Day 5: Stand firm

Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[a]10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Sometimes, I don't feel like reading or coming to God or doing the things I know I should be doing to encourage believers and it gets hard. I feel like I am unworthy because i struggle with sin and I feel like who am I to be blogging anyway.. STOP! 

I am worthy because of Christ, I am forgiven because of Christ, I have an inheritance because of Christ and everything He did for me on Calvary over 2000 years ago, my whole identity is found in Christ who delivered me from every sin I've committed and will ever commit so why do I get these times of unworthiness? Its because I lose focus temporarily by focusing on other things such as my sin (this is a tactic of the enemy) instead of the one who overcame my sin! I need to keep focused and stay focused on Christ and his sacrifice for me and so do you! Hebrews 12:2. We cannot afford to keep taking our eyes off our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it makes us vulnerable to attack by the enemy. Stay firm in the faith of Jesus Christ, as believers we are all going through trials 1 Peter 5:9 but we CAN succeed through Christ. Let us remain firm in the faith in Jesus Christ as believers that He has washed all of our sins away and we are worthy purely because of His sacrifice. CHRIST IS ENOUGH! Stay focused on Him.

Be encouraged,

Jaleen x

P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Day 4 - Thanksgiving

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's 

will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

This letter in which this verse was given was for believers and gave them instruction on how to live and these believers were warned by Paul that the day of the Lord was coming but he tells them that it should not take them by surprise. Later on he tells the believers what God's will is for those in Christ Jesus which is shown in the verse above notice he tells us to rejoice always and to pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances this can be hard sometimes and we have rough days where we are genuinely feeling discouraged and these commands that seem simple when everything is going well in our eyes but become so hard to apply in the midst of trials, big decisions or non christian environments. So how can we do these things in these hard times? If we look at the following verses we need to fix our eyes on Jesus (see Hebrews 12: 1-2) when we fix our eyes on Jesus we begin to see people in a new perspective and when we submit to God we will find it easier to rejoice and be thankful and pray. We also need to be fixing our eyes on those things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable which is everything that God is (see Phillipians 4:8) and often in hard times we are focusing on the opposite of these things when we take our eyes off God and to the world and our focus becomes on those things which are false, ignoble, wrong, impure and horrible thoughts. When we fix our eyes upon God and realize our dependence on Him we truly can pray continually even by frequent small prayers throughout the day.

Disclaimer I really do recommend reading these verses in context to get the overall view and not just an out of context verse because these verses are aimed at specific people and situations sometimes and I really want you to understand what God is saying to you as you read each mini devotion.

Be encouraged

Jaleen x

Day 3 - Struggling

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives lifehas set you[a] free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2

This morning I was reading a devotional from an app on my phone and I felt to share what I read as it really spoke to me. It was talking about how powerful elephants are when they are fully grown yet it only takes a small rope to restrain one of these great creatures without the elephant even trying to break free. This happens because from the time the elephant is young he is tied to a large tree by a rope and no matter how hard it strains and pulls maybe for weeks or months the rope has such control over it the elephant gives up. 

And when it reaches its full strength and size, the elephant will not even try to get free it still believes it is still held captive and as if it can't break free. And isn't it the same with us? Satan uses the same trick to hold us captive. We have been freed by Jesus from sin if we truly are in Christ Jesus and walk according to the Spirit yet we can still feel bound. We need to fix our eyes on Christ and reflect on His sacrifice for us and how he took away all our sin if we truly want to be free. 

Be encouraged,

Jaleen 

Day 2 - The worries of tomorrow

Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.

Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34 (NIV)

At times throughout the day I find myself getting so caught up in daily life that I miss out on my quiet time with God and I'm running on the fumes of God's word. Its so easy to worry about all the things that need doing in daily lives and Jesus understands this, He understands how easy it is for us to get caught up in worrying about what we will eat and how much to eat and what it is best to eat and drink and everything that we must do tomorrow and in our human lives and he tells us in Matthew 6:25-34 not to worry. He tells us not to worry about these things because they are not very important and your salvation doesn't depend on what we eat or how healthy or unhealthy we are in what we eat or drink there are more deeper things we should be avoiding like sexual immorality see 1 Corinthians 6:13 You say, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. You may be thinking but how do I stop worrying its easier said than done! 

The answer is in Phillipians 4:6-7 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

The way to experience the peace of God is to pray to him he told us to present our requests to him. God is a loving God, he cares about us, he wants us to remain in contact with him which is why he tells us to pray in every situation. Let us therefore draw near to his throne with our prayers and requests not forgetting however to come with thanksgiving for all that He is and has already provided by his amazing grace for us in Christ Jesus. 

Be encouraged, 

Jaleen

P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Day 1 - Heed the warning

 "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9 (NIV)

Recently I was travelling in someone else's car and as we were travelling there were lots of signs and markers to show that there had been a diversion ahead due to roadworks or obstruction to the road but there were many signs and diversion routes that you had to obey to make it to the next clear road and avoid being stuck. I noticed that there was a long queue ahead where people had missed one of the signs and had failed to see the diversion sign and they had become stuck in traffic queues it became quite a mess. It reminded me immediately of a believers walk with Christ and convicted me of my own walk, often there are times where God will show us to do something which may seem small or unimportant to us he gives us warnings and we just ignore them and continue expecting to grow in our walk or for it to have no effect but the more we do this and continue ignoring these "small" things the bigger the consequences become. These things then become harder deal with and we may find ourselves becoming stuck in a bad situation all because we decided that our own way was better. Its time to heed the warning and turn to God, He knows better than what we know of ourselves (Matthew 10:30) and has our best interest at heart. I encourage whoever you may be to let go of your own will and surrender to God in whatever it is God is leading you to.

