WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO US? (REPOST)

Last night, I wanted to do some work, but after my computer was taking such a long time to boot up, I took it as God wanting me to spend some alone time with Him. I believe He had me to watch an interview with Pastor Dan Hall, the person who really brought me closer to Him. I’m here crying as I type this because my fav Pastor is now paralyzed from the neck down, and I am questioning God as to why He allowed such a terrible thing to happen. But like Pastor Hall explained, life is about how you RESPOND when bad things happen:

“How am I going to respond to being in this chair? I am going to pray that Christ (God) be exalted (glorified). That somehow in this chair, somehow in my responses and interactions, I am glorifying Him. I’m pointing people to Him.”

That’s me! I say my life is a movie that everyone is watching, and I hope that they see God in me. That even in my sad times I can brag about my God winks and how God showed up to comfort me. That in my most challenging times, He will have the perfect people to show up to assist me, or He would give me the clarity as to what direction to take to resolve it. That even when I’m down to nothing and feel my most wretched and awful self, and He sweetly says, “Give me your nothingness. Didn’t I create the entire world from nothing?” Even in my failings, he gently says, “Just do better next time.” No guilt, no condemnation, no love lost.

Even our business that I’m trying to get back on track (A HUGE CHALLENGE that has stressed me out ALOT), God has been showing up to help us. In a conversation with our manager, yesterday, I said, “We’re dancing with our Partner – God.” And he texted me back, “The DJ.” Fast forward to yesterday evening, I decided to have an appointment with God reading a page on our family’s website, werollwithgod.com. I looked around for a number to determine what page to read out of 53 pages, and saw the number 28. I go to page 28 and incredibly read this,

“… and said to God that He was my DJ (Wink! Wink!).”

That was AGAIN God’s sweet and FUN way of revealing His Presence with me when everything lined up a little bit too perfect to be some ordinary coincident. HE IS IN THE FIRES WITH US!!! This is why I’m learning that we can indeed be joyful and at peace when we go through hard times because these are the times we’re learning to RELY on God (OUR GREATEST FRIEND!). And, let me tell ya, He doesn’t disappoint!

“I told you these things so that you can have peace in me (God). In this world YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE but be brave! I have defeated the world.” – John 16:33

I always imagine God winking at me when I read this verse! His love casts away all my fears that even when bad things happen, I know that its from the hands of a loving God who knows what’s best for us.

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“I HAVE NO TIME FOR DISAPPOINTMENTS RIGHT NOW!”

That was a conversation I had yesterday with my sweetie pie daughter, Julie. There are lots of people depending on me to be my best and strongest self. When the crazy lady wants to show up, that’s where my days of discipline come in, and I MUST say, “Cra Cra lady AND DEVIL, GO AWAY! That was last year’s drama, not this year’s!” I must IMMEDIATELY shake off whatever disappointment or frustration trying to get me off my groove and keep my eyes fixed on God asking what He would have me to do INSTEAD.

AND THAT’S WHERE I WANT US ALL, CONTINUOUSLY SEEKING GOD IN ALL OUR MOMENTS AS TO WHAT HE WOULD HAVE US TO DO!!! This life is too hard to do it on our own!!! I was so happy when Julie and I spoke about having courage, and at that point, she became my teacher. She said something like, “It’s just about living life knowing you have God’s Presence continually with you protecting you, guiding you, and helping you. That you’re never alone.” She told me even about how she feels His invisible Presence with her when she goes on her runs. That she looks at the clouds and the trees and it feels so unreal, and she says, ‘God I know Your Presence is here with me.’

That conversation truly made the God maniac mom here super happy! When I discussed some of the attributes that seem to come so easy for her, like having a strong work ethic, discipline, and focus, she said she’s working on being more optimistic about situations, thinking best-case scenarios and not worst-case, knowing that God is helping her.

And this gift of faith that my husband and I have passed on to our kids is the best thing we can ever give them. To have this confidence that God Himself goes with you and stands with you through life’s stresses and difficulties is PRICELESS. WE NEED HIM! Make God your priority by seeking Him in every moment, asking what He would have you to do. This will take learning His voice by spending quality time with Him, learning His character and the person He is calling you to be in the world.

