One year on...a testimony from Tomi Lawal

In February last year, I started this wonderful journey. Unassuming of what would become of me, full of doubts about what was happening to me. One thing is sure though, I wanted it to happen. He must have seen my desire, and acted He acted on it. He’s just awesome, I mean, He puts the desire in me, then fills me up. That’s just love.

I won’t lie by saying it’s been all rosy, cos it hasn’t. There have been quite a few times, that I was weary, I felt like nothing was happening, I felt as if I was just stagnant, making no progress. Trust me, those were horrible times, but He held my hands up and made me rise again, stronger than I was before I fell. He became my pillar and my rock. I absolutely love you.

You took off the veil that hindered me from seeing afar off, the veil of sin that made me short sighted by expanding Your Word in my heart. Indeed, Psalm 119:130 is my testimony. You’ve thought me so many things, loved me unconditionally. Even at times when I kind of ‘ditched’ you, You did not leave me to suffer with my bad decisions. I love you!

I laugh sometimes and feel slightly embarrassed (I know I shouldn’t, but I do) when I think about the things I did when we newly began this splendid journey, but it only helps me to know how far You’ve brought me. I know I’m not even close to the heights You’ve destined for me, but I know I’m on the right track. Though, I waver sometimes, You help keep me stay on track. I treasure You!

I’ve come a long way now, and there ain’t no stopping me, I only get better, with You by my side, showing me the way to go and a heart that obeys You.

A toast to the best relationship ever..cheers!

Your Precious daughter!

           

P.S- This is also to encourage anyone who’s strayed of the Way. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. He would take you back, the question is do you want to come back? Just make sure it’s not too late before you give a reply to that question.

Hephzibah

The mirror lied, every time I looked into it. All it did was show me inadequacies, inabilities...faults. It crippled me.

You see I accepted those images as truth; reality I didn't like but was so nonetheless. I struggled every time I looked at it because the images it reflected fell very short of "beautiful." 

Beautiful. That meant my hair had to be a certain way; that my skin had to glow with every ray of sunshine that fell; that my mouth had to be perfectly positioned in pictures.

But my features betrayed me. They always fell short - very short. I tried to make myself beautiful, tried to do all I could to measure up physically. It worked and each time I would give myself a pat on the back for a job well done. 

But soon the success of my efforts would wear out and I would be back again, in front of the mirror, looking and thinking, "I'm so not perfect."

It was a draining process, having to convince myself that I was beautiful. It really was. 

The strange thing was I was Christian. I was saved and knew what the Word of God said - that it called me Beautiful and blessed. It called me Hephzibah*, God's Delight and Beulah, Married. I was Hephzibah and I was Beulah - God's Delight, married to Him. Yet, it seemed, this wasn't enough. Every time I would look in the mirror, I would see scars - emotional and physical.

At times, I felt very different from what God had called me; like I was NOT Hephzibah. Not His Delight.

But I fought the feeling. I was his delight, I told myself; I was his Chosen.

But the images from the mirror started at me, weighing me down. I fought them but it often seemed I didn't win.

*"Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith..." 

Weights. For me, the mirror was one. It bore down on me, telling me all sorts of lies and most of all, keeping me from fully knowing the love of my Father, my Savior, my Jesus. 

But nothing can separate me from His Love...

Hephzibah. That's what He's chosen to call me. So I lay down past images, knowing that he has called me out to be His Delight.

I am his Delight. 

I am Hephzibah.

Lay down your weights.

Signed,

Hephzibah ♥

*Hebrews 12: 1& 2

*Beulah & Hephzibah are taken from Isaiah 62:4.

Today it dawned on me.

Today it dawned on me what it meant to “present yourself a living sacrifice” –it means to present your will to God. To let your life be such that God lives through you. Your life is sacrificed for His.

I was walking past the food display today. God told me not to get rice but I did – I was hungry.  I sat down to eat and remembered that I had just prayed to hear God’s voice clearly. Well, I had heard, and even though he knew why I shouldn’t have eaten the rice, I chose to ignore him.

Being a living sacrifice means I don’t always understand but I’m obedient- in all things.

Today, a prostrated person came to mind – Jesus, who took our pains and bore our diseases; who hung on the cross for us. He was a living sacrifice. He hung there on the cross for us even though we didn’t…couldn’t deserve it. He came so we could have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).

Today, it dawned on me that a living sacrifice should be a prostrated person. One who offers himself up for others and lays himself down for others – Jesus.

Today it dawned on me that that was who I was called to be – a sacrifice, offered up to God, clean and holy.  It means that I can’t run my life going: “What should I do in the next four years?” Instead, it should be “What is God thinking about for the next four years?”

The answer you’ll get will excite you! He has big plans for you –big plans - but you’ll have to ask him.  They are amazing plans but they involve you being a living sacrifice - allowing him live through you and consequently, you through him.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him (Romans 12: 1, The MSG)

More on Isaiah 46

Hi all!

Thank you for your comments! I read the chapter and it seems to me like God is doing a comparison between Himself and Bel and Nebo.

1. God carries himself!
Bel and Nebo were two Babylonian gods. They were handmade, mounted by men and taken down by men.  The beginning of verse 1 states, "Bel bows down; Nebo stoops;"(ESV).
The New Living Translation puts the verse like so:

"Bel and Nebo, the gods of Babylon, 

bow as they are lowered to the ground. 

They are being hauled away on ox carts. 

The poor beasts stagger under the weight."

These Babylonian gods had to be carried around with the people. Like you would have to do to dismount a huge statue, I imagine long ropes would have been used to pull down the gods from their places. The idols would have to come to a "stooping" or "bowing"position to be lowered and placed on beasts that would then carry them to the desired destination. I imagine that these idols were very heavy and would have put a heavy burden on the animal carrying them.
In the verse, God was saying that the gods that these people worshipped and trusted to relieve them of their burdens were themselves cripples and heavy burdens. Human hands made them, carried them and bore their burdens but God was saying, "I carry myself, thank you very much!"( Haha!)


