Tag: Philistine

Posted in HOPE, SOUL FOOD

WHO HAS YOUR ATTENTION?

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

Whatever you focus on magnifies. When you spend more hours focusing on your situation, it gets bigger and bigger. However, when you focus or fix your eyes on Jesus, He becomes bigger and bigger than your situation. That is when He steps in to help you.
We all face challenges in our lives but I have learnt that the more I think about my problems, instead of how big God is and how He is waiting for me to take steps of Faith, the more burden I place on myself. I quit focusing on my problems and that took away worry and anxiety.

God loves us and He wants us to cast all our cares on Him. He cares. God wants your attention. He wants you to see Him as a Father who has the Power to do immeasurably more than all you ask or imagine.

Satan is a liar. He works with deception. He would make you believe all his lies. He works with FEAR. Someone had said FEAR means False Evidence Appearing Real. He wants your attention.

Your Father wants your attention, and your enemy also wants your attention. The choice is yours. But I would encourage you to turn your back on your problems and satan. You can do this by studying The Word daily. When you know the truth, it will set you free. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. (Philippians 4:6 KJV).

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.” Romans 4:19-21.

Abraham knew the fact yet He focused on God. He believed God was able to perform. I don’t know what you are going through now but I believe that if you could give your attention to God, if you could believe that He is more than able to get you out of that situation, He will deliver you in Jesus’ Name.

The woman with the issue of blood said if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. Notice her attention was on Jesus’ garment. She knew her problem but that didn’t prevent her from moving through the crowd. She saw Jesus as a Person bigger than her sickness. She got her healing.

Acts 3:4-6
Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.”

Peter knew where we fix our eyes in times of trouble is very important. He remembered What happened when Jesus asked him to come on the water. He remembered what happened when he focused on the storms. Jesus saved him when he cried for help. That is when he looked to Jesus. What I have learnt from this verses is that I have to give my attention to or focus on the One who I believe can help me out of any situation. And the Only Person Who could do that is God, through His Son Jesus Christ.

I will give one instance where people focus on the problem and no one was able to face it because it became bigger than all present. It happened in 1 Samuel 17.

“Then Goliath, a Philistine champion from Gath, came out of the Philistine ranks to face the forces of Israel. He was over nine feet tall! Goliath stood and shouted a taunt across to the Israelites. “Why are you all coming out to fight?” he called. “I am the Philistine champion, but you are only the servants of Saul. Choose one man to come down here and fight me! When Saul and the Israelites heard this, they were terrified and deeply shaken. (1 Samuel 17:4, 8, 11 NLT).

Saul and his men were terrified when they focused on Goliath. Thank God David didn’t see what Saul and his men saw. He focused on the living God.

Friends, Satan wants your attention. He would try to make you focus on your problems. He is happy when you move about telling people about how bad your situation is. He feels big when you cry every night because of your problems. He torments you more when you shift your focus from God. Job suffered for long because he was always talking about what he was going through. He repented and shifted his attention to God. He focused on God and God gave him double.

Then Job replied to the LORD:
“I know that you can do anything,
and no one can stop you. You asked, ‘Who is this that questions my wisdom with such ignorance?’
It is I—and I was talking about things I knew nothing about,
things far too wonderful for me. You said, ‘Listen and I will speak!
I have some questions for you,
and you must answer them.’ I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance.” (Job 42:1-6 NLT).

Conclusion:
This is how it works; your situation is real but God is bigger than that situation. Only Believe in Him, and also Believe in His Power to perform. The next step is you take steps of Faith. We walk by faith. Abraham accepted the fact that he was old but he believed God was able to do what He has promised. He didn’t doubt God’s Power to perform. He walked by Faith.

I trust you are going to give your attention to the Almighty God. Believe me your life will never be the same in Jesus’ Name. Amen

Posted in FAITH, HOPE

CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM ME?

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

Nazareth! Can anything good come from there? Nathanael asked. “Come and see” said Philip. John 1:46

Can anything good come from me?

This is among some questions that challenge my faith. As a matter of fact, they push me up. Can anything good come from my family, my church, my community, my country?

Human beings are people; they could be for you, and they could be against you. But your ability to stand in either ways is what is important. Faith is contagious so in order to stay in faith, do mind the kind of people you associate yourself with. Make every effort to be with people who will speak words that will encourage you, and move you to your planned destination. Words are powerful; they could push up. They could bring you down. Some people will try to use your family background, education, society, job, friends, marriage, etc to discourage you. However, “the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7

From the scriptures, when Jesus saw Nathanael approaching in John 1:46, he said to him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false. “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were standing under the fig tree before Philip called you.” Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel”. Here is the point Jesus acted to let Nathanael know that truly something good has come to Nazareth. People would doubt what you can do; they will discourage you, and even laugh at your vision. When this happens, don’t be discouraged. Know that it is God who has placed that seed on the inside of you. Look up to Him, do your best daily and I believe those people would come, in the end like Nathanael did, to congratulate you.

Some years ago, even now, most people laughed at me when I told them what the world could become. Last year, I told some folks about the kind of business I want to start and almost everybody present laughed. I encouraged myself that their unbelief cannot make God a liar. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Romans 3:4. I do not know where you come from, your educational background, family, job, etc. I do not know the kind of words people say when you tell them your vision. Maybe they laugh when you tell them who you are in Christ. Well! The good news is God is faithful and He is going to guide you through, as you keep doing your best, till you achieve what He has placed in you.

I came to encourage you today that the situation you are in now, that is the kind of words people tell you, your job, family, relationship with people, marriage, ministry, etc, I believe, is a stepping stone to your divine destination. If someone wants to know what God could do with your life, tell him/her to come tomorrow because you are not a finished product yet. Your life today is a work in progress. Be hungry for more blessings, opportunities, best friends, good marriage, etc, and I believe God would satisfy that hunger. The seed of greatness is in you. Your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost. God lives in you.

I would encourage you to find some time today, reflect on what is happening in your life and ask yourself this question; CAN ANYTHING GOOD COME FROM ME? Think about God’s promises and what He has done in your life before. Listen if you forget about what He has done in the past, you would be afraid of the future. He did it in the past, He could do it now, and do it again in the future. Now, answer the question. I believe your answer would be Yes.

God bless you

I will close with this;

1 Samuel 17

33 Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”

34 But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.