Category: 2016 Daily Blackboards

Hebrews 11:6

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

It pleases God when we believe that He is the giver, the blesser and that “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him”. Such was the faith of Ruth the Moabitess. When she decided to make the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob her God, she found Him to be her rewarder, who lovingly provided for her, divinely guided her, jealously protected her, gloriously redeemed her from her hopeless situation and richly restored her life.

Today, this same God says to you that He is your rewarder. And when He is involved in your life, you will be amply rewarded. Peter, the fisherman, would testify to that. His fishing boat, which represented his life, caught nothing the whole night. But in the morning, when the boat was returned to him after he had loaned it to Jesus, it was no longer the same boat. It was anointed, blessed and so magnetized that a great number of fish was attracted to it. In fact, he received a net-breaking, boat-sinking load of fish! (Luke 5:1-11)

Because God is your rewarder, if He borrows your “boat” even for a while, be assured that He will surely return it to you with a supernatural increase. Even if what you give Him is little, when placed in His hands, it will return to you blessed, anointed and multiplied. This happened to the little boy who gave Jesus his lunch of five barley loaves and two fish. It must have thrilled the boy to see his small lunch supernaturally multiplied and satisfying not just him, but 5,000 men, not counting the women and children, and even leaving behind 12 baskets full of leftovers. (John 6:1-13)

Believe that God is a rewarder. When you give Him your finances, time, possessions and abilities, know for sure that He will return them to you blessed, anointed and multiplied!

Isaiah 60:1

Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.

Have people ever said thing to you like, “Why are you so lucky?” or “You seem to be looking younger and younger,” or “There is so much bad news these days, yet you seem untroubled by them.” Now, the people of the world don’t have spiritual discernment. They can only go by your physical appearance, behavior and what happens to you. In other words, if they notice something different about you, it is because they see the evidence of God’s glory on your life.

Your friends and colleagues may have told you that you seem to stand out from the rest. This is because of Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27) When God’s glory rises upon you, your words carry weight, even if you are not eloquent. So when your words change people’s lives, you know that it is not you. It is the Lord! You don’t have to be a straight-A student or someone able to speak the Queen’s English.

You may be foul-mouthed like the disciple Peter, but when God changes you and His glory rises upon you, when you stand up and preach, 3,000 people get saved! (Acts 2:14-41) What is important is that God gives weight to what you say.

You might be a nobody like Joseph, a slave cast aside and forgotten in a dungeon. Yet, the greatest king on earth at that time sought Joseph out to have him interpret his dreams. In other words, God will give to you answers that the people of the world do not have.

Maybe it is your hands. When you lay hands on the sick, they recover. Maybe it is your ability to give counsel that is right on, or your ability to speak into their future with a word of knowledge or word of wisdom from God. “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (Isaiah 60:3) When you see this happening, it is because the people of the world are drawn to the glory of the Lord which has risen upon you!

Leviticus 2:1

When anyone offers a grain offering to the Lord, his offering shall be of fine flour…

You have to just love the symbolism of Jesus as fine flour. Fine, even flour comes from wheat that has been pounded and beaten again and again, and sifted several times. Doesn’t that remind you of Jesus’ sufferings and sacrifice for you? And like fine flour, there is nothing coarse about the person of Jesus. Everything about Him is in even proportions. Every word that He spoke when He was in this world, every thought of His, every action of His, was so fine! When He was kind, He was not soft. When He was assertive, He was not overbearing. He is steel and velvet, meekness and majesty. Like a perfect diamond, every which way you turn Him, you see flawlessness, beauty and brilliance. There is no one altogether lovely like Jesus!

What about Bible greats like Moses and Abraham, or Peter, John and Paul?

Moses, whom the Bible says was more humble than any man on the face of the earth (Numbers 12:3), was once so furious with his people that he struck a rock twice, something he was not supposed to do. (Numbers 20:1-12) His temper got the better of him on that occasion.

Abraham, whom Christians regard as a man of faith (Hebrews 11:8-10), lied about his wife being his sister when a king coveted her. He endangered her life just to save his own skin. (Genesis 20:1-18)

Peter, who was deeply zealous for Jesus, denied Him three times. (Matthew 26:33-34)

John, the beloved disciple who leaned on Jesus’ bosom, was all ready to call down fire from heaven to destroy the inhabitants of Samaria who had rejected Jesus. (Luke 9:52-54)

What about Paul, the apostle of grace, who blazed the missionary trail which future missionaries would follow? Even Paul went to Jerusalem when he was told not to by the Holy Spirit through some disciples and the prophet Agabus. (Acts 21:4, 10-11)

The best of us can miss the mark. The only one who is faultless, flawless and altogether lovely is Jesus. And because He never misses the mark, you can look to Him. He will never disappoint you!

