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EvangelistBee
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It started with an innocent mail. I get lot of emails every day. This was different. Yes, it was different. I don't know where it will end. The story is still in the making but since God is timeless – I know He will do it. I am positive she will end well. I prayed with her. The prayer seems to be bouncing back. After a while I got a confirmation that Heaven is doing something. That mercy will speak. I am willing to stick out my neck. That God is real. That there is grace. That there is a reason for a season. That irrespective of the way it is now, there is hope. That even though life has dealt with us very hard, we have confidence in Him and remain steadfast in Him.
When she walked in, I was not prepared for what I heard. She is a 33 year old young woman. She wrote in her mail "I need to see you because it seems I am losing my faith". Here she is in front of me. She started by accusing God for being unfaithful. She has been in faith for a long time. As at now, everything has failed and still failing. Her father whom she is very close to died. She can forgive the death but she can't let go of the fact that he died in pains. He died with pain associated with end time degenerative disease. How can such a "Holy man" die in pain? I don't know! Sincerely I don't know. Her relationships failed repeatedly. How can a woman who truly loves God experience such series of disasters? Truly I don't know. I don't have a one-park answer. However, I acknowledge that they happen - life can turn messy and stressful. I know though that God is constant and faithful. For each of those affirmations I make, she answers, "I used to believe and live on that but now I don't feel it again". The challenge about faith too is that we have to believe when we don’t feel! That’s what make it faith.
She was bitter. I got to a spot that nothing I say really matters any longer. I decided that all I could do was pray and hope that God will get across to her through the pains and the confusion. I prayed - when she was with me and after she left. I believe God. Not long after she left I received other mails of people who told me that despite all odds, God came through to help them and intervened. A brother who lost his job around same time was very low and dejected. I asked him to practice some of the principles that I want to say here. I know they are not exhaustive and may not always be “instantly” effective like a Tynenol or Paracetamol but at least they can boost our spiritual energy levels like a Multivitamin will do. Hopefully, by the time our spiritual energy level are boosted, our resistance to“life‘s free radicals” will increase. With immunity levels restored, we can fight back.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
When things fail, we get bitter. When life deals with us we get disoriented. We lose our bearings. The truth however is that everyone who had succeeded in something has had their downtimes. Downtimes should not be a time to write God off as irrelevant in our lives.- sometimes, somewhere and somehow! When marriages fail, we blame everything – God, ourselves, our spouse and sometimes out background! We ask questions, where and how did we get it wrong? Sometimes we did things right and it still failed! When we are down, it’s like, we are in a tunnel that we fell into unprepared for. Looking at the word of God, there is usually a way out. We have to be strong to start from somewhere. We refuse to just lie down and wait for death and destruction to come. There is a will and there is a way! Against all the odds, the four lepers in the heat of the Samarian famine saw a little glimpse of hope by thinking and reasoning outside the box. They called a “mini- convention” and declared :
2Ki 7:3-4 … Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
We can do something!
What do we do when nothing works?
COUNT YOUR BLESSING! COUNT YOUR BLESSING!! COUNT YOUR BLESSING!!!
No matter how bad it is, there is always a positive count to make. Always - all the time. It looks simplistic but it surely helps! It’s a good starting point. I once counseled a married woman who was considering suicide. I cannot remember what the issue was then but she was really distraught and low. I did not know what to say or do. I observed that she was wearing a gold plated wrist watch. She was beautiful. She has a wry sense of humor. A lot more! I brought out a clean sheet of paper and asked her to start writing anything what she still thinks we can thank God for. Anything! No matter how mundane or “serious” it was. No matter how simple or complicated it is. Anything we can thank God for. Anything that she has or that she does not have that is worthy of thanksgiving. We started. She was spot on. She thanked God that she did not have Cancer. I wondered why she started with that. What sort of morbid fear she has? Some of her friends had cancer and had died. She can walk! She visited someone who could not walk in the hospital recently. Praise God, we are making progress!
She could talk. She wanted to thank God that she still has a voice. Do you know some can speak but do not have a voice? Ask a mad man? They can speak but who wants to listen to what a mad man has to say! Of what benefit is the rant of a deranged woman. It’s a great blessing to still be a able to think cognitively and speak intelligently. Her Husband had stayed and not left her – she wants to thank God for that. She even said, “in all fairness to him, he has tried”. By the time we were done we counted over fifty blessings.
