WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION

Monday, 27th October, 2025.
Theme: Live by the Spirit and not the Flesh
( Rom 8:12-17, Ps 68, Lk 13:10-17)

St. Paul in the first reading is warning the Romans to allow the spirit of God to control their lives. The entire Roman community was one full of evil deeds. There were a lot of sinful acts been committed in Rome. These sinful acts were seen those days to be normal. Homosexuality, public sex and others were very common practices among the people. St. Paul was warning the Christian believers not to follow the desires of the flesh and commit such grievous acts, because they are filthy in the eyes of God.

Beloved, the nature of the Roman society is not different from ours. Sin has been exalted to the extent that, it is no more called sin but a mistake. We have allowed our fleshy desires to rule our lives. We follow the dictates of our flesh and not the spirit which dwells in us. The human being is either controlled by the flesh, which is the devil or by the spirit which is God. When your thoughts are controlled by your fleshy desires, then your actions become products of that.

We must develop strong conscience inorder to be controlled by God’s Spirit always. A strong conscience is always in tune with God. This can happen when we pray constantly and read the bible as well. This makes us to mature in the virtue of Self-Control. In this case you have the power to control yourself, so that you can overcome the desires of the flesh.Even though you would have a strong edge of the flesh, but equally you would also have the power to avoid satisfying the flesh. But if not then we become weak in our conscience, hence satisfying the flesh always. I must admit that a number of us find ourselves in this category. The flesh is leading us always and not the spirit of God.

When the flesh succeeds always, it further weakens our conscience and it will get to a point our conscience would be dead. At this stage, we don’t see sin to be anything bad anymore. Satan would now be in total control of our lives. Please don’t wait to get to this point, because it is very dangerous. Recovery from such situations is difficult. It only takes the grace of God. You are either on God’s side or the devil. So where do you belong? It is not about going to church that makes you a true Christian, but by the life you live. Please don’t deceive yourself because at the end of the day you and I will face judgement. Let the spirit lead you always.

May the Holy Spirit help us to always work hard in order to allow God to take charge of our lives always. Amen.
Have a Blessed Week.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Thursday,30th October, 2025.
*Theme: Nothing Should Separate us from the love of God **
(Rom 8: 31- 39,Ps 109, Lk 13:31-35)

St. Paul is telling the Romans in the first reading not to allow any life situations to become an obstacle between them and their God. No matter the situation they find themselves, they should still hold on to their trust in God. The fact that God won’t abandon them in their difficulties.

St. Paul is an example in this regard. Even in chains Paul continued to spread the good news of Jesus ( Acts 28: 16-20). Not even imprisonment could stop him from preaching Jesus to the world. That’s what the spirit makes us when we are possessed by him. We never give up in anything we do nor our faith in God. Even in the midst of trials and tribulations, we still stand firm in faith.

Nothing should separate us from the love of God. Some of us have given up our faith in God because of certain challenges in life.

For some of us we have stopped going to church because of certain difficulties that came our way. It is not a sign of maturity in our Christian faith. We need to grow as people of faith. Something little then we are shaking in our faith. Meanwhile we are the very people who counsel people a lot when they are in difficulties. But when the reality now dawns on us then we give excuses for our failure of not enduring.

Our own strength will fail us in such moments, hence let’s always be in touched with the Holy Spirit.

May the spirit of God help us always never to give up our faith no matter the circumstances we find ourselves. Amen.

Have a Blessed day.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew.

Friday, 31st October, 2025.
Theme: Jesus Our Deliverer and Healer
(Rom 9:1-5, Ps 147, Lk 14:1-6)

Sickness as a human suffering is very devastating among us. Jesus in his manifesto indicated that, he was sent to preach good news to the poor and to set captives free(Lk 4:18). Sickness is part of this human captivity for which Jesus came to deliver us from. In the gospel of today, Jesus healed a man who was suffering from dropsy which is now called edema in medicine. This is a difficult health condition for an individual to battle with. Am sure this man never thought that he would ever be delivered from the shackles of this dropsy. Beloved,we have a God who is able to heal all our diseases (Ex 15:26b). He sends his word and heal all our infirmities ( Ps 107:20).

Scripture says through his strips we receive our healing. I don’t know the kind of illness which is troubling you in your life, but I pray today that you experience the healing touch of Jesus our master. Just trust in his power of healing. Don’t give up, your time of deliverance is just at the corner. I want you to encourage someone to continue to look up to God and not give up. Someone is about to give up on his condition of ailments, be the source of strength for such person. For some of us even doctors have given up on us. It seems that we are going to live with such conditions till our death. For some of us it is a particular sickness which has been troubling the family and sadly there is no cure for us. I give you doctor Jesus today. There were equally some people whom doctors gave up on them, but today Jesus has healed them totally from the power of such illnesses. Yours is even something little before him.

