After School Reflections

1.       Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him and he shall make your path straight.
The road for me in university has had lots of up and downs. I shed tears, skin and friends and for someone who grew up believing the world is right if you do the right thing and treat people right  you can imagine my shock. People will never do for you what you do for them. You will get fed up of trying to be there  for others. You will be misunderstood A Lot because you are different. The tendency to go with the flow is pretty high. The desire to belong is within everyman and it is normal just make sure it doesn’t take you where you are not wanted or respected.  Trusting in a plan  made for you before you were conceived  is the only way to avoid messing up. God doesn’t need to show us the whole picture but when we take each day with Him and trust that all things are working for our own good when the picture is finally revealed we will understand smiling with no regrets. Praying about friendships, hurts, finances, academics and family has helped me through those four years because there was a God who listened.

2.       Pray continually

Prayer works. I used to pray every Sunday like a sorta communication time with God after church but I got lazy. I used to pray every afternoon after class but it was hard to be in a room with people after class and pretend to sleep while you actually want to pray so your prayer time might just end up in sleep. I used to pick the first Sunday of each month as time to plan the month with God. Then I tried using 6pm walks to engage in prayer. I even had a prayer timetable.  Prayer is important not just in school  but for life . Prayer may not guarantee heaven but it is leverage on earth. I can’t say I prayed enough while in school but I believe Godspeed every litte effort made to communicate with Him.Go to church, pray in groups but don’t forget personal prayer. If you are like me struggling to find a place to pray after school maybe stay behind .i am no expert but as a student you need to pray. Pray about everything, what people say how they treat you how you feel about thing. Pray continually about everything .

 

3.        Make choices

This was my saddest forte because it was my weakest. Choices, conscious ones need to be made. Along with a choice must  come an action. I tried to explain my action to people who didn’t make the choices with me . They didn’t make the choices because they weren’t looking for the result  I was looking for. Obviously I was looking odd to them. The thing with a personal choice is it is personal. Your convictions will never be as strong as the next person’s. So make a choice and stuck to it, if you have someone who will be useful in accountability areas tell them about it if not you may need new people in your life or get creative in evading questions from those who won’t let you be. Not every choice is everyone’s business some you can tell people with explanation others you suffer in silence and criticism.   

 

 

 

 

 

MOTIVES

Doesn’t it feel nice when people praise you for a job well done? It is like the honor they bestow on you for a kind act can push you to do more kind acts.

What if no one saw your kindness ,would you still be kind?

If no one praised you for a job well done, would you do things haphazardly?

1Cor 10:31 ,So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, Do It All for the glory of God.

 

So now I ask, what are your motives for your actions?

We like to be be praised, noticed and honored but we should ask ourselves do our motives honor God?

Do we make the left hand know what the right hand is doing?

Do we openly seek appreciation?

What runs through your mind when you see someone you once helped?

Why did you even help them?

See a man diligent in his work he will serve before Kings

Fame may or may not come if we work hard but what will surely come is connections to other great people.

In a generation where it is believed fame is the meaning of Success ,let’s  choose to subscribe to a quiet life of hard work.

Let us make honoring God our prime .

So today as you step out, the way you look, talk, react to things and even people should bring Honor to the one   who made us.

Let men look at us and give God the glory.

In the words of a wise man, we are all pencils in the hands of the creator.

Dark lights

2.       Shine your light.

There is a need to let people see Christ in you. There is a need for you to be a guide to someone to find Christ.

We may be ardent readers of the bible and may have imbibed soo much of the Holy spirit in us but it is completely useless when we cover the light and keep it all in.
Yours may be just a daily encouragement with a bible verse  continue to do it.

It may be you share your testimonies of the deliverance that God has provided to encourage someone’s unbelief.

It could be you pray with someone once in a while, you share a little of your blessings or maybe you drag someone to church even if they complain, whatever it is remember that it is Jesus who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure . He started something in you and He will see to its completion. It is not up to you to know how He wants to work it just trust and obey.

 

I have tried to pray on my own and tried to make it a habit to prayer at a certain time everyday. It is tough no lies but today my eyes were opened . I saw a group of friends go to pray then it hit me, the reason I struggle to keep up with my prayer times is probably because there is no one I am accountable to.   I Alone know I pray at this time ,I alone know why I am nowhere to be found at that time. I alone… how selfish ! I have had a light and I have hidden my light. I am letting I alone get into God’s presence forgetting I have been charged to go into the light and make disciples of nations ….teaching them that which The Lord has taught me. I hope my friends forgive my selfishness. I hope like those group of friends I invite my friends to go on prayer walks with me or share my daily Joyce Meyer devotions.

 

 

I have been a very dark light, a highly selfish Christian and I am broken as to how much I have let experiences and situations change me.

 

Hopefully you  and I can go on this journey of Shining together.

 If you have a light and you are covering it because you are scared of shy or for whatever reason you have know that someone’s ticket to heaven is on you.

