Seek Him with all our heart

“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Jeremiah 29: 13

I spent quite some time this week asking God “Lord what do you want me to send in the verse for the day?” and I didn’t hear anything and I have actually been wondering why? And then today God brings to my remembrance what He wants me to type and I go “Oh yeah ! You did tell me this over the weekend” but I had forgotten ! Write it down SS Write it down !! J

Please read the this chapter when you get some time today.  The context of this verse is that people from Jerusalem have been taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. So now the people themselves are scared and worried and as a result of it are seeing dreams accordingly and there were those who were prophesying falsely. And this is what God tells Jeremiah to convey to the people. We read in verses 9 – 11 , “For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD. For thus says the LORD : After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”

 Ever been a situation where things were so tough and people around you had nothing but distressing things to say ? Remember this and be of good cheer ! Its doesn’t matter what the situation or circumstance is , it doesn’t matter what people think or say .. we know our life is in His hands. And who knows His thoughts better than Him ? And He says “For I know the thoughts that I think towards you”  In my head I picture this as God looking down at  us and saying “Shhhhh…don’t worry what people say…. Listen to me J “. Thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Isn’t that awesome ! If you have been having a rough week then say this with me , “It doesn’t matter if I know… I know He knows and that’s all I need to know” and lets Rejoice in Him ! J

Verses 12- 13 , “Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

Call upon Him , come step into His presence and  pray and He listens to every word we have to say patiently and lovingly. Our Father is so awesome. Now praying is one aspect of Him. There is another aspect of just seeking Him. Pursuing Him for who He is. And the more we seek Him , the more we will find Him when we seek Him with all our heart.

God Bless

His perspective

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.”

Luke 11 : 34

Ever watched a Disney classic cartoon before going to bed and ended up dreaming of castles and honey eating bears ? Or ever watched a cooking show and all of sudden become really hungry ? J

We read  that the our eye is the lamp of your body. When our eyes are healthy, our whole body also is full of light. The question today is what are we fueling ourselves with ? What are we feeding ourselves with ?

Its not just about what see on TV , or read in magazines…  but its also how we choose to see things and allow it to either strengthen us or break us. When someone passes by, what do we see ? Do we see fellow brother/sister in Christ who needs to know Jesus ? do we look in lust ? do we look in contempt and bitterness ? What are we seeing today ?

Colossians 3: 2 says, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.”. Basically we are to see things from His perspective. Things that matter and things that don’t. I know for me during the course of the day its so easy to get my heart and head wrapped around so many other things.  

Ever got stuck in traffic ? Ever had that ruin your mood ? J I remember this testimony that someone I know shared. She would pray for people around her as she stood in traffic.  What was she seeing differently ?

“The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore, when your eye is good, your whole body also is full of light.”

Ready to shine ?

God Bless

He never leaves us stranded in the middle

“So He said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”

Matthew 14: 29-30

We all know Peter took a pretty good step of faith and got out of the boat and walked on the water towards Christ.  Have you ever taken steps of faith when Christ said ‘Come” ? I’m sure we all have.. if you haven’t yet you should.. its awesome.

How many of us have had our faith become a little shaky when things start getting rough? I’m sure most of us all have at some point in time. I know I have. But here is the best part…  The moment we cry “Lord save me” there He is . We read in verses 31 – 32 , “Jesus immediately reached out His hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased”

Now remember Peter had walked away from the boat (no idea how far or near was that… we do know it was far enough that they screamed Ghost when they saw Jesus). We know Peter walked towards Jesus. Some translations have it as  Peter came to Jesus. But get this… the moment Peter said Lord save me and was beginning to sink here is what happened

·         Jesus immediately reached out his hand (He stretched his hand out… )

·         And took hold of him (whether Peter grabbed on to His hand or not, Jesus for sure took hold of him)

·         He teaches Peter that if he had faith , if he did not doubt the fact that he could not be overcome by the waves around him he would not have begun to sink

·         He doesn’t just pull him out and say “Ok now walk back on your own… Go Go”… He goes with Peter into the boat and guess what..the wind ceased

God will never leave you stranded in the middle…. When we are too scared to grab on, He will take hold of us. He loves us so much that through the storm He walks us through till the winds cease !! But remember if we have faith , we will overcome the storm.. He goes before us… we are just drawing near to Him !

God Bless

Therefore my heart rejoices :)

“The LORD is my strength and my shield, My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.”

