Indeed life had simpler days and simpler times. A time when all your cares were someone else’s problem. A time when you would go about as if you knew all there is to know. A time when you thought life has a pattern and that you have studied it and know what to avert and how to avert it.

A time when you thought it’s possible for life to be perfect as long as you stayed in the supposed right path. You knew the consequences of not staying in the “right path” and had convinced yourself you know the extent of the consequences thus take what you deemed calculated moves.

A time you thought life has a sequence of how things happen and that there’s no way a string of things you don’t understand and can’t figure out can happen, worse have no human to run to and help you make sense of them.

A time when you watched the world go by and saw people lose their loved ones. You watched them continue with life, walking the streets, working, studying, continuing with business, etc. You yourself having lost loved ones and still managed to live through that. You have seen people grow, build, loss it all and survive.

You have seen the best of people suffer and the worst of people prosper. You have asked the question how and why.

I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. (Ecclessians 9:11)

Only God knows how and why. That’s why it’s important for us to always stick to Him, look to Him and converse with Him.

Even at this time of the year where we’re all going about enjoying the festive season, let’s not forget the meaning of the gift given to us in Christ. Let us not forget to carry each other in prayer especially those who are going through tough times and those who have lost their loved ones and will be spending the first Christmas without them.

May God continue to be with you. May He continue to bless you and keep. May He continue to shine His face upon you.

Merry Christmas to you and your families

Though hard pressed on all sides, I press on: not on my own strength; but by the power of the One that strengthens me.

In Him I depend; in Him therein my strength lies; in Him my strength cometh from.

I press on, hoping to win the race and get the price.

I lift up my eyes to the hills; where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let my foot slip; He who watches over me will not slumber; indeed, He who watches over me will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord watches over me; the Lord is my shade at my right hand; the sun will not harm me by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep me from all harm; He will watch over my life; the Lord will watch over my coming and going both now and forevermore. (Psalm 121:1-8) Amen

You may be a staunch believer that God directs your steps; however when you land in a place you never thought you’d get to or you don’t like, all that belief goes out the window. You immediately forget that He’s the one directing you and that you may be where you are for a reason. You forget that He directed your steps to that place because there’s a purpose for you to serve there.

You may not necessarily see why you’re there but God does, He placed you there for a reason, for a purpose. Remember He goes before us, He knows what’s to happen and what storms your mere presence where you are may defuse.

You may not know nor comprehend how much by you just being there is helping the situation and bringing a calm, cordial environment for all those who are there. Your mere presence may be bringing peace and getting along; it may be bringing unity and comfort for those in whose presence you’re in; and it may be just the place you yourself unknowingly need to be for your own comfort, growth and progress in life.

So, don’t lose sight, don’t forget that He directs your every step. Even if it doesn’t make sense to you why you are there and how you got there, don’t throw a tantrum and lose your mind; just remember He who has begun a good work in you will see it to fruition.

The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8)

Sometimes in the journey you embark on with the belief that, that’s what God wants you to do you encounter a lot of challenges. You encounter enormous things that make you question if you really heard from God or whether you made the right decision to embark on that journey.

These challenges come in different shapes and sizes; you try do this and that but nothing works out.

Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to the other side, while He dismissed the crowd. After He had dismissed them, He went up on a mountainside by Himself to pray. Later that night, He was there alone, and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. (Matthew 14:22-24)

It was Jesus that send out the disciples to go on the boat to the other side. They set out on instruction. They heard Him load and clear, at least that’s what they thought they heard. I bet when they were seeing the boat drift further and further away and Him not showing up they started doubting if they heard Him correctly, worse when they now were hit by rough winds and their boat was wavering around.

However at their darkest hour, right there in the middle of their confusion, of being tossed around by the situation, in their stress and worry for survival, at that moment when they didn’t know how they’ll make it, Jesus appeared, calmly walking on the water.

Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. When the disciples saw Him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. (Matthew 14:25-26)

Amidst their questions and doubts Jesus reassured them. But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27)

With what’s happening, even after the Lord said relax, I’ve got this, Peter now more cautious wants further assurance before making a move. “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” (Matthew 14:28)

Most of us are crippled by the situations we find ourselves in. We are stuck in the boat afraid to move because things didn’t go the way we thought they would upon acting on instruction (at least what we thought was instruction) from the Lord. We are sitting there waiting for confirmations, validations, assurances, prophecies and things to clearly line up before we can move.

The Lord keeps saying come, take that leap, but we are afraid. We are afraid that should another storm hit, we may not survive. “Come,” He said. (Matthew 24:29)

“Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”

Take that leap of faith! Make that move! Leave that boat! Go explore what the Lord has set out for you!

Don’t poke / mess with God’s beloved; you will dearly pay. You can’t scam / steal resources meant for the pursuit of God’s purpose and think you’ll get away with it. You will pay with interest and feel the pinch.

