Not long ago when our daughter was born, a very kind neighbour visited us and gave us a bouquet of flower and a bottle of Baileys Irish Cream. The beautifully arranged flowers found a good space in the living room but the drink I hid in a cupboard in the kitchen. We do not drink anything alcohol but I had tasted alcohol in the past when I had not become born-again. I knew what it did to me in my college days. Nobody in my family ever knew I drank.
Despite not having tasted alcohol for over 22yrs, I found myself not completely out its grip. The Baileys was in my cupboard for almost a year.
Now listen to this! I was going to this cupboard at minimum of thrice a week just to look at the bottle and often with the desire to at least have a little shot. Unbelievable! But yes, I did.
Eventually, I told my husband what I have been battling with. He had a good laugh and said he knew but was just waiting to see if one day I'll open the drink.
Then he said something very profound. He made me understand that just like any other sin or habit, the craving and desire never leaves but the power of Christ gives us the grace to master and control the craving. While speaking to me, he grabbed the drink and took it out into the chute.
This drink may represent different things to each one of us. We may be constantly finding ourselves down the same sinful route and still being mastered by our cravings and desires, making us fall for the same old temptation that lures us into sin all of the time.
There is good news!
Jesus died for all Sin. We have victory over all sin. As we battle on, we draw constantly from the victory that Christ has given us. But here are a few things to note:
1. There will always be temptations and great tempting moments
2. The less we feed on the thoughts of the sin, the earlier it dies. The more we feed on the cravings, the greater the chances of falling for it.
3. Always have a spirit filled accountability partner, people who love you enough to be blunt with the truth and willing to give both physical and spiritual help when needed.
4. Be honest with your struggles and not hide them under your spiritual cap.
5. Do all the necessary physical precautions just as much as you engage it spiritually.
6. Have full confidence and faith in the power of Christ and His shed blood knowing that God is already aware of your battles even before you come to Him with it.
7. Be determined within you that you will no longer be ruled or subjected to your old passions and its orgies.
8. Every form of our hedonistic tendencies are targeted towards rebellion against God. Do all within you to resist. The time is short and the Lord is at hand.
9. Listen to the still small voice within you sounding you with note of caution. That is the Holy Spirit.
10. Jesus saves from all sin, slavery and bondage. He is our strong tower and our refuge.
(James 1:12-13)
You may have experienced this before but permit me to share. Last Friday, my family travelled with a few others from church on a weekend away. This Christian resort had everything to make a village a home. We were already told to travel light as everything else apart from clothing is already provided. Two nights(Friday-Sunday) should not require much anyway.
Yours truly, I packed all and everything I thought would be needful. I had a few extra clothing for the kids. I sneaked a few extra for hubby just in case. For my self, you trust. You won't believe this, but in my restlessness and fear, I packed food (cooked food), cereals. I insisted that my husband packs the Kindle, laptop and kids Nintendo.(That's way too much you'll say).
We got there Friday night to my first shock, WiFi and mobile network were disabled for the resort.(mobiles and computers couldn't function). No food allowed, so it was impossible to store the cooked food. Secondly, the heating was turned on so high, extra clothings were unnecessary. Finally, there were so many activities lined up for the kids they didn't have any time for the games I packed.
The truth is, we came back home with so much that was never used. we shouldn't have travelled with them at all.
We sat back at home Sunday night to reflect on the theme of the weekend away "Travelling Light and Dwelling deep". As we were sharing, we saw on the TV, the corpse of a very wealthy man being taken for burial and all he had on in his casket was a piece of suit, tie and shoes to match. He left behind all the Billion pounds, the mansions and huge wealth. He died and took nothing.
We reflected on both, this rich man's corpse and my clumsy packing for the weekend. How so easily we toil and labour to gather that which is never needful and in the process we forget the needful-dwelling on the instructions of the Almighty. We can be so full of baggages that we leave the very necessary undone.
We came into this world with nothing and whether as single or married, we shall return one day with nothing. Let us keep this in mind that we do not allow ourselves to be beclouded with the fear of the unknown that we fail to rest in the known. The known is that God has faithfully promised to carry us through and our only baggage is FAITH in Him.
Ladies, let us endeavour to travel light and trust God to take care of us as He has promised. Let us give attention to our walk with Him and seek to deepen our relationship with Jesus Christ. That is all that will matter at the end of the journey. That we are single does not make God unfair, that we are married does not make us better people. We are all pilgrims on this earth and praying that at the end of our journeys in good ripe age, we would not have carried unnecessary baggages that will have earthly value but will be eternally useless.
Let's have a quick look at how we are travelling on, is there any baggage we need to drop? Are there things we are holding on to that are not needful for our Christian journey e.g anger, unforgiveness, hatred and strive? God had planned every provision for us in advance and we must shed the weight of everything that may be holding us back from fully relishing in the fullness of His provision.
Is your bag light? Are you making what God planned to be pleasurable a little bit clumsy for yourself?
Shed the load; Travel light.
We brought nothing to this word and with nothing we shall return.
Rest today, in the promises of God that in Jesus, all that we need is fully provided.
You will not lack your mate.
Recently, I came across a teenager's Facebook status that reads " If you have it, flaunt it. If you don't have it pad it up". I didn't quite get it. After a while, I chose to look at her pictures out of curiosity. She had some pictures of herself before and after she's 'pad it up'. I started a chat to know what could have led her into this. This innocent life had believed a lie some four years back that she is too shapeless to be a lady. she is 18 and rather than go under the knife, she opted for padded underwears. She has had it all corrupted that she is nil at good self image without big burst and big bum. Physical attractiveness, sexual potency and symbolic status / reputation are all she is worried about. Self image is the idol that she worships. Would anyone imagine what this could lead her into in the next ten years ?Insecurity starts with little lies that we have believed and accepted. Working on our self image is what we consider as the only antidote to insecurity.Some of us have had our senses of self-worth so utterly devastated, through no fault of our own. We think that the only possible way to shore up the mores of our deeply wounded sense of worth is to compensate for the overwhelming feelings of powerlessness and worthlessness with which we are swamped, there by creating an image for others to worship.However, this image is not really who we are; it is something which we set up because we feel so utterly debased, unworthy of love, vile, repulsive, a haunt for every kind of filth, or whatever, that we must hide behind something grandiose, gorgeous and breathtaking, even though it is ultimately counterfeit.Trying to buy back our security, we do not need to engage in toxic behaviour that leads to false life. Love that is pure accepts us the way we are and will love who we truly are. Thank goodness that we did not need to impress God to earn HIS love. His love is pure and never considers what we think as flaws. His love never makes us feel empty or worthless. His love His perfect just as He says we are in His Son Jesus. Let us spare ourselves the troubles of trying to attain to an artificial perfect and flawless image that still never fill the void of our insecurity. We can give our fears and worries about our looks to God. Jesus cares about everything and can help us to handle everything.A friend of mine has always complained that her nose is too big for her face. Nothing you say ever seems to change her view of herself. She hates to take pictures except from her side view. She is married, happily married to a good man with smaller nose than hers. We joked about her past worries recently and she said her husband really loved her nose as he too would love his kids to have a balanced size of nose kind of. God works in mysterious ways. We must love who we are and accept how He's made us and be secure in His ultimate purpose for and in everything that pertain to us.God does not make junks.
YOU ARE PERFECT IN HIS EYES.
