A Fellowship Indeed

My husband and I had a much needed time out this past weekend to the chagrin of our children. They could not understand how we could be so ‘selfish’ to go out alone without them, but hey, we really needed to. We had both been working so hard that we had neglected our “we time.” At the restaurant, we chose a quiet table at the far corner of the room and allowed the ambience, soft music, drinks and good food wash away all the cares and weariness of our busy lives. Our conversations were the high point for us. We talked and talked…heart to heart. And we laughed. We shared our future goals and visions…things the Lord had been saying to us individually that will affect and impact on our future. To crown it, still at the table we held hands after the dinner and we prayed committing our plans, family and future into the hands of the Lord. It was a great evening. It was a fellowship. There were no distractions. We were really there for each other physically, emotionally and spiritually. We came away from that evening lighthearted, free and with a deeper commitment to love and support each other even more. And we resolved never to play with our “we time” again.

Isn’t this akin to what fellowship should be with the Lord? A time we set aside to commune with God and pour our hearts out to Him and hear Him speak to us in return. A time of intimacy and deep love when we tell Him how much we love Him and hear Him assure us of His for us. A time when He instructs us about His Kingdom and what He would want us do for His people. But how many of us really have this kind of deep fellowship with the Lord on a daily basis? A number of Christians have become too busy for God now. The cares of life have practically squeezed fellowship out. And even when we do, it is perfunctory- nothing deep, nothing memorable. Most times we do it to assuage our consciences that we’ve been to church or that we’ve had a ‘quiet time’ with Him, but not that there was any profound outcome from it. One lesson I came away with from my date with my husband was that physical presence does not necessarily mean emotional connection. So many couples live together but they have drifted apart. They live together, but they do not share their lives with each other, anymore. It is so easy in marriage to drift apart without the awareness of both couples. The deception here is that you may not be fighting, but you could be drifting. It is important therefore for us to spend quality time away from the children, work, bills, etc to reconnect on a deeper level. This is guaranteed to keep the romantic embers burning in our marriages.

Same way, fellowship with the Lord is not necessarily our physical presence in Church or at our personal devotion closets. It is also not in the number of times we attend church or how frequently we pray, but it is more in the connection of our hearts to the heart of God. We need to be there for real when we say that we are with Him. Our God loves fellowship and He has created us for fellowship. In the Garden of Eden, He was the One that initiated fellowship with man(Gen 3:8-9). That is why Hebrew 11:6 promises to reward those who diligently seek Him. This message is for everyone but especially for those of us who have being born again for a very long time and also those in ministry. If you are not careful to tend to your relationship with the Lord, you will become like an ‘old couple’ with Him and run the risk of becoming ‘too familiar’ with Him. Sometimes, we become too busy like Martha, full of ministry works, but may have drifted in our personal fellowship with Him. It is time to reassess our walk with Him and make amends where necessary.

There may be the need for some of us to actually take a prayer retreat to re-connect with Him. The Psalmist kept his hunger and thirst for the Lord alive. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? (Psalm 42:1-2, NKJV) It is my prayer that we would be wise to do the same. It is the only way to have a meaningful walk with the Lord. Shalom.

Salvation Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for speaking to my heart today. I repent of all my sins and ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You are the Son of the living God. I believe that You died for my sins and resurrected on the third day. Lord, I give You my life. Come in and be my Lord and Savior. Baptize me with Your Spirit and lead me to a Church that is rich in faith and Your word that I may grow in You daily. Amen

What is in your hands?

The story is told of a certain widow in the bible who was in dire distress. She was in distress because her late husband’s creditors were after her for his unpaid debts. They had threatened to take away her sons as slaves if she did not come up with the money. She was very poor and did not know what to do. So, she ran to the prophet in the city hoping for some divine counsel. After listening to her tale of woes, the prophet asked her, “What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?”

I am sure this woman was not expecting this kind of reaction from the prophet. Why would he be asking her what he should do for her and what she had in her house? Was he not listening when she was telling him her troubles? This man must be insensitive, she may have concluded. But she held her peace and responded “Your maidservant has nothing in the house, but a jar of oil” (1Kings 4:1-2, NKJV) And that was enough! The jar of oil was all God needed to change her story. All the prophet was trying to do was to draw her attention to the fact that she was not as helpless as she thought. He was trying to let her see that as a child of God her troubles have been anticipated by God. And that a man cannot serve God and be forsaken and put to shame.

