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To love God….
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Deepest work of God
The meaning of the word Jabez is, ‘because I bore him in pain’. This name was given to him by his beloved mother. A mother usually tries to give the best to the fruit of her womb. As a mother myself, I am unable to figure out why a mother would name a son in such a way. Probably she had a difficult labor and hence the name. Despite the pain incurred by his mother, Jabez was connected to his Heavenly Father. Knowing his condition, Jabez prayed the following prayer:
Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked. 1 Chronicles 4:10 ESV
Let us see what God has to teach us through this prayer.
Beseech blessing:
Jabez orphaned by his mother was looking for a stronghold to lean against. He knew God to be his eternal safe haven. He pleaded God to bless him. Jabez implored God to shower His abundance on his life.
Pleaded presence:
Jabez asked for God to be with him. He perceived God to be his everlasting helper. Jabez exhorted for the presence of God be with him. Then, Jabez begged God to keep away corruption and immorality. He knew God alone can fireproof his life form the scorching heat of perversion. Jabez petition God to be his shield that protects against sin. Later, Jabez supplicated to God for aversion of pain. He realised that God is the only one who can change his painful nature. Jabez sincerely adjusted God to insulate his life from agony and suffering.
Are you an outcast? Are you rejected by your every own family?
You are not alone, there are few other like you. Infact, Jabez was also an outcast. He was rejected by his very own mother. What I would like you to notice is his response to this rejection. He has all the reason to feel let down and depressed but he even allowed the depression to dewore him. He surfed through the sea of misery and surfaced to reach out for God’s blessings through this prayer.
Jabez was wise to opt for God’s blessings which would be choicest and most appropriate for our life. Like him we need to ask God to bless us, though God knows our needs we are expected to ask in His name. Because when we ask in the name of God for His glory, He is sure to grant our request.
Jabez asked for the presence of God. During the Old Testament time, when the Holy Spirit was not granted God’s presence was the term to denote the availability of God at a place. Similarly, now we can ask for the Spirit of God to be with us. When the presence of God is with us, I am sure we will live a holy life without pain.
After the answering of this prayer, the pain inflicting nature of Jabez was changed for the better infact the best. So if your life is painful you can pray this prayer asking for the blessings of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Or if you are a source of pain to others and hence neglected, you can pray this prayer asking God to change this situation.
When we see the life of Jabez, we read:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 ESV
We see that Jabez was honourable than the others in his family. His painful birthday was changed into a blessed adulthood. This same God is here today. He can change your life as well. Only if you will pray this prayer, God can turnover the pain and fill you with blessings. Pray to God and be a blessing.
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Spirit led life
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Do you love me?
A little while before the death of Christ, He was looking for a verbal confirmation from Peter about his love for God. Jesus repeated this question thrice and the proceedings were like,
He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.
John 21:17 ESV
Peter admitted his weakness and submitted to God’s control. Peter acknowledged that God knows everything. What will be our response if God were to ask this question to you? Put your name before this question and ask yourself, Do you love God? Will you be able to prove your love?
Unlike Peter’s time, a verbal confirmation of love is not possible now. So God is looking for a behavioural confirmation of your love for Him. The way to prove your love for God is,
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15 ESV
To keep God’s command is to diligently follow God’s heart. To love God is to align with the musing of God’s mind. To love God is to set you heart, soul and mind on God to lead a spiritual life. Christ equates love to obedience. Previously in the Old Testament times, the keeping of commandments was linked to the fear of God. After the death of Christ, we are brought closer to Him and our relationship is driven by love rather than fear.
Express you love by living in accordance to the will of God.
God’s commands are revealed to us through His word. God guides us in His eternal ways when we meditate on His word regularly. God has given the Holy Spirit as an always available helper to rudder us through this journey. If you love God you will walk by the Spirit. Your love for God will be expressed by the life that you live for His glory.
To conclude, the best way to respond to this Do you love me? question posed by God, is to live a spirit-led, God-centered, eternity-focused, holy life for the glory of God.
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Is your heart in safe hands?
Amidst this cupid surge with all the possible ways to express love to impress your loved one, the safety of your heart is a question. Can a manly human or a pretty being safeguard your heart? No. Unhealthy relationships cause pain and bleed agony. This blog is specially packaged for people who are hurdling over broken and hurtful relationships. However everyone can use this as a reminder or warning call to keep their heart safe.
Are you feeling betrayed because the love that was once blissful, turned bitter? God is the eternal valentine. He calls you by name and claims, “You are mine” (Isaiah 43:1) Never look back at the betrayed inflicted by a human on your beautiful soul. God says, “You are mine”, fall into God’s able hands to get over the bitterness and He will make your life blissful again.
Are you feeling rejected because the love that was once bubbling, died our? God, the eternal valentine rejoices in you. (Isaiah 62:5b) Get over the feeling of rejection and count on this valentine who refreshes and instills joy.
