God has lined up men and women, kings and queens in you life ready to be His hands and feet for his blessings to pass through. Others are here in your life purposefully to dispense favour .
The same goes for you. Do you know that you have been made for such a time as this? are you using your platform to shine His love and bless others?
Are you a destiny booster or faith builder?. Do not waste your space, fill it up and own it.
Let us be a generation that is diligent in what we do just like Nehemiah and Esther. Know that it is your time to use your God given gifts and platform to reach out to those that need love or favour in your community.
Living as a refugee was not easy. I was 16 years old when I reached the Netherlands and I was all by myself. It was a strange country, strange people, strange habits like holding hands and kissing in the street. I remember it was in the summertime and I was waiting for the sun to set. Time was going and I was surprised to see that it was still light in the early evening. As time went on, the light remained and the sun did not set.
I started to feel scared a bit even to the point where I started thinking that on that day the world would end. Just my luck, my first day in Europe and the world ends. This was just an anecdote to describe how ill-prepared I was. I remember when I registered myself as a refugee, the government did not take much of an interest in my reason for coming. They were quick to put me in a refugee camp since I was just a minor without supervision. I was only there briefly and later I have transferred to an organization specifically dedicated to people in my situation.
I was put in a house with six other girls from different nationalities, who spoke different languages and from different social backgrounds. During this time, I integrated in the system and was going to school, had friends, classmates, and was even offered some pocket money. This did not fill the hole of me feeling alone, I still was alone. I still had my story and my background and my problems but in a way my life had started over in a complete new way. I sued this chance and begun to do everything in my power to become a nurse.
This determination and will power led me to rent my own room in a city in the east of the Netherlands. Even though I had managed to do this, it did not stop me from visiting my good friends and spending a lot of time with the family I had known in the refugee camp. I still belonged with them and saw how people and families were fighting in the system hoping to be granted asylum status.
When I turned 18 I moved in with my boyfriend and around that time my first letters started coming from the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) telling me that my asylum procedure had been rejected and I had to prepare to leave the country.
I had learned that just before my time, there had been a socialist regime on migration that got rid of many procedures and replaced them with a very limited number of grounds to to validate asylum. However, they had granted the IND an enormous amount of freedom to ensure a humane asylum implementation. When the public opinion changed and the new politician got in charge, she could limit migration to a minimum by just instructing the IND to no longer to use their freedom for a humane “way of working”.
The lawyer who was appointed to my case did not see any possibilities for fighting this ruling. Therefore, I decided to take on the counsel of a private lawyer. From that moment onward my life was dominated by bills for initiating procedures, bills for the lawyer and so on and so forth, to the point that I was no longer allowed to go to school. In addition, with every procedure I started, new hope came and with every rejection hope faded and fear and anxiety prevailed.
This is when people start advising you all sorts of advice. Some said I should just marry someone and this would solve all my problems. Even though I knew I wanted to get married later on at God’s time, I did not want to marry for these ‘problem solving’ reasons. Especially with all the stereotypes going on , I didn’t want to be seen as gold digger either. In my view, getting married was not going to solve this problem anyway. My case needed a miracle, so I kept searching for different justifiable procedures to remain “in due process” which would allow me to stay in the country.
I was in and out of procedure all the time and all this time there were people praying for me in various places in the world and despite the fear crippling in, I don’t remember any day where I really believed that I was going to be deported.
My miracle later came, after years of proceedings, financial stress, uncertainty and not being allowed to fully participate in the society, my boyfriend was offered a job in the city of Maastricht. The timing felt right and since we knew and were sure that we wanted to grow old together, it felt right to use the “european route”, by asking for permission to get married which we finally got. We we moved to Maastricht, got married and later moved to Belgium as a married couple. Under the European law, the European citizen is allowed to move in Europe and within Europe and take his family along regardless their legal status in that country. This meant that finally, I could start a fresh under a new clean status. I am thankful because Belgium provided me with a new home, a place to flourish, to go back to school ,work and be a contributing factor to the society just like how I wanted it from the beginning.
