Lord make us humble till we become more important to God and less important to men.

Happy are those who are humble they will receive what God has promised. – Mathew 5:5. We are taught from our childhood to be humble. It is so rightly said in Mathew 5:5; “Happy are those who are humble they will receive what God has promised”.

The kingdom of God belongs to the humble.

Jesus himself gave us such a good example of being humble when He being the Master washed the feet of his disciples (John 13,13-17). Jesus said “You call me Teacher and Lord and it is right that you do so, because that is what I am. I your Lord and teacher, have just washed your feet, you then should wash one another’s feet. I have set an example for you, so that you will do just what I have done for you. I am telling you the truth: no slave is greater than his Master and no messenger is greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know the truth, how happy you will be if you put it into practice.”

“It is much easier for a poor man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a rich man” (Mat 6:17). As it is difficult for a rich man to leave all his riches behind and follow Christ. While for a poor man it is much easier as he has nothing much to part with.

If you are doing well in life give thanks and praise the Lord as He is the one who gives all. Never be boastful or proud because if He gives today He may decide to take away tomorrow. Thus one should always be humble and down to earth. Christ said, “anything you do for the least of my people you do unto me.” Jesus meant that any humble act done for the least important person or a poor person of a society, it will be considered as a good act done for God himself.

lf you are rich or in a position to help others always do it. If you are struggling to meet ends in life still give thanks and praise the Lord because one should remember that the situation could be even more worse. God gives us testing times to test and strengthen our faith. Sorrows? God can turn anything in a glimpse of time. Remain faithful and God will bless you. Life of many saints is a good example of this as they have always praised and thanked God in the most adverse of the situations and they have been blessed immensely in heaven.

Lord teaches us that we should not have revengeful feeling for anyone. If anyone has done anything adverse to us, we should not look for opportunities to take revenge. Instead we should do acts of goodness for them and try to change their hearts with our forgiving and loving acts. We should pray for people who harm us so that Jesus will change their hearts and help them to become good and nice towards others. Jesus taught us that everyone loves their friends but we should love our enemies too (Mat 5:43). God wants us to be just and perfect as He is. He makes the Sun shine on both good and bad alike thus we should also treat all in the same manner.

When God gives us abundantly we should do charity. Charity should be done in such a way that not even our closest friend should know of it. If one helps a needy person publicly intending to gather praise from people or to show off, it is hypocrisy. Scripture says such people have already received what they wanted but people who carry out charity in private, will be rewarded by the eternal Father in Heaven. A gift from eternal Father cannot be compared with any earthly bliss.

Now we know why should we be humble and meek.

- – - written by Mrs. Clare Roy

God has a beautiful plan for our life and the troubles that we face would be paving the way for it.

He found them wandering through the desert, a desolate, wind-swept wilderness. He protected them and cared for them, as he would protect himself. Like an eagle teaching its young to fly, catching them safely on its spreading wings, the Lord kept Israel from falling (Deuteronomy 32:10–11)

Any hurdle can be overcome if we place it to the Lord’s hands. All we need to do is surrender. It’s been two and half years since my marriage and the Lord has helped me and my husband Binod to overcome many hurdles in our life.

2009 and 2010 – The year of the recession. The year when so many people lost their jobs in US. The year when many were sent back to India due to project cost cutting. The year when it was difficult to get a company to file an H1 (The work visa needed to legally work in US) The year when the Lord gave me my H1 and a legal status to work in US. Yes, the scripture verses Deuteronomy 32: 10 :11. He accomplished in our Life Word by Word. Praise the Lord!

I came to US in 2009 after marriage. I knew it was not easy for me to get a job in US since I came on a dependent or a H4 Visa Status and I did not have a technical or IT background. I thought to myself that if the Lord does not want me to work here, so be it. But deep within I really wanted to work. I surrendered this to the Lord and kept trying.

2 months after I came to US after marriage, Binod’s project got over and we had to move from St Louis to Dallas TX, for his new project. I kept applying to companies in Dallas but due to the recession , no company was ready to file my H1 visa. I somehow did not want to pursue further studies to get a job and since most companies gave me a negative response that seemed to be the only option to start working. 4 months after Binod joining the new project in Dallas, suddenly his project went through budget issues and he had to come out of the project.

