Friendship: Brotherhood

A friend loves at all times, 

and a brother is born for a time of adversity.

Prov. 17:17 NIV

Friendship is a gift from God. It is a gift of pure joy that can be found in a relationship that is filled with adventures and happiness. It also gives comfort and assurance to those who are troubled. That is why, one must find a good friend that loves and cares not only during the glorious days but also during the tough times. A true friend “loves at all times”, he or she will never leave you even in times of difficulties and sorrows. He or she is the friend who stick around no matter what happen. A true friend is like “a brother” or sister. He or she is like a family that is always there and will accept, forgive and understand. God wants us to have real and faithful friend. He wants us to cherish this gift of relationship that is why we must be careful to choose our friends. Find the ones that are true and will be like a brother or a family. Find the one who believes in God and will tell you to do right and will not lead you to do wrong. Find someone who is a friend that loves at all times.    

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Friendship: Beware of Gossip

A perverse person stirs up conflict, and a gossip separates close friends. Prov. 16:28

Chatting and talking with our friends makes our day better. We talk to our friends all the time. It doesn’t matter what, when and how. Sometimes, we call and chat with them over the phone for hours or sometimes meet up just to talk and spend time with them. This build the relationship with our friends.

However, not all talks and chats are beneficial. Some can be harmful, hurtful and devastating. Especially, when we start to talk about other people’s negative characters and features. Though many would enjoy criticizing another person negatively behind their back, this is not good and beneficial to our relationship with them. This not only impacts the subject but also ourselves and the friends we gossip with. Gossip can ruin our integrity as a friend and ruin our relationships. It is sad to know that twenty to thirty more years of good friendship can be broken and ruin because of gossip. This is true and most people experience it. Most would end up having more enemies than friends. That is why we must avoid gossiping and especially the gossipers. Do not be friends with those who does not care and are not sensitive to the feeling of others. We may enjoy gossiping at one point of time, but in the end, all it does is hurt and destroy someone. We must talk to uplift not to destroy. We must express blessings and not curse. We must build friendship and not ruin it. We must love our friends with all our hearts. We must be careful with our words. We must not gossip.

If you have been gossiping, it is not too late. God wants you to make good friends. Therefore, confess this sin to God and ask him to better your relationship with others. Let God bind the friendship that you have started and make it a wonderful and meaningful one. Have a blessed and wonderful day with your friend. God Bless!    

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Friendship: Friendship with the World

“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” James 4:4

Friendship is one of the best relationship we can ever find. However, not every friendship will benefit us well. Some friendship can affect us negatively. A good example of that is being friends with the world. This means loving and embracing the worldly and sinful things that it offers. Being friends with the world is “enmity against God”, for God does not tolerate sin. God is blameless, holy and righteous. He is without flaws. That is why God does not want us to indulge ourselves with sin.

God wants us to be righteous like he is. He wants us to see ourselves as his reflection. Therefore, we must follow God and avoid the sins of this world. The devil is always waiting for an opportunity for us to sin. He will make sin pleasant and good to deceive us so we may fall on his temptation. But as believers and followers of Christ, we must look away and never entertain the friendship that this world is offering. For in the end, the sinful world will perish and only those who are friends with God will be saved. But thanks be to God, that as long as we live, we have hope in him. We can always repent and turn away from our sins so we can be friends with him and be saved. Amen.

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God's Love and Faithfulness is New Every Morning.

First Thing in the Morning

Lamentations 3:22-23 and Isaiah 40:31 (NIV)

Waking up being consumed by my first five minutes stressful thoughts of how to manage my life and all my responsibilities makes me like I don't want to wake up anymore. This kind of feeling is not only unique to me but to all. For some, this feelings could be once in a while, but sadly for most, stressful mornings could be daily. Like a husband stressed by his unwanted job or a single mother with three kids to feed, or maybe a college student trying to earn a degree. Stressful mornings affect not only ourselves but also the people that we live and work with. Moreover, that first five minutes of stressful thoughts can also affect your whole day.  But this is so contrary to what God wants our mornings to be. According to Lamentation3:22-23 (NIV): 

^22" Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
    for his compassions never fail.²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness."

