A Prayer, a Pledge and a Belief

A prayer, a pledge and a belief

Before I share the text for today, I want to share something lighthearted with you.....

A little boy wanted a bicycle but he did not know best how to pray for one. So as he was watching a church television program, a very traditional service, he saw how the minister prayed. At the end of the day, the lad got on his knees and said: "Lord, if it is in Your Sovereign will and in Your Eternal plan that I can get myself a bicycle - in your time and according to your will - would you please get me a bicycle In Jesus name I pray. Amen."
        Two days later, there was still no bicycle; so he began to think he needed a different prayer. He turned on the television again to watch another type of ministry in operation. And at the end of the day, he got on his knees and said: "Lord, I declare my need for a bicycle! And I declare that it will be a nice blue-colored bicycle and delivered to my home within 24 hours. I lay claim to it, Amen!"
        After several days and still not having received a bicycle.  As he was passing through the hall he saw a statue of the Virgin Mary there on one of the shelves.  He took the statue off of the shelf and disappeared somewhere. His mother was observing him all the time. Later that night as he got ready for bed, the little boy got down on his knees and said, "Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again..." 

It was Dr. Ravi Zacharias who asked this very profound question of his audience at one of his meetings « If a non-believer were to base their understanding of God and Christ and the Christian faith on what they witness of our life in general and our devotional life in particular, what conclusion would they come to?

The text that I want to share is from 1 Samuel 1- verses 1 onwards which the story of Hannah is. As we read the story we observe 3 things happening   in Hannah’s life.  A Prayer, a pledge and a belief

The Prayer

Very briefly the story goes like this

There lived a man called Elkanah who had two wives; Peninnah who had children, and Hannah who didn’t have any. Over the years, Hannah had become an object of ridicule due to the fact that the Lord had shut her womb and Peninnah never missed an opportunity to mock her regarding this.

Year after year after year Elkanah and family went up to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, the place which was considered to be the religious hub of the nation. We don’t know how long Hannah had gone through this annual routine; whether she went out of a sense of duty, compulsion or simply because it was a tradition.

For, though Hannah was physically present at Shiloh, she was mentally far away, her mind weighed down by the misery and shame she was experiencing.

You see sometimes we do things for God, with the wrong attitude. It is very easy to get bogged down by our circumstances and settle down into a kind of monotonous routine. As a result, our worship becomes routine, our prayer life becomes routine and spending time with the word becomes routine.

But one year, Hannah decided to get out of the monotony, she came into God's presence with a specific powerful prayer. Verse 9 and verse 10, tells us that Hannah went to the Tabernacle to pray and weep bitterly before the Lord.

The Pledge

In verse 11, Hannah made this vow to God: "O Lord Almighty, if you will look down upon my sorrows and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you ".

What an incredible pledge! She had by faith, just promised to give God something that she had desired to have the most in her life, something of infinitely more value than gold, silver or money, the very child that she had waited so long for.  

And as Hannah was faithful and gave up her child to God, God blessed her with 5 more children, three sons and two daughters.

There is a very important principle here. When we sow out of our areas of lack by faith, God is faithful to bless us in that area.

The Belief

The facts were against her. After all the Lord had shut her womb. What chance did she have to bear a child? Yet she chose to place her trust in the Lord and believed what Eli, the priest, had told her. In fact the word says, she was at peace. She was no longer troubled.

Today we have Jesus as our High Priest sitting on the right hand of the Father. When he says “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do,” no matter what the odds are, no matter what the facts tell us, we need to choose to believe what Jesus says to us. We need to believe it is done.

THE PERFUME

^{THE PERFUME} 

Today, I want to share on the topic of giving and for that I’ll first share a story and then a text from the Bible. A man goes to his pastor and says “Pastor, you have got to pray for me. I am really struggling in the area of tithing”. Why? What seems to be the matter? Asked his Pastor. “You see, there was a time  when I was earning 50 dollars a week and I was tithing 5 dollars No big deal, it was cool, then my salary became  500 dollars a week and I had to tithe 50 dollars, which was also ok. But now, I am earning 5000 dollars a week and tithing 500 dollars is too much. His pastor began praying for him” God, you have got to help this brother here who is struggling to give his  tithes, so I pray that you would decrease his salary so that the amount he has to tithe would also become less and it would be easier for him to pay his tithes.

