Count Your Blessings

The year 2012 is almost over and all I can say is Wow!

I must confess, this year is almost indescribable for me. The Lord has done so much and the devil also tried but to the glory of God, I can boldly say that my testimonies far outnumber my tests. God has been faithful and I have so much to be thankful for. Though there were times when I had it really rough and I almost gave up, God gave me the strength I never knew I had to pull through.

The gift or the Giver?

One thing I've learnt to do is to observe and learn from other peoples actions/inactions, and funny enough, a lot of my lessons recently have been from kids.

Just the other day, I called a three year old three times but got no response from her, unknown to me, she heard me all along but refused to respond for two reasons: one, she was watching a program on the television and two, she thought I wanted to tell her to clean up a mess she made earlier. Unknown to her, I got her favorite yoghurt and wanted to give it to her. Can you believe my young sweetheart ignored my calls (despite the fact that I shouted her name several times)? However, as soon as I showed her the yoghurt, she came running to me with the biggest grin ever, took the yoghurt and left as fast as she came, barely mumbling "thank you".

Change It

I found this picture and thought to share with you. Although it's a blunt message, it is a very good advice and we all need a bit of blunt but wise words every now and then.

Where is the Christ in Christianity?

For quite a long time, I was of the opinion that asking if people are “born-again Christians” is a wrong question, to me, you are either a Christian or not. But, I thank God for the wise people He has placed in my life, I was discussing with one of my sisters the other day, and I told her about my view, she explained to me that there are all sorts of “Christians” now hence, the need to ascertain what makes someone a born-again. To confirm this, I read on BBC’s website (Read it here) that 42 million Britons see themselves as nominally Christian, and there are 6 million who are actively practicing. Can you believe that? Is there supposed to be such a thing as being a nominal Christian? And to think that we have more ‘’nominal” than active ones is so disheartening.

I would also like to mention the fact that of these so called “active” Christians, quite a number don’t seem to have a real understanding of what it is to be a follower of Christ. I know I’m not a perfect Christian, but believe me when I say the actions and speeches of some Christians do get me wondering if they are true believers. You find that people in the church are amongst several things, quick to judge (when the Bible clearly states that we are not to judge. Matthew 7:1); Don’t “do to others what they would have them do to them, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matthew 7:12 NIV; Unforgiving (“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your sins” Mark 11: 26); Love only those who love them unlike the commandment to (“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" Matthew 5:43-45); and most importantly, don’t "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” Matthew 6:33.

The Encourager

Often times, people turn to me for words of encouragement and I must confess that a lot of times, I feel like some people only remember me when they need to be encouraged this makes me ask myself over and over again "am I being used?", I have even asked some people whose opinion I respect so much and trust me, I have gotten different responses. Some of them think it is a good thing that my name comes to mind whenever people need to be encouraged while others said I needed to stop people from 'using me'.

Someone very dear to me, whose opinion I totally respect because she has proven to be wise and Godly told me about John Ploughman. He was a man who many people say had a gift for presenting Christian truth in a way that captured the imagination. He said, "Do not be all sugar, or the world will suck you down; but do not be all vinegar or the world will spit you out." (read it here). I also celebrated my birthday recently, and quite a number of people told me how much of a blessing I have been to them and a lot of them prayed that I would continue to be a source of blessing; very few prayed that others would bless me in return. This made me to more than ever, desire to find a balance between using my God-given gift and being taken for granted by people.

Dehumanizing fashion

As human beings, it is natural for us to have a strong desire to fit in, to be validated, we try so hard to connect with "important" people. I have noticed that one quick way to get noticed is to dress well and that brings us to the message for today. In these modern times, what exactly does it mean to be well dressed?

A few weeks back, I saw a picture of Kim Kardashian dressed in a sheer skirt with no underwear and then I wondered, what has fashion become? I am not in any way judging anyone, I just want to drive home my point. In my opinion, you don't have to expose your body to look good but a lot of "celebrities" are making us believe that the only way to show that you have a good dress sense is by showing off your body and the clothing designers are not making it easy either.Living in this culture of endless clothing choices and with the internet, television and fashion magazines all affecting our choices, we do need to stop and think before choosing the set of clothes and even accesories before we pay for them.

Don't Worry

Quite often, I wish I could talk myself out of worrying like I do to other people. I tell myself time and over again “to practice what I preach”. I must confess, it is easier said than done. Despite the fact that I have committed things to the Almighty and I have no doubts whatsoever that He would answer, I still find myself being worried. Is this peculiar to me or do people feel this way too?