When she walked in, I was not prepared for what I heard. She is a 33 year old young woman. She wrote in her mail "I need to see you because it seems I am losing my faith". Here she is in front of me. She started by accusing God for being unfaithful. She has been in faith for a long time. As at now, everything has failed and still failing. Her father whom she is very close to died. She can forgive the death but she can't let go of the fact that he died in pains. He died with pain associated with end time degenerative disease. How can such a "Holy man" die in pain? I don't know! Sincerely I don't know. Her relationships failed repeatedly. How can a woman who truly loves God experience such series of disasters? Truly I don't know. I don't have a one-park answer. However, I acknowledge that they happen - life can turn messy and stressful. I know though that God is constant and faithful. For each of those affirmations I make, she answers, "I used to believe and live on that but now I don't feel it again". The challenge about faith too is that we have to believe when we don’t feel! That’s what make it faith.
She was bitter. I got to a spot that nothing I say really matters any longer. I decided that all I could do was pray and hope that God will get across to her through the pains and the confusion. I prayed - when she was with me and after she left. I believe God. Not long after she left I received other mails of people who told me that despite all odds, God came through to help them and intervened. A brother who lost his job around same time was very low and dejected. I asked him to practice some of the principles that I want to say here. I know they are not exhaustive and may not always be “instantly” effective like a Tynenol or Paracetamol but at least they can boost our spiritual energy levels like a Multivitamin will do. Hopefully, by the time our spiritual energy level are boosted, our resistance to“life‘s free radicals” will increase. With immunity levels restored, we can fight back.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
When things fail, we get bitter. When life deals with us we get disoriented. We lose our bearings. The truth however is that everyone who had succeeded in something has had their downtimes. Downtimes should not be a time to write God off as irrelevant in our lives.- sometimes, somewhere and somehow! When marriages fail, we blame everything – God, ourselves, our spouse and sometimes out background! We ask questions, where and how did we get it wrong? Sometimes we did things right and it still failed! When we are down, it’s like, we are in a tunnel that we fell into unprepared for. Looking at the word of God, there is usually a way out. We have to be strong to start from somewhere. We refuse to just lie down and wait for death and destruction to come. There is a will and there is a way! Against all the odds, the four lepers in the heat of the Samarian famine saw a little glimpse of hope by thinking and reasoning outside the box. They called a “mini- convention” and declared :
2Ki 7:3-4 … Why sit we here until we die? If we say, We will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city, and we shall die there: and if we sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come, and let us fall unto the host of the Syrians: if they save us alive, we shall live; and if they kill us, we shall but die.
We can do something!
What do we do when nothing works?
COUNT YOUR BLESSING! COUNT YOUR BLESSING!! COUNT YOUR BLESSING!!!
No matter how bad it is, there is always a positive count to make. Always - all the time. It looks simplistic but it surely helps! It’s a good starting point. I once counseled a married woman who was considering suicide. I cannot remember what the issue was then but she was really distraught and low. I did not know what to say or do. I observed that she was wearing a gold plated wrist watch. She was beautiful. She has a wry sense of humor. A lot more! I brought out a clean sheet of paper and asked her to start writing anything what she still thinks we can thank God for. Anything! No matter how mundane or “serious” it was. No matter how simple or complicated it is. Anything we can thank God for. Anything that she has or that she does not have that is worthy of thanksgiving. We started. She was spot on. She thanked God that she did not have Cancer. I wondered why she started with that. What sort of morbid fear she has? Some of her friends had cancer and had died. She can walk! She visited someone who could not walk in the hospital recently. Praise God, we are making progress!
She could talk. She wanted to thank God that she still has a voice. Do you know some can speak but do not have a voice? Ask a mad man? They can speak but who wants to listen to what a mad man has to say! Of what benefit is the rant of a deranged woman. It’s a great blessing to still be a able to think cognitively and speak intelligently. Her Husband had stayed and not left her – she wants to thank God for that. She even said, “in all fairness to him, he has tried”. By the time we were done we counted over fifty blessings.
Quietly her face lit up! She saw that it was not over yet! She still WANTED to count! And she hit a spot. She thanked God that she could cry! She can cry! Some want to cry but they can’t any longer. They had been broken beyond tears! Tears has its own spiritual assignment. Tears has power. Tearing has therapeutic and spiritual implications. Our tears drops are seeds. They are seeds of change and seeds of help. As she wrote, she “teared” up some more! The fountain of tears came forth with uncontrolled force. Tears are seeds sown in our quest for help. See what the Holy word says about the spiritual effects of tears and weeping.God promised Hezekiah healing when he saw tears!
2Ki 20:5 Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
God sees tears!
Isa 38:5 Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years.
When our tears are to God, they have effect.
When our tears are to God, they have effect.
Job 16:20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.
Our tears challenge God 24/7 - all the time!
Our tears challenge God 24/7 - all the time!
Psa 42:3 My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
Joy comes after tears.
