One of our many traditions, is that if you didn’t attend a funeral, the next time you’re in the area where the person was buried, its good practice to go and pay your respects by the graveside. I’ve seen people take flowers or just say a prayer for those left behind, by the grave site. I was with a cousin of mine who needed to do this for my cousin who has been patiently waiting for the resurrection since last year. After our visit was complete, I drove back home. Before we left, it had started raining and it went on and we decided it was best to start our journey back because the road to the house can get even worse than it is after the rains.
We left and the rain was not too bad until we reached a certain place. Apparently and I don’t know if it’s a Kenyan or Kisumu thing, when it rains you put your hazard lights on. As the rain poured heavily, I discovered this was actually a very good idea. It was almost sunset and by this time you could not see as well. The hazard lights everyone had on, helped you gauge both theirs and your position because somehow the forces that be feel that streetlights are vanity. The hazard lights were essential because… my countrymen in all cites of the country, drive crazy with no law and order. Without those hazards it would definitely have been S.V.U.
The rain increasingly poured heavily and then there were hailstones. It wasn’t stopping and I also had my niece as a passenger, so I was really trying to be extra careful. Soon after, visibility was minimal. My cousin who was now my co-pilot decided we needed to stop and let this crazy weather pass. Well, you can only stop if you can see where to stop. When I could see where to stop, I couldn’t because there was nowhere to stop on the side of the road or there was a deep ditch nearby and I couldn’t gauge if there was a good space between the side of the road and the ditch. It appeared it was better to continue moving even if it was at a slow speed, which I didn’t mind, than to stop. My help came from the hazard lights in front of me which let me know there was a car ahead of me. So, I followed it for a while, leaving a nice safe gap in between, which my fellow countrymen took as a nice slot to squeeze into when they tried to overtake! I did say their driving is crazy. How are you overtaking when visibility is minimal?! Well, later on my “pacemaker” car at some point decided to leave me to fend for myself. Not good.
I was to take the slip road on the left and take the by-pass to go home. Next to it was another road, going I don’t know where and this was not the time to explore. I really could not see where the slip road began and decided to stop. I was going to put my hazard lights then I remembered there’d been on! Once my co-pilot and I could see, after a few seconds, I discovered I’d stopped right in front of a sort of high pavement/island separating the slip road and the other road. Had I continued to go ahead…I don’t know what would have happened. Thankfully I was driving slowly, but still, something would have happened. Other cars came after me and I baptised them my new pacemakers who would take me the rest of the way. As I got close to home, the rain started to subside, and I could see much better. After a 2 hour plus journey that usually takes 1 hour we got home safely. Thank you, Jesus!
Isn’t this life though. Your start off with your plans thinking they’ll go right, and they go so left. You hang on in there until you reach a point where you don’t even see how you will survive or move on. Sometimes you want to stop/ quit but, some inner or divine strength keeps you going when you would rather just stop and wait for things to die down. You end up going blindly and you can’t sometimes explain how you are continuing to push through the circumstances, you’re in.
It is especially in these times when the hand of God is especially with you. The devil wants to lie to you that during those times God has abandoned you. As the father of lies, we should know better than to particularly believe this lie that God has left you and you’re on your own. You are not. He is right there working in ways you don’t see, because in the most dire situations we just don’t see. Ask Hagar. God opened her eyes and she saw the well of water. God heard the voice of Ishmael and came through for him by opening his mom’s eyes so that his thirst may be quenched so he may not die. God had a purpose for Ishmael and was not going to let him die.
Don’t let the devil lie to you that you’re too this or too that, that if you cry out to the Lord to help and save you, he won’t hear you. Just like Ishmael, we all have a purpose, and it HAS to be fulfilled. God can’t design a purpose for your life then lives you to figure it and execute it by yourself. He is a helping, faithful, protective, and generous K.P.M.G God who will never leave you or forsake you when you seek him earnestly.
What messes us up is we have an idea of how things should go or work out. We really don’t like it when things don’t go our way. I am right there in that, help me Jesus. Let’s allow ourselves to receive the peace that surpasses all understanding through all these valleys of life by letting God work out how he wants to work things out. After all, He is the one who put us on this earth with a purpose so he knows how he will execute things. I heard a sermon say, we are God’s responsibility, same way we are our parents’ responsibility when we are children. Thankfully with God even at 116 years old we are his children, and we are still his responsibility even at that age like we are a little tot being nursed. And even when we live this earth we are his responsibility in that Jesus will wake us up from our sleep, if we believed in him, so the purpose he has for us can continue by way of enjoying the Mansions Jesus has been preparing for us. (Imagine how glorious these mansions will be because ever since Jesus went back via Divine “uber” he has been preparing them for us, what a day of rejoicing it will be!)
If God can come through for me in the one-day event in that way, then now as the year begins, I have yet again more evidence of how God is with me and wants to see me win and in fact has set me up to win. One of my many faith slogans is Jesus is with me. During that drive I managed to keep remembering that and I wasn’t scared when I know usually, I would be. The thing with this life is I know the valleys will come and I really tell God how I don’t want those valleys. This is what I’m saying that we want God to do things our way. Sometimes he can’t and he shouldn’t. He knows until Jesus comes; we will face these valleys guaranteed.
What he does, is give you “something” that when you’re in the valley, you will thrive! He has to equip you for all the many valleys of life that will come. And this is why I guess he will never answer my prayer of God let things just go smooth for many years times ten to the power of ten. Instead, he gives you a spirit that is not shattered even when it should, and is like the tree by the river which is always nourished throughout all the seasons. That’s how the God of the impossible rolls.
For me the “something” he is giving me is as follows. It may be similar or different to yours nevertheless you will be fully equipped. I can see he is helping me remember exhibits A to Z millions of times over of how he has come through for me before so that I have confidence that he will come through for me again. He has given me verses which I really feel were written just for me, because they really encourage me with the underlying root addressed. Fear. So, my favourite verse is “Fear not! For I am with you…” Isaiah 41:10. Surely if the Sovereign God says fear not, why should I fear. Its not easy to not fear but I am growing with my favourite verse, and it is helping me because in that same verse God says he will help me, strengthen me and uphold me with his victorious right hand. My life is a testimony to this.
God is also helping me with slogans. My recent one which is giving me “life” and immense encouragement is “so long as I have Jesus, I have everything”. In this season when I don’t have some things yet, this faith slogan is giving me a boosted spirit so that I can focus on the powerful Being in my life as opposed to focusing on the small things I don’t have, which in the grand scheme of life and eternity do not even matter. It’s helping me have a healthy perspective on things and allowing me to be in a place of trusting that if I have Jesus, truly truly he will give me everything I need and I will never lose out.
My encouragement to you is find your verse, find your faith slogan or just find something that keeps you going when driving conditions are horrible or when life has gone completely left and shattered your spirit. A good starting place, ask God himself. I also encourage you to cry out to God in those times because I promise you, he is right there with you. Even when you dismiss him, he is right there in case you change your mind so he can hit the ground running especially for you.
May God give you all you need in this new year so that you go through 2023 not shaken or stirred because the Sovereign God is with you till the end of time. Happy New Year.
Related verses: Isaiah 41:10, Genesis 21: 16-21, Deuteronomy 31:6-8, Philippians 4:6, Philippians 4:7
Next Post: 8/1/2023
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