Stop! Don't Let That Pain Define You!

I don't know about you but I have felt very disappointed and deeply hurt by people in the course of life. Sometimes, it hurts so bad it is an ache in the chest yet you are unable to talk about it. At such times, I wish I could let tears flow but then it hurts too deep for tears. If you don't understand the pain I am talking about, I understand; you have never experienced it. Let me add that a number of them could have been avoided if I was just a little wiser. Also, in all my imperfections I have hurt others so this isn't about critiquing or blaming anyone.

Isaiah 61: 1 & 3a "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, for the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the brokenhearted and to proclaim that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed...To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair."

My blog today is written for everyone who feels they have been hurt or disappointed and so have the right to hold on to that pain thereby going off God's destined purpose for their lives. I am throwing out a challenge to everyone that has stopped living because they have refused to move beyond the point of their hurt and/or disappointment-please how long are you going to remain there? For how long more do you want to put your life on hold when there is a balm in Gilead and His name is Jesus. You have to refuse to be a victim rising above all the hurt and pain. It is time to stop and start living again. Have you forgotten that your Saviour is the healer who also heals the broken hearted? Your pain is not so bad that He can't heal you.

Jeremiah 8: 22 "Is there no medicine in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why is there no healing for the wounds of my people?"

Please note that I can not undermine all that hurt. I understand pain, physical and emotional, but  until you let go off that pain, you are living less than you ought to. Though you may feel very justified for hugging the hurt, you may also be shutting God and a lot of His goodness out of your life. Meanwhile God may be blessing your offender which I think God does sometimes to force us out of that self-pitying state. Why don't you lift up your head now and look to the joy that is coming in the morning. Let me assure you, no matter how deep the hurt, there is joy ahead of you and you shall celebrate if you give God the opportunity to heal you.

Psalm 147: 3 "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds."

It is time to rise up and walk. Just like that sick man at the pool of Bethesda, enough of all that camping at the place of pain; it is time to rise up, pick up your bed and walk. The hurt and/disappointment must not stop you. Begin to walk, despite the pain; start taking steps that will move you forward and as you do so, God also is working the healing. Sadly, we sometimes think people hurt us when in truth, we hurt them. So while we are being judgmental saying they hurt us, heaven is actually judging us for hurting them. It is time to drop all unnecessary weight so we can run the race that is set before us. If you don't let go off the weights, no one can compel or do it for you. It has to be your decision.

Hebrews 12: 1b "let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."

Careful How You Stand Surety

I recall how, a few years ago, someone I thought I knew and had assumed was very responsible wanted to take a loan for which he required a surety so he asked me to be his surety and I accepted to be, purely on emotional grounds. He had told me this long story plus he is a believer and I thought 'being there' for a friend meant that I should accept to be his surety. Not to worry though, I have learnt many things thereafter and now realize that 'being there' for a friend is sometimes refusing to be their surety. I thank God for the older friend who counseled me out of that stupid act for which I would have paid dearly.

Proverbs 17: 18 "It’s poor judgment to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for a friend."

As believers, God has made available to us so much wisdom to guide us in our everyday lives. No wonder Jesus says if we follow the light that He is, we shall never be in darkness. If only we would follow learn to follow that light. I have seen so many believers who without hearing God have guaranteed loans for people they thought they knew to be responsible only to find out later that repaying debts was not one of the most important things to them. Some others even hope to pay but find that they are unable to pay and the burden falls on the guarantor. A burden or weight that God never planned for you to bear. Sadly, you may be called to meet your obligation as guarantor when you are going through a financial crisis yourself.

Proverbs 22:26-27 "Don’t agree to guarantee another person’s debt or put up security for someone else. If you can’t pay it, even your bed will be snatched from under you."

Please let us be careful to stand as guarantors for loans. Scriptures actually discourage it just like it discourages us from taking loans. We are called to be lenders and not borrowers though I admit that there may be times when one is compelled to borrow. Interestingly more often than not we lie when we stand as guarantors because we do not give consideration to the fact that as surety, you are saying you have the money and in reality we do not have it but we accept to be surety because we assume that we would never have to be called upon to pay the debt. The truth is that I have known believers who have never felt the need to pay their loans and do not understand why that is a problem even at the risk of the guarantor being harassed. If their guarantor gets upset with them for not meeting their obligations with regard to the loan, they are angry.

