Seeing then that we have a great high Priest...Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need – Heb 4:14 -16

Our great Helper in prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ, our Advocate with the Father, our Great High Priest, whose chief ministry for us these centuries has been intercession and prayer. He it is who takes our imperfect petitions from our hands, cleanses them from their defects, corrects their faults, and then claims their answer from His Father on His own account and through His all-atoning merits and righteousness.

Are you fainting in prayer? Look up. Your blessed Advocate has already claimed your answer.

You would grieve and disappoint Him if you were to give up the conflict in the very moment when victory is on its way to meet you. He has gone in for you into the inner chamber, and already holds up your name upon the palms of His hands; and the messenger, which is to bring you your blessing, is now on his way, and the Spirit is only waiting your trust to whisper in your heart the echo of the answer from the throne, “It is done.”

 - A. Simpson

Matthew 4:19-20 says "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.
At one prompting from Jesus, brothers Peter and Andrew left what they were doing and followed Jesus. It was what they were, fishermen.  That was the occupation that they said when asked. But from that moment until the end of their walks on earth they were followers of Jesus; his disciples.

What do you do? Are you defined by your occupation? or by who Jesus calls you to be, his follower?

Even during the brief time that Jesus was in the tomb, the disciples went back to what they did before (John 21). We can be like that too. We can have moments in our lives where we question what we are meant to do for the Kingdom of God and what we are meant to do for a living. We look at them as separate things. Can I propose to you that they don't have to be separate. We can compartmentalise what we 'do' as a living and what we 'do' for God. But I don't think that’s what God's intention is.

Matthew 6:9-10, Jesus's teaching on prayer says this "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your KINGDOM come, your WILL be done on EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN." (emphasis added). There is no 'buts' or 'only if' or 'apart from in your workplace...'. It applies to EVERY PART OF OUR LIVES! We can have the fullness of heaven in EVERY part of our lives! How exciting is that!?

We can focus too much on our 'worldly' occupation and just define ourselves as that. An accountant, a teacher, a scientist, a cashier, a salesmen, a hostess… or jobless... But that isn't the be all and end all. When you have Jesus in your heart, you have the fullness of Christ in you! You have authority to shift things so mightily in the supernatural that the natural has to follow with it. You mission field and sphere of influence is anywhere you step your foot into. What's holding your back from bringing heaven into earth in your daily life?

Matthew 28:19-20
"Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."

-Sandra Iliev

What do we see when look into the mirror? Do we see a wrinkle here, a blemish there or even think I should not have had that extra slice of cake or pizza last night? We are often concerned about our outward appearance. What about our inner appearance? 

God is more concerned about the people we are becoming rather than our outward appearance. He does not care about the latest fashion trends, that you have the most expensive Louis Vuitton handbag or a tailor-made Armani suit. We cannot take any of these things with us to Heaven.

That scar you may have may be a reminder of a mistake you made in the past, those fine lines are years of wisdom or those rough hands are years of hard work. The trials that we go through are tests from God to sculpt us to become more like Him. Times of triumph are to glorify His name. For we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14) to bring glory to God, we are all beautifully crafted in His likeness.

God is the creator of all things. He formed each and every one of us in His image. We are all important to Him. No-one is loved more than another. We are loved above everything else in all of God’s creation. No animal, no plant or precious gem was ever created in his image. We are created in His likeness. He had you in mind from the very beginning of time.

Genesis 1:27 
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

- Zhen Ang

Have you ever been at the end of your hope? Where the situation seems almost too much to bear, and the journey is just a continous mountain climb? We may ask God the question: Where are you in the middle of this?

In 2 Corinthians Paul writes a letter to the Corinthians telling of the difficulties he experienced while on his journey in Asia. Paul was "unbearably weighed down and crushed" by these difficulties. It was far beyond his ability to endure, to the point where he "despaired even of living"! 

Paul had no other options except to rely on Christ alone. Yet, it was going through this journey that Paul had insight into who God is. He had a revelation of God as the "Father of compassion" and the "God of all comfort"! He experienced the supernataural comfort and the rescuing power of Christ that delivered him through his trial. Through his journey, he put his confidence in the fact that Christ would not fail him and would continue deliver him again and again! 

Just like Paul, we can make these difficult places in our lives an opportunity to receive His comfort and deliverance. Like Paul, as we recieve from the one true source of comfort, we too can be of use to bring comfort to others who are in desperate need!

2 Corinthians 1:3-5, 9, 10 
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us...

-Jo Voon-

A wise writer once said, “There will be a time in a person’s life where God will bring their self sufficiency to an end. They will come to a place where they have nothing but their dependence on God.”

The Bible illustrates this saying the best in 2 Chronicle 20. The people of Judah were in trouble; they had no resource and power to conquer their foes and escape the vast battle ahead of them. All they had left was God but they did not fret.

King Jehoshaphat and the people saw this as a reason to hope and they boldly proclaim, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.” Their hope was on the God who promised: “The battle is not yours; but God’s” (2 Chronicles 20:15) and their hope was not disappointed as God gave them victory.

Are you in a position where your self sufficiency is all gone? Turn your eyes on the Lord and put your hope on the firm assurance of His promises. When God is all you have left, it is more than enough for a great victory.

2 Chronicles 20:12
Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.

- Irene Soon

The paradigms of Israel's religion, law, prophecy, and wisdom were not exclusive to Israel but were shared by other ancient Near Eastern cultures. So it was not the form of Israel's religion that made it distinctive, but its content. Wisdom was a common way of thinking in this part of the ancient world. Briefly, it was a way of viewing and approaching life, which involved instructing the young in proper conduct and morality and answering the philosophical questions about life's meaning.

