You must not Lose your Labour

READ: 2 Jn.8 (NLT)
MORE LESSONS: Gen.26:12-13
Bible Reading in One Year: Proverbs 22-24

Many people work so hard, breaking new grounds, planting and harvesting but do not pay attention to conserving the fruits of their past labours. Such people will labour all through life and end up with no rewards in their hand. They have stories of what they did, and probably what they achieved but nothing concrete in terms of end products that will carter for their needs. That shall not be your case; you will eat the fruits of your labour. Imagine a farmer that is so busy opening new farms, but will not look back to weed the ones he has cultivated. At the end of the season he will have no harvest because he has laboured like a fool. Or a pastor who wins souls everyday, but he does not have a solid plan to disciple the souls he wins, absorb them into the church and build them up to become mature believers. The church of such a pastor will be empty. Take a moment to reflect on your labour of old. What are you doing to preserve and process them so they can become profitable fruits in your hand? Our text cries out so loud to us to look to ourselves so that we don’t lose the things which we have worked for.

In your quest for greatness, God wants to take you from glory to glory. He wants the new grounds you have broken to be an addition to the old ones, not substitutes. He wants you to add to your achievements and thereby make you become greater and greater. May you truly advance by addition and may you increase and be preserved, in the mighty name of Jesus.

Prayer/Action
* Take Psa.115:14 to God in prayer for yourself.
* Pray against any waster or devourer that may want to eat up your fruits and past labour.
* Ask the Lord to increase and establish the works of your hand.
* Ask God to increase and establish the works of your pastor, spiritual and otherwise.
* Ask God for wisdom for an enduring work.
* Give thanks for answered prayer.

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Yes, You Can

READ: Matt. 21:19-22
MORE LESSONS: Matt. 7:7-11
Bible Reading in One Year: Proverbs 19-21

Have you ever dreamt of a day when all your prayer requests are answered? Or a situation where, as you ask, you get the result? I hear Heaven say, Yes, you can; you can get prompt answer now, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: Matt.7:7. This scripture simply means that prayer is not meant to be a one way traffic, which is what we are used to. Rather it is supposed to be something like a direct face-to-face conversation with instant result. Our theology and direction about prayer needs to shift from an exercise for future result to instant manifestation because this is what prayer is meant to be.

“Ask and receive”, not ask and wait. This is not to see prayer as magic for instant results in your hand always as there could be a reason to wait, but you need to go to the Father's presence with an expectation that the answer will be now. Prayer for Jesus was communion with the Father with instant answer. After all, all we will ever ask have been provided before creation and we can never exhaust God’s resources. Therefore all we need to do is ask and pick up the supply. All through Jesus' work on earth, prayer was ‘ask and pick it’. At Lazarus' tomb where we should have expected the toughest prayer and delay because death was involved, His prayer was short and answer came instantly, …Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: …. And he that was dead came forth…. Jn.11:41-44. Even at Gethsemane where the battle was tough, He got answer instantly (Lk.22:43). However, all these are predicated on, … if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 1Jn.5:14. Ask according to God’s will and you can confidently conclude, Yes, I can get the answer now.

Three quick tests for answered prayer:
1. A righteous life, Psa.24:3-4.
2. Faith in God, Heb.11:1-2.
3. Asking according to His will, I Jn.5:14.
Yes, you can have what you ask, right away.

Prayer/Action
* Ask God to revisit your past requests and grant you answer today.
* Pray that a new season of answered prayers will begin for you today.
* Ask God to increase your faith.
Worship the Lord and sing a song of answered prayers.

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Forget Not

READ: Ps.103:1-22
MORE LESSONS: Deut.6:10-12
Bible Reading in One Year: Proverbs 15-18

The Bible strongly exhorts us not to forget God. This is because God saw ahead of man the tendency to forget Him. Jehovah warns that whoever forgets Him does so at his or her peril, The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God: Psalm.9:17. Only take heed to thyself, and keep thy soul diligently, lest thou forget the things which thine eyes have seen, and lest they depart from thy heart all the days of thy life: but teach them thy sons, and thy sons' sons: Deut.4:9.

One way not to forget God is by praising Him. The Psalm for today's reading has about thirty benefits of God to us for which we should praise Him. The land will yield its increase to the man who praises God, Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us: Ps.67:5-6. Praise God for the benefit of forgiveness of sin (Eph1:7), for the benefit of healing when sick. There was statistic sometimes ago by a doctor who surveyed the number of sick people in hospitals. He and his team discovered that there were fewer Christians in those hospitals, this fact is not by chance. We boldly declare it’s because God heals His people, And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee: Exo.23:25.

Praise Him for daily redeeming you from destruction as you go out and come in (Ps.121:7-8). Also, celebrate God for the benefits of satisfying you with good things of life: food, water, clean air to breathe. Exalt Him for executing judgment on your behalf, and for fighting your battles, known and unknown to you. For these and many other benefits jump on your feet and magnify God. Cease to complain and murmur about the things not yet accomplished; commend Him for the ones He did and use this as a platform to reach out for the ones yet to be done. Choose to remember His benefits today and more will come rolling your way.

Prayer / Action
* I declare I will never forget God.
* Lord, I remember all Your benefits to me and I give You praise for them.
* I choose to give God thanks instead of murmuring and complaining.

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Great Things

READ: Joel 2:18-21
MORE LESSONS: Job 5:8-27
Bible Reading in One Year: Proverbs 12-14

God does not do anything less than great things because greatness is God's nature and doing great things is natural to Him. If you are a child of God, walking with God consistently and great things don't happen in your life, you should be alarmed. God will do great things because He is the greatest. It's said that " only great men do great things'. God is greater than the greatest man and He does the greatest things. God does great things by the precedence of greatness. It is not being suggested that God is great, people testify worldwide that God is great because He does great things as declared in our reading today. May you testify of great things done by the great God for you as you step out today, in Jesus’ name.

Evidence that God does great things abound in the Holy Bible. Jabez, born in sorrow and named sorrow, brought his situation to the court of the great God and his testimony changed (I Chron.4:9-10). In I Sam. 17:50 the great God who does great things terminated Goliath using a teenage boy while generals fled out of fear. God will deal with all the goliaths that threaten you. Job 5:8-27 lists great things that Jehovah does. Meditate on these things as you enter a new day and you will also have testimonies of great things.

To experience the greatness of God you must meditate on the great things He does as recorded in the Word of God, the Chronicle of great things. Second, deal with fear. Fear opposes faith and kills the seed of greatness. Third, be bold and talk about the great God, even in the face of contradiction. Maintain your confession of what God can do and He will show up in your situation.

Prayer/Action
* Take time to exalt the greatness of God.
* Fill your day with confessions of God's greatness and declare the great things He will do in your situation.
Sing a song of praise to celebrate God’s greatness that will manifest in your life.

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