An MBA graduate's thoughts from a place of prayer, study and waiting on God…
Today, I was privileged to have the opportunity to share the word with a group of 11 friends. This is a light-hearted post based on our experience in the woods and watching some of us give up just before we got to the finish line. This post is just to remind you that whatever you may be going through, to persevere to the end. God bless you.
There is a persistent thought that has lingered with me for most of the last few months, and it bothers on the topic of longevity. These thoughts have been about why some men attain success only to see them fall into lifelong shame and ridicule, but others seem to attain success over extended periods of time. They may have challenges along the way but over the span of a life time, their years are full of good success in career, family, society, health etc. Therefore, in this post, I seek to answer some questions. What does the Bible tell us about the secret to living a long, peaceful and prosperous life? Why is this particular (longevity) blessing a conditional one? Why do righteous people sometimes face an early death? Why do evil men sometimes seem to live in prosperity and success in this life while the righteous suffer? What does walking in God's ways, keeping His statutes and commandments practically look like? I hope you learn a thing or two as you read. Make sure you share with a loved one and encourage them to subscribe. God bless you.
The Bible tells us not to be anxious. This seven letter word, what does it really mean? Some equate it to worry or fretting. Some equate it to fear or doubt. It could be something that robs you of peace; something that halts you in your tracks and prevents you from moving forward or taking the next step(s). For faith to exist, there must initially be an element of uncertainty or doubt. Anxiety could then be the feelings you have when you’re unable to control the outcome of a situation or when you struggle to exercise complete faith in God. Anxiety starts in the mind and could exist for legitimate or illegitimate reasons. Whatever it may mean to you, I believe we can at least agree that anxiety is a stronghold, a powerful attack on the human mind that is so negative that God tells us in Philipians 4:6-7: “Do not be anxious or worried about anything…” In this post, I look at the roots of anxiety and how they can become strongholds in our lives, how to take those thoughts captive, how to permanently destroy those thoughts/strongholds, and look at six Bible characters who had anxious thoughts and the lessons we can learn from how they overcame them. Happy reading!
Today, I want to explore a theme that struck me recently while reading The Awe of God by John Bevere (chapter 36). This theme is that despite God having made promises, we often still need to contend/ask/plead for those promises to be fulfilled on earth. I'm not trying to answer the question of why God wants us to persist and plead in prayer despite His already stated/revealed promises, but emphasize the spiritual realization that we humans need to pray persistently and meditate on God's word to bring His promises to pass in our lives. Happy reading!
Every now and then, I have the strong urge to write a particular post which refuses to leave my mind even after many days of ignoring it. This is one such post. What is faith?
In recent weeks, I've been taking detailed notes while studying my Bible. I've been reading 1 Samuel and one character whose personality stuck with me was Abigail - 1 Samuel 25. In this post, I do two things: 1) summarise my takeaways from the characters of Nabal and Abigail; and 2) reflect on Abigail's wisdom and wifely characteristics that ultimately made her attractive to her husband - a future king.
Rarely is she mentioned in the pages but mostly maligned in human memories, yet she 'lives' on. That single emotionally-charged interaction with her husband, down in the depths of his life's hells, in Job 2:9-10, has mostly defined what we think of her: a bad wife, making mockery of her husband's tragic station in life. One can posit that this serves a generational warning about the importance of choosing a godly wife, who will stand by you through life's sunny and gloomy days; afterall, that's what till death do us part means. But I want us to have a re-think about Job's wife. Is she really deserving of this infamy? Was she really a bad wife? Is there more in the Bible that we can learn about who she was and what may ultimately have happened to her? I think there is. I've been pondering this for the past fortnight and having discussed my thoughts about her possible lived experience with some friends last night, I'm finally putting down some of my thoughts. 🤓
Paul says in Acts 17:27 ERV that "God wanted people to look for him, and perhaps in searching all around for him, they would find him. But he is not far from any of us." Since the day I read this verse a few weeks back, I've been eager to write about all the findings from my study as this idea of God wanting to be sought out was quite intriguing. I mean why does He want to be actively searched for? Is he playing hide and seek with us or what? What I do in this post is try to answer five pre-emptive questions that you the reader may naturally have on the topic: 1) Why does God want us to seek (search for) Him?; 2) Is He far? So far that He cannot be found?; 3) What are the rewards of seeking God, if any?; 4) How are we to seek God?; and 5) When are we to seek God?
Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness in the land of Midian before God called him to his life's mission. What on earth was he doing during all those years? How did he cope with going from being a prince in the most powerful country on earth to living life as a shepherd in the wilderness? What prepared him for this experience and what was God doing in Moses' life to prepare him for the mission ahead? Over the past few months, I've been studying a Bible guide on being in the crucible with Christ. Last week, I was studying about meekness in the life of Moses and got inspired to study his life a little closer, particularly his life before he received the calling that defined his life on earth and in death. As you might know, I only write when inspired to, and I thought my findings this time around were too interesting not to share. Happy reading!
Ezekiel 18:19-20 says that a son shall not bear the guilt of the father because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all God's statutes and observed them. The inverse of this statement is therefore also true that: if the son of a sinful father (or mother indeed) is also living in sin then it is possible for the son to bear the guilt of the father in addition to punishment for the son's own sins.