Category: Faith

S.A.D and the Winter Blues

During the Winter months it’s common to feel a little down, which is why I typically emphasise the importance of gratitude and take intentional steps to be thankful at this time of the year. I noticed a few years back that I tended to feel symptoms associated with anxiety at the start of Autumn. My first memory of this was about 6 years ago when I felt a sudden wave of panic at the thought of summer coming to an end. At the time I thought it was to do with a new academic year beginning and needing to work harder to get my certifications. I told myself that it would all be okay and the slight panic that I could feel rising subsided, but the dread remained. The cold season has never been my preference. Unlike Elsa, the cold has always bothered me. I chucked it up to personal preference and a twist of fate that I was born in Autumn instead of Spring or Summer.

It wasn’t until 2018 that I realised that there might be more to this than just the downsides to an introverted personality. I was crying every day for about a week and didn’t know why. I felt a deep sense of despair and hopelessness and I didn’t understand why. At the time, I was between jobs, moved homes and had just enrolled on a Masters program. Yes, all this was tough and tasking, but I had been through worse and didn’t have to deal with feeling unmotivated as a result. In the grand scheme of things everything was fine and I had everything that I needed. But I was still really sad. Rather than give in to the feelings, I resisted it, didn’t tell anyone what was going on, hid my tears behind forced smiles, and tried to get through it with positive confessions. “We walk by faith and not by sight”, “Faith over feelings”, “God is more real than what I am feeling”. It wasn’t working. I felt more emotionally worn out, with each confession. My constant smiling made me feel like a fraud. I was faking it, but never making it. I eventually broke out of it, and I will come back to what exactly helped me, but I want to highlight the importance of knowing what it is that you are facing.

I firmly believe that you cannot fight something that you refuse to face. Whatever it is that is troubling you be it a health issue, a bad habit, an addiction or even debt, if you don’t face it you’re never going to overcome it. This doesn’t mean we lose faith, or that we stop praying. It means that we channel our faith in a specific direction and pray specific prayers. For me facing it was knowing that this was seasonal affective disorder. Knowing this meant that I could channel my energy into taking care of myself in a suitable way, I can refrain from things that could be a trigger and open me up to relapse and I could better position myself in prayer. I know that SAD is not my portion or my inheritance in Christ, so I positioned myself accordingly. Because I knew what I was up against I could fight back in faith with the invisible weapons at my disposal. That is what the fight of Faith is; Fighting a battle that is not visible to the physical eyes, but will yield (positive or negative) results. I have learnt that invisible battles can leave very visible scars. I have had to learn to fight better and smarter.

Counter attack is my favourite way of dealing with issues like these. Winter blues and sadness in general, causes us to want to withdraw and isolate. A little down time and alone time is good and healthy, but it can lead to other things like self-piety, self-loathing, low self-esteem, increased sense of hopelessness and worthlessness, these are all friends of the enemy, which can be used to keep you away from joy, gratitude, healthy relationships and communion with people around you. Instead of giving in to the narrative of loneliness, spend time with people. Don’t go over board and plan an elaborate party, which may make it worse. Just find 1 – 3 people who you can sit with, talk to or engage in a mild activity with. Being with and talking to people is a great way to regain perspective.

One of the things that I find often happens when we feel down is that we lose clarity. We don’t have a clear picture of what we want or where we are going. This is because we are so overwhelmed by the predominant feeling of sadness, which distracts us from our objectives. A great way of counteracting this is by writing. Journaling has a way of organising our thoughts. When we write we not only think about what we want to say, but we also think about how we feel as we say it and how we want to say it. This is a good way of practicing to process our emotions. We all have emotions, but in order to learn how to control our emotions we need to process them first. I would suggest writing no more than 20 minutes daily, and encourage that you end each journal entry with a positive statement. This could be something you are grateful for, something you look forward to, or a good memory from the past.

