Cast All Your Burdens

We all have been on situations that are pretty much daunting and not having a way out form them. I remember I had done something wrong and regretted after. I always thought that I am tough enough not to commit such a mistake. I found myself in that situation and I didn't even notice that I was actually doing wrong. But when the job was done, that's when my eyes were opened and I actually did something wrong!

I felt so bad and I cried bitterly. In the process of my sobbing, I started to see myself as the worst person on earth. I started feeling like a 'sinner' and never wanted to be close to people. I would see wings on them thinking that they're all angels. To make it worse, I even felt like they saw what I did. Oh! That was a bad feeling to have. Very bad!

“Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” Psalm 55: 22.

That's exactly what I did. I did not like myself but I gave myself to God and guess what? He restored me. He actually opened my eyes that when He tests our faith, He stands and waits for our reaction. When we lose ourselves in mistake/sin, He is actually showing it to us that we are nothing without Him. Our pride falls and we become humbled and begin to acknowledge the real authority that's above us

Believe me, that's much better than being in a state of regret. God gives you the relief that you can't make it without Him in this world. You are just lost and lifeless! That's when I realised that all that I am isn't with my strength but it's actually God's strength and image.

There is nothing scary or painful about casting all your burdens to the Lord, its just a sweet feeling of humility.

Stay Blessed!

I am tired, time's gone

“ I have been waiting in the Lord for a long time for Him to bless me with a job but nothing is happening. I sometimes feel as if I am wasting my time here in the church as I am not getting what I am asking for...”

These are the words of a young man I was speaking with in church. He was fed up, hopeless and very disappointed. He did not want to hear a thing about God nor the church any more. You could see from his face that he is troubled and convincing him would just be impossible. He had made up his mind already on the next step he would take, and who would be strong enough to try convince him not to take the path he was about to take?

This kept me thinking for a long time of how many people were once serving God but they eventually saw no use to do so anymore? Or maybe people who are still with us but their thoughts are already polluted by these kind of thoughts?

Probably many of them. I am no pro of how to help them but God has all the tools to help. Jeremiah 29:11 - "'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 a future.'" This is what God said.

If what you are looking for is delaying, fine, but He said His plans are not to harm us but to prosper us. By doubting Him and deciding to go out of His presence, its to call upon yourself harm, something He said He will not do. Staying with God is prospering!

Since He is the author of life, he know of what is good and the time it will be good at. Let us not move away from God but keep believing on His promises because He is faithful.

Stay Blessed!!

A Little Brave Girl 3

From this short story we have being reading about, we notice that not all the time does life turn out the way we want it to. This little girl had dreams, she had desires where she wanted to have both parents around. She was dreaming like any other normal child.

Unfortunately, life had something different in store. This girl is Me.

I always prayed for my parents to have long life. I wanted what I wanted not what God wanted for them and for me. How was I to know all that I know today? How was I to know responsibility? Above all, how was I to know God?

From then on, my life changed completely. I had to know everything and to do everything. Before I knew that I don't have to do everything because someone will help me. The first thing that I did was to give my life to God- 100%.

You might ask yourself why didn't I do something for a living? The truth is that if did, it was not going to last because there won't be God in it. The Word of God says that 'but seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well' Matthew 6:33.

God became the foundation of all that I did and possessed.

God did for me what a parent could not do for his/her children. He became more than a parent to me. Though I used to pray, go to church, give tithes, my life would have been in misery if I never gave it to God fully.

Whether we have parents or not, alone or not, whoever we are, we just have to give up our will and start putting our whole lives on God hands. When Jesus said "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." Mark 8:34-35, he knew what He was talking about.

Stay Blessed! 

A Brave Little Girl 2

The relatives were hurt and very disappointed as what they have hoped for did not happen. Now she was stuck with her step father. An old man who did not appreciate her even when her mother was still alive. He used to say things to get her angry so she can move out of the house. Was that going to stop since she needed comfort now more than ever? We do not know! Only time would tell.

Later things worsened and she only realised that her step father's stay there was not to play daddy to her but to actually kick her out of her mother's house since it was now hers. She was abused more than before. Her relationship with God grew strength and she was able to resist all that was happening around her.

She would go to school weeping, with an empty stomach, with the trauma of the terror that was happening at home. She would not even concentrate. All she did was shed tears. Still, her faith was compelling her to be more close to God and to do God's will, though it was tough to do so.

“ I remember the prayer I once made when I was about to leave my house going to stay with another member of the church: 'God, make me please you in all the decisions I make. Be it to leave my house or to stay in suffering.' All I wanted was to please the Lord Jesus.” She said. She was brave. She was even at the verge of leaving her house.

