#brokenvessels Archives - Page 2 of 3 -

My Calendar

Psalm 31:15 My times are in Your hand;

I surrender my life’s calendar unto God’s hands. We love to control the happenings of our lives, don’t we? We convey our requests to God to approve our plans and agendas that are thought through by us. When God opens our eyes to see how He ordains the happenings in our lives, we are filled with faith to surrender everything unto His hands that ordains everything so perfectly.

At the end of 2019, I was without projects. God gave me two verses to hold on to as I was waiting on Him. When I asked the Lord, if my family was going to suffer financially, He gave me the verse,

1 Kings 17:16 For thus says the LORD God of Israel:’The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth’.

I held on to this Word and continued to wait in faith. A month went by, still did not get any project. My faith started to run dry. Then I asked, “Lord, will I have to leave this place with my head down?”. The Lord gave me another verse, Isaiah 52:12 But you will not leave in haste.

When God gave me these two verses, I held on to them. Just as He promised, He gave me a project by the end of the third month. I did not feel a bit happy about that project. So I cried to God for days, questioning why He would put me on such a project after such a wait. Then He helped me to understand that He does everything for His glory and my good. Slowly my heart started to accept the place where God placed me regardless of my dislikes.

So unexpectedly, that contract ended after 5 months. And I was in a spot to find another role.. again! Within two weeks, I was confirmed for a role, which was even worse than the previous one. This was the worst of all! I couldn’t understand why God would take me from bad to worse. Soon after starting that role, I understood the reason why God put me in that unpleasant role. One thing was that God wanted to teach me some lessons and straighten me out as I had some attitudes that had to be fixed. The second reason was that during the pandemic, God gave me an opportunity to help the people who lost their jobs due to the shutdown. I thanked God for the opportunity and worked there, till God miraculously took me out from there at His time and placed me on another project.

He kept me there for two years. And after that, when I least expected, the contract got terminated abruptly .. again! I felt so shaken when this happened but soon God helped me to understand why this happened. Now as I see the seasons that happen in my life, God helps me understand. Though I don’t understand what would happen next, I wait patiently on God yet again, as He has never failed me. Also, I now understand that nothing that happens is about me rather everything is about Him.

So now, rather than pushing my agenda to Him for approval, I surrender my entire calendar unto Him. May He fill my calendar with whatever He wants to accomplish through me. Amen!!

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Bread and meat

Elijah brought the word of the LORD to Ahab, the wicked king of Israel that till he says again, there will not be dew or rain in the land. After he said this, the word of the LORD came to Elijah asking him to get away from that place and to hide by the Brook Cherith. God told him to drink the water from the brook and that He had commanded the ravens to feed him there.

According to the word of the LORD, Elijah went to the brook of Cherith. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and in the evening. Though the rest of the land was under famine, Elijah was fed day and night with bread and meat, brought by ravens. One day, the brook dried up, due to the famine.

Then the word of the LORD came to Elijah, asking him to go to Zarephath, and to dwell there and that He has commanded a widow to provide for him. So Elijah obeyed and went to Zarephath. When he came to the gate of the city, he saw a widow gathering some sticks. He remembered the word of the LORD and asked her for a cup of water. As she was about to bring water, he requested her to bring a small piece of bread too. The widow got frustrated at Elijah’s request and conveyed to him that she had only a handful of flour in a bin and a little oil in a jar with which she was going to make a last meal for her and her son and die as they had no more hope left.

Elijah said to her, “Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor shall the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth”.

So she obeyed and did according to the word of Elijah, And God multiplied the flour in the bin and the oil in the jar. The widow, her son, and Elijah ate for many days, till the famine was over.

There are no other means which can provide for us like God faithfully does. Elijah obeyed and brought God’s word of judgment to the nation and he was impacted by the famine too. But God provided for him without fail. And through him, fed a widow’s family too. Isn’t it amazing? God could have continued to feed Elijah with the ravens and the water in the brook. The widow’s provision was coming to an end to the last meal anticipating only death after that. God dried up the brook just in time and sends Elijah to the widow’s place in order to provide for her! Our Jehovah Jirah! As we wait on the LORD, God is able to provide through unimaginable ways for His name to be glorified! Who could imagine that ravens could bring food diligently morning and evening?!

