ARE YOU PRECIOUS IN HIS SIGHT?

MEMORY VERSE: Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life. Isaiah 43:4

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: Genesis 11-20

Please ignore anyone who tells you that God loves everyone equally. That is not true. The Lord said concerning Esau and Jacob, long before they were born, “Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated (Romans 9:13).” The same God who created Esau and Jacob said to Rebekah whilst she was pregnant, “Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger (Genesis 25:13).” One will be deluding himself or herself if he or she thinks that God loves everyone equally. He said in Isaiah 43:4, “Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.” You will realize from meditating on Isaiah 43:4 that some are precious in His sight and some are not. Many years ago, some men were travelling from Okenne, Kogi State, to another part of Nigeria. As they were about to set off, one of the men who sat in the back seat requested to swap seats with a young man who sat in the front passenger seat. The young man agreed and they swapped seats. Two minutes later, their vehicle was involved in a ghastly motor accident and the man who sat in the front passenger seat died instantly because of the injury he sustained. The man who swapped seats with him (and sat at the back) escaped with a mark to the side of his face.

Isaiah 43:4b says: “therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life”. The question is this, who created the men He promised to give for your life and my life? He created them. Proverbs 11:8 says: “The righteous is delivered out of trouble, and the wicked cometh in his stead." Whenever trouble opens its mouth to swallow a child of God, the Lord will replace him or her with the wicked. An example that comes to mind is the incident that happened to a Christian brother at his place of work some years back. Whilst he was on holiday, someone drove one of the company vehicles without signing it out and was fined for over-speeding. The police contacted the organization and when they could not produce the fellow who drove the vehicle, they decided to take the organization to court. In other to save their image, the company decided to sacrifice someone and the person they decided to sacrifice was this Christian Brother, the fleet manager. On the day they were going to sack him, the Lord delivered him and the manager, his manager, who wanted to sacrifice him was sacrificed instead. This brings us to the question, are you precious in His sight? Proverbs 8:17 says: “I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” Do you love the Lord? Firstly, only believers, born-again Christians, are precious in His sight. If you hate Jesus you are not precious in Lord's sight. Secondly, only those who love Him are precious in His sight. John 14:23 says: “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” Thirdly, only those who fear Him are precious in His sight. Proverbs 16:6 says: “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.”

NOTE: You cannot claim to fear God and accept bribe. You cannot claim to love God and fornicate.
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Bro Samuel | Reaching the world.

IN THE SIGHT OF GOD

Ecclesiastes 2:26a: For God gives wisdom and knowledge and joy to a man who is good in His sight:

People see things in different ways. A study was once carried out in a classroom. Some students were asked to look at a cup half filled with water and say what they saw. Some of the students saw the cup as half full while others saw it as half empty. This goes to prove that we see things differently. Most of the times we use our own standards to measure other people or use our own yardsticks to measure others. From studying Ecclesiastes 2:26a, we come to the conclusion that there is a way God sees things and at times it could be different from the way man sees things. It is possible for a man to be good in the sight of men but bad in the sight of God. Isaiah 64:6 talks about our righteousness before we became born again as filthy rags before the Holy One of Israel. Before we met Christ, all the righteous acts men have inputted unto us before God are as filthy rags! God sees things quite different from the way we see things. In Luke 21:1-4 is a classical example of this. While the rich were putting bags of gifts into the treasury, a certain widow put in two mites. To the whole world she gave the least but to God she gave the most because the rich gave out of their abundance but the poor widow gave out her poverty, she gave all her livelihood. Another instance is in 1 Samuel 16:1-13. God told Prophet Samuel to go to the house of Jesse and He would show him who to anoint. When Eliab came, the man of God exclaimed “surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him!” the Lord simply told him not to look at appearance or physical stature because He has refused him. The Lord further told him, that man busies themselves with looking at the physical appearance but He –the Almighty considers the heart.

Do you know before God, an offering is not an offering until we have first reconciled with our brethren or anyone who has offended us or who we have offended before we give  – Matthew 5:23-24? A sacrifice to God is not really a sacrifice until it cost us? In 2 Samuel 24:18-25, David wanted to offer Sacrifice to the Most High God so he approached Araunah about his piece of land to offer sacrifices to the Lord. Araunah wanted the king to take the land for free to offer sacrifices but David who knew the meaning of sacrifices refused. He told Araunah , “No , but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God with that which costs me nothing”. Do you know we have not really praise God until we dance with all our might? In 2 Samuel 6:14, when David wanted to dance, the bible records that He danced with all his might. In the sight of God, a man is not wise until He begins to evangelize and win souls. Proverbs 11:30 says He who wins soul is wise. We are not really a Christian until the whole world can look at us and not see our achievements, our wealth, our qualification or beautiful attire but Jesus. In Acts 11:26, the citizens of Antioch looked at the disciples, when all they could see in the way these men dressed and carried themselves was Jesus. They began to call them Christ-like i.e. Christian.

PRAYER POINT: Father,  help me to live my life in a way that is pleasing before You.