Recently, I found myself sliding back into the habit of worrying and I prayed to God earnestly to please help me. You bet He answered; our God is still in the business of answering prayers. As soon I began worrying again, I remembered a song we used to sing while I was young, it goes thus:

Why worry when you can pray
Trust Jesus and He will lead the way
Don't be like doubtful Thomas
Just rest upon His promise
Why do you worry when you can pray?

I have made that song my anthem. The Holy Spirit has also been ministering to me with some Bible verses that I would like to share, just in case anyone is in the ‘boat of worrying’ with me.

Are you a permanent resident?

I bet we all know that permanent residents of countries that have such facility have almost, if not the same rights as citizens. But todays message is not about migrating to other countries, it is actually to tell you not to become a permanent resident, because it can be to your detriment.

Quite a number of Christians have become permanent residents in the "land of hope". We keep hoping things will get better, hoping to get a good job, hoping to get married, hoping to become an employer, hoping 'the mountain will be removed, hoping the Goliath of our lives will die, hoping the walls of Jericho will come crashing down someday. It's a good thing to be hopeful but is it not written in the Bible that "hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life"? Proverbs 13: 12. My Bible also tells me that He gave power to those who believe to become the sons of God John 1:12. As a son of your parents, when you were a child, you didn't just hope your parents would pay your school fees did you? Instead of just hoping, I believe, we got up in the mornings and got ready for school rest assured they already took care of the school fees. My question is, why do we find it difficult to put our faith to work when we ask our Heavenly Father for things? Why can't we simply exercise our authority as God's children?  

Forgiveness

This is something I struggle with, and at times, I’m not even sure I know what it means. I believe quite a number of people feel this way too, forgiveness is a subject matter that we keep talking about but permit me to say, we never fully comprehend.

Some people say to forgive is to forget. Richard Pettinger in The meaning of forgiveness (read it here) says “to be sincere in our forgiveness of others we should not even remember the incident. Sometimes forgiveness can be conditional, we shall tell somebody we have forgiven them, but maybe later we will bring it up to use it against them. This is not real forgiveness. Only when we do not think about the experience have we really forgiven others". I kind of disagree with this school of thought. To me, you have forgiven someone when you no longer feel angry and you don’t resent the person that offended you. When you can truly think of the person without feeling any need to revenge and wish him/her well.

Project thankful

Wow!!! I checked the blog today and to my utmost suprise, we have over 1000 views already, within the first three weeks. That is just amazing, God is awesome and He has continually proven Himself in my life. I say thank you.

To think that I battled with the idea of starting this blog for months, I'm completely suprised at how fast God is working through me. I check the audience and I ask myself, who do I know in Russia, Sweden, Ghana and some other countries? This can only be God at work.

I remember the day people told me they couldn't comment on the posts and I didn't seem to find any reason why, I told my sister to pray "that the devil will not tamper with this blog", and she told me "your blog is already going places, the devil can't stop you because you belong to God", I bet she doesn't know it but that was the message I needed to hear from God. We were able to fix the bug and that reminded me of how often I forget that the devil can not trouble me for "I have been bought with a price" therefore, "I know that my home is safe, when I survey my possessions, nothing will be missing" Job 5: 24. From that day, I continually ask God to help me to be mindful of His presence in my life and boy, He's answered that prayer.

This is to say a big thank you to my ever faithful God and of course to you all, I feel very happy when people tell me how blessed they are by reading and how timely they are.

A few of your encouraging messages to me are:

"You are doing great, keep it up, please don't stop because someday it will save a life, heal a heart and keep a soul from going to hell".

"This message is what I needed to read, I'm proud to be your friend"

"Wonderful message, God bless you"

I am truly humbled and grateful for this opportunity.

May God bless you all. Please keep reading.
XX

Unanswered prayers? I have some too.

First I have to apologise for going AWOL, I am truly sorry about that. I have been putting this together since Thursday though, but somehow, I didn't get to finish it.

So now, to our message for today; Have you ever felt like God is no longer interested in answering your prayers or has some more important things to deal with than your personal needs? Do you ever feel there’s no point praying because the prayers you said earlier had no effect whatsoever? Well, you are not alone on this, i've felt these ways too.

