Silent but Present 2

Joseph kept on using his God-given gift, he did not wait for Pharaoh's officers to come begging, he willingly used his gift of interpretation of dreams as an opportunity to point them to God and we should do that too- Read Genesis 40: 8.

To show that Joseph was just as human as you and I, he told the chief butler to "bring him out when it is well with him" Genesis 40: 14-15. Oftentimes, like Joseph, we forget that our help comes from God alone and that even though men may forget, like the chief butler forgot about Joseph, God never forgets, He always keeps His promises. 

Silent but Present 1

Hello Blogfam,

I am very sorry my long break. I hope you've been letting your light shine before others.

Now, let's jump right in to our word for today... It's a series

As a mature Christian, you have to get past just trusting God's word to also trusting His silence.

At times, in fact, a lot of times, we want God to tell us what, why and when things will happen in our lives but God chooses to be silent, we pray and even fast, but we don't hear anything from God, it is in times like this that your faith is needed most, you have to learn to trust God even when you don't feel Him near or hear Him speak, you've got to trust the things He said to you in the past and not let go. Let's take some lessons from the life of Joseph in the book of Genesis.

Empty Vessel

I heard the title of this post in my sleep some months ago and when I woke up, I prayed, "I refuse to be an empty vessel, I want to be a very useful vessel for your Lord" however, the words kept popping up in my mind. It wasn't until after a few weeks that I got the message the Lord was trying to pass across to me. God wants me to be an empty vessel so that He can fill me up.

See, oftentimes, we are not patient or attentive enough to actually hear and understand God when He speaks to us.

Now, unto our message: "The Empty Vessel".

The message is quite simple and straight forward - Nobody keeps pouring into an already filled vessel, if you want God to keep filling you up, you have to keep emptying yourself by continually giving of yourself to others. That's it! I honestly feel the sentence right here will suffice but this blog has never been about how I feel, it's about what God wants me to say to His people so for that reason, I'll explain some more. :)

God promises predates our problems

I'd like to share my testimony with you as the year draws to an end. I hope it encourages you. 

4 years ago, I blogged about having some unanswered prayers and how I believed that if we continue to pray, persevere and wait, someday we will look back and realize that the answers to our prayers came at the very right time because God always shows up on time (read it here "Unanswered prayers"). Today, I testify to the fact that God has answered those prayer requests of mine, in fact, He did exceedingly abundantly above all that I asked. 

As you know, I like to keep it real so I'm not going to make it sound like it was a walk in the park, it was far from that, in fact, there were days that I felt God had too much confidence in me for Him to trust me with such journey 😄 I cried, prayed, hoped, became restless and almost gave up hope but God kept me through it. 
From my experience, I can confidently tell you that if your promise is from God, He will surely fulfill it, so keep holding on to Him, after all, the Bible says that He always fulfills His promises of unfailing love to those who love Him and keep His commands (Daniel 9: 4).

Trust and wait on God

Worrying is a common temptation in life and hard as I try, I still find myself struggling with this characteristic which is meant to be found in faithless people. The big question is why do we worry so much when God is there listening?

Today, God wants me to remind you that all you have to do is trust, even if it seems like things won't work out, reach for it anyway and God, the way he always does, will do the rest.

I once read that "when you know Whose you are, you'll begin to understand who you are, what you're supposed to do, and where you're supposed to be. Jeremiah 29: 10 - 11 says: This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. It is also written in Matthew 21: 22 that "And all things, whatsoever ye ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive"

Christianity

Dear blogfam,

Happy new month to you! I know you will agree with me that this year seems to have gathered pace. May the Lord help us to truly live for His greater honor and glory in the remaining days of the year 2013. Amen

I came across this video and decided to share it with you. I think Jefferson Bethke expressed the truth about being a Christian. Please watch and share your thoughts.

My Testimony

Happy new month to you all.

I wanted to blog about something completely different this weekend but I felt led to share my testimony. 

Exactly one year ago, I had what I tagged "the worst birthday ever", it didn't matter how hard my family tried to make it a happy one for me, they even surprised me with a birthday cake, managed to get me out of bed and we took some fun pictures, but I knew deep down in me that I was sad. I had so many reasons to be happy and thankful but somehow, I chose the opposite. I read sometime ago that "You are the only one who can make you happy – everyone else is just a bonus" and I agree completely.   

