Of all nights for us NOT to have electricity, can you believe it was last night when we hosted out of town visitors! Oh, my goodness! But strangely enough, I woke up feeling EXTREMELY GRATEFUL. This verse came clearly to mind:
“give thanks in everything; for this is God’s will for you…” – 1 Thessalonians 5:18
Fast forward less than thirty minutes later, and this exact verse showed up as the last message posted in my WhatsApp group. Then, before writing this post, looking for inspiration, it showed up AGAIN in an appointment with God reading only a few posts on Tumblr.com. So, I’m taking this as a message from God for us all today!
2020 hasn’t been an easy one, but honestly, I’m thanking God for EVERYTHING I’ve experienced. No lie. Every moment I’m saying God, THANK YOU!!!! I’ve had only about 4 hours of sleep, if that, but I still have this overwhelming feeling of gratitude – You had no light. Not much sleep. So what. Look at all the other huge BLESSINGS you have. Even I was unable to iron my sons’ uniforms for school. Our cook said, “Just give the clothes a strong shake and let them go!” I did that, and the boys were off to school! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO COMPLAIN ABOUT, NIK!!!
I especially loved reading this post on Tumblr.com:
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” – Spurgeon
Exactly how I’m feeling after venting to God yesterday afternoon about my silly little issue asking Him what was wrong with me. He showed up and lovingly corrected me by comparing me to Eve, who had everything in the garden of Eden but focused instead on the one forbidden fruit that darkened her mind. That WAS your girl here. SO INCREDIBLY BLESSED but so ungrateful because of one negative focus that has tormented me. Thanks, God for the correction!!! I needed it! And for God (the Creator of the Universe) to come and meet me at my lowest time, when I went to shamefully vent to Him, asking Him what was wrong with me, was AGAIN Him showing me such intimate and intense LOVE (He cares about my struggles!!!) that I honestly will take the advice of this post:
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” – Spurgeon
In everything? Give thanks!!! Now back to enjoying my very gorgeous life. God, I’m grateful for everything!!!!
HERE’S THE DEAL: Life is full of challenges, trials, tribulations, stress, disappointments, frustrations, sadness, and sorrow. I open my life to tell you that I have my share of them all, but more importantly, I tell you about God showing up to help me get through ANYTHING that comes my way. Heehaw!!!
I love reading my fav devotional, Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, that has brought me so close to God. I hear direct messages from Him that I even keep a copy in our bathroom so that even when I peepee (too much information!), I open it to see what God has to say to me. No shame in my game! And He never fails to reveal His invisible Presence. I especially loved a recent one:
“YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PERSONAL BENEFITS from thanking me for hard situations, but there is more—much more! Your sacrifice of thanksgiving has divine Power to weaken spiritual stronghold of evil. Moreover, your patient endurance of suffering can strengthen and encourage My people on earth.
“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” – Proverbs 3:5
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
WE ARE NOT GOING BY THE ORDINARY RULES OF LIFE!!! Nothing is impossible for God, baby! That’s why it is so crucial for us to not lean on our own understanding but trust God wholeheartedly. God can make ANYTHING happen in the spiritual realm on our behalf, even when we don’t see a way.
“The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.” – Exodus 14:14
It’s just for us to show up every day as our BEST selves for Him, following His lead by seeking His direction in the 1,000 decisions we make every day. Being tough, brave, courageous, persevering, and STRONG, yet at the same time, calm, patient, gentle, loyal, loving, and forgiving. I promise you, like Sarah Young wrote: “there is more—much more!” (Wink! Wink!) I wish I could tell you guys everything that God is doing for me, but trust me, He gives me more than I can ever ask or imagine from Him. That when He asks me to do difficult things, I simply say, ‘No problem, My Love, I GOT YOU!!!’ Superhero Nik, in the house, all for God’s glory!
THE PERFECT ADVICE FROM MY TEN-YEAR-OLD SON, JOSHIE
My spiritual guy blew me away when I asked him for some direction yesterday. I had told him about what President Trump’s doctor had responded when asked about the timeline of him testing positive for coronavirus. He said something like, he was not going backward to discuss the past, but he was moving forward. Can you believe my little son remembered that and when I asked him what he thought I should do about a situation, he said, “Mom, do what Trump (meaning his doctor) said, “Leave the past in the past and move forward!” Thanks, my sweetie! Your mom will definitely take your advice!
