Bring it!

Friday May 29^th was an incredible day for me. Two major events colored my day beautiful. First, my country Nigeria experienced a landmark handover to a new administration. I watched the entire proceedings with a lump in my throat and a swell of pride in my heart. I love this country! As with every other country we have had our own share of downs and varied struggles…we still do; but I have always considered myself truly blessed to be Nigerian. We are such a remarkable, enterprising, talented, creative, innovative and beautiful group of people. We have such open hearts and an incredible sense of humor that is in a class of its own. We are resilient above all others, and despite our many differences and disagreements, issues and challenges, we share and maintain an overriding collective optimism, a tenacity that is simply enviable. Yes, the path ahead still calls for a lot of work, but Friday opened a new chapter in which I am personally very hopeful and confident that new things will slowly begin to unfold to move us steps forward on our journey of greatness.  

Same Friday, we had an inter-company wedding with an employee in one of my companies getting married to an employee in my other company. This is the second time in our 21-year history that we are having two of our employees meet and marry each other. The other couple have been together now for well over ten years and the Lord has blessed them with four gorgeous children (three boys and a girl… just as we have). I’m looking forward to seeing God unfold His blessings over these two that He has again caused to find each other under our watch. As an aside, my younger sister jokingly asked that we investigate what kind of air is spewing out of our air-conditioning units and causing our staff to fall in love with each other at ten-year intervals, lol. Now if these two also have three boys and a girl….. Hmm! Let’s see what the next ten years bring shall we?  

Yes, it was a pretty awesome day for me. Effectively, as the country handed-over to a new administration, we also had our own internal ‘hand-over’ ceremony going on. As the new Vice-President and President said their vows ….err, I mean swore their oaths of office, these two young people pledged their allegiance… said their vows to each other. As the flags were hoisted down and handed over to the outgoing President and the new ones hoisted up in honor of the incoming President, so also did these young ones let down their singleness and lift themselves up before the Lord and before their witnesses as a brand new couple. Methinks the analogy is so picturesque, hopeless romantic that I am.

The expression ‘hand over’ kept playing on my mind all day yesterday. I thought about the implications of the Presidential handover – not so much from the perspective of its import for the country, but rather from the perspective of its impact on the lives of the new President and his VP as distinct individuals themselves. I then thought about my staff and smiled as I envisioned the ‘new-every-morning’ reality of the hand-over in marriage which they will spend a good while yet settling fully into. I smiled as I prayed the Lord would fill them with every wisdom and understanding, patience and love which they will need to let go of ‘I’ and fully embrace ‘We’. I was still smiling when the question ‘What have you fully handed over the Lord?’ dropped in my spirit. Hmm!

You know sis, questions like this cause to both push back and pretend you didn’t hear it; to admit you heard it and tell yourself you will think it through later; or to immediately start a 360° scan of your life. I chose the latter sis, oh boy but I did didn’t I? I thought about my mind, my will and my emotions.  I thought about my husband and children, siblings, parents, closest friends. I thought about my businesses, my finances –my spending and my giving. I thought about my health, my body, my eating habits, my fitness routine. I thought about my thoughts (yes sis, it’s imperative that we think about the things we think about), my words, my conduct. I thought about my gifts – my writing, my speaking, my singing, my acting, and how I am applying them for God’s glory. I thought about my time… my time sis… that’s a big one. I thought about my spiritual life, my walk with God, my growth and growing, my study life, my praise, my prayers, my service. I thought about my hopes and aspirations, my fears and uncertainties. I thought… and thought… and thought some more.

What was the end result? Honestly sis, the outcome was nothing I don’t already know, except that each time you are more deliberate about any personal reflection or self-assessment exercise, you see the results and implications a lot more clearly. I realized that I am a long way off yet from being able to boast that I am fully yielded to God in every area of my life – the operational word here being ‘fully’. My life is in God’s hand, yes. I have given my life to Jesus Christ, yes. I am walking with God, yes. I lean on Him as my source, yes. He leads me and guides me, yes. I walk in full obedience… errr… hmm! Not quite!

Sis, full and complete obedience is still a work-in-progress for me, and that simply reflects how fully I have handed-over my life to God. Truth is that as plugged in as I am to the Kingdom - in certain situations; in certain areas of my life; at certain times and in certain seasons; I sometimes still find myself trying to help Him help me. Sometimes I find myself trying to go ahead of God to make things happen faster and in my timing. Sometimes I find myself holding on where I should let go. Sometimes I allow my personal desires lead me into partial obedience or truth be told, sometimes total disobedience. Sometimes I find myself walking in fear rather than letting go in faith, usually because I keep my eyes on what I can see rather than what I know. Sometimes I find myself indulging my flesh rather than yielding to the discipline of spirit... from as silly as eating that extra slice of cheesecake, to allowing myself entertain bigger battles of will over emotions, struggles for wants over need. You get my drift, sis?  

