Trusting God: Some lessons will never end

A few things I’m learning about Trusting God:

• Nobody is born knowing to put our trust in another person. We learn it based on the reliability of the person as shown over time and through various experiences. A newborn knows to turn his/her head a particular way with an open searching mouth because the baby knows the direction of breast milk through an established pattern. And the baby also grows to know that s/he will get a response to his/her cries; often the louder, the more likely attention will be given to him/her.

• I’m never going to reach a stage in my life where I’m not required to choose to trust God. Indeed, I’m going to have to decide NOW to rely on God, whatever comes my way in the future.

• I’m required to trust God even though I don’t know what the next step will be. In fact, I’m to trust God for the next step! Proverbs 3:5-6.
  

• Choosing to trust God, in the face of the unknown increases my faith because I rely on the Unseen yet Dependable One.

• Periods of Trust- There will be different times at which each situation will require a deeper reliance on God.

• There will always be times of waiting before I see physically what I am hoping for. What or who I decide to believe and to decide to do during those seasons of waiting is up to me.

• Degree of Trust - There will different things for which I’ll have to trust God. Some will require greater faith, more inner wrestling with God than others. Others will require ‘blind faith,’ in the sense that you don’t see the future or the expected results but you know God and what He has said concerning you and the situation. But the point is, whatever degree to which I need to trust, I need to put my hopes in God, the LORD.

• Just as there will be different things for which I’ll have to trust God; so will everyone but the specifics will differ. Some will have to trust God for a child in the midst of fertility challenges, while others will have to trust God for a spouse after many years of waiting. There are others will have to trust God for the salvation of a lost daughter, another for spiritual deliverance and yet another for physical healing. Some for day to day meals or housing as they battle poverty, adoptive parents for a child, for a job in a shaky economy, for a marriage or a relationship to be restored, a teenager gone missing and needs to be found… the list is endless.

You get the picture? We all walk different life paths but it is the same One God who powerfully and lovingly works in, for and through us to display His Glory.

So… what are your needs, your desires or concerns? You can turn to God, who wants to be gracious to you.

And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
Psalm 9:10- ESV

In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Isaiah 25: 9- NIV

Digging deeper,
Lady Akofa.

Only in Ghana! MJ Wafer

So, so, so.... One of our lovely moms gave this to me in church last Sunday. She is always giving small gifts to people at Sunday services. I was so amused to see the label: Michael Jackson's initials and an image of him moonwalking. Hehehe! And yes, that's a made-in-Ghana product.

I have yet to eat it though.

God bless ya,
Lady Akofa.

Service is the call for all leaders; not squabbles!

Ah! Who am I that I should even stand before these big, big people, eh? I recently had a bit of epiphany and I just had to share to our African leaders, specifically these 3 groups of people: politicians, traditional chiefs and religious leaders, especially Christian leaders who should know better!

There is a deep sense of pride and power that potentially comes with “rising to the top.” There is a lot at stake, lots of people looking up to you as a leader and lots to be done. May God grant our leaders grace.

When leaders are blinded by long-drawn out disagreements, they seem to lose sight of the very character traits that got them to the “top,” --- humility, teachablity and accountability. They forget the inherent call of a leader is SERVICE.

Such blinded leaders hold on to their pride, unrealistic expectations and hurts in their squabbles. It’s a shame that some of our leaders have been so blinded by “self-rights” that they cannot serve the people they had promised/pledged to serve when they took up “post.” No wonder development, growth and success so often eludes us in Africa.

It’s time to pray for these leaders to uproot bitterness from their hearts and lives, to completely forgive and reconcile so that they can really focus on what really matters.

Jesus Christ refused to be entangled by the traps of the Pharisees and Sadducees because He wanted to accomplish His ONE GOAL: the salvation of people like me! Amen!

Praying for African leaders,
Lady Akofa.