Many times we look for answers outside of ourselves. We run to people without first running to God in prayer. Every man is endowed with a gift. We have rich untapped potentials lying dormant on the inside of us. We need to start looking inwards. We need to ask God in prayer to show us our gifts and talents. All you have desired of life is buried within you. Some of us have actually discovered a talent or two, but we make light of it and take it for granted instead of working on it and sharpening it for greater effectiveness. Some hide their talents too. They lack the courage to step out for fear of being ridiculed, misunderstood or persecuted. Either way, we short change ourselves because God has deposited that gift and talent in you to enable you create your Garden of Eden and be a blessing to mankind.

The widow in our story did not consider that jar of oil in her house as anything useful other than for cooking, probably. But the prophet saw differently. Thank God for prophetic eyes that see into the realm of the spirit. If you are blessed with a genuine servant of God, please value and respect their godly counsel. “Then he said to her, “Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighbours –empty vessels, do not gather just a few. And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons, then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones… Go, sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your sons live on the rest.” (1Kings 4: 3-4, 7b, NKJV) What more can I say? A poor widow in debt and distress was saved by what she already had in her house! What do you have in your hands? Just as this widow poured her jar of oil into the empty vessels that she gathered, our profiting will come from pouring our talents and gifts into the lives of people who need them. Prosperity is assured those who add value. Prosperity is assured those who offer service to mankind.

The great Prophet Moses was also clueless of the power in the rod he was carrying. He thought it was to guide sheep into formation, but to his amazement that rod brought water out of a rock and wrought miracles too numerous to count! In this present economic recession, we’ve got to look beyond academic qualifications and nine to five jobs if we must thrive and not merely survive. A surviving man may not be able to help anyone besides himself but a thriving man or business would be able to carry many along. God wants us to thrive so that we may be His channels of blessings to many in distress, but before we can do that we must discover His gifts and talents within us and work them effectively for results. This is your time in Jesus name. Amen!

Salvation Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for speaking to my heart today. I repent of all my sins and ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You are the Son of the living God. I believe that You died for my sins and resurrected on the third day. Lord, I give You my life. Come in and be my Lord and Savior. Baptize me with Your Spirit and lead me to a Church that is rich in faith and Your word that I may grow in You daily. Amen

The Grasshopper Mentality

The greatest disservice you can do to your self is to look down on yourself. Many times we think that other people are better than we are. We feel that we do not measure up. We constantly measure our progress with theirs and we panic. Oh, they are better than I. They have more degrees and certifications than I have. They are from a rich home. They have a bigger house than I have. They have children and I do not. They are married and I am not. My nose is too big, I am not pretty enough, etc. When uninhibited, these ‘not good enough’ thoughts can damage our confidence and self esteem.

Gideon, one of the judges of the nation of Israel had issues in this regard. When God came calling on him to lead the army of Israel against the Midianites who had oppressed and impoverished them for years, he sold himself short. He said “Oh my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.” (Judges 6:16, NKJV)) Like some of us, Gideon celebrated his weaknesses or disadvantages a little bit too much. His clan was the weakest and he was the least in his immediate family. Surely this is not the kind of lineage that the stuff of deliverers is enlisted from, he may have thought. In that moment he may have compared himself with the likes of Moses, Joshua, Prophet Samuel etc, and concluded he was unfit for the role. We must remember that anytime we enter the ring of comparison we will come up short. It is written, “But when they measure themselves by one another and compare themselves with one another, they are without understanding” (2Cor 10:12, ESV)

Also Gideon was tired of trying. Anytime they arose to rebuild their lives, their enemies came in their droves and destroyed it all. They take one step forward and the next minute they were pushed backwards by ten! When you have been knocked down by life too many times, staying on the ground becomes a temptation. When your past failures and seeming disadvantages join forces in your mind, a bright future would be hard to conceive. That was why Jehovah God had to help father Abraham. One day, He told Abraham, “Lift your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward and westward, for all the land which you see I give to you and your descendants forever.” (Gen 13:14-15,NKJV) Basically, what God was saying to Abraham was, “use your imagination.” Imagination is “the ability to form pictures in your mind” (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus (Cambridge United Press) Until you “see” or imagine a bright future, you will never live it. How far you see is how far you go.

The world is full of success stories and failure stories. You and I have to make up our minds on which side of the divide we belong. At the threshold of inheriting their promised land, Caleb and Joshua made up their minds to take all that God had promised in spite of the obvious difficulties. On the other hand, their colleagues only saw their weaknesses and disadvantages. They saw themselves as grasshoppers in comparison with the strength of the inhabitants of the land. (See Numbers 13) This is the story of our lives. Every day we will be faced with the choice to trust God or trust our circumstances. No matter the disadvantages and negative experiences we’ve had in the past, we need to lift our eyes to the Lord and believe in Him for a better future.

