New year or new life?

[The Glory Unveiled]

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. [ 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV ]

New years are often marked by celebrations, declarations, and resolutions. We cross over at midnight and assume that because the calendar has changed, life has changed too. But the truth is this: life does not become new simply because we entered a new year and wished the old one away.Newness does not work like that. The kind of newness that unlocks every other new beginning is not seasonal—it is positional. It does not come by wishes, affirmations, or desire alone. It comes by conscious choice. When a person chooses Jesus—when they believe in His finished work and stand in the provision secured by that work—then, and only then, the old truly passes away and the new comes to stay. Scripture declares that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. This new creation is not a metaphor; it is a spiritual reality. In Christ, we are recreated after His image, and the very life of Jesus is expressed through the man or woman who comes into Him. The old does not pass away because we crossed into a new year. It passes away because we are positioned in Christ. Without Christ, a new year is only a new date—not a new life. You may enter January 1st, but if you are not in Christ, you have not entered newness. Jesus is the mechanic of newness. He alone has the power to replace the old with the new. Welcome Him into your life, stand in what He has finished, and you will experience a newness that no calendar change can produce—and no season can take away.

Prayer_Bead: Lord Jesus, thank you for your life in me that has made me a new creation and 

Wisdom_Quote: Newness does not happen because you entered a new year but because you entered Christ. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Think over it. 

[The Glory Unveiled]

Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. [ 2 Timothy 2:7 NIV ]

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” — Matthew 13:9.
Jesus did not say this because sound was the problem. He said it because understanding was. Many would hear His words, but few would grasp their meaning. And it is on this foundation that Jesus introduces the parable of the sower in Matthew 13. Like all parables, it carries truth beneath the surface. Jesus Himself made it clear that parables conceal truth from outsiders, but to His disciples, the meaning is given. After telling the parable, Jesus carefully explains it. He tells us what the seed is—the Word of God—and what each kind of soil represents. When He explains the seed that fell along the path, He says these are people who hear the Word but do not understand it. Because there is no understanding, the enemy comes immediately and snatches the Word away. Notice the emphasis of Jesus: understanding. Then He speaks of the good soil. These are the people who hear the Word and understand it. That one difference—understanding—is what causes them to bear fruit. Not excitement. Not mere hearing. Not proximity to truth. Understanding! Fruitfulness begins where understanding begins. This is why the apostle Paul tells Timothy, “Think over what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding.” (2 Timothy 2:7). Understanding is given by the Lord, but it is invited by thinking. Revelation is God’s gift, but meditation is our responsibility. Jesus’ parable makes it clear: lasting fruit does not come from hearing alone. It comes from heard truth that has been understood. And understanding does not fall on a distracted mind. It is cultivated. So this word is for every believer who desires fruit that remains: do not rush past the Word. Do not treat Scripture as background noise. Think over what you read. Ponder what you hear. Stay with it. Wrestle with it. And as you do, the Holy Spirit will grant understanding. Don’t just hear the Word—think over it. Understanding will come. And where understanding lives, fruit will surely follow.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for showing me what to do so that the word of God will be productive in my life. 

Wisdom_Quote: Revelation is not automatic; it is granted. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Hope

[The Glory Unveiled]

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. [ Romans 5:5 NIV ]

Hope is essential if we are ever going to arrive at our destination. It is the fuel that keeps the journey moving. Just as no one expects a broken vehicle to reach its goal, no one can live effectively without a working hope. We need a hope that functions—and more importantly, a hope that does not disappoint. Hope disappoints when it is fastened to what is fleeting. Many have set their expectations on promises, people, or possibilities that never came to pass. When the foundation of hope is weak, disappointment is inevitable. Hope is only as strong as what supports it. But hope anchored in God does not disappoint. When hope is tethered to the love of God, it stands firm. This love is not distant or theoretical—it has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. That is the unique strength of the believer’s hope: it is enforced by divine love and sustained by divine presence. It is the Holy Spirit at work in us, both to will and to do according to God’s good pleasure. He aligns our desires with God’s purposes and draws the substance of our hope into view. What once seemed impossible begins to yield, because with God all things are possible. Therefore, the believer does not hope blindly. Our hope is anchored in the unchanging nature of God—His ability, His faithfulness, and His love. And if God cannot fail in these things, then our hope, secured in Him, will never disappoint.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for giving me a hope that cannot disappoint because of your presence in me. 

