The story of the woman who’s jar of oil did not run dry as told to us in 1 Kings 17 is a reminder to us of the fact that God’s provision for us will not run out until the proper time, when the next provision is prepared. The land was experiencing a drought and God’s word to her through the prophet Elijah was that the jar of oil and flour would not run out until the day it rained.
Jesus tells us not to worry in Matthew 6 and says that each day has enough problems of it’s own. Therefore we should not worry about tomorrow because God’s provision for tomorrow will be there when we get there. This is a lesson worth remembering every now and then.
Wishing you a worry free week.
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I have never known that so called vegetable or seed oils are actually bad for your health. I’ve been watching all these videos about good health and supplements so my 2022 will be all about that. Starting with a resolution to switch to using ghee in my cooking. Ghee apparently has many health benefits like essential vitamins and minerals that are good for us.
This video especially impacted me where they talk about how, according to the their theory anyway, the side effects of the vegetable oils can include macular degeneration or vision loss. This is something that unfortunately my mother is currently dealing with and will probably have to undergo eye surgery this year.
As I get older, I’m getting more health conscious and so that’s my resolution for the new year. I wish you all a very healthy 2022.
These are the things that have been running through my head and I’m like end of the world, coming right up!
For those who are of like mind or maybe interested, I have been watching the prophecy update from this YouTube channel (link below) which I just stumbled upon recently. It’s a monthly update so it’s not too overwhelming but keeps you in that frame of mind that you need to be ready for the times we’re living in.
Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you and you will honor me. Psalms 50: 14-15.
I love this verse from Psalms 50. It reminds me not to complicate my relationship with God. So often we get into performance based relationship with God where we want to show Him how good we are and how much we’ve done. The Israelites had gotten into a sort of performance based sacrificing but God says in verse 9: I have no need of a bull from your stall. Do I eat the flesh of bulls?
In one of Jesus’ encounters, someone once asked Him, Teacher, what should we do that we may do the works of God? And Jesus answer was simple: Believe on the one whom He sent. God does not demand so much from us. He simply wants us to be thankful, fulfill our vows to Him, which I translate as being people of integrity who do what we say, and finally, in the day of trouble, call on Him. Simple formula.
One thing we have to realize is that God is not going to deliver us from every difficulty. He is not going to keep us from every challenge. If He did, we would never grow. The Scripture says, “Our faith is tried in the fire of affliction.” When you’re in a tough time, that’s an opportunity for your faith to shine. Anybody can get negative and bitter, blame God, or lose their passion. That’s easy.
But if you want to pass the test, if you want God to take you to a new level, you cannot be a weakling. You have to be a warrior. Dig your heels in and say as the apostle Paul, “I can handle it. I’m ready for it. I’m equal to it. I know God is still on the throne. He is fighting my battles, and on the other side of this difficulty is a new level of my destiny!”
I’ve had this song on replay lately and it includes the lyrics that your goodness is running after me and at some point I was tempted to feel like, well, that’s not true in my life though. Then I attended a bible study that reminded me of the caveat on this statement, which is that you have to keep God first in your life.
God is a good God of blessings but He is also a jealous God and a loving God. He doesn’t want to just load us with blessings that unfortunately then become a stumbling block for us to where our hearts are now set on the blessing rather than Him.
Jesus cautions us in the parable of the sower that pursuit of worldly cares and wealth can become thorns that choke the fruit of God’s word in our life. This is why we have to go through difficult times in our life every now and then. It builds up our character and refocuses us on what’s important.
The life we live on this earth is so fleeting. David in Psalms 39:6 says Surely everyone goes around like a mere phantom. In vain they rush about, heaping up wealth without knowing whose it will finally be.
I get worried especially in this age of voluntary yet compulsory vaccination where people are literally getting fired for refusing the jab, and I know I’m wading into a hornet’s nest here. People are giving up their good health for some temporary gain which is their job or some travel or some such thing.
The bible warns us not to rely on man but God. Isaiah 31 warns the Israelites who were relying on Egypt to win a war that it would be no help to them and that in the end those who help will stumble, those who are helped will fall; all will perish together. (Isaiah 31:3)
So we have, unfortunately, people taking the vaccine for their job then they still get fired because they get so sick that they can’t do the work. I read a sad story of an athlete who took the jab to go for the Olympics but once they arrived there, she tested positive for covid and so still could not participate.
My brothers and sisters, keep God first in your life and He will come through for you. Then you will see His goodness running after you.
