YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR DESTINY

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR DESTINY

TEXT: 1 Chronicles 4: 1-10

KEY VERSE “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested” (1 Chronicles 4:10)

It is remarkable how a little attention to details can go a long way in altering the course of history for an individual. People who have had the good fortune of enjoying the privilege would admit that, it involves acting against conventional thoughts and wisdom. It is to be single-minded in the pursuit of this goal, even when it is seemingly unpopular to do so.

It was so with Jabez. He had reason to complain and blame other people for his misfortune. He could have been ranked as probably the worst among Judah’s children. There was a certain foreboding about him. “his mother named him Jabez, saying, because I bare him in sorrow’. Despite the fact that, the man’s life was shrouded in circumstances, Jabez took a conscious step to become “more honorable than his brethren”. He achieved this because he turned to God with definite requests – for God’s blessings, prosperity, guidance, protection from evil, and preservation from grief. Seeing his faith, god granted all his desires: god changed the course of his life.

Do not settle for mediocrity in any area of your life. You should not struggle for basic necessities of life. Reject the negative stereotypes that people have associated with you. Do not allow your life to be limited by the negative destiny prescribed by your peculiar history. Once you observe any adverse situation in your life, do not accept that you are destined or created with them.

Take the wise step – seeking God’s help. Pray to God to change the circumstances, to fulfill His promises in your life and rewrite your history. GOD WILL PROMPTLY ANSWER AND DO SO.

There is nothing too great for the Lord to do.

KEPT FOR A MEMORY

KEPT FOR A MEMORY

TEXT : JOSHUA 4:10-24

------KEY VERSE-------- And he spoke unto the children of Israel saying, when your children shall ask their fathers in time to come saying, what means these stones? Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land (Joshua 4: 21, 22)

Eighteen-year-old Hudson Taylor wandered his father’s library and read a gospel tract. He couldn’t shake off its message. Finally falling to his knees, he accepted Christ as His Savior.

From our text, we are told Joshua and the people set out from Shittim until they arrived at the edge of Jordan River. The people then followed behind the priests who bore the Ark of the Covenant; and as Priests’ feet dipped into the Jordan, the water suddenly stopped to  create the passageway of dry ground for them.

After crossing, the divine voice told Joshua to take twelve stones from the Jordan’s water and place them in them in the land they had just entered. One large stone was apportioned for each of the twelve tribes as a memorial for their children. Additional to this, Joshua directed twelve men to take another twelve large stones from the new land and place them into the Jordan River.

The significance of these precious stones was that, they symbolized a memorial for the coming generation. Tragically, the generation of Israelites that departed Egypt with Moses angered the Lord so often by their unbelief and disobedience. This made the lord to abandon almost all of them to continually roam in the wilderness for 40 years until they died; they never inherited the Promised Land. The new generation under Joshua made few mistakes but generally pleased the Lord: they “served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived Joshua, and all the days of the elders that over-lived Joshua and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done foe Israel” (Joshua 24:31).

Think over the above-mentioned to realize the level of the disparity between the two generations. It is like the difference between day and night; acceptance or rejection and life or death. This is no minor matter, but a sharp, radical difference of revolutionary proportions brought about by deliberate and concerted effort of teaching the children to fear and the serve the Lord, which was a precursor of Ezekiel 11: 19; 36: 26 which speak of Israel receiving a new spirit and new heart, while rebels are purged from her midst (Ezekiel 20:37)

Sow righteousness today; reap mercy thereafter.