The Resting Place

16/10/2023

October 16 (One on one with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: Not by Power!

Text: Deuteronomy 7:1 “When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are about to enter and occupy, he will clear away many nations ahead of you: the Hittites, Girgash*tes, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. These seven nations are greater and more numerous than you.”

One of my all-time favorite scriptures is Psalms 44:3 (KJV) “For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favor unto them.” It is a very comforting scripture, especially when faced with daunting opposition on any issue. The scripture assures me, and every child of God that the most important thing we need is the support and favor of God. Once we have that, it does not matter what stands against us!

The Bible says in Philippians 4:13 that “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” What this means is that it doesn’t matter how daunting the situation that faces me is, I can and I will win over it. Please note that the reason I will win is not that I am strong, that I am prepared, or that I have been sufficiently trained to deal with the situation. The reason is that I have a God who backs me up! I have a God who shows me what to do! I have a God who superimposes His strength upon my weakness, making my weak blows more impactful, pushing down the opposition even when their ability far exceeds mine.

Each of the seven nations that the children of Israel faced was stronger and bigger than them. In the physical, they had absolutely no chance of fighting against them. But when the dust of battle cleared, those nations, all seven of them, were fallen and Israel was still standing! Why? Because God helped them!

Today, beloved I bring you a word – God is ready and willing to help you. Hold on to Him. Step into the favor of your Father as you rededicate yourself to Him. Let His favor go before you today. Hand over the Hittites, Girgash*tes, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites to Him. Don’t run from the battle, face it! Stand in the place where His mercy covers you, then like David, face your Goliath in the name of the Lord. You will win!

It may be bigger than you, but it is smaller than God, and He will strengthen you to overcome it!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

31/08/2023

August 31 (One-on-one with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: The Time of your Favour is NOW!

Text: 2Co 6:2 (NET) For he says, “I heard you at the acceptable time, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!

In the NIV, this verse is rendered ‘For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.’

It will be helpful to explain, in our consideration of today’s text, that this verse is a direct quote from Isaiah 49:8 (NIV) where the Bible says: “This is what the Lord says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances,..”

To explain the sentiment behind the quotation of this verse in 2 Cor 6:2, I would like to take us to John 5. In vs 4, the Bible says that at particular times determined only by God, an angel enters the pool in Bethesda and troubles it, and whoever jumps into that pool at that particular time would be healed and delivered of whatever was his or her sickness. There was no discrimination at all and no holding back. Once you enter at the right time, your answer is assured.

So in our text for today, God is saying, just like in the case of the pool of Bethesda, there is an existing decree, an established intention of God as prophesied is that if you will ask at a time when His favor is active, or in a period God has declared as a time of salvation, God is bound to answer you.

And here is the revelation – the Apostle says NOW, right now, is the time prophesied in Isaiah 49:8. Your faith can make THIS day and right NOW your accepted time and the time for your salvation. Your solution and salvation do not have to wait till tomorrow, you can receive it NOW. Your miracle is ready whenever you are READY to receive. Jesus has been ready for you since before now, and even now is ready and willing to make available the help that you need.

So, today I pray for you, May the light of revelation go on in your heart. May this light birth in you the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ concerning the truth in our text today. May the Spirit of the Most High produce in you those results that you need. May His hand grace your faith to arise to receive every good thing He so desires to release into your hands and life. Amen!

God bless you!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

29/08/2023

August 28 (One on one with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: Faith agrees, and then ACTS

Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham *believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.

In Rom 4, we see that father Abraham was justified (i.e. made fit, considered proper) to receive the blessing of a promise that normally would be given only to people who have lived perfectly (which was something he had not done). The only reason God gave him this mighty blessing was that he "believed" in God, that God will keep His word. It was only after he had been blessed because of this belief, that God told him to go ahead and perform the act of circumcision as a mark that he has believed.

From this scripture, we see that Abraham was father, first, to people who believed as he believed (and by this, he qualified them for the inheritance), and that those of the circumcision will only have access to this inheritance NOT BECAUSE THEY WERE CIRCUMCISED, BUT BECAUSE THEY BELIEVED.

