Rise up

 It is the last day of this month and I must say that this has been the best month in my life so far. It is the month that I faced most of my hardest challenges in my life that have molded me in all ways. I have gone through trails that have really refined me. My character, attitude, patience and many aspects of my life were tasted and I am grateful that it made me discover myself more. However, it was the month that I have been the happiest so far. I loved, went for adventures, spent life away from people and with people, helped and encouraged people and had felt so much satisfaction in myself and really appreciated my abilities. I finally learnt to stand up for myself, say NO with a smile and mean it and to be strict but still to remain kind.

I have learnt to trust God even when the road ahead seems to be darker than the darkest night. I also learnt that happiness doesn’t have just one address and I found happiness in many other areas and places that I never imagined. Most of all however, I learnt that when I choose to walk a certain path, I have to walk in it and never look back as long as I have faith that God is leading me through it.

Talking about paths, I had an awesome encounter with a few friends and some colleagues about two weeks ago. We decided to go on an adventure which was walking up the Nyambene hills just for fun. Our goal was to get to the top without giving up. Our journey up the hills took us 3 hours nonstop. We started our journey at 1030hrs and got to the top of the hills at 1330hrs. It was fun but wasn’t without its share of challenges.

One of the challenges was that it was very steep, it was also a journey inside a dark forest that covered ¾ of the journey and there was the risk of meeting wild animals and snakes. On our way, it also rained heavily for about an hour but luckily, we were a little sheltered in the thick forest. However, this did not stop us from getting wet because we had only covered half the journey when it started raining and by the time it stopped we still had not gotten to the top of the hills. After the rails, the path got so slippery and we fell a couple of times. However, this did not stop us, we chose to get up and continue with our journey. When we finally got up, we gave a thanksgiving prayer and made ourselves some tea just to celebrate our great achievement. I even took some photos and sent/shared with a loved one just to share my joy with him.

This whole encounter reminded me of what life truly is. Life is fun when lived without fear and in honoring God. God has given us the gift of life, which is a journey with many aspects (spiritual, social…). It is an adventurous journey but just like our journey up the hills, it has its great challenges.  However, I have learnt that these challenges always come to make us better people. We go through what seem to be like hell and even hate people and situations that lead us to such challenges but at the end of it, we give thanks and appreciate them for letting us through the challenges because they leave us better and wise than before.

Sometimes we make mistakes or wrong decisions but we discover it and choose to leave them behind and choose the right things. Other times we make the right choices but their path sometimes gets so challenging. My daddy has taught me that it is ok to make mistakes. Sometimes you make so many mistakes that you start believing that you are a mistake yourself. However, he always tells me that once I discover that I have made one, I should not remain there but should correct it. I should rise from the mistake, correct it and learn from it as much as I can.

It has been a bitter- sweet month, but I thank God because I am not the girl I was 30 days ago. I am truly grateful to God because He has made me realize that whichever path I choose He is with me (Isaiah 30:21) showing me which path to follow, as long as I am honoring Him. That even if I fall as long as I am honoring Him, He will lift me up and I will rise higher than before. I have learnt to walk without fear(Daniel 10:19), to cry when I have to and to laugh when I have to but above all else, to always rise up when I make mistakes and never to limit my happiness to circumstance in life. Instead, to rejoice always (Philippians 4: 4-7), because it is a choice that is not determined by situations. To celebrate when I achieve my goals and to give thanks even when I don’t, because there is something better for me.

I pray that you may all do the same.

Isn’t this Love?

It’s been a while not just since I wrote but also since I had a great time of worship alone in the presence of God. Time has been moving so fast and there has been so much (not a good excuse) that I could only afford to spare very few minute to pray and rush through the word every day for the last couple of days. However, I am grateful that today have found time to just be with Him and enjoy it. It’s during this time today that I realized how great the love of God is to me. 

 It’s funny how ignorant I am of the fact that when I am so busy and having so much to do, that is when I need greater strength. Further, I often forget that this strength can only come from God and great refreshment in these seasons comes from spending time with God. However, I just realized how much God has loved me so much such that even when I still spare so little time for Him, in these moments He still comes through for me and gives me so much strength that I don’t break down. Recently I really suffered a great blow. I had plans that I had made and even committed to prayer. However, they failed and it seemed like I did have a way out, that all hope was lost. I got so discouraged but He came through, encouraged me and saw me through and further gave me hope for the future. He did not allow me to grow weary but He gave me strength, He carried me on His shoulders. Isn’t that love?

