SEEKING GOD

I am a fan of video blogs... Yesterday, while perusing the wide world of YouTube, I came across someone who had started a 61 day prayer challenge. The point of it was to enter 2015 with the knowledge that they were doing God's will. It was a prayer challenge to seek God. This seemed like a nice idea to me and although I was already over a month late, I decided to do my own mini prayer challenge.

Throughout the last half of this year, I have constantly prayed for God to show me His will for my life. God is the one who created me and therefore, He is the one who knows me in and out. Most of all, He knows the reason He created me. I therefore pray everyday for God to do His will in my life. I continuously surrender myself to Him. This is the hardest thing that I have ever had to constantly practice, but strangely, it is also the most fulfilling thing as well. Letting go of all my wants and desires, letting go of all my toxic and worldly emotions and letting God's spirit guide my footsteps, there is nothing quite like it.

Seeking God daily is such a hard thing to do, especially at the beginning of our Christian walk. We seem to be asking but the answer doesn't come. We continue asking but still, we do not hear. This can go on for what seems like forever until we are ready to give up. DO NOT GIVE UP!!

The promises of seeking God are throughout the Bible.
       Jeremiah 29:13-14- "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you" declares the Lord, "I will gather you from the nations and all the places where I have banished you," declares the Lord,"and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you to exile"
      Deuteronomy 4:29- But if from there you seek the Lord your god, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart
      Proverbs 8:17- I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me

All we have to do is be diligent in our search for the Lord. We should leave everything behind, take up our cross and follow Him. He promises to let us find Him (see the verses above) and to reward us when we do (Hebrews 11:6, Matthew 6:33). The Bible is full of people who constantly sought out God and He was always so faithful. Abraham, Moses, David, Joshua... All of them had a habit of looking and thirsting for God. David always went to God before He waged a war and God always made him win the war. Moses and Joshua constantly spent time in God's presence and Moses even told the Lord that he would not move from where He was unless God went with them (Exodus 33:12-17). Joshua went to the tent of the meeting with Moses and always stayed behind after Moses left (Exodus 33:11)

All these people were not perfect... In Fact they were the farthest from perfect but they found favor with God because they recognized who He was and they sought His will and presence in their lives. They were diligent in their thirst for God and His will.

I don't know about you, but I'm sure that there is no other place I would rather be than buried in God's will. I am determined to run and find Him where He can be found, regardless of everything around me.

Matthew 5:6- Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled

God loves you, and so do I

ADDY
      

LISTEN

The past two weeks of my life have been very difficult…. Who am I kidding, the past 13 years have been progressively difficult, not just for me, but for my whole family. Every year we start out by saying that it will be our year of rest and at the end, we are literally panting from our exhaustion. It has been like this year in and year out for about a decade.

Trials are a part of life. In fact, Jesus promised that exact thing to his disciples, so it’s nothing new or unexpected. I have actually started accepting it as a part of the Christian walk (finally!!)….

What I'm writing about today is not the trials that we should expect as Christians, it's about our response to the trials…..

I had reached a place where I was content. I was living my life, trying my hardest to live a life pleasing to God, when all of a sudden, I became overwhelmed... I cried out my frustrations to God and, as you know, in any relationship, there has to be room for compromise, and you should always be open to the other party’s side of view… Nope, not for me!! I was unwilling and stubborn, so essentially, I was fighting with God and not allowing Him to comfort me or show me why these things were happening. I was not allowing Him to take all the excess weight I was carrying and carry it Himself…

So now I was walking around with a building on my back, not listening to Him then metaphorically speaking, an elephant landed on top of the building…. YUP!!! I was crushed!!... Now, I’m crushed and stuck in this glass box so I can’t hear anything or anyone.... I was NUMB and I couldn’t hear from God... Walking around like a robot is not a way to live, Trust me!!        

A friend reminded me of Proverbs3:5-6:

            Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your path. 

This verse shattered my box and l cried out to God. He promptly removed the building and elephant from my back. I was still in exactly the same place I was in the previous day, but this time, I could walk. I could smile and most importantly, I could pray again.

In 1 Kings 19:11-13 God sent Elijah to the mountain to hear from Him. There, an earthquake, a hurricane and a fire all came but God was not in them. Elijah could not hear from Him.... He was in a whisper.

Elijah was in a very low point of his life. The king was trying to kill him, and he was the only prophet left alive. This was bad, it really could not get any worse, could it? He could have decided to dwell on that. To dwell on the earthquakes, hurricanes and fires that were literally there…. He decided not to. God had sent Elijah to the mountain to hear from Him and that was what he would do. Elijah decised  to listen closely and he heard God in a gentle whisper.

As Christians, our lives can be so full of hurricanes, earthquakes and fires that it’s literally impossible to dwell on anything else. We should try our hardest to listen beyond all that noise and chaos. We will hear the voice of God and He will calm the storms… EVENTUALLY.

JUST LISTEN….

Now, I know that listening is very hard when we are listening to each other as human beings… Imagine how hard it is to listen for God’s voice!!! It comes with daily reading and meditation of the word and prayer. I encourage people to forget everything and be VERY DELIBERATE with their relationship with God. He is the only constant. Seek after Him and you will find Him... You will hear from Him

LISTEN HARD….

God loves you... And so do I

ADDY

BE HOLY

I am on a quest.

My quest is to know more about God and to fall deeper into Him.