The symptoms of depression, seasonal affective disorder and some other mental health illnesses, include physical and emotional tiredness, lack of motivation and reduced interest. Because of this people often develop feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness. A great way to combat these thoughts and feelings is to revisit previous achievements. The other morning I went back and read the devotional I completed and published last year. I was blessed by what I had written, I took my own advise and applied some of the scriptures that I had written down. The things you create through God’s creative power become a memorial for you. You realise that although you don’t feel it right now, there is a powerful deposit inside of you that can only come from God. Your life is a testimony! Go back and visit your moments of triumph, your personal victories, your achievements and your testimonies. You are definitely worth more than you have achieved, but you also need to remember that you are more than what you feel. If you journal and take notes of good days and also take pictures, I would recommend that you re-read older entries and look at those pictures again. Use them to remind yourself that better days are coming.

Whether it is SAD, depression, anxiety, end of year stress or anything else, you can overcome if you will chose to believe that you can. Get help facing it from loved ones and health professionals. Help is always available if you reach out for it.

Unlimited Supply

The shelves are packed out in stores almost everywhere. People panicked because they heard that boarders are closing, and supermarkets would struggle to get their supplies in due to delays in the supply chain. The fear of not having enough, the fear of running out of supplies caused people to bulk buy beyond the capacity of their home storage spaces, beyond what their pantries could hold and beyond what they would need.

I’m reminded of when God sent provision to the children of Israel in the wilderness. He sent food that had never been eaten or heard of before; food that had never existed. God’s promise was that he would provide for them what they needed daily. They were to gather only what they needed for each person in their household and use it all up on that same day. The passage of scripture in Exodus 16 beautifully depicts this dimension of God.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not” (16:4).
God was testing their ability to put their trust in him. It takes trusting God and his ability to come through for you in the wilderness, to gain the favour of God that you need to step into the promise.

Let every man gather it according to each one’s need, one omer for each person, according to the number of persons; let every man take for those who are in his tent.
God made sure that “he that gathered much had nothing left over and he that gathered little had no lack” (16:18)

But in their stubbornness, fear anxiety and doubt that God would come through for them, some saved some for the next day. This, consequently, went mouldy and became worm infested. Many haven’t thought about preservation or storage as they have gone out to shop. Back in  does days where they had no chest freezers or cooling storages, it was quite ridiculous for them to store food in the wilderness when they were handling food they had no experience with. Just like God was saying to the children of Israel back then, he is saying to us today, ‘trust me to supply for you and sustain you’.

I believe that just like the people of Israel we have a unique opportunity to stretch our faith and trust God to be a provider. For many people around the world it is a new experience to think about where we will get supplies from or how we will meet our needs. Now people are expressing worries, complaining about their situation and even fighting neighbours and strangers in the grocery stores over common household items.

We must remember the promise of God, which lets us know that they that trust in the name of the Lord shall be saved. That God is still a provider able to supply ALL our needs according to his riches in Glory. This is a time to bring out all those scriptures and verses we’ve memorised by way of continuous recital and exposure and watch God prove himself to be the person he said he was. It is a powerful thing when the word of God becomes real to us.
When circumstances beyond human control arise it is important to seek the One who controls both natural and supernatural realm. God is the one who controls the seemingly uncontrollable. He will supply, he will provide. He always has and always will, so let us exercise our faith in him for what he already said he would do.

Last month I started, saying to God under my breath, I trust you. I found that I was second guessing decisions that I had prayerfully made and experiencing uncertainty in certain areas. I was wrestles within myself concerning vocational decision I was about to make. It made logical sense, but somehow as I was getting closer to the time when the decision would play out I realised that I wasn’t feeling like things would unfold as expected. I did sense that God was requiring me to patiently wait on him to make things right. It was difficult not do anything. Phone calls I could have made, emails I could have sent, questions I could have asked to be more proactive in the matters that concern my life and survival. I had to remind myself to surrender and to let God know that I trusted him and really leave things in his hands. I felt that things where going on in my life that I was not aware of. It drove me to prayer. Constantly asking God what he was doing. Literally trying to look over God’s shoulders to see what was coming. Eventually, things unfolded and I can now see that not only was he providing for me, he was also protecting me from trouble. By trusting in God I’ve learnt that the matters of my life concern him more than they concern me.

I know it can feel like there is too much uncertainty and not enough answers right now, but here is the truth that no amount of questioning or problems should ever take away from you: God has you where he wants you and if you cooperate, no devil in hell can knock you out of his hands.

It’s a tough time for all, and especially for some, but what a privilege it is to trust a God that has unlimited supply and is unlimited in his capacity to provide to all.