Also in Isaiah 40:31 (NIV):

"but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

God is faithful and wants us to experience his love and faithfulness. But how are we going to experience his love and renewed strength every morning? As mentioned in the Scripture in order for us to have our strength renewed, we must HOPE IN THE LORD. This is a promise with a blessing from God. You must believe in God and hope in him then comes this unexpected rescue. Nothing is too small nor too big for him. God can do the impossible. Some think that their problem is too small for God to notice or to big and impossible for God to accomplish so instead of praying and reading the Bible first thing in the morning, they would rather consume themselves thinking of how to resolve their problems.  

The Bible itself proved and noted people who believed and hoped in God and have experienced the miraculous outcome of doing so. The same God that have done miraculous signs and wonder in the times of Abraham, Moses and Jacob is the same God that is present right now. The faithfulness and grace of God is new every morning and that is all we need. IF WE HOPE IN GOD, He will: 

1.  Renew our strength.

God will replenish our soul and will give us a renewed strength daily.

2.  We will soar on wings like eagle.

We can climb and reach for our dreams and though we may encounter the wind of troubles and hardships possibly come our way but like an eagle trying to reach the sky, we will soar, as God promised.

3. We can run and not grow weary.

Like an athlete supported by a coach and is aiming for the goal. We can run and know that our mighty coach is there leading and is present in every step of the way and in no time we can finish the race.  

4. We can walk and not faint.

As God is with us, we will never walk alone.

How wonderful to know that God is faithful and all his promises are true. Therefore, base on my experience, there is a huge difference between spending your morning with God from trying to figure life by yourself. My husband and I always pray in the morning and it makes a huge difference from not praying at all. For instance, when my husband and I forget to pray, all kinds of worriedness come to both of us, but when we pray we always experience peace. So I recommend the following: 

1. SPEND the FIRST 5 to 10 MINUTES of YOUR MORNING with God.

2. Read a verse or chapter of the BIBLE. I recommend Proverbs and Psalms for the beginners.

3. PRAY. Just tell God anything that is in your heart. Pour out your stress on him and ask him to be with you all throughout the day.

EXPERIMENT:

If you are not sure if it is true or not. Try to experiment and compare, A MORNING WITH GOD and A MORNING WITHOUT GOD. You will know the difference.

TODAY'S PRAYER:

Dear God,

Life is tough and it seems like even in the first five minutes of my day I am already consumed with all the daily stress of my life. Please show me how to believe and trust you. Please let me experience every morning and see the difference you can make and if my faith is not enough to believe, please show me who you are so that I may believe and worship you starting today. In the mighty name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

PLEASE ALSO BE INSPIRED BY THIS VIDEO:

God: "Ask For Whatever You Want Me to Give You."

"Sky is NOT even a Limit"

QUESTION:

If you have one prayer or a wish in your life, what will it be? Will it be to find a job? Or for your family to be united? Or to travel the world? Or to be rich? Or to cure a son or daughter? If you have a lamp like Aladdin, what kind of request will you make from the genie? Will it be for yourself or for someone else?

I remember one story in the Bible about God asking Solomon of what he wanted to receive from him. Here is the story taken from 2 Chronicles 1:7-12 New International Version (NIV):

⁷ That night God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for whatever you want me to give you."⁸ Solomon answered God, “You have shown great kindness to David my father and have made me king in his place. ⁹ Now, Lord God, let your promise to my father David be confirmed, for you have made me king over a people who are as numerous as the dust of the earth. ¹⁰ Give me wisdom and knowledge, that I may lead this people, for who is able to govern this great people of yours?”

¹¹ God said to Solomon, “Since this is your heart’s desire and you have not asked for wealth, possessions or honor, nor for the death of your enemies, and since you have not asked for a long life but for wisdom and knowledge to govern my people over whom I have made you king, ¹² therefore wisdom and knowledge will be given you. And I will also give you wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before you ever had and none after you will have.”