To be honest, there were so many uncertainties and hopelessness along the way that there is no way I personally would ever be able to arrange this journey. There were so many items that were beyond my control, there were so many elements of undeserved favor that for me I have to testify that God’s doing and hand was in it all along. God had heard my prayers and the prayers of the people surrounding me.
I know we are humans and we tend to forget but even in the moments when I am having a hard day, I try to remember my journey and where I come from. Such moments still fill me up with gratitude towards God and my country Belgium, with joy and hope.
I encourage you that God is in the midst of your situation, yes even your hopelessness.
Kadi
Kadi works in the health sector and lives with her husband in Belgium.
Everyone says, be still wait on Him. Often times we ask ourselves, ‘does God answer prayers, or how do we continue waiting even when God seems silent?’ But do we wait in worship and not in worry?
What we need to know is that our God is always on time, even though the waiting is never easy.
Romans 8:15 states “For we did not receive the spirit of bondage to fear but we received the spirit of Adoption into Sons that enable us cry Abba Father”. This scripture comes to mind now reminding me of where I have come from since I was a young girl.
You see for a long time I lived as a physical orphan and a spiritual orphan just because I thought it was all gone! Nothing else to live for nor any source of inspiration, I was wrong! One of the greatest challenges I had to face in this journey of life was rejection (among my peers, some ‘friends’ and both in and out of the church)! Thank God I came out stronger having learnt that rejection is part and parcel of life but one’s attitude determines how they come out! Life taught me that.
Jeremiah 29:11 has always reminded me that until God says it’s over it’s not yet over. Our God is a God who determines the beginning of an era from it’s ending! Just like the story of my life.
When I got pregnant with my daughter at 19/20 I hated myself so much and wanted to just end my life and so I started drinking heavily. As if that was not enough, I added to it smoking and within no time I became so addicted to smoking I couldn’t stop, I literally had to turn to God with all sincerely and plead my case because now I was breastfeeding and my baby’s life was at risk.
Good people, I just want to tell you that God listens to your prayers, whether big or small, He heard me and took away the urge to smoke together with the urge to drink! What a wonderful God we serve!Now I was free but still so pressed by the spirit of rejection, it was still a pert of me. I became a loner and an introverted young lady and what I didn’t know all this while, was that the Lord was setting up the stage for me.
10 years ago, I re-dedicated my life to Jesus and began to serve on the alter as a Praise and Worship leader and also in the children’s department. My spiritual life was going good but on the other hand, instead of rejection leaving me, it called in its cousin ‘low self esteem’ to move in, this was the hardest battle to fight without a strong support system.
I remember one day I was ministering somewhere and one of the associate pastors came to me and asked ” Mauryn, who really are you? I feel like I don’t know you, you are a totally different person when holding the mic and another when off stage”!. That was a wake up call for me, I was living two lives; I felt so comfortable as a loner and felt rejected in private but while leading worship, I had a courageous, bold, happy and strong personality coming out!
Today even though I am still a work in progress, I can still testimony that at least I’m not where I used to be. I know it is a process and the enemy would sometimes remind me of the negative and humiliating words spoken against me, as well as acts done just to discourage me. Thank God for His grace because He has given me the strength and courage to reiterate and say that “I am who God says I am and what the Bible calls me”.
Life in itself has so many ups and downs but we who are set apart, called by His name have that seal of ownership, God remains to be God and He still sits on the throne! As a single mom in ministry, the challenges will be numerous, we keep believing, keep smiling and at all times put on the whole armour of God. There is so much I want to share but I hope we can be encouraged with this story and know that God can use anyone!
Shalom.
Mauryn.
Mauryn is mother to a beautiful daughter. She serves as a praise and worship minister in Kenya. She is also the lead Jeweller at Angaza. Listen to her music here :
I am by nature a very shy person. Growing up, I refrained from doing things that drew attention to myself, especially things like public speaking. Over time, as I sought to avoid drawing attention to myself, my mind arrived at the conclusion that public speaking was not one of my strengths; it was just something that I couldn’t do. No one else had really seen my oratorical skills, and so no one really pushed me to try it. Thus, the notion remained for a very long time, and I believed it to be true.
