Many of us are in that season of prayer -or we are always in-, we are praying for some many things and many people. We are on our knees for our country, our leaders, our families, friends, the salvation and healing of the people, jobs and many other things. We have formed many prayer groups on different days that we take time to pray and fast. We hardly even have time for ourselves because the little time we have is spent on our knees. We can’t remember the last time we met the four meals a day healthy diet requirements. All we do is just take something small to keep us on our feet and give us the energy to work.
However, I know that sometimes it can be so wearing out especially because of the many needs. With the many prayer needs, sometimes we wonder how we are going to pray over them all. Moreover, sometimes when we pray, it seems as if God is taking forever to hear and answer us. Sometimes we even get mad at Him or lose hope because we imagine that God doesn’t care. I know we have scenarios of when we have prayed for things that are yet to be met. Sometimes we even sit to analyze if we are praying right-I have done this many times. We even give up hoping and praying and assume the Psalms 139:16 verse in our situations but with a negative attitude. We console ourselves in the name of 'God know my tomorrow and has ordained it therefore I need not to pray or that He knows my needs and He will meet them and therefore we choose not to pray or ask'. Kind of getting hopeless….
However, I am reminded of the woman Anna in Luke 2:36-38. The bible says that she had dedicated her life to praying and fasting to the extent of leaving her family/home to remain in the temple to pray. Any woman would give up all things just to be with her family because it is the dream and prayer any of most women to be with the people they love and care about. However, this woman chose to give up all and especially that one thing that we all treasure most in the world to be in the temple praying.
However, God did not forget her. She had the privilege to see/hold the Messiah- isn’t that amazing? That is the reward of those who choose to carry others on their shoulders by choosing to go down on their knees everyday and even deny themselves for the sake of others. Sometimes it gets weary but all we need is to ask God for His grace and strength. We need to hold on because there will always be a reward for it. Although the rewards or answers may not come immediately,i promise you that He will surely hear us.
God bless you and keep growing in Him!
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Monday, 13 October 2014
Secret sin
NOTE: Most of the information given from the bible is paraphrased. I encourage that you refer to the Bible for the biblical wording and also so as to get further and deeper in the knowledge of God and His word. God bless you as you read.
“When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shells, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath.”(Joshua 7:21)…….
It was during the time that God had been fulfilling the promises of Abraham to his descendants of giving them the Promised Land. During this time, God had been fighting battles for them against their enemies through their army. All He had required of them is to take their positions and obey what God would ask them to do. They had won many of these battle and sometimes God would require them to take the plunder from their enemies after they had won the battles while other times, God would require them not to take anything. It was during the battle against the people of Ai where God had asked them not to carry anything with them from the battle that Achan decided to sin.
Achan had taken some of the things that he had found to be pleasant in his heart and decided to keep them for himself, although it was against the command of God. He had not just put them in his tent; he had gone further and dug them in the ground. That way, I believe he had thought to himself that no one who find them and thus no one would discover his disobedience. Reading this story makes me think about the many things that we do in secret. I know many times we struggle with various wickedness. However, although God has asked us not to commit them, we keep on doing it because we find them pleasurable. However, we do them in secret, that is without the knowledge of anyone and we appear innocent and ‘righteous’ it the eyes of everyone as we keep on telling others how good the Lord has been to us and how born again we are.
We have many things that we do in secret that we would not want anyone to know, not because we like it when people mind their own business but because they are ungodly and embarrassing. We know that if anyone discovered them, the way they perceive us would change. Sometimes we practice greed, impurity, sexual immorality and or many other evils that the bible warns us against. Some of these sins may include lust, selfish ambitions, hatred, fornication, masturbation, lesbianism and homosexuality, corruption, adultery; we worship things and people, power, jobs, money and many other evils. We have forgotten that there is no darkness too dark for God to see. That He sees everything we do.