 

All reference verse taken from the New King James Version (NKJV) Bible ©. All right reserved.
The Christian Journal, 2020 ©

January in Summary

I have spent the better part of January praying and waiting on God for what he has for me. I don’t have all the answers but, I have made a conscious choice to make sure that I am in a place where I can get the answers and directions, I need to ensure that I end up in the place where God has destined me to be. I can’t achieve the dreams God has given me by myself. I need the interference of someone who knows better and someone much stronger than me to help me get to my desired destination. My natural self is prone to discouragement and inconsistency. Without his divine assistance I will lose strength and momentum along the way. Because I know this, I have given myself over to prayer and supplication and focused more on receiving what I need to excel this year and the decades to come.

With the month rapping up I have confidence that God has my back because I have taken out time to make the necessary sacrifice that will enable me to excel this year. Of course, there is the requirement for ongoing, supplication further down the road, but for now I know that it is time to begin the journey and take that first step in Faith. Faith that God has heard your prayers and that he is with you and won’t let you take steps in the wrong direction. You can only have this assurance if you have really spent time in surrender to God in prayer.

Another thing I have been more deliberate with, which I will certainly continue to practice is reading the word and praying it back to God. The Bible in one-year plan on YouVersion has been a great resource in maintaining this. The plan gives you 4-5 chapters in the new and old testament to read daily and encourages you to write your thoughts and take away points at the end of each daily reading. It is spilt up in monthly portions so you can catch up here with February, if you would like to join. You are also able to invite others to join you with your daily reading habit and turn it into a group bible study. It’s also a great way to get your family members involved and keeps you accountable. It is a very useful and helpful tool if you are seeking to develop discipline in this area of your spiritual growth.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to review yourself each month. How did your January go? Did you pray more like you said you would? Did you stick to your goals? Did you commit your goals into the hands of the Lord and trust him? Did you write down the words and instructions you received from him? Are they in line with the Word? Which scripture spoke to you the most this month as you read the word?

As you continue to ask yourself questions that evaluate your journey into 2020, think of what you can do better or differently in February and set yourself small targets to do things that will further develop your spiritual life. Yes, I am asking you to prioritise your spiritual goals above every other goal. This is what Daniel and his friends did. Their spiritual goal was to please God and worship him alone and to fulfil the requirements of the law of God even if that meant going against the customs, norms and legal decrees of the Land. Instead of their health, education, careers and finances declining, they flourished, prospered and excelled in all that they did. I strongly believe that if you prioritise your spiritual goals and do what is said in the scriptures you will also begin to experience flourishing in your finances, relationships, career, health and wellbeing. This is what God wants for us and what he is willing to give us.

Reflecting at Christmas

This is by far the busiest times of the year and it’s not because of all the shopping. Actually, according to Shopify, November is the busiest commercial month of the year. I think it’s all the end of year rush, last-minute work targets and personal goals we want to achieve all between now and the 31st 23:59 which gets us all worked up. And on top of all that we want to enjoy the festivities and rest. We will soon discover that we cannot rest if we don’t eliminate the stressors in our way. At this time though I would say that one of the most important and beneficial things you can do for yourself is to spend time in reflection. When I’m reflecting or journaling it is in these moments when I’m most aware of what God has been teaching me through the day or the year. We need to intentionally create moments where we have epiphanies based on what is happening. Significant changes do not happen with the turn of a calendar it happens when we allow our minds to receive and engage with what is happening in our environments. We are praying for God to change our stories in the new year or decade, but we must ask ourselves what God has been engraving on the tables of our hearts over the last year or even decade that we haven’t paid attention to.

Beyond the feelings and the goosebumps, we might get when we encounter God, there are notable changes that take place in less spectacular ways inside of us. Being a lot more reflective, has help me understand that I ought to look for the mundane. Looking for God in the silence and seemingly insignificant is how Elijah got his life back as he stood on the mountain of God at the brink of depression.

I’m thinking about my life and things I want to focus on improving and things that I should keep and be more consistent with. Reflectively, I can say that I have grown over the last year. One of the key areas I have experienced growth and change in is how I think about giving and receiving love. It’s important to regularly reflect on how we relate with people and things.

