UCB Word For Today

A young artist called her aunt one day to let her know she was leaving on a trip to a fashionable resort to try and sell her wood carvings of seabirds to the owner of a gift shop. She asked her aunt to pray that her venture would be successful. Her aunt assured her that she would pray for the largest order she had ever received! That evening, the young artist called her aunt back. Not only had the gift shop owner purchased all of her carvings, but the owner of a chain of gift shops had also ordered as many carvings as she could make! She was filled with wonder at how abundantly God had answered prayer. ‘Now,’ she said to her aunt, ‘pray that I can fill his order!’ Her aunt replied, ‘The Lord doesn’t open a door unless He expects us to walk through it successfully. When we pray for rain, don’t be surprised when you get a cloudburst!’ Are you praying for God to meet a need in your life? What answer are you expecting? Be honest. Bare minimum? Meagre-but-satisfactory? Or are you expecting an abundant, more-than-enough supply? Stand on God’s Word: ‘The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand.’ Jesus said, ‘I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly’ (John 10:10 NKJV). Paul wrote: ‘God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work’ (2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV). So, believe God for abundance.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

In her book 30 Days to a Stronger, More Confident You, author Deborah Smith Pegues uses the word ‘pray’ as an acronym: ‘Pause. I stop all activity and focus completely on God. Worship is total preoccupation…The greatest honour and respect we can give to anyone is our undivided attention…Reverence. I express my admiration for all His attributes…At this point, distractions start to pop up like dandelions…I will suddenly remember a task I need to put on my to-do list. I have learned to jot down the task in my journal and ignore the other issues for what they are – mere distractions that can be dealt with later. I have also learned that praying audibly helps to minimise wandering thoughts…Ask. I ask for forgiveness for my sins, making every effort to be specific. I pray for the power to live a Christian life and ask God to give me a passion for His Word and for prayer. I ask for His will to be done in every aspect of my life: spiritually, physically, financially, relationally, vocationally, and emotionally…Yield. I must subordinate my requests to God’s sovereign will, trusting that He knows what is best. I strive to maintain a “nevertheless” attitude. Therefore, I am careful to conclude my prayer by saying, “Nevertheless, not my will, Lord, but Yours be done” [see Luke 22:42]…The old adage that it is not what you know but whom you know that gives you the advantage in a situation is true – especially from a spiritual perspective. When we have a relationship with God, we understand that He is sufficient to handle any demand placed upon us.’

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

To have a personal relationship with someone, there must be two-way communication. Even the most uncommunicative spouse has to grunt every once in a while, or it isn’t a marriage – it’s a monologue. So, the Lord being with you, and you being with the Lord, takes place primarily in your mind. Two people may occupy the same room, but if one of them is sleeping or engrossed in television, they’re not really with each other. There must be interactive awareness. Now, as human beings, we don’t have ‘direct access’ to each other’s thoughts. We can use words, human touch, or hand gestures to guide another person’s thoughts. But God is infinite rather than finite, so He is able to guide our thoughts directly. He can speak to us through Scripture or through the words of another person. But He can also plant His thoughts directly in our minds. ‘We have the mind of Christ’ (1 Corinthians 2:16 NKJV). And this can happen anytime, anywhere. So, your mind is your meeting place with God! There’s much about God speaking to you that’s a mystery. There are no formulas. You cannot control God’s communication with you. You cannot force Him to speak by being more pious or more sincere or by working hard. Jesus told Nicodemus: ‘The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit’ (John 3:8 NKJV). This much you can be certain of today: God is with you, and He will speak to you if you take the time to listen.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Job the patriarch said: ‘For God may speak in one way, or in another, yet man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night…while slumbering on their beds, then He opens the ears of men’ (Job 33:14-16 NKJV). A dream can be an important message from God or an answer to your prayer. God gave Paul a dream in which a man from Macedonia appeared to him saying, ‘Come over and help us’ (see Acts 16:9). And Paul went there and preached the gospel. Solomon’s reign as king of Israel begins with these words: ‘In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee’ (1 Kings 3:5 KJV). Solomon asked God for great wisdom, and God gave him wisdom, honour, and riches. Would God still speak to us today in dreams? Yes. He says: ‘I am the LORD, I change not’ (Malachi 3:6 KJV). The Hebrew word for dream is ‘chalom’. It has five meanings: 1) ‘To bind firmly.’ This pictures you being wrapped securely in God’s love. 2) ‘To be or make plump.’ In the Bible, fatness or plumpness is a picture of health, well-being, and prosperity. 3) ‘A sense of dumbness.’ When God gives you a dream, He is sharing with you information about things of which you are ignorant. 4) ‘To be in good liking.’ When God gives you a dream, He is showing favour towards you. 5) ‘To recover.’ When God gives you a dream, He is working on restoring what you have lost. So, ask God for a dream.

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.

Just before He was arrested and taken to the cross, Jesus prayed: ‘[Father], I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’ When it comes to recognising and responding to God’s presence in our lives, Christian author, John Ortberg, says he lives by these twelve truths: 1) God is always present and active in my life, whether or not I see Him. 2) Coming to recognise and experience God’s presence is learned behaviour; I can cultivate it. 3) My task is to meet God in this moment. 4) I’m always tempted to live ‘outside’ this moment. When I do that, I lose my sense of God’s presence. 5) Sometimes God seems far away for reasons I don’t understand. Those moments, too, are opportunities to learn. 6) Whenever I fail, I can always start again right away. 7) No one knows the full extent to which a human being can experience God’s presence. 8) My desire for God ebbs and flows, but His desire for me is constant. 9) Every thought carries a ‘spiritual charge’ that moves me a little closer to or a little further from God. 10) Every aspect of my life, work, relationships, hobbies, errands – is of interest to God. 11) My path to experiencing God’s presence will not look quite like someone else’s. 12) Straining and trying too hard do not help. So, the word for today is – God is working in you, with you, and through you!

© 2024. Written by Bob and Debby Gass. Used by permission under licence from UCB International.