I have many meditation books that I read, but I highly recommend Jesus Calling by Sarah Young. I had alarms on my phone set to have appointments with God reading this book every day. Not one minute I spent seeking God was ever wasted. HE GIVES ME COURAGE that I can bravely and confidently take on life! What time will your appointments with Him be?

God, increase our FAITH in You! Amen!

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GOD LOVES TO FREAK ME OUT!

This God wink started on Saturday when I had a conversation with my sister, Juanita, in the Bahamas from Nigeria. I LOVE being the big sister and sharing some of my crucial lessons from God that I feel would benefit her. God’s ways are not anything like our human ways!!! Like that very day, I felt Him saying through a Mother Teresa quote that I should love until it hurts because eventually, it will become all love, no hurt. Feeling that’s PRECISELY what God has been teaching me, lately, filled with love for everyone despite their faults and failings, focused on their positives and not their negatives.

Later on that afternoon, at exactly 20 minutes past the hour, I go to have an appointment with God on our family’s website, werollwithgod.com, reading page 20. I felt an old post there was God’s response to me and my sister’s conversation:

“‘GOD, WHAT SHOULD I SAY HERE?’

That was me looking to Him as to how to respond to a question my husband had asked. Trust me, I had LOTS to say, but with one glimpse in God’s direction, I knew He would have me to hold back those words and be kind. Nik, say anything you want to Me, but to others, practice silence. This morning, when I asked Him about it again, like God, why can’t I address this issue, I feel He had this to say:

“DO NOT EXPECT to be treated fairly in this life. People will say and do hurtful things to you, things you don’t deserve. When someone mistreats you, try to view it as an opportunity to grow in grace. See how quickly you can forgive the one who has wounded you. DON’T BE CONCERNED ABOUT SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT. Instead of obsessing about other people’s opinions of you, KEEP YOUR FOCUS ON ME. Ultimately, it is my view of you that counts…

When others treat you unfairly, remember that My ways with you are much better than fair. My ways are Peace and Love, which I have poured out into your heart by My Spirit.” – Jesus Calling”

I didn’t get a chance to send it to Juanita, though, until the next day. At exactly 3:32 pm, I sent her a message in our family’s group chat that I sent her what I felt was God’s response to our talk. Right after that, I had to quickly dress to go out with my Emmanuels (husband and sons) but said I would quickly have an appointment with God first, reading the same Jesus Calling meditation book. Can you guys believe that in this vast 700-page devotional, I opened up exactly to the page that I had quoted in that old post I sent to Juanita? The freaky thing about it was it felt like some invisible hand just took over, searching for that page until it stopped specifically there. It was crazy, y’all! Not even 30 minutes after sending that message to Juanita, God found a way to confirm it as it saying, ‘Yes, Nik, that was a message from Me!’ Wow! Wow! Wow! God is pretty talkative, let me tell ya!

I’ll never get over how intimately He is involved in our lives! From a conversation with my baby sister on Saturday, to me firmly believing that this old post was a message from Him to her, for Him to go to the trouble of actually confirming it in that devotional, just shows His deep love for us all. That all lined up immensely TOO perfectly to be considered some coincidence.

Are you getting to know God better? I promise you, no other love compares! That’s why I want us to have these appointments/alone times with God for ourselves! That quote from Mother Teresa about loving until it hurts was such a contradiction to what the world teaches, but when we stick with God’s ways (although sometimes extremely difficult!), this is how He guides us on the beautiful paths He has planned out for us. I don’t know about you, but I’m sticking with God! The message He had for me on page 20 was, ‘Relax, I got you!’ And there is nothing sweeter than going through life feeling God is my personal Security, Advisor, Partner, and FIRST LOVE. Wink! Wink!

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‘GOD, I NEED TO HEAR FROM YOU!!!’ (REPOST)

That was me waking up super early this morning to Him. No shame in my game, I have my difficult moments that I NEED His help to get me through. Those times when I MUST hold onto His hands SUPER SUPER TIGHT, continually reminding myself that I’m with Him, I’m with Him, I’m with Him.