I know what it is like to fail. I know what it is to be rejected. I know what it is to be dis-favored and disadvantaged. I know what it is to be looked down by people. I have suffered esteem destroying thoughts and I’d been buried under the garbage of misunderstandings. I have also been through shame, disgrace and embarrassment. What a heap of dung! When we allow these experiences and thoughts rule us, we develop a defeatist attitude. This is what I call the grasshopper mentality – the crippling feeling of being too small or unworthy for anything good. Breaking free and loose was not easy for me too, but the Lord helped me. Like Abraham, He showed me His plans for my life and the impactful life I could live if I agreed to partner with Him. Thankfully, I agreed and here I am with you! What a joy! This is the beauty of being in relationship with Jesus. I just love the way He uses all our experiences as raw materials to recreate a better life for us. Today, Jesus, my Lord is reaching out to you too because you are worthy to be loved. He wants to save and deliver you. He wants to help you see the beautiful future He has planned for you. All you need to do is to open your heart and ask Him in. God bless you.

Salvation Prayer: Lord Jesus, I thank You for speaking to my heart today. I repent of all my sins and ask for Your forgiveness. I believe that You are the Son of the living God. I believe that You died for my sins and resurrected on the third day. Lord, I give You my life. Come in and be my Lord and Savior. Baptize me with Your Spirit and lead me to a Church that is rich in faith and Your word that I may grow in You daily. Amen

The Ticking Clock

The year is coming to a close now. In a couple of days we would enter the “ember” months. Usually in these last four months of the year there is increased activity in all kinds of work – both good and evil. It is at this time that pressure mounts up in the hearts of men as they reflect on their achievements or lack thereof. Based on these appraisals, they increase the tempo of their activities to catch up lost grounds. Those who do not have faith may lose hope and fall into depression.

The "ember" months are usually the most depressing times for singles who are waiting for life partners or married couples trusting God for the fruit of the womb. Seeing the curtains of another year draw to a close without your expectations in your hand can be tough on the heart. I have been there, on both counts, so I understand. The common trend is to be in high spirit, full of expectation at the beginning of the year and be downcast towards the end. It is time to break this cyclical trend. Personal evaluations should not only be done when the year’s curtains are drawing close, but daily. At the end of each day, as we retire from the world, we should reflect and review our work and actions. That way, it would be easy to quickly stop any steps we have taken that are unproductive.

Time passes by so quickly. We are here today and gone the next day. We say, ‘Happy New Year’ today and with the blinking of an eye, we are at the ‘Cross Over Service’ waiting for yet another year. So we must be careful how we spend our days. We must take stock of them and track our use of them because once they are gone we cannot call them back. One of my favorite portions of scripture is Psalm 90:12, “So teach us to realize the brevity of life that we may grow in wisdom” (NLT) Life is short. No matter how long we live, life is short compared to the promise of eternity. Here we are today at different levels of growth and success. How would you evaluate your life? Would you say that you have lived for God or lived for yourself? Take a momentary look at all your achievements. Are they rich towards God’s kingdom or earthly? Sometimes, we think we are doing well, that we are successful, but in the eyes of God we may not be. In the bible, the story is told of a certain rich man whose agricultural business prospered. After taking stock of all his achievements and prosperity, he decided to consolidate his holdings by expanding his storage houses to accommodate his bountiful harvest. Sadly, the same night he decided to expand his holdings, death visited him. He did not live to realize his dreams of expansion. At a glance, this man had all the trappings of success, but he was not a wise man. He kept working and planning, but never considered the brevity of life. He took stock of possessions, but did not take stock of his own life. He was not a blessing to man and neither was he a blessing to God.

I believe this man and so many like him today are not rich towards God because they never consider rapture or the day of their death. The subject of death is taboo in some cultures, something not to be mentioned or talked about. It is the reason many Africans die without preparing wills that would have guided the administration of their estates. However, when we come to understand that death is an inevitable reality of life we will learn to count our days and live ready for God. Our lives belong to God. We are created to worship Him and be used by Him to reach perishing souls. We are not on earth to serve ourselves but to serve Him. It is time we take our attention off what we have achieved or not achieved and focus on what He wants done.