Wisdom_Quote: Hope is the fuel that drives us to our desired goals. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Wake up and pray!

[The Glory Unveiled]

And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. [ Luke 22:46 KJV ]

Temptations are never far from us; they surround us daily. But whether we fall into them or stand firm is largely determined by the temperature of our prayer life. Prayer deeply influences not only howtemptations come, but also how we respond when they arrive. And even though prayer does not remove temptation, it restrains its power. It does not cancel the battle, but it equips us to win it. When we pray, we place spiritual boundaries around our lives. And when temptation approaches our doorstep, grace is already present—strength is already supplied—to resist the fall. Every time we pray, we are signaling to God that we recognize our weakness and acknowledge that our strength is insufficient for the pressures and enticements of life. Prayer is our confession of dependence. It is our admission that without God, we cannot stand. But when we are spiritually asleep, we leave our doors wide open—to temptation, to compromise, and ultimately to destruction. Spiritual sleep robs us of the blessings, the protection, and the privileges God has reserved for those who watch and pray. What prayer secures, sleep carelessly surrenders. So stop sleeping. Wake up and pray. Stay alert and stay watchful, because temptations are not distant—they are looming all around us.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the opportunity to pray so that I will not fall into temptation. 

Wisdom_Quote: What prayer secures, sleep carelessly surrenders!

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Crossing impossible gates

[The Glory Unveiled]

So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” [ Genesis 18:12 NIV ]

Sometimes, as human beings, we reach conclusions that God has never reached. We close cases that heaven has deliberately left open. We stack up evidence—reasonable, logical, convincing evidence—to prove that what God seems to be promising us cannot possibly happen. We disqualify ourselves with facts. We convince ourselves that we are not qualified candidates for the season God is announcing. Sarah did the same. And to be honest, her reasoning was sound. Everything she said about herself and her husband was true. By every natural standard, the miracle was impossible. Time had passed. Strength had faded. Biology had spoken. Her conclusions were valid—yet they were incomplete. So she laughed. Not out of mockery, but out of the sheer absurdity of the promise. And many of us have laughed too. We laugh quietly when God’s Word confronts our reality. We smile to ourselves when the promise sounds good but feels unrealistic. We laugh because, given the facts we know, the outcome seems ridiculous. Have you ever been there? A place where God’s Word feels almost impossible to fulfill? A moment when even entertaining the promise feels humorous? Yet God remains the God of all possibilities. He does not consult our timelines, our limitations, or our qualifications. He specializes in eleventh-hour interventions—when the case is closed, the evidence is final, and hope seems unreasonable. The real question is not whether the miracle is possible. The question is this: when God speaks beyond your conclusions, will you believe Him?

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for your sure promises. I trust that you are able to do exceedingly abundantly and above. 

Wisdom_Quote: The word of God does not fall to the ground. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Adam’s wife

[The Glory Unveiled]

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. [ Genesis 3:6 NIV ]

