Category: Self love

Dealing with fear

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From the blog-post ‘Do it Afraid’, I finished it with this sentence ;

“Don’t do it afraid. Deal with the fear, then do it.”

A meticulous friend of mine brought it to my attention that it might be worth breaking down what ‘Dealing with fear’ is, because logically reading that, it probably makes sense to most of us, but do we actually know what it means or what it takes to deal with fear?

Fear is no respecter of person or position as you might have discovered, it is also very sneaky and can crawl up on you without you even realising it is there, till you trace your actions backwards and realise that some of the steps taken were taken in fear.

There’s another twisted part of fear, it actually gives its own motivation, but it’s motivation is usually to take the more familiar or easy way because you can tell it’s outcome which really isn’t advisable for people committed to living and walking by the Spirit of God because most times, the Spirit of God will call us to the unknown and the daunting but expects us to step out in faith knowing Who has called us.

Below, I’ve highlighted 5 ways of dealing with fear, not in any particular order but depending on situation. I also want to first highlight that fear is Never of God, it is not in God’s nature to make us fearful or timid. His word says ‘For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.’ – 2 Timothy 1:7.

This verse makes it clear that fear is not a package that God comes with and so we should be intentional about dealing with it.

  1. Don’t deny it, confront it – We’re human with histories and backgrounds, sometimes fears have grown from things we’ve experienced or heard. Some people are terrified of travelling by air because of plane crash news, some are terrified of eating fish today because in their childhood, they almost choked to death by a fish bone, and I myself use to be terrified of Married men as I shared in a recent blog-post because of my past. Some of these fears have been fed by occurrences in our past and God doesn’t want us to deny them but confront them with prayer and His word which is truth. When we begin to see that ‘God has a plan for us and has given his angels command to keep charge over us’, we won’t be scared of transportation or death even, because lets even say death does meet us there, at least there’s the joy of going home. When I also saw that Married men are never the problem and they are not out to get me, that fear dissipated. God is with me and watches me wherever I go, automatically I cease to fear whatever is man made or caused. We need to find The truth of God that liberates us from the fears we have.
  2. Sometimes do exactly what seems to scare you – By personal experience, I also discovered that the devil uses fear to keep us from God’s promises. Using just a home example, there were numerous times when I allowed fear stop me from asking my Mum or Dad for things and I suffered in whatever situation I was because fear crippled me and when I did gather the courage to ask, the way they even received the request showed that they would’ve granted it whenever I had asked but I allowed fear stop me from even making the move to ask. Sometimes spiritually too, God calls us to people, places and things and fear stops us from launching out, but we have to be bold enough to trust the Word of God.
  3. Something has to be growing, so feed faith – Something is always growing within you. It is either your faith or fear, so make it intentional always to be growing your faith by exposing yourself to the Word of God. Why? “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” – Romans 10:17. When we feed our faith by seeing God’s work in the life of others, fear fades out because it has met with something more powerful than it, so please, spend some time in your bible.
  4. Talk to people about what’s causing fear – I had a friend who feared failing in school, the fear so overwhelmed her that when it was time to read, she was more afraid that she wouldn’t remember what she was reading than she was that she will actually write and pass. In sharing this fear with me, I always kept her accountable, encouraging her with words of success and also praying with her about the fear. Sometimes when we share fears with people, we lessen its power over us. Fear also takes the facade of guilt and shame sometimes, when you do something, because no one is aware, you move the rest of your life in fear just hoping no one finds out. In sharing that with someone able to handle it maturely and pray with you, you dismantle the power of guilt and shame in that fear, so sometimes, God might lead us to deal with our fears by sharing them with people. Confession has so much power, don’t ever let fear stop you from confessing.
  5. Ultimately, remember whose you are before even who you are – A major trick I’ve used in my christian journey is realising that I am empowered and backed up by God. My life is not normal or ordinary by the fact that the Holy Spirit lives within me. I think we Christians forget this sometimes, because you can’t have the power that spoke creation into existence inside of you and still be running away from cockroaches (By the way i’m so guilty of this, i’m not a fan of insects at all). But hey, it is something we must daily remind ourselves of. That, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” – 1 John 4:4

If we’re intentional about these practical steps of dealing with fear, we’ll be more sensitive to recognise it when it comes around even.

So remember, “Don’t do it afraid. Deal with the fear, then do it.”

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How do I live above temptations?

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This is a follow up blog post from the last one, where I spoke about a conversation I had with a friend. The question asked was ‘How do I live above temptations and stay spiritually grounded?’