In effect, Abraham was not blessed with a generational blessing because he AGREED with God that He will make him indeed a father of nations, NO. Abraham was blessed because he *BELIEVED* that God will make him a father of nations.

I usually try to explain the difference between agreement and belief with this illustration: If I was to lay hands on you now and declare that from now you are bulletproof, you may agree with me. But the proof of whether you believe me will be what you do if you see someone brandishing a gun and threatening to shoot at you!

So you see, many of us agree with God on many issues, but we don't really believe. The only way to show that we truly believe is by actions. There is no other way.

Our WORDS and CONFESSIONS are not the true indicators of our belief! Our WORKS and our CONTENTIONS (actions) are.

Abraham believed as he did because he had a relationship with God, and a knowledge of who God is, which gave him confidence such that he was ready to take responsibility and perfom actions that proved that he indeed believes. The Bible said he was"...fully persuaded that, what God had promised, God was able also to perform." (Romans 4:21)

It takes responsibility to act on what we agree with, i.e. what we claim to believe! IRRESPONSIBLE people don't act on what they agree with!

For this reason, the IRRESPONSIBLE will find a reasonable degree of difficulty in the journey of faith because GOD'S PROMISES ARE MEANT TO BE BELIEVED AND ACTED UPON! And whether we believe or not is shown by the position we take in response to the promise. The one who truly believes will immediately take steps to act.

Today, please remember that your response to God's promises is key to how those promises will bring forth in your life. Please pray with me: “Father, in Jesus’ mighty name, I ask that you will strengthen me with your divine grace and a supernatural enablement to trust you and act according to that trust every time! Amen.”

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

August 28 (One on one with Jesus Devotional) Topic: Faith agrees, and then ACTS Rom 4:3 For what saith the scripture? Abraham *believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. In Rom 4, we see that father Abraham was justified (i.e. made fit, considered proper) to receive the blessing of...

25/08/2023

August 25 (One on One with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: He is Good and His mercies endure forever! (2)

Text: Psalm 86:5 "For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee."

Psalm 100:5 "For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations."

Psalm 106:1 "Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever."

One of the first things I noticed when I looked for all the places in scripture where it was stated that God's mercies endure forever is that in the King James Version, there was nowhere it was written that His "mercies" endure forever. Instead, every single one of the 42 verses I found was rendered "His MERCY endureth forever". Everything was in the singular!

As I pondered on this, it occurred to me that, in my mind when I think about the "mercies" of God, I am focused on His actions, those situations in our lives when we see Him do things we don't deserve, when He comes through for us even in our inability to help ourselves. In essence, I am looking at happenings. But the scriptures render it MERCY every single time because each mention is focused on His nature, not only on the happenings in a person's life. You see, beloved, the Bible is saying here that MERCY is His nature. His MERCY is like His complexion. It never fades, it is not affected by what we think, it is the same every day. It does not decrease or increase, It is not affected by the economy, by man's behavior, by the general worldview, or who loves us or does not!

HIS MERCY IS HIM, IT IS HIS NATURE, and it is EVERLASTING!

Then again, almost everywhere it is mentioned that His mercy endures forever, the Bible also says that He is GOOD. These two descriptives are referring to the kind of person our God is. He is GOOD, period! I think we should make this our meditation the whole day today. Think about it – He is GOOD and His nature of MERCY is constant. He is not good because you pray that He should be, He is not good because you have been at your best behavior. He is simply GOOD. That is who He is. When we are righteous, we only make it easier for His nature of goodness to be better enjoyed by us. Whether we are faithful or not, the Lord is ALWAYS good, and His nature of Mercy never changes!

This is where knowledge and understanding become helpful, for a man that is settled in his understanding of the nature of God to always be merciful can better take advantage of this natural tendency of His. Remember Hebrews 4:16? It says "Let us therefore come *boldly* unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." Notice that it says all we need to be able to do is to come unto that throne. At any time we can be present before that throne we will find that mercy is awaiting us there. The only problem is to get to the throne.