The bible tells us that when the Israelites went to this battle against Ai, they lost it and this grieved Joshua together with their leaders. In their grieving, they went before the Lord and God exposed the sin that they had committed. Although they were a big number, God went through each one of them and eventually exposed Achan who had disobeyed God. Just like Achan, we deserve to be exposed. However, the Lord has been gracious to us and has given us time to change our wicked ways. God sent His son to set us free from our captivity. He desires for us to lay our burdens at His feet and give up our wickedness. The bible says that among us, there should be no hint of greed, impurity or sexual immorality (Ephesians 5:3)but some of us choose to hold on to it. God will expose us if we don’t change.
Remember the bible says that every hidden thing shall be brought to light (Luke 8:17 paraphrased). I believe that all the exposing takes place during our life time. Think about David for example. God did not wait for him to die that He would expose him during judgment day like some of us think. God made all his evils know to Nathan the prophet. He discerns our going out and our laying down. He is familiar with all our ways (Psalms 139 paraphrased). We have nothing to hide from Him and if we keep on disobeying Him, He might lose patience with us and expose us, which will not be very sweet.
However, we have a choice to surrender to Him all our hidden wickedness, lay it down at the cross of Jesus and let Him set us free from the things that hold us captive (Luke 4:18 paraphrased). The bible says that His grace enables us to say no to all forms of ungodliness ; including that pleasurable secret sin that is eating away your relationship with God (James 2:11-12 paraphrased) . He is able to forgive us if we confess our sins and surrender to Him. He is able to take away our guilt and to cleanse us and make us new. He will heal all our diseases in form of the secret sins. As for as the east is from the west will He take away our sins from us (Psalms 103 paraphrased). Just let go all the evil and He will give you the grace to be holy as He desires us to be.
Keep growing in Him!
“When I saw in the plunder a beautiful robe from Babylonia, two hundred shekels of silver and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shells, I coveted them and took them. They are hidden in the ground inside my tent with the silver underneath.”(Joshua 7:21)…….
It was during the time that God had been fulfilling the promises of Abraham to his descendants of giving them the Promised Land. During this time, God had been fighting battles for them against their enemies through their army. All He had required of them is to take their positions and obey what God would ask them to do. They had won many of these battle and sometimes God would require them to take the plunder from their enemies after they had won the battles while other times, God would require them not to take anything. It was during the battle against the people of Ai where God had asked them not to carry anything with them from the battle that Achan decided to sin.
Achan had taken some of the things that he had found to be pleasant in his heart and decided to keep them for himself, although it was against the command of God. He had not just put them in his tent; he had gone further and dug them in the ground. That way, I believe he had thought to himself that no one who find them and thus no one would discover his disobedience. Reading this story makes me think about the many things that we do in secret. I know many times we struggle with various wickedness. However, although God has asked us not to commit them, we keep on doing it because we find them pleasurable. However, we do them in secret, that is without the knowledge of anyone and we appear innocent and ‘righteous’ it the eyes of everyone as we keep on telling others how good the Lord has been to us and how born again we are.
We have many things that we do in secret that we would not want anyone to know, not because we like it when people mind their own business but because they are ungodly and embarrassing. We know that if anyone discovered them, the way they perceive us would change. Sometimes we practice greed, impurity, sexual immorality and or many other evils that the bible warns us against. Some of these sins may include lust, selfish ambitions, hatred, fornication, masturbation, lesbianism and homosexuality, corruption, adultery; we worship things and people, power, jobs, money and many other evils. We have forgotten that there is no darkness too dark for God to see. That He sees everything we do.
The bible tells us that when the Israelites went to this battle against Ai, they lost it and this grieved Joshua together with their leaders. In their grieving, they went before the Lord and God exposed the sin that they had committed. Although they were a big number, God went through each one of them and eventually exposed Achan who had disobeyed God. Just like Achan, we deserve to be exposed. However, the Lord has been gracious to us and has given us time to change our wicked ways. God sent His son to set us free from our captivity. He desires for us to lay our burdens at His feet and give up our wickedness. The bible says that among us, there should be no hint of greed, impurity or sexual immorality (Ephesians 5:3)but some of us choose to hold on to it. God will expose us if we don’t change.