2. God lifts your burdens! (and He doesn't bow)
Verse 2 goes on to say:

"They stoop; they bow down together; 

they cannot save the burden, 

but themselves go in captivity" (ESV)

Again, God emphasizes that Bel and Nebo themselves have to bow when they are being dismounted. They are loaded unto the animals but cannot do anything to save the poor animals from their weight. Instead, they are carried away into captivity, subject to the porters' (both human and animal) wills. 

God is saying, "These God can't save themselves, they bow! Well, I don't and Guess what? I don't weigh you down, I lift you up!" (Matthew 11:28-29 come to mind)

"Come unto me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (ESV).

3. God carries you! Don't be deceived by what you see.

Verse 3 says:                                  "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, 

all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been borne by me from before

your birth, carried from the womb;"

God is calling his people, "Listen to me. It's really easy to lump me with these other gods - Nebo and Bel - but I'M NOT LIKE THEM! I have thought about you even before you came into the world. I have known you. I have loved you and I still do" (See Jeremiah 1:5). 

God carries you! 

He promises that when you walk through the waters, He will be with you and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you, and when you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you (Isaiah 43:2).

4. God made you!

Verse 3 says that God made you. He's calling out to those "who have been borne by him". Read John Chapter 1! Verse 12 clearly states that God has given all those who believe in the name of Jesus the right to become the sons of God, children born of the will of God, your new Father! 

God created you, He loves you and He has called you! :)

5. God will always save you! (And you're never too old to be saved)

Verse 4 says:                                          "Even to your old age

I am he, and to gray hairs

I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and I will save."

God is again restating his concern for you. He has made you and He carried you even before you were born. He's also reminding you that as a responsible Father, he will carry you, even till your old age. You never grow too old for his care!

He will carry you, He will save you because He made you!

God loves you!

-Child of Promise

Isaiah 46

The following verses are from Isaiah 46 in the King James Version. Feel free to read the whole chapter and comment about anything that strikes you but we'll concentrate on verses 1 through 4. Let me know what you think!

¹Bel boweth down, Nebo stoopeth, 
their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: 
your carriages were heavy loaden; 
they are a burden to the weary beast.


 ²They stoop, they bow down together;
they could not deliver the burden, 
but themselves are gone into captivity.


 ³Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob,
 and all the remnant of the house of Israel,
 which are borne by me from the belly, 
which are carried from the womb:


 ⁴And even to your old age I am he; 
and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: 
I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.

Looking forward to reading your comments!

Child of Promise :)

TESTIMONY By Imago Dei

TESTIMONY

So I faced the truth today:

I’d finally hit a brick wall.

I stood face to face with reality, and it made me upset.

But there was no longer any denying it:

I didn’t know everything…

Couldn’t know everything…

Couldn’t control everything…

AND I WAS AFRAID…

Afraid of my shadow.

Afraid of commitment.

Afraid of the mystery

That is my Future.

But the good thing?

…That at the end of the alley,

at this very dead end I’d come to,

and on that very brick wall I now faced,

a sign was suspended.

It was written in vivid red blood,

on a background of pure, white righteousness,

and with gentle direction, it read:

“You might’ve strayed, and reached this wall,

But you can always turn back.

Your exit is from whence you came…”

I faced the truth today:

That I’m OKAY!

…even if I didn’t know everything…

couldn’t know everything…

couldn’t control everything,

It’s ok to be afraid

but it’s even better to admit it

for HIS strength is made perfect in weakness…

So though my heart thumps violently in my chest,

and my confidence drops at the uncertainty of my future,

I will stand…

in faith…

on His word and promises,

Hand him my fears on the platter of my heart,

Blind my eyes to the turbulence around me,

And scream from the pit of my lungs:

I AM NOT AFRAID!!!

…of my shadow

…nor commitment

…nor the mystery that lies ahead.

I AM NOT AFRAID OF MY FUTURE!

⁹But He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12: 9-10)

-       IMAGO DEI

Know God.

...And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:32

(You are only as free as what you know)

The Bible says that we, as God's sheep, know His voice and the voice of a stranger we would not follow (John 10). It also says in verses 14 & 15 that God knows his sheep and His sheep know Him - just as God the Father knows the Son(Jesus) and God the Son knows God the Father.

That's remarkable! However, while it's understandable that God knows every one of His sheep intimately, it's more difficult to believe that His sheep know Him just the same.

Why? Well, He's God and we're just...human.

Here's the thing: We're not just human!

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. John 1:12

That makes us, as many as believe on His name, not mere humans but sons of God, not born of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:13). God, through Jesus, has given us the power to know him as sons would know their fathers - like Jesus, The Son, knows God the Father. That's truth Number 1. We may not feel like sons of God, but the Bible says we are, so we change our thinking.

[As a man thinks in his heart, so he is (Proverbs 23:7)].

We have been given the capacity to know God intimately, but do we really know Him? Have we really come to understand the breadth, length, depth and width of His love? I'll give you my answer: No, I haven't. So what is it then? Why haven't we tapped in to all the resources God has laid up for us in Christ? Simple: We don't know!

Everything God has for us is wrapped up in the Word! It's through God's Word we get to know Him, through his Word that we get know how he talks. Then, we'll be able to identify strange voices and flee from them. But God's Word is only Spirit and life when we read it with the Spirit of God. He opens our eyes to see God as He ought to be seen. Ask for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit today. Be led by the Holy Spirit - that's why you are a son of God!

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. Romans 8:14

We are God's sheep and we have the ability to know God intimately. Do something with that ability! Know God.