Psalm 34:10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; But those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.

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EL Roi

Hagar, who was a slave of Sarai, had no entitlement to opinion when Sarai decided to give her as Abram’s wife. And Abram also did not bother reminding Sarai about the promise which God had given about their offspring. And Hagar conceived with Abram’s child. When Hagar saw that she had conceived, she despised her mistress, Sarai. And Sarai nagged Abram blaming him for this situation, though she was the one who had given Hagar as his wife. Isn’t it amazing how desperation and impatience lead to wrong decisions in the life of people? Abram and Sarai were not ordinary people but the ones who heard directly from God Himself and yet they gave in to their own wisdom and made the wrong choices.

Neither Sarai nor Abram took ownership of their choices. Abram left the decision to Sarai and Sarai treated Hagar harshly. This led Hagar to flee from Sarai.

The Angel of the LORD, who is Jesus Himself, met Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness. He asked Hagar where she was going. Hagar replied to Him with all honesty that she was fleeing from Sarai. He told her to return to Sarai and to submit to her. He promised that He will multiply Hagar’s descendants. He gave the name for her child then and there and that was Ishmael meaning “The LORD has heard your afflictions”. Hagar called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, “You Are the God Who Sees”. In due time, Hagar bore Ishmael for Abram when he was 86 years old.

Abram was 100 years old when Isaac was born to Sarah, just as God had promised. During a feast of celebration for Isaac, Sarah ordered Hagar and Ishmael to be sent away from them. God also confirmed to Abraham to do as Sarah said. The next morning, Abraham took bread and a skin of water, gave it to Hagar, and sent her away with her son Ishmael.

Hagar and Ishmael wandered in the wilderness and the water in the skin ran out. They were on the verge of death due to thirst for water. She could not watch her son die of thirst so she put him under a shrub and stepped away at a distance and she wept loudly. And God heard the voice of Ishmael. The angel of God spoke to Hagar, “Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation”.

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She filled the skin with water. Just as God promised, He made Ishmael’s descendants into a nation.

The first time when Hagar ran away from Sarai, God sent her back to Sarai. The second time, when Hagar was thrown away by Sarah, God took Hagar away to a new place and established her there. God has a purpose for us wherever He has planted us. When the right time comes, He will take our hand and lead us toward the destination.

No matter how difficult a place can be, we are to humble ourselves and be under the shadow of the wings of Almighty God.

Isaiah 40:28 The everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. 29. He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31. But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; They shall walk and not faint.

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A pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet

Gideon was threshing wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites who were constantly plundering the Israelites. The Angel of the LORD, who was Jesus Himself, appeared to Gideon in the winepress and said to him, “The LORD is with you, you mighty warrior”. It is funny to see that God has a great humor sense to call a man who was in the hiding ‘a mighty warrior’. God calls us His warriors even when we are fearful. God calls us by the name of whom He will make us into, and not who we are in our weaknesses and failures.

Gideon replied to The Angel of God, “If the LORD is with us why has all this happened to us? Where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about the LORD bringing us from Egypt?” The LORD had abundant patience towards Gideon and did not point out to him that they were given in Midianites’ hands because of their own disobedience towards Almighty God. The LORD answered to him, “Go in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have I not sent you?”.

God had tremendous patience towards Gideon even as he tested God three times to make sure God will surely go with him to the battle. Gideon took the people who were with him and encamped them opposite the enemy camp. The LORD said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel claims glory for itself against Me saying, ‘My own hand has saved me’.

So God tested the people who were with Gideon. He asked the people who were fearful to return to their houses and 22000 of them returned home. Then He tested the rest of them in the water. The ones who drank the water without caution about the enemies were asked to return. The army was now reduced to just 300 people. from the 33000 people who started off, Gideon’s army was reduced to just 300.

That night, the LORD told Gideon to go to the enemy camp so that He could strengthen Gideon through the words he would hear from the enemies. The Midianites and Amalekites were lying in the valley as numerous as the locusts and their camels were without number. And Gideon’s army was 300 people.

Gideon divided the people into 3 divisions and he gave a pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet to each of them. At the beginning of the middle watch, as they neared the enemy camp, they blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers and shouted, “The sword of the LORD and of Gideon!”. When Gideon’s army blew the trumpet, the LORD set every man’s sword in the enemy’s camp against his own army’s companion and they all fled away. God gave victory to Gideon’s army just as He promised.

