Gratitude And Obedience

I have had a few weeks of marveling at God's goodness, faithfulness, and above all, hearing and seeing Him acts. You may be wondering how does that happen, well here it goes. My friends and I started our "Friday Prayer Requests" whereby, we would each talk about the areas in our lives that we want to see God work. My first prayer request was for me to be grateful and boy did I go through hell. My second prayer request was for me to forgive and not hold offence, that too didn't go so well. 

What I realized is that, when I asked God to give me something for example, a spirit of gratitude or a spirit of forgiveness, that was when I faced issues that required me to act in those spirits when everything is telling me otherwise. But in the midst of it all, I did take time at night as I prayed before ending my day, and I told God how grateful I am for walking me through whatever I had been facing. 

As I continued praying for other areas of my life, and just thanking God for what I have and asking God to help me surrender in areas where I clearly felt that He was asking me to surrender, I saw His greatness even more. Long story short, I have seen God align things for me so strategically that there is no way on earth I could give credit to anyone but God. Everything is so vivid that it's His hand at work. 

Then I decided to analyse everything that has happened in the past few weeks, and I realize that God does answer prayers, God is faithful, God does make a way where there seems to be no way. Everything God promises does come to pass, but there is catch, God does want us to also do something, it can be to have faith that He will do what we ask of Him, it can be for us to surrender to Him, it can be for us to be obedient to what He is telling us to do. It's a two-way relationship. 

I remember reading something a while back that said, God's answers in various ways, He can say NO -that's not good for you, or NOT YET- it's not time for this yet, or YES - you can have it right now. We like the YES response best because it always happens so quickly. No one likes listening to the "Not yet" and "No" answers. Not yet can mean, continue to have faith, what you are praying for will come in due season. It can also mean, I am waiting for the other person to be obedient so that you will receive what you have been praying for. NO is very clear, no always means DANGER. No is perhaps the best response you can receive from God no matter how painful it can be. Be okay with all the responses God decides to give you. Above all, be obedient in all responses. 

Love,

MamaTembo Safari.

The Battle is Real

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“Whoever heeds life-giving correction will be at home among the wise. Those who disregard discipline despise themselves, but the one who heeds correction gains understanding.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭15:31-32‬ ‭NIV‬‬

“Blessed are all who fear the Lord, who walk in obedience to him.”

‭‭Psalm‬ ‭128:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

This is a note to self kinda day. As I try to reflect on my weaknesses and strengths, I try to see what areas have I been fighting from gaining understanding and what areas I have allowed to be corrected and I have gained understanding. You see, life is too short - indeed, but that saying should mean I need to get understanding and have things done the right way (now) so that my tomorrow will be painless (and not how the world chooses to interpret - life is short hence go ahead and make a mess of your spiritual walk by doing foolish things) even though this is not said in so many words but you kinda get the insinuation from the saying. 

The older I get, the more I see just how much we think we know but we really don’t.

One topic I have been hearing alot lately is not to be anxious about anything. You see, sometimes we want what we wan’t and that can mean we tend to be anxious about life because we want things to happen the way we want them to happen. As I continue to learn to TRUST in God, it also means I have to surrender and boy oh boy - who knew kususa sio kuachilia/kusalimisha?! Life is correcting me and all I can say is LORD - Have your way! 

Your way over who I am, where I have to be, what I have to do. Don’t get me wrong, don’t give up on your dream to own a mansion in Mbezi, but first ask if that’s in God’s will. And it may be in His will for you if He sees there’s nothing wring with you owning a mansion, but then His plan may be for you to get an apartment for rent in Kariakoo, or get any other type of accommodation in Kariakoo. Your duty will be to be obedient to that. But coming from a personal experience - it’s not easy to surrender it all. You have to be very obedient to agree to God’s will and plan over your life. To agree to live in an apartment when an hour drive will get you to your mansion. Then that’s when you’ll discover PRIDE has everything to do with your failure to be obedient and to fully surrender!