I woke up on Thursday mroning feeling so down, this was completely out of place as I had just one more day before my much talked about vacation began. Then I remembered how I was yet to receive answers to my prayer requests (the two I’ve had for over two years now), I immediately rebuked the devil but as we all know, the “opposer” doesn’t give up easily. As soon as i read one of my daily devotionals for the day, which was about how God gives good gifts to those who ask (Matthew 7: 11), I remembered how God was yet to give me these ‘good gifts’ I have been asking Him. Then I read my second devotional (I normally read two of them) and this was also reminding me that the Almighty God hears me when I pray.

That did it, I sat down and thought to myself, why has God not answered these my prayers?  My devotional time for that day was quite different from what I used to do, instead of kneeling down with my head bowed and eyes closed like I normally do, I sat down and talked to God like He was sitting right in front of me, I reminded Him how He told me to "call to Him, and He would answer me, and show me great and mighty things that I do not know" Jeremiah 33: 3, how He is my gold and precious silver, so why has He not answered my prayers? (Job 22: 25 - 28), how I try as best to obey His commands, so why does it seem His ears are not open to my prayers like 1 Peter 3: 12 says? How my parents have been serving Him even before I was born, so when will that verse that says "we are for signs and wonders" (Isaiah 8: 18) come true in our lives? How the Bible says I should ask and I will receive (Matthew 7: 7 -11, Luke 11: 9 - 13),  so why was I yet to receive those two things I have been asking for over two years now? Do not get me wrong, I have no doubts whatsoever that God answers prayers neither was I questioning Him, I was just having a one-on-one discussion with “my Father” and wanted to know why these prayers were not answered as I am convinced they are part of God’s plans for me.

As God would have it, He gave me answers to my questions before that day ended, during my blog round, I read about a man who was contemplating on taking his own life because he felt God doesn’t answer his prayers anymore, and I found myself sending a message of faith and encouragement to this person I have never met, one special thing about it though is that God used this opportunity to speak to me too, I got reassured (in trying to assure someone), that God is still in the business of answering prayers, and faith in Him also means faith in His timing. All I just have to do is “cast my cares upon Him and He will sustain me” Psalm 55: 22 knowing that "when He has tried me, I will come forth as gold". Job 23: 10.

While saying my prayers that night, I casted my mind back and counted my blessings, I rememebered how God always shows Himself strong for me, I remembered a song I learnt many years ago (Alleluyah anyhow, I’ll never let my trials get me down, whatever problems life may bring, i’ll hold my head up high singing Alleluyah anyhow). The fact that some Liberians who had just gone through the terrible experience of war taught my family this song made me thank God much more, I thanked Him because though, I don’t have answers to my two prayer requests yet, I have the assurance that He is greater than all my trials and I am certain that He cannot forget me. Infact, I am inscribed on the palms of the Almighty's hand and that is worth rejoicing over because that means I am continually before Him. Isaiah 49: 14 – 16. So by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving I will keep asking (Philippians 4:6) in His name till my joy is full (John 16:24) and I implore that you keep doing that too. Someday, we will look back and realise that the answers to our prayers came at the very right time, like I read sometime ago, God always shows up on time.

I leave you with these words from Stormie Omartian, one of my favorite authors. “Don’t give place to impatience, seeing answers to your prayers can take time, be patient to persevere and wait. Look to God as the source of all you want to happen and don’t worry about how it will happen. It’s your responsibility to pray, it’s God job to answer. Leave it in His hands” and wait on the Lord, don't lose heart but believe that you would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the Living (Psalm 27: 13 - 14)

Keep learning but start building.

Last week, I read an article “Lessons from the world’s ugliest woman” (read it here) and it got me thinking; Just a few days before that, I saw an interesting quote that says “if you don’t build your dream, someone will hire you to build theirs”. I got my message for you from these two.

Just reading that article about Lizzie Velasquez really did get me thinking, it reminded me of the cruelty of man to man. I thought to myself, how can people be so insensitive to the pains of others? But the best part of the story for me is when I read about how she turned all the cruel comments into her source of inspiration. Lizzie now walks up to people to introduce herself and tell them “Maybe you should stop staring and start learning." Oh, how I admire her courage.

And that brings us to the quote of building your dreams. Lizzie is building her dreams and you ought to as well. A lot of us are in the habit of procrastination, like I wrote in my first post (read it here if you missed), I also find myself struggling with procrastination at times. In this age where we glorify virtually everything, often times, much more than we would like to accept, we are in the habit of glorifying the word “busy”. If you ask a friend why s/he is yet to submit that application or proposal s/he was so excited about, I bet the person would be quick to tell you about how busy s/he’s been. But you would find out that that person had just enough time to watch his/her favorite show on TV all week long. One thing we fail to realize though is that each time we turn on the TV to watch that reality show, we are not only watching some other people build, we are also helping them build their dreams.

