“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15-16). 

We must be presented as approved unto God. Our lives are to be on display as showing evidence of God’s character. How else would the world know that Jesus is alive and the same yesterday, today, and forevermore? It is the life that expresses the truest meaning to Scripture that others are able to read even clearer than the text itself. Their interest prompts them to read on until the Word irresistibly becomes life to them. We direct them to Jesus Christ, the source of all that may be seen in us. He is seen through our every effort. He is glorified through our every deed, and He is edified when we participate with Christ and all who have come to know Him. Ours is to establish His kingdom on the earth as it is in heaven. Those who profess to know but do not know Him bring shame and disgrace to His name. And their pride becomes their shame. But those who know Him have contained in His Word the life that He promises. 

“Jesus answered, ’My kingdom is not of this world… but now My kingdom is not from here’ ” (John 18:36). 

Jesus is the King over all the earth, but His authority does not come from among the earth. The political factions and their divides are not the determinants of His allegiance. Nor is He limited and controlled by the popularity polls of shifting societal opinion. His rule is exclusive to what heaven has ordered and demands. God knows the outcome of every decision that appears to be right but often lacks the stability and character to last beyond even one election year. He allows us to take wild guesses in our attempts to move things forward and afterwards awaits our request to eventually ask Him what He has always known. His kingdom is not of this world but our references are often too worldly. When we come to understand that the true answers and resolve to our most perplexing questions and problems lie beyond this world, we will begin with Him and end with Him. His kingdom comes to invade our own kingdoms. He superimposes over what we had once established when we yield to Him. Otherwise, all that opposes must be dismantled and be replaced with what He originally had in mind. 

“My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer” (Psalm 45:1). 

The tongue is engaged as a result of the overflow of the heart. As we meditate on the goodness of the Lord, our speech is not restricted to the thoughts that immediately come to mind. There was a buildup of thoughts awaiting expression as Mary, the mother of Jesus, pondered in her heart all that the Angel of the Lord made known to her. When she finally spoke, a bursting forth of praise and adoration began to flow from the deepest recesses of her soul. How many times have we had to strain in offering praise because we have not gathered enough from the Lord’s living water to flow from the innermost portions of our hearts? Yet when we silently wait before Him and allow our minds to slowly reflect upon all which He has done, then when we speak, we will have more to say than time will allow. We must be swift to hear and slow to speak. In hearing what God has said, His Word must be applied to every part of us. Then our tongues will be employed to recite our composition concerning our King.  8

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast” (Hebrews 6:19). 

The waves of adversity will test the authenticity of our faith. Whether we have placed all our trust in God is proven in trying times. Here we cannot rely upon any other person or thing. We have launched out beyond the banks of secure living, and now have placed our lives in the hands of the only One who can safely navigate us through troubled waters. It is the emotions that are first under attack. The mind would consider the safety and security of the harbor. Some would think it would have been much better if they had never launched out into the deep. It is only when we consider the Commissioner of the mission that we may rest assured that none of the things facing us along this journey will take Him by surprise. He is there to protect us and to build within us something of value far beyond what we are at those moments of conflict able to see. To trust the Lord is to love Him with our minds, wills, and emotions. It is to submit what we would otherwise think or feel to Him in prayer that they may also be governed by His Spirit. He will settle us by showing us that He is with us. He will then remind us that the finished product is of far great value than the process itself. 

“For as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8). 

The travailing of the soul, the sound produced out of excruciating pain is the prelude to birthing. God will allow us to reach our breaking point when it appears as if all is lost, and He has totally abandoned us. Then there is the breaking of dawn. A new day breaks forth on the horizon. What He had shown us prophetically, and confirmed within our souls is brought forth. God is going to do a new thing. He will reveal Himself as He is. No longer must people guess and speculate regarding Him. The divisive opinions of those who mislead will be exposed and opposed. God’s Word and Power will triumph and none will be able to withstand it. Travail is also the intercessory prayer for the lost. When we see the conditions of the world, and if our hearts are not broken over it, we are not feeling with the Lord what He is feeling. He wept over Jerusalem. We must receive the spirit of lamentation as we witness all that is happening in our day. He will give us the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness once we are able to weep with Him. Children will be born into the kingdom of God. It will be more than a decision to join a church or any institution. Salvation will come to our houses when repentance and the prayer of intercession have come to our souls.

“For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light” (Psalm 36:9 KJV). 

