In This 2009, We Will...(7)

I stumbled on a blog that has helped me learn more about the women in the bible. I loved participating in the discussions (it made me read my bible and study before talking). Little did I know that one day I would be a contributor. Thanks Freedom and Hadassah for such privilege.
If you want to learn more about women in the bible, and participate in the discussions, please feel free to visit The Women in the Bible Journey.

In This 2009, We Will...
During my final year in university, I assisted a couple of classmates with their final project. Some needed direction and supervision. Some needed help in proofreading and editing. Some needed encouragement. One met me 2 weeks before defense and said he did not even have a topic. In less than a week, his project was ready. He asked me how much he would pay me to help. I told him nothing (though at the back of my mind I was hoping he would give me something). After defense, I received a couple of notes, thank you cards and gifts. The one whom I helped write project under the tight deadline disappeared after defense. No thank you talkless of payment. That is life!

But one of them stood out amongst the rest. She gave me more than thank you cards and gifts. She gave me her friendship. We built a wonderful relationship which has turned 9 years this year. From my own point of view, she gave me her heart in gratitude for what I did.

Could it be that God wants more than our gifts, our service, and our outward confession that we love Him? Is there something more required of us?

In this 2009, We Will Love God With All Our Heart

Recall the purpose for this series is to learn what we should do as we expect to see/experience the physical manifestation of that which we desire.

Loving God with all your heart is the first and greatest commandment as stated, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” [Mtt 22:37-40, Mrk 12:28-34].

Loving God with your whole heart is the key to everything in life because your relationship with God affects everything and everyone in your life. You can’t love God and hate your neighbor. You can’t love God and continue living in sin.
We are commanded to love God with our whole heart. This is because it is possible to love God with only a part of your heart. Do you respond to God only when He does something good for you? Do you put other things before Him like relationship, work, or leisure? Have you forgotten your first love? [Rev. 2:4].

You might be going through some challenges in your life making you feel God does not love you anymore. But if you stop to listen, you will hear the voice of God reminding you that He loves you unconditionally, telling you that He wants you and hoping you could let Him in to fill the void in your heart. God is faithful and loving. Sometimes, He uses situations to get our attention yet He does not let the situation overwhelm us. Someone told me that for years she had been looking for a child. It was not until she was bedridden that she realized she had not opened her bible in 5 years. It was her time on the bed that she used to rebuild her relationship with God. Not long after, she had a baby.

Sometimes I think on Mary and the Alabaster Box [John 12:3]. It suddenly dawned on me that when she poured out the contents of the alabaster jar on Jesus, she knew that the ointment was nothing compared to the worth of Jesus Christ. It was a sacrifice that came from the heart. That is when an offering or a sacrifice has meaning. God sees our hearts and He knows our motives. It is what is in our hearts that matter to Him.

It is not too late to say “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting…” [Psalms 139:23-24].

Love God with all your heart. He already loves You. Tell me, has He not been good to you in this 2009? Do not forget the Lord your God [Deut 8:10-11].

For Further Reading
1. How to Love God with all your heart
2. The Greatest Commandment
3. Love God With All Your Heart

For other posts in this series please visit the links below:
1. In This 2009, We Will Pray for Others
2. In This 2009, We Will Worship The Lord
3. In This 2009, We Will Know God for Ourselves
4. In This 2009, We Will Guard Our Hearts
5. In This 2009, We Will Sow Seeds
6. In This 2009, We Will Speak Right

Have a blessed week and new month ahead.

Infant Steps: How do I help a Backsliding Friend?

Beloved EROLyrics Readers,

Hope your week has started out beautifully. Covenant grace and peace be to you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior, who reigns forevermore.

Today’s question on the Infant Steps Series has to do with backsliding but in this case, not the person asking the question. What will you do if someone you love is backsliding? How can you help? What if you try and all your efforts seem futile? Have you ever been in such a situation? Please read Patience’s question below and help her out with your spirit-led suggestions. Thank you.

Dear Rita,

I love my best friend. What brought us together was her leading me to Christ. This happened when we were in secondary school. She has been amazing. She followed up on me. She taught me most of the principles I know in walking with God. We have been friends all through secondary school and now in the University. I felt we were inseparable.

Recently, my friend started having problems at home, which I would not like to disclose. It was quite traumatic for her. Initially, she was praying and believing God for a favorable solution to the situation. What she expected did not happen. I noticed that after a while, she was not interested in going to fellowship or church service. She always claimed that studies were making her too busy. We used to make out time each week to pray together but all of a sudden, she could not meet up with the appointments. I haven’t seen my friend doing anything out of the ordinary but I feel strongly that she is backsliding. I have been praying for her.

