WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Monday, 27th April, 2026.
Theme: God’s Salvation is for all
(Acts 11:1-18, Ps 42, Jn 10: 1-10)
The Lord Jesus didn’t come for a particular group of people. He came for the entire humanity. The apostles and the disciples heard that the Gentiles had also received the word of God. But those of the circumcision party criticized Peter and the others for going to the gentiles and even eating with them. These were the Jewish Christians who held a strong view that non -Jews must be circumcised before being accepted as Christians. But Peter explained to them that it was Jesus who revealed himself to him. Indicating that his salvation is also for the gentiles. In other words, he shouldn’t discriminate against the gentiles, thinking that they don’t deserve to be part of the community of believers. They are also part of his family of believers.The only qualification to be part of this family is the fact of accepting him as your personal savior. God’s salvation is for all.
The gentiles also received the Holy Spirit when they believed in Jesus Christ, just as the apostles and the disciples also received it, according to Peter. God doesn’t discriminate, it is we humans who discriminate. One thing we should know is that Christianity began among the Jews. The apostles and the first disciples of Jesus were all Jews. It was later that it spread to the non-Jewish communities. In fact, this issue became a serious one among the early believers. Paul had to fight the circumcision party which included some apostles. He rather emphasized on spiritual circumcision, that is faith in Jesus as the only requirement of one becoming a Christian. Remember he was the Apostle to the gentiles.
It doesn’t matter where you are coming from or the kind of life you have lived before, God can still use you. Just avail yourself. You can become a great instruments of God. Don’t belittle yourself or look down upon yourself. Thinking that you are nobody to become an instrument of God. You are more than qualified provided you accept his message of salvation. You don’t need to come from a recognized Christian home or a prominent family. If God was able to use gentiles to accomplish his mission, then he can use you. We have had great people of God who were fetish priests and what have you. Some of these people are coming from typical fetish homes. But today they have become great instruments of God. They have even succeeded in converting almost their entire family.
Sometimes some of us behave like the Jews who thought that God was for them alone. Others were not qualified to be called children of God. We also think that some people don’t deserve to even be in the church. We are the only true children of God. Why because maybe we think we are holier than the others. We are living a perfect live, whiles others are very sinful people. We have even taken the place of God in our churches and societies.
Please God is not for you alone. He is the father of all. God indicated this in the first reading of today. Heaven is not for you alone, you can’t even enjoy that place alone. Heaven is too big for you alone, therefore allow others to also have the chance of joining you there. God loves everybody including the worst sinner that you think is going to hell. Those people must also be helped to know Jesus. Don’t be selfish with the salvation message, because it is not for you alone.
May the Holy Spirit help us always not to look down upon people in his house . Amen .
Have a Blessed week. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Tuesday, 28th April,2026.
Theme: Let your life preach Christ
( Acts 11:19-26, Ps 87, Jn 10: 22-30)
It was in Antioch that the disciples were called Christians for the first time. The people saw Christ in their way of life. They lived a Christ-like life, hence it was fitting to name them after their master.
This is the kind of life we are called to live as believers of the Lord. Our life must preach Jesus to the world. Our lives must be the bible for people to read. The Christian life is a call to witness. Witnessing to Christ is not all about preaching the word, but living what we preach. If we want to touch lives, then we must live what we tell people to do. As Pope St Paul IV once said ” the world need credible witnesses and not eloquent preachers”. People are fed up with too much talks,they want to see us walking the talks.
Unfortunately, some of us if not most, have become counter witnesses. Our way of life betrays us as Christians. Our lives are rather driving people away from Christ, instead of making people to know him more. May it not be said of you that, ” because of you I will not go to church” . When such statement is made of you then it means there is a big question mark on your Christian life.
Surely, we shall be known by our fruits. Check your life and see whether truly you are living a good Christian life. If not the earlier we change, the better for our salvation. Don’t be a hypocrites, thinking you are deceiving someone. You are only deceiving and fooling yourself. I want you to assess your life and see whether you are bringing people closer to Jesus by your life or leading them away from Him.
May his resurrection power touch us today so that our lives will bring people closer to him. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Wednesday, 29th April, 2026.
Memorial of St. Catherine of Sienna
Theme: Contribute your part to the spread of the Gospel
( Acts 12:24-13:5, Ps 67, Jn 12:44-50)
Today we reflect on the contributions of Sts. Paul and Barnabas to the spread of the Good News of Christ. These were great men of God who sacrificed their entire lives for the growth of the faith. As we know, Paul is popularly referred to as the Apostle to the Gentiles. In the first reading, they focused the spread of the gospel in the gentile territories. The text talks about the beginning of the missionary journeys of St. Paul. Of course, he had companions in this journeys, and Barnabas was the one he began his missionary journey with.They committed themselves to the work and eventually died for the faith. They never compromised their faith at any point of their Christian journey. Even in the midst of persecutions, they stood firm for the truth and for Christ.
Today you and I are having the opportunity to call ourselves Christians because of the hard work of these people. It is a call on us to also continue the good works they have left behind. It is our turn to continue this noble work.You and I have to work hard, whether raining or shining to spread the kingdom of God. The question we should be asking ourselves is, how am I contributing to the spread of the Gospel?