Tell me, what if God ask you the same question: What do you want God to give you? What will you ask of him? The sky is not even a limit, what will you ask? Today, we will see why God was pleased with the response of Solomon and why he gave him more than he asked for:

Response of Solomon:

1. Selfless request. God can give him anything he wanted, but Solomon chose to ask for wisdom and knowledge, not for himself but for the sake of his kingdom. God even emphasized that he could have ask for the death of his enemy or for a long life. But he put Israel ahead of himself so God was pleased.

2. Need over want. Solomon knows that he needs wisdom and knowledge more than wealth and long life to govern and so he ask for it.

3. Pure and good motive. More than anything, he clearly wanted to securely govern his kingdom well and has no plan of destroying it or giving it up to an invader so God was pleased.

Response of God:

1. A quick answer. God responded immediately to Solomon.  

2. Granted his request. God gave him wisdom and knowledge as he asked.

3. Gave more that what he asked for. God gave him wealth, possessions and honor, such as no king who was before him ever had and none after him.

And if you haven't received what you ask for:

James 4:3" When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. "

God wants us to be like Solomon, asking for our needs selflessly with pure and good motive. We can ask for anything like money, job, health, and everything else, but we must consider and ask why we ask for it. Sky is not even a limit for God. Try him.

SOMETHING TO DO:

If you haven't ask God for anything yet, try to ask him of something, but please consider the pointers above. Ask him and see what he can do for you today.

PRAYER:

Dear God,

Thank you for letting me know that you are able to do anything for me, but most of the time my heart's desire is not even in line with what you want me to have. Please let me know how to ask selflessly with the right motive. And if my faith is not enough to believe let me experience you today. Be with me and show me what big difference you can make in my daily life. This is what I pray in the mighty name of Jesus I pray, amen.

Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.

Are YOU the Blessed Man the Psalmist have spoken about? 

The passage below is from the famous book of Psalm 1, please read through the passage and see if you are the man or woman the Psalmist have spoken of:

¹ Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of the sinners or sit in the seat of mockers,
² but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither— whatever he does prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,  

nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
    but the way of the wicked will perish.

Probably, you will say "yes", that is me or maybe no that is not me. But if you are, please encourage others by leaving a comment below of how God wonderfully bless you. But if you think you are not, I am glad to tell you that though this passage is a description of a blessed man, Psalm 1, is at the same time, a formula showing cause and effect and a key on how to become a blessed man. Imagine how everyone in the world looking and searching for a formula or a way to be successful in all aspects of life and sadly some find it in a wrong way.

Yesterday, I have posted about how important your mornings can be and how spending it with God makes a difference. In continuation, this biblical scripture pointed out how blessed a person can be if he or she delights himself in the Lord. Science have spoken of cause and effect so as the Bible. 

According to the Psalmist if you are the person who:

1. Does not walk in the counsel of the wicked.

2. Stand in the way of the sinner.

3. sit in the seat of the mocker. 

And if you:

4. Delight in the law of the Lord.

5. Meditating on it day and night.

Then you are,

1. Like a tree planted by streams of water, 

2.which yields its fruit in season
3. and whose leaf does not wither— 

4. whatever he does prospers.

If you have found a key to a treasure box or have found a map to a land with hidden treasure, will you ignore it or throw it away? Certainly not. You will try to open it and try to get the precious items on it. God's Word is a treasure box filled with precious jewels. His Words are perfect and is useful in our daily life. Making a man walk straighter. How wonderful and amazing to know that if we walk according to God, He will direct our ways and will be our supplication. And surely, if God blesses he adds no trouble to it. After reading, think for awhile and see if you are the person the Psalmist have spoken about. If not, read Psalm 1 again and do the EXPERIMENT of cause and effect:

Study Psalm 1 carefully. Try to carefully follow verses 1 and 2 for a week and see the effect.