And can you believe He answered that prayer? I was texting my sister in the Bahamas and said, ‘Enough texting, let me call her!’ We ended up having one of our sacred conversations, and I told her that we have to go both with the PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL in dealing with problems – We do our best in the physical realm and leave God to do what He has to do in the spiritual because He knows how to tweak situations in our favor. Kk?!?

I ended up handing my phone over to my mom and left them talking. When I went back to get my phone from my mom, though, she asked if I could charge her phone for her, and the quickest way was just to plug it into the TV. I remember thinking, ‘God, forgive me for wasting electricity in using this big TV to charge my mom’s little phone.’ Like one minute later, on the very station I turned the TV on to, an announcer says something concerning some orphan kids, “We take care of both their PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL needs.” WINK! WINK! And just like that, God shows up to say, ‘Nik, RELAX, I got you!’

That’s was another one of my God winks where once again, out of the blue, everything lines up EXTREMELY too perfectly to be a regular coincident. It was God sweetly revealing His invisible Presence with me.

I cried yesterday listening to a freshman in high school, Madison, pray this prayer at Bel Air’s church in California:

“Dear Lord, thank You for this day. Thank You for waking us up this morning. And thank You for everything You give us. I pray for us to help know Your BOLDNESS. That we will be able to move forward in our faith, in our prayer life, and in everything that we are doing. That you will be at the center of every move we make and KNOW THAT MISTAKES ARE OK. To know that we can move forward and that YOU ARE BY OUR SIDE THROUGH ALL OF IT. And that we will be able to prosper and have abundance, and growth and help other people to grow as well through knowing you and knowing your faith and boldness… Amen.”

After she prayed, the congregation was invited to “come forward for prayer, come forward to confess things, come forward to ask for healing.” Will you go to God now with anything You need His help with? He hears our heart prayers.

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GOD, I NEED YOUR STRENGTH TO HELP ME _______

That’s the prayer I want us all saying today, asking Him to help us tackle any area of our life that is off track. Let me tell ya, He is excellent at that! As you get Him involved, He astonishingly shows up with His wisdom, direction, guidance, strength, and even the people we need to help us conquer any set of INTIMIDATING situations. GOD DEY!!! So, whatever that blank space represents to you, GET GOD INVOLVED!!!

After reading about depending on God in our weaknesses with my husband for an alone time with Him, fast forward less than an hour later, God confirmed this message through a beautiful soul, Rani, on Whatsapp:

“Let us not allow difficulties to make us think that God is absent or not interested in us. But rather they are themselves the perfect opportunity to recognize our dependence on God, and allow His strength to manifest in our weakness. Do not let problems get you down. Do not let moments of difficulty make you doubt all that God can do in your life. Not every day will be smooth sailing. Do not stop believing, God has great things for you. Your answer is on the way. Everything will work out in your favor. Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy. (Psalm 33:18)”

With everything I have going on at the moment, this was a special wink from God letting me know that I can depend on His strength to help me in my weaknesses, and to relax, that everything will work out in my favor. Wink! Wink! This gives me the peace and confidence to tackle anything that shows up, knowing I have God as my faithful Back-up!

That’s why I loved my exercise time with God yesterday listening to Justin Bieber. I was reminded to go on strike from disappointments. To IMMEDIATELY shake them off and keep my eyes on God, who gives me so much more than I can ever ask or imagine. The people who hurt and disappoint me, I hand them over to God, practicing endless forgiveness. I loved something I read this week that said something like if you see someone commit a sin today, you can’t call him a sinner tomorrow because you don’t know if he repented overnight. Nobody’s perfect! Who are we to hold unforgiveness towards anyone, anyway?!? May God be the judge of us all.

Justin Bieber also reminded me that I’m to submit to God’s love, meaning every decision I look at from the perspective of, ‘God, what would you have me to do?’ I may want to say or do something crazy, and with one glance at God, I can submit myself to His will, not to the crazy lady who may want to make an appearance, being my most loving, forgiving, and excellent self, all for God’s glory.

I loved a chat with my sister-in-law, Aima, yesterday. It was a conversation with her that God used to change the trajectory of my daughters’ lives. God is too much!!! She said one little thing, and your girl here ran with it, and I’m forever grateful to her. Not only has Ember qualified for close to $120,000 in scholarship monies over 4 years, but the hard-working, focused, responsible, discipline, and confident young ladies they have become is priceless. Now the boys are following their lead, and I’m thrilled!!! That’s why I preach so much that everything is between God and us, He blesses in ways unimaginable. He multiplies our little into HUGE blessings when we stick with Him!!!

