WHAT’S THE POINT OF SERVING GOD?

I just want to encourage someone out there who feels as though God has forgotten about them and the promises He made to you. So many times you have been told to wait upon the Lord and to wait for God’s best but the truth is you are weary and you are on the verge on giving up on God. You look around and people who are not faithful to God seem to be the ones getting ahead – they seem to be the ones getting the promotion, the man or woman of their dreams, their business is flourishing and they are financially rich, all seems to be going great with them- while you are doing your best honoring God in every way possible, yet you don’t have nearly what these unbelievers have.

So..what’s the point of walking with God if I am struggling even more than an unbeliever? What’s the use of honoring God when everyone out there is taking shortcuts and they are getting ahead?

You know I was in the same exact place just a few weeks ago until I read Malachi 3 and my whole perspective changed and its as follows :

¹³ “You have said terrible things about me,” says the Lord.

“But you say, ‘What do you mean? What have we said against you?

¹⁴ “You have said, ‘What’s the use of serving God? What have we gained by obeying his commands or by trying to show the Lord of Heaven’s Armies that we are sorry for our sins? ¹⁵ From now on we will call the arrogant blessed. For those who do evil get rich, and those who dare God to punish them suffer no harm.’”

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to what they said. In his presence, a scroll of remembrance was written to record the names of those who feared him and always thought about the honor of his name.

¹⁷ “They will be my people,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “On the day when I act in judgment, they will be my own special treasure. I will spare them as a father spares an obedient child. ¹⁸ Then you will again see the difference between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Malachi 3:13-17).

This scripture gets me red handed. There were two groups of people. One that was focused on what God hasn’t done and how God has taken too long and how unbelievers seem to be the ones who are getting blessed and getting away with their ungodly behavior. Then there’s was another group , that feared God and what that means is that..yes, not everything may be going exactly how they liked, they may be facing difficulties and challenges in their own lives, God may be taking a bit too long; however, they kept a good report of the Lord. I could imagine them saying things like, ‘’everything may not be going my way but God, the Most High God is on my side and He causes me to have victory in all these things. I may be single but God is ordering my steps to the right person and God will exceed what I have ever asked, dreamed or hoped for.

Child of God it is extremely important to stay in faith and that means that in the midst of your trials, tribulations and hardships, you keep confessing over and over the Word of God. Faith is not some positive words we say to make ourselves feel better, faith is a shield that we use to protects us from all the lies and deceit the enemy wants us to believe(Ephesians 6:10-18).

I want you to know that God as the ability shift things in your life and what seems permanent and looks like will never going to change situation, He is well able to turn around in an instant. You don’t have to force things to happen or compare yourself to unbelievers, when God shows up in your life it will be bigger and way better than what they have.

Stay in faith and keep honoring God in everything you do. He is more than able to bring your dreams to pass.

In the meantime I want you to desperately hang on to this promise

 Amos 9:13 “Yes indeed, it won’t be long now.” God’s Decree. “Things are going to happen so fast your head will swim, one thing fast on the heels of the other. You won’t be able to keep up. Everything will be happening at once—and everywhere you look, blessings! Blessings like wine pouring off the mountains and hills. I’ll make everything right again for my people Israel: “They’ll rebuild their ruined cities. They’ll plant vineyards and drink good wine. They’ll work their gardens and eat fresh vegetables. And I’ll plant them, plant them on their own land. They’ll never again be uprooted from the land I’ve given them.” God, your God, says so.

( MSG Version)

WHEN GOD INTERRUPTS YOUR PLANS....

I know most of you reading this post have gone through a number of times when you got something planned out so well- like how you’re gonna finish school, join that great college and end up in career with a fat paycheck; others it may be you’ve been dating that woman/man for so many years, in fact both families know each other and everyone is expecting y’all to get married - and GOD comes right in the middle all your plans and shuts that door. And you are left there with a broken relationship/engagement or you went to a job interview for the job of your dreams and your application got declined- and you got  disappointed, confused and mostly you are mad at God because you felt like HE let you down.

On so many occasions I have felt the same way, it seemed like every plan I made got turned upside down and if we are not careful the enemy (our adversary) will fill your mind with all kinds of lies like God’s forgotten about you, He’s not for you – or the enemy may bring up past sins and convince you that its God’s way of punishing you.