In the Old Testament wisdom at one level describes skilled arts and artisans, like weavers (Exodus 35:25-26), architects (Exodus 35:30-35), and goldsmiths (Jeremiah 10:9). At a second level, wisdom was keen insight into life and ways of dealing with its problems. Solomon was associated with wisdom in this sense (1 Kings 3:1-15; see also 1 Kings 4:32-34), although the term used was "understanding," which occurs often as a synonym of wisdom.

At a fourth level, the terms wisdom and wise apply to men and women who represent a way of thinking and conduct that is orderly, socially sensitive, and morally upright. Thus, the major thrust of wisdom in the Old Testament was a code of moral conduct. This is especially represented by the Book of Proverbs, which gives instruction on personal behavior from the discipline of children (Proverbs 22:6) to the golden-rule treatment of one's neighbor (Proverbs 24:29). The goal of wisdom was to build an orderly and functional society that reflected the moral requirements of God as set forth in the law of Moses.

Are you seeking the wisdom that comes from studying God's Word and seeking His will? Make it your main desire this week.

(Adapted from Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Wisdom.)

- Sandra Iliev

My God, I have never thanked You for my thorn. I have thanked You a thousand times for my roses, but not once for the thorns. I have been looking forward to a world where I shall get compensation for my cross; but I have never thought of my cross as itself a present glory.

Teach me the glory of my cross; teach me the value of my thorn. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbows.

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Excerpt from George Matheson’s writing

Most of us are creatures of comfort, we like to sit back and relax, watch a movie, go out with friends, eat good food, etc. We like our routine, go to work, go to the gym, walk the dog, have dinner, chill out in front of the TV, read a book. 

We are not really creatures of change. Change is something uncomfortable and perhaps even painful, but when God wants to do something in your life, He stretches you. He wants you to step out of your comfort zone. It is like a balloon, when you blow air into the balloon it is at first rather difficult and then gets a bit easier as the air slowly stretches out the balloon. Once it is the perfect size you stop blowing and tie up the balloon. It looks great for a day or so and then it slowly starts to deflate and never returns to its original shape, it becomes stretched out and wrinkly. 

It is like that with God, when He wants to do something new in your life, it will at first be really uncomfortable. We probably will complain before we let God do a transformation in us, but if we let Him, things slowly start falling into place or perhaps it may happen rapidly. Everything happens according to the Lord’s timing, if you let Him work in you. You will never go away disappointed. 

We cannot afford to get too comfortable because when we do we can slowly start to deflate and begin to stagnate. God does not want us to idle He wants us to grow. There will be periods of challenge and growth and times of rest and revitalisation. Time to reflect and wait on the Lord until it is His time to begin a new thing in your life again, with a new balloon. He knows that we need challenges to help us grow, to build character, to be the people He wants us to be. People with potential, if we do not let God stretch us, how can we be the people God has called us to be?  He will never give you more than you can handle. God knows how much you can take. Trust Him to take you into a new chapter of your life.

Isaiah 43:19 NLT 
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.

- Zhen Ang

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it how we can possibly have anything extraordinary going on in the middle of our mundane daily lives? For many of us we are so immersed in our domesticity, parenting and the daily grind of our work that we cannot begin to imagine how anything extraordinary could possibly happen in the middle of it all.

However, the kingdom of God redefines the ordinary. The kingdom of God recognizes the miraculous in the mundane. The kingdom of God transforms the insignificant. The kingdom of God redeems our simple attempts that we make to bring glory to God.

We bring glory to God through the seemingly ordinary things. We bring Him glory when we consider Him first, when we are diligent with what He has placed in our hands, when we steward our talents and time for eternity, when we invite His presence in the little things that we do, when we serve our families and look after the interests of others above ourselves, when we freely give and freely love, etc. We may pass them off as normal life, simple tasks or even hard work and drudgery, but in the kingdom of God they are the spectacular.

In a world that seeks fame and recognition it is an amazing truth to live by that in the kingdom of God it is the humble who are the heroes. And the only one who deserves adoration, praise and worship is the God who has made it all possible. When we bring glory to God our lives make sense with purpose and meaning and we bring significance to the insignificant.

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 

Philippians 2:7 in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant...

Adapted from http://essentialthingdevotions.com/ 
by Mel Caldicott

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
Hebrew 12: 12-13

This is God’s word of encouragement to us to lift up the hands of faith, and confirm the knees of prayer. Often our faith grows tired and relaxed, and our prayers lose their force and effectiveness.

The figure used here is a very striking one. The idea seems to be that we become discouraged and so timid that a little obstacle depresses and frightens us. We are then tempted to walk around it and not face the obstacles; take the easier way out.

Perhaps it is some physical trouble that God is ready to heal but the effort is hard and it is easier to secure a human help or just walk around the trouble in some other way. There are many ways of walking around emergencies instead of going straight through them. How often we come up against something that appalls us and we evade the issue.

God says, “Lift up the hands that hang down.” March straight through the flood and the waters will divide, the Red Sea will part and the Lord will lead you through to victory.

Don’t let your feet “be turned out of the way, let your faith be strengthened. Go right ahead and leave no troubles unconquered; do not leave a place where the devil can say that he was way too much for you to handle.

- A.Simpson