This was my response to her, only with subheadings now and I hope it impacts you as well.

1) Talk to God about them : It is always worth talking to God about our temptations, I’m not even saying praying “oh God help me not to fall into temptation”, I mean like mentioning whatever they are and telling God to help you live above them, determination is never enough for the human flesh, our human flesh bows to our temptations no matter the level of determination we have, so it’s more of a spiritual thing, if we’re empowered in the spirit, it also helps us physically. So mention the temptations to God

2) Set times for Bible study and Prayer : Have a set time for bible study and prayer, whether first thing in the morning or after work when you get home, but the more frequent and exact it is, the more you’ll look forward to it.
We can’t downplay the importance of bible study if we want to walk in step with the Spirit of God, I don’t know how often you read the bible and pray right now, but I advice making it more frequently and at a Particular time.
If God gets used to hearing your voice in that time, He’ll always be ready for you when you appear before Him in that time.

3) Be mindful of your association : I learnt this one late even and it’s the most practical of all the steps, you have to be mindful of your association and the people around you.
As Odeshi as we think we are to peer pressure, it sips into our subconscious and we actually find ourselves compromising in areas we used to be determined before.
So have people who will actually push your spiritual walk with God and not demean it.
The right people around you bring out the good things in you.
If you’re exposed too much to someone who encourages your temptation, you’ll keep falling

4) Find Hobbies that keep you occupied : Find hobbies and things that’ll keep your mind from being idle, I don’t know what you enjoy asides your daily job, but I think it’s worth picking up a few hobbies that’ll keep you occupied.
For me it’s reading and writing. And it helps so much because asides the time I actually leave out for meditation, I hardly have “free” time.
It’s usually in free times that our temptations jump on us, so we can minimise that occurrence by giving ourselves to more beneficial things, so start exploring your hobbies and see what you can pick up.
And don’t let the hobbies be watching TV please lol

5) Remember always that Jesus has been in same shoes : Finally, it always helps when we remember that the bible says that “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathise with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet he did not sin”, because the same way we are tempted is the same way He was tempted and He still overcame. So if human like us, He overcame, we also can.
When you’re at those low points, just make a mental note to God and ask Him how He would’ve treated such a situation if He was in same temptation and God will answer.
He always speaks, and I find that He’s most happy when we’re honest and open about our temptations and struggles.

It is an inexhaustible list as I said to her, but these are starting points.

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Are our bible plans really enough?

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bread

This post will probably not apply to every single one of us, some of us might even have an opposing view, so here’s stating in advance how subjective this is and my advice to any growing Christian like myself.

I had a conversation with a young woman a couple of days ago, she had decided she wanted to grow spiritually and live above temptations and she reached out to me on advice and ‘top tips’, as she put it.

I will share another blog post after this because I realised after typing out my response that it might be beneficial to someone else. In one of the points I gave to her, I spoke on how important bible study is in the life of anyone desiring to grow spiritually, and I explained that the Bible is that revealed word that gives us insight into the mind of God. And so, it’s importance cannot be overemphasised.

She agreed with me on these points and went further to share struggles with bible reading, asking how she can study the bible effectively and actually learn things and receive rhema and we got into the whole conversation of Bible plans on bible apps and even devotionals.

I completely understood where she was coming from in saying that she didn’t feel she learnt a lot in devotionals and bible plans, she said she usually gets the main message and sometimes it does linger in her heart for a period of time, but she’s not sure how much growth that brings her spiritually and I told her that I honestly agreed with her and shared how God taught me to read the bible, which I will also share in an upcoming blog-post.

There’s something called rhema in Christianity and I see rhema as the revelation of Gods word to a specific individual. When a human being receives an understanding of Gods word on a very personal level, that is rhema and logos might be word revealed to you by another human or through various agents, which also might bring rhema subsequently.

But I’ve come to see that there is nothing as beautiful as receiving rhema from God, if all our christian life, we live feeding on the rhema of others, including our Pastors, Bible school teachers and other ‘spiritual’ friends, how do we now grow to actually hearing God for ourselves and receiving that rhema?

I have nothing against bible plans and devotionals but they have never been the primary source of my bible study, I’ve received more from God by picking up my bible directly and reading and allowing the Spirit of God speak to my Spirit. The revelation your Pastor brings to you, might not be the same revelation you receive from God reading the same story by yourself, and this won’t be contrary words, it would just be from another angle that is more suited to the place you are in your life.

This is why we must push past logos to rhema word, and why I advise growing Christians to study the actual bible, even while doing bible plans and using devotionals.