I had a talk with her and she told me I was misunderstanding her, that nothing has changed in her relationship with God.

Am I wrong in what I suspect? Is there anything I can do for my friend to help reignite the fire she had for God? If she eventually walks away from God and I cannot help her, will I be at fault?

Patience.


If you have any questions you would like to discuss on the Infant Steps Series, please drop me an email at esurunma@gmail.com or leave the question as a comment in any of my blog posts.


If you want to view past questions and answers on the Infant Steps Series, please check the list on the sidebar right of the blog.


All posts on the Infant Steps Series will be posted on Tuesdays, 9 AM West Africa Time.

Ode To My Father

If I was the most moral of ladies
I would have said that was why You blessed me with a wonderful husband;
If I had not missed work purposely
I would have said that was why You gave me the promotion;
If I had not partied the night before exams
I would have said that is why You blessed me with good grades;
If I had woken up early
I would have said that is why You kept a parking space just for me;
If I had passed my driving test
I would have said that is why You preserved me and my car in Lagos road;
If I had a white-colored past
I would have said that is why You allow people listen to me;
If I have never missed a day of prayer and bible study
I would have said that is why You surround me with favour;

I can go on and on about ways that I have fallen short
Even of my own expectations
Yet, never for one day did You turn your back on me
You have been there – faithful, loving and true;

It suddenly hit me, so profound yet true
That You have loved me even before I had thought of loving You
And it is not by my works, my morality, what I did or did not do
But simply You love me and Your Grace has been there for me;

I thought I was the only one You loved that much
But when I looked around me, I realized You are consistent
Your love is there for everyone
No wonder you make the sun and moon shine on the righteous and the unrighteous;

Thank you for Your unconditional love
I have tried to reciprocate, but can anything compare to Your Love?
All I can try to do is obey You
Which has not been easy in this my walk with You;

I just want to say Thank You
For Your Love
That extends to each and every one of us
And is always there for us inspite of ourselves.

I tried to count my blessings…and I could not keep count. They were just too many. Thank You, My Loving Father.

These are the songs in my heart
I Pour My Love On You
Unrestrained

Your Daughter Whom You Love,
Rita

I AM

I Am:
I Am your exceedingly great reward
Who will never leave you nor forsake you
Who opens doors which no one can close
I Am;

I Am your creator
Who watched you and knit you in your mother's womb
I neither sleep nor slumber
Who says I will not remember you;

I Am the Lord above all things
My ways are not your ways
I Am not a man that I should lie
Have I spoken and it did not come to pass?

I have loved you with an everlasting love
I daily load you with blessings
I give beauty for ashes
I have my way in the whirlwind and in the storm;

I will always be with you
Whether you can feel my presence or not
I Am the Lord your God
With me nothing is impossible;

I Am so mindful of you
See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands
Your walls are continually before me
Nothing can separate you from this love I have for you
You are the apple of my eyes;

I Am,
I Am That I Am
I Am for you
I Am.

Infant Steps: Do Married Couples Have Less Temptations to Deal With?

Beloved EROLyrics Readers,

Even as this week unfolds, covenant grace and peace be to you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior, who reigns forevermore.

Have you ever wondered if single people face more temptations than married people (or vice versa)? Ogonna shares her struggle and thoughts concerning this. Please read her question below and share your thoughts on this. Thank you.

Dear Rita,

I am a born-again Christian though I feel ashamed to say so. One of the areas I struggle with is premarital sex. I know that it is not good but I found out that I have fallen many times. I am still trying to get to that point where I can be in a relationship free of this temptation.

Somewhere at the back of my mind, I feel that if I was married, I would not be feeling guilty after I have been with my man. I actually feel that if I was married, I would no longer have any sin/temptations that I could not easily overcome. Which brings me to my question:

Do married people have less struggles and temptations to deal with compared to the singles? This may sound like a stupid question but I really want to know. If a married person does not have to deal with fornication, that should mean they can easily overcome thing like lying and stealing. Right?

Ogonna.

If you have any questions you would like to discuss on the Infant Steps Series, please drop me an email at esurunma@gmail.com or leave the question as a comment in any of my blog posts.

If you want to view past questions and answers on the Infant Steps Series, please check the list on the sidebar right of the blog.


All posts on the Infant Steps Series will be posted on Tuesdays, 9 AM West Africa Time.

Infant Steps: Fighting Temptations

Beloved EROLyrics Readers,

Hope your week has started out greatly. Covenant grace and peace be to you in the name of Jesus our Lord and Savior, who reigns forevermore.

Today’s question on the Infant Steps Series is from me to you. It is about fighting temptations. You can read one of my experiences with temptation here and my analogy of temptation with the forbidden fruit.

