DO NOT BE DECEIVED: YOU ARE NEITHER THE VICTIM NOR THE VICTIMIZED!!!

If any man is in Christ, he is a living creature; no longer dead and buried. He has been born in the spirit realm and has a living father - Jehovah. It is a problem that there are too many living people with “grave clothes” on. If you have life, please why keep the “grave clothes” on? With grave clothes on, you are bound, unable to breathe properly, your movement is awkward and restricted so that you go forward in life with great difficulty. It behooves us after the salvation experience, to allow our minds be renewed by the word of God thereby taking off the grave clothes. It is more than being in church or listening to the word often, it is endeavoring to understand the word and allowing it influence our minds. 

2 Corinthians 5: 17 “This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun.”

We know about leaving the life of sin or wrongdoing behind but forget that wrong mindsets beget wrongdoing so that they also must be left behind. Some such mindsets were formed from growing up in dysfunctional homes and hostile environments whilst others acquired it from hanging around the wrong set of people. Believers troubled by such mindsets only perceive life and interpret people through this mindset. To them, life is a jungle so that everyone around them is either perceived as their prey or predator. They love God and claim they hate the environment in which they grew up but unwittingly rehash the same environment since it is the only one they are comfortable in. Unable to love, they reject genuine love not knowing it is what they crave; they don’t understand and cannot identify it nor do they accept that anyone can be sincere at no cost. Interestingly, they don’t realize they hurt others; always the victim, they are mean and very selfish. 

Romans 6: 6 “we know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. 

We owe it to ourselves to ensure that such people whether friends or family, do not make us preys. They are good at emotional black mail so resist it. If you permit them, they would make you their burden bearer and will never be satisfied with how much you give of yourself, until you not only end up their beast of burden but a dead one. They feign ignorance of the pain they cause you or refuse to see it so they don’t feel bad. They are the product of their environment and/or self. They are not your cross neither can you bear their burden. You have to love them enough to send them to Christ. 

Life is not always about you being the victim or making others victims. All the anger or emotional chaos stored up in you will eventually explode, destroying you, if you don’t let go of it. If despite all your effort you are unable to let go of all that venom inside you, see your pastor for guidance or go to a proper Christian counselor. You can’t hold other people to ransom, making them pay for something they know nothing about neither are you being fair to yourself holding on to the weight God is begging to relieve you off. The end of this road is hell and I am certain you deserve more than that otherwise Christ would not have saved your soul. Stop all that manipulation and emotional blackmail; everybody is going through something. Please carry your own cross.

… AND SARAH LAUGHED

Genesis 18: 11 – 12NKJ “Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age; and Sarah had passed the age of childbearing. Therefore, Sarah laughed within herself, saying ‘after I have grown old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord being old also?”

As I talked with one of my friends about her challenges today, I realized that though she trusts God and believes He is able to do all things, somewhere inside her, she felt her challenge could not be fixed. So that unwittingly, she was questioning “the truth” that says nothing is impossible with Him. When I told her my opinion, which was contrary to hers, she laughed; a laugh reminiscent of Sarah’s laughter. Sarah believed God and did not doubt His power and ability to do as He says yet somewhere inside her was the thought that her situation was beyond fixing. She understood her challenge perfectly and understood that God, who made all things, is orderly. She knew that He would not normally upturn the order of things and even if He thought to do so, she could not conceive that it could be for her. Certainly, she did not realize how important she was in God’s plan to show forth His praises. 

1 Peter 2: 9NKJ “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

I know the pain of having to wait on God; particularly when He appears to be fixing other people and all you get from Him is a word, the same word He has always spoken. Some of those other people may even be some of the worst people you ever met; and like in Sarah’s case, how does one know that God requires their story to be different so that it can be written in the bible to encourage you and me? Sarah was an ordinary woman living a normal life and God did not tell her that a bible would be written in the future in which He would like to tell her story; and how would her story have appeared in the bible if she had failed to play her predestined role? Interestingly, your own role always appears worse to you but do you realize that you and your challenges are valuable to God? Did it ever occur to you that your challenges are important to encourage other people and display His greatness or has the pain sold you a lie that God has forgotten you and cannot fix that challenge? 

Sometimes it is not because of something one hasn’t done or didn’t do right that some things remain pending; it may be that God, who uses His chosen ones differently, has chosen you for His glory. I realized recently that much as I admire the major women in the bible, I would rather not play their part. Yet if they knew each other, some may have envied others not knowing their pain but it’s easy for me to make the decision not to be any of them since I have the benefit of reading their stories; seeing their pain and challenges as well as their joy. I definitely would not like to be Sarah; though she married a wealthy man and at a young age, yet she waited too long to have a baby and “surrogacy” did not work well for her since Hagar and Ishmael ended up disdaining her. Mary, despite the honor of being the mother of our Saviour, had to endure the shame of being pregnant before her wedding. I wonder - could she not have gotten pregnant the day following her wedding day? Did it have to be so shameful? Neither would I like to be Hannah the mother of Samuel or any other woman for that matter knowing their challenges but God doesn’t have to share your neighbor’s pain with you. He deals individually.   

