What a great way to start a new month! Or what do you think?

Recently I told myself that I would make it a habit to read my bible every day. I made this resolution because I have been finding it difficult to commune with God like I used to when I was much younger. This is as a result of my busy schedule which I explained in one of my posts How to live life on the fast lane. 

It has actually been bothering me because I am nothing without God. He is the owner of my life, my strength, my protector, my provider, my everything and a strong relationship with Him is the best thing that can happen to any man. I had to put God as part of my plans as I am part of His. I made it a point of duty to study my bible every morning and I also subscribed to daily readings from ‘UCB Word for Today’. 

This morning when I woke up, I prayed and picked up my Bible. I opened to Psalm 5 and read the words. The last verse was ‘You bless those who obey you, Lord; your love protects them like a shield.’ I was overwhelmed and calmed by those words; they struck me. I asked God, “How can I obey you? I want you to always bless me and I want your love to always protect me like a shield” I closed my eyes and meditated on those precious words.

Then I resolved not to consciously do anything that my conscience tags as sin; to be the best I can be in all situations; to glorify God with all He has blessed me with; to thank Him in all situations; to always communicate with Him through prayers; to put Him first in my life; and to never lose faith in Him.

I felt really good afterwards and went on to read the ‘UCB Word for Today’.

01 Dec 2012

GOD CAN TURN YOUR FAILURE INTO SUCCESS

'...Because you say so, I will...' Luke 5:5

'[Jesus] said to Simon: "Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will..." When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break'. Notice two principles in this story: 1) God will use failure to get your attention. Peter was tired, empty-handed and disappointed when Jesus spoke to him. And He will speak to you through a rocky marriage, a child you're about to give up on, or a job that seems too hard. He doesn't want you to run from your problems, He wants you to learn from them; to discover the difference He can make in your situation when you invite Him into it. 2) God can take you back to the place of failure and give you success. We assume that because we weren't successful at something, it wasn't God's will. But often the truth is that we failed because we relied on our own strength instead of His. When Jesus spoke, the fish responded. The Bible says: '...They caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.' God is not limited by your circumstances; He's only limited by your unbelief. When you obey Him, you'll discover He has a level of abundance in mind that will exceed all your expectations.

When I got to the last line ‘When you obey Him, you'll discover He has a level of abundance in mind that will exceed all your expectations’, I knew God was also trying to connect with me. Words cannot describe how happy I felt inside. Those words were like a reconfirmation that I was on the right path.

Something also happened this morning, PHCN decided to smile down on us. We had just repaired our laundry machine and we were advised to use it with a stabilizer. We have not gotten one yet so no one has used the machine since then. I didn’t know how I was going to hand wash a laundry box filled to the brim with dirty clothes, so I decided to give my faith a try. I begged God to leave the power up and stable and I loaded the machine. When it got to the rinsing stage, PHCN frowned at me. My mum told me to turn on the generator (because it is very unlike them to smile back) but I said I would wait. I waited and prayed. I told myself I would have faith, so I waited patiently. After about 20mins, power was back. 

Yipee! God smiled! I washed more clothes and emptied my laundry box. The power was on for many more hours, can't say how long because I am going out now and it is still on.

What a great way to start a new month! Or what do you think?