone who is having a simple faith in Jesus Christ, to be the mustard seed. That’s why most places the uneducated, or people who are useless, take up the faith and are growing like a tree for Jesus Christ. God wants a humble disciple, not a proud one. Are you humble or proud?

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things – and the things that are not – to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him” – 1 Corinthians 1:27-29.

Israel

Abraham was a faithful man of God. He is known as the father of faith by Christians. How he was considered the father of faith, you can read in the Old Testament that he was an idol worshiper and when God called him, he left everything and followed God. Then God started giving him promises and commandments which he believed by faith and saw it fulfilled. First, when God blessed him, he will have descendants that will be like stars in heaven and Abraham accepted it, even though he was old and was not even having a single child. Even though he and his wife Sarah was not having the child baring capability since they were too old, he believed in God and as a result got a son Isaac through his wife Sarah. “And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore” – Hebrews 11: 11, 12.

 

Once he got a child, God called him and told to sacrifice his child, which he was prepared to do. He had faith in God that God will be the ultimate voice in the times of trouble and emptiness. He knew God can do anything, even raise his child from death after the sacrifice. God liked his faith. “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned. Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death” – Hebrews 11: 17-19

Isaac had two sons and the youngest of the twin, Jacob got the blessings from his father and had a run from his brother. He then encountered with God and God changed his name to Israel and through him the blessings which were told to his grandfather Abraham flowed to his children and the generations. The Israel is thus the descendants of Jacob, the grandson of Abraham. All the blessings which they have are being inherited by their great grandfather Abraham, because God was pleased with Abraham’s faith.

“And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” – Genesis 12:2,3.

God’s powerful words from this blessing are seen now almost 4000 years from the time of the blessing. If you take any invention which helped the world to achieve something, it came from a Jew, descendant of Abraham. Even though God withdrew his blessings from Israel and gave it to the all over the people who believe in Christ, the powerful word of God is still working. Those who are against Israel are cursed now also, and those who are with Israel are been blessed.

All these blessings came because of one man’s faith in God. Now it’s the time for renewing our faith in God and be like Abraham. Christ told, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you” – Luke 17:6

“Faith is assurance that the things promised in the future are true and that unseen things are real” – Hebrews 11:1