Humour apart, when it comes to giving, people do all kinds of peculiar calculations in their head and come up with reasons on why they cannot give. Seriously how does addition of one more 0 matter?  It’s the principle that matters.

The text that I want to share is  from John 12- Verse 3 onwards, It is a graphic  story which  basically looks into the  hearts of 2 people Mary (generous heart) and Judas (selfish heart).

³ Then Mary took about a pint^[a] of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.

⁴ But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, ⁵ “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages” ⁶ He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.

In those times, one Denarius was one day’s wages, so ANNUAL INCOME of an ordinary person would be around 300 denarii. Now nard or spikenard was a costly perfume which most probably had originated from India, China or Nepal and Mary would have paid around 300 denarii for jar of the perfume.

To really appreciate this story, you need to imagine it in today’s context.  So Mary enters Shoppers Stop, goes upto the perfume counter and says “Look I want to buy the most expensive brand of perfume that you have”. The salesman says “ok here you are, 1 ounce bottle that would be Rs.50000”. And Mary replies “I don’t need just 1 oz. I need one pint .I need 16 oz. Here is my entire years’ salary. Wow! Just think about it.

Makes me wonder, why did Mary do it? She was not rolling in money. She was an ordinary person with an Average income like you and I. Then what motivated her? The answer may be found in the previous chapter. Lazarus had just been raised from the dead and they were having a small party on that day with Jesus and his disciples. Mary was obviously grateful. Not only that, she loved the Lord with all her heart. And it was this love and gratitude that led to her incredibly lavish gift. So here we have the picture of the generous heart. A person  living life with an  open hand, which says God nothing matters more to me  than you and  all I have, my finances, my talents, my time, my resources are  yours.

Now look at Judas. He was so concerned about the money (which incidentally was not even his).  What was his motive? Concern for the poor was the last thing on his mind; it is very clear that Judas was only seeking to gratify his needs.

He was the treasurer and He was pilfering with the offerings. He was literally robbing Jesus. It says here- he was a thief.

You may wonder- Didn’t Jesus know what was going on? Didn’t he know Judas’s nature? Then why did he place him in such a responsible position? God knows everything about us including our weaknesses and he sometimes deliberately places us in areas of our weaknesses, to make us strong in those particular areas. In Judas we have the picture of the selfish heart. A person living life with a closed fist, which says nothing matters more to me more than my finances, I will grab whatever I can and hold on to whatever I have.

This is a pretty good analogy of our lives. The spirit of generosity (the Mary spirit) and spirit of selfishness (the Judas spirit) coexist in all of us, maybe in different areas and like everything else in our life the battle between the 2 is in the mind. And every time the battle begins, we need to make a choice, the choice either to be generous or obey God or the choice to be selfish and gratify self. Making right choices every time leads to the formation of right habits. And forming right habits leads to creating right lifestyles. So if we are generous every time, it leads first to a habit of generosity and then to a lifestyle of giving. And vice versa is also true.

Before I close, I want to share an interesting statistic with you.  The word "Give" appears 921 times in the Bible, almost as many times as "Faith" (270), "Hope" (165), and "Love" (541) put together. God is repeatedly exhorting us to be generous because he knows perfectly well that most of us struggle with this discipline. 2 Corinthian 9: verses 6-11, particularly verse 11 are powerful scriptures on generosity. I particularly like Verse 11 which says

¹¹ You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

God enriches us so that our generosity achieves two basic purposes:

·         God's name will be thanked and praised by people whose lives we impact.

·         God's people will have their needs met.

And as we step into the New Year, let us try to have a lifestyle of giving so that our offerings would be used to impact lives here and round the globe...