Adam and his wife, Eve, had always walked in the perfect harmony of the Garden of Eden. They knew its every corner, every tree, every animal, every sound. Life was complete and filled with God’s presence. Yet, there came a day when Eve’s heart would be tested, a day that would reveal the deepest desires of her soul—and the choices she would make would echo across all of humanity. On that day, she saw something she had never noticed before. Her eyes were opened—not to truth, but to illusion. She was deceived into believing that something good could emerge from a path where God was absent. And yet, God had clearly spoken: “Do not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” He was not part of that act, and where God is absent, nothing good can ever come. Consider Nathaniel, who once asked, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46). The answer came not from human logic, but from divine orchestration: the Messiah indeed come from there, because God was at work. But when God is removed from a plan or a choice, destruction follows. That is exactly what happened to Adam and Eve—and by extension, to the human race. Eve saw the tree and desired it: it was pleasing to the eye, it seemed good for food, it promised wisdom. And she ate. But how did she know this? Not from God, but from the tempter, the deceiver. She embraced a counterfeit knowledge, one that contradicted God’s original instruction. So I ask you, what knowledge are you accepting today that contradicts God’s word? What voices are shaping your desires away from the truth you once knew? Before you believe a lie masquerading as wisdom, remember Eve—the woman whose inner longings were exposed by deception, and whose choice became the gateway for humanity’s fall. Guard your heart. Test every message. Seek only the wisdom that comes from God Himself.

Prayer_Bead: Almighty Father, thank you for your instructions which are guiding my path and my ways.  

Wisdom_Quote: The heart’s contents are always exposed by external things.  

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Led by God. 

[The Glory Unveiled]

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. [ Romans 8:14 KJV ]

Our free will as humans often gives us the feeling of complete autonomy. Yet from the beginning, free will was never meant to stand alone. It was designed to function within the life and nature of God. It was given to us not to exalt our independence, but to be willingly surrendered back to Him. Think of it like a parent who gives a child biscuits. Later, while the child is eating, the parent asks for one. In most cases, when the child gives it freely, the parent returns the biscuits—sometimes with even more. But there are children who refuse to give what was first given to them. That simple picture reflects our relationship with God. He gave us free will so that we could live fully in His likeness and nature, yet many of us choose to exercise that will outside the boundaries of who He is. When free will steps outside of God’s nature, it becomes destructive. At that point, we are no longer being led by His Spirit. And Scripture is clear: if we are not led by the Spirit, then we are not living as God’s children. The only way God is truly revealed is when a life is led by God Himself. This is why no one has ever revealed God more perfectly than His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus did not lack a will of His own; He had one. But He consistently submitted it to the Father. He lived fully yielded, fully led by the Spirit. That is the pattern God desires for us—not a life driven by independence, but one flowing from relationship. God is calling us to live from communion, not self-direction. When we walk with Him in such a way that He takes the lead in every area of our lives, we begin to be absorbed into His nature and His life. So the question remains: are you being led by the Spirit of God, or by your senses?

Prayer_Bead: Gracious Father, thank you for leading me by your Spirit. 

Wisdom_Quote: The Spirit of God tracks the children of God.

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Lot’s wife

[The Glory Unveiled]

But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. [ Genesis 19:26 NIV ]

Even though Scripture teaches that a husband and wife become one in marriage, God still engages with each partner individually in their personal relationship with Him. Some spouses take comfort in the devotion of their significant other to God, yet they themselves remain distant from that divine connection. But, as we saw yesterday, the fires of life—whether literal or figurative—have a way of exposing what lies hidden beneath the surface of pretense and hypocrisy. Note that, when given the opportunity to choose while journeying with Abraham, Lot selected the land that was well-watered and seemingly prosperous (Genesis 13:10-11). This choice reveals his inclination toward comfort and the finer things of life. Over time, Lot accumulated wealth and possessions in Sodom—not inherently wrong, but the problem was that he lived and acquired these things for himself. He forgot a simple truth: he was not the owner, only a steward. And then there is Lot’s wife. For much of the record, we hear little about her, but when the moment of testing came, her heart was revealed. The Scripture tells us she “looked back”—she lagged behind, unable to let go of the possessions and comforts that were being destroyed by the fire. Her attachment, her lust for what was passing, blinded her to God’s command. In the end, she perished alongside the very things she could not part with. Let Lot’s wife serve as a warning. When our hearts cling to possessions, comforts, or desires more than we cling to God, the fire of life will reveal the truth. And what we cannot release may very well be what destroys us.