Ecclesiastes 8:4

Where the word of a king is, there is power…

In Bible times, a king’s word carried tremendous power. What he decreed would come to pass. It would be done. For example, if he said, “Raise the taxes,” the taxes would be raised. Do you know that we are kings? The Bible tells us that Jesus has washed us from our sins with His blood and made us kings. (Revelation 1:5-6) And as kings in Christ, our words carry power too. When we place our hands on a sick person and say, “Be healed,” the person is healed. When we lay hands on our children and say, “Be blessed,” our children are blessed. There is power in our words because they are the words of kings!

Since our words carry power, can you imagine the harm we do when we say things like, “You are always so dumb”, “You are good for nothing” or “You are so stupid”? We are cursing them! The devil is happy when you use the power of your words against yourself and other including your loved ones. He wants to see you defeated. So instead of saying, “I am always short of money,” say, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) Instead of saying, “I am so useless. I can’t do anything,” start saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Remember that as a king, what you say will come to pass because where the word of a king is, there is power. So learn to say what God says about you in His Word and see His promises come to pass in your life!

Ecclesiastes 9:11

…the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

God’s Word tells us that being faster, stronger and wiser does not automatically make you a winner in life. No, it is actually being at the right place at the right time that causes you to receive blessings. And God, who holds time and chance in His hands, is the only one who can put you at the right place at the right time.

He did this for Ruth. She trusted God for favor when she went looking for a field in which to glean. (Ruth 2:2) Then, the Bible tells us that “she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech”. (Ruth 2:3) Of all the fields in Bethlehem, she happened to end up in Boaz’s field, and he was a close relative of Elimelech, her father-in-law. This meant that Boaz was her potential kinsman redeemer, someone who could redeem her from her plight as a young, childless widow in a foreign land. Boaz also happened to be “a man of great wealth” (Ruth 2:1), and as it turned out, he was willing to redeem Ruth. (Ruth 4:9-10) All these right happenings could only mean that God had placed Ruth in the right place at the right time. I believe that the very day Ruth told her mother-in-law that the God of Israel would be her God (Ruth 1:16), God took note of it and made everything happen right for her.

Today, God also wants you to know that because you have said, “God, You are My God,” He will be your God of divine happenings. He will place you at the right place at the right time, where you will meet the right people, do the right things and even escape danger! You may not know where all the great opportunities are, but God does. He was the one who put in you the skills, talents and gifts that you have, and He knows where you need to be, when you should be there and what you need to be doing to be truly fulfilled!

Luke 2:40

And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

The verse says that the grace of God was upon Jesus. The Bible also says that where sin abounds, grace abounds much more. (Romans 5:20) And when you put the two together, you may find yourself asking, “If the grace of God was upon Jesus, does it mean that He sinned?” No, Jesus did not sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21) So there must be another explanation as to why God’s grace was upon Jesus. There must be another explanation as to why someone can abound in God’s grace even when he has not sinned.

Let’s look at the word “grace” when it is first mentioned in the Bible. Genesis 6:8 says that “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord”. The name Noah means “rest”. So the verse is telling us that rest found grace. In other words, when you rest, you find grace! So grace was upon Jesus because His life was a life of rest and trust in His Father. He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself. He can do only what He sees His Father doing.” (John 5:19)

Likewise, grace comes upon you when you rest and trust God. If you have a wayward child, stop nagging at him and trust God to handle the problem. Say, “Jesus, I commit this boy into Your hands. I cannot control him. You can.” If you have a persistent pain in your body, bring it to the Lord. Say, “Jesus, I hand all my worries about this pain to You. You work on the pain.” So after doing that what if nothing happens? Honestly, if after you have given the matter to Jesus and nothing happens, what can you do? If Jesus Himself can’t do anything about it, do you think you can? But praise God, once the problem is handed over to Jesus, He can and will do a perfect work of taking care of it for you!

