THE MESSAGE NOW
Vol. 2, No. 1 – Monday, 2nd January, 2017
(Heb.11:1-34, Rom.4:17-22, Mark.9:23, Is.43:18-19)
THE MARVELS OF HOPE AND FAITH AND THE UNRULY HORSE
Any one with a practicing penchant for riding on horses can tell what so awesome feeling the sport generally offers. The same cannot be said by any one who gets astride an unruly horse. For one, one can never tell the very next decision the horse might take or where it decides to take one to.
Even with the greatest care, an unruly horse has all the tendency and acute potency to take one back to the start of one’s journey. In short, an unruly horse never offers a pleasant experience.
Such is the unpleasant experience with one of the oldest and ugliest weapons of the enemy. This is the weapon of worry. Many men are left back in life’s classroom and are made to repeat that class over and over again because of this weapon.
It is the intimate companion of men who never want to let go off the past. The characteristics of worry are obvious. Worry sets back; worry demotes; worry tells God ‘you are unable’; worry makes you see the enemy and not the Almighty; worry makes you to continue to consider the start of any challenge forgetting the solution or the thought of its expiry; worry diminishes; indeed, worry damages your health.
What unimaginable evil can worry (the treacherous unruly horse) not perform? Worry is the fastest and the greatest consumer of any sound spiritual fabric and strength. In fact, worry can end one’s life abruptly.
But really, who shouldn’t be worried? Is life in itself not a panton of worries and anxieties? By the way, is worry itself not a natural phenomenon, which means that it really cannot be avoided? Tell me, why shouldn’t the blind, the lame, the deaf and the dumb be worried?
Come on! think of the paraplegic, the barren, the jilted/jolted, the bereaved, the grieving, the persecuted, the downtrodden and the forgotten in pain, shouldn’t they be filled with all sorts of worry? Aren’t the innocently afflicted permitted to worry too?!!! Dear reader, should even the general rules of exception apply to the attendant yearnings of worry since it is a natural phenomenon?
The bitter truth is in the answer to all these questions; since worry adds nothing to life, then no one is permitted to worry irrespective of whatsoever. If reincarnation were to be possible, we probably would have had the opportunity to interview Helen Keller.
How she succeeded in conquering triumphantly and in end becoming larger than life in her field of endeavor is a thought worthy of admiration and an unending consideration for the thoughtful and the wise.
Helen Keller was both blind and deaf and at the same time was dumb from birth. Yet in spite of her tragic trio, she penned down very gracious words for generations before ours, ours and afterwards. Despite her early life and subsequent traumas, Helen Keller wrote: ‘Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence’.
Aha! res ipsa loquitor is the legal linguo for saying, the matter speaks for itself. Indeed, does not the matter speak for itself? Unarguably, the power behind Keller’s success is infused in the marvels of hope and faith.
Like father Abraham, I strongly believe that Helen Keller conceived her glorious future and believed in it without a moment of ‘staggering’. Her thoughts must have taken lectures in prescience from the philosopher, Bernard Williams.
Bernard Williams opined, ‘There was never a night or a problem that could defeat sunrise or hope’. How so awesome and true about hope: the sustaining thread that strings all of life together making it a unified whole. Frankly speaking, he that continually keeps his future perfectly in view and his past perfectly immersed in the sea of forgotten memory by the power of unshaken confidence and the sustaining thread of hope has his destiny in tact and on the right track. Such a-one is the perfect enemy of worry, and such will in no length of time cross the Rubicon.
The Holy Scripture says: ‘remember ye not the former things. Neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. Shall ye not know it? Now, it shall spring forth. I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’.
The foregoing is an infallible truth from the lips of the Almighty. It is worthy of absolute belief. Yesterday is gone: today is brightly in attendance, and tomorrow is assured. History is the paternal owner of yesterday. It is not the property of any one.
Men who grab yesterday as though it is today’s gift never letting go live to experience it afresh. Forget yesterday whether it be bitter or better. If bitter, they darken your today and impair your tomorrow. If better, they can be so alluring that focus on today’s pursuit may delay reality waiting eternally in the wings. It is ever sad to remain in the euphoria of yesterday’s success; It does no good.
It is a bright and brand new day today, friend. The darkness of yesterday is now over. The struggle is eternally gone. Year 2016 and its disappointments are now history. Let them be forgotten. It is now time to move on.
It is a new year with a new name, new vision and a new start. Therefore, awake with fresh faith and rekindled hope. You are the rightful owner of today and what you make of it is forever yours.
As for tomorrow, it is God’s divine right of ownership. It is an assured reality because of His promise. Hatching his promise into reality requires every one allowing the marvels of hope and faith to have their way. Those who run life’s business with their Maker through hope and faith never have their financial accounts existing in the red.
Make the best use of every day. God is always one step ahead of you. He will always be there when the next step is needed. I remember that ancient but prolific rhyme back in my nursery school days. Its words are instructive in this connection. It reads:
In the silver moon light
Period, my good friend.
There is oh! Note! I must write;
If yours could lend.
See my candles dying
And the fires no more.
Listen to my crying;
Open wide your door.
The lamenter in the above poem waited till his candles began to run out before his memory picked up on his foremost assignment of the day. Such individual is a repeater of yesterday’s bitter experience. He is certain to experience it afresh today.
In 2017, live in newness of life with the companions of hope and faith. Confront every challenge with a happy heart not a bitter one and not with worry the unruly horse. In the end, it shall be a Happy New Year in every good and glorious way for every one in Jesus name.
HAPPY PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.
Hymn: O God, Our Help In Ages Past
Pray now:
-
O Lord God, praise, glory and honour be to your gracious name for my successful cross-over without an aorta of evil carry-over.
-
O God, the enemy shall not influence me to become my own enemy this year in the name of Jesus.
-
O God, release your excellent Spirit to me to guide me throughout this year, in the name of Jesus.
-
O thou waster of time, effort and destiny, be cut off by the sword of the Lord.
-
O God, shield me in 2017 with your garment of righteousness.
-
O God, by your extreme love and power, throughout 2017, I shall not be a victim of sin, satan and disaster.
-
O shield of hope and faith, I need you now, enter into my life.
-
Every fire quencher on assignment in 2017, you shall not locate my life and abode.
-
Badluck, hardluck, deadlock and struggle, I terminate you now.
-
I shall deliver my man-child of destiny this year, in the name of Jesus.
-
O hanging blessings, the Lord God, Possessor of heaven and earth has not sent you to hang, therefore, descend upon me right now and throughout this year, in the name of Jesus.
-
Every power that says, so I will always pray but without result, die now, in the name of Jesus.
-
Every yet pursuing household enemy and self-inflicted enemy, die in the red sea of God now.
-
O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, hallow your name in my life and make 2017 a year of the release of bumper harvests.
Pastor Mike
