Rejection is just God's redirection

I just want to remind you to always rememeber the Lord. Remember Him when things are good and remember Him when things are bad.
One valuable lesson I learnt last year was "Rejection is just God's REdirection." I promise you, if you hold onto Jesus with a death grip NO MATTER the situation, He will turn it around for your good. Don't mourn too long over the job that rejected you, or the door that slammed shut in your face, or the loved one that rejected you. God will turn EVERY disappointment around for your good (Romans 8:28).

Notable people who have been rejected in history:

• Albert Einstein was labelled mentally retarded. Parents and teachers thought that he had a low IQ.  They wrote him off. They rejected him. Einstein became the world's most influential scientist and philosopher in the world.

• Walt Disney:  Described as unimaginative and uncreative.  I'm not even going to get into much detail with his story. I just have one word for you: Mickey Mouse

• Harland David Sanders: Perhaps better known as Colonel Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Sanders had a hard time selling his chicken at first. In fact, his famous secret chicken recipe was rejected 1,009 times before a restaurant accepted it.

• Joseph: Rejected by his very own flesh and blood. Sold into slavery by his own brothers and thrown into an Egyptian cell. He rose from slave to Governor of Egypt

• Jesus Christ: Rejected by Jewish society, ridiculed by family members, betrayed by close,intimate friends is today the Prince of Peace, Seated on the Right Hand of God, Ancient of Days, the King of Glory, and the list goes on.

• You: We will  allow history to write this part for you.

It's not easy being young, female and Christian

Hmm...I'm sure many of you can relate to the blog title above : "It's not easy being young, female and Christian." I'm just lying awake in bed knowing that I have to wake up at 6 a.m. to get ready to do kids church only to return to finish off my essay. But I can't sleep and the only thing going through my mind is "God! I can't keep up with this pace.What's a girl to do?!" As, I roll over in my bed, I hear the Lord whisper softly, "It is I that have everything under control."  I love when God speaks, something overwhelming takes over deep inside your soul and at that moment you just know God will do ALL that He said He will do for you.
The scripture says thus : "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace."
I've come to appreciate the fact that being a christian girl in my early twenties just isn't easy. Men, please note that I'm sure it's hard for you all too - but I'm not entitled to speak on your behalf. I do know that for us women it is a challenge.
Since it's the final year of law school, I have to make sure I steer clear of anxiety attacks. These often try and come when you know that the school year will draw nearer than you think and you still do not know where you will be next September. The stakes of marriage straight after college are slim, you are averaging at a grade average of a 2.2 and your work experience is limited. On top of that your "uber" conservative parents don't feel it's acceptable for a christian girl to live outside the home before she is married. So, you are stuck in a bit of a rut.
Like, I said it's not easy being, young, female and Christian.

I know so many of you reading this can relate to at least one or even all of the above scenarios I just listed but before I sleep I just wanted to leave some encouraging words from the Holy Spirit.

• Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully. 1 Peter 5:7 (AMP)

• Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Isaiah 41:10

This last one is one of my favourites.

• Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”  Isaiah 30:21

 

 

 

 

 

 

A great drink for Christian Women.

I don't understand what has been going on these past few days but ever since I read the following scripture, a lot questions I had about life and christianity have begun to be answered.

Isaiah 55: 1-2 “Come, all you who are thirsty,  come to the waters;...why spend money on what is not bread and your labour that does not satisfy?"

For years, I had been searching for life's answers and what my purpose on earth was.  For a good few years even though I have been saved, I feel like I've been in this wilderness; but not quiet sure what I am doing but DEFINETLY searching for SOMETHING. I was searching for that thing that would truly give me everlasting peace and security. I was stretching my hand out for anything that could deal with the unhappiness and emotional torment I was encountering during my teen years and up until recently actually.
Have you ever drunk so much alcohol just so that you could  forget about your current situation? Or have you ever engaged in illicit sex with multiple partners in order for you to have that "void" in your heart filled? Even if it's just for a couple of hours. Maybe for some of you it's overeating or overspending, just so that you can feel better about yourself. You think that if you could just purchase the latest pair of shoes then life will be alright. Right? No, wrong!

