Praying and then Solving

How does that even work?
How does one pray for a solution to a problem, and then at the same time work towards solving that same problem? You don't believe your prayer will be answered?

At the tail end of last year (which really translates to last week) I was driving behind this car with a bumper sticker that had me in stitches.

I should probably add, ...and then have an accident

Chances are, you are running late for an appointment (hopefully, through no fault of yours), you pray asking God to get you there on time, and then you step on it, and drive beyond the highest speed limit in the whole country. How won't you leave your guardian angel behind? And if you end up in an accident, who caused it?

Time and time again we face one challenge or another, we pray about it committing whatever challenge we are facing into the hands of the Lord, and then we still spend countless hours worrying about  this very same situation. Why then commit the situation into God's hands if we have a better solution we intend to arrive at by worrying about it?

Let's not forget Abraham and Sarah. They had a problem, no children and they were getting old. They commit the problem to God's hands, and they must have run out of patience waiting for the answer. Why? Because they took matters into their own hands and chose to solve the problem on their own, even after God had promised to them what seemed impossible. End result? Their solution seemed to work out at first, but it turned out not to be such a hot plan in the end. And then, God delivers. He solves the problem, but they had already created another problem with their solution.

Is anything too hard for the Lord?
When we commit a situation to the Lord, may we truly commit it to Him and refuse to worry about it.
Happy New Year!

Crush?

Nah! Still too early (translates to I'll make another attempt at sharing something inspiring).

For as long as I can remember, I've been trying to read the whole bible. Naturally, I'd start from the beginning (Genesis), by the time I read the story on Cain and Abel or push to Noah, I just go like, "I already knew all of this. Heard stories about all of them in Sunday School". All of them referring to Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel and Noah and the ark. And then I'd quit. Then there was this time I just decided to focus on particular books in the bible. I was more successful with that. At least I can say I've read the whole of the book of Proverbs.

I've always felt I need to seriously spend more time studying the word of God, and stop my halfhearted attempts at doing so. I downloaded a bible app onto my phone (YouVersion) and it really has helped. There are so many resources available on there, from daily bible verses to bible plans. I found I could select bible plans for a couple of days or months. Last year, I picked up a year long bible plan and completed it on December 31, 2014 (felt real good). The bible plans I found were a way for me to spend time on the word of God everyday. From a few days, to a few months and then to a year (baby steps).

At the start of this year, I started a new bible plan, another year long plan. But get this. This plan is "Bible in One Year". That means next year this time, I can say I've read the whole bible. Interesting thing is, there are so many stories in the bible I never heard of (they didn't make children stories of those for Sunday School). The people involved I may have heard of but not some accounts of their lives in the bible, and the thing is, all this is in Genesis. There are actually so many interesting and inspiring stories after Noah and the ark. What I totally love about these plans are the fact that there are daily devotionals included, so after reading the bible passages, I get to read a discussion on it, which give more insight into what I just read.

I find this very helpful for me because Christianity I find is hard today. Why? Because quite a number of people seem to enjoy guilt tripping others into it (how about you let others or lead others to discover the goodness of God without guilting them into it?). It really is so sad. People try to use current stuff e.g. social media to share the word of God and then threaten you. e.g. forward to this number of people or this and that will happen to you. If you love God and hate the devil you will forward to this number of people. If you don't, means you don't love God and you do the devil (totally rolling my eyes right now). I'm sure it's okay to love God and not forward every message you get about Him to a particular number of people (and I'm sure that doesn't mean you have a thing for the devil either).

I remember when the movie "Gravity" come out, there was so much noise made about it. As soon as it was in cinemas in Gh, I went to see it. Who wouldn't want to see a movie with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in it? But that's just the thing. It really was a movie with just George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. 5 minutes into the movie I caught myself dozing off in the cinema. I couldn't believe it. How? So I stayed wide awake for another 10 minutes and when I realised nothing was happening and George and Sandra were same place they had been when the movie started, I curled up, found a comfy position, and I slept (no way was I letting the air conditioning in the cinema go to waste. I had paid for it. if I couldn't enjoy the movie, I could at least enjoy that). My point? It's very possible to fall asleep while watching a secular movie and not only when listening to the word of God.

Now as a rule, I always get popcorn even when I don't feel like it when I go to the cinema (I have fallen asleep while watching other movies and I find that nibbling on the popcorn gives me at least 20 - 30 minutes before I start lolling away).

Inspiring? Well, I will get to that crush thing in my next post.
And oh, I hear a certain young lady has decided not to pursue the case she has against a Gh celebrity she's accused of allegedly raping her (can't say I'm surprised). Like I wrote in my last post, even if she comes out to say he really didn't rape her, his reputation has already been ruined (but who cares? I'm not talking about this celebrity stuff).