The clock is ticking. The time is short. The days are fast spent and the Lord Jesus is coming soon. How many lives have we saved in His name? How many have we encouraged to keep the fire of our faith burning? This should be our daily pre-occupation. This should be at the center of our self appraisals in this season and beyond. Peace!

Watch your Motives!

Peer pressure is not a malady suffered by teenagers and children, but also by adults. Many people would be shocked if they take an inventory of their motives. They would discover that a good number of their actions have been motivated and influenced by pressures and not necessarily by personal convictions.

Three years ago, I started a line of business. I was working, but decided to open another stream of income and I did. I shared my business idea with a friend who also desired to own her own business. Months later, this lady opened a shop next door to mine with my ideas! I must have done a wonderful job at selling my ideas!

Most of us live life without personal convictions and direction. We are easily influenced by external factors. When we see our friends selling gold, we jump in and sell gold. When our friends send their children to schools abroad we follow to do same without counting the cost. When we see that a particular church is ‘trending’ we leave our old church families. How long would we continue to live like this? What is the difference between a parent who behaves this way and a son who ‘sags’ his pants and shows off his boxer shorts to the public in the name of fashion? In Acts Chapter 5: 1-11, the bible records the story of a couple called Ananias and Sapphira. This couple belonged to a congregation that was made up of people we commonly call ‘dangerous givers’ today. These were people who gave their entire possessions to the church! By virtue of these selfless men and women, the bible records that all had things in common and no one lacked. Everyone ate from a common purse. Glory to God! Also their financial and material support to the early church ensured that the gospel was preached and lost souls were reached and saved. Amongst these dangerous givers was a man called Joses who sold his land and brought the entire proceeds to the Apostles. The Apostles named him Barnabas which meant “son of encouragement” (Acts 4: 32- 37) He was indeed a son of encouragement, one everybody needs in their team.

There was such a heavy activity of giving at this early church that Ananias and Sapphira did not want to be left out. They decided too to sell their land, but not out of a pure heart and definitely not out of a personal conviction. They sold the land and kept back some of the proceeds and presented to the Apostles a certain sum claiming to be the entire proceed from the sale. If you read the story, you would discover that this couple died as soon as the lie came out of their mouths. My question is did they have to sell their land? Was the lie necessary? No! Then why did they do it? It was the pressure of all the generous activities going on in the church. They wanted to be like others, act like Jose Barnabas, son of encouragement. Perhaps they too wanted to be given a special name by the Apostles. Probably, they wanted to be known as one of the rich people in the the church. Their schemes, manipulations and lies in the end cost them their lives. Was it worth it?

Everything we do in life must be done from a pure heart and a pure motive. Do not get into things that you are not convicted in your heart to do. It cannot be overemphasized that we must be led by the Lord before we step out to do anything. There are paths in life that look right but in the end lead to destruction. That is why copycatting is dangerous to your destiny. It is good to give. I give always to the Lord because without Him I am nothing. All that I have today came from Him so when there is an opportunity to be a blessing I step out and do what I can within the limits of what He has given me. God will never make a demand if He has not made a deposit. If He has not given you a million dollars, He will never ask that of you!

Please do not go and sell your property and give to a church if you are not led to do so. Ananias and Sapphira were not convicted to do what they did. They did it because everyone else was doing so. If you let people pressure you to give your entire life savings when God has not asked you to do so, you will suffer. Do not give out of pressure, but give out of love and out of a pure heart. Give because you are convicted and persuaded to do so by the Lord. Give because it is good to be a blessing to those less privileged than you, but do not give out of a competitive spirit or a desire to show off. May God guide you always in Jesus name.

May the Lord return a bountiful harvest for every seed you have sown for the furtherance of the Gospel. May He give you inspired ideas that will create wealth. For every poor, needy, orphan, widow and fatherless etc that you have been a source of blessing, may God Almighty, the Creator of the heavens and the earth open His heavenly treasures to you. Wherever you are experiencing dryness, let the dew of heaven come upon you. May the Lord protect you and your family and may He fight your battles. May His grace and peace be multiplied to you in Jesus name. Amen!

Do you think you know?