During this time my mom told us about a retreat in Malayalam conducted by Shalom Team in Dallas. Though both of us do not understand Malayalam that well, since we are born and bought up outside Kerala, the Lord helped us to attend the retreat and lead us to have reconciliation with Him through a good confession during the retreat.

I kept wondering why things were happening so negative with us. It was a difficult time for us since the recession was on. Getting another project for Binod was difficult and his company asked him to go back to India. That’s when the Lord blessed him with a new project and a job in a new company. This happened in September 2009. Since his company was far from home, Binod had to drive almost 45 min to work.

A few days after he started this new project he was introduced to a lady by a common friend. She used to work in a company near Binod’s office but did not have a car to drive till there. So Binod, that lady and another colleague began to car pool everyday to go to work. One day her family came to visit us and a few months down the line her husband introduced me to his friend for getting trained on technical skills and help me in filing my H1. Through this company, my H1 was finally filed . This company was also very close to home. Praise the Lord !

This happened even without me asking that lady to help me out. If Binod had not got out of the first project in Dallas, probably we would not have met this lady. Even today I do not know why she helped me with my H1. But I know that the Lord sent her. It was His plan that Binod’s project get over, and we move from St Louis to Dallas. It was His plan that Binod move out of the first project in Dallas and get into this new company. It was His plan that he get introduced to this lady by car pool. Everything happened after attending the retreat.

The company filed my H1, but I would be able to start work only in October 2010. Till then it was like a training period .Binod project also was going good and he started asking his company to file his green card for him. But his company was not giving a proper answer for his green card since Binod was working on a contract at a client site and the company didn’t know the future of the project.

In Sept 2010 again another hurdle came in. We were not sure if the project is going to get extended or not , there were a lot questions in our minds. If it did not get extended, will Binod’s company ask him to go back to India. What if his next project is not in Dallas, how will I work if we move out of Dallas. What will be my company’s reaction when they realize that I can’t continue working in Dallas. Will they stop my salary processing in October. Will they stop my H1 process. There were a lot of such doubts and confusion in our minds.

We used to place it to the Lord’s Hand everyday during our evening prayers and prayed that “ Lord you know what is best, You guide us and help us to accept your will happily in our life.” We had made ourselves mentally prepared for whatever happens. If the Lord wants us to go back to India , maybe that is what is best for us. If the Lord wants that we stay here , that’s what is best for us.

Suddenly one day, Binod calls me up from his office and tells me that his client company decided to hire him as a permanent employee with a salary hike and his green card also will be processed. The only thing is that we will need to move out of Dallas to a place called Austin. We were really happy and thanked the Lord for this great blessing , but now the hurdle was how to tell my company about all these changes. Moreover, it was that time that the Lord blessed me to conceive our baby.

Again we placed this situation into the Lords hands. Finally I spoke to my employer about me having to move to Austin. And to my surprise, without any hesitation, my employer allowed a Work from home option for me. Today I work from home in Austin and Binod works for one of the best IT companies and his office is a walkable distance from home. We are blessed with a Baby boy Daniel. Whenever a hurdle has come in our life, the Lord has helped us overcome it.

God’s Promise in Jeremiah 29:11 has been fulfilled in our life. It says, “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.”

We may not understand why things are not happening the way we want to. But He has a plan and that plan is the best for us. He has brought us thus far, He will take care of our needs ahead too. All we need to do is surrender our desires and inabilities to Him with a humble heart and He will work wonders.

- – - written by Jean Binod, Austin, TX, USA

Many of us find it difficult to know the Will of God for our life. Please read this article to find an answer to this issue.

It is not always easy to know exactly what is the Will of God for our life. Like the middle-aged farmer, who always wondered in the back of his mind whether God really wanted him to be a great evangelist. One day working in the fields, he took a break and laid down under a tree. Looking up in the sky he saw the clouds form what seemed to be the letters P and C. So, he hopped up, sold his farm, and went out to P-reach C-hrist; knowing now that this was God’s will for his life. The only trouble was, this guy was a terrible preacher. One night at one of his crusades after a horrible sermon, a compassionate friend of his who knew the story of how the farmer got his “calling” went forward and whispered in his ear, “Could it be that God was just asking you to P-lant C-orn?”