THE PICNIC BASKET

The Picnic Basket

God uses ordinary people extraordinarily and today I want to share about the life of one such ordinary person from the Bible, whom God used mightily to achieve something extraordinary. He was so ordinary that I don’t know his name, his genealogy or his age. I don’t know whether he had any siblings or whether he was rich or poor.  In fact I know nothing about him; I can only surmise a couple of things about him .Number 1: He probably had a healthy appetite   and Number 2: He had loving parents who provided for him.  I am talking about the little boy with the picnic basket- 5 barley loaves and 2 fish, in the story of Jesus feeding the 5000.  While this miracle is recorded in all 4 gospels, I’m picking it up from Mark 6 verses 35 – 44.

³⁵ By this time it was late in the day, so his disciples came to him. “This is a remote place,” they said, “and it’s already very late. ³⁶ Send the people away so that they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.”

It is easy to understand the mind-set of the disciples. They had been managing a crowd of about 20000 people. They were exhausted, hungry and ready to call it a day. And so they were desperately trying to persuade Jesus to send the crowd away.

Jesus however was having none of that.

³⁷ But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”  Can you imagine how shocked, the disciples would have been on hearing this statement. Feed such a huge crowd? Was Jesus serious?

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages^[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

The Bible places the count of men who came to hear Jesus at 5000. In those days, however, only the men were counted, women and children were not considered whilst taking a count. Taking them also into account, the actual number of people present at that time could well have been around 15 to 20000.

I don’t know how much it would have cost to feed 15 – 20,000 people in those days.  But today If we have to feed so many people, it would be somewhere in the vicinity of Rs. 15  lakhs.  Now that’s a whopping amount of money, it’s almost more than a year’s income for many people.

³⁸ “How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

I love this story because it has a lot of principles tucked away in it and today I want to share some principles that can be practically applied to our lives. So here goes…..

Principle 1: Offer what you have to Jesus.

I wonder how many among the 20000 present on that day had carried something to eat. I daresay some may have had their own lunchbox, but did not want to let go of it. In fact, if I had been in that boy’s place, I might have kept my lunch well hidden somewhere. That’s human nature, to hold on to things and never let go.

But this small boy, surprisingly gave his lunch to the disciples. It must have cost him a lot of heartache, to see his lunch walk away from him when he was hungry, yet he offered it. He might have had some misgivings on how so many people could be fed with the little that he had to offer, yet he offered it. God expects that from us. We are all blessed, some with little, some with much. But whatever we have- be it our time, talents, finances, or resources, we need to offer it willingly to Him.

Principle 2: God starts with what you offer.

We serve a mighty God who can speak things into existence, who can create something from nothing. That is God the Creator. However when He works in our life,  God always takes something that we offer and then multiplies it. Here Jesus   could have created bread from nothing, He could have created the money from nothing. He is the All Powerful One. He could have done anything. But he started with the 5 loaves and 2 fish that the little boy had offered. In II Kings chapter 4, God started with the oil that the widow had put inside the pot…. .In the case of the widow of Zarephath, he started with the flour.

Principle 3: God multiplies what you offer.

Luke 6: 38 is a powerful verse on multiplication and it says ‘Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. We generally associate this verse with finances, but it is not only for finances, it is for everything that we give. It says in the last part “For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again”. The keyword here is ‘it’; it stands for whatever we give.

In earthly multiplication, when we multiply any 2 numbers we get the Product of the 2 numbers. The product is a finite number i.e. something we can count.

But in heavenly multiplication, when something is multiplied by God, it becomes limitless, infinite.

In this case 5 loaves + 2 fish multiplied by God gave Food enough for 20000 people + 12 extra baskets of food.

Principle 4: Multiplication is in kind

Here loaves multiplied into more loaves and fish to more fish. It didn’t multiply to cakes or meat. Not that He couldn’t have done that, but we serve a systematic God, a God of order and he typically multiples in kind. If we offer Him our finances, he will multiply it and give it back to us, if we offer him our talents, he will multiply that and give it back to us.

Principle 5:  Nothing multiplies unless Jesus blesses it.

⁴¹ Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people.

