Only Almighty God, His Son our Lord Jesus Christ, His Holy Spirit, and all that is in heaven are holy. On earth, His people should act in ways that are holy and treat God with reverence and respect.

The use of the word "holy" as an interjection or exclamation of amazement has become fashionable. Hollywood is rife with it, and so it has spread everywhere. When the word "holy" is used in association with anything other than that which is of God, especially if it is obscene, disgusting, and filthy, it amounts to blasphemy!

I don't know who first started using the word "holy" in conjunction with filth, but I can be sure that its origin is purely satanic. Satan loves to get humans to blaspheme!

I cringe when I hear it, and if my friends and acquaintances use it, I explain to them that it is blasphemy and that they should stop doing so.

Furthermore, so is senselessly uttering the name of God. What this means is that if we utter the words, "Oh, my God" or "Oh, my Jesus," we should be addressing God directly in prayer. If not, we are seriously offending God. He cared about it enough to make it the third commandment:

Exodus 20:7 – Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name. (GNT)

Imagine if someone repeatedly called your name, and each time you answered, they replied, "Sorry, I wasn't really talking to you." Perhaps these same people wonder why God does not answer them when they pray!

It is the duty of those reading this devotional to do their best — starting with themselves, their families, and friends — to stop this practice.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, we are guilty, and we are sorry for the way that we abuse Your most holy name. Please grant that we may never do this, and give us the courage to speak to and correct others when they blaspheme You. We ask this in the most holy name of Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In 2016, my deceased parents left me a very valuable family property back in Mangalore, India. A friend, who had previously been completely trustworthy and beyond reproach, had me sign a property development agreement with his developer friend, which, on subsequent examination back in Canada, turned out to be very unfavourable to me. It all seemed a lost cause, but our dear heavenly Father would have none of it.

After much negotiation, the developers consented to cancel the whole agreement and give me back my property. However, they were now claiming reimbursement of all their legal fees, municipal fees, permits, licences, engineering fees, architect fees, and taxes, amounting to CDN$255,000. In August 2016, I lost my job of 18 years due to downsizing, and I was unable to afford this, plus the cost of return airfare from Toronto, Canada, to Mangalore, a month's hotel expenses, and security to protect the property from squatters until we found an alternate developer whom we could trust to give us a true and fair deal. From the nasty and threatening tone in a couple of emails from the developer's son, it looked like the deal was too far gone to be salvaged.

My sister and brother-in-law kindly offered to put up the money, and my sister was to accompany me on the trip. I suggested to my brother-in-law that he remit the money after we spoke with the developers. However, he said that he had already sent the money in Indian currency to my sister's bank account in India, so that the funds would be available when the deal was signed.

Before we left, the Lord miraculously allowed me to locate a person I had lost track of, who would clear any snow that fell while I was away for me and my neighbours. And on the flight, there was an empty seat between me and my sister — another miracle!

After we reached Mangalore, the father-and-son developer team came over to the hotel to meet with us. They were both very calm and polite, and offered to cancel the old deal and negotiate a new agreement that would be fair to us and them according to the prevailing market value. What a miracle! However, I didn't think that it was right for them to pay the cost of converting my brother-in-law's money back into Canadian dollars as they had offered.

The next day, my sister and I went to the bank to see if the Indian government regulations would allow us to send the money back to Canada. The bank manager confirmed that the funds had arrived, but they had been forced to hold them in a "suspense account" because my sister's account had become dormant. According to their regulations, if the money could not be credited to the intended account within a week, it had to be sent back to the bank of origin. All we had to do was nothing — another miracle! Praise God!

Many people think that God is not concerned about our financial problems because they see God and money as deeply opposed to each other. However, Jesus indicated that when we worship God alone and commit our finances to Him, we can count on Him to look after the money problems.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, thank You that our troubles and financial burdens are within Your sight and that You have a solution to provide if we ask Your help in the name of Your most holy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Time seems to be the one commodity we do not have enough of — especially when it means putting aside some of it for Almighty God, our heavenly Father. We toil and struggle daily, busy with everything to improve our status, all the time forgetting that the very health of mind and body which we possess, which enables us to work, is itself a blessing from Almighty God, not to mention the time that we spend on everything to gain more wealth, which is also a gift from our heavenly Father.

Indeed, a most common excuse from too many people I come across, including my own family and friends, is that they do not have time for prayer. I despair when I hear this excuse: "I'd like to go to church, but I just don't have the time between work and home."

This is what I tell them: Suppose you gave a million dollars to someone, just like that, for no other reason than that you had more than enough wealth to spare and you honestly loved that person. Then suppose that one day you bumped into this person walking down the street or in a mall, and you said, "How about buying me a coffee?" But this person replied, "I'm sorry, I can't. I just don't have enough money." How would you feel when you know that they do have lots of money still?

That's how God feels when people say that they don't have time for Him. "You see," I explain to them, "God is the Author, the Creator of time. He is the One who gives each one of us all the time that we have upon this earth. He decides how long we live and when we will die. The time given to us belongs entirely to Him and He can take it back whenever He wishes. Yet we have the audacity to say we don't have time for God!"

How dare we? Dr. Charles Stanley, in one of his services, said that if we tell God that we do not have time for Him, He can arrange for us to fall flat on our backs on some hospital bed, and then we will have nothing but a whole lot of time on our hands to cry to Him. I only wish people realized that.

Prayer: Dearest heavenly Father, forgive us this terrible sin of ingratitude when we do not realize that it is You who gives us everything we need, including all the time that we have in our lives. Grant that we may come to our senses and realize that the daily struggle of life becomes so much easier when we make time for You in our daily lives. Amen.