IT’S NOT THAT IMPORTANT ANYMORE

Life is interesting and if we live long enough, we will find that many things we stressed about were not really important and would have had only minimal impact on our lives if we had let them go. Some such things seemed so important at the time that they formed the basis for major decisions we made so that we made serious life decisions based on transient issues; unfortunately, some such decisions have impacted on our lives negatively. Some of these negative impacts we can never do anything about but we have a chance now to make better decisions that will annihilate the effect of some of those wrong decisions. I pray God helps us make the right decisions now. 

Mathew 25: 24 - 25 “Then the servant with the one bag of silver came and said, ‘Master, I knew you were a harsh man, harvesting crops you didn’t plant and gathering crops you didn’t cultivate. I was afraid I would lose your money, so I hid it in the earth. Look, here is your money back.”

This servant was obviously emotional and unnecessarily sensitive unlike the other servants. If their boss was mean, they all knew it and probably even hated it but the others made rational decisions whilst he did not. Life gets more tedious when we get too emotional and selfish about issues so that even silly issues become important because everything gets muddled up and we are unable to separate issues. We then make those decisions that several years after, are obviously stupid because the issues on which they were based were too little or transient to have meant so much. Unfortunately, God can’t stop us when we insist on making those decisions since He will not suspend the use of our brain.

Deuteronomy 8: 15 - 16 “Do not forget that He led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with its poisonous snakes, scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock! He fed you with manner in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.”

Interestingly, none of these bad decisions took God by surprise. Though those are not the decisions He would have liked us to make, He knew we would make them and tried to prevent us from making them. In trying to prevent us from making them, He took us through certain experiences in the course of life’s journey to prepare us to make the right decisions correctly separating issues; yet despite successfully coming through these experiences, we often fail. My greater worry is that the younger generation of believers, do not make the same mistakes. Life is definitely easier when we learn from other people’s errors but some people just want to make their own mistakes and maybe it is best to let them after all everyone is entitled to an opportunity to make their own mistakes despite that it may cost them more than they ever bargained for like the servant below. 

Mathew 25: 26 - 30 “But the master replied, ‘you wicked and lazy servant! If you knew I harvested crops I didn’t plant and gathered crops I didn’t cultivate, why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank? I could have gotten some interest on it. The he ordered, ‘take the money from this servant, and give it to the one with the ten bags of silver…Now throw this useless servant into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

The Blessing of God…

Every time God wants to take us higher, we would usually be required to go through ‘a test or series of tests’, which if we pass tells that we are good to go. These tests are usually situations we are faced with that challenge our very person and to pass is to do what God would have expected one to do in that situation. Of course God always provides help in the person of the Holy Spirit, who is our teacher and helper, to see us through successfully. I have failed several tests and passed others whilst managing to struggle through some. I have also found that my failures were largely because I often allowed my emotion determine my response to the situation despite my deep convictions.

Proverbs 10: 22 “The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.

So I thought ‘the tests’ were the most difficult part of it all but not anymore because we somehow come through even if we have to do them more than once. Our greater challenge, at least with believers in my Country, is being who we ought to be at the next level. Having our heads well screwed on and remaining in the will of God. Remember that this change or elevation translates to real life altering our entire lives and placing us at a more advantageous position. Sadly, our minds do not mature enough to fit the new roles so that like spoilt children, we become greedy and totally lacking in contentment and/or commitment, very selfish and ill-equipped to handle the new responsibilities, abusing the honor bestowed on us by God and inadvertently suggesting that we were better off in our previous positions. 

1 Corinthians 15: 58a “So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord.”

We seem to have great difficulties coping with promotion. To live successfully at a higher level requires deeper revelation of God and greater sensitivity to the Holy Ghost. We pray for this promotion and recognize that it comes from God but insist on not taking on the responsibilities that come with it trifling with God’s purpose in bringing us there. If you continue long enough in the wrong, God will be constrained to let you be which would translate to walking out of the hedge of protection He has placed around you making you a bait for the devil. Whilst it is true that satan is always trying to bring us down, we are often the architect of our pain. 

Mathew 13: 12 “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and the will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.

We need to make some changes because it is sad when believers are unable to build on success because of foolishness when wisdom is calling out to us. If God opened a door for you, could He possibly have hoped you would be interested in His purpose for opening the door? Is it possible that apart from the apparent privileges this new role brings you, God also hopes to benefit from it? Would it help us to decide who will be when we get to the next level before we get there? It is time to work hard to ensure that we keep what is ours and build on it. This “yo-yo” should not continue.