Once upon a time, I would have been greatly saddened by the outcome of this self-scan, but I’m thankfully too mature in the Spirit to go there. I spent one year too many allowing the enemy convince me I was too unworthy to dare come near the Lord, and when I allowed that lie fill my soul, I did exactly what the enemy wanted and I stayed away. Those who have followed this blog over the past five years know my testimony of the stranger the Lord sent to me about 18 years ago, with a message that I should draw near to Him just as I was and allow Him do the rest of the work in me. You know from my prior posts that my definition of self is ‘An Awesome Work-in-Progress’. So yes sis, I make my boast in Christ alone and declare boldly that I know that I know that I know that my God is not a God of condemnation, and that awesome WIP that I am, He loves me completely and is more than happy to grow me, mold me and make me into what He wants me to be. I know that it is in His power and strength and in His grace alone that I will make it. That works for me!

And you know sis, when God shines His light on any area of our lives, it is not so as to leave us with an overwhelming sense of condemnation but rather because He is extending open arms and an invitation for us to come up higher in Him. I love God so much because even as He wants you to come up higher, He first willingly and lovingly comes down to meet with you right where you are. He is more than ready to work with you in your struggles. He compassionately holds our hands and maintains a hedge around us as He patiently walks us through life – always trying to help us truly see, to help us grow, to help us overcome, so that we are not lost to Him, and so that we can truly live victorious lives, and indeed draw others unto Him also.

I love the fact that God is willing and eager to use us even as we grow. He is not demanding our perfection, but asking that we draw closer to His perfection. He calls and qualifies us to do His work – not according to our goodness and faithfulness, but rather according to His own. Any righteousness we could try to ascribe to ourselves is like filthy rags before Him so He covers us with His righteousness, amazing Father that He is. He is the Potter – never discarding any mound of clay – ugly and unwieldy as it may appear, but rather lovingly and painstakingly molding it into something beautiful and of great value. I know this, and so my self-examination did not hurt, sis. No, I wasn’t about to sink into despair or depression as the enemy would once have had me do, and I want to encourage that you don’t as well.

I slept pretty well for someone who didn’t get an ‘A’ in her exam. Somewhere around 4am though, I awoke from my sleep to a worship song playing on in my head. As I lay down in that quiet atmosphere of internal worship, I heard the words ‘Bring it!’. Bring what, Lord? I asked. Then I saw it, I heard it, I felt it, and I knew it. This is what I want to leave you with today, sis.

The Lord wants you and I to hand over every area of our lives fully to Him, sis. But He is a God of understanding and He knows we are yet children – spiritually so. He knows that we are at different stages of spiritual maturity. He knows that some of us are drinking spiritual milk while others are eating strong meat. He knows that even within each of us, there are areas of our lives where we are more spiritually sound and strong than in other areas. He is not disqualifying us on the basis of any of these. He is ready to grow us as we commit to growing with Him and in Him.

So today, the Lord is telling us to bring it… whatever your ‘it’ is, and to keep bringing it. Whatever that area(s) of our lives is/are that is still a challenge for us to yield to the Lord – that area we sometimes think we still need to work on before we can present it to Him… the area we are still trying to work out in our own strength; that area we think He will frown on, be displeased with, reject; that area we would rather just not think about at all in the first place; that area we still want to control; that area where we don’t agree with Him.

Sis, God says, ‘Bring it’ and as we do, He will take what we have willingly yielded up to Him and use it to build us up according to His purpose, and for His glory. He is asking for our willingness to continuously bring the fullness of our lives before Him and then trust Him to work out the rest. He is asking us to bring our imperfections, our tiny faith, our doubts and fears, our concerns, our hopes, the seed of our praise, prayers, and our study. He is asking that we bring our intentions, our procrastination's even, before Him. He is saying that as long as we keep coming, He will grow our little into the much that He is more than able to birth in us and through us. He is asking that we stay connected and committed to growing, sis. He knows we will sometimes fall, but He reminds us that He will be constant in picking us up, in dusting us off, and in using the learning’s from our mistakes and failings to build us up as we walk with Him. He is reminding us today that apart from Him, we will be on very dangerous ground. He is asking us not to feel unworthy to be in His inner circle, but to bring even that sense of unworthiness to Him and see Him turn our lives around and give us a new story.

I don’t need to add anything else to this message sis, other than to ask that you think through your life. Do your 360° and see what you need to hand over to Him once again. Concerning whatever area the Holy Spirit shows you, bring it back to the Lord, sis. And please purpose to intentionally reflect on your life regularly, and every time you sense or know you’ve gone back to self-effort, to distance, to fear, to doubt… remember this call sis, and once again ‘Bring it’. 

I can assure you of one thing, God is not man. He is not impatient as we are. He won’t give up on you in your struggle. He has certainly not given up on me for as many times as I have gone around the same mountain. He loves you and I, sis. Let this love enfold and encourage you now and always. The Lord will help you sis. Always and ever as surely as He has been and continues to help me.

Be blessed sis… for you surely are!