When I was 18, as I prepared my applications to universities for my undergraduate studies, I heard God tell me that I would one day go to a Bible college. I was surprised when I heard this, as I did not see myself being a pastor (I associated Bible colleges only with seminaries at the time). Preaching in front of people was definitely not what I saw myself doing in ten years. I was studying to be a molecular biologist; I always pictured myself locked up in a lab running my experiments, having very limited interactions with other people.
God had a very different plan for me. He was about to do many things in and through me that I would never have expected, and He was teaching me to be open to learning from Him and following His leading.
Throughout my times at university, I kept myself busy with activities that ensured that my interactions with others would be at a minimum. I loved learning new things, and being a shy person had made me a good listener. I was happy to listen and observe. In the times when I did meet with others in the university or at church, I took the opportunity to listen and learn. However, when I was asked to share something, I avoided doing so unless there was absolutely no way out.
Eventually, I began to believe that I had nothing of value to share. The seed of shyness and wanting to avoid attention grew into me believing a lie; Everything I had learnt was from others, so others knew what they were talking about and didn’t need me to contribute. And besides, a little voice in my head would say, you’re a shy person. You can’t speak in public. You can’t even articulate what you want to say very well. No one wants to hear what you have to say. And I firmly believed that for about twenty years. I thank God that He convinced me otherwise!
After I graduated from my Masters degree programme, I again heard God telling me about going to a Bible school, and He pointed me to a discipleship training course in Amsterdam. While I was there, I was transformed by God’s wondrous love in new ways. By seeking the Lord and pursuing Him more closely, I learned and developed a lot, both in my faith and in my identity. God opened my eyes to more of the beauty of His character and nature, and as a result my relationship with Him deepened. I began to realise that I had allowed myself to be chained by lies and silenced for too long. I surrendered myself to the hands of the almighty God, and He liberated me from the shackles of the past. Little by little, as God called me closer to Him, I put down my old chains and replaced them with His loving embrace. I slowly realised that I had a strong desire to share all that I was learning. And I realised that because God was with me, I would never need to pick up those chains again.
But whilst I was hearing God’s voice, I also heard that old familiar voice in my mind; a voice that sought to rob me of the progress that I had made with God.
But public speaking is not your strength. You’re not very artistic either, and you can’t write very well. It’s best you keep it to yourself.
And so the voice kept echoing in my head, until one day God asked me a simple question:
‘WHAT’S THE WORST THAT COULD HAPPEN?’
I immediately thought of every possible thing that could go wrong. My conversation with God went something like this:
“What if I freeze and I’m not able to say anything?”
‘WHAT IF YOU DON’T?’
“What if I say something wrong?”
‘WHAT IF YOU DON’T?’
“What if what I have to say is something everyone already knows?”
‘WHAT IF IT ISN’T?’
“What if someone else can say it better than I can?”
“BUT I WANT YOU TO DO IT.”
“But I can’t!”
‘WHO TOLD YOU THAT?’
“Well, I’m a shy person. I’m an introvert. Public speaking is not my strength. I’m not very artistic either, and I can’t write very well.”
‘WHO TOLD YOU THAT?’
I slowly considered that question and it finally dawned on me. This was a lie I had been telling myself for the last twenty-odd years of my life.
I was speechless.
‘I AM YOUR CREATOR, AND I KNOW YOU BEST. I KNOW YOU CAN DO THIS, AND I AM WITH YOU! JUST DO IT!’
“Ok, I’ll do it.”
And I did. I shared. And I did it again. And again. And again. It was something I could do.
God opened doors for me to share testimonies and preach while I was on outreach. I took some opportunities to preach when I was a part of a christian university ministry in Maastricht. He emboldened me to walk up to people and initiate conversations rather than shy away from them like I used to before. A year later, I learned that I had a passion for painting. God inspired my husband and I to write several bible study devotional series which are published on our blog three times a week.