One particular time I was so frustrated because absolutely nothing was going according to any of my plans- and in the middle of it I heard God gently say, “If I gave you everything you asked for in prayer, you would the most miserable person.. just trust me when I say no! ’’ This made me take several seats and at that moment that I realized how a kinda trusted in God and the other half me relied on my own understanding. There’s nothing wrong with making plans, and asking God to give us our secret petitions of the heart and to bring to pass our dreams and desires – however, we need to be open enough to tell God.. I would really like for you to give me this , but ultimately let Your will be done concerning this situation. Have Your way, Lord.

Sometimes without realizing it, we make our plans and dreams and goals like our idols ..if God don’t bring me a man by 28 or 30 then am gonna assist God and find myself a man; if God don’t give me that job or that promotion am going to step on everyone’s toes and flirt around with all the male bosses until I get my way.

Here’s the test we all have to pass: Will we still love God and worship Him when things don’t go as planned? Will we still trust Him when everyone else seems to be getting their breakthrough and everyone seems to be getting ahead? Will you still continue to honor God with your body when you are single and 35 years and you had a deadline to get married by 28? Will you still continue to be faithful in job and work as unto the Lord with a low pay when all your peers and friends seem to be getting the job of their dreams, living in great apartments and travelling to great destinations.

It’s time for us to give to GOD all our plans, our desires and even those secret petitions that no one knows about – and really trust Him with our whole heart and lean not on our own understanding. Let’s allow God to lead us into what HE knows is best for our lives and not by our own limited reasoning. Ephesians 1:11 says that God chose us in advance and He makes everything work out according to His plan.

Dying to self at times means dying to our plans, dying to some desires that are good but are not God, it means laying down our dreams and ambitions and deadlines and telling God to have His way in your life. It means getting yourself out of God’s way and letting Him have full control over your life. It doesn’t mean that you don’t have any goals or aspirations of your own but it means not allowing your plans to have you and to become an idol; it means you come to a place of rest where you trust God and say even if things don’t turn out the way I expected them to, I trust that God has something bigger and better for me.

In the meantime, shake off the discouragement and the weariness and encourage yourself with this one thing: 1 John 5 :14-15 And we are sure of this, that he will listen to us whenever we ask him for anything in line with his will.  And if we really know he is listening when we talk to him and make our requests, then we can be sure that he will answer us. (TLB Version)

God hears you when you pray and He loves you insanely.. all He wants from you is to trust Him even when things don’t go your way.

Remember that no matter how bad it looks like, GOD IS FOR YOU!!

Stay encouraged and fight the good fight of faith.

So much love,

Hilda

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FEELING LIKE UGLY BETTY

You may feel like the girl who no one thinks is attractive… you never seem to catch the eye of men whether in school or at work. All your girlfriends are getting picked up by fancy cars, taken out to romantic getaways over the weekend, bought for expensive gifts and you feel as though you are just a spectator, saying to yourself after all they are way prettier than I am so they deserve it.

And all the while God is like ..WAIT..WHAT?

I created you in my own image and likeness…You are my masterpiece (Ephesians 2 :10).

You are so precious to me and you are bought at a price; not of corruptible like gold and silver but of the precious blood of Jesus. (1 Peter 1:18).

When are you going to stop looking at yourself as the world sees you and start looking at yourself as I see you?

 Why are you getting your value from what world says or thinks about you?

 The world didn’t create you, I did and you are so valuable to me that I had to die for you on the cross.

Your worth and value is NOT in dating the cutest guy on campus or the richest dude at the workplace, just so that all your girlfriends and peers can be impressed and compliment you on how fine he is or how loaded he is.

Your worth and value is in Christ and Christ alone- not in how many heads you turn when you enter a room or whether your girlfriends/bff  thinks you’re pretty enough to be with a certain type of man. Are you letting the opinions of the world dictate to you who you are or are you letting the Word of God define you?

Colossians 2:10 says that you are complete in Jesus, who is the head of all principality and power. So girl, if no one notices you or asks you out like everyone else is, I want to you to repeat this scripture out loudly with your mouth. The Word of God is not like the words of men; it contains power and it’s a sword that we use to fight back those feelings or ideas that creep into our minds and hearts ... that tell us we ain’t good enough. I have come to realize that I can’t afford to just sit back and let the enemy fill my mind with his lies and his junk- I need to fight back , and we fight back with the speaking out the word of God. Just like Jesus did when tempted by Satan – he fought back with scripture saying “IT IS WRITTEN”.