OH! THE PRESSURES OF LIFE!!!

Do you feel them or am I the only one that feels them? Well, I guess what can be worse is trying to pretend like they don’t exist when in truth they do; and the more you try to pretend like they don’t exist, the worse it gets. It is almost like as if they are screaming these words at you ‘how dare you pretend like I don’t exist.” Then I look around me and people have all sorts of pressures; I thought I was pressured until I heard what they had to deal with it. Don’t try to pass on your stress please; we are overwhelmed by ours. It is sad though when one is swallowed up by these pressures and don’t realize it.

I just want us to remember that these are all a normal part of life. Everyone in the world, believers or unbelievers, would at one time or the other be pressured by one thing or the other. It’s just that we all carry them differently also dealing with them differently. You can choose to pretend like they don’t exist when they do indeed exist and need to be dealt with or you can choose to make them the focus of your entire life when they come. None of both options is a good way to deal; we have to acknowledge them learning to cast them on He that knows how to deal with them.

1 Peter 5: 7 - 9 “Give all your worries and cares to God, for He cares about you. Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.”

The fact that these pressures exist in our lives is nothing to be ashamed of. Sometimes people are even more burdened because they feel compelled to hide them from every one. Whilst it is true that you don’t have to share them with lots of people, it is not a good idea to build your life on hiding them from people. There must be someone you can talk to; not necessarily your ‘best friend forever’, because she may not have the capacity to deal with it, but someone who can take it all in and counsel you correctly. The truth is God is not ashamed of you because you have pressures; it is what you do as a result of the pressures that will determine whether or not He will be ashamed of you. He understands about burdens and bears them. There is no burden ever to be borne by man that God is not able to bear for that man.

2 Corinthians 4: 7 “We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not ourselves.

God deliberately formed us from clay. He placed His treasure in clay that His greatness may be revealed; so He is ever willing to step in to assist us ensuring we don’t break whilst He is working to fix the challenges. You are not made to bear the burden yourself which is why it is pressure. So that it is self-deceit to think you can bear the burden yourself and the cost of that is too high. There is nothing to be ashamed of. It happens to all, male or female, black or white, poor or rich etc. It is what it is – a burden. You can’t pass it on to anyone but to God only.

Psalm 55: 22 “Give your burdens to the Lord, and He will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.”

WHAT DO YOU HAVE LEFT?

Time wasting is such a terrible thing. I feel like it steals from us because we are born into time. Everything happens when it ought to happen until we are old enough to affect the process of occurrences in our lives thereby impacting their timing. I have heard people complain about some people racing through life and where I come from, if things happen too fast for you, the elders are worried that you might not live long so that they want to ‘slow you down a bit’ so you don’t die early. What they seem to miss though is that moving slower than you ought to is actually worse because it means you have wasted precious time thereby allowing time to be stolen from you which is like thrashing it yourself.

Several things constitute time wasting but one of the ones I find most grievous is the time we spend ‘crying over spilt milk.’ ‘Crying over spilt milk’ is an idiom that means ‘grieving over something lost which cannot be regained.’ The milk is already spilt and cannot be retrieved. Though the loss/waste is painful, to spend time and energy crying, moaning or being sorrowful over the loss for an extended period is worse than the loss. I realize that we have emotions and so, would naturally feel bad but we have to learn that if the negative emotion is extended particularly for something that cannot be regained, it becomes waste of time and energy because we can hardly think thoughts that would move us forward in the time that we are still emotionally invested in the past. We need to move forward while we can because time is far spent already. 

John 9: 4 “We must quickly carry out the tasks assigned us by the one who sent us. The night is coming, and then no one can work”

While one is busy crying over what is lost, we lose sight of what we have left unconsciously making decisions based on what we lost which would often not be the best decisions. Interestingly, God does not need what you lost to take you forward; all He asks for is what you have left. When ‘milk is spilt it is spilt’ and cannot be retrieved so we must let go off it since it has left us forever. You can’t go forward looking back; at best you will become a pillar of salt, stagnant, neither going back or forward. I believe it even frustrates God hence the scripture below.

Joshua 1: 1 – 2 “After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses assistant. He said, ‘Moses, my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them.”

Moses was not about to be resurrected from the dead so God set the example for using what He has left despite all He had invested in Moses and knowing that Moses was definitely more empowered than Joshua was. It does not matter how little or insignificant what you have left may seem; please focus on it because that is what God would work it to ensure that you become who He has made you to be and it is never too late.