Proverbs 14:32-33

³²When calamity comes, the are brought down, but even in death the righteous seeks refuge in God. ³³Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning and even among fools she lets herself be known.

Feather

         Someone said, “If you throw a handful of chicken feathers into the air, most probably, you won’t be able to gather them all.” Similarly, if you vent or voice out frustration in your social media account, you cannot stop others from spreading what you have published online, even if you delete your social media account.

         It’s very intriguing for malicious people to spread rumor about other people. It is very unpleasant reality but maybe, they want to be infamous. It has stated in 3 John 1:9-10, ⁹Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. ¹⁰So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.

         Malicious people like Diotrephes may wish to be popular in a negative way. Don’t they realize that spreading malicious nonsense may cause them to become malevolent? Someone suggested that whatever your mind entertains will define who you are. If you always think about fishing, most probably you want to be fisherman. If you always thing about baking, most probably you want to be a baker, if you always think about travelling, you’ll be travelling one day somehow.

Seriously, let us reflect on what it admonishes us in Ephesians 6:18.

¹⁸Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.

         As children of God, we are encouraged to always pray on all occasions. There’re many prayer items we can pray for, especially for the family of believers.

         One of the positive usefulness of social media is to be updated about your friends and relatives. What do you normally do when some of your social media friends publish their circumstances? Click an appropriate emoticon. Don’t just click the thumb up emoticon. Say a prayer when your fiends are down in trouble.

1.  Down

³²When calamity comes, the wicked are brought down, but even in death the righteous seeks refuge in God.

         When we’re down in trouble or just passing through ordinary circumstance, to seek refuge in the Lord is righteousness in his eyes. Anyone may struggle with difficult circumstances but the righteous who seeks refuge or shelter in God won’t be easily brought down. What do you think? Have you personally experienced it?

         The Lord Jesus teaches about persistent prayer. It says in Luke 18:2-8,

²In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared what people thought. ³And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually come and attack me!’”

⁶And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

         When we cry out to God day and night, we can expect him to bring justice to our plea. And of course, it is also by faith we believe that reality. Whenever you pray and you sense like God is very slow in delivering his answer to your prayer, persistently pray for increase of faith and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

         Do you easily accept that God knows already our prayer items even before we say it? How do you interpret what Christ declares about God the Father in Matthew 6:8? ⁸For your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

         If God knows what we need even before we may ask him, he must have already delivered what we need because our heavenly Father is a loving God.

If God has already delivered what we need, why is it that we do not have it, even before we say a prayer? The answers of God to our prayer are never late and never early. They are always on time. Can you strongly believe that?

Most often, we are very eager for answer, but God deals with us according to our faith in him. If we believe that God has delivered what we asked him, then, we should have joy, peace, patience and strong confidence that he won’t fail us.

Sometimes, God has already delivered what we prayed for but we don’t know where and how we can access them. How can we discern and realize his answer? We pray for godly inspiration to discern which practical steps to take.

2.  Discern

³³Wisdom reposes in the heart of the discerning and even among fools she lets herself be known.

         If we can discern what God has prepared for us, it’s his Holy Spirit who gives us wisdom to distinguish his will from our human free will or natural instinct. How do you interpret God’s will? With human understanding naturally. When we pray for blessing for example, our natural mindset prefers material blessings.

         Employees may pray for increase of salary or promotion. Students may pray for better grades in school. God may want you to have increase of salary, but not necessarily from your current employee. God may want students to have better grades, but not necessarily from the same school or degree. God may bless us materially but God prefers to give us the best blessing for his children.

         We believe Christ has come for obedient believers to have abundant life.

         How can we discover the abundant life that Christ offers? We must discern which practical steps we should take or decide. Reflect on in Psalm119:124-125,

¹²⁴Deal with your servant according to your love and teach me your decrees. ¹²⁵I am your servant; give me discernment that I may understand your statutes.

         We need a servant’s heart to access to godly discernment, why? Servants follow instructions of their master because they discern that it is for their benefit to obey their master. Godly commands are instruction to access godly blessings, but we are slow to obey godly commands, why? It requires servant’s heart with discernment to obey God. Godly statutes are decreed blessings favorable to the obedience, if we clearly understand that mysterious reality, we readily obey.

Ten Lepers

         How do you explain what happened in Luke 17:12-19, ¹²As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance ¹³and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!” ¹⁴When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed. ¹⁵One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. ¹⁶He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? ¹⁸Has no one returned to give praise to God except this foreigner?” ¹⁹Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

         Ten lepers asked for pity and Jesus told them to show themselves to the priests. Priests were given the ability to examine if a person has been cleansed from leprosy or not. The ten lepers were cleansed but only one returned praising God in a loud voice; he bowed down and thank Jesus. The others did not return.

         Anyway, the Samaritan returned praising God, and Christ saw his faith. It was not known if the other nine lepers were completely healed but possibly, they may have gone and shown themselves to the priests. Maybe some of them were grumbling on their way because they cannot understand why Christ instructed to show themselves to the priests instead of healing them right there and then.

In comparison, the Samaritan obeyed with hope that the priests may declare him to be cleansed from leprosy. He was healed because he believed.

Many people are like the ten lepers who shout to the Lord for their needs. The Lord gives instruction how we can access to the answers of prayer items. Anyone who hesitate to obey may not really trust God. Believers who trust God obey him and return praising and giving thanks to God for answered prayers.

We gather regularly because we want to praise and thank God for all the blessings, he had already showered us and not only to seek blessings from God.

May our gracious God keep on showering us with so much blessing for us to become blessing to him and to everyone acquainted to us, Amen!

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