Some people think they can just take advantage of others and get away with it. They think life is just a game meant to gratify them and everyone is just a pawn, they can do with them as they please and get away with it. But God loves us all, He is a fair God, He is a good shepherd. He knows our hearts, He knows our thoughts. He is a just God.

I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.” But you, Lord Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause. (Jeremiah 11:19-20)

The Lord fights for us in ways we could have never imagined. He has our backs 💯. We don’t even have to lift a finger, we just need to look to Him. As long as He is with us, we are covered. We will never be defeated.

Be warned, don’t take advantage of God’s chosen ones.

Just because something does not have any direct monetary reward does not mean it’s not worth doing. Somethings are simply for enjoyment, while others serve a greater purpose that can’t be quantified by human standards.

Don’t allow the devil to make you feel like you’re wasting valuable time doing what does not bring you any monetary return. Continue doing what brings joy to your heart and is in service of others and / or the kingdom of God. You may not get paid for it, others may not see / recognize what you’re doing; they may not even know that you’re doing what you’re doing; but rest assured, it is impactful and your reward will come from God Himself.

God “will give to each person in keeping with what he has done.” God will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good. They want glory, honor, and life that never ends. (Romans 2:6-7)

God answers our prayers; it’s just that sometimes He does not answer them the way we want / expect. If we hold on to getting what we want and how we want it, we end up stressing ourselves unnecessarily.

God says He will supply our every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus; but we daily stress about provision and resources. Though we may have never gone to bed without eating, we obsess every day about what our next meal will be or where it’s going to come from.

Like the children of Israel, even when God provides us with manna, we just keep complaining. Just because one does not have a job does not necessarily mean, one does not eat cause God always provides, one way or another; but because we’re fixed on the idea of how we must get food, we miss what God is doing for us.

The Israelites had silver and gold that they could have used to get food, but there were no shops in the wilderness to buy. They had to rely on God for sustenance and He provided, yet they still found more to complain about because things were not happening the way they wanted and/or how they expected.

Until such time we learn to completely rely on God and not on our own strength and abilities we will remain stuck. We unnecessarily keep ourselves in the wilderness for longer because we refuse to learn. The forty years could have been avoided, but because of the fixation of wanting things done according to our thinking, we just run around in circles.

We must never forget that our thoughts are not His thoughts, nor our ways His ways. God is not human, that He should lie, not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? (Numbers 23:18). When He says, provision, victory, healing, wealth etc. is ours; We must take Him at His word.

When things are hard we must persevere. In these instances God is showing Himself up and proving Himself to us that He is God and Almighty. These are instances that prepare and launch us into our purpose.

We don’t have to feel strong or worthy to do it, we must just do. We must refuse to sit and wait for our feelings to come on board; we must do it because we know that He who is with us is greater than everything we can face; we know He is leading us and if He is with us, all things will work together for our good.

But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt. (Exodus 7:3)

And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, that he shall follow after them; and I will be honoured upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD. (Exodus 14:4)

God hardens our situations so that His glory may be revealed and seen by all that He is magnificent and omnipotent.

Let us praise His name at all times and in all circumstances. His ways are not our ways.

God is not finished with you, so don’t count yourself out. God will raise you from where you are. The world / situations may have beaten you up to an extent that giving seems like the logical thing to do. But our logic is not God’s logic. God does things in a manner that is beyond our comprehension.

God will raise that situation of yours you think is dead; He will raise that dream of yours you think it’s dead. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, remember to God a thousand years is like one day, He will raise it, He will see it to fruition.

Declare life to your situation!
Declare life to your dream(s)!
In Jesus name!

Thank you Lord for never leaving me nor forsaking me. For watching over me even when I some times get lost, you hold me by the hand and guide me back to you, to the place I need to be and I find peace. I know that all the dreams you’ve placed in my heart will come to fruition. I know that victory is mine; that provision is mine; and I know that my situation is not permanent as is, you are working things out for my good. In Jesus name. Amen!

By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death. (Hebrews 11:17-19)

Focus on the Word and what it says. Focus on God’s promises and goodness. Forget about your surrounding circumstances. God has made provision for all that you can need in His Word, it is just for you to call Him to deliver.

Not focusing on the Word of God causes you a headache. It opens you up to attacks such us doubt, stress, fear, negative thoughts, loneliness, depression, etc. It makes you focus on things you shouldn’t be focusing on. You focus on suffering rather than victory as promised in the Word. It makes you focus on illness rather than healing as promised in the Word. It makes you focus on lack rather than fruitfulness and plenty as promised by the Word.

Fix your eyes on the Lord and immerse yourself in His Word. Believe that whatever you have prayed for you have already received before you even see it with your eyes. If you steadfastly focus on the Word and God’s promises for your life, there will be no room for attacks because they will always find you armed.

Take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. (Ephesians 6:16-18)