Perseverance Through Trials

Today, I am going to share with you a short story about a young lady that I knew. She always asks every one who tried giving comfort in her time of distress a lot of “Whys”. Her listeners become even more distress as she remains unsatisfied and deeply hurt. There was a lot God could have done which He did not do, and she wants Him to know that. It goes on and on till she was left an empty soul. That lady is “Me”.

In less than a year, it was all gone. The very things I so cherished, prayed for and looked forward to with all of my heart. There was no more Dad to listen, mum and siblings living afar of and now an abusive marriage ending as quickly as it came. I was left with nothing more than my God to blame for all my ill luck in life.

Perhaps you could picture a similar situation in your life right now, involving a loved one- a dear friend, a sister, brother, mother or father. You may want to ask yourself, how you would have felt or acted, or if it was in the past, recount how you went about dealing with the situation.

After all my weeping and thinking, I finally decided I wanted to rise up and to continue with the race. But for the sake of my many witnesses, I would not within a period of one and half years decide to dry my tears, pick my girdle and to continue with this Christian race. This is Perseverance through Faith. I am but the least of such example.

Jesus Christ, His suffering, death and resurrection are our ultimate example of triumph through persevering. “And if children, then heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. (Romans 8: 17)
I believe that we as Christians we could learn a lot from His example. The Apostle Paul puts it this way, “And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation”. (II Corinthian 1:7).

I know there have been moments of pain in your personal life that makes you wonder if God was truly love. I am yet to meet one Christian who never asked this question. But what I would like to know from you is if you have ever imagined the crowns, that moment when our tears and sorrows are wiped away for eternity.

I reckon the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (James 4:8). This is our faith and Jesus’ own promise to us that in His Father’s house are many mansions, a place for eternal peace and joy for us who endured to the very end. We can thank God for this, that there is justification for our suffering after all.

The challenge of perseverance lies in the ‘Endurance’. Endurance comes from knowledge and knowledge from experience and that also begets maturity. As a mother, you would observe how your three year old grew out of a toddler into an intelligent teenager and then into a matured adult. It s a process, it’s gradual but beautiful in our eyes. This is my own version, but the Apostle Paul puts it in a better way: “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience”. And patience, experience; and experience, hope: (Romans 5: 2-4)

All of us (or most of us) have ever found ourselves in this state of not wanting to move on again. But for our many witnesses and more so our goal, it is worth our joy to finish the race. Endurance is not a cup of tea but I found these scriptures very much helpful so I take it with a breath of fresh air at least. That...

When we have appreciated the benefits of trials, we can then measure our faith to find out how far we have come. Isn’t that wonderful? The trials we face as children of God is as a result of our decision to stand firm for our Faith come what may. Our Trials therefore become as a yard stick to measure our growth. I believe it does us a lot better to take trails as no harsh treatment from God, but rather an opportunity to make that one more leap towards our eternal glory. It may seem impossible now but hold on, let me assure you…

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful , who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.’ (1 Cor. 10:13).
I do understand that it isn’t all the time that we see the escape routes to our trails and temptations. That may be the reason why Peter added his:
“…knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
(I Peter 5: 9-10)

Let me tell you this one thing that can always see us through- prayer. We wrestle not against flesh and blood in this world, and therefore need always to put on the whole amour of God (Eph 6: 12-13). Being persistent in Prayer is the only way to be constantly alert to avoid the fiery darts of the enemy. Self discipline and the taming of our tongues is vital in helping us deal with the everyday social issues we face. The people we meet become our witnesses and it is our duty to prove the source of our faith through our deeds.

As a matter of fact, trails and temptations will always be a there for us until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Prayer and fasting will not stop them- it will rather strengthen us to go through them. Neither were we also promised a life of roses without the thorns. We can be thankful for our fellow Christian brothers and sisters who help us go through these Christian challenges. The pastors, deacons and even our Christian resource books are there to always give us that insight, comfort or guidance throughout.

If you are finding yourself in that state of despair right now, I can assure you that you are not alone. There are Christians the world over in the same or similar situations as you including myself. .

Should you find yourself despaired because of constant sin or short falls, my personal encouragement to you is this, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. But the free gift of grace and redemption is still opened to you.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Matt 5: 10). These words of Jesus are not the conclusion of the matter, but instead, the beginning to a life time fellowship with HIM.

My prayer with you today is for us all come to appreciate trials and temptations in our lives and to endure to the very end. Come on then, together we take the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Shalom and God bless.

Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord…

Good day to you and welcome again to the Agape Divine. I believe your day has not been too bad not to merit thanks to the Almighty, or too good to deserve your praise. I am optimistic of even better and blessed days ahead.