Especially after watching the Vice-Presidential debate from Nigeria at 2 am with my daughter, Julie, watching it in the US. My husband came down and joined us later into it. We ended up calling Julie together, and I was reminded that I’m to keep my eyes on the prize – God’s plan for my family. I MUST ignore the distractions that want to pop up and take me off my groove. Like someone correctly advised me, sometimes you must say, “Forget you and the horse you rode in on!!!” To get anywhere in this life we must become PROFESSIONAL IGNORERS, (kindly and respectfully, of course), otherwise we waste time fighting useless and unnecessary battles. My eyes are on the prize, baby!
I’m leaving the past in the past, my Joshie, and I’m moving forward confidently with my hope in God, while learning some extremely important lessons for us all. These showed up last night in an appointment with Him:
“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” – 1 Peter 4:8
“Do you love me enough that I may be weak with you? Everyone loves strength, but do you love me for my weakness? That is the real test.” – Alain de Botton
And when we love deeply, trust me, our reward is with God. I loved what God also had to say through my meditation book, He and I:
“Don’t you know that I give far more than you expect. Haven’t you noticed this spiritually, materially?”
Yes! God, Yes! And why I’m soooo sticking with You doing whatever is pleasing to You in every moment because you give me FAR more than I could even ask or think – protection, health, wisdom, guidance and LOVE!!! God, I’m on your team for LIFE, LOVING DEEPLY and covering LOTS of offenses, all for Your honor and glory! Amen!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“I’M GOING ON STRIKE FROM DISAPPOINTMENTS!”
That’s where I am at this very moment! I had the perfect appointment with God reading just this paragraph from my book:
“Dr. Wayne Dyer, in his book, The Power of Intention, wrote, “That which offends you only weakens you. If you’re looking for occasions to be offended, you’ll find them at every turn. As A Course in Miracles reminds us: “Peace is of God, you who are a part of God are not at home except in his peace.” Stay close to God and stop getting offended all the time as every time you’re offended by something, you move away from God. When you’re able to respond with love and kindness, instead of getting offended, you get closer to God. Remember, “It’s not between you and anyone else; everything is between you and God!” As St. Paul said, “God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance.” Tune in to God’s frequency, and you will know it beyond any and all doubt!””
Let me tell you, I wrote this post years ago, and it’s a lesson that I still haven’t mastered, but I’m not giving up! A few hours after reading this, I needed to put that alone time with God into practice, asking Him, ‘What would you have me to do here?’ when an opportunity came up for me to be offended. But instead of getting upset and disappointed, I took the high road, being my kind and most loving self, seeking to please God, and I WAS SO MUCH HAPPIER FOR IT!!! Woohoo!
I love what Andy Puddicombe had to say to me during a run this week:
“We can’t control what happens to us in life, but we can train the mind and the body so that when things happen that challenge us, we’re ready for them. Not to fight them. Not to resist them. But to deal with them calmly and skillfully.”
With our eyes on God, is what I would add in! No matter the situation we are confronted with, I promise you, God’s ways are always best! If we stay calm, asking Him, ‘God, what would you have me to do here? He will lead you to the ultimate best decision.’ That has been my experience! That little minute seeking Him that day, turned out to be extremely valuable. St. Paul is correct, God has provided my life with every blessing in abundance. Wink! Wink! Don’t miss out! Make God a part of every decision you make! You don’t go wrong with God!
Dear God, help us to constantly catch ourselves when we’re moving away from Your peace and ask, “How can I respond to this in a more loving and kinder way?” seeking to always please You. Amen.”
That was my message to my son, Emmie, this morning after he felt upset about a mistake. The motivational coach/super momma here jumped into action. What happens if a child is running across a street and falls? Does that child stay there crying, or does that child pick themselves up and keep going? That’s how we have to be in life. Constantly picking ourselves up after falls and failures, and keep going. But the trick is, we take the lessons learned from the falls and MASTERFULLY AND SKILLFULLY put them as part of our tool kit for living BETTER AND WISER. Wink! Wink!