Notice something interesting here? As long as they were with the boy, they were just 5 loaves and 2 fish, as long as they were with the disciples, it was only 5 loaves and 2 fish. Then Jesus gave thanks, broke the bread and handed the pieces to the disciples to distribute and as they were distributing it, it multiplied in their hands. Ditto with the fish. It continued increasing in their hands, the supply was limitless and that was incredible. They had 12 baskets left over!!! Wow!!

Principle 6: We become a channel of God’s blessings to others.

The little boy must not have imagined in his wildest dreams that the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish that he offered to Jesus, would be used to feed the multitude. He had become a channel of God’s supernatural blessings to the multitude. His offering had impacted so many people.

To conclude, we all have   barley loaves and fish in our lives that we can offer God. Handing over   our finances, our relationships, our talents, our time, our resources  to God, gives God the opportunity to multiply it and bless us and many others through us.

Many are unwilling to offer it up, fearing that there would be nothing left for them, many may think that what they have is not significant enough for God to use.

These are thoughts of insufficiency arising out of a scarcity mentality. It is a snare of the enemy by which we restrict God’s multiplication in our lives. 

We may not have much to give, but whatever we do have, we can offer it to Jesus. Even if it isn’t much, let’s offer it.  Little becomes limitless when multiplied by God.

Today, if there is any area of our lives in which we need to see a growth, a supernatural increase.  Let us offer it to God. And see the power of multiplication in our lives.

PETER AND THE REST

Thunder rolled and lightening flashed, the storm was raging,

The tiny boat shook and swayed, how long they couldn’t say.

Battered by the winds, the disciples with the oars, struggling;

Tired and weary, their Master seemed so far away.

Suddenly in the hazy darkness, on the stormy waters, a figure seemed to loom,

In wild terror shrieked out they;

Their minds sensing impending doom.

Who was this – a phantom or a ghost, come furtively to spirit them away?

“Shh, it is I. Do not be afraid” a familiar voice reassured.

Seeking to drive out their fear, ingrained deep within.

But the disciples cowered in fright, even though the Master’s voice they heard.

All, except Peter, who boldly spoke up, ignoring the din.

Eyes focused on the Lord; Obeying His Master’s call,

Into the water Peter stepped, letting go of the boat,

One step, then two, moving ahead, walking tall;
Until he shifted his gaze from Jesus and floundered; his heart leaping to his throat.

'My Lord! ‘ he cried, 'Save me! Save me!  '
Jesus caught ahold of him, 'wherefore did you doubt in your mind? '

I am with you in the storm, you see. 

I will never leave nor forsake you, let me again remind.

Am I like Peter who stepped out believing?

Eager to do as his Master bade?

Or am I like the rest, His voice not heeding;

Unable to answer, sore afraid?

Dearly beloved, let us not shift our gaze - from 'THE MASTER.'

And fix it on the stormy sea!
For in so doing – we may falter and confront disaster.
Let us look to the 'ONE' - who by His spoken word, created all things to be.

by Preetha Paul

THE DEW FACTOR

I have always associated dew with the three R’s- Refreshing, Renewing and Recharging.

While, towards evening, all foliage appears to droop, seemingly exhausted after a long day of work; in the morning, suddenly they appear refreshed and revitalized. Have you wondered why?

This happens due to the presence of the dew that falls gently on them during the night.

The appearance of dew is almost magical- We find it early in the morning sparkling like diamonds, tiny droplets of water, clinging onto the surfaces of leaves, flowers and grass.

There are many verses in the Bible about dew:
Job 29:19-20–For I am like a tree whose roots reach the water, whose branches are refreshed with the dew.

Psalm 110:3–Your vigour will be renewed each day like the morning dew.

Hosea 14:5–I will be to Israel like refreshing dew from heaven.

The comparison used here is very interesting and to appreciate that, we need to understand the process of formation of dew and why it is so important to plants.

Plants are very hardworking. The leaves of the plant are busy all day, preparing food for the entire plant. They use the water stored in their cells, carbon dioxide from the air and sunlight to prepare their food. Once the sun sets, they stop preparing food and their work for the day is complete.

