Tag: Waymaker

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Mary Did you know?

As I sit here and ponder the faith of Mary, I realise how intense it can be to fully trust God against all odds.  In 2018, I told my parents I had found man that I plan on spending and building my life with. We told our family and friends the wedding was set the marriage formalities fulfilled. Imagine Amid all the planning and deciding, Say I received a call to accept something beyond my imagination. Like Mary a baby, what would people say – its never happened before and it was a very strange request

I can imagine how my soon to be husband would feel betrayed, considering how Joseph was feeling about this news. Furthermore the reasoning behind it sounded absurd to say the least. This was not a small task for Mary, her life depended on it. The explanation of what was happening would have in fact sounded unreasonable.

There are moments when God approaches us with big asks, where He requires you to go the extra mile to defy the norms and cultures of society.  Its in these moments where we are called to boldly accept the task and not limit God.

Mary Answered, “how can this be?” I study this question intently and it allows me to discover I can ask God for revelation in moments where I am uncertain and He will provide the response.

When God entrusts us with is purpose and call, He will also provide favour for the journey. When Nehemiah heard that the walls needed rebuilding, He prayed that God would grant him favour with the king.  

We see Mary yielding totally and wholeheartedly to the unknown, in Mary’s bold move we see God protecting and vindicating Mary.

Reflection Moment:

Luke 1:26-80

Ephesians 3:20

Romans 4:17

What Tasks has God called you take but fear of the unknown causes you to limit God?

What cost are you prepared to pay for God to reveal His Attributes?

Thank you for participating in our 21 day journey to discovering the beauty of God. This is only the beginning of your journey as the attributes of God are inexhaustible.  Please share the page, most importantly take time to read and meditate on the word.  #IwillnotLimitGod

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Our race against time

I remember when I was in high school neatly writing down where I see myself at the various ages of my life, at all fronts I am an advocate of planning and setting goals. The problem comes in when we give God our plans, when we decide this is how I intend on running my life. We tell God – if you can just authorise the plans I have set out no surprises, and we will be okay.

During my periods of giving God my checklist and plans I found myself quickly tangled in a relationship that I was not supposed to have been in.  I found myself rushing God because I had a time scale of when I saw myself married. The pointers I prayed for in a husband that guy didn’t match them, but I figured that person would do because time was running out. I am grateful to God that he didn’t allow me to proceed with that relationship.

It’s crazy because sometimes we put these time constraints on ourselves or our environment or culture puts these pressures. I can see myself in Sarah, she was supposed to be a grandparent by now! Perhaps you can too, plans all set out but life is slowly drifting away.

From Sarah’s view point, Yahweh had provided them a list of promises and He was delaying. Fear encompassed Abraham he was aging; Eliezer would inherit his possessions.

Sarah quickly coins up a plan to help God, Genesis 16 ‘states Sarai had no children, but she had Hagar’ my translation states. Its interesting how she thought I have an alternative solution to this time delay. What have we decided as the alternative solution to our problem?

Her narrative is very damaging in that she believes the Lord had kept her from having children, so Hagar was the best alternative to solving Gods time lapse. We see a lot of blame in chapter 16 how Sarai tells Abram you are responsible for the wrong am suffering because Hagar starts to despise her. You see the thing about personal made plans vs a God’s plans is that we have finite knowledge and most times we can’t forsee how the reaction of other people or the fruit of our actions.

In Chapter 17 we see God return to reveal himself as the Almighty God ‘El-Shaddai’

He tells them walk before Him faithfully and be blameless. He goes further to change their names to mean Nations, multitude, fruitful.

 Despite this change of Name Sarah Laughs! But God reminds them ‘is anything too hard for the Lord, I will return to you at the appointed time next year!

Truly God keeps his covenant Sarah holds a baby in her Arms as the Lord promised

Reflection Moment

Genesis 17:16
Genesis 18:1-15
Luke 1:37
Ecclesiastes 3:11

How is my identity causing me to limit God?
How have I created alternative plans for God?
Have there been moments when I have prayed and quickly coined a plan apart from what I had pray for?
How have I used the concept of time to limit God?