You can divide God’s will into His general Will and into His specific will. His general will is always very clear. We find His general will clearly revealed in Scripture in the area of what you and I are to believe; ethics, morals, life-style, how we are to behave.

But most of our questions about the Will of God don’t come in that general area, do they? They come in a specific area. Who should I marry? Should I take this job or that? Am I to move? Should I continue chemotherapy or not? A lot of times, we get worked up in tizzy over what God’s specific Will for our lives is, without grounding ourselves and being sure we understand what God’s general Will is for our lives.

Like the Christian guy who was fretting over ‘Should I move in and live with Mary, or Sue?’ Well, if he knew the general Will of God, that would not have been a question at all. That is why I exhort to read through the Bible; so that over the years as you and I rub up against the clearly revealed general Will of God, it becomes our anchor. It becomes our guidepost. It becomes the lens through which we can better discern the specific Will of God. What is God’s supreme Will for your life: its that we have an intimate personal relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.

If someone ask you what is your wife’s will, or her preferences in a lot of different areas, we can pretty much tell them. Why? Because you know her. You know her at more than second hand. You know how she thinks. You communicate. You know her heart.

God has not very much communicated with people through burning bushes. He chooses chiefly to communicate through burning hearts. Hearts passionately in love with Jesus Christ. If you are really serious about finding God’s Will for your life, but you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then that is the place to begin. But if you do know Christ as Lord and Savior, and you are still struggling to find out what God’s will is in the light of His Lordship and under the authority of His Word, then the Apostle Paul has some clues for you and me, as he writes to some early Christians in the city of Ephesus.

We look at Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, the 5th chapter, verses 15-20. This is the Word of God. Paul writes: “Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s Will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Join me as we pray: And now Father, as my words are true to your Word, may they be taken to heart. But as my words should stray from your Word, may they be quickly forgotten. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

Paul lays out some points that are actually part of God’s general Will for our lives. But if we can look through them as a lens, we will be better able to discern what also is God’s specific will for us as followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s take a look at these verses in some detail.

What is God’s Will for my life? In verses 15-17 of our text, Paul reminds the Ephesians and us, that is a very important, crucial question to ask. You are a wise person if you ask it; you are foolish if you don’t. Look at how he begins the text. He says, ‘Be very careful how you live.’ That is another way of saying, make sure that your life is in accordance with the Will of God. He says, ‘Make the most of the time.” In other words he is saying, invest yourself into asking this question. Ask it over and over and over again.

Is this God’s will for my life? He says you need to be asking that all the time, “because the days are evil.” If we are not asking that question, then we are going to be seduced. We are going to be seduced by the days. The world will capture us with its will. So he says, ‘Don’t be a fool. Be wise, ask the question.’ Then he goes on in verse 17 of our text to say that you need to understand what the Will of God is. We need to go through life continually asking. “Am I in God’s Will in this area? Am I in God’s will in this area? That area?” Asking the question and asking it again, and again, and again.

But how can I be sure? How can I be positive that I am in the will of God? Even when I am asking that question? Well, in verse 18-20, Paul lays out four points. Four points that are a part of the general Will of God for our life; and four points that direct us. In verse 18, Paul begins by saying, ‘Don’t get drunk. Don’t get drunk on wine.’ That is the problem of escapism. Bottom line, when you are a Christian, you are supposed to deal with reality. Even in all the pain and suffering that comes our way in this life. We are not to run away from our problems. We are not to seek escapism. We are not to try to anesthetize the pain, be it with drugs, or alcohol, or illicit sex, or psychological denial, or running off into a fantasy world somewhere.

We need to deal with reality. Because when you don’t, you are not dealing with God. When we are out of it, that is just it, we are out of God’s will. Nowhere in scripture does it say that God’s will for us is to be happy or pain free. It does say that God’s will is that we deal with reality. When we are dealing with reality, we are more apt to understand exactly what God’s specific Will is for our lives.