Two things that caught my attention are 1) God had so much patience towards Gideon though he dared to test God multiple times. God gave him provisions for his fear to be freed. 2) As usual with God’s ways, the unusual war weapons that God gave them, and cutting down the number of the army to make them completely dependent on God and to give the glory only to God and not to themselves.

Unimaginable to our little minds! 300 men with a pitcher, a torch, and a trumpet chased away an army as numerous as locusts. With God on our side, no battle is too big to defeat! In heavenly armor, we will enter the land, because the battle belongs to the LORD! AMEN!

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Have breakfast!

By the lake of Gennasaret, Jesus saw two boats. The fishermen were washing their nets because they had caught nothing. Jesus got into one of the boats which was Simon’s and started to teach the multitudes. While washing his fishing net, Simon was giving ear to Jesus’ teaching. After finishing His teaching, Jesus said to Simon, “Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch”. Simon replied, “Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word, I will cast down my net”. And when they did just as Jesus said, they caught a great number of fish to the point that their net was breaking. So he signaled to James and John who were in their boat to come and help him. And when they came over, they filled both the boats so that they began to sink. When Simon saw that, overwhelmed he fell down at Jesus’ knees. Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid. From now on you will catch men”. So when they had brought their boats to the land, they forsook their boats and the fish and followed Jesus. (Luke 5:1-11)

Later, after Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection – Jesus revealed Himself to the disciples twice while they were confined inside the house due to fear for their lives. Even after seeing resurrected Jesus, as they did not know what was next for them, they went back to fishing following the initiative of Simon. Simon who was the first one to leave two boats full of fish to follow Jesus was also the first one to lead the rest of the disciples back to the fishing profession when they momentarily did not have the clarity of their calling. Though Jesus revealed Himself repeatedly to them, it was not the same as before when they had the continued presence of Jesus. Even then, Jesus’ patience toward them is simply astonishing. His patience towards us today is still the same.

That night also, history repeated. They caught nothing though they toiled all night. By morning, Jesus stood on the shore; Jesus said to them, “Children, have you any food?”. They replied, “No”. Jesus said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some”. So they cast, and they caught so many fish that they were not able to draw it in.

Immediately John recognized that it was Jesus and he told Peter. Hearing that, Peter plunged into the sea and swam to meet Jesus. When they came to the land, they saw fish laid on fire of coals and bread. Jesus said to them, “Bring some of your fish too”. They had caught a net full of 153 large fishes. Jesus said to them, “Come and eat breakfast”. Jesus then came and took the bread and gave it to them and the fish. Not only did He repeat the miracle of letting them catch a boatload of fish again, but He also fed them with food prepared by His own nail-pierced hands. I lack words to describe this utmost kindness of Jesus.

This kindness was towards these disciples who abandoned Jesus and denied knowing Him while He was being crucified. Instead of zapping them with lightning or rebuking them, Jesus showed kindness to them. Jesus’ kindness towards us is mightily more powerful than any punishment which we deserve. His patience and love have the power to transform our lives to surrender ourselves for His work.

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Veggies, please!

Daniel and his friends were taken captives to Babylon. These were young men who were good-looking, gifted in all wisdom and knowledge, and quick to understand who had the ability to serve in the Babylonian King’s palace. The king appointed for them a daily provision of the king’s delicacies and of the wine which he drank. The things to note are that – not all the Israelites who were taken captives to Babylon got the opportunity to serve in the King’s palace. Daniel and his friends got the opportunity to live in the palace and were allotted King’s food in the land where they were captives. In spite of it, they took a stand of integrity for the LORD. Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the King’s delicacies. So he requested the chief who was appointed over them to spare them from King’s food and give them vegetables and water instead.

The chief feared that his head would be in danger of the King’s punishment if Daniel and his friends’ faces looked weak and tired compared to others who ate the King’s delicacies. Daniel requested the chief to test them for ten days and see how they did. God gave them favor in the chief’s eyes and so he agreed. He tested them after ten days and Daniel and his friends looked better and fatter than the other men who ate King’s delicacies. And so the chief continued to provide them just vegetables and water.

