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. :)

Gratitude: A Key to Happiness 2

One thing I have noticed in many people including myself is that often times, we wait for special occasions to show appreciation, we even wait till thanksgiving to say thank you to the Lord who counts us worthy to see each day. Instead of being grateful for the undeserved blessings that we enjoy, we adapt the consumer-oriented approach by laying emphasis on the things we want but do not have. In my opinion, that is not the best approach to get anyone to do things for you. If instead of thanking me each time I go out of my way to give you something, especially one that you didn't earn, the only thing you do is tell me about the ones I am yet to do, I would be reluctant or better yet, not go further in giving you any other thing.

Gratitude: A key to Happiness 1

First, I would like to say thank you for taking time to read my post despite the fact that I have been MIA for a while now. I am indeed very grateful :-)

Our discussion for today is gratitude. Have you ever noticed that when you show gratitude to someone, not only does it make the person feel good, you also feel good? In essence, that means gratitude produces win-win situations, as Dr. Shrand, a Harvard Psychiatrist put it in his book Manage Your Stress: Overcoming Stress in the Modern World, "In our hearts of hearts, we just want to be valued by another person" he also said that "Being valued is the essence of gratitude". So you see, gratitude is a key to happiness because when you feel valued, you will be happy.

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?