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Revelation 1:8
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End,” says the Lord…

The doctor has just told you that you have an incurable disease. The X-rays and blood tests confirm it. Your worst fears have come true and you feel like your future has been sealed.

My friend, the doctor’s report is not final. Jesus declares to you, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.” (Revelation 1:8) He has the first word as well as the final word in your situation. The experts and medical reports don’t!

Alpha and omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. But Jesus did not speak Greek. He spoke Aramaic or Hebrew. So He would have said, “I am the Aleph and the Tav.” Aleph and tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. So what Jesus is declaring to us is this: “I have the first word in your situation. And I have the final word in your situation!”

Each Hebrew letter has a corresponding picture. Interestingly, aleph is associated with an ox and tav, a cross. Together, they make up a beautiful picture of what Jesus did for us—He is the sacrificial “animal” on the cross. It was for us that He suffered, bled and died.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses. (Matthew 8:17) That is why your sickness does not have the final word in your life. Jesus does, because He took your sickness upon His body and paid for your healing with His blood.

When Jesus hung on the cross, He took our curse. (Galatians 3:13) We were supposed to be cursed because of our sins, but He took our place and the curse fell on Him. Today, we take His place and His blessings fall on us!

So why settle for the curse of sickness or even poverty when the price for your healing and provision has been paid by Jesus? Sickness and poverty do not have the final word in your life. Jesus does because He redeemed you from every curse!

Beloved, when man says that it is impossible, Jesus says that it is possible. The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, has the final word in your situation!

Thought For The Day
Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, has the final word in your situation!

Luke 10:38-42

Two sisters were busy preparing for Jesus’ visit. Upon His arrival, Mary turned her attention to the Lord. Meanwhile, Martha was distracted by the preparations (Luke 10:40) and became agitated that her sister was no longer helping. We may be thinking Martha was right—if there was still work to be done, her sister should not have been sitting down. Then we hear Jesus’ perspective. Observing that Martha was worried and upset about many things when only one thing was needed, He said Mary had chosen what was better (Luke 10:42).

There are some important lessons to be learned from this story. First, to have fellowship with Jesus, we may have to leave some things undone. Jesus knew how hard the women had been working and how much Martha longed to finish the tasks. But their greatest need was to spend time with Him. The sisters’ focus was to be on listening, learning, and interacting with Him.

The second lesson is that our choice to forgo an activity may be misunderstood. Martha certainly didn’t comprehend her sister’s decision. What’s more, if we fail to take time with the Lord, there may be unpleasant consequences. We see this in the way Martha’s distraction led to worry and agitation. Jesus invited her to choose the better way—namely, to be with Him.

Establishing a habit of communing with God is essential to our spiritual health. Even in our daily work, we can learn how to maintain an awareness of Him. So aim to choose the better way, as Mary did. Connecting with Jesus regularly will sharpen your focus on what is most important and help you distinguish what is good from what is truly the Lord’s best.

Bible in One Year: 1 Chronicles 7-9

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever (Psalm 23: 5-6 NKJV).

God wants you to set your expectations in Him as high as you possibly can. He wants to do things in your life that are so extraordinary that some people are not going to believe it. Extraordinary means “remarkable, uncommon and rare.” If you will stand in faith for the extraordinary to come to pass, then the extraordinary will become the norm in your life.

God is good, and He is continually looking for opportunities to express His goodness in your life. It is up to you to position yourself to receive this goodness. The way you do this is by eliminating any wrong thinking that you may have allowed into your life.

Don’t allow yourself to doubt God’s goodness or His love for you.
Don’t question God’s desire to give you good things that you think you don’t deserve.
Don’t limit God by expecting so little from Him.

If you limit God to conventional or usual methods of provision, you will not be in a position to receive from unusual sources. God wants to bless you in ways that are remarkable, uncommon, and rare.