Secondly in verse 18, he goes on to say, ‘Instead, be filled with the Spirit.” That is the Holy Spirit. That is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Now what does that mean to be filled with the Spirit? It means to allow God to pour into us everything that He wants to give us in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to make it a point of our life to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit in our life, not all of the myriad spirits of darkness that come to us disguised as angels of light, and want to lead us astray. It means knowing Jesus Christ at more than secondhand. Knowing not just about God, but knowing God.

To be filled with the Holy Spirit means to open our life to the Spirit. Not just up to our waist, where it just appears like we are walking with Christ. Not just up to the neck, where our heart is usually in the right place; but up to the very top of our head, where our heart and mind and our entire being is being shaped toward the mind of Christ. As we grow toward the mind of Christ, we begin to think like God. We begin to think God’s thoughts after Him. And we start thinking like Christ, we are more apt to discern what the specific Will of God is for our lives.

Thirdly, in verse 19, Paul says that we are more apt to be in touch with God’s Will for our lives when we immerse ourselves in the worship of Him. He says, ‘Speak to each other with psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music unto the Lord.’ He is talking about worship.

Bottom line, the Christian faith is a singing faith. But life with all of its difficulties and tragedies tries to steal the song from us, doesn’t it? We have a lot to learn from our brothers and sisters, chained in slavery, oppressed on every side. Wondering, ‘Where is God’s will in all of this for us?’ What did they do? They sang! Gospel music and spirituals and the blues, that all comes out of that experience. The Christian people are a people of song.

Oh, but life is always trying to snatch that song from us. Like Chippie the parakeet. One minute singing peacefully in his cage; the next minute, sucked in, washed up, blown away. It all started when Chippie’s owner decided she would clean his cage with a vacuum cleaner. She was vacuuming the cage, and the phone range, and she reached over to answer it; and swoosh, there went Chippie into the machine. Well, she quickly flipped it off, opened the canister, ripped open the bag, and there was Chippie still alive, but stunned. Covered with dirt and soot. She ran into the bathroom, put him under the tub faucet. Now he was sputtering, soaked, and shivering. So she ran into the bedroom and this time hit him with a blow dryer. Well, a few days later a friend asked her how Chippie was doing. She said, “Well, he doesn’t sing much any more. He just kind of sits on his perch and stares.”

Life has a way of knocking the song out of us. And that is why worship is so important. That is why music is such a vital part of worship. Every week we come and we gather here, and we learn to sing again, and then to take that song out into the world. The Christian faith is a singing faith. When you and I make our way through life singing, singing chiefly praise to God – it is then that we are more likely to hear God singing back.

Fourthly and lastly, verse 20. Paul says that we will be more likely to get in touch with the Will of God, when we cultivate thankful hearts. He says, ‘ . . . giving thanks to God the Father for everything.” For everything?

Matthew Henry, the great Biblical scholar, one night was walking home and he was mugged, beat to a pulp, his wallet stolen. That night in his journal, Matthew Henry wrote these words: “Lord, I thank you. I thank you that I have never been robbed before. Lord, secondly I thank you that they took my wallet, but not by life. Thirdly Lord, I thank you that I was the one who was robbed, not the one doing the robbing.”

The word “thankful.” In the Anglo-Saxon it means “thinkful.” When we examine our lives, when we think out our lives, when we think about our lives in the light of God’s grace and our personal relationship with Christ, it is then we ought to be thankful for a whole lot of things. We have such a God of grace and mercy. Isn’t it wonderful that He blesses our lives, not just in those areas where we are thankful.

He continues to bless us, even in areas when we are not thankful. But you know what? When you and I are thankful, our heart beats more closely in sync with God’s heart. When that happens, we are much more likely to discern God’s specific Will for our lives.

Part of me says, ‘who in the heck, who are we to presume that we can know God’s will? We have a tough enough time trying to figure out what we even want in our lives.’ But we are on the right track when we deal the reality that God has a Will for our lives. It is not always painless. It is not always easy. It doesn’t always make us happy. But I’ll tell you this, it is always fulfilling.

You and I are on the right track when we come to grips with the fact that God’s will is often times not very efficient. It is not safe. It doesn’t always seem logical. But at the bottom of God’s heart, at the bottom of God’s Will for our life is always, always our best.