An MBA graduate's thoughts from a place of prayer, study and waiting on God…
How many times have you asked out of frustration: does God see my hard work? Or should I continue working faithfully for my employer/boss who doesn't seem to notice my hard work? The simple answer is YES. God sees...and in fact, He will honor your hard work. Like you, Jacob must also have asked himself similar questions. In Genesis 31:36-42, Jacob gives us a perspective on what qualifies as diligent hard work that God sees and ultimately rewards.
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?
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?
'Detty decemba' they called it. "You want to bamba?" 🕺🏾 was the tune of the moment - a catchy song which came out of nowhere to dominate the Afrobeat genre in late 2021 and compete with Ed Sheeran/Fireboy DML's "Peru" as song of the month world over. You're probably wondering where I'm going with this? Basically, I visited Nigeria in December which is probably the best time of the year to be in Lagos as the city is always so vibrant and full of life. But a week into my trip, the Rona came visiting - it started with a sore throat that fateful morning, subsequent to which I took a lateral flow test which returned positive. I was shocked to say the least. Me, covid? How? 😨 I'd been taking all necessary precautions (or so I thought) - meds, masked up, sanitizing, washing hands etc. But all that didn't matter - I had caught COVID-19. 😭 In my shock I did two more tests that day and over the next two days, all of which returned positive. And that was where my travails began, bringing my holiday to an abrupt end.
Be still? What does that even mean? Be idle while just praying and keeping the faith?! 🤔🤷🏾♂️ So I spent time yesterday thinking about this verse...”Be still and know that I am God”. Does it mean when we’ve got anxieties, after surrendering them to God we should idle away and perhaps just pray and keep the faith? I struggled with it because this line of thinking didn’t seem consistent with what I was reading in the Bible.
Have you ever sometimes felt like asking God for just a little so that you don’t get disappointed? Ever felt like you shouldn’t be asking God for much so you’re not seen as greedy? 🤥😒 This is unfortunately the case with many Christians. It’s usually easy to say “believe God for the impossible” but because we can’t see God physically and can’t bear the thought of dealing with seeming uncertainty, we often remain at our level and keep asking for just enough to get by. Is this Biblical?
God speaks to us in various ways so we must learn to hear Him when loud or silent...