Earlier in the year I had a conversation with someone that helped bring the thought process to mind and I can say that on reflecting on my understanding of extending love and hearing what the other person had to say, I found myself thinking that maybe I didn’t quite have a full understanding of what love – the God kind of Love – is. Maybe my limited understanding of how vast God’s love is keeping me from receiving all the wonderful gifts of God’s awesome love. I’ve begun thinking of love in a different way which has led to changes in how I practice love. Nothing drastic or dramatic, but significant enough for me to desire and chase after more of God’s kind of love in my heart. It is the kind of love that chases you and woos you regardless of how you are or what you’ve done. That love, loves you just because and nothing you could do could make it grow or diminish. Can I be that way towards myself and the people in my life? Can I be more loving regardless of what if?

At this point, I can say that any work that you catch me doing is related to reflecting and checking that the plans I make for the coming year are in line with the work that He has already begun in me. After all, what good is a perfect gift if I don’t take out the time to enjoy and use it?

Christmas blessings!

Four Hundred and Ninety Gifts for Father’s Day

Many people in many parts of the world are celebrating their fathers or a father figure in their life today. I love how we have set aside days to adhere to the scriptural principle set out in Ephesians 6 to honour our fathers and mothers on designated days. Aware of it or not, it is God’s desire that we do this and having a special date to commemorate this purpose allows us to check ourselves to see whether we have been living in accordance to what God has told us.

I know many people who have lovely things to say about their (biological) fathers. They recollect what their fathers did or said to them as they were growing up. They often speak of the investment their fathers have made. However, I know of many more who do not share in this experience. I belong to the latter group.

For many years Father’s day was an emotional event, reminding me that I didn’t have many great memories with my father. It made me feel like I was missing out and more than anything I realised that my father had fallen short of his role and in doing so, failed my siblings and I. I also became more aware of the immense burden my mother carried, because she chose to stay, and carries the responsibility of two people and plays the role of a father as well as that of a mother. This realisation hurt. The pain of loosing your father to the hands of premature death is indescribable, but very different from knowing that he chooses to be absent.

You have someone to blame, someone to hold to ransom. You can’t mourn because he isn’t dead and you most learn to honour his memory even though he hasn’t earned it and you are forced to accept his decision in spite of what you want and need.

How do we reconcile? How do we get to a place where we have peace, and I mean real peace, not the numb feeling that takes hold of parts of your soul? Thankfully, the answer is found in Matthew 18: 21- 22.

How often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?
No, Not Seven times, Jesus replied, but Seventy times seven!

For a long time I thought that when Jesus told us to forgive a person who offends us four hundred and ninety times, it meant that an offender could only count on my forgiveness for wrong doings on 490 occasions. Firstly, the temptation and implication of that interpretation is that we keep count of the wrong doings of others. It also means that we keep record of what people have done. There is no way of keeping accurate count without remembering what people have done. Walking through life so far and experiencing situations where I have had to forgive, I have come to understand that the forgiveness you extend for one specific action is not a one time gift. More than often you have to keep forgiving a person over and over again for that same offence. I find that long after the wounds have healed and the scars have faded you still need to forgive. It’s a battle waged on your mind to take out your heart. If I keep forgiving over and over again for every single thing that has been done to me, even after removing myself from situations that may be causing me harm I take significant steps towards wholeness and inner release.

Today, I can say that I don’t feel hurt or pain or numbness, I don’t cry in self pity about what could have been or should have been. No, not anymore. Instead, I focus on honouring my Father with the gift that never gets old. A gift that we can both share. I have a priceless gift even for the next 490 Father’s Day. How much more so, when I know that my heavenly father forgives me countless times more than that.

Me, God and Obedience

I’ve been reading through the book of 1 Samuel over the last few days and I thought I should share some of my thoughts with you today.

