Today’s word from Pastor Mrs Uma Ukpai
During the Nigerian/Biafran war, many of us were afraid to die. Death had become the talk of the day as news came in from different sectors of the war, listing friends and acquaintance who had died. We watched children die of malnutrition and kwashiorkor while air raids gave the healthy no peace of mind. In this miserable situation, people began to seek for help in, any form of protection to survive the storm. Like Mary and Joseph, some of us began to seek for God in the wrong places and were misled by friends. People joined cults, while others were given charms for protection; people still died with these false protections.
There is only one way to God-the Lord Jesus; He is our refuge and stronghold. If you allow yourself to be deceived by friends or acquaintances, you will only get further from the truth. Even today there are some who want to be Christians but instead of looking to the Word of God and looking to the standard and the pathways that God had set for finding Him, they run after ‘miracles and signs’. With time these ‘miracle’ workers are seen as god, for their names are revered and soon become the focus of their members.
It was only when Mary and Joseph retraced their steps from the wrong direction and went to the right place that they found Jesus. Have you been going to the wrong places to find God? Or you found Him some time ago but have been distracted by the world? If you call on Jesus Christ now, He will come into your life. God promised that if you seek Him with all your heart you will find Him. Jesus was found in the Synagogue; seek the Lord Jesus where the truth is being preached and let the word be your guide.
Faith is the substance of things hope for; other things are supplements. If we must be truly happy our joy should come from the giver of life. Things of this world wealth and all forms of prosperity are temporary. They can be here today and gone tomorrow. As a Christian couple we should accept that God is your only true source of joy, when you made it a point of duty to celebrate, whether the wind blew in your favour or not. Joseph was sold by his brothers but he remained faithful to God. It turned out that his slavery was a pathway to his seat as the Prime Minister of Egypt. You have cause to celebrate your disappointment, for God works in a mysterious way.
I know today even as you read this you may not feel blessed, you may not look blessed; all the circumstances, the totality of your life may tell you, you cannot be one of the blessed. But the word of God says you are! On many occasion your circumstances tell lies. You either believe God or accept the lies of the devil. You and I are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. We are empowered to do whatever God has called us to do; to be whoever God has called us to be. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God, therefore what has the ability to come has the ability to go but when your faith is intact, satan can only revolved but cannot dissolve what God has resolved.
Look at Gideon of the Bible; when the angel of the Lord appeared to him, he was reassured that the Lord was with him and was addressed as ‘mighty man of valor.’ He did openly contend with this information, though. To Gideon, the situation of life and the circumstances under which Israel laboured belied the angel’s seemingly good news. However at the end of the story, Gideon proved to be truly a valiant warrior. Today believe God, take hold of what belongs to you and begin a life of abundant blessings. May God turn your mourning into dancing Psalm 30:11