God had prepared me for what He wanted to do through me over the many years leading up to when He finally gave me the little nudge I needed. He made me a good listener. He taught me. He helped me grow in ways that I could only understand in hindsight. He took me to the places where He wanted me to be. He broke all the lies I had been telling myself and He set me free. He carried me as I dived into what He was calling me to do. And in response, I stepped up.
Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14 (ESV)
God taught me to be present. He took me to different places and showed me I was needed. I initially brushed it off by thinking that others could do the task better than I could, and so I wasn’t needed. Whilst others have their own skills, in that moment, God had brought me to specific places to show me that I was needed and could serve Him just fine as I am. Regardless of whether others could do it better or not, this was something God wanted me to do. And so, if I could be where God was calling me to be, irrespective of whether I thought I was capable of speaking out or not, I was present and willing to follow His leading.
How did this look practically? First, I found myself saying yes to doing a lot of things I normally would have avoided.
‘Would you like to help organise this event?’ “Sure!”
‘Would you like to go on a mission trip?’ “Yes!”
‘Would someone like to share a testimony?’ “Yes!”
Over time, this made me realise that I was right where God wanted me to be in order for me to agree to doing these things. Others were asked these questions as well, and while most of them were much more experienced than I was, God wanted me to be a part of what He was doing in that moment. And so I learned to be present.
God taught me to be patient. The preparation for what God wanted me to do involved a lot of ups and downs. I had a lot to learn. I had made many mistakes. There were times when I wanted to jump right in without giving the task a second thought.
Often, I was discouraged and sometimes I was even embarrassed. But God used these moments of preparation as stepping stones to help me grow. He taught me to trust in Him and to wait for Him. God knows what He’s doing, and all the experiences He walked me through were leading me to what He was calling me to do.
One such example was last year, when I was gaining the confidence to teach and preach. I began to look for every opportunity I could to do so. But certain circumstances arose that resulted in me not being able to share what God was doing in my life in the ways I was familiar with. While I was initially restless, God reminded me that I was right where He wanted me to be. And so I waited patiently. I was able to use my time of waiting to learn more and to go deeper into studying the Bible. After a few months, God inspired my husband and I to share all that He had been teaching us through a blog, enabling us to develop bible study resources for others. God used my time of preparation to open up a new avenue that allowed me to share in a different way to what I was used to.
And finally, God taught me to be persistent. My attempts to do what God was telling me to do sometimes didn’t go as smoothly as I had hoped. Often, I was tempted to throw in the towel and metaphorically hide under a rock. But God reminded me to be strong. Not act strong, but be strong. That meant recognising my weakness and finding my strength in God. Let your heart take courage, the Psalmist writes. The best and only place we can truly find courage is when we seek courage from God. In God’s strength, we pick ourselves up and try again, and again, and again. When opportunity knocks, I will open each door in God’s strength. Even if there are obstacles in my way, I know God is with me.
This was something God taught me especially when it came to sharing the Gospel with others. While I had been able to have really good conversations with people and was able to get to know them better, more often than not, the gospel message that I was sharing fell on deaf ears. I often wondered whether I was doing something wrong. Be strong, God would say, and let your heart take courage. What did that mean? I knew I wasn’t as shy as I was before; I could muster up enough confidence to talk to people even when I felt like I had failed. And then I realised it had to do more with what I was saying. This was my weakness – I was relying on my own understanding and ideas of the people I was talking to. But God knew them much better than I did; God knew what they needed to hear. And so me being strong and taking courage didn’t mean that I acted like I knew what I was doing, but rather it meant that I had to let go of my assumptions and rely on God’s knowledge and wisdom to know what to say. And so God helped me be persistent, enabling me to practice listening to His voice more and more.
When I allowed God to work in and through me, He took me to places I never thought I would visit, and presented me with opportunities to speak and write publicly that I never would have dreamed of. He took me from a place of believing that I couldn’t do it, because I was limited by the lies of the past, to a place where anything is possible, because God is with me. In God and with God, there are truly no limits.
