LESSONS FROM WAR ROOM

LESSONS FROM WAR ROOM

War Room was the most anticipated movie in the Christian Circles in 2015. The impact it had and still has is only one that we can thank God for. As I close my last post for this year I thought finishing with this was a great way to be a source of encouragement to others as they look to a blessed 2016.

My dilemma with most Christian movies is that we tend to forgive the production and just focus on the message. But War Room made me forget the production because of the powerful nature the story was told. I just loved it because of its impact in my life.

From my latest posts am sure people can tell my year has been a tough one. God’s timing for this movie being released was just perfect because I really needed the encouragement the story line had and I have ended my year really connecting with God in an amazing way.

You can read more on that in my previous blog  BATTLE CRY

I thought I would share some of the things that I learnt from the movie and that I actually practice now that I have watched the movie.

 Before that here is a link to the trailer WAR ROOM TRAILER

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• ·         Have a prayer strategy, it actually helps you focus and helps you prepare scriptures for what you are praying for and helps you focus
• ·         The prayer strategy makes you feel you are on a secret mission with God and you meet with Him regularly to strategize the next move, which is pretty cool
• ·         Do not be a look warm Christian, stand your ground.
• ·         You are not fighting flesh and blood but powers and principalities. Grant grace to those who wrong you and fight the real enemy
• ·         Have a quiet place and a time that no one will interrupt as your War Room. Not everyone has a closet like in the movie but find a place
• ·         Have some accountability. Having someone like Miss Clara is great but we don’t all have access to an older person to speak into our lives. I wish we all did. Either way you can always pray for one. But have that person who won’t let you wine about your issues but will take them to the War Room with you.
• ·         Victories do not come by accident. They have to have strategy. Things do work out yes but sometimes we can let them get way out of hand because of not praying over them and sometimes we just loose.
• ·         You are God’s first before anyone else. ALWAYS
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There are many more lessons but it would be great for you to draw some of your own as well.

I really highly the movie and I pray that you transition well into 2016 even as you continue to grow in Christ. Also feel free to review all my 2015 posts.

Will end with this as a great song even as you go to your War Rooms

Tasha Cobbs : Break Every Chain

BREAK EVERY CHAIN

BATTLE CRY

BATTLE CRY

I love to pray generally. It is not only my time to relate with God but it’s also my battle cry. My battle cry can be different. It can be strategic and it can also come from a helpless state. Either way I always have to make sure the One in charge understands exactly what is going on.

It’s not always the easiest thing to do especially for myself because it really makes me have to focus on what my life is like. I am very good at encouraging people and praying for them and even seeing the solutions to their issues. Lately I have had to back off and view my own life. And fight my battles. Yes, I am a broken person right now, even my prayers have been like a doodle they start in one way and they end in another. I even interject and mention it in the middle of asking God why my life is as it is.

What I appreciate about my prayer life is that I do not have to pretend with God. I tell Him as it is and I am sincere in my feelings and also my weakness to see beyond what I am feeling. It makes my relationship with Him so real. I do get myself in the situations at times when I should have asked Him for the strategy but either way even when I go off on my own as His daughter He will always bring me back on the right track.

There was a year I had that was really bad I couldn’t even pray, I always heard the book of Psalms was encouraging so I thought it would cheer me up to meditate on it. It did way more than that. It echoed the very feelings I had. I learnt how sincere David was about how he felt and saw the raw emotion in his words. He would even dwell on and on about his despair but the one thing I learnt about him was that he always ended it with encouraging words and how he trusted that God was always in control and the situation was not going to last.

 I am a general cry baby and I know that I am also a strong person, people generally don’t like to see me being weak. So people expect me to get over things quickly. I am not capable of doing that because by nature I ponder and analyze and just when I have gotten over one aspect of an issue I will view it in a new angle and the agony starts again. However once I am done with something, it’s over. I completely move on. I don’t return back there ever again. I am a fighter and a resilient and patient person but everything has a limit. There are some battles you just let go and let God deal with it.