As I am reading through, I realise that one of the biggest themes running through this book is Obedience. We first encountered this through the prophet Eli and his sons. Eli’s sons lived a very immoral life and did not follow the commandments of God. They disobeyed God in how they treated the sacrifices of the people. Eli was judged, because he did not caution his children. He shared in their disobedience by not disciplining them and by eating out of the portion of the sacrifice that was not meant for the priest. The consequence was that the priesthood was taken away from Eli and his descendants and death and suffering was introduced into the family. There was a generational curse that would limit the descendants of Eli, even though they had nothing to do with the initial disobedience. (1 Samuel 2:27-36)

Additionally, his disobedience caused the glory to be temporarily taken away from Israel. (1 Samuel 4:11, 21)

The disobedience continues with Saul after he became king. In his heart, he desired the approval and praise of men rather than the approval of God. His reign was so much about keeping appearances that he broke the protocol and made the sacrifice that was not his place to make. (1 Samuel 15:1-10 ;15:20-26)

He gives three reasons for his disobedience: (1 Samuel 13:8-11)

  1. The Philistines (his enemies) were closing in on him.
  2. The people were afraid and scattering away from him.
  3. Samuel had not arrived at the time that he said he would.

To be very honest and frank these are the reason that I also sometimes feel inclined or tempted to disobey God. We often go off and do things in our own understanding because God is taking too long. We are convinced that God is late – that he cannot tell time or that he doesn’t understand the pressure that we are facing. What is very interesting in that story is that Saul had already waited for 7 days. 7 days was the exact number of days he was instructed to wait (vs.8). It was on the 7th day when the appointed hour had come that he gave up the wait and made the sacrifice. The full instructions was that he should wait for the 7 days at which time Samuel would make the sacrifice on behalf of the people. To him it was a small thing but to God it was a big deal. Partial obedience is still total disobedience.

“Waiting reveals the content of the heart. The longer you are left to wait the more of you will be revealed. You cannot outsmart time.”
ACMorgan

Here are the three things that we need to remember when we find ourselves being tempted to disobey.

  1. God is Bigger that our problems and greater than our adversities.
  2. God’s approval is more than a thousand confident votes of people.
  3. God is never late – He is the creator and the controller of time and space.

If we remember these three truths we will make our decisions based on what God wants and thinks and not what our situation is telling us to feel and do.
We need to understand God’s heart in order to understand why he would tell us to wait and why he would give us the instructions and commandments he does. I find that it is much easier to follow him when we do. God cares for us. He loves us and feels what we are feeling. He never wants us to be afraid or intimidated by our problems and challenges. His thoughts and plans for us are good, to prosper and not to harm us (Jeremiah 9:11). When problems do come our way God’s commitment is to make them turn into situations that will prosper and profit us. But he needs our cooperation to do this.

God is a god of process and principles. He lays them down for us in order for us to measure and test our hearts against. Anytime you find yourself in conflict with what He has said, we can step back and check our hearts for wrong motives and hidden agendas. It’s important to check and correct ourselves instead of forcing it, because we not only make mistakes, but we also miss out on the opportunity to grow in our character. God wants to change us as He is changing our circumstances. He can’t have old you in the middle of the new thing He is doing (Mattew 9:17). So, He needs change in the inside of you too.

My Prayer for you today, is that you hear God in a new way and that you will have the grace and the contrite heart to obey His word and will for your life. I pray that you receive clear instructions today from above about what you should and should’t do, in Jesus name.

Embracing the Call

Humility, Servant-hood and Becoming

Let’s not use our calling as an opportunity to be proud or to carry ourselves with greater importance than we should. When we think about our calling and our assignment we should do so with humility remembering that God called out to us because we were far away. He called us because without his calling we wouldn’t know that we had to step into his plan and purpose. God’s calling was to realign us to our destiny and our perfect place in him, which is first to save our relationship with him and in so doing our salvation. 

A married man might call his wife frequently when they are not together to check on her with the intention to boost their relationship and in doing so is saving their marriage. It would be foolish for the wife to go around boasting that her husband gave her a call. Whilst she is understandably touched and excited when her husband calls, it is totally unnecessary for her to announce his call. 
I think in a similar manner we should cherish and accept the call of God with all humility.

Secondly, a call to fulfil an assignment is a privilege, because if we really look at ourselves we are not worthy. It is God that calls us and makes us worthy, not by our own righteousness or well doing but by his grace. We don’t earn it or work for it, it is just given to us because God is good.

Let us never fall into the trap of thinking that the goodness we experience has anything to do with the fact that we are so good. In fact, I’ll say that we are not always good. We are too selfish to be completely always good. We are still learning to be more like God, which is part of the reason why he gives us assignments.

