Devotionals

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To everything there is a season.

There are those seasons that we are expecting, but it does not mean we like or we are looking forward to them. For instance, God is the God of seasons. He created four seasons of the year. We know that the weather must and will change, however we are not always happy about the other seasons of the year.

There are those seasons in a person’s life that come because it is the time for that. Like the season to retire for instance, the season to be pregnant, (this depends if that is the easy pregnancy or difficult one), if it is the difficult pregnancy those nine months feels like nine years, and if it is an easy pregnancy, those nine months flies, the season to have children, the season to get married etc. Those I would call happy seasons. However there are those seasons that are not happy seasons. These are the season that changed / challenge or stretch our faith. For instance the season to lose the job when you need the money most, the season to be diagnosed with the dreadful disease, a season of pain(some of my friends are in this season) or a season to lose your love ones, broken engagement, broken marriages etc.

All of these seasons challenges us and causes us to ask those theological questions. We don’t always know why they happen to us, but they happen. These are seasons we don’t want to go through. Is there a way we can avoid them? Are they avoidable even?

Listen to Jesus’s take on this issue. ” Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”( John 1633). WOW.

I am wondering, does this statement make the pain go away? Does it make you feel better? Does it even supposed to take away the pain? I don’t think so. It does mean that we have victory. Even though it does not always look like that or even feel like that. But victory is ours. I had many of those seasons in my life,(there is a book coming up, telling more about those seasons, watch the space) and I learned some things. I learned the things I would not have learned if I hadn’t gone through these seasons. There are attributes of God that I never experience, or did not know before I walk through those dark valleys. I think I can say this, the most intimate moments with God for me, are during those dark valleys.

Those moments I would not trade them for anything, but I don’t want to go through those valleys again. I am not trying to say, this is so for everybody, you might get your intimate moments with God outside of pain. I get mine, in the midst of pain/dark valley. I have tears in my eyes as I write this. The tears are coming from remembering those dark valleys, and more so in remembering those intimate moments with God. What am I trying to say is, there might be something that you could find about yourself in the season that you are in, something positive you did not know about yourself. Like bravery, courageous etc. I am not sure which season you are in, if it is a happy season, congratulations and all the blessings. If you are going through the painful, dark season, it is just a SEASON. I am not saying this lightly. I am not even going to pretend that I know the pain or how it feels to be in your season right now, because I don’t. One thing I do know though is that, it is a SEASON. Seasons comes and goes. See you next week.

Nobuntu

“Before daybreak the next morning, Jesus got up and went out to an isolated place to pray”,(Mark 1:35).That would be what we call, ‘A quiet time.”

I am wondering, what we mean by that. May be it means being quiet in the presence of the Lord?

My friend and I were discussing this same thing the other day. What is it that we hoping to get when we have this “quiet time”? Jesus surely did not wake up to bring before God the shopping list.

Let us look at (John 5: 19-20 Message). So Jesus explained himself at length. “I’m telling you this straight. The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing”. If that is the case, then Jesus go to this solitary place to take orders and fellowship with the Father. How else will He know what the Father does or even say for that matter if He does not spend time with Him? God wants to include us also in what He is doing.

Our “quiet time” became a religious duty. It became one of those things that are in our schedule that needs to be done and get over with. It is like a burden, to feel better we need to be able to mark, “done for the day. Some of us go to this “quiet time” with our own agenda or full diaries. What we need or rather want from God is not what God wants; it is to give God orders. God just needs to okay/blesses whatever we have in our diaries. This closes our spiritual ears to hear anything else other than what we want to hear. God want to direct us each day and each step of the way. Therefore, the “quiet time” is not the time for us to give God orders; it is the time for us to receive orders.

Does God cares then about what I am going through or what I have to say? The answer is a very big YES. “But first, be concerned about His kingdom and what has His approval. Then all these things will be provided for you,( Matthew 6:33).

God want fellowship with us. It is about His relationship with us. Christianity is NOT a religion, it is a relationship. We are in a relationship with God Almighty who wants to be part of each and every step we take. “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives”,(Psalm 37:23). What is He going to direct if He did not give any orders? If we allow God a time that is not rushed by appointments, and let Him speak and direct us, Sunday morning services will be the time to hear the confirmation of what God already said.

We are going to get out what we put in. In any relationship, you get from it what you put in. It is the very same with our relationship with God. “Make no mistake about this: You can never make a fool out of God. WHATEVER you plant is what you’ll harvest. If you plant in the soil of your corrupt nature, you will harvest destruction. But if you plant in the soil of your spiritual nature, you will harvest everlasting life”,(Galatians 6:7-8). In that space with God, we are refilled, refreshed , revived and embody His glory. Moses came down from Mount Sinai, carrying the two tablets with God’s words on them. His face was shining from speaking with the LORD, but he didn’t know it,(Exodus 34:29).

This is my goal this year.

Have a God-filled week.

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