Oh Lord, l thank you for the grace to see the light of today. May the name of the Lord be praised for His faithfulness and mercies upon our lives. We thank God again for seeing us through in our individual challenges. It can only be God!
From now till Easter, we should understand that our life style must be checked to see whether it is in line with Christ manner. We are the children of God therefore we ought to behave like our father in heaven. In this period of lent, we should be mindful of our daily deeds and actions.
The associations we keep, the type of discussion we engage ourselves and how we react to issues raised around us. Yes, l know we cannot be 100% righteous but with our little efforts to do things right, God will help us to smile at last. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. I found out that our problems are not our problem, the real problem is our reaction to the problems. That is, our mindset, our attitude to things of life. Yes, no doubt life is quite challenging, however our God is able to deliver us from them all. Let us learn to make deliberate decisions to make every day of our lives a great day. God please help us never to react negatively but to have a positive reaction always.
Do you know that sometimes, one can decide not to respond to your greetings, and from your side you don’t have any problems or any grudges against such a person. Infact, in all, l have found out that one cannot achieve anything good except through Christ. First, present the case to God in prayer, then approach the person physically and politely. Ask the person why he is not responding to your greetings, go ahead and ask him where you offended him, that you are ready to ask for forgiveness. When you do this, my sister l tell you, the God whom you told first will cause the person to open up. And it will surprise you that, the grudge is nothing but basically on things being discussed behind you.
Naturally some people can talk just to tarnish the image of another. Be focused in life and follow things rightly knowing very well that God sees all the open and secret discussions of men. Don’t engage yourself with idle talk, the bible condemns it.
Try all your best to love your fellow human beings, even the ones you know very well that hate you with passion. Your behavior to the person should tell him that he is not existing, making sure you don’t have anything against him.
Avoid transfer of aggression. whenever one hurts you, politely speak to him, pointing out where and how he offended you. And be ready to forgive and let go. We have no reason not to forgive one another. This is because you and l cannot be referred as righteous. So in the same manner our God in heaven is forgiving our trespasses should also be the way and manner we should be able to forgive others. Forgiving will free us from heart attack and it will grant us peace and further make us to be friends of Jesus Christ. When one refuses to forgive others, the person is just over burdening himself and he will succeed in imprisoning himself. Speak nicely to people and in return, joy and gladness will become your name.
Whenever one is madly shouting at you with anger, my sister calm down and don’t react yet. An angered man is partially a mad man. Do you want to be reacting with a mad man? Oh no, it doesn’t match!!! Just cool down and don’t talk back at him, sooner or later he will come back to his senses, and by so doing you have passed the test. Sometimes, the only time l gain something from my husband is after his shouting and screaming at me or our children, and l have taught my children not to react or to talk back to an angered person, within 10 minutes later, my husband will call me and asked me, “What was that l was telling him to get either for me or our children”, and he will give it to me. This is because l was calm and cool during the heating period. Though it’s not easy sometimes seeing someone screaming and shouting at you when actually you may be right in the issue at hand.
This brings up the word wisdom, in the life of a child of God. In this Lenten season, let us pray for the spirit of God which passes all understanding. The word wisdom will help you to know when and when not to do things. Sirach 4 verses 11 to 19 tells us that, Wisdom takes care of those who look for her. She the (Wisdom) raises them (you and I) to greatness. And whoever loves wisdom loves life itself. In the 19th verse, it concludes by saying that, “But if you go astray, she (wisdom) will abandon you and let you go to your own ruin”. Truly the wiseman is to be honoured.
Therefore, in our dealings this Lenten season, we should apply the spirit of wisdom to enable us excel progressively, Amen.
There are many ways to carry your cross, when people wrongly accused you of something you did not do, you are bearing your cross. When people intentionally gossip about you without your reacting negatively towards them, you are bearing your cross. Remember when Abraham left his people, he was bearing his cross. When Moses had to stay for 40 years as refugee in God’s school of Adversity, he was bearing his cross. Check great men around you, they must have passed through one stage of cross before getting to their throne. My darling sister, l assure you, as you diligently carry your cross with heart of patience, no disaster will strike you, no violence will come near your home, Amen. And as you carry your cross with determination, devil and his cohorts get mad when they see you laugh. Therefore I urge you to laugh now, let us laugh out all worries and burdens of life.
Shalom.