Have you ever been in a position where you thought you knew, but found out you did not? Have you ever believed an information or even in an individual and found that you were in error? I found myself in that position recently and it was humbling. You see, I’d been invited to speak at a female ministers’ summit and I believed that I knew the location of the venue. What was the basis of my belief? I had the address in my text message inbox and I had also visited the venue in a previous summit though I was chauffeured on that day. I calculated how much time it would take me there and set out. Now, a popular eatery and confectionary shop was the landmark for the venue and I thought it was a done deal. I drove to the location I believed was the venue and did not find it. I made a U-turn twice on the highway believing that I may just have missed it. But twice, a fruitless effort and the time ticked away. Alas, I was scheduled as the first speaker! Then I thought, maybe I should keep driving further down the highway…may be the confectionary shop may be tucked at some junction down the road. And I kept driving until I was nearly out of the city! Finally, it dawned on me that I did not know the way to the venue of the meeting! As I parked my car by the side of the highway in sheer disbelief of my predicament, this thought dropped in my spirit…’you never really know as you think you know.’ Now, the Lord has asked us not to worry nor be anxious about anything, but I must confess that I was a tiny bit troubled for a minute, there. Why? I was concerned about other issues and areas of my life that I may be so wrong, too. Isn’t it the very same reason we marry the wrong partners and lead our lives to dead ends? Could it also be why we make wrong business investments that put us in the strangle hold of debts? The direction our lives take is based on the information we have and the way we process the information we receive. Sometimes, we may have the right information, but our minds may process the information wrongly. For instance in my own case, I had the correct information, but a presumption that ‘I knew it’ was my bane and it prevented me from asking for direction early on. The passionate preacher, Apollos, in Acts 18: 24-28 was “an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures…fervent in the spirit…” but he only knew a half of the message he was passionately preaching. In other words, Apollos did not know as he thought he did. No matter how passionately we tell a story if it is a lie, it can never be turned into the truth. A loud voice does not necessarily tell the truth.

Thankfully, Apollos was a teachable man and when two concerned believers heard him, they took him aside and taught him the complete gospel. Just imagine that Apollos never crossed paths with these two individuals. What a disaster that would have been! He would have been going around preaching a half truth and misinforming people! How many people has God sent our way to help us but we have disdained and disrespected? We may be more educated, but somebody knows something we do not know. It is only the humble and teachable that will grow in knowledge and wisdom. Pride will inhibit us from knowing more. Humility is the only way up, so we must humble ourselves and ask questions when in doubt or confused. You have your strength and I have mine, but we must share our strengths and gifts so that we may soar like the eagle uninhibited by storms.

We must also read because knowledge is progressive. We must read our bibles daily and read books from tested and anointed authors of proven records. In our various disciplines and vocations, we must read and study to be effective and employable. I have discovered that age is not really the issue in selecting candidates to fill vacant positions, the real issue is employability. An unemployable individual is one who does not read, one who does not pay attention to personal development. If you are 40yrs old and you have the trending skills and competencies for a position, you would be taken over a 25yr old who does not read. Even the great Apostle Paul was given to reading. In a letter, he instructed Timothy, his spiritual son to do the same. He wrote saying, “Till I come give attention to reading…” In spite of all his many exploits in ministry his fervent cry was that he may know Christ and the power of His resurrection. If a man like Apostle Paul kept his hunger and thirst for knowledge on, you and I cannot afford to get tired of learning. It is my prayer therefore that we will be provoked to go on a quest for knowledge especially in the Lord and renew our minds so that we may be transformed day by day into the likeness of our beloved Saviour Jesus. Peace and joy be multiplied onto you in Jesus name.

A Door of Escape

This past weekend was very trying for me. My daughter was down with a severe cold, I also had a cold and sore throat that had practically seized my voice. It was also the weekend of our annual women’s convention in Church and there were expectations for me to attend the meeting, of course. In between taking my daughter to the hospital, running domestic chores and grocery shopping, cooking, losing my voice and God knows what else, I was pressed and squeezed beyond measure. As if that was not enough as I was returning from the hospital with my daughter, I stopped by a supermarket to get some smoked chicken that my husband had requested for his stew and guess what, I suffered a burst tyre! I had a spare tyre, I thought, but when I lifted it out, I was told that there was no air in it! Oh! What a day! All the while my children were in the car and the pressure mounted. As they say, when it rains, it pours…