For some, if you ask them what has kept them from launching their dreams, they would tell you that they are still learning in order to get it just right at their very first attempt; I am yet to find any man/woman who is a great achiever that got it right the very first time, as “falling down is a part of learning how to walk”, My question to the people who give this kind of excuse is, wouldn’t you think something is terribly wrong if a child goes to school for years without graduating? My guess is, you will. Well then, same rule applies to people that keep learning without putting their acquired skills and experiences into good use. So my dear readers, I ask you today to start building your dreams, no matter how little the step you take, like it is popularly said, “little drops of water, makes an ocean”.

With that being said, I leave you with this quote by Arnold Bennett “We shall never have more time. We have, and have always had, all the time there is. No object is served in waiting until next week or even until tomorrow. Keep going day in and day out. Concentrate on something useful. Having decided to achieve a task, achieve it at all costs”.

Have a dream building week.

How come?

You turn on the light switch because you believe that the electric supply won't fail but you don't trust the God that said "Let there be light"? Genesis 1: 3

You go to the doctor because you believe s/he can diagnose your illness and prescribe the right medicine or treatment but you don't trust the Lord who promised to protect you from all sickness? Deuteronomy 7: 15a

You go to your hairdresser to cut or style your hair to maintain your image but you don't trust the God that says "I will be your God throughout your lifetime until your hair is white with age. I made you and I will care for you, I will carry you along and save you"? Isaiah 46:4

You seldom get to work late but you struggle with keeping the sabbath day holy? Exodus 31: 12 - 15

You can study your school texts, read journals and check statuses on facebook, twitter etc but you don't study the Book of Instruction continually. You don't meditate on it day and night? Joshua 1: 8

You can talk to your friends and family about everything but you only remember to talk with God when you are in difficult situations depite the fact that you are meant to "trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge"? Psalm 62: 8

Take a moment to ponder on these facts and make the necessary ammendments. May the Lord help us come to a knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2: 4. Amen

Back to Basics

Hey good people, how are you today?

Today is all about going back to the basics, I mean casting our minds back to try and figure out where things went wrong. If you take a poll, I bet you will find that most people have unanswered questions about God, their spouses, children, job, finances and other important things. At one time or the other, we feel overwhelmed, more prone to ask the question WHY?

My word to you is, go back to square one. A lot of us have gotten so comfortable with God that we no longer remember He gave us all we have and that our Sufficiency is of Him, quite a number of us now treat the very One who gave us life as an option. We have forgotten that "the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it". Psalm 24: 1

 

I find the saying "when you think the world has turned its back on you, take a look,you mostly likely turned your back on the world" very useful. Many spouses are secretely asking themselves that question of doubt "is this the same person I fell in love with?". I believe we need to shift our focus from what our husband/wife is doing wrong and ask God to help us to do right than be right. Cast your mind back to when you were courting and your first months of marriage, what are those things you used to do that you let slip by, what are the faults you used to overlook that you now strongly hold on to? As Stormie Omartian said in 'the power of a praying wife': the most effefective tool in transforming your spouse may be your own transformation.

In our places of work, a lot of us feel trapped. We are constantly searching for other jobs, I am not saying it's bad to seek better opportunities but after a few months at that new job, what next? Cast your mind back to how you put your best in meeting that first deadline, how you couldn't wait to get back to your seat to finish that assignment you left yesterday. So, what went wrong? We have lost our ability to enjoy our successes without striving for more, we have forgotten that it is the blessings of God that maketh rich and addeth no sorrow with it. Proverbs 10: 22.

Everything still points back to seeking God first and obeying Him without questioning, once we do, we will experience all the blessings in Deuteronomy 28: 2 - 13, what more could anyone ask for?

Let us receive the grace to enjoy the blessings of obedience this week and beyond.

The beginning

Yay!!! This is my very first post and I am so glad i'm finally doing this.

And my very first word to you is do not wait till tomorrow before doing what can be done today; one of my dad's favorite sayings is "procastination is a thief of time" and i have grown to learn that it is indeed very true. Anyway, point is I could have started this earlier but I had one excuse or the other and now, the time has finally come and this dream will surely come to pass. Did I hear you ask what dream? Oh well, it is actually much more than a dream, it's a mandate given to me by God "Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5: 16. I am determined to do that with God's help and your support.