Darkness conceals while light reveals. Things are further darkened by darkness while they are illuminated by the light. The Lord speaks His Word in order to guide us through life. His Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We are guided through those dangerous places where the enemy of our souls is lurking with the intent of killing, stealing, and destroying us. We are not walking alone because when we walk in the light we walk with Him. We see together and move in synch with one another. What we see enables us to see more. What we experience together is preparation for what lies ahead. The light that is before us now will lead us to greater dimensions of light. His light is the light of life. A fountain of living water continues to flow in our direction keeping and preserving us. What awaits us is far greater than what we had to abandon. All that preceded was mere preparation for what the Lord has yet to show us. We can trust His guidance and rest in His peace. We must not allow anything to get us off track but know that He knows the way that we must go. And when we safely arrive, we will appreciate every winding curve along the way. 

“I lay down and slept; I awoke, for the Lord sustained me” (Psalm 3:5). 

Sleep is like a form of death. When we sleep, we are no longer in control of our thoughts or body. All is as if it is in the grave without a conscious thought but trusting that at the proper time we will awake. Our dreams take us to places we had not traveled before. It is always our desire to have a peaceful rest, thus a peaceful travel to the place that our dreams would take us. Our prayer is that God would protect us when we have no defense. There are the terrors of the night; invaders who may come and interrupt us and invade our homes; calamities over which we have no control; all the things that could happen in the night. The morning of our awakening is like our resurrection. The Lord has sustained us through the night!  As we trust God to keep us through one night in order to see a new day, we must also trust Him for the midnights of life’s experiences. Whatever we are going through in life, we go through it like we are in the darkest of night. But there will be the dawning of a new day when we will awaken fully to the light of His glory and never again lose sight of day. We will step into our dream of Him and see Him as He really is. The Lord will sustain us unto a new day! 

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:14). 

The Apostle Paul uses the language of an athlete competing for the ultimate prize. Intermediate victories are not something he will settle for because his eyes are on something much greater. They may be used as a means to lead him there, but the ultimate prize is the fulfillment of the upward call. This has more to do with becoming someone than getting something. He qualified to enter in to the competition of becoming all that God had called him to become. And out of his becoming, he was enabled by the Holy Spirit to do all that God had called him to do. We too have been called by Almighty God to achieve a standard of spiritual excellence. It is a standard of living out and giving a full and clear expression of the life of Jesus Christ upon the earth. The world is in desperate need of knowing Christ and He can only be known through His Church. He was aware of his imperfections and areas where improvements were needed. But also open for God to reveal to him any blind spots that he at that point was not able to see. His was a matter of progressing in Christ towards the ultimate goal that was before him. To be found in Him, not having his own righteousness or self-justification of deeds, but totally yielded to Christ. We must set this as our goal as well. He has called us to reach up in order that we may touch the world with His love and power. This can only happen when it is all of Him and none of us. 

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone” (1Peter 2:7). 

What man often finds most useful, God may reject. And what man rejects God may accept. The materials used by God to build lives, communities, and His Church are not what we would often consider. He builds with character. He makes sure that what is being erected can support the winds of change and the waves of adversity. The example is a house built upon the sand. Even though the structure is elaborate and is a thing of beauty, it has no foundation. Eventually the inevitable will come to test its strength. The strength of a structure relies on its foundation. For us, no other foundation can be laid other than Jesus Christ. The accuracy of the establishment of Christ in the life of the believer will keep him stable in the most difficult of times. Christ is often rejected or misunderstood because the majority of people do not see any use for Him as He is. They attempt to either fit Him in as they please or eliminate Him altogether. Yet He is the only One we can turn to when we are forced to acknowledge how little we really know. He is able to heal and to guide, but He must be in place before our minds are able to acknowledge how much He is really needed. When we understand that we need Him, then we discover what held us together even when we thought it was ourselves. He has become the chief cornerstone among those who worship Him because they realize that in Him we live, move, and have our being. 

”If the Lord can see everything in the world of the dead, He can see in our hearts” (Proverbs 15:11 CEV). 

God examines the inner-workings of the hearts of men. He is able to observe every secret thought and the development of the mindset of men. It is not just the immediate thought or idea that He directs His attention to. He looks at all that contributed to the formation of the thought long before it is given expression. This text expresses His gaze into the dark mysteries of the world of the dead. He has full knowledge of every detail existing there. Even in the underworld of demons and devils and all of the mysteries of hell, God knows. If death itself cannot shroud the degree of knowledge fully known by Him, then it should be clear to all that He knows the hearts or the inner life or the secret life of men. “How then can we hide our thoughts from God?” 

The Psalmist requested divine introspection from God; “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart” (Psalm 26:2). He did not trust his own judgments, but requested that God show him what He sees in regards to the inner workings of his heart. We need God to show us what we are incapable of seeing within ourselves. Only then will the Holy Spirit be allowed to free us from the vice grip of sins that in the past appeared justifiable. Then we can be cleansed of secret sins.