And so here I am, not locked up in a lab somewhere, but instead, openly sharing this experience with you. There were so many things I had convinced myself that I couldn’t do. But God knew better. He knows better. He created me after all.
And He created you too! And He knows you. There are no limits to what God can do through you. So just do it! I urge you not to be limited by the lies of the past, or the feelings that you are not good enough to share the gospel. God can and will use you to advance His kingdom if you will be bold enough to follow His leading. When God is in it there is no limit.
God Bless,
Ashna.
Ashna Gurbutt, who hails from India, has a passion for sharing the Gospel and encouraging others to use the gifts they have to do the same. She currently runs a devotionals and resources blog, House of Mercy, with her husband, Thomas Gurbutt.
I’m not a very patient person, when I want something done, I want it done! Waiting has never been easy for me, and God gave me Bruno, my beloved husband who tests my patience all the time. His motto is: why should I do it today if I can do it tomorrow?
When I ask him to do something, as an impatient woman, I want him to do it right away but Bruno, being Bruno, always leaves it and does it later. For instance, last year, Bruno had the idea of buying a bike rack, he said that it would make our garage more organized and he was right, it would. I was against this at the beginning because I knew he wouldn’t install right away and it would be just one more thing piled in the corner just waiting to be installed.
However, one thing I can always rely on is that he will do it. I never know when, but he always does. Sometimes I get so impatient that I prefer doing it myself, but if I just waited my control off, for sure Bruno would do it.
What about with God? When you ask God something but you don’t hear His answer for some time, right then, are you a patient or impatient person?
When you search for the word “faith”, the first definition that appears is: “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” However, in the Bible you can also find a perfect definition of Faith in Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
For me, faith is the confidence that God will always do the best for his children, even when we do not know what the best is. Through Jesus, we became children of God and even if a mother forsakes her children, God will never forsake us.
Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
But the waiting period, for us, the impatient, it is so hard. We have to wait with the conviction that God has the best. With Faith.
Waiting on a promise
There are two different stories in the Bible with two different paths that lead to the same thing ~the fulfillment of God’s promise.
First, there is Abraham. God promised Abraham that he would be a father to many nations. He promised to give him a child even in his old age. Abraham and his wife Sarah were patient at the beginning, but after 10 years waiting, they lost patience and lost faith. They wanted to get things done themselves, and not just wait ‘blindly’ on God to fulfill His promise.
God did not take back his promise for their lack of faith and patience, He instead started a new covenant with them. He included all the children of Abraham in the covenant, and from them the nations were formed. However, as a consequence of their lack of faith and patience, the nations created by one father became enemies to each other. We need to remember that, God doesn’t need our help. He knows the plans He has for us, and all we must do is to trust in Him and wait on Him.
Then, there is Joseph. Joseph was the favorite son of his father Israel. When he was just a teenager, God gave him a dream and, on his dream, he would reign over his brothers. When he told this dream to his brothers, they got even more jealous and angry at him. They decided to sell him as a slave to the Ishmaelites and the Ishmaelites took him to Egypt and sold him to one of pharaoh’s officials. Joseph was promoted to be the leader of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. He ended up saving his brothers from starvation, the very brothers who sold him into slavery.
We see God’s promise being fulfilled in Joseph’s life. Joseph waited patiently on God, He knew the promise God had for him, and he knew that it would be fulfilled. Differently from Abraham, Joseph did not try to do things by himself. He was tested, he went through some trials, but he kept being faithful and trusted God. Are you like Abraham and Sarah, who gets impatient and tries to get things done by yourself? Or are you a Joseph, that waits and trusts God even when things are so difficult?
Waiting on God for an answer
But what about when we still need an answer?
I think that when we feel lost, with no answers, it is harder to wait on God. When we have a promise, we might not know exactly when it will be fulfilled, but we have an idea of what is coming and what to expect. However, when we don’t even know what to expect, what to do, where to go, and in the uncertainties, it takes more faith and trust to know that God will come through.
