ARE YOU A REFUGEE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD?

I thank God for bringing all of us here today and for His grace and mercies. As we can see, my blog looks different today. All thanks to my twin brother Samuel. As one of my birthday presents, he surprisingly upgraded and completely changed my whole blog setting and I just want to say a big thank you to Him. When you read this Samuel, I appreciate it so much. May God bless you. The question today is:

ARE YOU A REFUGEE IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD?

Refugee in the presence of God? What does that even mean? A refugee is someone who has been forced to leave their country or home and is afraid to return. Being a refugee in the presence of God means you got forced to leave the presence of God and now you’re afraid to go back. In the presence of God, there’s fullness of joy, there’s laughter, there’s unfailing love, there’s everything. But choosing to stay in His presence isn’t as easy. Hence why most of us struggle to stay. 

Sometimes, we feel like we can’t be ourselves in God so we leave. We feel like living a religious lifestyle is very boring and we need to YOLO our way out. We feel like everyone around us is judging us because we don’t want to dosomething about that  certain things so now we’re uncomfortable in God and the only option is to leave. 

My friends Kofi, Fanita and Linda always say “being a Christian isn’t easy but it’s worth it”. To be honest, I agree with them. Sometimes you see something and you want to do this but the Holy Spirit prompts you and you can’t do it now because you clearly know it’s the Holy Spirit and if you deny it, that’s you disobeying God. Everyone around you is having the best time of their lives and you’re just there looking at them. Sometimes they may even judge you, and if you’re not strong enough you’ll end up doing whatever it is.

Don’t ever feel attacked by society and leave the presence of God. People will make you feel like you’re overdoing it or you’re just boring only because you are choosing to follow God but it is fine. I am a bubbly person, full of energy and “dumbness”. I can fool for the whole day if I’m allowed to. When I fully gave myself to God, I thought since I’m a “new person”, maybe I should change my personality. I tried to be a quiet person but let me say this, I felt weird and lost. I did not feel like myself at all. Giving yourself to God and following His way doesn’t mean you have to completely change your personality. The society thinks when you decide to be a follower of God, everything needs to change. You’d have to change one or two things that don’t please God but it doesn’t mean you’ll turn into someone else. Don’t let anyone make you feel weird about yourself. Don’t let anyone let you leave your purpose. 

Let’s look at Moses. After killing someone and fleeing away from Egypt, he returned. He feared Pharoah would kill him and that people will point at him for what he did, he was willing to God because God told him, He will go with him. We may feel like people will point fingers at us because they know what we have done but let God direct you back to Him. 

Don’t ever feel like a refugee in the presence of God. Don’t feel like you will be unable to return to him. Don’t be afraid and think God will persecute you. He will always welcome you with open arms. If you lose your way, ask him to guide you back to Him just as Psalm 16:11 says “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever”. You can always build a house in God and stay. 

Refugees don’t have protection. They are scared for their lives and they feel lost. When you are not in God, you will feel lost. Allow Him to protect you. Allow Him to give you comfort and warmth. The prodigal son left home but when he arrived, his father didn’t push him away. Instead, he “runs” to meet his son. God will run and meet you when you decide to come back home. He won’t leave you wandering. He loves you. 

Prayer: Dear God, we come before you today. Bring us back to you. Don’t let us feel like refugees in your presence. Help us feel safe and welcomed whenever we are you in presence. We thank you, amen. 

Testimony: I thank God for adding and year to me and my twin. It has been a great week full of love and encouragement and I just want to thank God and thank everyone He sent to ensure I was smiling through the whole week. I pray this new age brings me more and opens doors for me. I thank you in Jesus name. 

Appreciation: The person who created this blog is Farida. Her snap is Fariri_xx 

Thank you so much, Farida. This girl offered to make me a free promotional video for me. I love this blog and your kindness and may God help you to use this talent to achieve greatness and may He bless you. 

