August 2021

A LADY AND HER SHOEBOXES

Written by Jennifer Azubuike I am a big fan of Francine Rivers’ stories. I was reading one of her books when a short story told inside her main story caught my attention (yeah, she’s that good at plot twists and relaying messages). It is a story about a young woman with two shoeboxes. The first shoebox she assigned for prayer requests so that whenever she had a request, she would write it down on a piece of paper, pray over it and put the piece of paper into that shoebox. The second box is for testimonies; when a prayer from the first shoebox is answered, the young woman takes out the note from that box and transfers it to the ‘testimony’ box. What stuck with me about this story was when the woman confessed that whenever she starts to grow weary from a prayer taking too long to be answered, she opens the testimony box and reads her testimonies from the past thus reminding herself of God’s faithfulness and thereby strengthening her faith. I honestly think it is a great idea to note down our testimonies as much as we have a list of requests to ask. That note will not just remind us to thank the Lord for what He has done but also re-energize our faith in our ever-faithful God. Talking about being thankful, my grandmother used to say in a proverb “When you praise a soldier for fighting on your behalf, he will be motivated to go again.” Simply put, the Lord wants us to remember His victories on our behalf. I say so because He was pissed each time the children of Israel murmured and complained when they were faced with difficulties and quickly forgot His past wonders on their behalf. What is the wonderful answers God has given to your requests in the past? Do you still remember them? I mean do you have a testimony box?  Till next time, Peace! Please see other post here

A LADY AND HER SHOEBOXES Read More »

THE MEANING OF JOY

Written by Jennifer Azubuike Sometime ago, a series of consecutive events happened that left me depressed and sick; including an accident, money loss and a sad health news. I remember desperately wanting to close my eyes and make everything go away. You could also imagine that the last thing I wanted to do was smile because I was too sad to. In fact, I was so sad that my energy level was below zero, if there’s any such level. While this was going on, I attended a prayer meeting online. During the meeting, every other person was breaking into tongues and destroying yokes in fervent prayers while I just sat there nodding and feeling detached. In my heart though, I quietly begged God for mercy, and God must have heard! Because I soon caught the prayer fire and blasted into tongues myself. Shortly after, I felt my spirit revive and the heaviness in my chest lifted away. Do you know what I felt the days following? JOY! Of course those problems didn’t go away, but because I rediscovered my joy, I consequently found strength to go on with life and also face those problems head on. The experience helped me understand what Christ meant when he said in John 14: 27 “My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled.” In this world, the meaning of peace is the absence of trouble or noise but with Christ the meaning of peace is power for sustenance whether in trouble or peace. This inner peace is the source of our joy, and that joy translates to strength; strength for life. A popular Nigerian slang says ‘Wahala no dey finish. (Translation: troubles are never ending)’ When you think about it, it is true. Troubles of life don’t announce their arrival nor do they measure themselves to everyone in equal proportion, but everyone has to deal with some form of trouble. So, do we continually stay sad, anxious or depressed? No! “Then he said unto them…for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” ‭‭Nehemiah‬ ‭8:10‬ ‭KJV‬‬ Life is tough at times; really tough, but I want to remind you that Jesus is ever ready to replenish our joy. If you have to crawl, please crawl to Him because “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: But the LORD delivereth him out of them all.” Psalm‬ ‭34:19‬ ‭KJV‬‬ Till next time. Stay lifted. You can read previous posts here

THE MEANING OF JOY Read More »

Verified by MonsterInsights