Yours Sincerely

I'm going to try to make this post as brief and straight to the point as possible (like that has ever worked). I'd also like to say that I am as guilty of what I'm writing about as anyone else who might get their conscience pricked while reading this. I was reading/studying my Bible this morning and came across a verse I had previously marked out. For some reason I lingered there a while, reading it and feeling God was trying to say something to me through the verse. I read the verse, over and over again till one word in it began to stand out, and that word was "earnestly". What I did next, I admit, was a bit strange as I thought I had a good understanding of what the word meant but in hindsight, I see it was very necessary. By God's leading, I picked my phone up and searched for a dictionary definition of earnestly and then everything became clearer - my accidental foray into the Book of Hebrews and my fascination with the word "earnestly" all started to make sense to me. The first definition of earnestly I found read: 

"...with sincere and intense conviction." 

I was pretty sure I knew what intense meant so I searched for sincere and came up with,  

"...free from pretense or deceit; proceeding from genuine feelings." 

Almost immediately, I sank to my knees and asked God for mercy, like literally begged for mercy and asked Him to take away everything that was making me seek Him for insincere reasons because I knew I did. I really can't share everything here because some stories are really personal to me but I'm sure if you do some soul searching, you'd quickly relate with what I was going through in that moment. I felt such shame because I knew; I knew that my seeking God wasn't always free from pretense. As a result, my prayer life would almost always come most alive just before my exams or a performance or ministration, simply because I needed God's help to see me through. Or worse still after a major mistake when I needed God to fix things for me, and once He was done I would be gone as far away as possible to be close enough to come back. And all that happened because I wasn't earnestly seeking Him. I was seeking Him quite alright but my search didn't proceed from genuine feelings. I just saw Him as a means to an end and so when things didn't go the way I thought He'd make them go (and that happened quite a few times), I would get upset and pack my bags.

That's wrong in every way possible and today I realized I had been living that way for a while. I was chasing God's rewards which ironically, are meant only for those who seek Him without thoughts of any reward being attached to their followership.  

And without faith it is impossible to please God, 

because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists 

and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him. 

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV) 

God can tell the difference between those who seek Him earnestly and those who do it in return for something. As such, He gets hurts when He's sought after just for selfish reasons and definitely would not reward such selfishness. 

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, 

and live righteously, and He will give you everything you need. 

Matthew 6:33 NLT 

But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also. 

Matthew 6:33 AMP 

For the glory of God, 

Diazno 

 

Why He Won't Come

"Make me poor in spirit - wanting nothing

So that I'll have no one else but You.

I'll have no one else but You...

I'll have no one else but You..."

  - Isebiama

My dear friend and brother, Michael Isebiama David wrote and taught me that song. I remember just hearing it and feeling so broken, desperately needing to be poor in spirit. It's been my prayer ever since the day I heard it and today for some reason, God placed it in my heart to sing to Him once again and I haven't been able to stop singing it.

God's desire and only aim - His heartbeat if I may - is for a people whose sole desire, aim and possession is Him. Call Him jealous if you want to but He's already pointed that part of His nature out.

23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you.
24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Deuteronomy 4:23-25 (ESV)

13-19 Deeply respect God, your God. Serve and worship him exclusively. Back up your promises with his name only. Don’t fool around with other gods, the gods of your neighbors, because God, your God, who is alive among you is a jealous God. Don’t provoke him, igniting his hot anger that would burn you right off the face of the Earth. Don’t push God, your God, to the wall as you did that day at Massah, the Testing-Place. Carefully keep the commands of God, your God, all the requirements and regulations he gave you.

Deuteronomy 6:13-17 (MSG)

"Why is He so jealous?" You may ask. "Is that even a good thing?" That's not left for you and I to debate on, just to accept that He is God and that He is jealous, exactly the same way as we've accepted that He's All-Powerful, loving and kind. He really wants everything else to fade away in the beauty of His presence and love for us till we get to the point where we'll see just Him - Christ who died and rose again to buy our pardon. Yes, say and pray "Come, Lord Jesus" as much as you want, Jesus won't come if His place isn't ready. In John 14 Jesus shows that He understands the principle of getting a place ready if one invites someone else to come stay with them. 

2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:2-3 (NIV)

Just look at that! Jesus, the Son of God; the firstborn over all creation going to prepare a place for whoever will believe in Him - lowly creatures He made. How then do you expect a God who has done such for us to be willing to share? He simply won't! He won't come to share your body, heart, mind or soul with anything! He just won't. That's not how He wants to be treated. It would be very unfair to expect Him to share you; He either has all of you or He'll have none of you. And that's why He won't come just because you ask Him to. He'll first of all want to know if His abode (your heart) is tastefully furnished, exactly to His liking. He doesn't 'do' compromises, it's either fine for Him or it's not. Neither does He manage - He's either totally satisfied and comfortable or He's not!

I understand that these are hard truths that we really do not like to hear. We seem to prefer the image of God in which He is loving and kind...benevolent to a fault...our very present help in trouble...our shield and defender. While these images of God are very heartwarming to say the least, they do not accurately capture every aspect of His being for He's also a consuming fire and a Righteous Judge who judges with fairness and can't tolerate double standards.

So no, He won't come just because You asked Him to, He'll come because a place has been made ready for Him. "How do I get my heart ready for the Lord?" It's very simple - surrender. Surrender your will, your thoughts, your life even; surrender it all to Jesus and accept that He's in charge. He's not going to compete for your attention with TV, and Instagram or money or career, a boyfriend or girlfriend, an iPhone or parties or even sleep. He'll simply stay where He is till He sees that your heart is ready to house Him - the Lord of all the earth. So right now I ask you "Is your heart ready to receive Him?" If you are willing, please pray this prayer and believe it with all of your heart:

"Lord Jesus, I thank You for loving me even while I was lost in sin and wanted nothing to do with You. I thank You for dying on a cross at Calvary to save me. I accept Your sacrifice of love and believe that You have the power to save me. I confess my past sins and renounce my old way of living, I accept the Lordship of Jesus Christ over my life. Please write my name in Your Book of Life and help me to live a life that pleases you. Amen"

If you prayed this prayer wholeheartedly, you just made heaven rejoice. You'll need to find a Bible-believing church to become a part of so that your growth will be assured. Welcome to the family of believers!

If you're already a believer but for some reason have reneged on your earlier profession of faith in Christ, it's time to return to God. Put away ever hindrance and prepare your heart to receive Him once again. Talk to God right now and sort things out with Him. I'm sure He'll be super-excited that you're back and won't hesitate to receive you.

Maranatha!

God bless us all.

For the glory of God,

Diazno