He wants your attention!

Hello Dear Friends,

It's been a very long week and I couldn't write this post earlier. I've had a really hectic 2 weeks, first with my 9 pm days last week and then this week having to prepare for an exam I took this morning. Thankfully, the exam went relatively well and so now I can breathe!

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago and I made a comment that I try to ensure I give God His due because I don't want Him to catch my attention with a challenge. I then thought I would write about that because it struck me afresh after I made that comment.

If you have kids you know that they usually won't get our attention when they are being good. When they do something wrong or misbehave, we give them full attention. The way God deals with us I think works in a slightly converse but similar way. Remember Jonah who got caught in the belly of the whale? I'll come back to him.

When life is good and all is truly, physically well, there is a tendency to relax and not be as spiritually active as we would be in times of need or want isn't it? For example when we are looking for a job or have some other big need. How many times one would fast? How long one would pray? How faithfully one would go to church? When we get the job ( or whatever else it was that was needed) it became more difficult to find time to pray as much. Sunday became a real day of rest when perhaps we need to recoup for the week ahead. Now, I exaggerate. What I've described is probably extreme and not typical of most of us but I'm trying to make a point here.

I made up my mind many years ago that when all is physically well and I'm not just confessing to make it well, I would appreciate God as much if not more than I do when I am in need. Yes, it does take a bit of creativity sometimes to juggle all those balls we talked about last week but the idea is - I don't want Him to try to get my attention with a challenge! Let's face it, on the way to that blessed office that meets the monthly need for a paycheck, if the car developed a fault or, God forbid a family member was in a life or death situation, I would attend to that issue and put work and the office on the back burner wouldn't I?

Well friends, if we neglect God in the good times, we are creating a loophole that the devil can exploit to go and ask God for permission to test us. Remember Job in the bible? And Apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh? If you don't know these stories I'm referring to, please Google them. They are worth reading. I could give you the scripture reference but wouldn't that be too easy (wide smile)?

God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. If we continually give Him that which belongs to Him, recognizing that of our own we can do nothing, Remembering that our ability to get up in the morning itself is a testimony, we put ourselves in a seemingly weak position where God knows that He is our strength and then He doesn't have to allow a challenge to come our way in order to remind us that He's God and we are dependent on Him. I hope I'm not making God to look wicked but He is a jealous God! He wants first place in our life.

Back to Jonah. He had an assignment to do. He refused and was going to run away. How foolish, where was he going to run to that God wasn't? I remember Amy Grant's song - Everywhere I go. That's another good one to Google if you don't know it. She talked about not being able to get away from God. God had to "capture" Jonah in the belly of a whale to put him in a position where he had no choice but to face God and repent. Jonah said "they that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy". I read this as  - feeling good in the good times is vanity if I forget the source of the good times. This may lead me to the point where I forsake or lose out on His mercy.

So my friends, let's remember our creator in the days of our prosperity (my paraphrase of Ecclesiastes). I choose to Praise Him, Worship Him, fellowship with Him and with the other members of His body. When we put Him first, every other thing remains in place. Always remember, all it takes is one piece of bad news to change our priorities. Let's reduce the probability of getting the bad news by ensuring that the giver of good news is our first priority. Problems are very humbling.

Next week is a lighter week, so I'm going to take things a bit easy and that means you will be reading from me sooner than later. Hopefully I'll get to talk about seasons next week, if the wind doesn't blow in another direction again. Have a good weekend. I pray Blessings on you and yours.

Your Friend, 

Olubunmi