Psalm 28: 7

Yesterday I found my self singing , “ I’ve got the joy joy joy down in my heart. Where? Down in my heart”. For those familiar with this song , you would identify it as a really old Sunday school song J

His joy is amazing ! The last couple of weeks I found myself going , “Oh nooo Its Monday” and the whole “Yaaaay its almost Friday”.  I was literally counting the days to every Friday every week. But then last week  this question struck me , “What’s the source of my joy?”. Now the answer to that was definitely simple – Its Jesus. But then why was I behaving like it was the day of the week driving my enthusiasm to look forward to a day ?

God is so good ! All I did was think “Lord you need to be my joy factor” and He did the rest. This week was as hectic as last , but it had something more.. It had Jesus as my source of joy. Now don’t get me wrong, I am blessed with a wonderful job, awesome church, God fearing friends and family. But this was different, my joy wasn’t going to be dependent on how things went at work, my joy wasn’t going to be dependent on people and most of all for me , my joy wasn’t going to be dependent on the day of the week. I wanted His joy to be my strength. And its been an awesome blessed week.

Ever feel like a baby cradled in the arms of the Father ? Yup, that our Jesus ! We are His children and His love is incomprehensible ! Living in His joy and His strength !

“The LORD is my strength and my shield, My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.”   Our lives were always meant to be different from those of the world… we have Jesus !

God Bless

Worship

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him”

John 4: 23

I was skimming through my phone the other day and came across this menu item called “World Clock” and it basically had this world map laid out and as you kept clicking it would take you to all the key cities across the world and tell you the current time in that city. It was kinda fun because as I kept my finger continuously pressed on the button, the screen just kept shifting from one end of the world to the other. Now when there are so many phone apps for so many different things, you could build a cool app which would auto say prayers and blessings for different countries across the world but it would not mean a thing.. Why ? Its not about having done something… Its about the heart from which it comes. And this is why you and I are so unique…because only we can lift up to heavens the prayers and worship to our God.

Now when we say worship a lot of us think “Ah songs !”. Some of us think its  something that we need to strive for in order to truly worship God…And that’s not true…

If you have the time please read the entire passage from John 4 : 1 . We read from the earlier verses of how Jesus asks a Samaritan woman for a drink of water. And the woman is shocked since Jews had no such dealings with Samaritans in those days. Christ goes on to have this wonderful conversation with her.  We read in John 4 : 13 -15 , “Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”” The woman takes the literal meaning of what Jesus is talking about and in all sincerity of heart says to Jesus to give her this water so that she will not have to come there to actually draw water. As they talk Jesus reveals details about the woman and she then says that she perceives that He is a prophet and goes on to say in John 4 : 20-21 , “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.”

The woman spoke of people having to go to a specific place to go and worship God which is what people in those days had to do… They had to go to the temple to worship God. But listen to what Christ is saying and we are in that time where we have within us a spring of water welling up to eternal life.  Verse 23 “But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” Worship is not something that is just done when we sing songs, or just go to church on a Sunday no no no its more than that…This is God’s heart , true worshippers will worship God in spirit and truth.  Its an everywhere every time possibility. While the dictionary of this world defines it as an act of reverence, its so way beyond that.  

God Bless

Fullness of time

“But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Galatians 4:4

All mother’s know the importance of the word “fullness”. Carrying their baby in their womb and knowing that God is at work preparing the baby and the baby is taking shape and form… there is a fullness of time to come and at that point yes, by His grace its time to hold that precious baby in your hands :)

For those of us who love cooking (or in my case like watching cooking shows ) you notice that for every preparation there is fullness of time. And it is different for different dishes. It might be the same ingredient, say for example an egg . But depending on the final dish, the very boiling of an egg is different. And some times that quarter boiled, half boiled or completely boiled egg is not even the final outcome. Its further used to drive some other ingredients into becoming this now newly transformed dish (sometimes you just cant even make out there was an egg). The chef knows what he/she is doing. They know the end result and they hence know the fullness of time. You definitely don’t want a messy quarter boiled egg when your end result is to have diced hard boiled eggs .

End result – We are now sons and daughters of the most High ! God knew when the fullness of time had come. He knew that was the moment in human history. And when it came, He sent forth Jesus. He was born under the law to redeem us who were under the law ! Wow isn’t that amazing !

Is there something that you are waiting on the Lord for ? Are you getting tired or weary of waiting ? Remember its while waiting that your strength is renewed ! (Isaiah 40:31) Be encouraged today that there is a preparation that’s going on… Be encouraged that when the fullness of the time comes , God will cause what He has planned to happen because He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last , the Beginning and the End.

