Who Can You Trust?

It’s a shame that some of the lessons we think we learn, we don’t really learn. The testimonies we think we hold; we don’t hold as we should. One of the many things I have come to see about God is that he doesn’t mind going through the lesson with you one more time and another more time. The God of many chances! This is in contrast to some of the teachers we’ve had in our lives and truthfully even myself when I have been in the space of showing or teaching someone something.

There is a frustration you experience when you feel you have really put in effort to teach or show someone something only for them to either come back and say they didn’t get it or for you to discover in their actions that despite the feedback they gave, they didn’t get it. I remember a Nigerian skit of Manuela and her teacher which gets my ribs cracking and laughing out of breath. Manuela asks the teacher to go over how to solve the maths equation and her teacher asks her with little patience, lots of frustration and anger, that from which point didn’t she understand the process. Manuela goes on to say from last term!

God is so patient with us and he knows we will not get the lesson as we should, so he gives us plenty of grace. His grace is not just applied when we sin but also for the lessons we should have learnt. Not only the lessons we should have learnt about life but the lessons about who he is and his character. I was driving from London to Braintree one time, a journey that’s 1hour 30 minutes. I had left in the night thinking there would be less traffic. Yes, there was less traffic, but I forgot one important thing. On a Sunday night they tend to do road works and block off sections of my route. On this particular night my petrol was on the low side, but I figured it would get me to my destination. Another wrong assumption!

As I was about to take my exit, I realised they had blocked it off and couldn’t go through the usual route. In addition to this frustrating discovery, there was no diversion sign to reroute me so I could get back on track. I had to continue driving straight ahead and take the next exit to come back on myself. That has happened to me before, and it is so annoying because the next exit was far away. Meanwhile my petrol light was now flashing and there was no service station on that route and even once I had turned back on myself, the next petrol station was still far ahead. Being in the night it was pitch dark and I thought if the car just stopped, as a woman, I would be in trouble! I prayed about it.

God knew how angry I was and an uplifting song I really love that I hadn’t heard in yonks, suddenly played next on the YouTube random playlist I was listening to. My angry facial features and frown dropped. In the end I turned back around, made it to a service station, got enough petrol and got home some many hours later than I should have. This testimony should be fresh in my mind because it wasn’t too long ago but the humans we are, we are quick to forget the good God has done but very lightning quick to remember the bad that has happened, marinate and dwell on it like we are being paid a 6 figure sum to do so.

I was on a little trip to the next county, Vihiga country, the day before and I knew the petrol was getting to the low side. Before I used to panic when the gauge was on quarter but these days I don’t. On my way home I was going to pass by a petrol station but was told the price there would be higher, so I decided to wait till the next day because the petrol level was still ok. Later that evening I met a friend 10 minutes from the house so I didn’t give the petrol level any attention.

On the way back home, after going through the very bumpy, rough road having used 4WD to complete the last section to get home, the petrol light came on! Glory to God because it was late at night, I was by myself, and if the car had stopped en route, it would have been a tricky situation and remember there is no roadside like I know in the UK in Kenya.

The next day I was to go to church and I figured that when the light comes on as it did, there is still some distance I could go at that level. In the morning I started to worry about the situation because I would have to go through the bumpy road which in my little engineering self, I felt would consume petrol. The petrol station was also some distance away and as I looked at the situation by sight, it was looking like the car would either stop on the climb up of the rocky, bumpy road or midway on the highway. I was not ready for that. I started thinking maybe I should get a motorbike rider who knew the location of the house, to go to the petrol station, get petrol in a can, come home and fill the car. Then I thought that would take long and I would be late for Church.  I abandoned that plan.

This year I have been trying to execute something I know the Excellent Book says and something I heard recently in a sermon. In rough times praise God. I’ve been trying to do that and I feel the God who knows everything knows that going into praise is the best stress management technique, far more than even activating your vagus nerve or any of the useful strategies. He knows that praising him at all times is the best life coping technique of all the techniques that exist. Off course you can do the others I am just saying there is something divinely powerful about putting praise as your first choice in times of stress, whatever the intensity.

Usually, I would have been anxious and for me my stress sits on my chest. There is a song I love to sing in praise and especially when something good has happened. "Hallelujah You're Worthy" by  Judith McAllister . I first heard it during Whitney Houston’s funeral and just loved it. As I drove to church, I decided to sing the song in my head. I went down the steep hill, the bumpy road and got on the tarmac road. I thanked God because at least now could use the lighter gears and hopefully that would conserve the petrol. If I was thinking of going on free gear to save, there was a sign on the road that said avoid doing that! I continued to sing as I drove and when I reached a certain point closer to the petrol station, the petrol light went and the level on the gauge seemed to have gone up a bit.

I know someone may say may be the car was not on level ground and now when I reached the tarmac road, it was level… bla bla bla and you can tell I will dismiss that theory based on sight. By faith I know God did something that I can’t explain neither do I care to explain it because, this is what I know he does. Make ways out of no ways, his ways are higher and apparently involves turning the light off so I’m not on edge and adding some Divine Diesel, enough to get me to the petrol station. Won’t he do it!

And I know he can because earlier in the week, something was disturbing my spirit. I prayed about it. The spiritual thing to do after would have been to go and read the Excellent Book but instead I went to Instagram. How I know God cares and does everything for my good including soothing me is this. I came across this page on IG that I have never seen and don’t follow. The post was talking about the very topic that was disturbing me. The comments section which I love, was giving testimonies of how God had come through for many of them on this topic but not only this, God had come through for them sooner than they thought!

God wanted to remind me something that I am just hearing on the sermon playing on the background as I write this. Another sign that he is with me at all times and is dedicated to teaching me what he wants to teach me. The sermon is saying God can be trusted. My testimony today and months ago when I was in another petrol situation, is truly truly God can be trusted even in these small, menial things so when it comes to the big, heart touching, soul comforting things, OFF COURSE, he can be trusted whole heartedly. He will come through, just as he has ALWAYS done. He doesn’t and won’t get tired of coming through for you.

He doesn’t mind showing you time and time again that he is true to you and your needs far more than any of the people in your life combined can ever do. Why? Simple because he loves you with a love that is unstoppable by petrol, road works and even your own sins. Yesterday as per other days I did something that I know is not pleasing in his eyes, but this merciful God did not hold that against me at all. His nature doesn’t allow him to hold back on his unconditional love and abundant, exceeding, many plenty blessings. All this is because God is Good, God is Great, God is Ultimately the Best and that is his forever nature regardless of what you do or don’t do! Hallelujah!

Related Verses

Ecclesiastes 7:14

Psalms 34:1

Proverbs 3:5-6

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Next Post out on 10/02/2024