God always wants to reach us at a personal level, not collectively or in pairs, but just Him and you, but how can that happen if we receive His word from other people and never from Him?

Bible plans and devotionals are awesome, for some people, it would even be the stepping stone to actual Bible studying and for that, I highly recommend it, but don’t ever limit your spiritual growth and communication with God to what you read in bible plans and devotionals. God has more beyond what He has revealed to someone.

Hence why after church on Sunday and after group bible study, it is not enough to remain excited in the message you received, rather, go home and further study and get the whole loaf rather than just the crumbs that got you excited.

The Oprah’s and the Ruth’s

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It’s really amazing how Ruth made it to having a book named after her in the bible, I have nothing against her but I’ve just always wondered the criteria used to decide how books were named because if it was a show of strength and resilience, Deborah should’ve come first, if it was by leadership and devotion to God, Miriam would’ve come first and if it was by mere obedience and trust, Sarah, Abraham’s wife should’ve come first, not in any way demeaning the amazing strengths and characters displayed by Ruth really.

Another named woman in that book is Orpah, we seem to only remember Ruth and Naomi in discussions over the book the Ruth and most times people speak like Orpah was the disloyal one who left her mother-in-law to go back to her country.

Heroic Ruth decided to stick with her even to death and the place Naomi was going to be buried.
It’s also weird we hear nothing again of Orpah after this scene, and my thoughts as I meditated on this was that God had destined the root of Jesus to come through Ruth.

I want us to remember that Naomi had called both daughter-in-laws to honestly advise them to go back to their countries because she had lost everything and was also returning to her country. Remember she even said that “even if I did marry again and bare children, would you both wait till they were grown to marry them?”. She saw that these girls were both young and could still make much of their lives if they returned home.

After a little back and forth, the bible says that Orpah then kissed her and went, this kills every argument of Orpah being disrespectful because all she’d done was reason and see that Naomi spoke truth and her conviction led her to leave to go back home.
Ruth on the other hand was convicted to remain with Naomi no matter what! For her it was a do or die affair and this was her own conviction.

We can’t judge people’s conviction on the basis of how we see it because a conviction is what it is, a personal resolution that is come from deep within a person. For us as Christians now, the Holy Spirit will usually convict us on various things in our lives, can we say that same Holy Spirit convicted both Ruth and Orpah?
Maybe not, because Christ hadn’t come yet and neither had He sent His spirit to dwell in His children.
But as we’ve always seen, God has always made provision for keeping His children in step with Him, sometimes it’s the conscience, those days it was the law and prophets and today were in that era of the Holy Spirit, so Ruth and Oprah’s convictions emanated from somewhere which my spirit tells me was pure.

Now, thinking on the flip side to when they did get to Naomi’s home in Bethlehem, how many women was Boaz going to marry? If Orpah had followed back too, do we see that there could’ve been some levels of conflict and issues over which one of them Boaz would redeem?, seeing that both of them might have been sent to glean in His field as well. God purposed Boaz to end up with Ruth and if that purpose was manifested in the conviction of Orpah by leading her to go back to her home, I see obedience and trust, rather than disloyalty and fear.

This morning I heard the Holy Spirit tell me that some are Orpah’s and some are Ruth’s, sometimes your conviction will lead you to go and other times it might be to stay, what matters in both occurrences is your obedience.
We can’t interpret the absence of Orpah’s name in the bible after that chapter to mean that she did something wrong and was removed, it could just be that it is Ruth’s life, which we still read about that God was bringing someone out from, which is the Messiah.
Note however that not everything is recorded in the bible and sometimes the Holy Spirit gives insight to what might have happened that wasn’t recorded.

The point in this post is to be sensitive to the conviction of the Holy Spirit, don’t think of the “best ideal option” and stick with it, just be open to whatever option He might lead you to, even if it is going home as in the case of Orpah.
God isn’t judging you against anyone else, however similar your situation might have been, He’s looking at your obedience to Him in any and every situation.
So please drop the expectation and desires of others over your life, or better still, subject those expectations and desires to the spirit of God so He can sieve and filter through them.

Your obedience will always come first before the thought of any human or even yourself. We read Orpah’s actions sometimes as disrespectful and disloyal, but for all we know, it could’ve been her own conviction which stands tall even in the mirror of Ruth’s conviction to continue with Naomi.

I hope you don’t feel uncomfortable knowing that you might be an Orpah and not a Ruth because you’re just as awesome x

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International Women’s day Hang-out!