Some months ago, I found out that I was being distracted from God by books... They were all about God, numerous study guides and, instead of reading the word, I was consumed by those books, but they were someone else's journey of discovery.I then purposed to stop reading them and go on my own journey…. This has been, to put it mildly, awe inspiring.

God did not lie when He told us that if we seek Him, we will find Him as long as we seek Him earnestly. I have been finding Him and He has been teaching me more about Him and myself than I would ever learn from someone else’s encounter with Him. God has started working on me and is making me less of a basket case than I was. (which is saying alot!!)

My latest discovery (or should I say, my on-going discovery for the past month or so) is Holiness.

The definition of holy according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is:

1.       Exalted or worthy of complete devotion as one perfect in goodness or righteousness

2.       Divine which means related to or coming from God

3.       Devoted entirely to the deity or the work of the deity (i.e. God)

4.       Having a divine quality , or ‘sacred’

The definition of Holy in the Bible is the absence of evil. God is holy and therefore is the opposite of evil

The entire Bible is about the holiness of God and His instructions on how we are to live holy lives. The book of Job starts with a definition about the character of Job. He was a man who was blameless and upright, who feared God and shunned evil. Job was, by definition, a holy man.

Holiness is a concept that has long been abandoned, especially in our now, very liberal, times. Whenever anyone utters the word holy, you are immediately labelled a religious freak by non-believers and too intense by your fellow believers. These days, as long as you don’t go to an extreme of bad behaviour, anything goes.

I was having lunch with my sister one day when I told her that a friend of mine had invited me to go to a night club two days prior but I refused to go. My reasons were that I was now born again and determined to live my life in a manner that pleased God. She immediately chastised me, telling me that I did not have to drink when I went out to the club, I could always have ordered water or a soda. I found myself nodding my head to that and agreeing with her. Later, I was thinking about the conversation when I backtracked and thought, ‘Would God have been glorified if I had gone to the club and just drank water?’ Definitely not. At best, I would sit in a corner and moan to myself about how I’m not enjoying myself one bit, at worst, I would be judging the people there not realizing that I was also one of them at that exact time and that my confession that I am a Christian would not have been believed even for one second by anyone there.

But, most of all that was not hating evil and therefore, it was not holy

The Bible says that to be holy, one must shun evil, turn away from it, resist the devil, and fear God.

Being holy is being loving, peaceful, reverent, doing good. It is in essence, the following of the commands that Jesus gave us which were, loving the Lord with all our hearts, with all our minds and with all our strength, and loving our neighbours as we love ourselves. If we as Christians want to love God, doesn't it mean that we should seek to please Him in everything that we do and if we are to love others, shouldn't we ensure that we bring them up as blameless as we can before God?

We have forgotten or just dismissed the fact that God is God and He doesn’t change. God hates what is evil and that is why there were numerous cleansing rites before people could approach Him in the Old Testament. He eradicated that by the death of Christ (essentially Himself) on the cross and once we are cleansed from our sins on salvation, His command is just to be holy. It is something we must strive to every day and every hour.

As Christians, all the commands we have been given can be summarised in one verse- 1 Peter 1:15-16 ‘’ But be holy in all you do just like the one who called you is holy. It is written in the scripture Be Holy as I am Holy’’ (Leviticus 11:45; 19:2)

I believe, when we strive for that seemingly unattainable goal, holiness, we will unconsciously develop goodness, peace, love, joy mercy, patience, kindness, humility and self-control…

God loves you, and so do I

ADDY

JUST ME- A Little Background

Hi.

My name is Mbatha. I am a 26 year old female. I am a daughter, I am a sister, I am an aunt, I am a friend and most importantly, I AM SAVED...

I have been told that I can write. That I have some wisdom to share.... I have no idea how true this but I decided to give it a shot...

I am a born again Christian. I am proud of that fact because, it has taken me a long time to get here... To the place where I have this urge to share Jesus with the world and not only with my close friends and my family. I have this passion for God. For knowing Him and for loving Him and for Him loving me and I want people to feel the same way.

A little background... I have been a Christian since the day I was born, going to church every Sunday, praying every day etc. I grew up with a knowledge of Christ, but I did not know Christ. I got saved when I was 18 but, I think that it was to fit in with the people I used to hang out with then ( of course, there was boy!! How cliche??). I read my Bible and prayed daily but it felt like more of a struggle than it should have been (or so I thought). This went on for a while but it got old fast! I got a new group of friends who weren't born again so I backslid (yes! I was a people pleaser).

This went on for a few more years until New Year's eve 2013. I was tired... Tired of living a life where I was jumping over the salvation line over and over again. I was tired of apologizing to God for things that I should not have been doing in the first place... I was done pleasing people! I wanted my life back.... The life that God had created me for but I allowed the world to con me into giving it away.

I WANTED GOD...

I NEEDED GOD!!!

So, I gave my life over to Him completely, knowing that, only by surrendering myself to Him would I be the person I was created to be. The hole that I was trying to fill with friends,boys,booze and music could only be filled by God. And He has filled it with Himself and every day, I am so happy I made that decision. It is the best decision that I ever made.

I have always wanted to teach people what I learn from the Holy Spirit. The Bible is an amazing book! It truly is the word of God and it truly is living and breathing. Unfortunately, I get nervous and tongue tied when speaking in front of others so I decided to write it instead. It has taken me months to set up this blog, but I know that God was preparing me for it, transforming my heart from the patterns of the world to His way of thinking ( Romans 12:2)

It is my prayer that I can reach someone.. Even if its just one person, for Jesus.

God loves you... and so do I

                                                                                                                                                    ADDY