So live a life of rest. Cast your cares on the Lord by saying, “I can do nothing of myself. I just rest in You Lord and I trust You.” What you will see is the grace of God upon you in every situation of your life!

Romans 8:33

Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

The book of Job tells us that Satan came to God’s throne and complained about Job. (Job 1:6-12) God’s throne is the most holy place. So why did God allow Satan to come before Him? Satan could come before God because Adam had given up his place when he bowed his knee to Satan in the garden of Eden. (Genesis 3) So Satan had the right to take Adam’s place and come before God. But praise God, Jesus, the last Adam, has come! And the sprinkling of His blood has cleansed all things of heaven. (Hebrews 9:22-24) His blood has cleansed and redeemed the unclean place where Satan walked and stood before God. There remains, therefore, no place in heaven for Satan. He cannot come before God any more to accuse you.

Who then, is in God’s presence today? Jesus! He is there for us. (Hebrews 9:24) And since He is for us, “Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8:34) So what happened to Job cannot happen to you. Job longed for a mediator, but he had none. (Job 9:33) His dream is our reality. Today, we have Jesus as our Mediator making intercession for us! (1 Timothy 2:5)

However, since the devil cannot come before God any more, he comes to you on earth and accuses you in your conscience. His greatest tool is deception because he has no real power. (Colossians 2:15) He has to deceive you into thinking that God is against you, that He is angry with you because you have failed Him, or that your sickness or poverty is God’s punishment for your sins. Don’t fall for the devil’s lies. If it is God who justifies you, no one can bring any charge against you! Satan cannot come before God to accuse you. Instead, you have free access to God’s throne of grace to “obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need”. (Hebrews 4:16) Jesus’ holy blood has given you perfect standing in the presence of God!

Romans 14:17

…the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Are you troubled by some things today? For example, are you concerned about a rebellious teenager? Perhaps you see him or her as your problem, so you do your best to discipline them, only to end up with a heart full of worries and pain. And they are no better! God says to you, “Don’t focus on controlling your rebellious child. Instead, seek first My kingdom, which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Be conscious of the righteousness you have as a gift from My Son. Keep your inner man flowing with My peace and joy, and I will take care of your child.”

We tend to think that the people around us are the problem. When we don’t get the promotion we want, we blame our bosses and colleagues. When we lose our temper, we blame our wives and kids. However, God wants us to stop looking outside and to start looking within because His kingdom is within us. (Luke 17:21) The abundance of the kingdom of God is already inside you. As you seek first God’s kingdom, and follow His righteousness, peace and joy, the abundance within you will flow out and become a reality in your circumstances.(Matthew 6:33) You will find that God has not only taken care of what is troubling you, but has also added blessings to you, be it a promotion, well-behaved kids or whatever is troubling you.

You might be asking, “How do I keep my inner man flowing with righteousness, peace and joy?” Be conscious of your righteousness in Christ. Don’t be conscious of your sins and problems. Listen to anointed sermons that remind you of how righteous you are because of the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Peace and joy flow when you know that all your sins have been forgiven because of Jesus’ finished work. So the next time something troubles you, don’t focus on correcting the problem. Instead, seek first God’s kingdom and His righteousness. Make it a priority to have your inner man flowing with His peace and joy, and He will take care of that problem for you!

Romans 5:5

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Today, we express hope as if we can’t be sure what will really happen. We say things like, “I hope I will win that prize. I hope it won’t rain tomorrow. I hope everything works out well.” But “hope” in the Bible is a confident and positive expectation of good. God wants you to have a confident expectation of good because as His child, He favors you. Because Christ is in you, the hope of glory (Colossians1:27), you can expect the glory of God to shine into every area of your life, including your family, job, ministry, health and finances! God’s Word says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” You may have experienced disappointed hopes, but there is a hope that does not disappoint when you are conscious of how much God loves you. It is a hope that springs from the heart of God, who loves you very much.

It is interesting that the first mention of the Holy Spirit in the book of Romans is tied up with the love of God. The book of Romans is considered foundational for Christians. Could it be that the first thing the Holy Spirit wants to do is to establish in our hearts that God loves us? Many people think that the Holy Spirit has come to teach us about power. But the truth is that the Holy Spirit has come not to reveal the love for power, but the power of love! When you believe that God loves you, you will have a positive expectation of good. You will have a hope that does not disappoint. So be careful what you hope for because you are bound to get it!