Proverbs 6: 1- 4 "My child, if you have put up security for a friend’s debt or agreed to guarantee the debt of a stranger— if you have trapped yourself by your agreement and are caught by what you said— follow my advice and save yourself, for you have placed yourself at your friend’s mercy. Now swallow your pride; go and beg to have your name erased. Don’t put it off; do it now! Don’t rest until you do."

Please it is wise to be very careful about guaranteeing loans. It is something one needs to give good consideration to before reaching a decision. If you already find yourself in one of those situations where the borrower is not interested in meeting his obligation toward the lender, please pray about it and seek counsel from God so that in a His mercy, He can show you how to get out of it.

He Still Heals The Broken Hearted

I have been thinking about the woman at the well of Samaria and wondering how many of us are like her despite being saved and washed in the blood. As I lie on my back on my temporary bed, my heart goes out to all the sisters in Christ who though have been made whole and complete in Christ feel very inadequate and unworthy; who can only see themselves through the eyes of people who treat them disrespectfully and have been confined to a very limiting life by reason of who they have been told they are or by their past misdeeds which the blood has long washed away and is no longer remembered in heaven.

John 4: 9 "The woman was surprised, for Jews refuse to have anything to do with Samaritans. She said to Jesus, “You are a Jew, and I am a Samaritan woman. Why are you asking me for a drink?”

The Samaritan woman was in a box. She was a woman and a Samaritan. In her mind, she was a "second class citizen" and she had lived with that thought for so long that though she may have desired to be better, she did not think anything could change. She had accepted what she considered her reality but it wasn't. She must have had very low self esteem though she looked normal outwardly. Her self esteem issues may have been some of the reasons she had so many men in her life. Unfortunately, when the opportunity came that could release her into the fullness of life and liberty, she did not recognize it.

John 4: 14 "But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.”

You don't need more than Jesus to quench that turmoil inside you and it is good to know that you can come to Him just the way you are and He will still turn your story around for good. For you sister, who is saved, you have the solution. You need to stop looking out for help ; the help you need is already in you in the person of the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is reach deep down in His word tapping into the strength that is made available in Him and inhaling richly. There is a sweet fragrance that comes from Him, filling and giving us strength on the inside and through us produces sweet fragrance in other lives too.

Psalm 147: 3 "He heals the brokenhearted and bandages their wounds."

Worthless as you may be or feel, His presence in your life makes you precious and ought to change the way you see yourself. I know we sometimes feel the need to cover all of these insecurities with acquisitions but in truth these things do not heal the wounds of the heart nor do they take away the hurts or scars. They only mask them which may be more dangerous because masked hurts may cause one to do things they would never do ordinarily. For every woman in this state, the same Jesus at the well is here for you; waiting to heal your pain and quench your thirst with living water. In Him you get a sense of belonging and security. He does not want you to, like the woman at the well, go through five husbands before you stop and guess what! Nobody else needs to know that He is working healing in you.

MY BOOKS - CLOSER TO YOU THAN EVER

He Is Also Working It Out For His Glory

Why does God take so long when He can fix it at the click of His fingers? Why does He appear to do nothing though you have waited so long? Why would He be silent when He knows your struggles and how difficult it has become to keep from breaking down? Worse still, why would He let you go through all this when 'bad people' appear to be prospering, enjoying all you think you also should have. So many other questions I don't want to bore you with but I wonder - have you ever asked any of these questions particularly in those quiet moments when it is just you and God?

Joseph is one man that must have travelled this part a couple of times. Remember when his brothers sold him to Egyptians and he was taken away from his land, culture and family. He was taken from familiar environment to very unfamiliar environment and circumstance. Not only did he arrive in Egypt a slave, he was also in the midst of a people whose language he did not understand. I can imagine how lost and lonely he must have felt. Unfortunately, they had no telephones then so he could not have called anyone back home and he knew that he had no means of going back. How lost he must have felt, yet he was on the path to fulfilling his destiny and He did not turn away from His God.