But when we have the understanding of His nature of mercy, even though we are undeserving and we know it, we can still summon the boldness to come before that throne! And this, beloved, is EXACTLY what He wants. He is GOOD by nature and His nature of MERCY never changes, so whenever we manage to drag ourselves before that throne, we are sure to find mercy!

So, why don't you take advantage of this today? Lean on God's mercy today. Cry out to Him for it. He will grace you with the help you need to meet the needs of your situation.

For He is GOOD and His MERCY endures forever!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

24/08/2023

August 24 (One on One with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: He is Good and His mercies endure forever! (1)

Text: Lam 3:19-26 (KJV) “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

From the beginning of Lamentations chapter 3, the writer had detailed the challenges and hardships he faced. In his narrative, he even declared that those afflictions were directly as a result of God’s anger. All the way to verse 18, the author made lamentations about how God’s anger had responded to his sin and the resulting challenges, but all of a sudden in verse 19 he says: “even as I remembered my affliction and all the suffering I am going through, I recall a truth to my mind and this gives me hope, and it is that God’s love and compassion for us do not end, do not finish and are never used up…”

Please meditate on this today, beloved: God’s love NEVER ceases. In that cauldron of affliction and challenges, His love never ends. Even when we are walking in the worst of sins, His love does not diminish. There is nothing that can overwhelm his compassion, nothing that can stop his kindness!

For some of us, we are in that position where our instincts and emotions are cursing God and accusing Him because of situations in our lives that have convinced us that God does not care. This is not true. As described in our text, the truth with God is that He is physically and spiritually incapable of being anything other than compassionate and loving: His compassions are daily renewed. And He is ever willing to extend it to whoever will be willing to receive it. No matter what the situation is, He is the same as He was the day before, and freshly so every single day. It is us that dwell in a place of changing emotions and circumstances. God does not, When you are rejoicing, He is the same, when you are angry He is the same. When you are unhappy, He is the same… He is the same EVERY single time!

But if we will get this as a revelation, we will realize that irrespective of our situation, we can expect God to come through for us. If we get that understanding of His stability and not only that, but His willingness to extend that stability and compassion to us irrespective of our situation, we will always have HOPE!

God is FOR you, beloved! Whether you believe it or not, this is the truth. But when you accept this and then believe it, you make it possible for all that love and compassion to have a greater effect in your life. No matter what you are going through today, may I encourage you to please “both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD!” Be bold to trust and expect that He will come through. Even when what is happening in your life does not look like what you would have wanted, don’t let your heart shift from that stance that “The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever”. Let your mindset mirror that of the three young Hebrew men in Daniel Chapter 3, (vs 16-18) who said: “ O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” They took a position in their hearts and even though their circumstances were not reflecting that position, their hearts were certain on where they stood. Oh, may our hearts be like theirs, for I believe that this position generated a pull on Grace that made it impossible for them to be put to shame!

As you trust in God and hold unto that love that never fails even when you are wrong, I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that your eyes will see and your life will reflect the results of His Mercies!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

August 24 (One on One with Jesus Devotional) Topic: He is Good and His mercies endure forever! (1) Text: Lam 3:19-26 (KJV) “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I...

24/08/2023

August 24 (One on One with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: He is Good and His mercies endure forever! (1)

Text: Lam 3:19-26 (KJV) “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.”

From the beginning of Lamentations chapter 3, the writer had detailed the challenges and hardships he faced. In his narrative, he even declared that those afflictions were directly as a result of God’s anger. All the way to verse 18, the author made lamentations about how God’s anger had responded to his sin and the resulting challenges, but all of a sudden in verse 19 he says: “even as I remembered my affliction and all the suffering I am going through, I recall a truth to my mind and this gives me hope, and it is that God’s love and compassion for us do not end, do not finish and are never used up…”

Please meditate on this today, beloved: God’s love NEVER ceases. In that cauldron of affliction and challenges, His love never ends. Even when we are walking in the worst of sins, His love does not diminish. There is nothing that can overwhelm his compassion, nothing that can stop his kindness!

