This Week With Jesus

Decision making is a much debated and much learnt subject with courses and books to guide us in our professional development. We are told there are multiple building blocks to this Decision making process, and which qualify the quality of our decisions. But one building block no one really talks about is the state of our mind when we are taking decisions. If we do so in a state of panic and fear, we are bound to make mistakes as our analytical abilities goes down. Psalm 37 verse 5 gives us the key to making good decisions when it says Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. In addition to committing we also are given multiple resources, like wisdom, peace and understanding. James 1:5, says If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. Proverbs 1:5, NIV let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance. Proverbs 11:14, NKJV Where there is no counsel, th

Can you sleep amid a storm? Can anyone?  In all honesty, left to ourselves I don't think anyone can. The fear of uncertainty created by a storm just does us in. But someone did. While on a boat, in the middle of the storm, someone was fast asleep while others were going crazy with fear.  If we take a storm in the figurative sense, we all face it many times in our lives and most times reacting negatively (in fear and panic) with a crushed spirit to those around us, hurting them as well as hurting ourselves. How great it would  be if we could sleep through them, unconcerned about our post storm future! Here is the thing. We can. The man who slept through the storm was able to do so because He had peace within Himself. He didn't have a care about the future because He knew the future.  Today, He has promised us that same peace and it is ours for the taking. He asks us to cast all our cares upon Him and in return take His peace to enjoy.  This has some very practical implications:

Flowers bring beauty and serenity to our lives. On every occasion we present flowers to our friends and family, to bring cheer to the day. Think about how a flower, becomes a flower and presents its beauty to the world and there is so much we can learn from it. But what is more important is this:  a flower blooms where it grows. It does not say I will grow here but bloom there. It does not put conditions to it's blooming. It simply shares its beauty and its scent, wherever it is. It does not put-up conditions for sharing either.  But we people do, don't we? "I wish I had more money so I could feed the hungry". "I wish I had more time, to visit the sick, or the widows, or lonely people around me". Or simply, "I can't come to Church because my car is in the garage".  Sounds familiar? Sure, it does, we do it all the time!   Let us remember some key instructions -  .. ... ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you

There is a chorus which goes - God is good all the time.  Believers also constantly tall about the goodness of God. That is till our prayer requests are not answered in the way we expected, then we are not so sure. To honestly say God is good, we must have an acceptance of His will over mine and that He knows best. If our prayers are not met in the way we expected, so be it. It does not mean He is not so good, but that he knows much better than us, as to what is good for us. So - A. We need to believe He knows better than we do and will choose the best way in the right time, which will maximise the benefit for us, even to the point of death. and B. His will is over mine, and which will make my journey easier. God’s goodness shows up in our lives every single day. Although we often think of his goodness when something big happens, his goodness abounds all the time--in every hour, minute, and second of the day, in the smallest of things around us. Here are five examples of his goodness i

"Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." - Micah 7:8 (NIV) It is easy to trust God when everything is going well. But when something terrible happens, it is easier to turn our backs on God. Often when we experience grief, loss  and pain, we get lost in the struggle and cannot see God’s guiding light. We may even fall away from our walk with God. But sometimes it is in those dark times that we can more clearly see the light of God shining through. Our source strength and hope. Our duty therefore, inspite of circumstances, is not to wallow and Instead, live on the three principles of what God asks of His people: to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with Him . This is our strength. The rest to be left to God, because He will uplift us far and above our troubles.

The phrase "do not be afraid" occurs 365 times in the Bible, one for each day. There are times when the heavens seem shut and drought and barrenness and failure surround us in whatever we do. It must happen to everyone and we have nothing to do but wonder what went wrong? At such times friends, relatives etc offer no consolation. They can't because they themselves may not know the pain or outcome. But there is one who knows . One Who had gone through worse and yet survived. Job. Job's story in the Bible, is the perfect example of holding God high, irrespective of His circumstances. Looking beyond the obvious as we say. Today his story can help us beyond and to the other side of failure and fear. Of special mention are verses Job 5:17-26 "He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee. In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither sh

Most of us if not all of us have asked this question since time immemorial. Whenever we face troubles or challenges, death, a job loss, financial difficulties etc., we tend to ask ourselves why. We are good people, strong believers, haven't harmed anyone, so why are we suffering this problem? We get this answer from Job, may be the biggest sufferer in the universe, in chapter 42, verse 5, where he says-  "My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you". This very clearly shows that unless we have experienced God, we can never be firsthand believers and will always have a secondhand faith, largely dependent on others. In the words of Ms Francis Taylor, "We have been taught about God by others. But the time must come in each of our lives to actually "see" what God has done both in the world and in us. For our faith to be "ours," we can't let it rest on the confession of others . Have we seen the hand of God so that our faith is truly our