You Were Made To Bloom

Today, I want to encourage you. I want to remind you that you were made to bloom. Yes, you. God penned down your story, my story way before we were even formed in our mothers’ wombs, just as He told Jeremiah... “Before I formed you in the womb of I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4,5 He made each of us for great things. Jeremiah’s purpose on earth was to be a prophet of God. That’s the same way you and I are here, walking this earth because of the purpose of God. He appointed you to come to this earth to do something unique.

Now, won’t it be a shame if you plant a seed of a rose flower, but instead of fully growing and blooming, it sadly has a stunted growth? How come you may ask. Well, you barely had time to water it or tweak out the weeds that were hindering its growth. Weeds only consume the nutrients in the soil that plants need to thrive and grow well. So, that’s how come. The rose plant never bloomed.

Your life can be compared to this rose plant. To be able to fully plug into your full capabilities as a child of God, you need to allow God water your life. You need to feed your life the right things to bloom. When we begin to feed our lives with the Word of God and prayer on a daily basis, we start to grow as God intended us to. We start to hear God’s voice clearly about what steps we should take. Without constantly seeking God’s face in prayer and in the Bible, we’re bound to live according to our own plans which might very well conflict with our Father’s plans for our lives. 

“He destined us in love to be His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:5,6

The weeds that hindered the growth of the rose plant are those people and things that stand in your way from experiencing the beauty of living a purposeful life, the things that hold you back from shinning and living out loud for God. You know very well the ungodly inner circle of friends you have around you prevent you from passionately pursuing God’s will for you...those unhealthy habits of watching porn, fornicating, profanity, adultery, smoking, getting drunk, clubbing, going to worldly parties...they are all NOT God’s will for you. How can you bloom when you are so busy chasing after sin which will only kill you? “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6;23

Sin separates us from God. The more a person sins, the farther God is. The Holy Spirit can’t dwell in a body that is dabbling in an unbroken chain of sin. When we sin, we are more or less driving away the Spirit of God in us, because the Spirit is holy and can’t dwell where sin is. Sure, we are human and we’re tempted to sin often times. But isn’t it far better to strive to live the life God called you to instead of willingly going after things that cause you to stumble and die out fast?

“Now the works of the flesh are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and the like. I warn you as I warned you before, that those who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law. And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” Galatians 5:19-24

I encourage you to seek God’s face, let Him become very personal and real in your life. Surround yourself with people with Godly wisdom. Ask Him what He planned for your life. You were not made to have a stunted life, you were made to bloom. :) Stop selling yourself short. God filled each of us with wonderful talents and spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 says “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another the prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are inspired by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as He wills.”

Dear one, God made all these spiritual gifts available to help us bloom. He placed the unique abilities to write, sing, paint, teach, sew, act in us. It’s not by our own might or some coincidence. It is His will. It is our duty to humbly ask Him to make known to us which talent and spiritual gifts He planned for us to have. He needs us to use these gifts to serve Him and draw people to His saving grace. You can’t know God’s will for you if you only know Him on Sunday mornings in a church building. He needs to be a part of your everyday life. He needs to be present in the songs you listen to, the movies you watch, the company you keep, clothing you wear. You are His representative, you need to act as such. How can you really know God without constantly and intentionally spending time with Him? You need to pursue a relationship with Him cos He’s the answer to all the questions you have. 

“But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love Him.””1 Corinthians 1:9

You might be experiencing a season of drought where it’s hard to completely trust God’s plan. I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been there before. But the Word, O the Word! It constantly speaks to me and urges me on to keep believing. There are times when God seems silent. Those times are when you need Him the most, not when you throw in the towel and abandon His plan for you. Times like that are when He’s watching to see if you’ll exercise your FAITH or if you’ll let your current circumstances dictate your future. Without faith we can’t please God. 

“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

Stay encouraged dear one. You have the Creator, the one who calls things that be not as though they were as your Father. Value this relationship you have with Him and honor it by following His will. You were made to bloom. Come out of your bud, your shell, your insecurities and doubts and display the beauty God Himself has clothed you with, inside and out. He has a reason for making sure you were born and raised where you were, the schools you went to, the people you met.  The wrong friends and relationships you had serve a purpose to make you realize you deserve better and eventually lead you to the right friendships. Trust God’s process. There’s purpose behind your struggles, a purpose that’ll refine you and make you grow in Christ to be the best He made you to be.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” Proverbs 3:5,6

I want to share this lovely song by Moriah Peters. It speaks into my life and fill me with happy, hopeful thoughts with every word.

Stretch out your faith and bloom, darling. :) xoxo

Delali.