She did not leave but faced all the challenges with God by her side. The step father left the house and now she was left alone in the house. That was after 2 months after her mother's death. (still in pain). Peace came to her heart but a great struggle she was about to face. Having to be fully independent.

That's when her insecurities began to sprout and become flowers. How is she going to get food to eat? What about clothes to wear and school expenses?

To be continued...

A Brave Little Girl

Her parents died when she was 14. She was then persecuted by her relatives only because of her faith in God. Her relatives gathered one day at her house for one reason , but one reason only. To try talk her out of following Jesus.

She was so tiny in the house. There were so many adults and they were bigger that her, more mature than her and even wiser than her. She was by herself while the troop of relatives were angry and furious and looked like they were lions hungry to kill. She was shaking and could not stand rigidly on her own, she needed at least the support of the wall as she could not sit because the house was packed and all chairs were occupied.

When they started opening their mouths to shout at her, to discourage her, to overwhelm her with fear, their voices were like thunder. They were too loud and too distracting for her. She could not bear it. In the midst of all that horror, her mother's words started hovering over her mind. “ 'Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.' Mat 10:21, this shall come to pass when I depart from this earth and you shall be alone” She realised that she did not understand these words at first but now she was forced to.

“'Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?'Rom 8:35 not even me my baby. I can do all but I cannot separate you form the love of God.” He mother's words proceeded in her mind. That was enough to dry her tears from falling, to strengthen her bones from shaking and to calm her heart from fear. She had God, so she does not need all these gigantic people around her.

She raised her face and looked at everyone of them in the eye and said: “ GO! LEAVE ME IN PEACE. I SHALL NOT COME AFTER YOU FOR THE LORD GOD WILL PROVIDE.” Yes, those words came from a 14 year old telling her relatives, people who had condition to take care of her to go and leave her in peace.

To be continued...

Have you Been Abused

I was once kidnapped by eleven guys when I was 13. I was still young and whatever happened to me just became trauma. I thought I have failed myself and my mother. It was not easy for me. I was even unable to go to school because whenever I went out of the house I would see the kidnappers coming to take me again.

My life was hell. Three nights of trauma and fighting changed my whole life. I became sick after escaping. I was not sick with a disease but with trauma. I was messed up as mind was no longer thinking positively. I felt stinky and dirty. I could not accept myself as I used to before the abduction.

After three months, I was abused again but more on the emotional side by my mother's death. Remember: I hadn't recovered yet, I was still in deep trauma. I felt like I had nothing left for me here on earth. I have to be honest; it took me years to find my feet again. I was shattered inside and it was reflected on the outside.

One day I realised what was missing in me: it was appreciation. I was blind for me to appreciate the life that God gave to me and the tools He gave me for me to rebuild my life.

• I had brains- for me to build confidence in my and never accept defeat.
• I had hands for me to do something better than sitting and moaning out of my past
• I had God who always held my hand for me to never be alone and find comfort in Him.

That was enough for me to move ahead with my life and conquer great things. After realising that, I said to myself: ' Yes, they did abuse me, but they did not kill me.' So I had to do something out of the life I was given by God.

Whatever happened to you in the past that maybe broke your confidence and your self-esteem, yes, it did happen but it did not kill you. Wake up and live the life that they could not take away from you and be a better person.

Remember: “...What is impossible with man is possible with God.” Luke 18:27

Stay Blessed!

Are You Ready to lose?

I remember some years back I used to tell my mother that I love her so much that I cannot even afford to lose her. I wanted to be the first one to die hoping that she will have another baby girl to replace than for her to leave me with the pain and the grief. I just hated losing her because I had already lost my father.

I was so close to my mother. We had more than a mother daughter relationship. She was my friend. I spoke to her about everything and she did like wise. I still repeat: I did not want to lose her. Its was just too much for me.

But why do we hate losing things? Why do we want to have things forever?

Some of the reasons we have may be because we don't want to be losers. That is more than correct! Nobody wants to be a loser. We cannot lose something we have achieved with sweat and maybe even with tears. Nobody knows how we got where are and have what we have today except us! So, we don't want to just let the wind pass with what is ours by!

I think we should start seeing things the way in a Godly way. God never allows us to lose things just so we can be losers. For us to achieve even greater dreams, we must go through the losing process. He is then paving the way for the bigger dream that we have always had. God is making us ready to please Him with what we have achieved.

How are we going to see the need to glorify God if we never went through loads of trouble? If we were never really put to shame? He is the God of the poor, just for the glory of His name.

In all that we hope to achieve, we must be ready to lose something valuable to us as a sacrifice and with a motive to praise His name at the end. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him” John 9:3

Stay Blessed!