Prayer_Bead: Father and Lord, thank you for daily satisfying me with your word and presence. Help me to be content with you always. 

Wisdom_Quote: The fire of God reveals everything hiding in the blind side of our hearts. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Remember Job’s wife 

[The Glory Unveiled]

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die.” [ Job 2:9 NIV ]

Often, we carry carefully formed opinions about who we are—until life puts us on trial. It is in the furnace of experience that the truth about us is revealed. The specialist who administers such tests answers to many names, but in this line of work he is best known as the Accuser of the Brethren—Satan himself. In the opening chapter of Job, Scripture tells us that Satan was roaming to and fro upon the earth (Job 1:7). When Job’s name was brought before him, Satan challenged the integrity of the man God had commended. He sought permission to test Job, not to refine him, but to invalidate God’s testimony concerning him. Permission was granted, and the testing began. What followed were trials so fierce and relentless that few would have survived them. Yet when the fires had done their work, Satan found no fault in Job. Just as Jesus declared, “the prince of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30), so it was with Job—Satan found nothing of himself in him. No hidden allegiance. No compromised loyalty. But while Job stood firm in the flames, someone else was exposed. The fire that failed to consume Job revealed what lay buried in the heart of his wife. The pressure uncovered her true attachment—not to God, but to the things that had been lost. In much the same way, when Paul gathered sticks and laid them upon the fire on the island of Malta, the heat did not invent the serpent—it exposed it (Acts 28:3). The flames always reveal what was hiding beneath the surface. So we must ask ourselves: What would the fire expose in us?

What is that thing—comfort, status, security, relationships—that could rob us of our integrity? What might tempt us to trade faithfulness for relief, or devotion for preservation? That very thing may be what costs us fellowship with God, just as it did Job’s wife. The fire is not sent to destroy the faithful—but it will always reveal where our hearts truly rest.

Prayer_Bead: Father, thank you for the grace to continue to have a working relationship with you. Help me not to trade my integrity on the bed of material things. In Jesus name. 

Wisdom_Quote: The value of your integrity is determined in the day of adversity. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.

Creation’s habitat

[The Glory Unveiled]

for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ [ Acts 17:28 NIV ]

God is the environment of existence itself, the great ecosystem in which all creation lives, moves, and has its being. He sustains all things. And that is how we understand that the Garden of Eden was more than a geographical location. It was the circumference of God. It was not merely a place God visited; it was a revelation of who God is. The garden portrayed the content of God, expressing different dimensions of His life and nature. That is why within the garden stood the Tree of Life—and later, in the fullness of time, Jesus would declare Himself the Bread of Life. There was also the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, alongside many other reflections of the varied expressions of God’s being. Adam and Eve were not merely placed near God; they were living in God, dwelling within His boundaries. This is also why, when they were driven out of the garden, cherubim and seraphim were stationed to guard the way. They were not simply guarding land; they were guarding access to divine life. God Himself is the solid Rock upon which we stand. Every other ground, every other promise, every other “opportunity” is sinking sand. We are who we are, and we are sustained as we are, because we dwell within the borders of the person of God. Outside those borders there is only emptiness and void. It was so in the beginning of creation. Outside God, darkness and chaos covered everything. But the Spirit of God hovered over the deep, mapping the chaos, and then God spoke Himself into it. His Word swallowed the void, introduced order, and released light. From that moment until forevermore, this has been the reality: in Him we live, and move, and have our being. All creation, the entire universe, is God’s offspring. He is the source of all that is and all that ever shall be.

Prayer_Bead: Creator and Father, thank you for being my ecosystem so that in you I live and move and have my being. 

Wisdom_Quote: There is absolutely nothing outside of God. 

#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.