It is the water stored in their cells, which help them to maintain their shape. Hence, when all the stored up water is used, they begin to lose their shape and wilt and droop.

That is the time they need to be refreshed and that is when the dew begins to play its part.

As the dew gently falls during the night, the leaves open up their pores, to soak in all the moisture, till they are completely filled and saturated. So when we look at the plants in the morning they appear rejuvenated and fresh…..however as the day progresses, the dew disappears.

Plants cannot store dew for the next day. They have to receive their quota daily…..

Why does the dew not form in the morning?? Or afternoon??

There are 2 conditions absolutely essential for formation of dew-

1.     The temperature of air should not be too high. The surrounding atmosphere should be cool.

2.     There should not be too much of air movement.

In other words, dew formation takes place only in a cool still place and that is why dew falls during the night or towards dawn.

Like the leaves, as we finish our daily chores, we begin to feel worn out and weary. And we need to be refreshed by heavenly dew. Just as the leaves wait quietly for the dew to fall on them and revive them daily, we too need to sit quietly someplace and allow the Holy Spirit to renew, refresh and recharge us daily.

That is a difficult task for most of us…. especially  nowadays, when we are busy rushing from deadline to deadline or from  one activity to another, with our hands flitting  over  our smartphones, our mind sifting  through a million random thoughts and earphones plugged tightly into our ears. In our busyness, we have lost our ability to just sit quietly someplace, not doing anything, enjoying a time of peace and rest. 

Spending quiet time with God, enjoying His presence daily, is much like receiving dew. He will give us the dew sufficient for that day, no more, no less. We cannot store the dew for the next day. We need to receive our quota daily.

Hence every day we should sit quietly at the Fathers feet, soaking in His presence through each and every fibre and pore of our body.

And when we are completely saturated, we will feel totally refreshed, well able tackle a new day with renewed vigour and strength that our Father gives us.

God bless you dear reader……….

THE STORMS IN OUR LIFE

We all go through storms in our life. Storms come without any warning; it just takes a split second for things to change. One minute everything is just fine and the next instant you don’t know what has hit you.

Storms can come in the areas of our relationships, jobs, health or finances – A sudden loss in the family, a sudden health problem, losing a job, or a challenge in the area of finances.

 Whenever we go through challenges or storms in our life we need to remember 2 things-

 God may allow the storm to continue for a long time OR He may still the storm immediately.

1. He is God over the storm and his eye is always on his children.

 To illustrate let us look at 3 stories from the Bible which talk about the storms that various people faced.

 Paul in the storm

Acts 27 tells us the story of Paul along with some other prisoners as they set sail for Italy. The ship in which all of them were sailing in was caught up in a huge storm. All were terrified. They were dangerously tossed about and had to throw the freight, ship’s equipment and even their provisions out of the ship in order to stay afloat. Their suffering continued for nearly 15 days before they could land someplace and escape. All through the horrifying ordeal Paul held on to the promise God had given him (V 24) that he and all those sailing with him would escape. Hence he could endure the storm and reassure the others sailing with him. And in the end none perished.

 Jesus and his disciples in the storm

Mark 4: 37-41 tells us another story of a storm. Jesus and his disciples spent a long day teaching by the shores of Galilee. When it was evening and the sun was beginning to set Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the lake”. Now the Sea of Galilee is notorious for its storms. It is a small sea and sudden and violent storms are very common here. As they were traveling in the boat a huge squall arose and kept beating at the sides of the boat. The boat began to fill with water. Jesus was at the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Jesus immediately arose, rebuked the wind and at once it became calm.

 The disciples of Jesus in the storm

MARK 6:47-52 tells us the story of yet another storm.

After Jesus had finished teaching the crowds, He told his disciples to get into the boat and go on ahead of him, while he dismissed the crowd. After leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the lake, and he was alone on land. He saw the disciples straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. The wind and the waves were causing the boat to rock violently, threatening to capsize. So there was a possibility of the boat sinking and all on board perishing in the midst of the Sea. And to top it all, this time Jesus was not with them in the boat. Shortly before dawn (after the disciples had struggled for many hours), Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. And He went up unto them into the boat; and the wind ceased.

