Category Archives: Faith
Love Endures
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Cor.13:13 [NIV, emphasis added].
Go to God with the disappointments you feel in your relationships. However, in cases of character flaws, God says make allowances. For some people, the allowance might require you standing up to fill a gap in your relationship for a season. And in some other cases, it may mean a temporary separation until the other person is able to take responsibility for those errors and correct them. However, it does not mean you should give up on the relationship altogether because you never know what God can do. Sometimes the Read the rest of this entry
Relational Clarity
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” 1Cor.13:13[NIV].
The quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your relationships. The quality of your life is not directly proportional to the quality of things that you own. The quality of your life is directly proportional to the quality of your relationships. If your relationships are sour, your life will be sour. Unfortunately, because we struggle in our relationships, we try to fill our lives with things. So we end up loving things and using people. It is a trap you should not fall into. God wants us to love people and use things.
Share Jesus
“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere…” Acts 1:8
As Christians, it is so important for us to tell other people about Jesus. When I got saved, I could not keep it in. I preached to all my friends and they saw that I was sincerely concerned for their eternity. I am not saying that you should be obnoxious but just open your mouth and tell people who are close to you but far from God, about Jesus. The question is, do you want them to go to hell?
Time & Trouble
“Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit” 1 Tim.4:7 [Ph, emphasis added].
“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” Rom.1:20. You and I are without excuse, because spiritual things are clearly revealed even in our daily living. Take physical fitness for instance, if you want to be physically fit it is going to take time and trouble. You have to take the trouble to wake up early to jog, to go to Read the rest of this entry
Trust God!
“People with integrity have a firm footing, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall” Pr. 10:9.
If you have walked the path of integrity, you will have nothing to hide. You need to determine what is more important in your life, is it truth or is it things? If things are more important to you, you will compromise easily. Greed is the fastest route to compromise. If truth is more important, regardless of what it is, God will keep you and hold you.
#2. In compromising situations, the second thing you do is Trust God For Your Future. Sometimes you see unethical people and it appears that they are prospering. Do not worry; it is just for a short time, believe me. But again it is not even your business; just trust God for your future. You trust God for your future. “Don’t envy evil men but continue to reverence the Lord all the time, for surely you have a wonderful future ahead of you.” Pr. 23:17-18 [LB, emphasis added]. How certain? Surely! I can tell you this because I stand at the pulpit and I sit at the pew. Meaning, I face the same challenges you face.
I run a business and there was this solution I had an idea of. So I pushed the proposal to a friend that was the Chief Technology Officer of a bank at the time. It was going to save them millions of naira and overtime, hundreds of millions of dollars. My friend saw the proposal, jumped at it and he removed the commercial page. So he got a blank cheque approval for it. I was excited about the approval until I discovered he had removed the commercial page. He said my quote was too small. I need to multiply it by fifteen because of all the people we have to “settle”. That was my first business in the year. I thought, what kind of temptation is this? I needed that money, I have a family to feed.
But in compromising situations you do the right thing. I refused to connive with him to defraud the organization by inflating the price. And that was the end of the deal. The second thing to do in compromising situations is to trust God for your future. He ran into a mutual friend and recounted everything to him. But our mutual friend laughed and said, Femi would never do a thing like that. When I heard it I felt very happy that at least people know. I pray the same would be said of you.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, help me to reverence You at all times and trust You completely for the future You have planned for me, in Jesus Name.
Firm Footing
“People with integrity have a firm footing, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall.” Pr. 10:9
The first thing you do in dealing with the stress of compromise is, Do the right thing. Doing the easy thing may seem simpler in the short run but on the long run doing the right thing is less stressful. People with integrity have a firm footing, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall” [emphasis added]. You have to choose between a firm footing or slipping and falling, what will it be?
Not Alone
“When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown! When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up—the flames will not consume you” Isa.43:2 [TLB]
“Praise the Lord! For all who fear God and trust in Him are blessed beyond expression… When darkness overtakes him, light will come bursting in… Such a man will not be overthrown by evil circumstances. God’s constant care of him will make a deep impression on all who see it. He does not fear bad news, nor live in dread of what may happen. For he is settled in his mind that God will take care of him.” Psalm 112:1-8 [LB]. You need to settle it in your heart that Read the rest of this entry
But God…
“But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people” Gen.50:19-20
When the situation around you looks depressing, you think about the goodness of your God. Think about the goodness of your God, not a god but your own God. Many times, we exaggerate and amplify the problems, and end up minimizing the goodness of God. Joseph’s dream was not fulfilled because of who he is but because of the goodness of God. And the same brothers who meant to kill him and that dream, came and bowed to him. Joseph had become so powerful and they were afraid because of how mean they had been to him. But Joseph said something that you and I should never ever forget. Never forget what Joseph said because that is how you should always respond. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. The goodness of God prevailed over their evil plans. The goodness of God will prevail in your life, over every evil plan and device of the enemy. So do not worry about revenging or getting your pound of flesh, if God is lifting you up. And He will lift you up. They are hungry; God has set you over them, feed them! Show them God’s goodness.
I want us to prayerfully sing a song to God. As you sing, I pray God will truly be magnified in your heart and life. “I have made you too small in my eyes. O Lord, forgive me. I have believed in a lie, that you were unable to help me. But now, O Lord, I see my wrong. Heal my heart and show yourself strong. And in my heart and with my song, O Lord, be magnified! O Lord, be magnified! Be magnified O Lord, You are highly exalted. There is nothing You can’t do, O Lord, my eyes are on You. Be magnified, O Lord, be magnified!” Amen!
#3: When Your Situation Looks DARK Think About The Closeness of God. Problems attempt to hunt us down into a dark place. Dark days are lonely days, worry filled days, and fearful days. They are days when we cannot see ahead and the future appears bleak. And this is precisely the time when we should think about how close our God is to us. You may be going through a lot right now, a dark place. I am here to tell you that God is with you.
Prayer: Father, thank You for the game changer in the story of my life and days to come, in Jesus Name.
Final Say
“How great is Your goodness! You have stored it up for those who honor You. You do good things for those who trust You.” Ps.31:19 [ICB, emphasis added]
Do not despair, focus on God. When the enemy wants to push you and make you depressed or the situation actually looks depressing, think about the goodness of your God. Thinking about God’s goodness goes beyond what He has done to who He is. God is not good because he has done a good thing. Yes He has done good things, but He is good because He is good and that is who He is. So focus on the nature of God. David said, “How great is Your goodness! …You do good things for those who trust You.” We have a lot to learn from David. Read the rest of this entry
Again And Again!
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind; is there anything too hard for Me?” Jer. 32:27 [NIV].
You and I need to put this Scripture before us deliberately because we are not immune to the curved balls that life will throw at us. Note that I did not say life ‘may’ throw us. But you and I need to know how to get hold of our thoughts and refocus them. There was a period in my life where I had this excruciating pain in my stomach. The genesis of it is that it was self-impaired. But I took this Scripture and sat before God praying in tongues. I prayed and cried and prayed Read the rest of this entry