ARE YOU THINKING ON THE ULTIMATE GOAL?

There is so much going on in our lives these days; from dropping children off at school to legitimately earning an income, then making efforts to keep relationships including our relationship with God etc. Also is the fact that one’s mind is bombarded with even more things. In all this, one is desperate for a prayer life; of course often not for fellowship with God, but to ensure that our unending request list is ever before Him, which is legitimate. In all this, deep down in our hearts, we are certain that we love God but our responsibilities are huge and our requests unending so we have good reasons to be desperate for Him to move on our behalf and as we often say “that glory may be given to His name”; but we then lose sight of the primary reason He saved our souls – that we may, through Christ, be reconciled to Him not only while we are on earth but through eternity.

John 17: 2b-3 “He gives eternal life to each one you have given Him. And this is the way to have eternal life-to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”

God wants to fellowship with us eternally; as man is made to live eternally though his life is in phases. There is a phase in the womb, then another on earth and the final phase will either be in heaven or hell. The option of where we spend the final phase, God leaves to us having done all He would ever do to facilitate our making heaven. The decision to make heaven begins with the decision to invite Christ into our lives as Lord and is then secured by living in obedience to His word; so that when our earth phase of life is over, we move on to eternal life enjoying the abundance of life which only Christ gives. 

I have never caught a glimpse of heaven, but from what the bible and those that have been allowed that privilege say, there is no death there, no wonder it is referred to as eternal life. It is all about life and joy whilst in hell, the pain and sorrow is indescribable. Sadly, the consequences of our decisions and actions determine where we end up, I wish it was not so. To make decisions that align with one’s goals, the goal must be kept in view. Reality however, particularly in these present times, is that there is so much going on around us and in our lives; so much to struggle and even believe God for; that one easily loses sight of the ultimate goal and we don’t even know when it happens: what then is our fate?

The Olympics which recently ended was a reminder of the fact that without determination, consistency, firm resolve to abide by the rules of the game and focus, one will most likely not win the prize. Most winners say they daydream about the prize; some even see themselves receiving it before they actually win. We need to be deliberate about keeping heaven in view to make heaven. No wonder Paul encouraged believers to greet themselves with the word “maranatha” so that their expectation that Christ would return was always in focus and guided their every decision/action.

When we fight, lie, cheat, destroy others, continue in adultery and fornication, call evil good and good evil etc., all to gain advantage here on earth, what advantage would it be for our ultimate goal? When we misappropriate funds and do ungodly things just to create a particular impression on earth, what happens on the last lapse of life? It is time to begin to consider the consequences of our actions deeply. Don’t get so caught up in your life that you forget our ultimate goal. Eternal life is real, more real than all we have or will ever have. Where will you spend it?

GOD WILL MAKE A WAY ….

Did you ever hear the song by Don Moen that says “God will make a way where there seems to be no way; He works in ways we cannot see”? Well, old as it is, it is one of my all-time favorites. You will only understand why if you are like me who from time to time needs to remind myself repeatedly that my God is a “way-maker”; and this despite the fact that He has made a way for me out of very difficult situations times without number. This has nothing to do with believing that He keeps His promises which I know for certain. My problem is that I think a lot which makes me worry unnecessarily even to the point where I worry for God. I find myself trying to help Him figure out how He would keep His promise in the “very contrary looking situation” I appear to be in. Then forgetting that He is God and I am mere mortal, I conclude, in some situations, that He may be unable to make a way.

It is like having two different compartments in my mind; in one compartment is the definite knowing or assurance that He keeps His promises and nothing is impossible with Him. In the other compartment is the part that worries for God as to how He would fulfill His word in that very difficult circumstance. You will only understand this dilemma if you have found yourself in this circumstance before. The truth is that everyone who is like me must realize is that God knew about the difficulties when He made the promise yet He did knowing that it is impossible for Him to fail and/or lie. It has nothing to do with you or myself but everything to do with who He is.

Moreover, He made all things and unlike us, sees the end from the beginning. He also sits on the circle of the earth which is a vantage position, from where He sees all things unlike us who only know what is revealed to us and there is no one to whom all things are revealed for the bible says we only know in part. How can a man who only knows in part, then attempt to figure out how and where a way can be made in the situation? Some of our difficulty is that we barely understand the principle of being deity or the sovereign of deities and the Governor amongst the nations whose word is always yes and amen.

Daniel 4: 17b the Most High rules over the kingdoms of the world.”

Having carefully considered the position of man in relation to who God is, I realize that it is impossible for our minds to figure out how God would work His way out a seemingly tight place. We just are unable to see the way. Our understanding, the extent to which we see and our authority are too limited for us to almost conceive what God would need to do to “bring us out.” No wonder when we think on these things too much, we lose hope because it is, in man’s reality, an impossible situation but absolutely and totally different, in God’s reality. Such journeys would always end up in unbelief which is insulting to God. I think I now see why God finds unbelief so annoying; we reduce Him to our human level. We must learn to let God concentrate on being God whilst we concentrate on being men who set their eyes steadfastly on God and not the situation.

Isaiah 55: 8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord. And my ways are beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”