Beautiful Acts Of Kindness

Being kind is not just an attribute of a Christian. Kindness is something every soul needs to show. First off, kindness is found naturally in love. 1 Corinthians 13:4 says “love is patient and kind, love is not jealous or boastful.” So we find that if you have the ultimate thing which is love, kindness comes naturally to you. There are times when we find ourselves in certain situations where we have to be kind to even our enemies, yes, and we know it’s the right thing to do but our carnal sides try to win us over and serve our enemies hard, cold revenge. This eats our humanity away and does us no good.

So you’re thinking, but there’s no way I’m going to be kind to that guy who lied to me and did me in or that girl who called me fat and ugly. Relax. Being kind to people who hurt you does not mean you buy them a whole gift shop or you should go knocking on their door every morning to fix them snacks and lunch in their homes(unless of course they end up being very ill and you have to be the one to help out) and neither does it mean to pass them fake, forced compliments, no. What it means is that you’re stronger enough to forgive them of those horrible things they did or said to you. It means you don’t curse (even under your breath) at them when you walk pass them on the sidewalk or when you see them at the supermarket. It means looking them in the eye and civilly exchanging greetings with them. It simply means that you are kind because God, our Father, is kind, so much to the extent that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to come and die for the sins of you and I.

“But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Luke 6:35 So you see, God is kind enough to give breath to both the good and the bad guys in this world. So why won’t you be kind? Let’s also remember this verse “And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”Ephesians 4:32

As a child of this wonderfully kind Father, it’s our duty to show off all of His essence. This is sometimes not naturally easy to do but we can’t submit to our own will and live according to our desires. 2 Corinthians 5:15 says “And He died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.”

Do you see people genuinely in need of your help but you turn a blind eye to them? If yes, then that’s sadly unkind of you because sometimes God places into our hands more blessings than we need and we become the bad guys when we tightly clasp our God-given blessings in our hands and refuse to release them to bless others and show kindness. “One man gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. A liberal man will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.” Proverbs 11:24,25

“And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work.” 2 Corinthians 9:8  Does every good work in this verse mean to you supporting someone struggling with their tuition fees, or simply smiling at that girl who looks troubled and sits by herself all the time in the cafeteria? Then go ahead and be a blessing. Showing kindness doesn’t necessarily have to be in huge, sweeping acts but can be in the very little things... a smile, a genuine compliment, giving your seat up for that old lady on the bus who couldn’t catch a seat... No amount of little kind gestures go to waste.

I was on the bus some days ago and this woman in the seat beside me had a baby and another little girl with her. Because she couldn’t carry both children on her laps, the little girl had to stand so I decided to carry her till I got off the bus. It escaped me to even ask the permission of the young woman before carrying her little girl. I just did it. But she was so glad I helped, she even offered to pay my bus fare which I insisted she shouldn’t. Why? Because I didn’t want to feel like she was paying me for my kindness. You shouldn’t be kind with the intention of receiving some sort of reward back. Be kind and love just because.

She had a confused look momentarily cross her face when I turned down her offer to pay but she gave in after my insistent “Oh, no, I’ll pay myself.” ...So I paid my own fare. The little girl was sleepy and had her head dangling back and forth as she dozed off in the hot weather so I did what was the best to do by placing her head against my bosom. I’m very particular about not having sweaty people rubbing against me but that afternoon it didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that the many beads of sweat around her head temporarily stained my silky shirt or that she was actually heavy and my thighs ached a little. (No lie.) LOL. I held her like I would my very own child, arms firmly wound around her so she wouldn’t fall from the ever swaying bus on the pothole-clad road. (The streets of Accra can be one bumpy ride, it can literally cause headache. SMH)  The Good Book says “Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:1,2

Let’s get something straight. I didn’t help out because I wanted to feel good about myself and neither did I do it just because I didn’t want to look bad. I helped because the tired-looking little girl needed a place to sit her little frame and have some good ol’ sleep too. And since nothing was stopping me from offering a helping hand, I stretched it out. We should be kind not because it’s something on our to-do list but because we really want to lessen someone’s discomfort and bring a smile on their face. Kindness should come from a genuine place. It shouldn’t be forced.

We should not get tired of being kind to others who don’t even appreciate our efforts. The good ol’ Bible says “And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household faith.” Galatians 6:9,10

Let’s however be cautious in offering kindness in order not to get duped by people who go about in life thinking it’s fun to take advantage of kind hearts.

Be kind to yourself of course but don’t catch the “me me me” syndrome because life is not only about you. Open your hands and heart and practice some random acts of kindness today! God sees you and He smiles down at you when you make someone smile. So go on and be a kind soul, will ya?! Surprise someone with kindness! And know that your kindness permits others to also be kind to other people, creating one beautiful chain of kindness around and within us. Let’s be sweet, kindred souls on this temporary, earthly journey on our way to eternal life.

Jesus loves you. xoxo

Delali.