I am well aware that I am not like other people so I will not process it even as advised despite the good intentions of my friends and family. Either way what I discovered is that David was the same way. If you carefully read the Psalms he would repeat a lot of his afflictions to God. He would constantly and consistently take the same issues to God. Why? Because when something is weighing on you the best person to tell is always God. He knows how to comfort you and He gets you and gets the whole picture even the one you cannot see. Even when He sends help from others they will minister to you to a certain point, but in the end He is the one who will get you through and give you the much needed solutions. The battle is the Lord’s always.

As much as I love to pray for people I have realized that sometimes relying on others to pray for you all the time robs you of that precious interaction with God. It robs you of the instructions from the Master. God is your Father, you have a different and a special relationship with Him than I do. I can pray for you as a sister but there are things that will be attended to better if you personally take it to Him yourself.

I encourage you to pursue that daily, and take the adventure with God. He is there ready for you.

When I became a new believer one of the songs that really caught my attention was Mark Shultz song He’s my son. It was so sincere and powerful as a lot of his songs are. I decided to end the post with the lyrics of the song as well as a link to the song.

Hope you are blessed by it as you start this journey of seeking God. Just be yourself, He is your Father. There is no formula on how to talk to Him

Click HERE for the link

Below are the lyrics

I'm down on my knees again tonight,
I'm hoping this prayer will turn out right.
See, there is a boy that needs Your help.
I've done all that I can do myself
His mother is tired,
I'm sure You can understand.
Each night as he sleeps
She goes in to hold his hand,
And she tries
Not to cry
As the tears fill her eyes.

Can You hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can You see him?
Can You make him feel all right?
If You can hear me
Let me take his place some how.
See, he's not just anyone, he's my son.

Sometimes late at night I watch him sleep,
I dream of the boy he'd like to be.
I try to be strong and see him through,
But God, who he needs right now is You.
Let him grow old,
Live life without this fear.
What would I be
Living without him here?
He's so tired,
And he's scared
Let him know that You're there.

Can You hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can You see him?
Can You make him feel all right?
If You can hear me
Let me take his place some how.
See, he's not just anyone, he's my son.

Can You hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can You see him?
Can You make him feel all right?
If You can hear me
Let me take his place somehow.
See, he's not just anyone.

Can You hear me?
Can You see him?
Please don't leave him,
He's my son.

WHAT IS LOVE?

WHAT IS LOVE?

Recently I had a discussion with a friend about love and she made me re think it to some extent. I am already that person who believes that love is more about what you do than what you say and feel. Because love is challenged the most when the person you love is not acting very lovable.

So anyhow we were talking about relationships in general especially the ones that end up with a break up and how in the end as much as someone hurt you the person you hurt most is yourself. And also that you really beat yourself up because you feel like a fool and wonder how you didn’t see it.

As a person who has recently been hurt by someone very deeply that thought had run through my head enough times. Then my friend went on further and said that the scripture in 1 Corinthians 13 is about love not about loving others. Which basically also means myself. I was completely taken aback, I never thought that the scripture also meant that I love myself in that way. It makes perfect sense why we would struggle to give that kind of love to someone else because we haven’t given it to ourselves first. You can only give others what you have.

 I still have a lot to learn about love and it’s all very profound. Sometimes you go through something and you think you have it all figured out then another dimension just pops out. I love that this has been a year where God has shown me a whole new side of being a believer in him and who I am as a person. This journey has been emotionally stretching but I definitely learnt a lot about love this year more than any other time.