Assignments are designed to:
Break you, rebuild you, prune you, stretch you, mould you, shape you better you and touch lives through you.

Can you see that the bulk of the work is on you and not through you? That’s because we are not perfect vessels. Why might a parent allow their five year old child to be with them in the kitchen? Surely, they can work faster, more effectively without the distraction of the child.
It is because being in the kitchen, teaches the child how to behave in the kitchen environment encourages them to help out, instils an attitude of care and partnership, develops their interest, teaches them how to cook, keeps them busy, builds a bond between them and the parents and enables the parent to keep an eye on them.
All these things can be likened to how God calls us into his work.

49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Luke 2:49

Jesus knew exactly why he was called and he spent his early years, sitting in the temple, “listening” and “asking questions” (verse 46). It’s not enough to know that you are called and what it is you are called to do but why God has called you. It is a deeper understanding of the why that will keep your head bowed in humility when you reach the hills and will strengthen your arms for the enduring embrace of your call in God.


I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

Unequally Yoked

The answer to the question of what it means to be unequally yoked is clearly addressed in the scripture.

“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”, 2 Corinthians 6:14 (ESV).
The intimation is that you will be unevenly matched if you are married with a person who does not believe in God. So, as a Christian the scripture is clearly letting us know that we should not be married or emotional and romantically involved with a non-christian. The more intimate a relationship gets the more important a commonality in faith and believe is. If you already disagree on the basic foundation issues, your lifestyle choices as a believer and your relationship with the individual will be affected.

A lot of people believe that you can make it work, having different believes and still get married. But the issue is that the relationship with your god will suffer if you priorities your spouse. For instance, as a Christian I believe in tithing and giving offerings or love gifts to church. I believe in spending time in devotion, praying and worshipping God. I believe in being filled with the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues. This will sound very crazy to someone who is not a believer. He/she might say it’s cute and might be okay with it. He/she might be the nicest guy in the world, but eventually the natural trials of life will test the strength of the relationship. The different approaches to solving the problems we are both facing will inevitably cause tension and friction in our relationship. A weak belief system will not be able to handle this wear and tear leading to a relationship break down.

With a little bit of thought and honesty you can see why God commands not to be unequally yoked. However, the question that I have heard a few times now is whether you can be unequally yoked, spiritually miss matched, with someone who is a Christian. I think that it is possible. Coming back to my earlier example of being in a relationship with someone of a different belief, there are lifestyle choices that are attached and connected to your spiritual commitment to God, that will influence the life choices you make. Now imagine you are both Christians, but one of us has a different understanding. Theological differences existed in the bible, too. Just read the book of Acts and you’ll see members of the early church and even some of the apostles disagreeing over scriptures. It’s important to make sure you believe in the same things and understand the bible in the same way.

So, yes, unequal yoked to an unbeliever can include being in the same religion but still having differences in beliefs. A Christian can still have his or her idols, such as alcohol, sex, past relationships and other hidden sins or past habits that are difficult to shake. Yes, we all sin and fall short of the glory of God, but when we make a habit of sinning we are forsaking relationship with him. Our relationship with God is the foundation for our relationship with our spouse, because it is intended to be a reflection of what we have with God.

In my Feelings…

So, I manage two blogs and got talking to someone about it a while back. I said that one was a Christian blog, and the other did not necessarily have a religious angle or was centered on christian beliefs. I can’t remember exactly the words he used, maybe it was ‘naughty’, but before i could explain he said something  that implied that I had another blog that was a little more loose, a little less holy and a little less christian. I obviously quickly shut down the notion, but at the back of my mind I’ve been playing with the ideas and the underlining concerns that I felt throughout the conversation.

When It comes to faith I’m all in and so are most of the Christians I know. I think that most people won’t sacrifice faith on the alter of secularism, but we may toy with secular ideas and themes, especially when it comes to creative art. As the conversation grew someone else remarked that they would definitely still write and release non christian songs and content. The reason they gave was because they felt that emotions are part of life and and are meant to be expressed. The implication obviously being that christian music is too restrictive for the expression of certain emotions. Interesting!