For some of us, we are in that position where our instincts and emotions are cursing God and accusing Him because of situations in our lives that have convinced us that God does not care. This is not true. As described in our text, the truth with God is that He is physically and spiritually incapable of being anything other than compassionate and loving: His compassions are daily renewed. And He is ever willing to extend it to whoever will be willing to receive it. No matter what the situation is, He is the same as He was the day before, and freshly so every single day. It is us that dwell in a place of changing emotions and circumstances. God does not, When you are rejoicing, He is the same, when you are angry He is the same. When you are unhappy, He is the same… He is the same EVERY single time!

But if we will get this as a revelation, we will realize that irrespective of our situation, we can expect God to come through for us. If we get that understanding of His stability and not only that, but His willingness to extend that stability and compassion to us irrespective of our situation, we will always have HOPE!

God is FOR you, beloved! Whether you believe it or not, this is the truth. But when you accept this and then believe it, you make it possible for all that love and compassion to have a greater effect in your life. No matter what you are going through today, may I encourage you to please “both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD!” Be bold to trust and expect that He will come through. Even when what is happening in your life does not look like what you would have wanted, don’t let your heart shift from that stance that “The Lord is good and His mercies endure forever”. Let your mindset mirror that of the three young Hebrew men in Daniel Chapter 3, (vs 16-18) who said: “ O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.” They took a position in their hearts and even though their circumstances were not reflecting that position, their hearts were certain on where they stood. Oh, may our hearts be like theirs, for I believe that this position generated a pull on Grace that made it impossible for them to be put to shame!

As you trust in God and hold unto that love that never fails even when you are wrong, I pray in the mighty name of Jesus that your eyes will see and your life will reflect the results of His Mercies!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

23/08/2023

August 23 (One-on-one with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: ‘Today’ is whenever you are ready to receive!

Text: Psalms 95:7-8 (NIV) “for He is our God and we are the people of His pasture, the flock under His care. Today, if only you would hear His voice, “Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness,”

Hebrews 4:6-7a (NIV) “Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience, God again set a certain day, calling it ‘Today.’”

Reading through Hebrews chapters 3 and 4, you will notice that Psalm 95:7b-8 was repeatedly mentioned, with the word “Today” coming up over and over again. In particular, in Hebrews 3:7,13 and 15, we are admonished that the decision we make in a space of time called “Today” will have far-reaching results in the situations of our lives.

Quoting from Psalms 95: 7-5 the scriptures tell us that there were a set of people who had an opportunity to take advantage of God’s promise when they found themselves in the wilderness. Unfortunately for them, they did not give the promise given to them the required attention, and as such were unable to get the benefits of the promise. Now we are being admonished that those opportunities are still available and the same things said then are still being said now, but can only be accessible within a time frame called “Today”.

But every day is today, right? Indeed, this is true, and linguistically, every day is a “Today”. “Today” occurs daily. You will always, as long as you have breath, have the chance of a “Today”. However, the fact that you exist in a “Today” does not mean that that particular “Today” will, in terms of what the scripture is passing across to us, be a “Today” for you. That “Today” in the scripture becomes so only when YOU decide that this day is your “Today”! So, while we have the opportunity every day to get a “Today”, the flip side is that our “Today” even though it is a constant possibility, will only become so when we are ready to make it so!

It is OUR decision that will make today our “Today”! The Bible says today becomes OUR “Today” when we make the decision not to harden our hearts. Today becomes OUR “Today” when we are ready for it to become a “Today” for us.

In Hebrews 4, the Bible says that God made a definite promise to His people. In this case, it was a particular promise of rest. But I will like us to know that the explanation given in Hebrews 4 (Please read Hebrews 4:1-11) applies to every single promise that God has released to the general body of believers. The passage explains that even though some people to whom He had given a clear and definite promise did not take advantage of the promise, the promise is still available and He has assigned a certain day which He called “Today” for the actualization of that promise, and everyone who will in that “Today” receive the promise will see it happen in his life!

Beloved, the Bible says that every promise that God has given us is in Jesus Christ Yea, and in Him, Amen (2 Corinth 1:20). What this means is that He is committed to fulfilling every single word of every promise He has released in the spiritual realms unto us. Our part is that we are ready to enter into a “Today” mindset. Whenever our readiness turns our day into a “Today”, the blessings of the promise WILL without fail manifest.

