God is wise. Indeed He is wise and knows all things. When He asks us to do something, He does it because He knows better than we do; He knows the reason as to why He needs us to do the thing which He has asked us to do.

Last month, God spoke to me about my pace and pointed out to me that I needed to slow down. Of course, He has been trying to get me to slow down for some long time now, that is, with respect to writing this blog and other areas of my life and just – be still and know that He is God.

Recently, however, His voice has been echoing more and more louder – over this slowing down matter – than before; and I perceive it is because it has been accompanied with a series of delays in various areas of my life.

Slowing down has not been easy for me to say the least, but I have learnt some important lessons from it, mainly: to breathe in, to listen, and to obey.

You see, if you are used to being in a state of haste, you barely get time to pause, to breathe slowly, to reflect, and to LISTEN. You are constantly in a rush for the next assignment, the next blog post, the next thing to be done. Subsequently, life becomes a madhouse of toing and froing with little or no time of rest, listening and waiting on the Lord.

How I know for a fact that it has been God’s hand on this whole matter of slowing down is because He has been using the story of Lazarus and his two sisters to speak through to my situation. Moreover, adding to the fact that I was gifted a book titled: Rest and wait patiently for the Lord by the author of the book himself earlier this month out of the most curious circumstances; again, which is not a coincidence considering a core part of the message in the book revolves around the Martha-like attitude of restlessness and much distraction.

In fact, the author puts it somewhat in this way – and I am paraphrasing here – confusion of priorities is to be overly concerned and busy with important things that could be done at a later time which resultantly brings about much weariness to the Christian.

Now, that was Martha, and that was me as well a little over a month ago: “But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.””

This month of April I have recognized that I have been busying myself with much writing, much this, that, and the other, that I have forgotten the most important thing which is: to sit at the Lord’s feet.

In the course of my service, I have gathered little habits that have been proving harmful to my Christian journey/spiritual journey as I normally prefer to put it; habits like: irritation, impatience and indiscipline. And it is during this slow-paced time that I have seen myself more clearly.

I have watched myself snap at a fire that took time to light up, get irritated at a sister who – in one of our conversations – needed further clarification on some details, a stranger who couldn’t seem to get the directions to a place tout suite; I have watched myself reason myself out of my devotions and other necessary disciplines which are much needed for my spiritual walk. I have watched myself procrastinate instructions to do something because I was ‘writing for the Lord’ and so many other things I have watched myself do. These, my friends, are what Solomon called: the little foxes that spoil the vine.

Jesus on the other hand, has been calling me to put on hold any further serving for now and just sit at His feet – listening to Him. Again, it has not been easy but I will confess that it has been necessary as well as a relief because I would never have registered or even conceived the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual exhaustion I was carrying around.

Character tests expose to us so clearly what truly lies on the inside – especially if we are willing to see it. What it is with us however, is that we are terribly blind to our overbusy nature even when God tries to bring it to the surface of our consciences; reason being, we are usually too busy with serving and ‘working to please Jesus’ not perceiving that we could be in danger of falling into the trap of pleasing our own selves after all; we are too much preoccupied with service to spot those little foxes. Thus, we go on by convincing ourselves that God needs us more in the fields of planting and harvesting than at His feet. Which is untrue because Jesus’ response to Martha’s complaint was:

“Martha, Martha, you are concerned, anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needful: and Mary has chosen that good part, which shall not be taken from her.”

One thing is needful: to listen to Jesus and learn from Him. Notice that Jesus did not rebuke Martha for her service or imply that she was wasting her time, He only said that Martha was preoccupied with something important but less needful.

Last week, I attended a two-day Christian conference and in that conference, I learnt many things but one thing really stuck out for me: obedience to God is the ONLY true success in this life.

I went home meditating on those words and I have been meditating on them even to this minute. Those few words made me realize that I could be preoccupied with much washing of people’s feet – that is: service – having not primarily been at the feet of Jesus or even obeyed the least of His instructions.

And I can confirm to you for a fact that these laborious engagements for the Lord are one of those sly and deceptive tactics that the devil has been using to beguile God’s people today. We Christians have been busy and wearing ourselves out working for the ten and five crowns to be received in the kingdom to come with little or no obedience to God which in the end will be tantamount to zero-work, effort and time wastage (fruitlessness).

Friends, I find this matter to be an extremely serious one. Solomon built the most exquisite, ornate, glorious and most stunning building this world will ever see: the temple of God. There has never been a building like unto it to-date in terms of physical glory, splendor and opulence since Adam. Yet, God said of it that if His people disobeyed Him, the temple would be destroyed. He said He would cast it out of His sight and would make it a proverb and a byword among all nations.

And God did just that because the people of Israel disobeyed; not a brick of it was left one upon another – even to tell the tale.

Now, what shall it profit me to build a magnificent house for the Lord, one that even men behold with the eye (big ministries helping people with various needs or reaching thousands of lost souls) and it all suffer loss by fire in the end?

1 Corinthians 3

13 Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
14 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

Child-like obedience to Jesus is the driving force I want as the foundation for this blog going forward. In this one month that I have obeyed His instruction to slow down, I have learnt that child-like obedience (especially in the seemingly little things) is the secret to true success in any ministry, and a close and intimate relationship with God.

Sure, I have slowed down, but I couldn’t be more thankful to God for revealing this precious gem of truth to me; blessing me with this timely word especially now during these defiant and disobedient times of our generation.

My only prayer now, going forward, is that I do not use the slow writing pace as an excuse for slothfulness and inactivity, but rather, I would dig my heels more deeper into His word to know Him – the King of Heaven and of my heart – much more intimately than I did last month and last week, and to live in obedience to Him – especially in the small things – daily.

Amen.

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Okay… Let’s just be honest, whenever most people hear anything about religion, their first reaction and instinct is probably to cringe or brush off the whole matter entirely.

Why? Most likely because it is a subject that is associated with extreme cases of fanaticism, it brings about a lot of conflicts and controversies, and even offends easily.

Religion is famously known for: manipulation, stagnation, repression, ignorance, bigotry and is too often a threat to liberty. And rightly so. I do agree. With that said, I recommend you to read two of my posts as well as encourage you to do a personal, extensive, and honest research on your own regarding this matter. Why?

As intellectuals (critical thinkers), I believe we owe it to ourselves to interrogate, examine, and ask hard questions regarding matters touching on faith rather than choosing to ignore them or even worse— follow blind faith. Click here for the first post.

Who speaks the truth with regards to a genuine, sincere and true relationship with God? Is it Buddha? Muhammad? Jesus? Zoroaster? Confucius? Joseph Smith? Guru Nanak? Krishna? Among others? Find out on this second post:

My heart overflows with a goodly matter; I speak the things which I have made touching the king: My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Psalms 45:1

Thank you for reading this blog. Feel free to share it with others whenever and wherever.🙂

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