How about how He loves me even deeper when I am away from Him? When I feel like it’s too much of a burden to just sit with Him for an hour or two while reading His word, meditating and in worship? How about when I am so lost, submitting to the selfish desires of my flesh (Galatians 19-21)? Yet He reaches out to me and speaks to my conscious and helps me to resist falling or when after I fall/submit to the flesh He reaches out to me and leads me to repentance and still forgives me? Isn’t that love?

 He sacrificed His son for my sake, I who is just like a flower, here today and withered and then gone in a short while (Psalms 103:15-16), yet He saw it worthy to give His son as an example for me to follow and then had him die on the cross for me to be free. He then went ahead to raise him from the dead to show me that I have victory through him (1 Corinthians 15:56-57). Isn’t that love? That when I am lost, He chooses to put aside others, and come looking for me, yet I am lost to His enemy-sin-, and then goes ahead to throw a celebration for me after I have been lost out there and wasted what Had for me (Luke 16). Isn’t that love?

How about this, when He says that He doesn’t chance is word (Numbers 23:19) yet when I sin and He gets angry and when the consequences of my sin is death He chooses to change/forgive me and walk with me even as I suffer the consequences giving me the strength through it all after He has led me to repenting (I am reminded of the story of the Israelites through the desert in Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, most specifically Exodus 32). Yet He still keeps His promises to me, even after I sin and I am so far away, that He can still fulfill them in His faithfulness. Isn’t that love? When He calls me to show my love for Him by obeying His commands (John 14:15) and further gives me the strength and grace (Titus 2:11-14) to obey. Isn’t that love? How I pray that I can love like he does, like I can just be there with Him like He is always there with me.

God bless you and keep growing in Him.

Go get your blessing

  

“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 future” Jeremiah 29:11

God loves us, we are His and He would therefore never want to harm us. What he has for us instead are good things. This is why he is out to fulfill our hearts desires as long as they are for our good and in line with His word, which is in all circumstances for our good. However because of our ignorance about this, many times we make wrong decisions and choose to hold on the wrong things. In most cases, these are things that are painful and cause us harm or destruction. We do this because we become afraid that if we let go we might lose everything, therefore we keep getting destroyed until we finally let go and get our freedom.

The story of Naomi in the bible is an example of this kind of life. The book of Ruth chapter 1 tell us how Naomi together with her family had left Bethlehem in Judah to go and live in Moab with an aim of escaping a famine that had fallen in their home land. When the famine was over, Naomi’s family did not go back home but decided to hold on to Moab which wasn’t their rightful home, and her sons got wives from there. However, 10 years later her husband and sons all died and was left a widow and childless, only with her daughters in law, except that they had bore her no grand children. It was a sad state and this had caused her pain and so much grieve that she considered herself hopeless and was filled with so much bitterness that she called herself Mara.

While Naomi was busy trying to hold on to the wrong place and suffering all the pain she had gotten from there, God had visited her home land and brought productivity. Her relatives were busy planting and harvesting grains and they had enough to feed themselves and give freely to others who lacked. However, everything changed when she decided to let go and return to where she belonged.

When she went back to Judah, everything changed. God took her pain away and replaced it with blessings. On arrival, she was welcomed warmly by the women of Judah. Then one of her daughters in law who had decided to follow her and received her blessing together with Naomi decided to take care of her. Naomi did not go out in the field to work. Instead, Ruth, the daughter in law would go out and bring her what she needed. Further, she was more blessed when God used her daughter in law to make her a great grandmother to the great king David and thus fell in the lineage of Jesus the Messiah. For this reason, the women of Judah praised the Lord.

So now I don’t know what you are holding on to that is destroying you and stopping you from enjoying your blessings. You may be afraid that if you let go you will lose everything or that letting go is not the right thing to do. But what I am telling you is to just let it go. If it is taking away the joy that should be in your soul, it is wrong. Whether it is something, someone, some place, a thought or emotion that shouldn’t be in your life and is there n causing you harm, just let go and create room for your blessing, God has a hope for you and desires to prosper you. Choose happiness in the Lord. God gives us wisdom to make decisions for our lives. If these decisions are in line with God’s word and command, they are right. His word is a guide to us. He therefore expects us to use it to make wise decisions that are right and bring blessings.

God bless you and keep growing in Him!