We often cruise through this part. But if we put ourselves in their shoes, how would it have been? It would have taken quite some willpower to stand by this decision, no? They would have to control the desire of their eyes, noses, mouths, and hearts to stick to this decision, every time they see the King’s delicacies parading in front of them. The rest of them would have mocked them as idiots for rejecting such rich royal food. This was not once, not twice, three times a day or more. And God honored their decision.

We serve a God who sees us, who sees our every thought, word, action, attitude, motive, etc. He sees our good and our bad. The sacrifices we make for His Name’s sake do not go forgotten by Him. For these four men, God gave knowledge and skill in all literature and wisdom. Daniel had an understanding of all visions and dreams. When the King interviewed them, the King saw that there were none like Daniel and his friends. And so they were chosen to serve before the King.

There were many who were with Daniel and his friends. Their names are not mentioned in the Bible. Something as small as deciding not to eat King’s food made them be chosen by God. Even in our lives, if we are committed to God in smaller things, God helps us to be committed to Him in greater things too.

God recompensed them for the sacrifice that they made for His Name’s sake. When we take a stand for God, God takes a stand for us. And when God stands on our behalf, there is deliverance.

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Me and my big mouth

Psalm 141:3 Set a guard, O LORD, over my mouth.

I have a confession to make. I am a big talker. I wasn’t always this way. Decades went by in my life when I had no opinions, no self-worth, and no self-esteem. My life didn’t have any purpose then. Those were the times I suffered from depression without realizing it. After I hit the rock bottom of the depression, Jesus took me out of that pit. Over time, I became bolder. With that boldness came opinions and the urge to never hold back on them. Because I had dwelt on the other side for the most part of my life, I never budged when I finally got the boldness to speak my mind. When one doesn’t heed what God wants and simply speaks from a fleshly mind, the words come out brutally sharp. It is like having a sword in our mouth.

Eventually, God took hold of my life. He took me through some refining fire and removed the sharp edges in my attitude. Though I had been a “Christian” all my life, I wasn’t exactly living my life watching my steps to please God. God started to work in my life. I fell in love with this God who did not “punish” me as I deserved, but He “disciplined” me with grace. This made me fall in love with my God because He showed me grace when I deserved punishment. From then, I started to watch my steps and wanted to do everything in a way that pleases God. Pleasing God became my top priority. For a sincere believer, pleasing God cannot be a Sunday church thing, but it should be every day, every moment thing. In everything that we do, we ought to check if we are doing as Christ would want us to. And I started to live with that constant awareness.

But even then, I still had a major problem – my big mouth. Whenever I have things bothering my mind, I tend to speak my mind with sharp words and a rude attitude. Though I would only speak the truth, what lacks is grace-filled words. For years, I neither realized this nor did I feel sorry about that. But as I started to watch my walk with the Lord, I started to notice this trait of mine. I started to repent each time I would speak from my flesh. I noticed that when something about people bothers me, it starts brewing in my heart and comes out of my mouth lacking grace.

Colossians 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Most of the time, my talk is sweet, but like drops of dirt in a glass of milk, only when things bother me in my mind, do the words come out lacking grace. Allowing things about others to bother us is brilliantly done by the devil, like a bad neighbor who keeps throwing trash into our yard. Sometimes we fail to recognize that it is the effect of the flaming arrows of the devil that attacks our mind. It is very important that we discern it right away and pray against it.

As God gave me the conviction of this, I would repent heartily and God graciously forgave me, every single time. And He still does.

Sin is missing the mark from what God expects. So these days, every time I fail in this or any area in my spiritual walk, I would fret and be so desperate to repent heartily and have God somehow forgive me, yet again. I am very keen on not piling up things that do not please God in the nooks and corners and hidden closets of my heart. I would wonder how much repeated praying would it take to receive forgiveness. But God gave me this understanding that Jesus has forgiven us of our past and future sins and we just need to repent and receive it. Forgiveness is not dependent on a certain amount of praying, but it is simply admitting to God that I have failed again and asking Him to help me not to stumble again. Till our time in this world, we cannot live a perfect life, but with the help of the Holy Spirit Lord, we ought to strive towards the perfection standard of Jesus.

So after failing many a time, I have come to the point of asking God to help me in this area. I am asking God to give me the wisdom to discern when the devil is at work in my mind and to be careful not to yield to sharp words.