Pray this with me

"Lord I am fed up of going my own way in life and falling short of you. I just pray that you would forgive me of my sins and help me to walk in your way and for your blessed Spirit to guide me. Help me to surrender my will in all things and take up your will for my life instead of my own. Help me daily to carry my cross and follow you. In Jesus name I pray, Amen."
P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

My Testimony

I was bought up in a Christian household from the age of six. I never really worried about the way I looked until I started high school. As the oldest of six children I was the first to experience high school and I went to a high school in which i didn't know any people that came from my primary school so I had to make new friends. High school was a lot different from primary school and I felt like I had been thrown in at the deep end I didn't like high school at all. It started at 13 I started to worry about my appearance and noticed that I was different to most other girls my age and I became insecure as I compared myself to others I remember people would tease me for my height or other things and I wasn't like everyone else to make things worse I wanted so desperately to fit in. I was always quiet but this was different I became insecure and had low self esteem. I would always cover up the fact hat this made me miserable. Covering up became a habit and as time went on it started to develop into other things such as people pleasing. I tried to change myself but I couldn't ever find satisfaction in myself because I new how I really was and the emotions and worry I had. And the insecurity began to develop and ruin other areas of my life and I felt as though there was no hope and that no one cared about my life I felt worthless and hated myself and I just wanted to die. No one ever noticed this and probably would least expect this to be me because I always put on a front as if everything was fine when it wasn't.
I became dependent on people's approval to make me feel secure. This made me feel guilty and I began to try to seek God but I was still pleasing people and their approval and it gets to the point where you have to choose between the two. I felt as if I was divided between the two. Even though I would say I was a Christian there was no real relationship with God. At this time I remember I felt ashamed to tell people about God and was uncomfortable with people associating me with Jesus, looking back I think it was clear to say that I wanted to fit in with the crowd so I was putting people above God, I was afraid to be different.
As time progressed, I felt as if God had not given up on me and that there was hope and I really wanted to seek God for good this time and I think this was the start of God calling me to him I was reading God's word and praying frequently and I wasn't ashamed to. However, one thing that was wrong was that I was depending on my works to make me right with God and when I messed up I felt as if I was detached from God and I wasn't certain of my salvation and I was still trying to please people but just in a different way. It took a while but God in His grace enabled me to understand that Jesus had died for all my sins past, present and future. HE DIED FOR EVERY SIN AND HE DIED FOR ALL and yes that includes me and you who are reading this (See 1 John 2:2 and 2 Corinthians 5:15)  One verse that God revealed to me was Romans 6:14 "For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under the Law, but under grace." this does not mean that we continually try to sin (see Romans 6:15) but God will enable us and only with God's help and through prayer to free us from bondage to sin. I learnt that Christ's death did not just involve the physical pain of crucifixion but he had to endure mine and the world's sin! How could I then depend on myself instead of the sinless Savior who paid it all? If I was trying to get right with God with my own words I was saying that Jesus' death is not sufficient for me. I learnt that I needed to get whole before God and pour my heart out before him. I repented (turned away from my sin) and turn back to God through prayer acknowledging that I was helpless without him. I turned from self to a loving Savior who was patiently waiting for me to come to him all along.
I came as I was with all my fear, insecurity, helplessness and flaws to God who restored me to himself through Jesus his son which is not my own work but the gift of God called His grace (Ephesians 2:8) for which I am eternally grateful and I am not sharing this to say that I have become perfect because I still battle with sin daily but God helps me to overcome sin by remaining in him, it shows that if Christ can heal and restore a broken sinner like me to a right relationship with him and he can certainly do the same with YOU if YOU let him. And Christ's blood washes me and He will continue to work in me until I meet him face to face. (Phil. 1:6)

I hope this encourages someone
God bless you,
Jaleen 

Feel free to e-mail me about anything at j.obilaso@gmail.com :)
P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more

Pathway to Death

Hello hope you are all having a blessed Sunday!
I just wanted to talk about a few verses that God has placed on my mind recently and one that I looked up because it scared me quite a bit and I needed to understand it after reading one website in particular this is what I got. 
So the first verse was Proverbs 14: 12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. When I first read this I was scanning my head for all the things that are wrong in my life thinking what is God trying to say to me? So I decided to research the verse and found a commentary that spoke to me and also fit in with another verse that God has been showing me which is Galatians 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. 

If you look around today there are so many religious beliefs, doctrines, parties and interpretations of scripture with some being more popular than others. Just because its popular with man it does NOT mean that this is the way to life. The way to life is narrow and there are few that will make it into heaven. Matthew 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Notice the word FEW will find it, Jesus never says the way to heaven will be popular or many will enter the way he says FEW. So what is this way? How can we be sure that we are on the right path? Well if we read a few verses down. Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord." will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. The people who will make it into heaven will be those who are DOING the will of the Father in heaven. Are we DOING the will of God? seeking God's will is good but not on its own are we actually DOING his will to? I don't sit here condemning you but I'm convicted too, we need to make sure that we are DOING the will or God and pursuing it. Matthew 7:24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. Let's not lose sight of our calling and start practicing what Jesus taught us don't get distracted  by the popularity and distractions of other things which are irrelevant. Our lives need to be built on Jesus as the rock this involves repenting of sin and obeying all of his teaching this is the only way to eternal life any other foundation leads to death.

God Bless you, 

Jaleen

If you have any questions about the blog or how to come to Jesus please feel free to e-mail me at j.obilaso@gmail.com
P.S please check out this post if you want to become a Christian or know more