F RUST RATION

We thank God for bringing us into a new month. I started my blog on the 1st of September and I can say I have learnt a lot and I am growing stronger each day. Writing these blogs helps me to know how good God is and the miles He’s willing to go for me. Today’s blog is titled:

F  RUST  RATION

The word is broken down because you can’t spell frustration without “rust”. Let’s say you leave a metal substance out for so long it rust and then it is not pretty anymore. When anything rusts, it loses its beauty. Let’s pause there for a quick second. 

Frustration leads to stress, sadness and anger. When you are frustrated, you automatically become stressed, which leads to sadness, then you end up being angry because everything is not going your way. This is how powerful frustration is. And when all this is happening, the last person on our mind is God, when He should be the first. When God created us, He put some sort of beauty in us. But due to certain circumstances, that beauty ends up in situations or places that leads that beauty to rust. My understanding of rusting is that if I put something in a safe place or box, it won’t rust but if I leave it in a surrounding that has moisture and oxygen, that’s where rusting will occur. The question is “where are we leaving the beauty that’s in us?”

I know it wouldn’t be normal if our lives were perfect everyday. Even if we had our dream jobs or dream house or dream husband or dream car, there will still be a time of glitch here and there that could leave us in a frustrated state. Frustration is normal but are you ready to overlook situations that leads to frustration?

Imagine being in a very tight top. Let’s say you are a size 10 and you force yourself into a size 4. Well, imagine trying to take it off. You will be frustrated. If you are me, you’ll probably end up crying whilst trying to take it off. We tend to wrap what goes around us into a tight cloth then we put it on. We allow things to get to us easily. We stress over things that doesn’t even need that much energy. Most times it’s not our fault but we just can’t help it. Some words of encouragement this week, “allow God to be your scissors”. Let Him cut you loose from all your frustration. Let Him do what He’s good at doing. Which is, setting you free and giving you peace. 1 Peter 5: 7 says “Give all your worries to God, for he cares about you.” Give all your frustration to Him, for he cares. 

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Our system of living is like how delivery works. You buy something and they tell you “expectation day: tomorrow”. Now when tomorrow comes and that order doesn’t arrive, you start getting frustrated because it was meant to come today. We expect God to do everything for us today and He’s saying “My child, there is no need to rush into anything when I’m in control. I’m the God that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think so let’s take it slow”. 

You wanted to get married by 25 but you couldn’t and now you’re 26 and it’s making you frustrated cause “your” plans have changed. You want to finish university by 21 but then something is happening in your life at the moment and now you’re frustrated because that wasn’t “your” plans. You want to drive now but you keep failing your driving test so you are frustrated. God’s thoughts are nothing like our thoughts and His ways are far beyond anything you could imagine (Isaiah 55:8). We think everything will be better when it’s now, and it’ll all make sense but God’s plans for us may not be as such. His plans are bigger and better. 

Don’t let your beauty rust. Don’t let frustration rust that dream of yours. Don’t let frustration cover the amazing plans God has for you. Don’t let frustration rust the talents and gifts you have. Yes, you probably thought you could do something but you wasn’t able to do it. Rise up now, ask God that if that was part of the plan He has for you and that He should help you start over again. Our God is a caring God, a God that is willing to take our burdens and exchange it for peace. Let him lead your path. When an object rusts, I don’t expect it to come back to normal but God will bring you back to normal because He can do anything. He will do it for you. This week, when we are frustrated, probably from a simple thing such as missing your bus, look to God and say “Lord, please let me not rust today”. 

Prayer:  Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. God, from today, please help me know that my ways are different from yours. When things don’t go as planned, let me know that you have a better idea in your plans for me. When I’m frustrated, talk to me. Thank you Lord, in Jesus name, Amen. 

Testimony: I thank God for this new month and I thank God for adding another year to my mum’s age today. I thank God for all the things He has done for me and my friends and family. I was just thinking this morning I don’t deserve such love but I have it and every time I think of it I get emotional. I am just happy to know that there’s God out there that got me. Have a lovely week. 

Song of the day: You Still Do- Terrian