GOD, I NEED YOUR STRENGTH TO HELP ME _______

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IN THIS LIFE YOU WILL HAVE TROUBLE!!!

Let me tell ya! But that’s where a strong relationship with God comes sweetly in (HUGE SMILE). The other morning, I woke up with highly anxious thoughts about my sons, my crazy mind was coming up with all sorts of madness. It’s a good thing that whenever these negative thoughts start to get the best of me, it’s my cue to stop and have an appointment with God. I looked at the time, and I took the number of minutes past the hour to go to that specific page on our family’s website, werollwithgod.com. Can you believe there was a picture of the boys and me together with the caption, “My Fight is God’s Fight.” It was just a special wink from God saying, ‘Nik, what’s the problem here? You know I’m your Partner in this parenting thing!” I smiled with Him, and the crazy thoughts went away!

Not only is God my Partner in parenting, He is my Partner in EVERYTHING! Oh my goodness! No matter the troubles, He shows up for me. I wrote a long post recently about how He is helping us to get our business back on track. He gives us the guidance in buying inventory, the wisdom as to what staff to hire, he sends us good customers, the solutions to problems that come up, the strategies on how to close sales, but most importantly the peace, courage, bravery, and boldness to take on a tough business KNOWING He is always with us. We do our best in the physical realm, trusting that God is at work in the spiritual realm on our behalf!

“’Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.” – Zechariah 4:6

In my marriage, I’m more committed to my husband than ever before. God keeps telling me in my appointments with Him to focus on the good. It has finally sunk in! LOL! I told hubby this week that, next to God, nobody will treat us better than he treats us. His new name is “BEST HUSBAND.” All my falls last year were about God teaching me some valuable lessons about loving people the way He loves us: UNCONDITIONALLY. God was helping me to PRACTICE being more patient, faithful, loving, kind, gentler, and forgiving. Practice makes perfect, y’all! I see a softer Nikki emerging in all my relationships. And I’m so much happier for it!!!

And when the stresses and challenges come, God sweetly reminds me that He is my dependable back-up in this very troublesome world. I confiscated Joshie’s phone last night so that he could go and brush his teeth. I decided to open it up to see what God had to say to me in The Purpose Driven Life Devotional for Kids, and I opened directly to this after a

trouble-filled day:

“Don’t be obsessed with getting more material things. Be relaxed with what you have. Since God assured us, “I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,” we can boldly quote,

God is there, ready to help;

 I’m fearless no matter what.

 Who or what can get to me?” – Hebrews 13:5-6

I’m Godfident, baby!

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” – Philippians 4:13 

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“I PREFER READING YOUR BOOK”

That was surprisingly my son, Emmie, last night when I asked him what we should read for an appointment with God. To hear him say he preferred reading, ‘Keep Calm, You’re Rolling With God,’ made this mama super happy. He said because it’s real stories about my life TODAY with God that he relates to.

That’s the plan! That I share up to the very moment, current information about God that, hopefully, you can tap into and use to make your life INFINITELY BETTER (Wink! Wink!) KNOWING that God is our loving Partner who is always with us.

Like today, in my WhatsApp message to some groups in Africa, I shared a very small portion of my meditation book, Yes, Father:

“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? (Acts 9:6) Let us be prepared for hints, the calls, the whisperings of the Lord, with a spiritual clairvoyance, keenness of hearing and delicacy of feelings. Let us see in every moment and in what it brings the will of God and strive to accomplish it to the best of our knowledge and power. This is the greatest and most perfect thing we can do at any moment.”

I used my getting our business back on track as a way to explain how this little, yet deep and profound paragraph has helped transformed our operations:

It was a day we debated in the office whether to refresh some of the exterior signs to include the words, “In God we trust.” I’m this God maniac here, but I thought I might be going a little bit overboard by including it. But a new person, I had just hired said, “Let’s do it to honor God.” And we did! So all over that business, you will see those words, “In God we trust!”

