Infinite Love Leads to Infinite Provision

It is a fallacy to think that God loves some people more than he loves others. John 3:16 is very clear about that “for God so loved the world”. However, some people are more conscious of God’s love for them than others and to the undiscerning, this may look as though God loves them more. It’s like a Man who has children and He opens up a line of credit for each one of them in His bank. His instruction to His banker is that they can access an infinite amount of money. Now, the children don’t know that their money is infinite. Some of them take only a little money so as not to take advantage of their Father’s generosity, but a few take as much money as they need and incur the jealousy of the others who feel they are inconsiderate. If only they all knew that they had access to infinite sums of money none of them would hesitate to draw from their lines of credit. God’s love for us is infinite. He cannot love us more or less than He does today. But only those who are conscious of this great love can access the benefits of it. This is why Jesus says in Matthew 7:7 “ask, and it shall be given you”. Unfortunately many of us are afraid or too ignorant of His love to ask which is why James 4:2 says “ye have not, because ye ask not”. You know the confidence you have in writing a check when you know you have money in the bank. That confidence is called faith in the spiritual realm and only those who know they are infinitely loved by their heavenly Father are able to make demands on the bank of heaven with the confidence that ensures that that check will be cashed!

Reno Omokri is the pastor of the Mind of Christ Christian Center and the author of Shunpiking: No Shortcuts to God 

Unfading Beauty

Elizabeth Taylor and Mother Theresa started life at about the same time, however, one was more beautiful than the other and in the 50s and 60s, Elizabeth Taylor’s beauty propelled her to superstardom status. She was the toast of kings and presidents and wealth came her way. But as she grew older and her physical beauty faded, the kings and presidents and the wealth turned their attention to Mother Theresa who had also grown old. Why? Because Mother Theresa’s virtues of unconditional love, concern for the under privileged and selflessness were her real beauty and she proved to us that spiritual beauty (virtues) are more lasting and powerful than physical beauty. Hence The Bible says “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight”.

Empathize Rather Than Criticize

Empathize Rather Than Criticize: You Are Not in Their Shoes: Never think to yourself that you would do better than someone else if you were in his shoes, because his full situation is not obvious to you. You only see what you see. There are things that you do not see or know. “Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ”-Galatians 6:2. Consider That the Only Person That you Really Know is Yourself. So judge yourself and not others. “Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you–unless, of course, you fail the test?”-2 Corinthians 13:5.

Are You Worthy of Jesus?

If Jesus says that you are unworthy of Him if you place your father and mother above Him and yet the 5th commandments instructs us to honour our father and mother, then how unworthy would we be in Jesus’ eye if we honour things like politics, football, music and Nollywood/Hollywood more than Him? “If you love your father or mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if you love your son or daughter more than me, you are not worthy of being mine.”-Matthew 10:37

Faith Acts what it Believes.

When I was a child, my siblings and I used to play a game called ‘do as I say don’t do as I do’. In that game, you say something and do something contrary. It might have been a game, but in reality, I have seen life imitating that game. Religion is the outward appearance, faith goes to the state of the heart. It is possible to pretend to be religious but you cant fake faith. Jesus was full of faith while the Pharisees were full of religion. Faith acts what it believes. Religion believes what it does not act. And when you constantly criticize people you are claiming to believe in Christ but are not practicing what He said in Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged”.

Affirmation Increases Productivity

Learn to differentiate people from what they do. You can hate what they do. Even God hates what we sometimes do. But never hate the person. If you must criticize at all, criticize what people do, never the people themselves. Then praise people directly, don’t just praise what they do. Consider Jesus. The Bible records little about His earthly ministry until after His Baptism by John The Baptist. As soon as He came out of the water, His Father spoke from heaven saying “this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”-Matthew 3:17. From that moment, The Bible records that “Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people”-Matthew 4:23. When you praise and affirm people, you empower them to do things that explodes their sphere of influence and increases their productivity. Whether as a parent, a boss, or a pastor, the most sensible thing you can do to increase the effectiveness of people around you is to affirm them.

Where is Your Heart?

1 John 2:15 says “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them”. But how can we know if we are loving the world and giving it preeminence over God our Father? Honestly answer this question and your response will provide an answer to your conscience. Suppose you are traveling on a long distance journey and you forget your phone would you return home to get it? Now, suppose again you were on the same journey and instead of your phone, you forgot your Bible, would you still return? Your answer determines where your heart is.

Food for Thought: Are you are a gatherer or a scatterer?

Are you are a gatherer or a scatterer? Consider that there are only two forces in this world according to The Bible. All things emanate from Light or darkness. Light is from God hence James 1:17 calls Him “the Father of lights”. The manifestation of Light is Jesus hence John 1:4 says “In him was The Life and The Life is The Light of men”. Darkness is from the enemy and the manifestation of it is in the ruler of the darkness, satan. Since these facts have been established by The Bible, we need to ask ourselves, if we are not imitating Christ at any time, who are we imitating? There is no third alternative. Asked about this issue, Jesus responded thus “He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters”-Matthew 12:30. Are you gathering with Jesus by your thoughts, words and actions? Are you the type of Christian who can be counted on to tell others about politics, entertainment and sports and to never tell another soul about Christ? Food for thought!

Love as a Clothing Item

Colossians 3:14, says “Above all, clothe yourselves with love” (NLT) proving that love is a clothing item. If you think in physical terms it might sound ridiculous when The Bible tells us to put on love as a garment. But have you asked yourself what God wears as clothes? Psalm 104:2 says “The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment”. 1 John 2:10 says “Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble”. We can see then that to love is to put on light as a garment. In Genesis 1:26  we read “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness”. So, if we truly believe what God said, then we must “look up to Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” of whom John 1:4 says “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind”. Jesus put on light as a garment to the extent that He oozed virtue from His clothes as we read in Mark 5:30 “And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?” So, let’s ask ourselves, are we putting on love/light every morning or are we putting on darkness/malice?

Use Your Advocate

I was watching Law and Order and saw this man who did something bad and before the police came to arrest him, he picked up the phone and called his lawyer. When the police arrested him and brought him before the judge, his lawyer had figured out a way to convince the judge to set him free. definitely as you go through the hour, day or week you will definitely miss the mark with God. Do all within your power not to sin. But when you do sin, please remember that only foolish people run from God when they sin. Wise folk on the other hand run to Jesus when they sin before the enemy has the chance to accuse them to God. Remember 1 John 2:1 ‘I write to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father-Jesus Christ’. Make use of Him.