Sicknesses have made people to commit suicide, have made people to lose their faith in God, have made people to lose everything in life. But Doctor Jesus is the answer to these troubles in our lives. May be yours is a spiritual sickness, but Jesus is able to heal. Don’t go to any Mallam, or medicine man or a fake pastor. That sickness is something too small for him to cure. If the woman who suffered from hemorrhage for twelve good years received her healing after encountering Jesus, then your moment of deliverance is just at the corner(Lk 8:43-48). The same thing can be said of the man who was paralyzed for thirty-eight good years(Jn 5:1-18). Your time will come. Your God hasn’t abandoned you so continue to persevere.Emmanuel is with you in the moments of your struggles with that illness.

May Jesus heal us from all our physical and spiritual diseases. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev Fr. Akakpo Matthew

IMITATE THE SAINTS IN THEIR HOLINESS

(Rev. 7:2-4, 9-14, Psalm 24,1 John 3: 1-3, Matthew 5:1-12) 

Today we celebrate one of the outstanding feasts of the church, because it is a celebration of hope for us the living. The saints represent the triumph church which consist of the canonised, the beatified, the venerable, the well- known: coming from all walks of life, cutting across all time frames as well as age and gender, some named in the book of saints, many others not, all too numerous to be counted. They all represent those who lived authentic Christian lives on this earth and have been rewarded with eternal life in the realm of heaven. They are shining examples in the life of holiness. Today’s feast is mostly dedicated to the numerous saints who are not celebrated on the Liturgical Calendar.

The first reading, which is a revelation of John talks about the saints who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb, and now sits at God’s right hand with His angels and host of heaven. Those who were sealed with the mark of the Lamb numbered a hundred and forty-four thousand, a symbol of a great multitude which is indicated in the preceding verse (Rev 7:9). This great multitude which no one could count were standing at the throne of God clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and singing the praises and the glory of God. The palm branches in biblical iconography represents victory. During His triumphant entering into Jerusalem, Jesus was welcomed with palm branches by the people of Jerusalem, a symbol of His victory over the power of sin on the cross (Matt 21:1-11). Traditionally as Africans, palm branches also connote the same meaning, but of course it also has other connotations. The saints have also been victorious with their struggles over sin, hence the opportunity to share in the glory of God. It was not an easy battle for them since they were also human beings like us. They came out of the great tribulations of life journey on earth as mentioned in the first reading. It was not so easy for them in living holy life, hence they needed the grace of God to accomplish this. Truly they are our ancestors of faith and they give us hope that it is possible to live a righteous life in this kind of world. 

The second reading from the first letter of John indicates that as a pilgrim church on earth, when our life expires on this earth we shall be like Christ and we shall see him as He really is. This is our hope as Christians to be with Christ eternally after our death. But this hope goes with a condition that we have to purify ourselves and must try to be as pure as Christ. We need to imitate Christ in His life of holiness which the saints have achieved. 

The gospel reading which is popularly known as the Beatitudes and also referred to as the Sermon on the Mount, deepens this message by giving us concrete examples of imitating Christ. The poor in spirit are those who are contentedly poor, willing to be emptied of worldly wealth. They seek the kingdom of God first in their lives and not the world. The other virtues include humility, being compassionate and showing solidarity to others in sorrowful moments, being truthful and always promoting it, being merciful etc. Christ indicated to His disciples; it is by living out such virtues that one can attain blessedness which is life eternal. When we are being persecuted and humiliated for Christ’s sake our reward will be great in heaven. In short, the Christian life is not an easy one according to Christ. It is not one that you can receive on a silver platter. 

Salvation is attained through our efforts and the grace of God. As St. Augustine puts it “God created us without us but He cannot save us without us”. It involves personal struggles which needs endurance to attain. The saints had to endure a lot in their lives with some dying for their faith. Some stood for the truth and had to suffer for it. They lived a selfless life devoid of material possessions and rather focusing on the kingdom business. They gave their entire being to God and served Him till their death. They are humans just like us but they sought to do the will of God in their lives. They accepted their weaknesses and worked on them till the end. They never gave up in all their efforts to be like Christ. The commandment of love was the foundation of their Christian living. They loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and strength. Above all, they lived for others. Be a saint in someone’s life today. May the saints continue to intercede for us as pilgrims on this earth so that one day we will be like them. AMEN. 

STRIVE FOR HOLINESS. FIGHT FOR YOUR SALVATION. HAVE A BLESSED FEAST DAY! 

REV. FR. AKAKPO MATTHEW