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IWD (1)

Nothing excites me more than a gathering of believing ladies, where we come and just pour out our hearts to our creator and have some fun while at it!

Today is one of such days and it’s a promise to share pictures from today’s get together for anyone who wont be able to make it.

Proverbs 31:29 says that ‘Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all’.

We’re tapping into this truth today and exploring how we can be the women that would be described as the sentence above.

It’s really a Super Power to be female so don’t ever take that for granted.

God is brewing the FOCH generation, I AM EXCITEDDDD!

What do you want in Life?

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I wrote a post in the past, which can be found here, where I spoke about how a Lady I once worked with wanted to build the rest of her career in that company we both worked for and how I knew from the first day I started, how temporary that role would be, it was just for that season of my life, by it’s nature and also looking inwardly.

I remember I expressed my shock the first time I heard her say to a senior manager that ‘You have me forever’ and she was not even joking, I could see as time went on that she found fulfilment working there and the conclusion was that the purest happiness will come from doing and being where you are destined to do and be. Which is why comparison and competition will forever be the greatest killer of true fulfilment.

Today again, I am reminded of how we all want different things in this life, of how aberrational it is for us to compare our desires with that of our neighbour knowing fully well that we are not even the same people, neither are we going to the same place however similar our lives might look.

I was speaking to my aunt a while back and she’s been a stay-at-home mother/entrepreneur for as long as I can remember, she loves that life and i’m a witness to how much she’s flourished in this seemingly ‘small’ office as society might see it, so one day we were having one of those heart-to-heart and she said from when she was younger, all she really wanted was a stable and happy home, for her, it was less about her career and just all about her family. And she has exactly that! A happy and stable home.

I’ve equally spoken to women who were more career driven and want a successful career, even before a family home and I think if that works for them, there is little or no problem, I dream of a world where young people will be able to discuss their dreams, however different they will all be and laugh and support each other through them and not feel insecure of intimidated about the life someone else envisages for themselves.

Similarly, I sat with someone yesterday as well and we were talking about a family we both knew and I was like ‘they literally go everywhere together’ and my friend was like, ‘yes, that is what it should be’, and I brought her attention to the fact that it could only work this way because of the nature of a lot of factors including that the woman doesn’t exactly work independently of her husband, rather she supports him in his own business, and I just wanted her to also see how it would play out differently for another woman in another setting.

I began talking about how I don’t really see my husband and I like that, but this didn’t mean we won’t be close and know each other’s business and we got in a mini back-and-forth on ‘how it should be’, but same conclusion was derived, down to what a person wants, and no one having a right to tell anyone what they want, but the disadvantage with that is you end up dancing to the music you play for yourself so godly wisdom and discernment must be applied.

The best version of yourself is the version God had and still has in mind before He even created you. It is not the version your parents or the media have sold to you. It isn’t even the version you yourself has crafted out, so please commune, fellowship and enjoy the presence of the One who’s created you, He knows best where each of us will flourish our best.

Also quit all these discussions that’ll lead you to arguing out valid differences rather than embracing and encouraging each other in the areas we’ll flourish best. These days I’ve become so sensitive to recognising conversations that argue differences rather than supporting each other.

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Heal and shift

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I have been on one of Karen’s Kingsbury’s special, ‘When joy came to say‘.

I don’t take a long time with reading novels as I do with inspirational and spiritual books, but this novel has taken quite some time, having me stop, think, reflect and relate with some of the characters of the book and frankly, it has been heart wrenching. Anyone who reads Karen on a regular knows how her writing touches always the deepest parts of you, without her even trying too hard.

A woman had a past of which she managed to completely clean before she got married, she didn’t bother so share this horrid past with new hubby because it was now what it was, the past and it didn’t matter any more. They were both leaders in church and parents to the most adorable twin baby boys and then several years into this beautiful family, flashbacks start coming to her. She can’t make much sense of the flashbacks but one thing she’s certain of is the affiliation this has to the past she closed several years ago.

So what does she do? she gets scared because the hallucinations start getting overbearing, shes now caught doing things that could jeopardise her career as a top class columnist as a result of the hallucinations.

Her husband notices these changes so he starts to probe like the caring and supportive husband he is, but she shuts him out completely, convinced that he does not deserve a woman like her because of her past and does not deserve also the shame he could face should whatever it is be brought to light.

So one day, as her husband is away at work, she packs up her bags, leaves a note saying where she’s going and she checks herself into a psychiatric home, convinced that her hallucinations had become hazardous to her and the people around her. She gave clear instructions that she wanted no call or visit from any family member, particularly her husband and just asked to be alone, attending her rehabilitation classes till she got better.