As usual, I was doing some research work on my PC when a verse was laid on my heart. Immediately I decided to put aside what I was doing and to share it with you. It is that same old verse I know you are already familiar with. It was part of some sermons that Jesus gave on a mountain to a multitude of people who had gathered to listen to Him. (Mt 5:1)

“Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (Mt 7:21)

The very first question that came into my mind with this scripture was, “what was the WILL of the Father?” To answer this question, we do not need to go very far to have at least an idea. The whole of Matthew chapters 5 and 6 tries to outline the attitudes and attributes of a child of God.

Jesus touched on the dos and don’ts; He touched on those helpful hints and tips to accomplish our faiths. For examples He said;

Mt 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (The tip)

Mt 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter the kingdom of heaven.(The Hint)

Mt 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.(The Do’s)
Mt 5:34 But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God's throne ?(The Don’t)

I do not know what you are doing now or is planning to do- or are giving time to ask if it is the Will of God. What I know is that, whatever step or action both of us take as Children of God, it is going to glorify the Father.

It is not our singing and clapping, or our shouts and proclamations. It is our hearts and what we choose to allow in and out of it. It is what we choose to do with our talents and time. How we want our host of witnesses to identify us.

As Christians, we need to bear in mind that we are on 24hr duty call to let our light to shine before all men. This way our father in Heaven is also gloried. It is our sole duty to keep our hearts and actions in check, and to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us every step of the way through. If only we know what our call means to us, what it means to be called the Children of God, and then we would begin to reflect more positively on these verses.

It takes not only self Will, but prayer and Bible study. Please allow me to share this prayer with you now.

“Our dear Lord and Father, we thank You for your divine word and its changing power within our hearts. We sincerely ask for your understanding and wisdom to better understand the truth in your Word. We also invite into our lives this day the Holy Spirit, to guide us into all truth. We want our light to shine before men that only You God, your name will be glorified in Christ Jesus. We thank You for Your love and mercy and we do honour your name.
In Jesus name we have prayed,
Amen."

Thank you for your time and I leave you to read Matthew 5. I look forward to hearing your wonderful experience with the Lord.

Shalom, peace

A Divine Hop

Hello and welcome to Agape Divine. I am lilyakos or Akos for short. I believe you may have acquainted your self with my website at www.freewebs.com/lilyakos already. If not, that is okay as I feel extremely delighted to share some inspirational messages with you today.

I wanted to let you know a little bit more about myself and how I got into writing and publishing over the internet. It all started as a curious effort to see what others were doing the world over. I had browsed through a lot of sites via Yahoo or Google searches till I came across free website publishing.

My actual attempt at creating and publishing a website was with “Freewebs”. Here I decided to create an online journal where I could showcase pictures, stories, links and artworks for all my friends to see. At least an effort well done is also worth publicizing. With respects to my background and nationality, I decided to name it ‘kotoka2Melbounrne’. That was not a bad attempt, looking at the fact that, I had no prior know-how in websites or what I actually wanted to do with one at that time.

Then I realised I needed to polish my writing skills especially now that I was trying to put together my very first book “This God I Served”. It is about the story of my Christian life experiences. With no formal education in creative writing, it proved a very challenging task for me. So I started to look for online tutorials on writing.

Out of luck or divine direction, I came across the Blessing Abundant Site by Janet Lynn Eriksson. She had her Christian online magazine “Reflections” where she published articles from other Christian writers. After I browsed through her tips on writing, I decided to dedicate a full one and a half hour to reading through the entire site. That was the first time I could remember having done that.

I immediately sent my personal comments about the usefulness of her site and we have maintained communication since.
Today I am undertaking her Christian Writers Workshop to becoming a published writer in “Reflections”. I am yet to rewrite my second assignment and to submit it for publication. Of a truth, it has been an enlightening on line workshop for me. This is certainly almost about all I need to help me become a published writer in whatever genre

God willing, I also look forward to publishing my writings and to open an online shop in my own fully functional website. Until then, I dedicate some hours each day, to complete writing on my book and to updating this blog with reviewed assignments from Janet and some of my personal Inspirations.

What ever your dreams are, no matter how small or weird they seem today, someone somewhere is having the answers to them. It is up to do the searching.

Shalom and peace to you.

I get lost for words

Each time,
I come unto the net, I get lost for words and titles I intend to give. yet still on my bed, the ideas and thoughts overflow from one end of my head to the other. By the time I feel like shutting my eyes for one more second before waking up to reach or a pen, then its all gone again.

One moment, I browse through other people’s sites, another moment the ideas seep through and I am writing my time away. Through it all, I have learnt that taking a break, preparing a cup of tea or something, is very helpful. For me it rejuvenates me as I am that kind of person who believes in, ‘once started, sit through to finish’, or ‘once and for all’ sort of person. You get what I mean don’t you?

And I also learnt about Blogging. I though it was a website, but was rather like a daily diary for those who wake up from bed straight behind their PC's.
So it’s working, at least giving it a try this week and after and see.
Who knows, bigger ideas may be born here.