YOUR YEAR IS LOOKING GREAT!!!

Thank God we made it to 2017. The first month of the year is literally over. What a blessing to have have made it this far. It’s been almost 2 years now but thank God I am here and I have not given up yet

Well, how was 2016?

Was it great? Did you walk in the perfect will of God, your love for God increased or any promotions at work, opportunities to do God’s work?

Was it rough? American Election?  Brexit gone bad? Terrorist attacks? Inflation? Unexpected surprises?

I guess it all doesn’t matter anymore because God sustained us and we made it to 2017. To some of us, New Year means new opportunities, new hope and strength to carry on with the good works. So all hope is not lost at all. God sustained us for a great reason and purpose.  New Year, New me and all the different New Year resolutions flying in the air, but hey it all comes down to one question? Does a new year really make us new? Personally I think it is a decision you have to make because consistency really requires the grace of God.

Well I have a few things to share to encourage us in this new year we're in. I call it the Practical steps to a greater 2017. So regardless of our circumstances we should see these steps as a charge to each and every one of us (including myself) and press on for a greater 2017.

The first step is putting God first in all that do. someone will ask, But what do you mean by Putting God first? Putting God first is mainly acknowledging God in all that we do. It could be a decision concerning a course, choosing a spouse or even choosing what university or college you want to go to. Naturally when we're making such decisions we just go with the flow and what we like more than asking for Gods opinion about such situations. So it's important that we aim to bring God into every step and decisions we make in 2017.

The second step is trusting God completely. Psalms 71:1 says “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion” (KJV). The dictionary defines trust as having a firm belief in the reliability, truth, or ability of someone (in this case God). It is important that we trust in God completely because trusting in yourself or other men will only lead to confusion and disappointment. This step goes hand in hand with the first one actually. I say this because when we trust someone we will trust their input and seek their opinion in everything we do. So in a way trusting in God does not only save us from confusion as the verse says but it also leads us to seek him more and put him first.

My final point is Striving to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The bible refers to the Holy Spirit as our comforter, our helper and our advocate (John 14:26)
In this New Year my charge to you is strive to have an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit because he is our helper and through fellowship with him we'll be pleasing in the sight of the most high God.

Your year is looking great, so Get up with hope, Fix your eyes on Jesus, make a decision to walk closely with him this year, put him first in all your endeavours, Trust in him completely and he shall direct your path.

Well, I guess  it's not too late to say Happy new year. This is your GREATEST year yet!!!

Louisahazel~

LIVE A LIFE THAT PLEASES GOD

Have you ever been in a position where you feel like you’re living to please someone? My answer to this question is YES. I bet you’re wondering whom I was pleasing right. Well keep reading I’ll tell you more. It got to a point in my life where my main aim in life was to please the people around me like my friends. I could go an extra mile just to make a friend happy. I quite remember back in secondary school I could lie about the things I don’t have just to fit in with some type of people I met. I used words to paint my life the colour I wanted it to be for others to see.

But by the grace of God my aim is to live a life that’s pleasing God now. Thank God for salvation. Well, I just want to encourage you to aim to please God in all that you do. I’m going to share with you some ways in which you can please God. The Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that, “And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.” (NLT)

What this verse is saying is that in other to please God you must have faith and believe he exists. What is faith then? Faith simply means having belief and confidence in someone or something based on spiritual conviction rather than proof. So instead of lying and doing certain things to please humans who will disappoint you have faith in God and that will please him.

Another way of pleasing God is by doing his will. This is confirmed in Hebrews 13:20-21 which states that, “Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.” (NRSV)

A powerful man of God once said that, “The will of God is so mysterious that we will never understand it” Trying to understand a mystery will just take an individual round in circles because we can never understand it. However when you pray, you have to find time and pray for the will of God to be done in your life because praying for the will of God covers our past, present and future.

You can also please God by fearing him. If you fear someone you obey their words and treat them in such a way that they never get angry with you. Psalms 147:11 says that “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” (KJV) The verse above is saying that God will be pleased with you if you  have a reverential awe of him and honour him.

Offering God the sacrifices he deserves is another way of pleasing. In other words God is pleased and he appreciates it when we give him sacrifices of praise as his word says that we should bless him with our soul and everything within us. God is pleased if we appreciate him for whom he is and offer him sacrifices accordingly. Hebrews 13:15-16 says that “By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.” (KJV)

Dear reader if your aim is just to please your friends and the people around you then I’ll suggest you change your style. Aim to live a life that is pleasing to God by having faith in him, doing his will, giving him the sacrifice he deserves and by fearing and obeying him. Let pleasing God become the highest priority in your life/

Stay blessed and remember to share to encourage or bless someone

~ Louisahazel

THINGS THAT FINISHED ON THE CROSS WHEN JESUS DIED

Happy easter everyone,
Hope you're all having  a great Easter. It takes love for God to send his only son to die for our sins. Well today's post was inspired by the messages Preached by Bishop Richarcd Aryee and Rev Steve during my church's  easter convention. It really blessed me thats why i'm sharing it with you guys.

Easter is a fantastic time where great things happened. Through easter we learn about the greater love of God. God sent his son to die for us so that we may have access to him freely.

John 19:30 says that
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit." (ESV)

There are a lot of things that finished on the cross when Jesus died. I'm going to share 4 of these things with you all.