 

Well once there is life there is hope

 

It is hard to communicate how you relate with God and how you want to be near him when you (me) have been ridiculed for that same reason earlier in life.

It is harder when you(me) know you are still struggling to walk the straight and narrow because of countless experiences of, let downs and heart breaks.

Be still and know that I am God.

The troubles of the present (and the past) cannot be compared to the glory that is to come.

 

Keep being the Christ-like person you have always been. Keep doing the things God has convicted you to do even if you don’t feel like it.

 

Dark Lights

Would you light a lamp and keep it under a table? When Dumsor hits you would you keep the lantern under the table still? Easter was an exciting time for me. I learnt about how I and probably you too enjoy being dark lights.

 

There are many people with wonderful relationships with God. They are tongues speaking Christians who receive visions and divine revelations on life from God. There are people who when you mention a Bible verse the kind of divine insight they can share would make you marvel?

As it is in the scriptures we have a form of godliness but deny its power. We like to look cool and not have people ask us questions about our religious choices and like to look normal A  Lot!

Daniel purposed in his heart not to defile himself with the food sacrificed to the idols. Meschach ,Shadrach and Abednego refused to bow to a god even when threatened with death.

It is not because our generation is a harder one than theirs  ,but we have not set in stone our do’s and don’ts and are not ready to fight for what we believe.

Many people known the Bible and what it says yet woven fewer are ready to do what it says let alone fight for its truth.

 

 

 

We can shine by

1.       Letting the word dwell richly in your heart.

They word have I hid in my heart that I may not sin against you.David knew the importance of having the word in your heart. When u keep something in your heart, you cherish and jealousy watch over it. Eph 1:18  I pray that your hearts be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called –his holy people who are his rich glorious inheritance.

LIGHT IS AN EMMISION OF ABSORPTION ..whatever colors we see it is because the material has absorbed its spectrum and is emitting what it already has.

When we spend time in the word of God we flood our hearts and our minds with light. We allow the Spirit of God to come and fill us and transform us. We are able to then show that which has been given to us to the world.

Perhaps you have been reading your Bible for a while but you don’t feel like much change is happening, don’t stop. His ways are not our ways neither are His thoughts our thoughts, keep reading, keep praying keep doing whatever you are doing to get closer to God and to shine .

It may take a while, you may stumble but keep moving till you are convicted by the Holy Spirit and live according to the word of God.

DON’T READ THE WORD AND LIVE ACCORDING TO YOUR DESIRES, THERE IS A STRUGGLE BUT WE OVERCAME HIM BY THE BLOOD AND THE WORD OF OUR TESTIMONIES

CALVARY WALKING

 As he walked the streets, bleeding from his back the enormous  chunk of wood gracing his back.He was walking to the hill where he would need to surrender, his final act of Trust. Onlookers still not understanding why an innocent man had been exchanged for a guilty man.

This would probably be my version of Jesus walking to Golgotha if I was there but we Mathew,Mark, Luke and John’s account ,it should be enough. Calvary walking is one lonely road.

When you begin to change your ways to the standard of God, there are two things you will be hit with

Doubt from within and doubt from without.

You will at times feel unsure of your decisions and doubt that you are on the right path. The battlefield of the mind is going to be a hot zone . When doubt however the best choice is to OBEY whatever the Lord says. Do what the Bible says and follow the deep convictions of the Holy Spirit.God’s ways are not our ways neither are our thoughts his thoughts for as high as the heavens are above the earth  so are his ways higher than ours. We try to understand God to know what he is doingbefore we move along. That is a wrong move, we must Trust in Him and Obey because he knows the end from the beginning.  With every little obedient act we build faith for greater things and as He leads and we follow we will discover how sure His ways are. When in doubt Obey.

 

Then there’s everyone else who is around us. Some genuinely think we are getting somewhere with being married to Christ and others think it is a phase.

Doubt from without comes from being teased and called names because of our convictions about Christ. Truth is, God will always give each of s personal convictions on everything and it will always conform to the Bible. People (Believers and Non- believers) will not always understand. That’s OK. Many misunderstood Christ till he fulfilled the word of God for his life.

 In all this, we must remain in prayer and bible reading. Those are sure ways to hear from God ad be led by him.

Calvary walking means falling and getting up éverytime, it means asking for help when the Cross is too heavy to bear. It means despising the shame ,it means not stopping till you reach that place of complete Trust in God.

At Calvary, we would have to forgive ,we would have to endure, we would have to trust,we would have to surrender.

Jesus hang on that cross and while he was being crucified,
He forgave (Luke 23:34)

He endured (Mark 15:34)

He surrendered (Luke23:46)

 

Till we get to that place of total surrender, and become dead to ourselves, we may never be resurrected with Him and enjoy that Glory that our Lord Jesus did.

#TheHolyWeek #Calvarywalking  #RisenwithChrist