My believe that we worship God and love him with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths. In other words, all we are consumed and aware of His presence in our lives that He is all we feel. God can and will overwhelm our emotions if we allow Him. But aside from this I honestly think that we are free to express all our emotions to Him in worship and praise. Like a parent wants their child to come to them with their emotions in the same way God wants us to come to Him with or deepest feelings.

I guess some people will struggle with this idea, as there are some feelings we would much rather our parents did not know. But God already knows what we feel and desire. Even the secret feelings. When we bring them into the light we gain perspective and learn to bring our emotions under the authority of God.

Elijah went to God with feelings of sadness, weariness, weakness, suicidal thoughts and depression and he heard from God, gained perspective and became re-energized (1 Kings 19). The woman with the Alabaster box (Mary Magdalene) came with guilt, sin and shame before God and poured it all out in worship before God and she was forgiven (Luke 7: 37-39)

Good things happen when we bring our honest and sincere feelings to the alter of worship. He might scold us and chastise us, but we can feel His love and acceptance. He will never leave us without His blessing. He won’t let us go naked.

King David wrote songs reflecting his distress, and His feelings of God forsaking him, but his psalm ended in praise. Solomon wrote songs and poems of love, marriage and intimacy.

We are immersed all the way, death, resurrection and ascension, in Christ Jesus and totally grafted in Him. We need to remember this when we create. God will inspire us with the right words when we let Him all the way into our feelings.

 

You don’t need another Sacrifice!

In the old days people made blood sacrifices to atone for their sins and to gain the approval of God. New testament Christians do not have to do this anymore as Jesus came as the final and ultimate sacrifice, forever taken away any accusations that stand against us, paying the price for our penalty with His precious blood, once and for all.

However, we even with this awareness still seek out sacrifices that we can make to gain the approval of God, often because of the guilt of hidden sins or unintentional sins that exist in our lives. John the Baptist addresses this whilst preaching against the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They had come to be baptised along with the multitude of others who also came to be baptised. John stops them and says to them,

Bring forth fruit that is consistent with repentance [let your lives prove your change of heart]. (Matthew 3:8 AMP)

His words come across as being quite harsh and uncalled for, seeing that they came for the exact same purpose everyone else came. They were not doing anything wrong so why scold them so heavily? The scolding came out of the fact that the religious leaders were simply coming to the baptism as another religious activity and by implication to win the favor of God by appearing righteous. Yet, they were not displaying a character that was consistent with repentance.

How many of us seek deliverance services, prophetic words and prayer meetings to deal with the issues in our lives and to cover the shame and guilt that eats at us inside? We often think that the solution is in coming to church regularly, participating in all the activities and shouting ‘Amen’ to every word will bring the transformation we want to see in our lives. We queue up for prayers and sign up for outreach events and volunteering, when what we really need to do is truly repent in our hearts and bear the fruits that are consistent with repentance.

All of these other things like attending prayer meetings and even seeking out deliverance and prophetic counsel are good and important. They certainly have their place. But more importantly, what God wants from us is that we bear the fruits of repentance. That means that when we repent we become aware of our position in God and walk in a way that reflects our spiritual statues. God gives us the position of sons and daughters, but it is our responsibility to represent and grow into this position as well as possible. He wants us to bear the fruits of the spirit, which is not measured by our ability to speak in tongues, but in our relationship and dealing with people.

For anything to bear fruit, it needs to be planted, watered, nurtured, the ground needs to be tilled and the plant needs to be watched and cared for as required. In other words, it takes active work and effort on our path to make sure we bear the fruits we are required to.

There is no amount of prophecy, word of knowledge, wisdom or deliverance that can make us bear the fruits of repentance that God requires to see in us to release the blessings that He has for us. A tree that is mature will bear the fruits of its type. An Apple tree that is mature will bear fruits every year according to its season. There are certain blessings God cannot give us not because, we aren’t delivered, or because we don’t participate in religious disciplines, but simply because we are not yet bearing fruits that are consistent with what we say. What we are declaring and confessing we are is not consistent with what we do and how we act towards others. God wants consistency from us.

Let us daily take sincere outward steps as signs of our inward repentance so that the fruits we bear can attract others to the knowledge of Christ. And faithful is He to keep us from falling or slipping in our demonstration of Him.