I pray today for us all in the name of Jesus Christ, that the Grace of God that empowers men to perform beyond their physical, mental, and every other ability, will rest upon us giving us the mindset that makes every day a “Today”!

May His Promises bring forth in your life!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]

21/08/2023

August 21 (One-on-one with Jesus Devotional)

Topic: His plan, His way, is best

Text: John 21:3 (GNB) Simon Peter said to the others, "I am going fishing." "We will come with you," they told him.

The situation in our text today happened shortly after the death of Jesus on the Cross. That day, seven of Jesus’ disciples were together when Peter suddenly told the others he was going fishing, and they all followed. In itself, this decision did not seem in any way significant, for some people take joy in fishing as a hobby, often using it as a therapeutic activity to take their minds off other more stressful issues. But after reading the passage to verse 17, and seeing the play of events and the question that Jesus repeatedly asked Peter at the end, in my opinion, verse 3(a) had much more weight than it seems at first reading.

I think what happened here is that Peter, in a discouraged state, considered a return to his previous trade of fishing, which he had abandoned in the hope that something more significant had come up and he was going to be part of a greater future than he had thought. If you remember, in Luke chapter 5, he had in much excitement and conviction, made the life-changing decision to stop catching fish as a career and focus on following Jesus in the hope of now “catching men.” In my opinion, the statement in John 21:3 was not that of a man trying to remove stress by revisiting a hobby, but a man abandoning a dream because to all intents and purposes, it was over and no longer attainable. In order words Peter gave up, and the other disciples joined him to give up. They were not going fishing to relax, they were going back to work!

So, they went out in a boat, but no matter how much they tried all that night they did not catch a thing! This is what the second part of John 21:3 tells us. After 6-8 hours of serious activity, not one tiny fish found its way into their nets! Imagine the frustration! It was in this scenario that Jesus taught them the powerful lessons I believe we need to know today. Firstly, He appeared to them in that state of “backsliding”. He didn’t abandon them. Though they were not doing exactly what He wanted them to do, He never abandoned them. Beloved, the Lord is ALWAYS near to the “sincere of heart”. In fact, your mistakes never mean He will abandon you! If Jesus came and was willing to die for sinners who had no desire or knowledge of Him, do you think He will easily throw away the one that got washed in the blood and then tripped and fell? No, that will be foolish! You don’t throw away a piece of very expensive cloth just because it got a stain that you can easily remove! Why would he waste all He spent on you in the first place?

Secondly, He told them to throw the net to a particular place, and when they did, all the fish around ran into the net! All of a sudden there were fish all around! Thirdly, when they came back to the shore, the Bible said there was already a fire on the beach and fish was already being grilled on it, the fish they had spent hours trying to catch and got none, was being grilled already by a man that didn’t even have a fishing hook with him talk less of a net!

Jesus was teaching them, especially Peter a big lesson in a couple of parts. No. 1, “that job you are trying to run back to, you need me to succeed there!” No 2, “Whatever you are running to get in that place, I can give it to you without you having to run out of my will.” No 3. “What is most important in your life is what I want”, and in the case of Peter, Jesus needed him to feed His lambs. Lastly, “the only way you will be able to get the best of God is if you love Him more than any other thing!”

So, when Jesus said, “Peter, do you love me more than these?” He was asking a big question and is asking us all that same question even now. Do we love Him enough to trust our lives and future into His hands? Do we love Him enough to commit to hearing Him and follow His will for our lives? If we do this, I assure you beloved, the results will be beyond our previous plans and imagination, for as stated in Jeremiah 29:11, there is a glorious intention behind every plan and thought of God for our lives!

I pray in Jesus’ name that as you continue on your journey of loving God, His Spirit will direct you into that beautiful plan of His for your life!

Writer: Kayode Adewakun

("One on one with Jesus" is a daily devotional for you from The Resting Place Abuja)_

We welcome your feedback! Please email us at [email protected]