We can’t accomplish this mission if we don’t depend on Christ, who has called us. These two apostles and the early Christians for that matter depended entirely on the grace of God to participate in the mission of Christ. It is not by our might but by grace of God. If you depend on your own strength, I promise you that you will fail. As Paul says in Philipians 4:13 that ‘ I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me ‘, suggest that with God we can do greater things.
More to the point our way of life is the most profound way of bringing people closer to Jesus. People are fed up with the too much talks, they want to see us live what we say. This rather preaches Christ to them more than using words. Actions they say speak louder than words.
Your life must become the bible for someone to read. Someone must experience the love of Jesus, his divine touch through our way of life.
In the course of our duty as children of God, we will face a lot of persecutions just like Paul and Barnabas. But we should not give up, because we have Jesus on our side. Definitely, he will never abandon us in the hands of our persecutors.
Today I want you to reflect on the contributions you are making to the spread of the Gospel. Are you on course, or you have to make amends? Or maybe you have to make more efforts than what you are doing?
May the Holy Spirit help us to always work hard to also contribute our quota to the spread of God’s Kingdom. Amen. Have a Blessed day.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Memorial of Saint Joseph the Worker
Friday, 1st May, 2026.
THEME: Let God be at the centre of Your Work
( Gen 1:26-2:3, Ps 90, Matt 13: 54-58)
Beloved in Christ, today marks a special day for all of us, because we celebrate workers all over the world. We draw inspiration from St. Joseph, the husband of Mother Mary and foster father of Jesus, who was a carpenter. It is the work of these workers which sustains our world and gives it special beauty. Of course, God the unmoved mover is behind all these activities.
St. Paul made it clear that, the hand that doesn’t work should not eat. It also means that we are to avoid all forms of laziness in our lives. We are to work for our living and not to always be looking up to people. Laziness is a grave sin. Jesus points out to us that his father is always working. Work is therefore part of our human existence.
But for us to prosper in our work then we need God. It is only God who can prosper the work of our hands. As the scripture says, it is the blessings of God which makes us prosper in life. Our own strength and efforts can’t achieve it alone without God. But some of us boast too much as if to say that we have made it without God. Our efforts is very necessary, but it needs God to make it fruitful. It takes our efforts and the the blessings of God to make us successful in life.
It is also wrong to always look up to God without doing anything. This is a common phenomenon these days, where some people go to prayer camps and other religious centers to stay there to pray without making any efforts themselves. They are taking God to be a magician who will make them prosper within a twinkle of an eye. I am not doubting the power of God, but am telling you that we serve a miracle working God but not a magician. There is difference between a miracle and magic, the two are not the same.
To prosper in life demands daily efforts and not becoming rich or wealthy overnight. Such riches don’t come from God. I pray that the Lord will give success to the work of our hands always as we look up to him in life.
May his resurrection power touch us and our work today, in order to make us hardworking for our living and for God. Amen .
Have a Blessed Month of May and happy Workers’ Day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Saturday, 2nd May,2026.
Theme: Tame the Spirit of Jealousy in Your Life
( Acts 13:44-52, Ps 98, Jn 14: 7-14)
The forces of evil are strong to the extent that when you allow yourself, they will control your life. The Jews in Antioch allowed jealousy and envy to control them, hence they continued to pursue evil. They fabricated lies against Paul and Barnabas,and went ahead to incite the people as well against them. Because of the mighty works and the great number of the gentiles who accepted the message of Christ, because of Paul and Barnabas they hated them. In order to protect their evil intentions, they continued to pursue evil.
These Jews am sure were part of the community of believers because we had some of them we call Jewish Christians. But the truth is that some of these Jews didn’t want the gentiles to be part of them but if they will then they had to be circumcised. So for them you have to become a Jew first before you can become a Christian.This was something that Paul in particular was strongly against. Hence his struggle with his own fellow Jews.
Evil triumph in souls full of jealousy and envy. It doesn’t matter whether you are a minister of God or even an angel. Satan and the bad angels were with God in heaven, but when they allowed evil to enter their hearts they became anti- God. We can fast for forty days and nights, but if you don’t allow the spirit of God to take charge of our lives, we can still be instrument of Satan. The truth is that most of us in the church have become instruments of Satan and some of us have matured to become diabolic.The fact that you stand at the pulpit to preach or go to church doesn’t mean his spirit dwells in you. We are not better than these Jews in terms of religiosity, but still evil thrived in them.
Beloved in Christ, let’s be opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I know we are all weak beings, but with the grace of God we can become powerful instruments of God. We should not become brood of vipers in the house of God or in our societies. Ask yourself whether your deeds put you on God’s side or on the side of Satan.
It is time to repent from jealousy and envy and be delivered from it’s shackles of slavery. Jealousy is a powerful evil force that can destroy you as a Christian. To overcome it the first step is to appreciate people and what they do. You can’t be that other person,but you are unique in your own way. We have different gifts, what you can do others can’t and vice versa. Then why should you be jealous of others? There is no sense to be jealous or because the person has acquired something in life that you don’t have. But all fingers are not the same. You are also better than someone just as someone is better than you. It is a fact in life and we must accept it.
May his resurrection power touch us today so that we will not allow ourselves to be controlled by the spirit of jealousy and envy. Amen .
Have a Blessed Weekend.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew
