Grateful for An Amazing October 2018

It has been a very longed time since I blogged in this space. I will do another blog post to cover that soon. Here is my offering for this month.

I am beyond thankful

I am grateful

My gratitude is overflowing in praise

Like a fountain jetting heavenwards

October 2018 has been amazing with memory-making moments

beyond my wildest imaginations.

A month of growing deeper roots

A month of intimate communion and fellowship

A month of an increasing revelation of the knowledge of God’s will

That has been my greatest desire for the month;

the recompense and restoration my soul desperately longed for.

October 2017 was memorable,

but not in the way I could have ever imagined

I watched dreams consumed in fire

Expectations laid in cinders of hurts and disappointment

I writhed in the pain of false accusations and vilification

I groaned in voiceless cry

Many nights, my tears flowed unstoppable

Though I knew they were stored up in a bottle before God

and recorded in His Book of remembrance,

I didn’t want them, not in October, not ever.

What was my crime?

What was my offence that I should be cut down and shredded in tiny pieces?

My heart longed for an answer as the pain I never knew possible

seared like a hot blade through deep places within me.

That was when I knew without any doubt that hurting people hurt others.

You run a risk of getting hurt when you hug a porcupine.

The sharp edges of their jagged broken pieces can inflict untold pain.

I had two option;

Heal, Arise and Shine

or Let offense fester and become bitter.

I couldn’t afford to trade my years in God’s sacred school of brokenness

for the emptiness of self-vindication.

To let offense fester and become bitter was too costly to be an option

I chose to heal, to arise and to shine.

As months went by

I watched God’s gold of grace infused into the lines of my brokenness

until it shone with brilliance.

I learnt that God could make beautiful things from my broken pieces.

He did so in a painstaking way;

the healing was slow but determined and definite.

He lifted my head like the horn of the unicorn

He turned towards me and smiled at me

He filled me with joy beyond description

He gave me mighty deliverance and victory

in places I never imagined

When October 2018 showed up in the horizon

I had only one desire;

To experience God in a brand new and refreshing way

unmarred with pain or tears.

I wanted to be free to share the testimony of His faithfulness

I desired to speak of His amazing goodness to me unhindered.

He opened doors for me to do that.

I can testify that God’s finger reached down to deep places

only He could reach

His touch like soldering gun joined together my broken pieces.

His beauty shone through the lines of my healed brokenness

His fingers scripted a new chapter in His story of my life

New Psalms flowed out of my caves of solitude

You can never vindicate yourself

Don’t bother to try

The only One who is perfect and just in all His ways

is the only One who vindicates

He fights the battle for us in the places where we have no strength

He is the advocate who defends the helpless and the hurting

I have experienced the goodness of God in the last 12 months,

in ways I could never have imagined or foreseen.

I found diamond along the shores beaten by fierce storms

I saw hope glittering with unfading light in a dark tunnel

I heard God’s favor speaking for me where I had no voice

I experienced His mighty arm stretched out to carry me above mountains

Crushed, hard pressed and squeezed,

I am oozing with fragrant oil of hope and grace.

I will embrace the great fights for they produce great faith

I will embrace the great tests for they are the precursors of great testimonies

I will not run from great trials for with them comes great triumphs.

I am full of testimonies

I am full of gratitude

My heart overflows with adoration

My praise is gushing like a fountain

from a heart that has experienced

the healing and restoration only God can accomplish.

I will give thanks to God

for His goodness and wonderful works to me,

His precious daughter.

Thank You, Lord, for an amazing month.

I am Grace In Motion

I am Hope personified

I am a Living Proof of promised made and promise fulfilled

I am the object of His undying and faithful love.

I am sure you have also experienced the goodness of God in one sphere of your life or the other. Share with us in the comment and let us rejoice with you.

And if you are still waiting for God in a specific area of your life, stay the course of faith. Don't give up on God. Don't give up on hope. God is able to do for you just what He says He would do, in His own time and in His way.

O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing

I remember in 1999, my doctors told me that in just a few years down the road I would have to be in the wheelchair for the rest of my life, requiring support for day-to-day basic activities.

Here am I today, shouting and screaming praises to God.

I remember in 2013, the surgeon told me that my medical history presented a constellation of risks for doing the surgery that was the only medical option left for me to have a chance at living a quality life again. He determined that I could bleed to death on the operating table.

Here am I today, shouting and screaming praises to God.

I remember a few years ago, I laid on the black leather sofa in my sitting room and I thought of Saturday, October 1^st, 2016. My physical realities then indicated that it would be nothing short of a miracle to still be here in the land of the living on this special day of my life.

Here am I today, heaping praises on God.

I remember when the label of affliction screamed louder than a gigantic billboard along a highway. It was God Who delivered me for its shame.

Here am I today, dancing and giving thanks to God.

I remember when living was difficult and the future looked bleak, it was God who delivered me from death. He brought me through the valley of the shadow of death.

He restored me. He sustained me. He secured me.

I will remember. I will remember the wonderful works of His hands.

I will stop and give Him praise.

Why?

Because He is a faithful God.

For the past few weeks, I wondered, I pondered; what can I render to God for His amazing grace that 

He caused to abound to me from the day I was conceived until this day.

What can I offer to Him for His unending love?

How can I thank Him ever thank Him enough for all He has done for me?

What shall I say to the Lord for steadfast faithfulness to me?

All I have to say is, “Thank You, God.”

So here am I to sing thanks and praises to God.

But if the more than 600,000 strands of hair on my scalp are made of tongues, they simply cannot be enough to recount all the many acts of wonder God has performed in my life for the past 50 years since I made my entrance into the world.

Charles Wesley (1707 – 1788) must have been in the same position as I am right now when he composed the hymn below:

O for a thousand tongues to sing

my great Redeemer's praise,

the glories of my God and King,

the triumphs of His grace!

This hymn succinctly expresses the depth of my gratitude and my earnest desire to let God know just how much I am grateful for who He has been to me. The triumphs of His amazing grace in my life is a book worth writing. I could write volumes on the triumphs of the grace and mercy of God manifested in my life.

During the next few days leading to my 50^th birthday on October 1^st, what I desire to do is to employ a thousand tongues to join me to spread through all the earth abroad, the honors of His name. Join me to heap praise on God.

I will stop, take time and lavish extravagant praise on God, for great is God’s faithfulness and amazing grace to me.

I invite you who know my story to join me; let’s raise together a thousand tongues to sing the praises of my great Redeemer.

This blog post was inspired by the following hymn and songs:

1. O for a thousand tongues by Charles Wesley

2. Na You by Frank Edward

3. We will remember by Tommy Walker

Choices At The Point Of Change

The temperature in Geneva reached a high of over 40 degrees this week. The highest temperature recorded since 2003. The unbearable furnace-like heat reminded me of my days in Tamale, Ghana and Cairo, Egypt. It was during my sojourn in these places that I experienced such high temperatures. We talked much about those times during the past week.

I paused and pondered.

So much change has taken place in my life since I left Tamale in 2003 and Cairo in 2007.

Change I did not expect
Change I did not engineer
Change I did endure

Change came. It altered the course of my life. It took me to a different altitude.

Since we took off from Geneva, I watched the altitude rising on the monitor, waiting to see when the plane would get to its cruising altitude. It did. 35 minutes into the flight over Luxembourg at 12,195 meters (40,000 feet).

If we hit a storm, the pilot will have to make a choice of possible actions, which may alter the flight path. And we may not arrive at our planned destination, at least not at the scheduled time.

I love flying. That was one of the things I enjoyed working with UNICEF for 15 years—I did a lot of traveling. I love visiting new places. I loved the thrill. I loved adventure.

Change came. It took that from me for a season. But God is turning it around for my good and in my favor.

At the beginning of 2015, I set my watchword for the year—be consistent, complete and stay focussed. Six months gone already, we are in the second half of the year. It is time to take stock and do a midterm review. There's no better place for me to do that than at this altitude—12,000meters above sea level floating on soft white clouds. That's where I am writing this post on my way to Lagos via Amsterdam.

As I pondered on the first half of 2015, I was overwhelmed by how much God has used the change that altered the course of my life to impact lives. It is simply beyond words. This has been a very busy year but who would have thought two years ago that it will turn out this way. I had several opportunities to share my story. The story of God's grace that sustained me through the storm.

Grace kept through the stormy change. Grace is giving purpose to the change. I could not give up on hope during the storm because I have experienced God as a faithful and loving Father. In the face of unexpected change, I learnt that the choices I make will determine whether or not I will fulfil God's purpose for me in the situation and beyond.

I chose never to give up on hope, come what may.

Change is a constant. It is inevitable. It is unavoidable. It is will come to each of us at one point in time or the other and in one form or the other. Some change is for good. Some, not so good.

What do we do when change comes on us unannounced?

The choices you make when you are faced with change will determine your destination—where you end up.

The month of June was profound in many ways. I spent three weeks with my Sista and fellow dream-chaser, Bidemi Mark-Mordi. We encouraged and built each other up as iron sharpens iron. More importantly, from London to Zurich to Geneva, we saw God moving beyond our wildest imagination during the Sistapower Gathering and Women Conferences we attended. He used the stories He has written of our lives to inspire and encourage women from diverse backgrounds to be who God created and called them to be, irrespective of the change that has visited their lives.

We saw God using a willing vessel in London. We saw the dividend of time invested in prayers in Zurich. We saw how God burdened our hearts with the revelation to bring about redemption and heal the broken in Geneva. And plenty tears did flow.

I had many lightbulb moments during the Geneva meeting. God confirmed again that He is too wonderful for comprehension. If you ever think you know God's word so much that you can take it for granted, you need a rethink. The stories of the change that came upon the two Tamars in the Bible came alive for me in a brand new way as Bidemi Mark-Mordi expounded "The Tales Of Two Tamars."

Change came upon these women in the Bible.
It was unexpected.
They did not ask for it.
They did nothing to bring it on themselves.
In fact, they did not deserve it.
Yet change came. And it was cruel.

The two women were broken by those who should have done right by them. They were broken in pieces inside. They suffered the pain they did not solicit.

Does that sound familiar to you?

One was condemned to the broken life of childless widowhood in her father's house. The other was condemned to the broken life of a shamed, defiled and undefended woman.

But that was as far as the similarities went.
Their responses to the change were different.
The choices they made in the face of unspeakable change were different.
The outcome was also different.

What was the difference?

One Tamar stayed in the place of brokenness—the place where she was broken by man, life, and circumstances. She remained desolate in her brother's house for the rest of her life (2Samuel 13).

The other Tamar opted to get up from the place she was broken by three different men. She seized the opportunity and did something about her brokenness. She turned it around. She became the mother of Perez, the great great grandfather of Boaz. Boaz was the grandfather of David (Genesis 38, Ruth 4:16-22).

Life can be unfair. Bringing cruel, painful and often irreparable change. But at what point do you get up and step on the pain? At what point do you jump on the springboard of change and let it catapult you to your next level.

When life visits us and change come upon us, we need to know what does not change; God does not change. His undying love for you does not change. His plan and purpose for your life does not change. Let me assure you that God is working through the change to bring His purpose for your life into full manifestation.

1. What would you do you do when no one can put you together?
Quite honestly no one can put you together when you have been broken. But if you draw strength from above and look up to God, He can put the smithereens back together again.

2. What would you allow to break you that you will refuse to stand again?

When Bidemi asked these two questions, I understood again that God has given us the will to choose. He also made His grace abundantly available if we choose to get up from the places where we have been broken.

My dear friends, what would you do?

Would you choose to stand firm in faith and hope, come what may?
Would you choose not to give up on hope?
The choices you make in the face of change can make or mar your destiny.

You need that the remedy for the bitter pools in your life has been prepared in advance before you get to Marah (Exodus 15: 22-26).

The change your life experiences bring can become assets for your ministry or launching pad to fulfilling purpose. Yes, your pain, your physical/emotional trauma, etc., are assets that can allow you to reach other people who may be going through the similar experience.

I would never have appreciated the depth of pain that goes with losing a child if I have never felt it.
I would never have understood the agony and anxiety of waiting for a child if I didn't suffer a waiting, howbeit short.
I would definitely not have known the challenges, distress and frustrations of living with chronic, long-term diseases but for the twenty years I spent in the valley of affliction.
I would not have given an amputee more than a cursory look until I experienced first-hand the challenges of being an amputee. Now I understand how handicap unfriendly many of our facilities. Many times, I go into the shops, I can't find a place to sit, rest and take the weight off my limbs.

My painful changes and life experiences are taking me to a higher altitude in my walk with God, and in fulfilling God's kingdom agenda.

Yours can too!

What are your painful change experiences? How can it help you become a solution to those around you? Ponder on these questions and do feel free to share. Let's encourage one another.

Show Your Gratitude Through Your Generosity

God has been extravagantly generous to us, lavishing His goodness and unfailing love on us. The good things God has stored up for us who fear Him are immensely abundant and He bestows His goodness on us in the sight of all who have eyes to see.

How great is the goodness You have stored up for those who fear You. You lavish it on those who come to You for protection, blessing them before the watching world. (Psalm 31:19 NLT).

I am a recipient of God’s overflowing goodness and immeasurable blessings. My expectations at the beginning of 2014 were mind-boggling. It was humanly impossible to see how the things that I was looking up to God for could come to pass. “How shall these things be?” I pondered so many times. Today, I can look back and declare like David in Psalm 145:

I will meditate on Your majestic, glorious splendour and Your wonderful miracles.

Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim Your greatness.

Everyone will share the story of Your wonderful goodness;

They will sing with joy about Your righteousness

Surely, you too can recall and recount the goodness of God in your life in 2014. There is no one who has nothing to be grateful for, because God is good to everyone. He showers His love and compassion on all His creation. Everything God does is suffused with grace. This passage calls all of us to share the story of God’s wonderful goodness in our lives.

How then can we show our gratitude for God’s awesome goodness to us?

Paraphrasing The Message translation of Psalm 145: 5-7, we can demonstrate our gratitude by making His marvelous deeds to us headline news, writing a book full of the details of His greatness and spreading the fame of His goodness across the world. Simply put, David encourages us to make our gratitude to God fluent and evident.

Gratitude is more than a feeling, it has to be demonstrated by what we do. Our gratitude to God must be Told and Shown. Our thankfulness and appreciation of God should be expressed not only by our words but also by our deeds.

Gratitude is not just an occasional expression of thanks, but a continual lifestyle of thanksgiving. It is being thankful and grateful for every single thing that God is doing in our lives day by day.

Fluent and abundantly uttered:

David was very generous in uttering his praise to God for His goodness towards him. He declared God’s greatness with fervency and fluency. We are to tell of what God has done in our lives with zeal, glowing in the warmth of His love. We can never exceed the truth when we speak of God’s extravagant goodness with fervency. We are not to be silent witnesses but fluent in our testimony.

We ought to feel His praise deeply in our hearts and openly declare it. We should publicly speak of His goodness and joyfully proclaim it in songs. This is a good point to pause and let your mouth speak generously of the praise of God.

I will praise You.

              I will extol You.

                             I will bless Your Name.

                                           Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.

Evident and passionately demonstrated:

Just as we have been admonished to generously utter the praises of God, our lives should also speak out loudly of the goodness which we have experienced in God. We cannot overdo it when we passionately demonstrate by our actions and with zeal our gratitude to God, especially through our acts of generosity. We only exhibit the nature of God in us and reflect His divine attribute to the world around us.

Gratitude is shown in acts – Henri Frederic Amiel

We are called to show our gratitude to God by being generous to our needy brothers and sisters. Paul was very explicit that reaching out to the needy in our midst is an evidence of our obedience to God.

Generosity puts our obedience to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ on display.

"Carrying out this social relief work involves far more than helping meet the bare needs of poor Christians. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgivings to God. This relief offering is a prod to live at your very best, showing your gratitude to God by being openly obedient to the plain meaning of the Message of Christ. You show your gratitude through your generous offerings to your needy brothers and sisters, and really toward everyone. Meanwhile, moved by the extravagance of God in your lives, they’ll respond by praying for you in passionate intercession for whatever you need. Thank God for this gift, his gift. No language can praise it enough!" 

(2 Corinthians 9:12-15 MSG).

Make sure you don’t take things for granted and go slack in working for the common good; share what you have with others. God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship—a different kind of “sacrifice”—that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets. (Hebrews 13:16 MSG)

If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let’s not merely say that we love each other; let us show the truth by our actions. (1 John 3:17-18 NLT)

Generosity, a multiplying factor:

Generosity demonstrates our gratitude to God and impacts the lives of the people it touches. It also produces abundant and bountiful thanksgiving to God. In addition to these, there is a promise of a reward attached to it. Generosity reaches out to others as an overflow of our gratitude to God and it brings back more blessings to us.

"I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. Rather, I want you to receive a reward for your kindness. At the moment I have all I need—and more! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:17-19 NLT)

Those of us who have experienced God’s extravagant goodness in our lives are called to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. By so doing, we will build a treasury that will last and we gain life that is truly life.

Dear Friends, I desire that you to experience the blessings that issues from generosity. Let someone around you be impacted with your expression of gratitude. As our friends in US celebrate Thanksgiving today and we enter the Christmas season, we are provided with an ample opportunity to demonstrate our gratitude through our generosity.

What can you do?

1.       Be generous in showing mercy and offering forgiveness.

2.       Offer hospitality. Open your homes to the brethren graciously without complaining.

3.       Be open to needs in your family, church and community and reach out to meet those needs.

The simplest and most powerful way to show gratitude is to be truly present, being generous with your time and attention. Your family will be glad for this.

In what ways can you make a unique dent in the world around you as an act of your gratitude to God?

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the way You provide for every area of my life. I am grateful for everything I have. I am grateful that You are always doing special things in my life, Lord. I choose to be generous in my praise and gratitude to You. I ask for the grace to demonstrate my gratitude by allowing You to use my life to touch lives. Help me to recognize needs around me and be generous in meeting them. In Jesus name I pray. 

The Confidence Of Hope And Great Expectations

Right from the beginning of 2014, I knew without an iota of doubt that the year is going to be eventful in many ways. As I noted in my first post this year, it is a year marked with significant events in our nuclear and extended family. It is a year in which we are confident that we will see the manifestation of God’s supernatural grace, and many celebrations of growth, promotion, completion and expansion. Things have been rapidly unfolding over the past eight weeks of 2014 to indicate that we have not even seen the tip of the iceberg, in terms of what God has in stock for us this year.

Indeed, I entered the year with mind-boggling expectations. This page is insufficient to enumerate the magnitude of the things I am trusting God for this year. These words have been constant in my mind, “Prepare the ditches, for you shall neither see the rain nor hear the wind, yet the valley shall the filled with water” (2Kings 3:16-17).

I participated in the All-Night Prayer meeting held in my church at the end of January. It was the first time I was able to do so after many years. I left that meeting elated, high in the spirit and so full of confidence in the ability of God to bring to pass every promise and prophetic word, He has given us for this year. An inexplicable peace enveloped me and my heart was at rest. Honestly, I am overwhelmed at the amazing things I see God set in motion on our behalf during this month, the awesome ways in which He is performing His wonders in our lives.

There is nothing like having hope fanned to flame. Hope that refuses to waver or stagger at the enormity of the promise in the face of contrary circumstances.

“I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps 27:13) – this is an example of kind of confident hope and great expectation I am trying to describe. David would have fainted and despaired if he did not have this confidence of hope. Such was the confidence that he had in God that he rejoiced in the prospect of waiting for the Lord. He was confident that inspite of the contrary evidences, he would remain alive to see God’s goodness and blessing.

There are many examples in the Bible of how David strengthened himself in the Lord in times of calamities and troubles. He knew the God he served. He knew God’s ability to deliver in times of trouble. And because of the depth of his knowledge of God, he could remain confident in hope.

There is a vital connection between faith and hope. Our faith must be anchored on knowing Who God is and Who He says He is. This becomes the basis for the confidence of our hope in God. Hope anticipates the reality of what God is saying, and the fulfillment of His promises, when we are in agreement with His word by faith. Hope is the proof of the faith we have in God. Hope disappears when our faith wanes because of we do not rightly understand who God is and what God is able to do.

God is a hope worth clinging to. In fact, there is nothing else worth clinging to in the time of storms and trials, or at any time for that matter, than God. I put my hope in God because I have an expectation that He will do what He says He will do. Therefore, my faith is based on the revelation of who God says He is according to His Word and the foundation for the confidence of my hope is firmly rooted in my knowledge of God.

Faith gives life to hope and hope strengthens our faith - Greg Simas

I am so persuaded that this is a year of the manifestation of God’s supernatural and exceptional miracles in our lives as individuals and as a family. I am confident that it is a year in which we will also do great exploits for God and for the Kingdom. I am not being presumptuous, my confidence is based on the God’s word and His promises.

There is surely a future hope for us according to the Word of God, and our expectation shall not be cut off (Proverb 23:18). This is because our expectation is driven and motivated by faith in God. Faith that is grounded on the revelation of who we know God is and on the ability of God.

As children of God, we have every right in Christ Jesus to expect a great tomorrow and a bright future even if our current situation is in conflict with that expectation. God’s thoughts towards us are thoughts of good. His plan is to give us a hope, a future and an expected end (Jeremiah 11:11).

There will be times when it will be difficult for us to wrap our minds around the magnitude of the things we are believing God for based on His unfailing promises and the Word He has given us. It can be so astonishing that like Mary, we will say, “how can this be?”

The woman with the issue of blood had an expectation driven by faith. She came from behind and pushed towards Jesus. She had just one expectation, just one hope: “if I touch the hem of His garment, I will be made whole” (Matthew 9: 20-21). Her faith was grounded on her knowledge of Jesus based on what she heard about Him. That knowledge supporting her faith, fuelled her expectation and made her confident in hope. There was no doubt that this woman was confident of what would happen when she gets to touch Jesus. The confidence of her hope gave her the impetus to push against the crowd all the way from the back until she got close enough to touch Jesus.

When our expectation is driven by faith, it is guaranteed to produce the right results which in turn helps our faith to grow and achieve its goal. A confident and relentless hope is the evidence of such faith.

“Our faith is based upon what the word of God reveals to us about Who God is, what He has done before and what He has promised to do now and in the future.”

Our hope must be founded on the truths presented to us in the Word of God. We can have such a great expectation even when our current circumstances makes our optimism unrealistic. Our great expectation is intricately woven to the depth of our knowledge of God, which propels our faith and trust in God. And it must be grounded in the unfailing love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). It is by the grace of God and because of His love for us that we have been given this eternal encouragement and good hope (2Thess 2:16).

“Against all evidence to the contrary, Abraham, didn't simply hope. 
He believed in hope." - Christa Allan. 

Dear Friends, we too can learn to believe that against all hope, God can best display His glory and power in our lives. Hope makes us relentless in the pursuit of our dreams, desires and goals. It makes us relentless in the pursuit of God and in knowing more of Him.

We have an ever-living hope

A hope of which we can boast

A hope that does not disappoint

A hope that does not make us ashamed

A hope that is anchored on the infallibility of God

On His unfailing faithfulness.

It is this confidence of hope that informs my great expectations. And this is what I commend to you today. You are blessed beyond measures.

Love is Giving

That is what love does. It gives and keeps giving.

A few days ago, I was musing about how far people would go to put a smile on the face of someone they love. How much we are willing to sacrifice to make someone we love happy and fulfilled or simply to be there for that person. It was also overwhelming to note how much we desire to show the significant people in our lives that we love and care for them, and yet we hesitate and don’t do so as often as we ought to. It cuts across all our relationships: parent-child, husband-wife, friends, and siblings.

I read the story of a woman who, when she found that her 3-year old son had learning disabilities, gave up her dream of becoming a paediatrician to stay at home and help her son through school. She was at the verge of completing her specialization. The son now holds a degree in engineering. What a sacrifice.

Love is a verb, without an action, it is merely a word. Simply put, you cannot say you love someone without a commensurate action to demonstrate it. It is not simply what you feel, it is what you do. And one of the things that love does best is that it gives. Love makes a choice, a deliberate decision, to give. It is proactive—always looking for opportunities to give of itself. It takes action to deepen intimacy between you and your spouse. It is in full motion when it gives attention to a friend in need. Even the seemly small gestures enveloped in huge affection makes a lot of different.

 

http://justsaynototoxicrelationships.wordpress.com

Love gives

It gives selflessly

It gives sacrificially

It gives unconditionally

We have a perfect example to follow:

“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God gave His best and most precious just for you and me. See what the given Son did:

“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1John 3:16). There is no greater love than for a man to lay down his life for the sake of his friends. Jesus gave up His glory in heaven when He came down to earth. Then he gave up His life for us on the cross at Calvary.

Oh! What great and awesome love that the Father has lavished on us that we should be called the children of God. For to us whom He gave his Son, He gives all things freely with him. Our heavenly Father and our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated their love for us through what they gave for us.

“Love is what is left in a relationship when selfishness is taken out” 

– Nick Richardson

I know love is in the air this weekend as we observe the Valentine’s Day. But it should not be a test of how much your spouse or friend loves you, it should be about celebrating your marriage, your relationships and the life you share together with the significant people in your life. It should be about putting your love for them in action.

“I will stop expecting your love, demanding you love, trading for your love, gaming for your love. I will simply love. I am giving myself to you, and tomorrow I will do it again. I suppose the clock itself will wear thin its time before I am ended at this altar of dying and dying again.
God risked Himself on me. I will risk myself on you.

And together, we will learn to love, and perhaps then, and only then, understand this gravity that drew Him, unto us.” – Donald Miller

Loving someone means we are willing to take a risk, to be vulnerable, to be open and to give our all. God took the same risk on you and me when He declared His faithful and undying love for us. I love the chorus of this old time song by the Gaither Vocal Band:

I am loved, I am loved
I can risk loving you
For the One who knows me best
Loves me most
I am loved, you are loved
Won't you please take my hand
We are free to love each other
We are loved

I can declare with all boldness, confidence and joy that I am truly loved:

I am loved by my Heavenly Father Whose love for me is beyond description.

I am loved by my Redeemer, Saviour and Friend, Who gave His life just for me.

I am loved by my dearest husband, whose love keeps giving and giving, who cares for me selflessly and supports me to be who God has called me to be. His twinkling smile brightens my world.

I am loved by my compassionate sons who never cease to amaze me. My personal stand-up comedians who make me laugh even when it was difficult to do so.

I am surrounded by our loving families—mine and my husband’s. The warmth of their care and love makes my heart glow with pride.

I am truly blessed with friends in deed. Friends who stick close through the thick and the thin. Friends who go the extra mile to be there for me. Friends who never cease to encourage me and bring the best out of me.

Today, I celebrate all my relationships and all the significant people God blessed my life with. And I ask you, dear friends, to do the same. Show your love, act your love and give of yourself to those you hold dear to your heart. It is only now when we have them that we can do so. When they are gone from us, we will have the memories of our time now sharing our love with them, to hold on to.

“The greatest weakness of most humans is their hesitancy to tell others how much they love them while they are still alive” – Orlando Battista.

I encourage you to show and tell your love to your loved ones today, this weekend and beyond. Do take time to cherish them now.

For my dearest husband:

I could never thank God enough for loving me so passionately and for extravagantly lavishing His love me. Perhaps, in my loving you for who you are and with all my heart, I may in a little way show to God, how grateful I am for His love and for blessing my life with you.

I love you and cherish today and for all times.

Christmas With A Difference

Take all the glory, all the glory, Almighty God

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord

For Your faithfulness, power and Your love

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord

By the grace of God, I have had the opportunity to celebrate many Christmases. Each of one of them has been unique, even when we did just about the same things. But this year, Christmas has a unique and special meaning to me. Never have I so much appreciated and be filled with this much joy sharing Christmas with my husband and our two sons.

Jesus loved me so much,

He left His throne in glory

He took the form of man

He walked the surface of the earth

And He felt every pain, distress

and discomfort ever known to man

What amazing love

That brought Jesus to us on earth

What overwhelming joy

Filling our hearts to overflowing

Just to know that Jesus is the reason

I can celebrate this Christmas.

Indeed, the best gift I could ever ask for; is the grace and mercy of God in giving me this Christmas with the three wonderful men He blessed my life with. Honestly, the joy of spending this Christmas rejoicing and reveling in the awesome love God so extravagantly lavished on us as individuals and as a family is indescribable.

It has been an eventful year. There have been times this year when the thought of being here rejoicing at Christmas was simply a hope and a dream. But we got to know the superabundant grace of God in keeping us through the darkest vale. We experienced His peace which garrisoned our hearts against all agitating fears. We saw the Lord fight our battles and He gave us victory in our trials and struggles.

Through it all, our sons matured into strong, supportive and God-fearing young men. Personally, it is joy inexpressible for me to be blessed with these fine young men who gave me many reasons to fight for life, and not to give up. I love them so much and words can not express my gratitude to God for blessing my life with them.

What can I say unto God for the special gift of a strong and God-fearing man, He gave me as a husband, who stood by my side through the thick and the thin. Together we have been to the mountain and to the valley. Together, we walked through the floods and through the fire, the good Lord kept us. You don’t even want to imagine how many times I wondered, "how does he maintain a composure of peace through the challenges and difficult situations, which marked the landscape of our lives this year?" I still can not imagine how he coped talking to someone who could not answer him back, walking away from my bedside knowing only by faith that it is by the grace of God that I will be kept in life or coming back home to an empty bed-room and not being sure when he will be able to share that space again.

If I spend the each day of the rest of my life thanking God for this wonderful and courageous man, it will not be enough to express my gratitude and appreciation to God for my blessing my life with him.

God fulfilled our much desired and longed for dream this month. We went for a vacation together, just the two of us, after over 15 years. That was a blissful time away together. Just to see my husband relaxed and rested was priceless.

 

Christmas is a special time

to thank the Lord

for the gift of love

that binds our heart

through all the seasons of the year.

- Dayspring Devotions: A Christmas Prayer.

I can say without any iota of doubt that it has been God's gift of unfailing love that kept our hearts through all the seasons of our lives this year in particular and in the last twenty years. That is why I can not but overflow with thanks, praise and gratitude to God this Christmas.

Christmas 2013 is different and unique, I have so much to be thankful for. It is about appreciating the goodness of God in surrounding me with loving and caring family and friends. If I want to begin to write about how God used our families and friends to support and uphold us these past years, I will need another post to do justice to it.

I am truly blessed with a wonderful family - our parents, our brothers and sisters, and their spouses and children. They held us up in prayers and stood in the gap for hours. The phone calls were countless, and their encouragement was profound. Only God can truly bless and reward them.

Our friends showed us what brotherly (and sisterly) love is all about. Friends who expended of themselves and gave themselves no rest until they saw the glory of God on display upon our lives. God Who owes no man will surely be their recompense and great reward.

On Christmas eve, we had friends in the house for a night of Christmas Carols singing. We sang joyfully unto God, shared testimonies and fellowship with one another. More friends came to share fellowship with us on Christmas day. We acknowledged God's faithfulness in our lives and in our countries. The turkey came out fine. We have opened the gaily-wrapped gifts and cleared up the torn wrapping papers - some people don’t have the patience to unwrap their gifts without tearing the wrapping papers.

As I wrote this post, I pondered again over the events of the past year and all I can say is that behind every cloud, there has been a silver lining. And the song playing in my heart has been:

"…. For Your faithfulness, power and Your love,

Take all the glory, all the glory, O Lord."

Take All The Glory

Each moment of this season has been profoundly moving  and reflective. He who is capable of deep and reflective reasoning will be full of gratitude. I hope you too can look back into 2013 and as you reflect on the events of your life this year, I pray that you will identify many reasons to fall upon your knees and sing: For Your faithfulness, power and Your love, take all the glory Almighty God.

Please feel free to share your testimonies in the comment box below and let us give praise to God on your behalf.

May the reality of God's unfailing and undying love for you fill your hearts with overflowing joy this Christmas and in the New Year, may this sure and guaranteed love hold your hearts in perfect peace.

Thank you all for being there for us and for standing with us in 2013. May the good God be your recompense and reward.

I Am Back

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour" (Luke 1: 46-47).

Dear Friends,

This is a forerunner message.

I posted the last blog on April 11th, almost three months ago, between then and now, so much has transpired in my life. Indeed, I have a story to tell to testify to the awesome greatness of God and His unequaled faithfulness in keeping His promises.

He put a song of praise in my mouth to sing, God is so good,
He put a dance upon my feet and told me to dance on, God is so good,
My soul will magnify Him
And I will proclaim His goodness among all His people
I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.

That is all coming in the next post.

Watch out for "Kept By The Hands of God." In which I will shared the reasons for my long absence from the blogosphere and all God has done to preserve my life.

For now, I want to appreciate all those who yielded to the voice of Holy Spirit, stood in the gap and prayed that His handmaiden be delivered from the devourer. Most grateful to all of you who found a way to get in touch and check up on me. Many thanks to those who continued to visit the blog despite the fact that there was no fresh posting. God bless and richly reward you all.

You have challenged me to remain committed to sharing to Enrich Lives and to Inspire Hope.

Writing this post in itself is a testimony. It is pure joy to be back and I hope to bring the next post soon. Until then, remain blessed in His presence.

In what ways have you experienced the faithfulness of God recently? share with us in the comment box below and let us rejoice with you.

In Need Of Nothing

He put a new song in my mouth to sing.

That was what happened to me a few days ago. During my time of praise and worship, I found myself singing a new song - the words were forming and I had music to go with it. I paused in my worship and recorded the song as I have learnt from experience that I may not be able to recall the song again.

You are God all alone

You are God on Your own

You are all sufficient in Yourself

You did not need me to praise You

Yet You created me for Your pleasure

I am honoured Lord,

that You chose to share Yourself with me

You were not hungry for company

You are complete in Yourself

You are perfect in Your glory

But You chose to confer Your glory on me

I am honoured Lord

That You chose to share Yourself with me

I was overwhelmed the previous night when I read The Solitariness of God in the book -  The Attributes of God written by A.W. Pink. It was profound to note that "God is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His perfections. He sustains all, but Himself independent of all. He gives to all but is enriched by none."

"God was under no constraint, no obligation, no necessity to create. That He chose to do so was purely a sovereign act on His part, caused by nothing outside Himself, determined by nothing but His mere good pleasure" - A.W. Pink.

As golden beams of sunlight piercing the dark blue twilight sky announces the arrival of a new day, the brilliance of this truth illuminated my heart, and it dawned on me— God is not in need of anything I can bring. He is all sufficient in Himself.

"God is sufficient unto Himself.

He requires nothing outside Himself to exist or to be happy"

- Michael J. Cummings.

The more I meditated on this truth, the more I was awed at the magnanimity of God. He chose to create me simply to manifest His nature of love. He chose to bestow manifold gifts and blessings on me simply to display His exceedingly generous and liberal nature.

We were chosen in advance before the foundation of the world, according to the plan of Him Who works everything in conformity with the purpose of His will. We were created according to the good pleasure of His will. God chose us for His praise and glory out of His free will (Eph. 1: 5, 11).

He stooped down to share Himself with us. He condescended to confer His glory on us.

Meditating on the self-sufficiency of God has to lead to shift in our attitude—we are not doing God a favour serving Him or giving towards His work. God is the One Who gave us gifts, so giving them back to Him would be like bringing sand to the beach. Therefore, it should be an act of worship to serve Him with the gifts and talents He has graciously bestowed on us. It should be considered a honour and a privilege to bring back to God out of the overflowing blessings He richly and daily pour into our lives. His mercies are new every morning.

I can not but give to God cheerfully.

I can not but serve Him to the best of my ability

What does this mean for us?

Knowing that God in His infinite wisdom and love stoop down to share Himself with us is humbling. It is overwhelming. It calls for a worshipful response. I can say with David, "what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him?" (Ps 8:4). And with Job, "what is people, that You should make so much of us, that You should think of us so often?" (Job 7:17).

We are not serving a needy God or a God Who lacks something He needs us to fulfil. He is perfect and complete all by Himself. We are serving a God Who has chosen to put His glory on display in our lives. This revelation took my worship and adoration of God to another level.

An excellent spirit has to be seen in us as we use our talents and gifts to serve God and the people around us. We can not be lazy servants or shoddy workers or people who hide our talents in the ground. We represent God Who is vast and glorious yet He chose to confer such honour on us as to call us His own. This must be reflected in the way we discharge our duties and in the way we use the gifts and talents He blessed us with.

"God doth not need, either man's work or his own gift…"

- John Milton

God judges a man on whether they labour for Him to the best of their ability. John Milton expressed this in his Sonnet XIV - On His Blindness. He declared that not one talent will lodge with him useless in his grave, he was becoming blind when he wrote this poem. His greatest works were written after he became blind.

It is my earnest desire and prayer that we find, develop and use every talent and gift that God has graciously endowed us with, for His glory and for His honour. So that not one talent will lodge with us useless when our work here on earth is done.

Now, I have a better appreciation and a deeper understanding of the message expressed in William McDowell's song - You are God Alone.

It is uplifting for me to know that the God I serve is in need of nothing. But He is sufficient for all my needs. Without Him, I am imperfect, always lacking in something. In Him, I am made complete.

What does it mean to you to know that God is all-sufficient in Himself? Share with us in the comment box below.

I share with you the song - You are God Alone