 There are certain principles that we can glean from these stories-

 In the first instance, God allowed the storm to rage on for a long time but he gave Paul a promise of deliverance which in turn gave him the strength and faith to go through the storm. God could have stilled the storm immediately but he did not do so.

• In the second instance, we see that even though Jesus was with the disciples in the boat, their faith wavered. But Jesus instantaneously stilled the storm, much to the relief of the disciples.

 In the third instance, we observe that though Jesus sent his disciples alone into a storm, HIS eye was on them. Even whilst He was praying and later, he could see that they were struggling, trying to row across. So what did He do? He went over to meet them. And once He was with them, the winds died down.

 So it is with us. Sometimes we have to go through difficulties and suffer but God gives us the strength to do so.

At other times He immediately removes the hurdles and our problems are solved at once.

But no matter what, what we need to understand is that His eye is always on us, His beloved children. He will meet us in the storm. He will be with us when we are in the storm.

 Just remember what Jesus told his disciples (Mark 4: V: 35) – Let US cross to the other side. Meaning He is there with us till we cross over. He will not abandon us midway. He and I, we will cross over safely.

MOSES AND THE BURNING BUSH

He was an Israelite who grew up in an Egyptian palace. While all other Israelites were slaves, Moses had everything. He had no lack for anything. He ate royal food and had fine clothes, lived in a palace and was well educated.

Bu then Moses made a mistake. He saw an Egyptian fighting with a Hebrew. Moses killed the Egyptian.

But the Hebrew turned hostile towards him. “Will you kill me too?” he asked

Now Moses knew he was in big trouble. He had to flee from Egypt and hide in the wilderness.

And that was how a bright, smart, talented Hebrew with huge potential began tending sheep. He went from the palace to the pastures. A downward slide into oblivion.

But Moses never ever wished to return to Egypt. He was perfectly happy where he was placed, looking after his father in law’s sheep.

And then one day, God spoke to him from the burning bush and commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He was literally shocked out of his senses, nevertheless he managed to blurt out, “I am not a great man! How can I go to the king and lead the Israelites out of Egypt?”

Now that was the million dollar question. Why did God choose Moses, of all the people? And why did God wait till he was eighty-years old? He could have used him much earlier…. Say 40 years back. When he was still in Egypt, when he was at his peak. Back then he had been brave, capable and confident.

But at 80 years, he was too old, too weary and had none of his earlier capabilities, enthusiasm nor zeal for leadership .In fact he had a feeling that he was no good. How on earth could he impact the mighty Pharaoh??

He was a “had been”.

He had been well educated, he had been well trained for battle and he had been in the good books of Pharaoh. And at 40 years he had been the perfect man for the job.

Besides Moses was not too keen to deal with the Israelites. He had been frustrated and disillusioned once. He was perfectly happy to live with his sheep and did not want to get entangled with the Israelites again.

That in part explained his reluctance to go back. But God was just not going to take ‘No’ for an answer.

So what was the logic? What qualities did he have now that he didn’t have back then?

2 Points-

Point 1: He knew all the ways of the sheep. Moses tended to his flock diligently and after so many years he knew everything that there was to know about shepherding. And if he was going to lead an unruly, disobedient, murmuring, complaining bunch of Israelites out of Egypt, he needed to have good shepherding skills.

Point 2: Moses knew all about life in the desert. He knew the deserts inside out. If he was going to lead the Israelites out into the wilderness, he needed to know the basics of desert life.

 God had been perfecting him for 40 years and now he was perfect for the job.

 So it is with us. Many times we think that we are too old or past our prime or we are not strong enough for God’s purpose. Sometimes we may feel frustrated and disillusioned. Or sometimes we may feel that we are not good enough for anything. But that’s not true. God is perfecting us all the time. He does not look at our age. He does not care about how strong we are. He is not bothered about whether we are able, capable, suitable or notable. He only wants us to be available when he calls us and speaks to us to fulfill His plan and purpose in our life.