GHG SHORT DEVOTIONALS - 12 (GOD WILL TURN YOUR MOURNING TO JOY)

Jeremiah 31:13 "...For I will turn their mourning to joy, Will comfort them, And make them rejoice rather than sorrow."

1. God will turn your mourning to joy.

John 16:20   Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

Hannah was barren and was in tears. God heard her prayers and gave her a child. Her mourning was turned to joy.

You will also be blessed with your heart's desire.

2. God will comfort you

Isaiah 66:13   "As one whom his mother comforts, So I will comfort you..."

A widow of Nain lost her son. She lost her only hope. But then God had compassion upon her and raised her son from death.

God has great compassion upon you. Your life situations will change says God to you.

3. God will make you rejoice

Isaiah 51:11  "So the ransomed of the Lord shall return, And come to Zion with singing, With everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness; Sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

No one can take away the joy and peace that I am going to give you says God to you.

You will be raised above many.

GHG SHORT DEVOTIONALS - 11 (DO NOT CRY FOR GOD IS WITH YOU)

Luke 24:5-6 "...Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen!..."

Sometimes you feel so empty in your heart and life as you could not feel God's presence. As you go through terrible feelings and situations, you feel God is powerless and dead in your life.

1. Your faith is not so strong that you seek the Living God as dead. Today God says that He is alive and you will see His resurrecting power in your life in the coming days.

John 20:11"...Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping..."

John 20:14 "...Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus."

Mary Magdalene was crying Though Jesus was standing behind her. She turned around and saw Him but she didn't know that it was Him and so she continued crying.

2. You are crying today and your heart is bleeding. Holy Spirit wants you to know that Jesus Christ is with you by your side. There is no need for you to shed tears anymore as God is with you.

Jesus Christ revealed Himself to Mary immediately.

3. Even today as you are crying and seeking God, He promises you that He will reveal Himself to you and He will wipe away your tears. You will find Jesus and you will be filled with eternal joy.

GHG REAL LIFE TESTIMONIES - 1 (GOD WILL DO WONDERS IN YOUR LIFE)

“He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory..." - 1 Samuel 2:8

There was a young guy who struggled a lot in his school days to score good marks. Whatever he studies he will forgot it immediately. He lacked knowledge and wisdom. He could not even speak a sentence properly.  His marks were less than 375 in 10^th std public examination. He could not get a group of his interest in +2. His father tried to find a good school for him but he could not get admission even in a low rated school in that city. He stood by the road and cried lot thinking about his future. Even in +2 exams he could not score more than 800. His future seems to be darkened.

At that time he gave his life to Christ completely and came out of his sinful habits. He began to pray diligently. He got admission in a D. Pharm course and when he finished that course he could settle in a job for a salary of Rs. 1500. Every one of his relatives mocked at him for his inabilities. In the year God spoke to him through a prophet saying He will give a government job for him. Though he could not believe that, He trusted God’s word and begun to pray and study hard diligently for the government exams.

In the year 2006, God fulfilled His promise and gave him a job in the government college and also enabled him to complete Bachelors degree in the same college. Recently as he appeared for an all India GPAT exam, God gave him university level first rank. In the same city where he struggled to get an admission, God made him to stand as university topper. The one who could not speak a sentence properly is now sharing God’s word in an invited weekly live program in that city.

God can do wonders in your life. As you trust in the Lord, you will never be put to shame. God will change your life’s situations and make you as the head and not the tail.  You will always be at the top and never at the bottom.

GHG SHORT BIOGRAPHIES - 1 (MATTHEW AYAIRGA)

Matthew Ayairga was not a Christian. He went to Sirte, Libya to find much needed work. One day he was captured by a group of ISIS militants. He was kept in prison for five weeks with other 20 captured Christians. After keeping them five weeks in prison, the militants took them to a beach to behead them. No one knows why the ISIS militants kidnapped him with the rest.

He was not a Christian yet then was forced to join other kidnapped men dressed in orange jumpsuits, kneeling on a beach, with their black-clothed attackers standing behind. The men wearing black, terrorists affiliated with ISIS were holding knives. 

Each man was then systematically beheaded. Every man who was captured, their lips proclaimed "Lord Jesus Christ," in their final moments. The militant who was holding knife to Matthew's neck asked him, "Do you reject Christ?" 

Matthew Ayairga would have had a much better chance at life had he rejected Christ on that day. He saw everyone who was knelt along with him beheaded. But then after reportedly witnessing the "immense faith" of fellow believers and their death, who all came from Egypt, he decided to become a follower of Christ himself. 

And so he boldly said to the militant, “Their God is my God.” And soon he was beheaded.

"Troubled soul, the "much tribulation" will soon be over, and as you enter the "kingdom of God" you shall then see, no longer "through a glass darkly" but in the unshadowed sunlight of the Divine presence, that "all things" did "work together" for your personal and eternal good." - A.W. Pink

#GHG Short Biography

GHG SHORT DEVOTIONALS - 10 (FORGIVE THOSE WHO HAD HURT YOU)

If we read Job 42:9, we can understand that the God who created heaven and earth looked at the face of Job. Why? Job's friends have not spoken what is right of God. So God said to them to go to Job with certain things to offer as burnt offering and God said that Job will pray for them.

Look at the confidence of God. He never said that He will also inform Job to pray for them. These were the same friends who spoke against Job and had hurt him. But God believed and trusted Job that he will do what He asks him to do.

1. Today the Almighty God who sees your heart, can He testify about you with boldness saying that you will pray for those who had hurt you?

His friends went and did as God commanded them. (V9)

2. His friends committed mistake against God. But then when God ask them to repent, they obeyed. Are you obeying God with immediate repentance?

Then God looked at Job's face. Job had so many reasons to tell God that He can't forgive his friends. But he forgives them and prayed for them. God restored what Job lost.

3. Today the message is God wants you to throw away the bitterness that you carry against someone who had done something against you. You might have hundred reasons but God is not ready to hear that. He just wants you to forgive and pray for them because God wants to restore what you lost and He wants you to be blessed

GHG SHORT DEVOTIONALS - 9 (NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE TO GOD)

Genesis 18:12 Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”

God has given a promise to Abraham and Sarah that they will have a child. Abraham and Sarah were old and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. She looked at the situation around her and there is no sign of fulfilment of God’s promise.

Even in your life you see darkness and closed doors everywhere. You feel terrible as there is no sign of fulfilment of God’s promise.

1.   You might say to yourself, “Will I have joy and pleasure in my life? Will God’s promise come to pass in my life as there is no sign of it?

The Lord almighty asks in verse 14, Is anything too hard for the Lord? 

God could bring out blessed generation through a woman who has crossed the age of childbearing. God could bring out the foretold Saviour through a virgin woman.  

2.   You might be longing to have a child, promotion in job, blessing in your studies, financial blessing or any other blessing. There might be no sign of it coming and there is no improvement in the efforts you are taking. But God says to you today that nothing is impossible to Him.  Today God wants you to know that nothing is impossible with Him and no word from Him will ever fail.

And Sarah said, “God has made me laugh... Genesis 21:6. 

The one who doubted whether she will have laughter in her life is testifying that God has filled her with laughter.

3.   This will happen in your life. God will fill you with laughter, joy and His peace. Whatever you are longing for will be given to you by God and you will stand and testify His great works.

#GHG Short Devotions

GOD'S PROMISE FOR THE MONTH OF APRIL'17