On the flip side, hubby gets home to a quiet house, cause his wife successfully managed to give their kids to social services under the disguise that she is mentally unstable and so, they took the children without much questioning. He finds her wardrobe cleaned out and the note she’s left him and his heart can’t take it so he sits there on that spot, cries out his heart and stays playing with thoughts of how his marriage went from 100 – 0 with no warning and no reasons why.

I’m still on the book so I don’t know yet the ending but this plot isn’t too far from the realities I’ve been hearing about and dealing with. On the side of ‘do I need to tell my partner everything about my past?’ and ‘what if I deal with pain silently?’. This blog post is more on the dealing with pain, than the revealing your past to your partner.

People around us always suffer when we decide to be selfish. I imagine the tragedy to come in this book because of the protagonists decision to withhold her past from the people who love her, including her husband. I imagine the plot twist of what he will be forced to do and think because his wife has left him to go a mental home with no explanation as to why and even refuses to see him.

No matter how private you are, you need to know that your behaviour and response to pain has domino effects on those closest to you however little, I think young people need to start learning more how best to deal with pain rather than just closing a chapter on it without dealing with it adequately.

Subsequently we’ll talk about the letting your partner in on every detail of your past that has a potential to resurface at any point in your life, however insignificant you think it is.

We’ve grown learning that pain goes with time, and that’s true to an extent, but not when we haven’t fully healed, if not, at the slightest pop up of something related, we’ll be overwhelmed by the flood of thoughts from what we once thought was dead and gone.

STOP HIDING YOUR PAIN, STOP DEALING WITH YOUR PAIN ALONE, STOP PRETENDING THAT A WOUND IS HEALED WHEN IT IS ONLY COVERED.

Heal first, then shift.

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Different Excitements?

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I couldn’t have chosen a better generation to be born into to be honest, I love how I look back and see all the flaws of our Parents generation, how we’ve managed to find solutions to them and become more vocal as well on issues, and I also look into the generation of our children and frankly, i’m gripped with fear seeing how we’re unintentionally nurturing spaces to support levels of unruliness and arrogance all in the name of being vocal and speaking your mind. So in my head, it is kinda like 2 extremes and then us, here in the middle, balancing it all out! (Gather in here for a group selfie if you really feel the same way about our generation!).

However, that we are the middle-men balancing it all out has not left us without the flaws and downsides to this generation, so we’ll do ourselves some good to address these flaws when they pop up and adjust them in order to stop it from being worse with future generations.

This post is inspired by a conversation I had recently with a friend, he was convinced I did not want to talk to him anymore and that I had changed towards him because we hadn’t spoken in a while, but I was not trying to be defensive to start saying how ‘life is busy’, or how ‘everyone is just occupied with work’ or anything else of that sort, so I just apologised and carried on normally, but I realised how this is slowly becoming a trend with most people, getting mad or uncomfortable that you don’t talk with someone the way you use to talk to them before and just making conclusions that friendship wouldn’t work cause of that.

We might all be able to testify of an excitement that comes when we start talking to someone who gets us, like just conversing with someone who you seem to have a lot of similar interests with, this is normal and it is natural. As time goes on, it is also normal and natural that the excitement changes, not that it dwindles, it is just not the temporary excitement of the new possibility of the friendship at the beginning but excitement of just having the person as a friend, and if you ask married people, I think they explain it best. How the dating phase is not the same as marriage, not that it is worse or better, but the excitement that comes in the suspense and the potential that they just see at the dating phase isn’t the same in marriage cause there isn’t that suspense anymore, it becomes excitement in another way.

Our generation wants to keep the initial excitement at inception of something till the end of the thing, they don’t want to imagine that anything could or should change that excitement and so when the initial excitement is overshadowed by the new source of excitement, rather than embracing it, we pick it up as a red flag and look at it as a problem rather than a blessing that it could be. It happens with ideas too, people are so excited when new ideas come but as execution gets into full swing, because the first excitement isn’t there, they begin to question the ideas and motivations.

I told my friend that the same principle is also seen in our natural world. The oceans don’t always flow the same way, the flow sometimes is dependent on external factors, but never the content of the water. No flow is better than the other because the content remains the same really, just newness of flow every now and then.