Are you feeling cheated because the love that was once sweet, turned sour? God has betrothed you in His righteousness. Brush aside the pain of being cheated upon, trust in God your eternal valentine who will give you a life filled with His everlasting kindness.
Betrayal, rejection, cheating, breakups, mishaps, pain, moving away, separation, parting, ditching, dumping, disowning, avoidance, ignoring etc are all possible when your valentine is human. However, our eternal counterpart disproves all of this. The eternal valentine evidently surpass human comparison and shoot beyond our temporal expectations.
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
John 15:13 NIV
To lay down one’s own the life is considered to be the greatest act. Christ was sent as a ransom for your sins. The eternal valentine earned your redemption at the cost of His life by shedding His precious blood at the cross. The gift that He purchased at Calvary displays His love for you. He has saved you from wrath and has gifted you salvation.
This life on earth after your salvation experience is a courtship period, wherein you prepare yourself for your life ahead. You need to safeguard this salvation throughout our life. When your eternal valentine returns He would take you with Him to His father’s house in heaven.
Your eternal valentine is sure to keep your heart safe and sound all through eternity. Trust Him. I don’t say withdraw from all humanly relationships. My point is keep your heart safe with your eternal valentine and deal with every human relationship. When you heart is so buried in God assaults from the devil in the form of relationship crisis will never affect you. When you are lost in the love of Christ and the love for Christ, little will you be bothered about mortal emotional stimuli. Even when you respond, you would do it with love of Christ.
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‘BUMP’ – A tip for bloggers
You would frequently come across the term ‘BUMP’ on social media. For those of you who are unfamiliar, BUMP stands dor Bring Up My Post. This is a term used to keep a particular post on the surface of the internet ocean. This makes it easier for people to click on it.
Let us try to apply this to our blogging arena. Think about your blogging cycle, you write, you proof read, you publish and then you publicize. Does this cycle mandatorily end here?
No. Whatever we publish stays forever online. Hope you agree with me on this. All the hype you create about a post that you publish today, does it end on the same day? You might forget about it and move on with your subsequent posts. But the content in your past blog articles can make sense to someone somewhere on a later date. So this is a tip I would like to share. BUMP your old blog posts by sharing them again. That would require few minutes as compared to creating a new post. If you work blogging faithfully, your audience pool will increase as the days go by. So there will definitely be people who would have not read you posts or it could be a reminder to few. Reiterate your content to reach many. No content is dead and gone. Make your content available to those many online takers. One point to note is make a specific pattern for BUMP posts, that would help you in the long run to identify new content versus the other.
Prayerfully BUMP and reiterate your writings to reach many more.
Hope this tip helps. I have used this tip myself and have got response. This is something you could use to keep your blog active and the readers engaged on a busy day of a part-time blogger. I would suggest to add reiterate as a step to your blogging cycle Try this and give your feedback.
Write, proof read, publish, publicize and reiterate
While you try this and get back with your experience, I would work and come up with other ideas to effectively engage your readers.
Happy blogging!!
When babies are born before term they are kept in an incubator which simulates the protection in a mother’s womb. After a stipulated period of time when the child is ready to cope up with the environment of this world they are removed from the incubator.
Likewise, premature people require a short stay in God’s incubator. God protects us from assault from other people. He provides nourishment to equip us to face the world. During this stay he feeds and strengthens us to survive in this world.
When I mention premature people, I categorise based on their mental maturity not their age. In the due course of life, some of us fall short of the maturity that we require to handle life’s circumstances. It is when we require a short administration into God’s incubator. God can incubate any quality that we lack. He picks the qualities that is essential for us to accomplish His eternal purpose.
God can incubate love. By the end of his / her stay in God’s incubator, a hateful person will be abounding in God-inculcated love even to the point of giving His own son as a ransom for our sins.
God can incubate joy. With this, a sorrowful, gloomy life will taste the God-centered jubilation lasting to the farther end of eternity.
God can incubate peace. By this, the messy life of an emotionally unstable person will become a God-given peaceful and serene life that no one can pluck away.
God can incubate kindness. As a result, his / her speech will abound with God-taught kindness displayed as soft spoken words and comforting touch to other distressed souls.
God can incubate patience. Following which, he / she will be charged with God-focused patience to become a calm and compost person despite untoward circumstances.
God can incubate long-suffering. Consequently, he / she will be packed with God-instilled forbearance to endure suffering.
God can incubate gentleness. Thus, he / she will follow Christ-infused gentleness even to offenders.
God can incubate faithfulness. Henceforth, he / she will be overloaded with Christ-inspired faithfulness to God even to the point of death on the cross.
God can incubate goodness. Thereby, he / she will thrive in God-generated goodness to all fellow men.
God in his incubator can imprint His pattern and characters into your mortal being. This will help people to see Christ in and through you. Ask God to change you to fit His heavenly image and purpose.
“God’s incubator is equipped to instill qualities necessary to accomplish His eternal purpose in life”
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Christ the owner of my heart
