Stop Fighting
- The Room Experience TRME
- Aug 25, 2018
- 5 min read
Entry 38
Anchor Verse:
He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might…
Author’s Note:
This entry is dedicated –
To you, Deborah Makinde: Thank you for being the Big Sis that I hope you’ll always be, even though I know you might not want to.
And to you, May, my one true love: I sincerely hope you will yield everything, past and all, to God. He is “crazy” in love with you. I do love you too, sincerely.
Hello friends,
I know it has been a long time since I updated this diary, and I’m really sorry for that. I have been so occupied with “serving” the nation that I have barely had time for myself, and in between, I have been to a NYSC orientation camp and survived it in spite of the odds, I have stood directly before the executive governor of a state, to pay military compliments (lol 😂😎), I have lived in a state NCCF family house and experienced how life is there, I have participated in a rural rugged evangelism and seen how souls are dying without the knowledge of the love of God, I have been “rejected” at a PPA, I have accepted a relocation to another state and I have experienced firsthand how expensive life is in Lagos! (Transportation in Lagos is not beans at all). However, through all of these, I have discovered that no matter how hard man tries to orchestrate his own steps in life, God has a way of eventually turning everything around to align with His sovereign will.
Several months ago, in the final stages of my undergraduate life to be precise, I had a hike-date with a very good friend and classmate. Towards the end of our long walk, we decided to “branch” at the university’s chapel to have a few minutes of prayer. While we were praying, Deborah (that is her name) received a “word” for me. The bane of the divine message is in Psalms 147:10-11 –
He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love.
This message came at a time I believed I needed it most. It came at a time when I was struggling with the various responsibilities on my shoulders and trying to devise ways through which I can effectively surmount the challenges these responsibilities were throwing in my path.
By the time our little prayer session ended, I had learnt that when God, in the Bible, said “cast all your cares upon me”, He really meant “CAST ALL YOUR CARES UPON ME”.
God as our maker knows how far our human strength can go. He is aware of how long we can survive without His fatherly love and the salient truth is – we cannot survive for long without Him. In fact, we cannot survive at all. It takes mere seconds before life becomes a mess around us when we do not have the backing of the Creator of life Himself. And as a result of this, God wants us to fully rely on His love. He wants us to depend on His unfailing provisions for us. He is always sad when we try to rely on our own strength and in the fleeting works of our hands because He knows that these things cannot outlast the vicious tests of time. On the other hand, He take extreme pleasure in those who trust Him with all their worries because in the lives of this set of people, He is able to exercise His love and power to perfection.
Personally, one mistake I have always made is trying to always comprehend situations with my own human logic and seeking ways to proffer solutions to challenges all by myself. And on the other hand, one lesson God has never stopped teaching me is the truth that He does not need my help to take care of me; I am His responsibility and His alone: I do not even belong to myself, and so, only He has the wisdom to know what is best for me and the power to bring that ‘best’ to fruition.
So, God used Debbie to remind me then, as He is using the memory of that fateful night to assure me now that I am always the loser when I try to work things out with my own mortal wisdom. One truth is, when we try to shy away from God’s love in favour of our own abilities, we are being proud. What we are trying to tell God is that “Hey, look here, I can handle this on my own, okay? Even though I really don’t understand what this is all about, I’ll find a way to figure it out. I can do this.” And such mindset can only bring the same thing that pride always brings – A Fall. A serious one. The clay cannot know more than the potter. The product cannot be wiser than its producer. We can never understand life and the techniques of successful living more that the One who created Existence in the first place.
Consequently, these trying days, my leading prayer has been that God should take control of every aspect of my life, with or without my full cooperation. This is because, oftentimes, our shortsighted wills tend to pose great challenges to God in His work of making all things work for us. It is no hidden truth that the most deadly war we will ever fight in life is the War-Within: battles we will fight against God over the control of our lives. We are most times our own deadliest enemies, due to our selfish pride and haughty mindsets. And so, even as I have been trying to fight my own battles lately (trust me, this is always a temptation), I have been asking the Holy Spirit consistently to break me and take all glory for Himself, because in trying to win the battles of life by myself, I do not want to end up being the loser.
Therefore, if you are out there and you are with the same tendencies to want to exist all by yourself without God’s help, my message to you is this – You Will Fail. Yes, you will, unless you yield everything to God. God is ever ready to be the Father that He wants to be to us. He is ever willing to envelope us in the cocoon of His unfailing love…only if we are willing to let Him.
So, stop fighting. Let God do your fightings for you. And then, start winning.
Prayer:
Abba, you are the Father of Lights.
Let the Light of Your Love shine on the dark parts of our lives to reveal our weaknesses to us and to make us understand why we can never win without You.
And then, let the Love of Your Light help us yield everything we were, are and hope to be to the leading of Your immortal wisdom till we are fully exposed to the revelation that Victory exists only in You.
Help us love You with everything, Abba.
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