Remember the bible says that every hidden thing shall be brought to light (Luke 8:17 paraphrased). I believe that all the exposing takes place during our life time. Think about David for example. God did not wait for him to die that He would expose him during judgment day like some of us think. God made all his evils know to Nathan the prophet. He discerns our going out and our laying down. He is familiar with all our ways (Psalms 139 paraphrased). We have nothing to hide from Him and if we keep on disobeying Him, He might lose patience with us and expose us, which will not be very sweet.
However, we have a choice to surrender to Him all our hidden wickedness, lay it down at the cross of Jesus and let Him set us free from the things that hold us captive (Luke 4:18 paraphrased). The bible says that His grace enables us to say no to all forms of ungodliness ; including that pleasurable secret sin that is eating away your relationship with God (James 2:11-12 paraphrased) . He is able to forgive us if we confess our sins and surrender to Him. He is able to take away our guilt and to cleanse us and make us new. He will heal all our diseases in form of the secret sins. As for as the east is from the west will He take away our sins from us (Psalms 103 paraphrased). Just let go all the evil and He will give you the grace to be holy as He desires us to be.
Keep growing in Him!
Thursday, 9 October 2014
From inside out
I was from an exam room a few weeks ago and I had to travel to a visit friends in different town. I was so hungry but It was clear that I would not manage to make a meal for myself because it was getting late. I decided to get into a restaurant and get something for myself. Since I was not very familiar with that town that I was in, I decided to walk around in order to find a nice place where I would get some food. While walking around, I came across a very beautiful restaurant and decided to walk in. I was caught by surprise when I got in. Everything had looked great and beautiful from outside (the decorations, the fish aquarium, colors etc) but the inside was dirty, shabby and messy. I was not able to eat from there; because I could not stand all the mess and the dirt that was in that place.
On my way out, it reminded me of the story of David in the book of 1 Samuel. When God rejected Saul and sent Samuel to go and anoint someone to be king from the house of Jesse, Samuel was so impressed by Eliab. The bible indicates that God asked Samuel not to consider appearance and his height. To have impressed Samuel so much that Samuel saw him as the person to anoint, I believe that he must have been so good looking according to the human eye. However, the bible says that God told Samuel that He never looks at the appearance but at the heart of man. Somehow I believe that the reason why God doesn’t consider the outward appearance is because to Him, we all look alike; like Him because we are a representation of Him. There is no ugly and no beautiful (my opinion). With this similarity therefore, the appearance of a person would be a poor judge or a method of telling who one really is.
God therefore went for the heart of David, and to arrive at him, Samuel had to go through all the sons of Jesse until the right man was found. This is a common story but I believe it needs to be emphasized because so many times we use the wrong things to determine who we are or who others are. God is so concerned about the heart of man than all other things. The bible in the book of proverbs 31:30 says that charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. I have always wondered why after a whole chapter of discussing what a capable wife is, these words marks the end of this great teaching. However, I have come to realize that without the fear of God and the true inner beauty of the heart, it is useless to have all the other characteristics discussed above.
It is not a wonder that God says that it’s not jewelry or beautiful clothes or the works of charity or even serving in a ministry that matters to Him. What He considers of great value to Him is an inner and unfading beauty of a gentle and a quiet spirit. When the word talks about us guarding our hearts, it is because the writer knows that the heart can be so wicked yet that is what God looks at in judging our character. It is of great important that we pay attention to the states of our hearts because it determines our character.
What you allow your heart to have is what you become. When God through His word says that we should guard our hearts, it is because He knows that He has given us the ability to determine the state of our hearts. A good way to explain this is when for example a hint of envy creeps into us. This can result from one thing or another. If we choose to harbor it in our hearts, it turns into jealousy and when it is held for a long time, it can lead to murder whether physically or in our hearts. That way, we become jealous and murders, that becomes our character and so when God looks down on us, He sees murders instead of lovers of people.
Outer beauty (although it depends on the eyes of the beholder) and appearance are wonderful. However, they are of no use if the inner is rotten. The dirt and mess inside; just like in the case of the restaurant; causes the outside to look bad and makes it difficult for those desiring to be inside us (the Holy Spirit) unable to remain inside.
Keep growing!
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