Proverbs 10:19 Too much talk leads to sin. Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.

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No one but Him

We went on a Disney Cruise trip to celebrate our tenth marriage anniversary. One of the days, we spent on the island of Castaway Cay, which is a private island. The entire passengers of that ship were on this beach. My boys and I were on floaters, closer to the shore. My older son cautiously stayed very close to the shore. My younger son was 4 years old then and I was in my floater holding onto his floater so that we were together. We did not realize that around 15 feet into the water, it was extremely deep. I thought that we were staying in the same spot close to the shore but we were drifting away from the shore. When my husband came back fetching a floater for himself, he saw that I and my younger son had drifted towards the deeper part. He swam towards us and grabbed hold of my son’s floater and took him to the shore.

Swimming in the sea wasn’t easy and he was all out of breath so he did not come back to get me but he went over to the lifeguard and told him that I am unable to paddle back to the shore and asked him to help me. In the meantime, the sky became dark and the lifeguards whistled for everyone to get out of the beach due to the danger of lightning strikes. I tried paddling back but I was going in circles in my floater.

As I was going in circles, suddenly I thought to jump off the floater by holding on to the handle and using it to swim back. My husband understood the stupidity of what I was about to do and immediately warned me not to jump off the floater – no matter what! So I continued trying to paddle back but in vain. As I looked around, it was only me left in the water. Everyone else had gotten out of the water for fear of lightning dangers. Now I started to get a little worried, as I was unable to make any progress and the lifeguards weren’t helping either.

When hope of help from man ends, the one who is ever so faithful helped me to see a floater rope that was tied from a lifeguard station in the water which extended to the shore. By God’s amazing grace, I quickly held on to that rope. Seeing that, the lifeguard told my husband that I will be fine and will get to the shore. I understood one thing – this rope was my hope of getting to the shore and I started to move step by step by holding on to the rope.

But, so unexpectedly, the rope slipped off my hand because I hurriedly let go of my hand before holding it with the other hand. And the rope started to slide over my leg. God gave me the quickest wisdom in that microsecond that if I let go of this rope, my situation was back to hopelessness. In that microsecond, God helped me to quickly grab hold of the rope with my leg as it was sliding. Then I quickly grabbed it with my hand and again started to move towards the shore, this time I was carefully making sure that I was holding it without letting it go. I made it safely to the shore.

As in the story of Joseph, his last hope seemed to be the cupbearer whose dream Joseph helped interpret. Joseph had no doubt that the cupbearer will be restored to his position in the palace. He asked the cupbearer to put in a good word to Pharaoh so that he could also be released from prison.

Psalm 146:3,5 Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save. Blessed are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God.

As expected, the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph. Two years went by. The hope that the cupbearer would put in a word to the King diminished to nothing. I imagine how Joseph’s emotions would have been. I wonder if he still had any faith left. Though day times would have kept him busy as he was in charge of the prison, the night times would have often left him with the question, “Where are You, God? Why would you let this happen to me? Are You the One who gave me those dreams?”

When there was no hope left to put on man, God came through in His never-failing faithfulness. In God’s time, Joseph stood before the King, just as He promised. The cupbearer was sent before Joseph. He stayed a cupbearer, but Joseph was raised to be the second in command to the King. We serve a God who alone is the promise keeper! Our help comes from Him alone and no one else. Amen!

Genesis 49:23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. 24. But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.

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The Three Robes

Out of Jacob’s twelve sons, Joseph was his favorite. To show his favoritism, Jacob made a special robe of many colors for him. And Joseph waltzed around in his robe which made his brothers jealous and angry toward him. Joseph who was clueless about all this hatred added more to it by bringing bad reports about them to Jacob. This made the brothers even more furious and they no longer spoke kindly to him.

One day, Joseph saw a dream and he couldn’t keep it to himself so he shared it with his brothers. In his dream, they were all binding sheaves of grain in the field. Suddenly Joseph’s sheaf rose and stood upright while his brothers’ sheaves gathered around his sheaf. Hearing this, the brothers snapped at him asking if he would rule over them. Another day, Joseph saw a dream again. This time he shared it with his father and his brothers. In his dream, he saw that the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him. This annoyed his father as well and he rebuked him for his dream.