But like anything else, all these things give us a great "high" but the crash is horrible. When these wordly things begin to wear off, we tend end up feeling 10 times worse than we did. How come? The reason being is that God did not create us to seek satisfaction in immorality or overindulgence, he created us to find fulfillment in His son Jesus and Him alone.
This revelation came to me the other day after reading the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman. I won't go into too much detail here but I could really relate to this biblical icon.  This was a woman who had put her trust in relationship after relationship, only to receive heartache and pain but here was Jesus offering her something so much more.  This woman had been thirsting for true love, for someone to truly love her for the woman of God she was ordained to be. She kept on dipping her bucket in the wrong waters.

“Everyone who drinks this water [wordly things] will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4

So, was God telling me that as long as I continued to look for worth and satisfaction in relationships, drink, fashion, etc I would never be satisfied or at peace? Wow! This was a mind blowing revelation to me. God needs to be our source for everything. Women of God we are continually putting ourselves through pain and abuse if we do not stop to put Jesus as our centre. I am guilty of this but I am making progress in my walk with God.
How naive I've been! All these years I've been trying to find satisfaction in dating, my clothes, parties and even doing "christian stuff" - I never once understood that my needs had to be met through Him.  Sisters in Christ, our thirst for life in abundance can only come if we draw near and drink from the Spring of Living Waters.

“My people have committed two sins:  They have forsaken me,  the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,  broken cisterns that cannot hold water"  Jeremiah 2:13

I have to be honest with readers right now. For a while I thought I was already a failure in my short life of 22 years.  These thoughts were not of God, however I am learning to be in tune with His Spirit.  Yes, those "cisterns", those things of this world which I thought could give me a sense of accomplishment couldn't hold all that God had for me - they were things that failed me. I am not the failure.


In the words of Stacie Orrico: "There's got to be more to life than chasing down every temporary high to satisfy me" - the lyricist put it so well. Yes, there is more to life and that's how Jesus intended our lives to be. Fulfilled in Him.
Lets drink from His Springs of Living Water.

In Christ

Chizor.

Chizor reconciles with Germany

Seriously, I feel like Julia Roberts in the movie Eat, Pray, Love. I've just come back from visiting my  2nd country this year which was Germany and I have a deep hunger to travel a lot more.

Some of you do not know much about my past in Germany and  all the things that I encountered whilst there. My parents moved to Germany in 2000 from my beloved homeland England, we moved to a little town called Dietzenbach just outside the city of Frankfurt. I did not take the move so well, partly due to the fact that I was 12 years old and I could not speak a word of the language. It was difficult living in a foreign country but I soon learnt the language and began to fit in with the locals. My ultimate desire was to fit in and not to be different. Well, my skin colour wasn't helping. Not to go into much detail but my life was filled with substance abuse, multiple relationships and basically anything ungodly that I could get my hands on.

I left Germany in 2004.

Last weekend was the first time I had been back in 6 years. This time I went back as a Christian.

To be honest, I really enjoyed myself. It brought back memories; both good and bad but I'm really glad I went. It was time to relax, eat good German pork, practice my linguistic skills (which by the way are impeccable) and catch up with old friends.

One of the friends I was able to meet was Rachel. We we're friends from the age of 14 back in Germany and let's just say "skiving school" was one of our fondest past times. NOT!  To cut a long story short, we were bad teenagers  at the rebelling stage.Anyway, seeing Rachel for the first time really had an affect on me. She was a beautiful as ever (that's what you get when you are of part Togolese/Jewish/German ancestry) but you could definetly see a change in both of our maturity.
What touched me the most was when Rachel began telling me that she had begun attending church and she had been reading through the bible step by step. I almost fell off the chair when I heard this. Here we are 6 years later and for the first time in all of our friendship we are talking about God and religion.  I couldn't believe it that she was on the search for God. She was also very curious to know what had caused me to become a Christian (I was wild and crazy back then) all of sudden.  This was an awesome opportunity to share my testimony and so there we were both in a bar and I was sharing my experiences with God over the past few years. 

If that's the only reason I went to Germany then I am more than satisfied.
Going back to Germany as a Christian really gave me a different perspective. I no longer needed to bare the burden of my shame and reproach, I could walk through the streets of Frankfurt with a "Garment of Praise".