That’s what your girl here does! I take all the lessons from past failures, falls, and mistakes and use them as experiences, allowing them to mold me into the best version of myself. Like the other day getting on my knees to apologize to my husband. I see the error in my previous ways. Instead of focusing on the 99% positives that I love about my husband, I obsessed about the 1% of where I thought he was wrong. Thank God for God, who I felt correcting me in my spirit that I shouldn’t give this husband a hard time about anything. He is now back to being my gift.
“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” – Philippians 4:8
The falls have been so good for me because the lessons I’ve learned from them have been priceless. Like not only do I love and appreciate my husband on a new level, but everyone in my life. I’m now much more forgiving, merciful, softer, kinder, gentler, and peaceful, which has made me much more joyful. They’ve taught me to appreciate the good in my life. And there is so much good in all of our lives when we look for the positives and not the negatives.
Most importantly, all my past mistakes have taught me to keep my eyes on God. In my down times, I go running to Him, ‘God, what is wrong with me?’ and the love and the approval I receive from Him have made me God’s girl, full of strength, courage, and bravery to take on any challenge that now comes my way. I’ll never forget a time when I felt terrible about myself. I was not the person I kept striving to be. I kept failing. Going to Him in that awful moment, beating myself up, this showed up in my meditation book:
“Even when you feel good for nothing (exactly me at that moment), give me this nothing. Didn’t I create with nothing?’ – He and I
That was no coincidence! It was God speaking to me in that pitiful moment! Who am I that God would come to me like that and reveal His intimate, invisible Presence? That is the love I’ve gotten to know from Him. That no matter our mistakes and failures, we have a God who loves us unconditionally and He can turn any situation around. Didn’t He create the entire world from nothing?
Give God a try! I promise you the best life with Him as your Guide and Partner! Just start going to Him in the 1,000 decisions you make every day asking what He would have you to do, seeking to always please and honor Him. He is getting me to the other side of 2020 with such important values ingrained into my character like endurance, faithfulness, loyalty, going the extra mile in love, and FAITH in Him. “And if my God is with me. Whom then shall I fear?” Heehaw!
WEROLLWITHGOD.COM
“WHAT WAS THE BEST PART OF YOUR DAY?” (REPOST)
That was me questioning my Emmanuels (hubby and two sons) while we ate dinner last night. I told them how I was feeling so sick (a cold), discouraged, and overwhelmed by some big balls I have in the air, when my son, Joshie, came and asked me if I would like to have an appointment with God with him. I said, “That’s a great idea! I need one right now!”
It was exactly 4:00 so I said let’s read post number 40 from our ‘Purpose Driven Life Devotional For Kids.’ It was the perfect message:
“Eyes on God
“But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.” – Genesis39:21
A good example of suffering because of other people is Joseph of the Old Testament (Genesis 37-50). After being sold by his brothers into slavery, Joseph found himself in a foreign country, alone and hurting. He had every right to ask, “Why me?” How was Joseph able to hang in there?
First, Joseph recognized that God has given everyone free choice. No one is a puppet or a robot. We can choose to ignore what is right, and God does not force his will on us.
Second, Joseph knew that God saw everything he went through. He never doubted that God cared about him. There is an important phrase that is found five times in the story of Joseph, each time after a major crisis or defeat: “But the Lord was with Joseph.” Even when everything was going wrong, the Lord was still with Joseph.
Remembering these truths allowed Joseph to survive the pain and forgive his brothers in the end—because he kept his eyes on God.
Prayer: Lord, I need to remember that you are with me through sadness and joy, just as you were with Joseph. Thank you for caring for me and caring about me.”
And that’s been my testimony! No matter the challenges and problems I face, God stands with me. The best solutions would pop to mind when I know I’m not that smart. People I need will magically show up to assist me. God’s total guidance, strength, wisdom is always there as my back up no matter what comes my way. I just have to show up with my eyes on God, listening to His direction in every moment as to what He would have me to do.