I learnt that those who love you will not always do or say what you want them to say but will act in your best interest at times. That was the biggest lesson and the biggest heart break as well. Sometimes people just figure that they can’t love you as you deserve and that is unfortunate because the source of love is God. It’s was never meant to come from you but from Him. God is Love [I John4:8]

Love is generally very complex because we have reduced it to a feeling. It isn’t what we feel it’s what we do. It is ranked above faith and hope and that tells you something about how great love is.. Considering that the Bible says it’s impossible to please God without faith, it really makes you wonder about love, as it is greater than faith doesn’t it? Could be cause it covers a multitude of sins J

I decided to take time and go through it with myself in mind where the words are applicable verses 4-7. Here is what I wrote and I hope as I continue to study this I will learn more and more about love as God intended.

Loving me

·         I need to be patient with myself

·         I need to be kind to myself

·         I need to be accepting of myself and not be too hard on myself or keep records of my mistakes

·         I need not keep punishing myself when I do wrong but forgive myself

·         I need to be truthful to myself

·         I need to never give up on myself and never lose faith in myself

·         I need to be always hopeful about myself and I need to endure through all life throws at me.

Loving others

·         I need to be patient with others

·         I need to be kind to others

·         I need not to be jealous or boastful or proud or rude towards others

·         I need not demand my own way on others

·         I need not be irritable towards others

·         I need not keep accounts of wrong doing of others

·         I need not rejoice over injustices but only truth

·         I need not to give up on others and not lose faith in others

·         I need to always be hopeful towards others and to endure through circumstances

That is definitely a deep commitment and definitely not a lesson one learns at ago and its easier said than done. No one is perfect and once in a while we will drop the ball on this.

My greatest comfort is that God loves me even more than this passage can describe and I can only aspire to love like He does. I am also grateful that at least I can count on Him to teach me.

Here is the full scripture passage below

Love Is the Greatest 1 Corinthians 13

1 If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. ³ If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud ⁵ or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. ⁶ It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. ⁷ Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

⁸ Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! ⁹ Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! ¹⁰ But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.

¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. ¹² Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

¹³ Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

LETTING GO: MOVING FORWARD

LETTING GO: MOVING FORWARD

It’s interesting what this year has been for me. It’s already December and I can’t believe how fast the year has gone. It’s one of those months that makes you look back and see what you have accomplished. Celebrate the success and maybe cry about the low moments and there is also strive to improve for next year.

This year I learnt a few things about myself. I have a higher tolerance and endurance than I thought and I am resilient.

 I have been tested emotionally beyond my power to comprehend what was going on in my life. I actually reached the point where I stopped making plans for my life and yet I am known to plan my life to specific details. I have been forced to see how powerless I really am and how being vulnerable though is good can have a negative effect. I was left wondering if I would ever let anyone else in ever again.

The problem of sharing your hurt when you are known as a strong personality is that people want to give you solutions to on how to overcome and are generally very impatient with you and also want you to get over it as fast as possible. That is because when they meet you they don’t want to talk about it. The truth is sometimes you just want to vent and you don’t want solutions. The bad thing is to wallow in it.

 People like me withdraw from public and process in my mind what happened and what is happening and if there is another way. I have done that throughout the year with every area of my life because this year has been a real emotional stretch. From health to work to personal life and also spiritual life. The truth is I am those who are happy December is here.

I will not deny that some things have worked out very well and others crumbled. The hardest part was the ones that crumbled and have been cultivated for a while. Thought it was sprouting, gave it support, watered and cultivated it and still crumbled. I understood the meaning of working in vain. Sometimes it’s obvious to let something go but if you are a hopeful person like I am that things can turn around you cling when you should actually let go. That statement let go let God is very real especially this year.

This is that year that I have really asked God what the point of my life is. It is very hard for people like me who plan things and they don’t work out. I like to see a clear path of where I am going. This year I have been on the Abraham journey of going and not knowing where but still going all the same. Going but not knowing where to, going and not sure which direction is the right one or what to prepare for what’s ahead. Going and feeling weary and anxious and scared.