Temptations can come to challenge your strength as a child of God, challenge your beliefs and integrity, or to make you feel you are not good enough.

My question is, "Have you ever found yourself in a situation where the temptation seemed to overwhelm you yet you were able to overcome? If yes, what did you do? What made you not to give in?" Your experience does not have to be as "you know" as mine...:-)

Thank you,

Rita.

You might also like Overcoming Addiction on the Infant Steps Series...

If there be any unconfessed sin in your heart, do not hesitate to confess to God and probably the person(s) that needs to know.

If you have any questions you would like to discuss on the Infant Steps Series, please drop me an email at esurunma@gmail.com or leave the question as a comment in any of my blog posts.

If you want to view past questions and answers on the Infant Steps Series, please check the list on the sidebar right of the blog.

All posts on the Infant Steps Series will be posted on Tuesdays, 9 AM West Africa Time.

In This 2009, We Will...(6)

For verily I say unto you, that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, `Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea,' and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he say shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he say [Mark 11:23].

Mercy did not need to experience men herself; her conclusion was that they were all fakes, pretenders, wife beaters and liars. She had seen her elder sister being dumped by a man, leaving the young lady with a baby who never knew his father. She had seen the constant turmoil her eldest sister went through because of a husband who beat her every day for no reason. That was enough.

So Mercy told me, “I will never marry in this life. The only good men I know are my brother and my father. The rest are no good.” This she kept on saying.

We were young then. As we grew older, our priorities became different. We no longer wanted to read Enid Blyton books. The M&Bs had aroused something in us. We wanted to experience those things. We began to see that afterall, men can be good (maybe after a fight or two). We decided to try relationships. Mercy told me that she was in the relationship to get all she could from the man, such as access to company data for projects, companionship on weekends and let it not be said that she is a lesbian. She insisted that she will never get married.

Few years later, our classmates started getting married one after the other. Despite her beauty, it became more difficult for Mercy to stay in relationships. All led to nowhere, confirming her beliefs about men. When I saw her 2 years ago, it was still the same story.

I had been on my own journey, but there was something I learnt – we create our world with our words. I learnt to stop confessing negative words. I had learnt that I will have whatever I say [Mark 11:23]. I also learnt that we can ask God to forgive us for every idle word we have said, and by starting afresh we can recreate our world. So I told Mercy it was time for her to take back those words she confessed when she was younger, and start making positive confessions. In a few months time, she will be getting married.

In this 2009, We Will Speak Right.

We have been made in the image of God [Gen 1:27]. We know that God created the world by speaking, by calling things to be. His words began with, “Let there be…” [Genesis 1:3].

I would liken the impact of the words we speak to ripples. When you drop a stone in water, you see the way the ripples (waves) propagate outward affecting everything around it until a point where the energy fades away. That is how the words we speak are. They affect what is happening around us. The more we speak, the more we change (whether positively or negatively) the things around us.

What are the things that cause us not to speak right?
1. Ignorance: - We do not know the effect our words have or the kind of words we should be saying. In addition to the words we say, speaking the word of God also causes a manifestation of power because the word of God is backed up by the power of God [Hebrews 4:12].
2. Slangs and words we pick from our environment: -This guy is ‘bad’ may come out as a slang to mean something positive but it is indeed saying the guy is bad. Words like ‘this task is killing me’ may seem like a figure of speech but it is saying the task should kill you.
3. Circumstances: -when you are faced with a situation that cripples your faith and hope, you find yourself speaking what it is saying to you. So you have to speak back to the situation. Circumstances and situations are facts. The word of God is the truth.
4. Fears: - Job said “the thing I feared most has come upon me”. When you have fears, you begin to meditate on them, and worry about them, and what you have on the inside of you finds its way out through the words you say (even in your prayers). Such fears begin to manifest. You must replace the spirit of fear with faith, and by speaking the word of God.

Beloved, there is nothing you cannot have in this life. In this 2009, you will speak right. It is not too late to ask God to forgive you for negative words you may have confessed out of ignorance. This is a time to speak positively and call what you desire into realization. You may seem like a mad person when you are calling things that be not as though they were, but the truth is you will be acting as a true child of God [Romans 4:17]. Don’t use words like “if” but rather use words like “when” as you talk about your testimony to come. Your story will be different because we have a God who is indeed a story-changer.

Have a blessed weekend ahead.

For other posts in this series please visit the links below:
1. In This 2009, We Will Pray for Others
2. In This 2009, We Will Worship The Lord
3. In This 2009, We Will Know God for Ourselves
4. In This 2009, We Will Guard Our Hearts
5. In This 2009, We Will Sow Seeds