If you don’t expect the extraordinary to happen, your life will remain as it is. However, if you expect God’s goodness and mercy to follow you every day of your life, you will start to see a positive change in your circumstances.

So dare to set your expectations high and see the extraordinary things God will do when you put your faith in Him.

Confession: I choose today to set my expectations solely in God. I refuse to doubt, question, or limit God with small thinking. Instead, I expect the extraordinary to be a normal part of my life.

Author: Jerry Savelle

“I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed. But he knows where I am going” (Job 23:8-10a NLT, second edition).

Yesterday we saw that David frequently complained of God’s apparent absence. But the truth is, God hadn’t really left David, just as God will never leave you. He has promised repeatedly, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Yet God has not promised that you will always feel his presence. In fact, God admits that sometimes he hides his face from us (see Isaiah 45:15).

There are times when he appears to be missing-in-action in your life.

Floyd McClung describes it this way: “You wake up one morning and all your spiritual feelings are gone. You pray, but nothing happens. You rebuke the devil, but it doesn’t change anything. You go through spiritual exercises . . . you have your friends pray for you . . . you confess every sin you can imagine, then go around asking forgiveness of everyone you know. You fast . . . still nothing. You begin to wonder how long this spiritual gloom might last. Days? Weeks? Months? Will it ever end? . . . It feels as if your prayers simply bounce off the ceiling. In utter desperation, you cry out, ‘What’s the matter with me?’” (Finding Friendship with God; Ann Arbor, MI: Vine Books, 1992; 186).

The truth is, there’s nothing wrong with you! This is a normal part of the testing and maturing of your friendship with God. Every Christian goes through it at least once and usually several times. It is painful and disconcerting, but it is absolutely vital for the development of your faith.

Knowing this gave Job hope when he could not feel God’s presence in his life. He said, “I go east, but he is not there. I go west, but I cannot find him. I do not see him in the north, for he is hidden. I look to the south, but he is concealed. But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold” (Job 23:8-10 NLT, second edition).

When God seems distant, you may feel that he is angry with you or is disciplining you for some sin. In fact, sin does disconnect us from intimate fellowship with God. We grieve God’s Spirit and quench our fellowship with him by disobedience, conflict with others, busyness, friendship with the world, and other sins (see Psalm 51; Ephesians 4:29-30; 1 Thessalonians 5:19; Jeremiah 2:32; 1 Corinthians 8:12; James 4:4).

But often this feeling of abandonment or estrangement from God has nothing to do with sin. It is a test of faith, one we all must face: Will you continue to love, trust, obey, and worship God, even when you have no sense of his presence or visible evidence of his work in your life?

The most common mistake Christians make in worship today is seeking an experience rather than seeking God. They look for a feeling, and if it happens, they conclude that they have worshipped.

Wrong! In fact, God often removes our feelings so we won’t depend on them. Seeking a feeling, even the feeling of closeness to Christ, is not worship.

Talk It Over

How does understanding these truths about worship change your attitude about the time of worship in your church?
Why do you think God tests our faith? What does he want to accomplish in your life?
If you are experiencing a time in your life when you do not feel God’s presence, how will you choose to respond?

Only a fool would say to himself, ‘There is no God.' And why does he say it? Because of his wicked heart, his dark and evil deeds. His life is corroded with sin.
—Psalm 53:1 (TLB)

We live like a little ant on this little speck of dust out in space. We get a Ph.D. degree and we strut across the stage and say, “Well, I don’t know whether or not there is a God.” And we can’t even control ourselves. We can’t even keep from blowing ourselves apart. We can’t even keep from manufacturing nuclear weapons that could destroy the world. We can’t even keep from hating each other, and fighting with each other, and killing each other. We can’t even keep from stealing from each other. We can’t even keep from dying, because all of us are going to die. No wonder the Bible says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God,” because a man that would deny the existence of God is a fool.

Prayer for the day
Almighty God, help me to live in such a way, that when I tell others of Your existence, they will be drawn to acknowledge and receive You.