Thank you for participating in our 21 day journey to discovering the beauty of God. This is only the beginning of your journey as the attributes of God are inexhaustible. Please share the page, most importantly take time to read and meditate on the word. #IwillnotLimitGod

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God In the midst of Chaos

By Esther Amah

“Even if when I don’t see it you are working 

You never stop, you never stop working 

Even if when I don’t feel it you are working 

You never stop, you never stop working” 

This song brings a message of hope that inspite of it all, God is still working. 

In the chaos, the pandemic, lockdown, uncertainty, God is still working. 

I had a conversation with a friend in March, when the lockdown fully hit Lagos, Nigeria. The funny part of this call was that I reached out to encourage her and it ended up being the opposite. Whilst talking, she said Esther, even in the chaos, God is still speaking and that hit me. It’s so easy to get over whelmed with the news, updates and scary happenings around us that we fail to hear what God is saying at the time. 

Coincidentally or rather intentionally, because God is always intentional, I stumbled on this song on Youtube – Way Maker | Steffany Gretzinger | John Wilds | Jesus Image Choir | Jesus ’19 (Yes, I love to listen to music and work) and it had the same reassuring message; even though we don’t feel it…. God is still working. 

Although we pray and we hope, it feels like COVID-19 is bent on becoming part of our lives… it feels like the darkness won’t go away…. it feels like the uncertainties will keep piling up…… it feels like our jobs are not returning…. this is just a kind reminder that God stays working. He neither sleeps nor slumbers… 24/7 God. 

So, I’ll just share a bit of my #LockdownChronicles to highlight a few things we can do now and also help us keep our hope alive. 

Working in this period has been “Amazing” … yes, I’m one of the few that has screamed ‘WORKING FROM HOME IS A SCAM’, yet almost every day, I stay grateful that I still have a job regardless of the pandemic and job losses. You may not have similar experience, but the lesson here is to stay GRATEFUL…. No matter how small you think it is, stay grateful and watch as your hope stays alive. 

I allowed myself breathe in this season, yes, I took free online courses (actually just 2) and that was on my terms. I chose to, I was not pressured to do so by social media or motivational posts on being lazy if you do not take an online course in this lockdown. Yes, I finished a novel and I have been on the other for a month plus now. Lesson? Breathe, Smell the roses, Be-You-To- The-Full (Be Beautiful), and yes, please take that class or read that book…. but not under social media induced pressure. 

Lastly, I did and I’m still determined to study the word and pray more – to do that, I joined a number of prayer chains on WhatsApp and Telegram to stay prayed up through the day and I joined a couple of other spiritual exercises – Worship and Lounge every Saturday by Authentic 

City Church and When Friends Pray on IG . The question you might ask is do I meet all targets? Nooooo…. but I pray for help when I feel weak and I go through the day again because hey! God is always working and part of that work is the help He provides through the Holy spirit. Lesson? It’s a great time to grow spiritually… one day at a time. 

Bonus Tip: Just because you read till the end…. You get a bonus tip…. Nothing beats having positive people around! I wrote a story this season because a friend pushed me to and I’m grateful for that…. Surround yourself with the right people, sounds cliché, right? Well that never gets old. 

You can listen to the song via this link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsypFJ5mNw0 

Thanks for reading. 

Esther Amah is a lover of God, family and all things that make people happy. She holds an MSc in Marketing from Covenant University. When she is not busy working as a Market Research consultant, she is busy being a personal jewellery shopper, giving a “joyelry” experience with every purchase.  She runs a personal blog inspired by her experiences and shares stories centered around God’s love. She is a huge fan of good gospel music and her favourite authors are; Ted Dekker & Francine Rivers among others. Many say she is complex, some say she is dramatic. To her, she’s just a young lady living her God-ordained story, one day at a time.