Jacob’s sons went to graze their sheep in a distant place. Jacob sent Joseph to visit them and see if they were doing well. As Jacob reached the place where his brothers were, they recognized him from a distance in his special robe. They grew furious and plotted to kill him and throw him into one of the pits. But Reuben, the oldest brother, suggested throwing him into the pit, in the plan to let him escape later. So they stripped Jacob from his special robe and threw him into the pit.

As they saw Ishmaelite merchants heading to Egypt, they decided to sell Joseph and make a profit out of him. The Ishmaelite merchants sold Joseph to Potiphar who was the captain of Pharoah’s palace guard. Meanwhile, Joseph’s brothers dipped his robe in a goat’s blood and sent it to their father and made him believe that Joseph got killed by wild animals which left Jacob to mourn in sackcloth.

The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered and he lived in the house of Potiphar. God gave success in everything Joseph did and he was made in charge of Potiphar’s household. Joseph was a well-built and handsome young man. Potiphar’s wife approached Joseph with wrong intentions to which Joseph wouldn’t yield. One day, as she bothered him again, he asked her, “How can I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?“. She caught him by his robe but Joseph left his robe in her hands and ran outside. Potiphar’s wife used that robe to cook up a story against Joseph and he was thrown in the prison.

The LORD was with Joseph in the prison and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So Joseph was put in charge of all those held in the prison. A while later, Pharoah’s cupbearer and baker were put in the same prison. One day, they both looked down in spirit and so Joseph inquired them. They both shared a dream they saw and they could not understand the meaning. Joseph instantly interpreted the meaning to them which happened exactly as he interpreted. On the third day, the baker was impaled to death while the cupbearer was sent back to the palace. Joseph asked the cupbearer to put in a good word about him to the King so that he can be freed from prison. But the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph.

Two years went by. Joseph was still in the prison. One day, King Pharaoh was very troubled as he saw two dreams, one after the other and he could not understand what they meant. As he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt to interpret the dreams for him, no one could. Then the cupbearer remembered Joseph in the prison and informed the King. The King sent for Joseph to be brought before him. Immediately, the officials got Joseph ready to go before the King and they put on new clothes and a grand robe on him. Joseph interpreted the King’s dreams by giving glory to God Almighty who is the source of all wisdom and hidden mysteries. The King put Joseph in charge of the whole of Egypt and took his signet ring and had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command.

Joseph was stripped from his first robe, he let go of his second robe and he was raised to honor with the third robe.

Psalm 105:19 Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the LORD tested him.

Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose.

1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Trust Him and rest on Him. He knows what He is doing! Amen.

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Handmaid of the Lord

As I sat at the watch-night service at church, pushing all my prayer requests to God to use me in more and more ways in 2023, (surprisingly I didn’t have any other requests than being used by God ) and I remembered something God had answered in 2022. In 2021, after amma went to be with the Lord, things were really difficult with dad. While juggling all of that, I had a deep desire up to the point of obligation that I wanted to use all the talents that God has given me for His Kingdom’s work. I started to even fret that if I don’t use my talents, God was going to ask me when I stand before Him. I started to earnestly pray for open doors. And my gracious God did open doors for me in 2022 in such a way that I was able to raise a big amount this year. I have contributed more than what I raised for Missions. If I had $40 at a time, I would add $10 and make it $50 and contribute.

The missions God graciously enabled me to support this year through my contributions are

Calvary Missions
Calvary Mission – Rwanda eye surgery camps
- Open doors USA – to distribute bibles in persecuted places
  - Compassion – malnourished kids
    - GEMS India
    - Homeless people in our areas
    - Elohim gospel ministries
      - Wayside shelter

I am just filled with gratitude towards God as He honored the desire of my heart and opened doors for me and gave me a purpose. My prayer is that God will make me into a vessel that will be useful for His Kingdom in many ways and not just one or two ways.

Also, God who is not a debtor to anyone provided me with the finances ahead of time to be able to cover the costs of the inventory. I was stuck in my job with no raise or promotion for 10 years. Last year God miraculously gave me a promotion and raise and so I didn’t have to worry about the expenses. Isn’t God awesome? Glorify our God with me.

Isaiah 41:9 You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest regions, and said to you, ‘you are My servant, I have chosen you and have not cast you away’.

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