Qualifications for God's Promotion

Humble yourself before the Lord, and he will lift you up. James 4:10

There are three important steps towards receiving your next promotion from the Lord. 

First, you must have a humble heart for God to promote you. In Isaiah 66:2 God says, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.” The only way to go up in God is to go down. We must learn to humble ourselves before the Lord and others. Without this posture, we will not find promotion from God our Father.  

Second, promotion from God only comes to us when we have been faithful where we are. We must attend to all that is under our present responsibility before the Lord trusts us with more. Jesus said, “He who is faithful with little will be faithful with much.” In Christ’s parable of the talents, the manager told his investors who were faithful that he was giving them more money to steward since they had invested wisely with smaller amounts.  

Third, God promotes us in His perfect time. Do you remember the story of Joseph? God gave him dreams that his family would one day bow down to him, but his jealous brothers sold him into slavery and was taken to Egypt. He suffered greatly and was falsely accused. He ended up in prison where he interpreted the dreams of two of the Pharaoh’s officers who were also incarcerated. Joseph predicted that they would both return to Pharaoh where one would be reinstated to his royal position and the other would be executed.

Joseph asked the man whose dream had a favorable interpretation to remember him when he reported to Pharaoh. But two years passed. At this time, Pharaoh had two dreams and the officer finally told him about Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams. As a result, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams and was promoted to second in command of the nation of Egypt.  Later his family did bow before him and he was able to help the nation of Egypt during a great famine.  

But this all happened in God’s perfect timing. It actually took 13 years from the time he was sold into slavery till his promotion in Egypt. It took time, but God was faithful. We too may need to wait for God’s promotion but if we are humble and faithful and wait on the Lord’s timing, we will experience promotion from the hand of Jesus.     

Let’s humble ourselves before God and others, let’s be faithful with all that we are responsible for and let’s surrender to the Lord and his timing. If we do these things, God will promote us and enable us to be a greater blessing to others.

He who has Begun

 …being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Our salvation was initiated by Jesus both at the cross and on the day we accepted Him as our Savior and Lord. We responded to Him. We loved Him and we continue to love Him because He first loved us. Our journey in Christ is to be a response to His love and activity in our lives.

This takes the pressure off. We can abide in His presence. We can be confident that He is working in our hearts and lives. When we fall, we can reach for His strong hand and find His forgiveness and gentle voice leading us to a better way.

Let’s remember that the Christian life is not all up to us. Instead, we can lean on the Lord and allow His love, word and presence mature us in His time and in His way.

Be confident that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ. On that day when He returns or when we die, we shall see him face to face and we will be like him. Let this hope encourage you and lift you up.

Joy and Victory

The king rejoices in your strength, Lord. How great is his joy in the victories you give! Psalm 21:1

It takes strength to overcome. Strength is required to buoy the storms of this life and find victory. Strength comes to us as we rejoice in the Lord. The Bible says that the joy of the Lord is our strength.

When we enter into praise and worship before God, joy rises within us and strength comes to us as a gift. The enemies of darkness flee in the presence of true praise and worship, and victory comes to us on all sides. Let’s rejoice in God’s strength, then we will experience His victories and then we will find true joy.

Hello Friends,

My ebook, "Ancient Songs for Today: Discovering LIfe-Changing Truths from the Psalms" will be released on July 30th, 2020. It can be pre-ordered now through Kindle and it will be forwarded to your device on July 30th. You can also order it after it has been released. This devotional consists of 150 daily devotions from the Psalms - one for each chapter in the Psalms.

You will find it encouraging, honest and uplifting. It will enrich your devotional life by providing you with life-changing truths from the Scriptures to chew on. I am excited to offer this to you and believe it will prove to be a blessing.

You can go here to read more about it or to order it : https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C27FLQ3…

God Bless and Thank You,

Tom Toya

Ministering with a Pure Heart

Here is a post from the past. I hope it blesses you...

But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7 NLT

While praying the other day, a thought came to my mind.  It went something like this, “Success in Christian service is measured not by the largeness of your ministry but by the depth of your heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7 says that man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks at our hearts.  If we have pure hearts, our ministry to others will be untainted and effective.  But if our hearts are not in tune with God’s Spirit and God’s word our ministry to others – no matter how “successful” – will not please our Master. 

The Scripture says that David was a man after God’s heart.  He had a big heart for God.  The Lord told Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel among Jesse’s sons.  The Lord had Samuel pass by all seven of David’s brothers.  The young lad was not even invited to the event – he was watching over his family’s heard of sheep.  Samuel asked for David and anointed him to be king.  Though David had many failures in his life, his tender heart for God made him the greatest king Israel ever had. 

Acts 13:36 says, “For David after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers….”  David served his own generation by the will of God.  This tells me that David’s life ultimately pleased God. 

I also want to live a life that pleases God and I am sure you do too.  I know that the Lord desires that we bear much fruit.  It is, of course, better that we reach many people rather than a few, but is the quality of our ministry that matters most to the Father. 

 

Let’s be diligent to guard our hearts while we believe the Lord for a greater impact in ministry.  Let’s keep our relationship with Jesus sweet and intimate.  When we keep this as the first thing in our lives, God will see fit to trust us with greater influence in ministry.   If the root is good, the branches will flourish.

Dear Father God, 

Help me to guard my heart with all diligence.  Teach me to worship, pray, and feed on your word daily.  Shine your light on anything in my heart that is not right.  Let me minister to others with a pure heart.  Thank you for using me in a mighty way for your glory.  In Jesus name I pray, Amen.