Paul, had to wait 3 days in blindness, for the answer that God would give through Ananias. But , let me get your attention! didn’t we read earlier, that God know the plans He has for us? That He wants us to prosper and to have a future? Isn’t that already a promise? An answer that confirms everything will be ok? When we read the Bible, we can find many promises that God has made for us.
Psalms 37:5-7 “Commit you way to the Lord; trust in him and He will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.”
Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[a] have been called according to his purpose.”
Reading through the Bible, God’s word is filled with many promises from the God the father to us His children. Therefore, know that you too have promises waiting to be fulfilled.
THE PERIOD OF WAITING CAN TAKE MUCH LONGER THAN YOU EXPECT
God never lies, when the period of waiting is too long and God’s promises has not been fulfilled yet, trust that He is only preparing the way.
We are God’s masterpiece. If an artist makes a masterpiece, he wants it to be showcased in the best gallery possible, even if the way to the gallery is longer, with holes and mud. He will take the most difficult path just to make sure his masterpiece is in the best place it could be. God also wants us to be in the best gallery possible, and sometimes, the way to this gallery is longer, muddy and with holes.
Remember, we need also to accept when God’s answer is “No” but also know that faith and trust increases when you have a good relationship with God. The closer you are to God, the easier it will be for you to be confident that He is working on your behalf.
I don’t know which season of life you are in right now, but I know that God has a plan for you. Even if it seems that He is silent, He is working on your behalf. When your wishes do not correspond to God’s plan, be rest assured and know that His plans are better.
Let’s get excited with the unknowing, waiting on God and knowing that He is in control
God bless,
Aline Lubascher
Aline Lubascher is a Brazilian woman who lives in Belgium with her husband for about 8 years now. She is passionate about the youth and has been a part of a Christian organization that hosted kids and teenage camps in Brazil. Now, together with her husband, she leads the University Ministry at Damascus Road International church in Maastricht.
Three weeks ago, my friend Annelies shared how her baby cries for milk and how she wants it then and immediately, and it is exactly what we do we our heavenly father.
We cry help Lord! When actually we needed the help yesterday and any wait longer drives us into worry. We are told several times to trust the promise keeper and way maker, but nobody tells us more about the waiting time.
It is easy to lose faith when it seems to take too long mostly in our eyes. Sometimes, we are so trouble and lose hope in it even happening.
I am here to encourage you that just like Annelies was ‘briefly’ in the kitchen making her daughter some milk, God is preparing something for you. It might mean that He may need to close many doors right in front of you, but keep the faith.
The promise keeper has promised, that’s all matters. Know that it will come to pass. This week’s guest blogs are all about waiting on God and how He is never late. You can walk in the confidence that God’s timing is the best and your testimony is coming.
In the book of Jeremiah 1:5, the word says, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” And in Jeremiah 29:11, the word says, For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. I would like to use those two scriptures to narrate my story.
On a cold January morning in 2009, I arrived at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands to join my husband who had secured a job in one of the International Organizations in the Hague. I remember it was a very cold Monday morning by all standards having lived all my life in Africa all my life. When I got out of the airport to step into the car, I thought to myself, wait a minute, have I just stepped into a cold factory?
A few minutes later, I arrived home to a warm house and started a new life with my one-year-old and husband. I remember struggling to adapt to the new weather and culture as everything was so different from what I was used to. All this time, my one-year-old daughter kept me sane and gave me good company during the day as my husband was working full time.
Interestingly, my daughter was very okay with the weather, she was always excited to go out to play. My husband loved his job and it kept him busy as well. This meant that I was now the only one who had to fit in! In 2010, I was blessed with another child and I got busier taking care of them with the help of an au pair.
In 2012 I decided to pursue an Advanced Master’s degree course in International law, and I can tell you for a fact that it was not a very difficult season. It was challenging for me because I had a small family to take care of and the education system was quite different than what I was used to.