My lucky break was that my car incident occurred a few meters away from a tyre repairer’s shop. Just goes to show that when we are that hemmed in and pressed, God will always put lucky breaks i.e. doors of escape for our liberty and ease. The prayer therefore is that we may have the grace to see these breaks and open doors in the midst of the pressures of life. The easiest thing to do in the midst of challenges is to get anxious, worry, depressed, discouraged, complain, curse, etc. Now remember that anyone can do all these and more, but the uncommon thing to do, which is not easy, but the saving grace for those who would, is to be controlled. That is why self - control for me is one of the chief fruits of the spirit for the believer. People who fall apart easily with the slightest provocation or pressure will not see the lucky breaks that God has planted deliberately for us. Do you think that God was not aware of how my weekend was going to turn out? He knew, but you see, He did not save me from the pressures because He knew that I have come to that point in Him where I should be able to ‘see’ the doors of escape on the path He has carved for me. I may not have known it, but He knew. Besides, pressures are the processes by which we are refined and pruned for greater productivity. It is also the process by which He tests our strength and resilience. Someone said, “If you dodge the pressures of life, you will miss the pleasures” God does not save us from every trouble because He trusts us to get out of it unscathed. Troubles, challenges, problems, whatever name we chose to call them are a demand from God to get up and get out of it stronger and better. They are opportunities to show off His glory and power in our lives to the world. That is why when those who do not believe in Him are saying that there is a casting down we shall say that we are lifted!

Next time you are hemmed in and pressed on all sides and you are tempted to be sad or grumble and complain choose rather to ask God for the door of escape and open your spiritual and physical eyes to see what He has deliberately planted right before or near you. The biblical account of Hager in the wilderness is an apt illustration of my point. She was sent out of her home with her son by her supposed husband into the wilderness with only a little bread and water. The bread and the water finished and the pressure mounted. What am I going to do now? How am I to feed my son in this wilderness, she may have asked herself hopelessly. Hager gave in to die as most of us do in dire situations, but God showed up and opened her eyes to the pool of water just around the corner. The wilderness was not programmed to kill her neither was the rejection and the abandonment of her husband. The devil meant it for evil, yes, but God turned it around for good and made her experience Him in a dimension that was fresh and new. And that is why I am persuaded, dear reader, that your present challenges will not consume you. You will come out stronger and finer at the end of the experience because surely there is an end and it is in your favor in Jesus name.

The Gift of Life

Life is a privilege. Just being alive, right here and now is an awesome gift from God. I believe that this is the starting point of all gratitude to God. If we cannot take pleasure in the miraculous wonder of being alive, then I am not sure anything else will give us true enjoyment. All our dreams and plans will come to a standstill as soon as this life we have and take for granted is taken from us. When I wake up in the morning, I am happy because I have one more day to achieve whatever dreams or plans I have in my heart. The fact that I can dream of doing things or being somewhere or somebody is a gift. And all of these dreams and plans are possible because I am alive. Each new day is a gift that gives me opportunity to correct my mistakes of yesterdays. It affords me the opportunity to ask for mercy and forgiveness from the Lord and from those whom I may have offended. It provides opportunity to love more deeply and grow in intimacy with God and with the wonderful people He has given me.

Do not waste your days in fights, quarrels and bitterness because too soon they are all gone…wasted…spent. That is what most of us are doing. We are spending our lives and not investing them. We are hoarding and not giving and sharing our lives with others. No wonder most of us are growing older with regrets and a deep sense of dissatisfaction. Years ago, a friend gave me a lovely skirt suit and months later, we went on a trip to the UK for a seminar and it was winter. Needless to say that it was dreadfully cold, so for extra warmth I wore this lovely suit top to sleep. When she saw me getting out of bed with that suit in the morning she was very unhappy with me. I discovered that day how expensive the suit was. She told me that it was one of her most expensive suits and she gave it to me because she valued me as a friend. I was cold, yes. But I had used a lovely and expensive gift for a wrong purpose and the source of the gift was unhappy with me. I had devalued the gift. That winter experience taught me a profound lesson about life. I learned that every gift I receive has cost the giver something and the only thrill for the giver is that I value and use the gift in an appropriate way.

Life is a beautiful and expensive gift from God. It is to be treasured, valued and used wisely and invested in the purpose for which we were created. When we misuse our lives or make light of the fact that we are alive we make the Source of life, our God unhappy. We all have dreams that are yet to come to pass and prayers that are yet to be answered, but that does not mean that life is to be endured. Some of us have been rejected and abused by people who were supposed to protect and love us, but it does not take out the fact that life is a gift from God. To be truly appreciative of life your sights must transcend beyond earthly circumstances to the abundant life that Jesus promised those who believe in Him because without Him we can do nothing. So value your life because it is a gift and someday we will give an account of how we spent or invested it. Let us learn to approach each day with gratitude and close each day with thanksgiving to the Lord because He sees you where you are right now. Peace!