Psa 126:5 They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Our hope as believers is that at end of our walk with God, even tears will cease because there will be no more death. Pain will cease and former things will go. We need to thank God for that hope too!
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
As she walked out of my office some years back, she got hope again. After we spent quality time thanking God - thanking God for tears and the tear drops that brings hope.
I pray that irrespective of what we are going through now (this is very apt for me too now), may we find confidence in the Lord and the strength to count our blessings positively until our tears count and are wiped in Jesus Name. Amen
I don’t know you but I surely do love you and care. Send your prayer points and Testimonies and remember
Psa 30:5 For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
God bless!
EVANGELIST BEE.
No. 123 – 1st May 2011
Please share your experience on how counting blessings help by pasting in comment box below – click comment and drop a line! Thanks.
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14 comments:
Sir
this is very timely.
Very timely.
God is faithful.
Thank You and Thank God.
Ade
You know I did a post on my tweet yesterday that confirms what you are saying:
I just know - He will make a way! He will. He is faithful. He has been faithful. He will not stop been faithful now
Even in our tears - God is faithful.
EVB
I was touched while reading in 2 Kings 23:29 just today that King Josiah was killed in battle by Pharaoh Necho! Earlier, Josiah had been commended as a righteous king - yet he was killed while defending Juday from unrighteous men!
God is able to comfort us when we are weary, and even if we die, we belong to Him. (Rom 14:8)
Thanks Femi,
Rom 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
The Ultimate - even in our tears - life or death - we belong to him
Thank you so so much for this!
EVB
The bible is so complete, in that there is nothing we can go through in this life, that someone didnt go through a similar situation in the bible. going through the book of Job might help her situation. in Job 2:3 "And the Lord said unto satan, hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is non like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God and escheweth evil?" ( to eschew means to delibrately avoid) God described Job in this way, but he still went through all he did. At the end of it all, God blessed the latter of Job more than his begining.
sometimes we go through things in life, because of others who will go through a similar challenge.when we share our testimony with them,they are encouraged and blessed, while all glory goes to God.
She shall testify soon by the grace of God!
Ebun,
I cannot agree more as to the completeness of the scripture and enough testimonies around to encourage our hearts to hold on and believe.May our Heavens never
close such that in the midst of the situation - we will be
positive like JOB to a greater, better and latter end.
Thank you.
EVB
Hello Sir,
Thank you and God bless u sir for sharing dis with us...indeed we need to count our blessings and tank God that we can shed tears.
Titilayo
Thank God.
I all things - give thanks
thank you
EVB
Good Morning Sir,
I was really encouraged by this post. "We ask questions, where and how did we get it wrong? Sometimes we did things right and it still failed! When we are down, it’s like, we are in a tunnel that we fell into unprepared for." I have certainly felt this before and am currently feeling this way in one particular area of my life.
However, when I started counting all blessings the Lord has given me, like you told the woman to do in your post, I realized that He has blessed me in so many areas of my life.
Thank you for sharing this.
God Bless,
Josh
Hi Josh
" Sometimes we did things right and it still failed! When we are down, it’s like, we are in a tunnel that we fell into unprepared for."
This was a statement that struck me deeply in your comment. I was refreshed in that its not really a function of how we found ourselves where we are but the fact that our bearing in God is constant and that holds the center for which we will always be grateful.
God bless you JOSH
EVB
Am away from home and on a different time zone, so l have plenty time to read and read again all the post
.....hmmmmm 'Tears are good' l remembered and am surely counting my blessing, they are too much......uncountables!
You know what l told my friend recently ! I told her God does answer prayers, so the ones He's yet to answer or will not answer,
He's got His reasons and they must be good reasons.
You are a blessing indeed and whatever you are going through, hang in there, always remember thousands...millions are looking on to you and God's got your back always.
Stay Blessed Always
Y
.....hmmmmm 'Tears are good' l remembered and am surely counting my blessing, they are too much......uncountables!
Yes - Tears have its own benefits and above all - we will keep counting out blessing
Thanks for the encouragement too
EVB
Hello Pastor Bee,
I just heard you were in my church today 15th may 2011.T.S.p in lagos. But I was in abuja and they sent me your site telling me your me your msg was v. Touching. Although I wished I was there. I just read these article about Tears. There was a period I was in some much tears and anguish full of regrets. But I thing I have come to realise is that tears makes you stronger. After some certain time I laughed at what I cried over. Thanks for being a blessing. God bless you.
Yes Winnie,
We had a blast in God's presence today at " The Secret Place" as we looked the keys to a fulfilled life. We hope you will be available next time.
You will continue to laugh as God continues to give you victory. Thanks for dropping a line
EVB
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