God Bless You

May we be found grateful

“So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine?”
Luke 17 : 17

We read from verses 11- 19 that as Jesus passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee , He entered a certain village and there He saw ten men who were lepers. V13 , “And they lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!””

Verses 14-15 , “So when He saw them, He said to them, “Go, show yourselves to the priests” And so it was that as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God.”

Ever thought to yourself “Man those other nine were so ungrateful. They were healed and they didn’t bother to come and thank Jesus ?” I mean think about it. Being a leper meant you were unclean ! You were cast out . And here Jesus had just healed them. They were clean. They were no longer outcast. How could that not be reason enough just to run to Jesus and thank Him ?

Christ ransomed us by His blood. We were lost to sin. And now we are His own. If we woke up this morning and are alive , its by grace ! I pray we may run to God grateful that He has made us whole. That our identity is in Him and the reason we live is for His glory.

God Bless

Unmixed with any other matter

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God”

Matthew 5: 8

Last week as I had just finished reading a blog post that come to my email (I had subscribed to a blog to auto get updates) and after I finished reading it , God just laid it on my heart to send it to someone. And going by logic I knew (well at least I thought I knew : -) ) that the post had no connection to the person whom God was nudging me to send it. Normally I would have just sent it but then work came up and I got distracted and let that thought slip by. So the weekend came and the weekend went. And talking to some other friends I realized the significance of sending it. I am so amazed at the way God works. The way it was relevant to her just having it in her inbox itself was boom ! Well I finally ended up sending it to her saying “I was supposed to send it last week but I didn’t :( “

Sometimes when we think pure in heart, we only think “ok free from lust , free from sexual immorality , free from telling lies and jealousy”…

The dictionary defines pure as “unmixed with any other matter” which also means free from any thing that is not of God. So free from doubt, free from overthinking and extra reliance on logic after having heard from God , free from distractions of this world… a heart that’s unmixed with any other matter :)

Father I pray that we may have pure hearts. Hearts that just pursue You ! In Jesus name Amen.

God Bless

On Behalf

“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.”

Ezekiel 22: 30

When we read the entire chapter 22 we see the sins of the nation. We read of dishonor , sexual immorality, mistreatment, shedding of blood, priests not distinguishing between holy and unholy , prophets lying with false prophecies, wrongful oppression…. This was the state of the nation .

A lot of us might think “Yeah God punish this wicked nation so that they will know they cannot mess with You !!” . I mean they were totally lost in wickedness .

But this is the heart of God. He sought for a man who would
• Make a wall
• Stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land

The wall was a protection around the city. And its not an easy build. It has to be really strong to stand in the day of battle. In short a lot of work. So the question is while we know what’s wrong with our city, what’s wrong with our nation , what are we doing otherwise that will be like a wall to it ?

The next is stand in gap before Him on behalf of the land. So when we are saying on behalf , its not simply saying “Oh Lord please bless XYZ country”. Its us standing on behalf saying “Lord I stand here as XYZ Country and this is my prayer” … huge difference.

God’s heart is so merciful . His love is beyond comprehension. When God is searching will He find us ? Or will He find no one because we were too wrapped up with office, college, friends

God Bless

Are we willing to be Self - Less?

“And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma”

Ephesians 5: 2


We read in Luke 9: 23 , “Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”.

The cross is a place where every bit of self is put to death. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is our savior. Now He who could heal, raise people from the dead, call things into existence , He could have done anything. But yet He chose to be crucified for us , to redeem us, to seal our identity in Him , to set us free.

II Corinthians 5: 21, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” He redeemed us from the curse of the law.

We are now called to walk in love , to follow Him, to be imitators of Him. If we are to this , we need that every bit of self be crucified. Its not about things of this world, its about things of Him and His word. Its about walking in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Its about being renewed in both spirit and mind.

As we walk in the realization of the freedom we now have in Him, as we walk in the realization of His incomprehensible love, as we walk as sons/daughters of the most High, as we walk knowing He has conquered it all , will we also walk saying “Lord may You increase and I decrease” ? Will we choose to lay it all down and say “Its not about me” ? Will we walk in the realization that as citizens of heavens our priorities and focus is different ? Will we walk a life where we truly follow Him ?

“Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me”

Ephesians 5 : 1-2 . “ Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma”

God Bless