There’s a way to be expectant as children. Do we all remember the story of the blind man in the Bible?
And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. – Mark 10:47-48
What if the blind man had not asked what the surrounding ruckus was about? What if he had just continued begging and minded his business?
Something in him must have stirred him up to ask what was happening. He probably had been nursing a desire to have his sight, and when he heard that Jesus was around, it aroused his expectation.
Quickly, he opened his mouth and screamed the most he had ever done in his life. He knew it was now or never.
He had to have heard of the acts of Jesus to have done what he did. Even when they tried to shut him up, he screamed the more. This was the day he had been waiting for, and nothing or no one would stop him from getting what he wanted.
This was the same Jesus that had been healing people, and someone wanted him to shut up. He gave it his all and never regretted doing so.
Are you expecting to have what you are praying for? Are you listening to the voices telling you your prayers won’t be answered? Allowing people or circumstances to shut you up?
Be like that man and scream the more. Jesus is ready to command you be brought before him. And when you get in front of Jesus, know what you want.
You will never regret calling on Jesus.
Prayer: Lord, give me an expectant heart. Teach me to expect answers to my prayers. Amen.
Action point: Visualize your prayers as answered. See yourself in the light of prayers answered.
Declaration: I am expectant. My miracle will not pass me by.
Let’s examine Tola’s story as we seek to understand the concept of the Holy Spirit and you. After successfully stealing some money from her mother’s purse, Tola felt good knowing that she had money to spend with her friends at school.
Her friends always had lots of money to spend at school and she didn’t want to be any different.
But she kept having a feeling. As much as she was happy, the feelings of happiness were slowly dwindling.
What could it be, she wondered. Soon, she began to feel bad about taking the money.
A voice kept telling her it was wrong of her to have taken the money. It kept telling her she had stolen the money.
But I didn’t steal the money, Tola said to herself. It’s my mother’s money and she has lots of it.
Tola was hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit.
When you sin, the Holy Spirit convicts you of it. He speaks to your heart and tells you what you did wrong.
When the Holy Spirit speaks to you and can convict you to the point where you change your ways or confess your wrongdoings, you are still in a safe zone. You still have a conscience.
Tola didn’t spend the money at school that day or went with her friends to buy things. She felt bad about taking the money and knew what she had to do – tell her mother the truth, ask for her forgiveness, and never steal again in her life.
May the Holy Spirit give you a healthy conscience. Amen.
Prayer: Sweet Spirit of God, thank you for the power to convict me of all sins. Please give me a heart that will listen and obey you in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Action point: Has the Holy Spirit ever spoken to you about something wrong you did? How did you respond? Did you do what He said or not? Decide to always listen to and obey His instructions.
Declaration: My conscience is not seared. I listen and obey the Holy Spirit.
Today we will be looking at showing gratitude to your parents. Parents can be wonderful. They can be overbearing as well. They can reel out commands, rules, and guidelines. They tell you what to do and what not to do. They tell you when and when not to watch the TV.
To you, it seems as though they were over children. They just grew into adulthood one day.
Well, I have good news for you. Your parents love you. They love you so much they want the best for you. The rules and laws they give you are to bring out the best in you, not necessarily to restrict you.
They want to see you excel in your studies and in life. They want you to become a successful parent someday.
So the next time they tell you to wash your clothes, for example, know that it’s for your own good. They don’t want you to be a dirty person. When your clothes reek of sweat and are dirty, people will not want to associate with you and you could get teased or mocked at school by your mates. This could affect your self-esteem, making you withdraw from others.
Even the Bible encourages us to keep clean as it portrays the state of our hearts before God.
Take your evil deeds out of my sight; stop doing wrong. Wash and make yourselves clean. Isaiah 1:16 NIV.
Again the Bible tells you to obey and honor your parents so that it might be well with you.
Ephesians 6:2-3 GW “Honor your father and mother, that everything may go well for you, and you may have a long life on earth.” This is an important commandment with a promise.
Hello precious child, there is something interesting for you to learn here today. We are continuing with the wise words of king Solomon from the book of proverbs.
Our verse for today is
Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding; If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. – Proverbs 2:3-7
This verse talks about the importance of searching for wisdom and how we as God’s children should seek after wisdom.
Our study verse first of tells us that if you and I want to be wise, we can’t just sit and wish to be wise, we have to seek for it, look for it, search for it, and that’s how we get knowledge and be wise children.
See the words used in this verses, the Bible says;
1. We should cry after knowledge
2.We should lift up our voice for understanding.
3.We should look for it as silver
4.We should search for it like an hidden treasure.
All these words are powerful.
It means we have to actively do some certain things to be wise, our effort is need to get wisdom.
The Bible says, until we look for wisdom, we won’t find it.
When we seek to be wise, that’s when we will find wisdom.
How will this happen?
For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. He layeth up sound wisdom for the righteous: he is a buckler to them that walk uprightly. – Proverbs 2:6-7
God will give it to us, and he gives it out of his mouth. This means through his words, and words are found in the Bible How interesting is that?
God had laid up wisdom for us in the Bible, these words are to guide and direct our everyday lives.
All we need to do is read his word like searching for treasures, that’s how to get wise dear.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I receive the grace to search the word of God like treasures in Jesus name. Amen.
ACTION PLAN: Read your Bible today.
DECLARATION: I am committed to reading and search my Bible everyday. I am wise in Jesus name.
Who are you walking with, dear child? Friendship in life is very important. As children, the kinds of friends you keep go a long way to determine the kind of future you will have.
Have you ever considered the word ‘friend’? did you notice that the last words are spelled ‘end’? this simply means your friend will determine your end.
How do you want to end in life? That question can only be answered by your choice of friends.
But Amnon had a friend, whose name was Jonadab, the son of Shimeah David’s brother: and Jonadab was a very subtil man. – 2 Sam 13:3 [KJV]
The summary of the story we see above is that Amnon wanted to do something, but he couldn’t. by the time he told his friend, he suddenly had the energy to do what he couldn’t do initially.
See how Amplified Bible describes Jonadab.
But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab son of Shimeah, David’s brother; and Jonadab was a very crafty man. – 2 Sam 13:3[AMP]
The company you keep determines what accompanies you! In the final analysis, you will act like the company you keep, smell like the company you keep, and in fact, you look like the company you keep.
My question for you this morning, dear children, is this; who are your friends or associates? Who are you walking with? Who are those that will determine your end?
If you walk with a crafty person, you will learn his ways. If you walk with passionate people, you will catch their passion. If you walk with people who are on fire for God, you will catch their fire as well.
Here is my concluding verse.
Don’t fool yourselves. Bad friends will destroy you. – 1 Cor 15:33 [CEV]
May God help you to make the right decisions. Amen.
Declaration: I make the right decisions in the name of Jesus.
Prayer Point: Lord, help me to make the right decisions.
Action Point: Review your friends in the light of this article.