PRAYER:

Dear God,

Thank you for this wonderful day you blessed me with. I am not sure if I am the man the Psalmist have spoken about to be blessed, but if you think I am not. Please show me your way so I can follow you and delight myself in you. And if I lack faith, let me experience you that I may believe. Thank you so much. In the mighty name of Jesus, I ask and pray. Amen.

Please also check our ministry at: www.dailydoseofheaven.info 

How to Keep the Marriage Intact and Stronger?

Genesis 2:22-24 NIV

"22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23  The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh."

The Word of God says, man is united with his wife and they become one flesh but it is sad to know that nowadays divorce rate is getting higher and higher, and it feels like it is becoming common almost everywhere in the world. But pretty sure anyone who plan to marry believes that he or she found Mr. or Mrs. Right. But how is it possible that a lot of married couple end up in divorce or being separated after a year or two?

The answer is Marriage does not only requires one type of love. Marriage requires all types of love to keep the marriage intact and stronger. As mentioned on my first blog about love, love can be divided into four types: "Agape" for Godly love, "Phileo" for friendly love, "Eros" for romantic-passionate love and "Storge" for family love and here are some things to consider:

1. Romance is so important for marriage, but a man cannot just marry a woman because of passionate-attraction, "Eros" or romantic love. What will happen if the romance is gone? Romance can be totally different after 10 to 30 year of marriage they say, more so if all the unwanted fats and wrinkles grow visible. What will you do if you find your spouse less attractive? Will you find a younger one? And if that new one become less attractive as the first, will you consider another? When romantic love is gone what will you hold on to?

 2. That is why friendship within marriage is a must. Knowing that your spouse is also your friend gives extra spice and bond to a marriage. Is your spouse always coming home late because he spends too much time with his friends after work? What do you think he does with his friends that he cannot do with you? Boys are boys and girls are girls but if your spouse spends more time with his other friends than with you, then friendship is not established within the marriage. That is why a couple should have a lot of common interest to share with. Something that you would both be excited to do or talk about together aside from bills and responsibilities that can be totally boring and stressful. Something that your spouse would love to do with you instead of someone else so "Phileo" love can also be present in marriage. So friendship will keep the marriage stronger.

 3.Additionally, spouses must have "Storge" or "the love for the family". This kind of love goes hand and hand with commitment and responsibility which is also a must in a marriage. Most people enter marriage without even thinking of responsibilities. They exchanged "I do's" without even realizing that the words "for richer and for poorer, till death do as part" should really exist. So when the hardship comes they give up. So both couple must have love for the family that they are creating. Do not create a family if you are just going to break it.

4. Lastly and the most essential is the "Agape" or love of God. Marriage fails because it is not sanctified by God. God holds the marriage and keeps it pleasant and unconditional. A famous quote once said, "A family that prays together, stays together". This is so true. If the family prays, it creates a bond that will never be broken. Imagine, your family praying together, your spouse reading the Bible and teaching your kids how to pray. "What a lovely family I have", you can say. God gives peace and assurance of a better future. God will never let your family to be broken, but He will heal every wound and straighten what is crooked. So God will preserve the family. Moreover, you are setting a good example to your kids so when they have their own families, they will definitely would have the same as the one you have created. A family full of love.

Therefore, to keep the marriage stronger, keep all the points above in mind. If you are still single, it will also help you plan for your future marriage and family life. As I have mentioned, all types of love should exist and co-exist to keep the marriage stronger and last a life-time.

SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT:
1. What kind of love is my marriage founded on?
2. Is my spouse also my friend?
3. Is God the center of my marriage?
4. Are all the types of love present in my marriage?
5. What am I doing to keep my marriage stronger?

PRAYER:

Dear God,
       Thank you for this amazing opportunity to be reminded of your words that I am one flesh with my spouse and I have vow to love him/her through think and thin. Please help both of us to keep our marriage stronger. There is nothing more I could ask for than a marriage that is bonded by your love, sustained by friendship, ignited by passion and romance and cherished as a family. Please help us O loving God and show us what you can do. If our faith is weak, let us experience your power that we may believe and abide in you. Thank you Lord, in the precious name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.


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