Simon Peter and some other fishermen were washing their nets when Jesus asked Peter to take the boat out from the shore a little so Jesus could preach to the people assembled on the shoreline. When He finished preaching, He told Peter to head out into the lake and throw in his net for a catch (Luke 5:1-4). Despite fishing all night with no results Peter replied: “at your word I will let down the net” (Luke 5:5b; NKJV). Now that’s obedience! It’s sometimes good to think, “how obedient are we to God?” Jesus told us that He only did, “what He sees the Father do” (John 5:19; NKJV) and He did not follow His own will but that of the Father (John 5:30b; NKJV). In fact, Jesus’ obedience to the Father extended to dying on a cross (Phil 2:8). Jesus, in addressing a large multitude of people, said, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46; NKJV). Sadly, many church goers do not speak or act any differently from non-church goers. We are not to be men-pleasers bit God-pleasers, doing His will from our hearts (Eph 6:6). The apostle John wrote that we would be less than honest if we claimed an intimate relationship with God and yet did not walk in obedience to Him (1 John 2:3-6). To be part of God’s kingdom requires serious obedience (Matt 7:21). If we truly obey God’s word He comes and dwells with or makes His home with and in us (John 14:23). Let’s give Jesus the last word, “Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it”! (Luke 11:28; NKJV). I like that, how about you?

I

One time when the Philistines were attacking King David, he asked God if he should fight them and if he would have the victory, to which God answered, “yes!” “So David and his troops went up to Baal-Perazim and defeated the philistines there. “God did it!” David exclaimed. “He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!”” (1 Chron 14:11; NLT). The Hebrew word for “breakthrough” is “paras” and can also mean break open or burst out. I love the way David gives immediate glory to God but acknowledges that God used him to bring about this victory. We need to be co-labourers with God (1 Cor 3:9) and be prepared to do our part, with God’s help and direction. I also like the way David consulted God before doing anything at all. So often when we are faced with a challenge, we immediately want to go into action to solve the problem. However, if we seek God first, He can give us wisdom and a game plan which will be much more effective than our ideas.

In Micah 2:13 this same word, “paras” is used twice, “The Breaker (the Messiah) will go up before them. They will break through, pass in through the gate and go out through it” (AMPC). This verse points to Jesus, who is the called the “Breaker” and He is the one who brings about our breakthrough. If you are in need of a breakthrough today, talk to the Breaker and get His wisdom for your situation. He can show you how to deal with all the hindrances and break out into victory!

“Let integrity and uprightness preserve me” (Psalm 25:21; AMPC). Some other words conveying all or part of the meaning of integrity would be: strong moral standards, honesty, innocence, blameless, righteousness, incorruptible and honorable. The scripture quotation above was written by King David and we know that for the most part he was a man of integrity because he had the opportunity to kill King Saul but chose not to because Saul was God’s anointed king (1 Sam 24:10). (However, when it came to his relationship with Bathsheba and Uriah he was not operating in integrity; 2 Sam 11-12) We are told by Solomon that the book of Proverbs was written so that we could learn integrity (Prov 11:3)., along with many other things (Prov 1:3). So, if we want to live lives of integrity we should pay close attention to the whole book of Proverbs.

In Ephesians 6, in the Amplified Bible Classic translation (AMPC), we read about putting on the armour of God and verse 14 says, “Having put on the breastplate of integrity and moral rectitude”. We have to put it on, in other words be intentional about it. This means no white lies, no cheating; it means obeying the laws of the land, showing respect, being an honest citizen and doing what we know is right even when no one is watching.

When Paul wrote to Titus, he asked him to appoint elders for the churches and said that they should be men of “unquestionable integrity” (Titus 1:6; AMPC). That should describe anyone who calls himself a Christian. So, lets make integrity a priority in our lives and set a good example in the body of Christ.

“Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt 11:28-30; NKJV). This is one of my favourite passages in the Bible! To the people of Jesus’ time, He offered a rest from the toil of trying to live by the law and traditions of the time. This passage speaks powerfully to us as well. As we labour and toil to the point of exhaustion in life trying to find peace, integrity, fulfillment, satisfaction, abundance and success Jesus says, why not live life My way and you will experience all you seek and true rest. True rest is refreshment, when we can stop labouring in our own strength and look to Jesus. We read in our passage that Jesus is humble and a man of meekness, meekness is power under control. Jesus’ way for us to have the abundant God kind of life (John 10:10) is easy, pleasant and good. Becoming yoked to Jesus means to be linked with and submitted to Him; to become humble and teachable so we can learn His ways and do them. We men often buy a product and get frustrated trying to assemble and use it because we rely only on our own ability and knowledge. Then our wives suggest we read the instructions and we finally have success. In our passage, God tells us to do life His way and then we will experience rest, peace and fulfillment. His instruction manual we need to consult is the word, our Bible!

1 Corinthians 13:1-3 tells us that if we do good things but without love, those good things are worthless. Thus, we need to make sure that everything we do is prompted by love. 1 Cor 16:14 says, “Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by God’s love in us)” (AMPC). That’s talking about agape love which means that if we do something motivated by this kind of love, we won’t be expecting anything back in return. In other words, we won’t be thinking of ourselves (1 Cor 13:5). This reminds me of the “Good Samaritan” in Luke 10:25-37. This man was motivated by love to care for a wounded man and even pay for his hotel stay out of his own pocket. It must have been a great inconvenience to him but this was agape love.

1 Cor 14:1 tells us, “Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire (this) love (make it your aim, your great quest)” (AMPC). That’s how serious we need to be about operating in love. The apostle John gives us some great advice about how to mature in this love in 1 John chapter 4. He says that because God is love, if we abide in God and He in us then that love will develop in us (verse 16). Then in verse 17 he tells us that, “in this (union and communion with Him) love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us” (AMPC). That’s how we develop agape love – a life-long process but so worth it!