When there are changes in our relationships, both Eros and friendships, I think we need to be more understanding and sensitive to the changes and not just interpret it as something bad, not in any way neglecting the fact that there really might be other issues surrounding someones withdrawal, but so long as there hasn’t been any change in the content of your thoughts towards someone, don’t use the flow of the relationship to judge it in it’s entirety. Recognise the phases and trust the flow.

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The Realist, the optimist and the spiritual person

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A big disadvantage of our society, which is even worsened and amplified in our generation is the idea that one fits in a certain box in different areas of life, it only explains why someone says something and you hear stuff like ‘you’re being too optimistic’ or ‘why can’t you be realistic?’ or sometimes ‘there’s nothing spiritual about this’. All these sayings say more about the people they come from then the people they are directed to.

You’ll see someone as not being realistic because you can’t see the possibility side like they do, you’ll see someone being too optimistic because you’re focused more on the possible problems that could arise rather than the actual good that could come of it, similarly, when someone explains something from the spiritual perspective, someone telling them not to spiritualize it is them acknowledging their inability in that moment to see it from that angle.

So we all resort to accepting what we know and making any opinion different from ours ‘not realistic’, ‘too optimistic’ or ‘over-spiritualizing the matter’.

The most rounded individuals are those able to see it from all rounds without still comprising your stance. Don’t be bullied into anything by either of the statements above, as you might have seen, the best teams are those who had a representative of each extreme.

Now, notice that I’ve said the ‘most rounded individuals’ up there, now, for the Spirit-led person, which is a rounded person with the Spirit of God, I needed to correct the ideology that a spiritual person is one who never sees things as they are in reality and so I find a lot of Christians confused on if they’re realists or just always optimistic ‘hiding under the cover of God has got us covered’.

Our faith as christian never bring us to deny reality, rather, not to settle in it, it definitely also doesn’t teach us to lie about it, what it does is show us what Our God has said or done about a particularly situation and encourages us to hold on to that hope that He could do the exact same thing should He decide to. As such, you will find that most Christians might be guilty of always being optimistic, and hey, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, so we don’t have to constantly defend our belief that something will always turn out for the best.

On the flip side, some people  are just naturally more taken by facts and logic, yet they still share the same faith as we do, this doesn’t make them less spiritual or lacking faith, it just shows once again that variety of people I spoke of at the beginning of this blog post. The Spirit of God is one, He finds expression in us differently but His gifts in us are consistent, so despite His different manifestation in us, we can identify Him through the gifts and fruits portrayed.

Realist, pessimist, or optimist doesn’t really matter much to God, He’s most concerned with how you’re growing in Him and His plans for you even if sometimes this might include having to change your outlook on things. Let’s be people that are Spirit-led, this just means looking at things always from God’s perspective, it it always appears good, fam! Take it like that.

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Your Best Version

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mirror

I sat in church this evening and realised how predictable this life was intended to be, especially in relation to us and the idea of ‘the best way to cruise through life’. (ps. that would make such an amazing book title), but funny how if I saw such a book in a store, knowing myself, i’ll think it too cheesy and walk away, but my type are not the majority so maybe it could actually stand a chance!.

I sat and realised how in the best every version of Rubie, I will look like Jesus. In the best ever idea of success, it’ll be how I’ve used my impact and influence to contribute to the kingdom and then I realised how this world is what corrupts us into believing that there’s more to it, that it is a lot more complicated than we think it is when it is really not.

So basically, at any point in your life when you look in a mirror and see an image of Jesus, that’s all, game over, the work is compete!. So really, since we know what our best version looks like already in the revealed word (The bible), why do we go about fantasising about some rock and roll Rubie in one random place in the Caribbeans sipping on a peach-flavoured Chapman?

None of these imaginations will be wrong in their context but it’ll be wrong to imagine them as the best version of me because I already have a picture of what the best version of me should look like.

If we also see results from patterns and principles in the bible, aren’t those like what they call ‘tips’ or ‘cheats’ in games that help make steps easier for you?

The patterns and principles we see in the bible are exactly those, (although i’d rather we called them tips than cheats, lol). They’re there to show and tell you all the options available as well as the paths leading to the result of each option. What else are we looking for again? (Not to make it sound like ABC), but do you realise how much more simply this could make our lives? realising that we know already what we should look like in the best versions of ourselves and we’ve been handed case studies of different paths to different destinations, on top, given the free will to choose the path to take.

This is why Bible reading is not a debate for any person wanting to grow spiritually, let’s pick up this book, together with the Holy spirit at work in us and walk into what we already know is our best version. All the cute vacation imaginations in our heads our valid, but they’re not the best version of you, however close it comes.