My faith has been stretched for sure, I have had panic attacks and anxieties beyond what I can fathom. I have also felt very alone and very abandoned. I have had to shut out voices of people and those in my head that keep reminding me of my failures. I have also endured a lot of being mistreated especially when I knew I deserved better and I still kept on. It’s very strange how you can one time or another watch someone treated badly or going through a tough time and you judge them for not being strong until you go through it then you realize how thoughtless you were to them.

All in all I have figured that this was a season I had to go through. I have become a different person for sure and I have grown. I am more open now and have a higher sense of empathy towards others. I am not willing to lower my standards of what I want any more because I deserve it. I am also less tolerant of people treating me less than I deserve. I am a strong person and I am a good person and I am a beautiful person. That has always been one of the hardest things for me to believe but I know that if I believe it then everyone else will. I am intelligent and I am unique. I am authentic, what you see is what you get. You don’t have to like me I am very ok with not being popular but be humane and civil.

I will never let go of God because He has seen me through this year. He is the only One Who’s approval I need and is the only one who knows what I need. He has removed a lot of people from my life this year but has also brought new ones and further blessed existing ones. He has heard my cries and also celebrated with me in moments of joy. He has been a real presence in my life this year, I actually felt His Presence in my life all through despite what I went through I knew He was always with me and still is with me.

I have also figured that this is not the end of difficult seasons but what I have learnt is that since I got through this one I will overcome the next one. And that God will still bless me more than I can ask think or imagine and it will be worth going through all this.

So let’s let go of our pasts and let’s move forward and enjoy this festive season no matter what your year looked like.

GROWING UP

GROWING UP

Hi people. I did not post last week sorry about that. Was actually pretty blank on what to write tried to push it to the next day, still blank. For someone like me who always has a lot to say you’d think I had like 10 articles lined up to post. Well apparently not.

This week I am dedicating this article to the generation of young people behind me. It is also pretty personal because I will reveal a lot of how I grew up. I realized that my audience is not strictly African so who knows how this will go.

I was raised in a middle class African family. Pretty normal to me at least until you start to interact with the outside world and realize that you are not as normal as you thought.

In my country there is this identity crisis I have when I interact with people of a higher social class or a lower social class. They both have something to point out that you do not do quite right. You can feel totally underestimated and like you are always out to prove yourself. Well technically I usually do not care but I have seen my friends struggle with a simple decision like living in a lower income area because they grew up in a middle class area. So they end up living beyond their means just to fit in. That doesn’t make sense to me. Well let me share a bit about where I come from [my family] to gain some perspective.

What I know is one thing, I was raised not to fit in but to lead. In whatever way possible I was to lead. Everyone is good at something and I was taught not to compare myself with others.

I was raised not that I should marry a rich man but that I too can make it in life. It is not an impossible task, it’s just that some people take longer to get there than others.

No one in my family who followed their passion ever regretted it, in our family we are encouraged to follow our passions, there was always a huge support system. Men always take the lead and are always the greatest source of support. My grand father led the way being one of the few men of his generation who believed in girl child education.  I may be blessed with such a family but if your support system isn’t your family then pick friends who can be.

There are people who are in your life for a season and some for a lifetime either way cherish the time. If it ends it doesn’t have to be on a bad note but let’s face it that’s not always possible. As you mature in life you realize people walking in and out of your life is normal.

My mother believed in being a home maker just as much as being a career woman. There are just some roles that even if we don’t like them as women they need our touch. Yes we live in the day and age of independent women but it’s still nice to be able to keep some of our femininity and just be girls. No one said we cannot have a career if we want to.

 I was also taught to be discreet. The way people go shaming people all over the place, it was never encouraged in our family. It’s you who got the negativity in the end and people will either look down on you or pity you, which never helps at all in any form. Being the subject of family gossip can really take a toll and generally hurts your reputation and makes 

people perceive you in a certain way.

All in all. My advice is do not be a victim of your circumstances. Just make the best of what life gives you. No situation lasts forever. Life is hard enough as it is why complicate it.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

DATING DEBATE

DATING DEBATE

For some reason the last couple of days I have seen people post a lot of dating articles. I decided why not add to the numerous dating articles.