Job 13: 15a "God might kill me, but I have no other hope."

I know it's easy to say God has a purpose in that trial or test of your faith; it's easy to say God is working good in it to bring you to the fulfillment of your destiny but really do you even know what this destiny is? Joseph was even better of; he had dreams that he understood about his purpose. What of you who never had a dream that revealed your destiny; you who can not remember receiving any revelation concerning your destiny but yet you go on holding onto the word of God? The truth is whether or not you have received a revelation, it does get tough. At some point the travails of life can cause a believer so much pain that even the dreams and revelations become blurred. It got that tough even for Jesus.

Luke 22: 42 “Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

These are some of the realities of our faith that one wishes do not exist. I wish God would be  that fairy godmother I read about when I was a child. How tough it is to encounter the realities that reveal that God isn't that fairy godmother but in truth, so much better. I sometimes have to endure His mode of operation because it is not often my preferred option of attaining to those heights only He can get one to. However, He knows what He is doing as He works to bring us to our predestined end. We celebrate you if it's always easy for you but we also celebrate everyone of us who is carrying on with joy yet knowing that if they could advise God, they may have asked Him to do it differently.

2 Timothy 2: 3 "Endure suffering along with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus."

I guess Joseph may have fallen in this last category too. Whilst serving term in jail for an of fence he did not commit, he was not depressed but conducted himself so well that he was put over all the prisoners. Yet when he got the opportunity, he did not miss asking for help from the butler and the chief of the bakers. At that point, he too must have been tired and 'concerned' about the ways of God but at the end of the day God came through putting Joseph on display as one of His masterpiece displaying His craftsmanship. He will do the same with you if you hold on.

Don't Stop Looking Out - The Master Is About To Be Revealed!

Life in Christ is amazing. Just when you think you have had all the experiences and there is nothing new to experience, then God lets you into another experience in which He reveals Himself yet again and in a deeper dimension. Each experience is often an opportunity for God not just to give us testimonies but also for us to experience Him differently so when we discuss His several different sides, we would be speaking with revelatory insight. Just before you start complaining in that experience, stop and think - could God be found even in this?

Job 1: 12 “All right, you may test him,” the Lord said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the Lord ’s presence.

Usually our attitude as believers is that God would not let us go through any bad experience so that our expectation is that since we live right, we need not have to experience fiery trials. unfortunately, when we then find ourselves in these trials, as it will surely happen from time to time, we are shocked and pained; wondering why God did not deliver us but if you are just a little patient, you will see and experience Him even deeper. Sadly, even when we move from that place of disappointment, we often switch to survival mode so that the only thing on my mind then becomes how to get out of the situation using our intellect. Meanwhile, all God wants to do is reveal Himself in that situation.

Daniel 3: 25 “Look!” Nebuchadnezzar shouted. “I see four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And the fourth looks like a god !”

My point is this; God does not always prevent that test or trial of your faith. His intention is sometimes to "come into the fire with you" so that even the enemies may see that He is bigger than any "fire situation." He sometimes permits for the righteous to be cast into the den of lions. Interestingly, He may not kill the lions but they just can't touch you because they understand the voice of The Master and unlike man, are unable to rebel against His voice. the right of choice was not given to them. Satan is so not smart otherwise he should have realized that these things end up making Him look even more stupid and causing one's light to shine even brighter because God will then reveal Himself yet again causing His glory to be revealed through the individual, like never before.

Psalm 34: 5 "Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces."

God will never allow those that trust Him to be put to shame so that they cannot suffer any permanent disappointment. At the end of the day, it will have to work for them and this is not about them but that glory may be given to God. The righteous shall only shine brighter and brighter as God through every experience, takes him higher and higher, taking all the glory for Himself.  Indeed, God permits these trials or experiences deliberately so that He often kills at least two birds with one stone. He reveals Himself specially to the righteous and puts the devil to shame getting all the glory. Never give up because you have not seen yet in the situation; He is in it with you and about to be revealed.