Always and Forever

Has there ever been a time when you felt God did not love you anymore, probably because of something you did or did not do? I have felt that way too, I bet we all have at some point in our lives. Recently, some things happened that got me thinking that maybe God loved me less than I wished He did. I kept asking Him to forgive me if it was as a result of the sins I, or someone I am connected to might have committed. All I desired was to feel that He loved me dearly.

The great thing about this Mighty God that we serve is that He always shows up when we need Him. He reminded me through sermons in Church, blog posts, random Bible verses and even Ebony Magazine that His love for me is unconditional. For some reason, Romans 8: 38 - 39 kept popping up for several days. The Lord just wanted to convince me "that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord". This is definitely something to be excited about. 

Exhausted patience?

Just the other day, I was speaking with my sister and she mentioned how God really does answer prayers, she cited the example of how a prophecy that was said of my parents many years ago had come to pass, funny how my brother mentioned that same prophecy the very next day, I knew God was speaking to me. Just as if He really wanted to drive home His point, I read some of my old blog posts (Read it here) and (here) and God reminded me of how His plans are not work-in-progress. These words of Paul David Tripp also ministered to me “It is a sweet thing that we serve a dissatisfied God who has destinations in mind for us that we would never choose for ourselves. It really is a good thing that he will not be satisfied until he has gotten us exactly where he created us and re-created us to be. Most of us would have been satisfied to stay at home, and many of us would have quit the journey long before it was completed. But our heavenly Father won't give up until each one of his children has completed the journey.”

Fear

Happy new month People,

I pray the month ushers us into our "miracle territory" as we let go of our fears and trust God completely. Amen.

Don't do it without me!

It's almost unbelievable that the month of August is almost gone and that we are fast approaching the end of the year. What more can we say except that God has been faithful even when we were unfaithful?

Like you most likely know by now, I like to learn new things because no knowledge is wasted. So, I was reading about the months of the year and I learned some interesting things about the month of September. Did you know that "September begins on the same day of the week as December every year, because there are 91 days separating September and December, which is a multiple of seven (the number of days in the week). No other month ends on the same day of the week as September in any year"?. (Source: Wikipedia)

This too shall pass!!!

Things happen in life that makes us think and say that "life is very unfair". We've heard people's stories that made us wonder and ask that familiar question that a lot of other people ask, why do bad things happen to good people? But wait a minute, is it not written in the Bible to "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything". James 1: 2 - 4

Doing good?

Yet again, I have to apologize for my unauthorized absence (UA) from the blog for nearly a month now. I kept telling myself I will blog but the days go by so fast. Please accept my sincere apologies. And I must also thank my encouragers who kept telling me to keep at blogging because they've been blessed/are still blessed by the messages. Thank you for helping me summon the courage to carry on with the ministry.

I must confess, procrastination has been the main reason why you have not read any post on this blog in a while. Although, lots of things have kept me busy lately, I could have created time out of my busy schedule. I kept telling myself that it wasn't that bad since I was obviously doing some other good deeds that God would be proud of. This was supported with the Bible verse that says "Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up". Galatians 6:9. But as God would have it, I was preaching to someone last weekend and told him about a prayer my sister mentioned to me "that God should deliver me from the lies I tell myself". Later that day, while checking my Facebook page, I read something interesting which was posted by me months back that "Sometimes doing good keeps us from doing the best". Then it struck me, I have been lying to myself, because sometimes, doing good is not enough especially when you have the ability to do great things.   

Financial prosperity

So, this is a topic that some people avoid discussing about. I bet we are all aware that some preachers have even been tagged "prosperity preachers" because they tell us that God wants us to be rich and we should work and pray towards acquiring the best things that the world has to offer. Just the other day, I blogged about profit in labor (Read it here) and someone commented that s/he is confused about how to serve God when rich. That comment got me thinking and I have been studying both the Bible and some write-ups about Christianity and financial prosperity.