 Now am not saying that our go around looking sloppy and  don’t make your hair, or you avoid wearing some cute clothes- all am saying is that we need to put our confidence in God alone not even in our outward appearance or how many compliments we get from people.

Paul said in Phillipians 3 :3  For we [Christians] are the true circumcision, who worship God in spirit and by the Spirit of God and exult and glory and pride ourselves in Jesus Christ, and put no confidence or dependence [on what we are] in the flesh and on outward privileges and physical advantages and external appearances. 

Our glory and our pride is not in how we look, how many  dudes are attracted to us, what designer labels we wear, how many degrees we’ve accumulated, our accomplishments, how many followers you get on social media or how sexy and ripped your body is – nope! Our pride and glory is in Christ; all these other things will fade away but Christ and His love is eternal (forever!)

So here is to taking our eyes off ourselves and the standards of this world (and who thinks we are pretty or not pretty enough) and putting your eyes back on Jesus – and seeing yourself as Christ sees you, period!!

 No more trying to compare yourself with the women on your instagram feed, reality shows or others around us, but to be who God created you to and to go after Jesus, pursuing the call of God over your life and being used by Him to bring all glory to God.

IT'S FOR YOUR OWN GOOD

Anything the Lord instructs us to do is for our own good. He’s not trying to command us around with a bunch of rules; neither is He trying to prove to us that He is boss.

Nope!

In fact, GOD gave us free will, which means we can choose to either do things God’s way or our own way. The truth is we are not smart enough to run our own lives – we think we can run the show, other times we act like we know better than God does- we look down upon His ways. Scripture says in Proverbs 28:26... that He who trusts confidently in his own heart is a fool, But he who walks in [godly] wisdom will be rescued. In other words, are going to be let your life be ruled by your emotions or your carnal mind, (you own limited wisdom) or are you going to decide to be led by Godly wisdom, by His word and by His Holy Spirit.

Yes, there will be so many times that God will say NO to some of our requests and He’ll instruct to leave some relationships or even habits. Will it hurt? Definitely. But instead of getting disappointed of not getting things your way, trust God that He wants the very best for you- He knows you better than you know yourself- and if He says no..honey..don’t fight it, don’t get mad- just know its for your own good.

I have to admit there have been a number of times when God told me to cut off a relationship that was just sowing the wrong kind of seeds in my life. And in those times, I have given God my 10 reasons why I shouldn’t leave that man like: “God you know his too fly or too loaded, how on earth am I going to get another man like him..or LORD, I have waited for too long, am not going to leave him coz I don’t know when the next one gonna come up.. or everyone knows we are engaged and about to get married, what are they gonna say if I call of the engagement ,Lord?’’

In those times when my flesh (my emotions and my head) was acting up and insisted on holding on to a man that GOD didn’t approve ..I went on fast, most of the time it would be a three day fast- and I would avoid not just food, but all social media platforms, any form of entertainment- TV, movies, series and also news. During the fast, I would just dig into scripture and spent my free time in worship and avoid any kind of unnecessary phone calls and texts. Romans 8:7 warns us that The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.

Eventually, my flesh began to weaken and my carnal mindset begun to be renewed to think like God does and what was a struggle to let go off became easier and felt a whole lot better. Fasting and praying has so much power to break us free from operating in fleshy mindsets, worldliness, attitudes that are not like Christ, ungodly lifestyles and any kind of yoke that is holding us back from being what God called us to be.

God wants to save us from unnecessary heartbreaks and frustrations and maybe that could be the reason why you don’t have peace in that relationship or even a job offer or business opportunity. God is not a malicious God, He doesn’t enjoy seeing you struggling and unhappy but He is a good Father and He rejoices in the prosperity of His servants (Psalms 35:27). He desires to see you happy, healthy, and prosperous in every area and madly in love with the partner He knows is best for you-fulfilling God’s purpose together.

Don’t fight the process or be tempted to give up on God- He is preparing you for so much greater

Be encouraged GOD IS FOR YOU!!

Love,

Hilda