But the real impact of those words came when that same person made a decision I didn’t so much agree with, and I said to him, “You were the one who said that we should put those words “in God we trust” on our signs. That means before every decision we have to ask, “Is this honoring God? Are we reflecting God in a positive way?”

I believe that honoring God has been the turnaround! I’m happy to report that that business that has been such a burden is on a profitable track again (Praise God!) because we’ve decided that we want to run it according to a standard where we aim to make Papa God proud. In every decision (not that we get it right all the time), we seek His will, ‘God, what would you have us to do here?’ and astonishingly, things are going better than expected. Yesterday, I had to give some reporting to my husband, and honestly, I was so proud, thanking God, who has been giving us the guidance needed to even run a successful business. God is too much!

But like the book said, “Let us be prepared for hints, the calls, the whisperings of the Lord, with a spiritual clairvoyance, keenness of hearing and delicacy of feelings.” For us, that means following our instincts and gut feelings.

Like yesterday, in purchasing new inventory, the selections that my husband picked out, I asked our manager for his input on them before buying. We have a thing where we go by our excitement level. Between a 0 and a 5, with 5 meaning extremely excited. Because I’ve learned that those feelings are God’s way of communicating with us (a delicacy of feelings). When we looked at a particular one, we felt feelings of doubt. I said, “Doubt means don’t!” But another vehicle we gave a 5 because we were excited about it and felt it was God’s way of saying, ‘Yes, this is a good one!’ Let me tell ya, God is an expert in everything, and He knows what we don’t know, so taking the time to pause and go to Him before buying has been extremely beneficial.

Another crucial aspect of this business has been problem-solving. Boy oh boy, a used car business has its challenges! Again, that has been where we wisely get God involved! I’ll never forget a time when a customer, paid us $20,000 for a vehicle. Can you believe two times, they sent someone to pick it up, and it refused to move? Oh my goodness, what do we do here? I was able to calm the customer down and asked them to be patient with us. The very next morning, God gave me specific instructions – the whisperings of the Lord – to take it to a nearby Mercedes Benz dealership. Just very strongly in my spirit, I felt him say it. Unbelievably, the technician detected that it was only a small little part costing $13 that was blocking the communication between the engine and the computer. We were able to fix it, and the vehicle was driven like 5 hours to the customers, no problem. Again, God is an expert in everything! He knew the problem was that $13 part, and even though we had some other places to take it for repairs, God said no, take it specifically here.

“Let us see in every moment and what it brings the will of God and strive to accomplish it to the best of our knowledge and power.” We have this motto that we do our best, and then we leave the rest with God. Our manager made me so happy when he said that a customer that purchased on Saturday was a deal sent by God. He just saw God’s hand in the entire transaction. From him and the customer having the same name. To them being from the same city and knew some people in common. To the customer saying he had to leave but ended up getting a phone and ended up staying. To them getting a first approval from the bank but the payment was too high to suddenly them getting an approval from another bank that was a much cheaper payment that the customer was happy with. He saw God’s hand all over the deal the way everything worked out.

Our call from God has just been to show up every day, give our best (dancing lightheartedly with God), and He will do the rest, including bringing us the best customers. Even the customers who owe us money, we see them faithfully coming in to pay us, no problem. The customers come in prepared with everything we need to get the deals funded by the banks. Like on a completely different level, we see customers show up, and it’s just been amazing watching God in action. DO YOUR BEST AND LEAVE THE REST WITH GOD!

There was a day I was feeling overwhelmed by everything, and I opened my meditation book, with this verse showing up:

“We are assured and know that [God being a partner in their labor] all things work together and are [fitting into a plan] for good to and for those who love God and are called according to [His] design and purpose.” – Romans 8:28

I knew this was a wink from Him reminding me that He was indeed MY PARTNER in this business, and I should just BE STILL, RELAX and KNOW that He was taking control of the situations. Everything I was worried about that day ended up working out better than I had expected!

God is our Partner in every aspect of our lives! Is just for us to start learning His voice and what He would have us to do on a moment-by-moment basis, paying attention to those feelings and those whisperings from Him. Then putting into practice these words from Jesus, ‘Yet not my will, but Yours be done.’ Have your appointments with Him every day and make walking with God your priority! I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

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