But seriously, this is the fundamental lesson I have learnt so far in 2021. And I have learnt it by following the misadventures of one Clare Crawley. And who is Clare? Well, for those of you who don’t know, Clare was the bachelorette on the last season of the American bachelorette show, who did not finish her season because she fell head over heels for one contestant, Dale Moss, who is one super good looking guy if I do say so myself.
So in the words of Chris Harrison, the longtime host of the show, she ‘blew up’ the bachelorette’s carefully programmed formula, and left after about 3 or 4 weeks with her beau. Well, guess what? They have now broken up amid some scandal over whether did Dale cheat on Clare or not? I’ve always been suspicious of very good looking guys.
What has also been blown up or made very clear to me, is that the basic premise of this show where you supposedly ‘win’ yourself a husband or wife or true love or whatever, is flawed at it’s very root. Love can only be given under conditions of freedom. All the rules and close monitoring and games played by producers to give us viewers an entertaining show, cannot produce love, let alone any type of healthy relationship.
I much prefer another show of the same genre on Netflix, Love is Blind. The premise of this show is that the contestants can only talk to each other through a wall until they mutually make a decision that they feel a connection, at which point they must get engaged in order to meet face to face. I like the whole talking through a wall until a connection is made, but of course the producers had to put in a twist where the couple must get engaged, which is purely for entertainment purposes. I do not think it helps the couple at all.
However, in the first season of the Love is Blind show, they successfully hooked up about six couples. Two went ahead to get married and are still married to this day, two couples are still dating, and two of the couples broke up. I’ve not done the math but one season of Love is Blind compared to maybe 30 seasons of the Bachelor and Bachelorette. Love is Blind definitely has the better formula and better success rate.
So that’s all folks! You can win a billion dollars but you cannot win a person. I hope you’re all having a better 2021 than Clare.
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.” (Habakkuk 3:17-18, NIV)
The prophet Habakkuk knew what to do when things seemed completely hopeless. When he wrote this verse, his world was literally falling apart. He had nothing. Things seemed destitute. So what did Habakkuk do? He rejoiced and praised the Lord in spite of everything. He knew that God was bigger than His problems, and He already had a way to get Him out of those circumstances. Habakkuk was looking beyond His problems to what God could do in His life.
Let’s follow Habakkuk’s example. When something bad happens to you, thank God — not because you’re suffering, but because you know He has the answer. When things look hopeless, praise Him because He will bring hope to your circumstances.
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The world is a fast, go-go place where people want things “my way, in my time, and for my life.” Many people think that the world will give them what they are trying to get and it’s up to them to take what they want. But that’s simply not true. Yes, you are called to action and you must go out there and live life, but God has blessings for you that He wants you to be patient and wait on.
You can plan your whole life all the way to the end but the Bible says that the Lord determines your steps, not you. Give yourself over to Him and be patient and wait upon the Lord and His blessings.
I recently listened to a podcast where a woman was talking about how she works with at risk youth and how these are youth who grew up with disadvantaged backgrounds like poverty, broken homes and the like. And it got me thinking how unfortunate that those who started off badly through no fault of their own now have a lesser chance of doing well in life and it then becomes a vicious cycle.
Then I realized that I had fallen into a trap we all fall into of listening to conventional wisdom from the world and swallowing it hook, line and sinker. The bible tell us that the race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong but time and chance happen to them all. That means even if you came from a so called disadvantaged back ground, God has an opportunity waiting for you to help you catch up and overtake all those who came from so called advantaged backgrounds.
It reminds me of a story I heard of a young man who attended a school where he was tested and for some reason they said he tested below average and therefore put him in a special class and gave him some kind of label, like slow or something. And so he would say to himself, “Well ‘m slow. The experts said so, so it must be so.” So he never did well in school. At some point his family moved to a new area and he had to change schools and here when they tested him he tested at genius level and they could not understand why he did not do well in class. On hearing that he was now a genius can you guess what happened? Yes, he started doing very well in school, made it to college and his whole life trajectory was changed.
I know a lady who was getting up to 40 years old and was still single and starting to give up that she would ever meet someone and get married. Her friends at that time said to her that she had a better chance of being struck by lightning than meeting someone and she should just go ahead and get a baby on her own before it was too late. But she thought about it and decided to rely on God and whatever happens happens. At the age of 41 she was ‘struck by lightning’ in the words of her friends and she met her husband and even though she had to go through fertility treatments, she got two beautiful children and is happily married.
So be careful whenever you hear facts and conventional wisdom being thrown around that want to put you down and make you give up. Instead, rely on God who is not fair. He will tilt the scales in your favor and catapult you forward into your blessing.
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