I am those people who don’t believe in dating for fun. Before I get into that let’s see what the word actually means

Date in this context means a social appointment, engagement, or occasion arranged beforehandwith another person:

Dating in this context means

A couple, in the early stages of a relationship who go out on dates to find out what each other is like, as a prelude to actually being a committed couple [that’s from the urban dictionary]

Ok so now before I get into why I don’t believe in dating for fun, here is a link on a previous post about me and some insight into how I think.

Click here

Am sure after reading that you may have already formed an opinion about me, i.e. that I am hard to get along with. I actually am not. I am a pretty friendly genuine person and when one gets to know me I am a loyal friend.

Back to the topic at hand

I don’t believe in dating for fun because it doesn’t lead anywhere. It’s almost like a fear of commitment competing with the fear of being alone. You don’t want to be alone but you don’t want the responsibility of commitment either.

I am a very old school girl. I believe one is ready to date when one is ready to get married. That’s my view on dating. I don’t get why people want to have a string of relationships under their belts. It’s almost like a rite of passage nowadays.

I actually get a lot of grief about this and get judged a lot by people who don’t share my view, especially from believers. They ask “how will you know?” I will give that answer later.

I have read enough relationship books and articles and the one I would recommend is I KISSED DATING GOODBYE by Joshua Harris

I know there are people who have read it and love and there are others who don’t care for it, either way read it.

 His view may be old fashioned but it makes sense.

I have posted an excerpt from the book in the image below and you can decide for yourself.

I believe if we treated relationships with the intended sacredness it should have, more people would be married. Relationships are too much about fun and games these days that even when a little discontented with it, it’s replaceable. That shouldn’t be the case at all. We should try and be as sincere as possible and open when we choose to date.

I am not an expert but from what I have learnt sometimes relationships are more of a coping mechanism and a rite of passage. It’s like that box you are waiting to tick to say, “Done.”

   I am at that point in my life when I want to build relationships that actually matter. I mean that for everyone. Who will be at your side when things get tough, can this person be relied upon.

When I was kid the most important thing was to have friends, and the type of friends elevated you to a certain level. As an adult, there is no point. It’s more important to have relationships that actually matter. Does the other person have my back? Are we real to each other? Have we seen each other at a vulnerable state?

I know I treasure my friendships a lot and my closest friends are an extension of my family, I also know I cannot be like that with everyone one. It’s not even realistic. But I know I am there for people in different capacities and I know there are friends who are there for me in certain areas as well. My friendships aren’t all the same.

For romantic relationships all I can say is, it’s important to have that friendship first. If someone can show you who they are and what they are like, drive you up the wall and hurt you in unbelievable ways and you still think, “ I still want to spend the rest of my life with this person despite all that” I say go for it. That is real. Of course it’s still important that they make you happy and you want to spend time with them and you share the same values and you cannot fathom a future without them in your life.

There are things you cannot disregard like being faithful, truthful, loyal, communication, quality time, each other’s past, family, finance, faith you follow, nature of jobs and many more.

There is a lot to consider. These things take time so dating shouldn’t be rushed into either. Not everything you want in a person shows up all at one time, some will even come after marriage. I believe if we trust God with this, He will reveal as you pray. We live in an impatient world but I really believe He does if we ask Him to. As a believer it is the second most important decision you will ever make after deciding to follow Christ. So that’s why I don’t get the dating for fun thing.

Hope my insight has been helpful in some way.

SOURCES OF WISDOM

SOURCES OF WISDOM

So this week I decided to share inspirational quotes. Since I was younger I have loved to collect quotes and share them. My favorite being Christian quotes.

 I even had a special place on the blackboard in school to share quotes, and the teachers did not mind.

No matter how your week has been so far may these quotes inspire you.

For more go to https://www.pinterest.com/miamaracreation/true-inspiration/