After my master’s program, I did three internships, two with international organizations. It was while doing these internships that I had so much hope that I will be employed but unfortunately, I was not able to secure a job during and after the internship period. This went on for years and I felt so hopeless and frustrated.
Faith in God
In terms of my faith in Christ, I was getting profoundly serious and deep in the word of God and despite all. I was convinced without a doubt that HE was doing great things in my life. One day it was while listening to God’s message, I was reminded by the Holy Spirit that I was focusing on doors that God had purposely closed for me since they were not in the plans that He had for me!
I had struggled and stressed myself to get a job at one of the International organizations but that was not the plan that God had for me. After listening to that message, I decided to arise and shine in the area that God later showed me. This is the same time I met a friend of mine at church who had similar challenges to mine. A graduate with no job. She was also a Kenyan and a neighbor, this was such an encouragement to me, such that we related in so many similar ways and motivated each other.
We met severally, and we decided to empower ourselves and other women in a similar situation like ours. We started a business together and formed an investment group and through the group, we empowered eight other women to own property in Kenya.
From all these experiences, I have learnt a lot and grown spiritually, socially, and economically. I have grown my businesses and I have been able to employ a few people too. I know there are so many uncertainties around and I share my story with the hope that it empowers you the reader. I would like to encourage anyone out there who is feeling discouraged especially during this time of the pandemic. God loves you and cares for you so much.
Keep trusting in HIM and HE will reveal to you the plans HE has for you. HE will give you everything you ask of him, according to his riches in glory. God is never late!
AMEN!
Betty.
Betty is a Kenyan lady living in the Hague with her husband and two beautiful daughters. She is a lawyer who runs several businesses and a board member for various investment organizations. When she is not at her restaurant in the heart of the Hague city or with her family, you will find her rallying up women and motivating them to take the lead in investment opportunities and be the narrators in their own life stories.
Do you know what is the cognitive basis for some of your emotions?
Emotion is the way our brain makes meaning out of what we are experiencing. Emotions are an important part of of us and they can push us towards positive or negative actions.
They can motivate us to be zealous for God and to rebuke injustice by having a righteous anger. When we take anger as an example, God is more concerned about the thinking behind our anger than about the fact that we are experiencing anger.
Question is, are we showing appropriate emotion at the appropriate time? Are you the type that sees sin or injustice and you do not get angry? When we do this, we are actually failing to show appropriate righteous negative emotions when it is needed.
May the Holly Spirit generate God’s emotions in us so that we can we express them in ways that are building other people up. Remember, we don’t have to suppress our negative emotions, our duty is to bring them to God as raw as they are because truth is, God experiences these emotions too. So, its ok to bring your fears to God.
Becky Castle Miller serves on the pastoral staff at Damascus Road International Church. She just graduated from seminary and is finishing her thesis on emotions in Christian discipleship. She is the author of the workbooks Following King Jesus and Teaching Romans Backwards. She and her husband have five kids and two cats.
Have you been wondering whether God can use you? Do you know that God wants to use you the way you are, unqualified?. Share your story and testimony as is. God’s word is alive and strong enough to stand on its own.
1st of all, like I mentioned before ~I am an introvert who only shares things she is passionate about when need be. I have shared about my faith face to face, also led bible studies as well as give sermons. However, sharing videos is way out of my comfort zone, but its like the doors have been open and I am not going silent any time soon by God’s grace, because He keeps being faithful.
So I gotta keep sharing of His mercies and goodness. I want to encourage you that even when you feel unqualified , remember how God used the unqualified in the bible to make Himself known. The woman at the well ran with just what Jesus had told her and testified in her city, she did not need one on one coaching with Jesus.
It is about being obedient and running with that. Run with God’s word as it is because, His word is alive and can back itself up. So study the bible and share His word as it is, do not try to add to it or strip anything. He is the way and we are just vessels being used as His hands and feet.
Start by sharing about what He has done or is doing in your life. Most of the times we complicate issues because we want to look qualified and fancy while He calls us to go as we are because He is the one doing the work in us and through us by the help of the Holly Spirit.