I once read that "We have the amazing ability to overestimate how happy we’re going to be with a person, an event, or a possession" and I am in agreement with this statement. We human beings are of the mindset that when we have more money, things will get better and that our lives will turn out the exact way we dream and so we work endlessly, acquiring material possessions and the circle just never ends till we are laid to rest. 

Be nice!!!

Dear blogfam,

I am so sorry for going AWOL yet again, I got swamped with quite a number of things but I must confess, I don't like it when I leave the blog for long without posting. 

Just the other day, I was listening to "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera and the song reminded me of how powerful our words can be. I remembered how at a program held for ladies at my church, we had a very interesting exercise. We were told to put down (pictures or words) things that we did not want to remember from our pasts. I must tell you, I was surprised to find that almost everyone of us had things to say about how we always try to forget about the times of our lives when we were made jest of, called funny names and things like that. Some of us were able to get over those names but there was one particular lady, who to me and many others, is a very beautiful lady. She could not stop the tears from flowing because she thought she had gotten over those names but talking about it brought back memories, the kinds that you intentionally avoid remembering.    

My Write-up for Femme Lounge

I am very excited to share this with you all. My write-up got published on Femme Lounge, an online women's magazine that helps readers understand themselves and the people around them better. It provides alternative viewpoints on topics we love to debate and questions we are not sure should be asked.

Read my post "How did Helpmates Become Servants?" Here

I'm so honored and humbled.Please show some support by visiting, reading and commenting.

Let's rub minds.

Profit in Labor

So, the last time, our discussion was about laziness, today’s message is the concluding part and I have put together 25 of my favorite Bible verses on the subject matter. I hope these verses bless you as much as they have been blessing me and helped transform me.

Proverbs 14: 23 “In all labor there is profit, But mere talk leads only to poverty”. (NASB)

Proverbs 22: 29 “If u do your job well, you will work for a ruler and never be a slave”. (CEV)

Proverbs 21: 5 “If you plan and work hard, you will have plenty”. (CEV)

Proverbs 12: 24 “Work hard and become a leader; be lazy and become a slave”. (NLT)

Don't be lazy

Laziness can vary in meaning for different people. What you consider laziness might not necessarily be same for me. However, I always say that it is only a lazy person that will let go of a means to labor profitably. Even the Bible addresses this issue extensively and we cannot run out of verses in the Bible where laziness is condemned. In fact, the book of Proverbs is my go to part of the Bible whenever I am discussing about laziness and the profits of labor.  

Quite a number of people ask me if I ever get tired, a friend of mine even calls me “the merry maid” because he feels I work endlessly. I must confess though, that I have not always been this way, some years back, I bet nobody would have called me hardworking although I wasn’t very lazy. But all that has changed now, I can proudly say of myself that I am a diligent individual who works with enthusiasm.

Court of Law?

One thing that I have found common in we human beings is our penchant to judge others whenever they "fall short" of our expectations and this is not peculiar to any group, age or race, we all are guilty of playing the “judge”. I however find it disturbing that we Christians tend to do more of the judging when our Lord and Savior clearly said “Do not judge, or you too will be judged". Matthew 7: 1. Is it that we keep forgetting this? Why do we decide to turn the church into a court of law?

The funny thing is, not only do we judge ourselves by our intentions and others by their actions; we also choose to see the wrong in others while we remain conveniently blind to our otherwise glaring faults. In my Christian walk, I have had the opportunity to associate with all sorts of “Christians” and I must say some of those relationships were not as pleasant as I expected them to be. Just like the Pharisees in the Bible, we are hypocritical in nature, condemning others for things that we approve in ourselves.

You are not the boss of me!

Few days ago, I was watching the TV when I heard my little sweetheart tell her elder brother "you are not the boss of me", surprised, I turned to get a better picture of the story and of course, from his reaction, I knew just like all of us, the big boy was not so pleased to get such a response from his sister for trying to help her out. I got in the conversation and had her apologize for her rudeness. The good thing is, just as I curled back in the sofa, the Holy Spirit ministered to me.

I realized that often times, not only do I try to boss God around, I also tell Him He is not the boss of me. Despite the fact that He is my Lord, I find myself trying to control Him, most times unknowingly.