4 THINGS THAT FINISHED ON THE CROSS WHEN JESUS DIED

1. Bondage and slavery to sin
Bondage and slavery of sin finished on the cross when Jesus said 'it is finished'.
If Jesus didn't die satan would have still rule our lives. Sin puts us in bondage and sin leads to death, but by grace we are saved from the wages and punishment of our sins as Jesus paid our debts on the cross
Romans 6:6 confirms this and it says that,
"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." (KJV)

Christ died on the Cross that we will never live in sin. Sin robs us from our destiny in Christ Jesus.
Sin creates a distance between ourselves and God. People tend to run away from God when they sin.
If Christ didn't die on the cross this world would have been worser than it is now.
Hebrews 9:22

2. Diseases and sickness ended with Christ on the cross
God bore our infirmities and diseases that we will never suffer from there anymore.

1 Peter 2:24 says that
"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed" (ESV)

By his stripes you are healed. If you dont believe in this verse it will never work for you.
We have to have faith in order to be able to name, claim  and take what we believe in.

  3. Disgrace ended on the Cross
Disgrace ended on the cross. The devil's intention is to steal our joy and disgrace us.
The bible says we must work out our salvation with fear and trembling.
God sent his son to die for us so that we may have access to God freely.

     4. Weaknesses finished on the Cross
We are natuarally weak people but Christ died on the cross to that we will be strenghened
in our weaknesess.

2 Corinthians 12:9 says that, "But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me." (ESV)

We should remember that Easter is not about the eggs and chickens and hot cross burns but rather it is very significant as it helps to remember the big sacrifice Jesus made for mankind.

Have a blessed Easter and Keep loving God because he loved you before even before we were born.

Remember to share as an Easter present for someone.

~Louisahazel

BE ENCOURAGED! GOD WILL NEVER FORSAKE YOU!!!!!

Happy Saturday dear readers and followers,
Hope you all had a great week. As I was having my quiet time on Thursday I felt in my Spirit to share this message with you guys. I believe it’s timely and it’s something God wants you to know about.

Jeremiah 32:26-27 states that, “Then this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “I am the Lord, the God of all the peoples of the world. Is anything too hard for me?” (NLT)

There is nothing too hard for the Lord your God. This is great to hear. I've heard this verse so many times but I have never thought about it deeply. The verse is saying God is the Lord of all the people of this world. It's saying he's the God of all Christians, God of all Muslims, Hindus, Budists and what have we. God loves us all equally

Jeremiah 31:3 says that "Long ago the Lord said to Israel “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself." (NLT)

God said he has loved us with an everlasting love, with a love that is eternal and never ending. When our friends and family members tell us that they love us we find it refreshing. How much more God's love? The one who has called us by name and loved us with an eternal love. God's love is very deep that it doesn’t even matter what we do. He doesn’t stop loving us. (Romans 5:8)

This has encouraged me to live a life that is more pleasing to God. He's the only one that has unchanging intentions about my life. He created me for a reason and a good purpose. He created me to win souls for him Yeah he said it in his word and his word is true.


Dear reader be encouraged because the Lord of Lords is with you and he'll will never forsake you.
I've spoken to a lot of people about God and what they always say is "I used go to church all the time but I don't go anymore because of issues I have. Others say they have unanswered questions.

Let me tell you one secret, staying away from church isn’t going solve your problem or it's not going to give you the answers you need, it is only going get worse. On the other hand staying in Church helps you to overcome your issues easily and it will help you to get all the answers you need. You will always have people to talk to and people who are going to be there for you and give you advice.

One more thing you need to know is that whatever you're going through somebody else have the same issues and some even have situations worse than yours. But it takes faith to overlook your problems. Keep believing in God. Your night is going to turn into day soon no matter what.
Why do you limit God to your problems? Instead of thinking about how big your problem is think about how big your God is.

1 Peter 5:7 says “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.” (NLT)

Dear reader, run to God with all your problems because he cares for you and he'll never leave or forsake you in times of need. You are not a mistake at all. You're in this world because you're meant to be.
.
In Phillipians 4:1-9, Paul talks about the secret of having joy that is greater than life's difficulties and the type of Joy that is beyond human understanding.
If you have this God given Joy you'll look beyond your problems and say to yourself there is hope.

Keep praying about that situation. I’m very sure your answer will arrive shortly. Keep believing God and have a blessed week ahead.

~Louisahazel

FLEE FROM LUST

Hello lovely people
I trust you had a great week so far? My week has been great and blessed and I’m very happy to be alive. The title for this week’s blog is Flee from lust. I'll start by telling you about a true life story of a girl called Anna.

Anna is a very beautiful girl who was brought up in a Christian family. Anna enjoyed going to church and she lived a God fearing life till she went to secondary school.

At secondary school Anna tried to fit in by doing what all her friends did because she was being bullied and called all sort of names.

Anna forgot that she had a God who was bigger than all the situations in her life. She still went to church with her parents every Sunday not because she wanted to be there but because she was told to come along by her parents.

When Anna got to College she met a new friend who introduced her to a guy called Arnold. Anna thought she found a new love when she started dating Arnold and they were both madly in love with each other.

One faithful day Arnold told Anna that if she truly loves him then she had to prove it by having sexual intercourse with him. Anna was a bit hesitant because she didn’t want to be pregnant at her age.
But as time went on she gave in to Arnold's request and lost her virginity to him because he threatened to leave her.

Sex became a normal routine in their relationship. It got to a point when Anna became aware that Arnold was cheating on her but she couldn’t leave him because she thought she had lost her virginity to him so she couldn’t move on. Anna stayed in an abusive relationship with Arnold for about 4 years until she was in second year at university.

Anna’s friend invited her to church and when she went she gave her life to Christ and became born again. At this point she still found it hard to let Arnold go. But she opened up and got a lot of advice from her pastors and gradually she gave up on the ungodly relationship she had with Arnold.

My dear reader and follower,
Can relate to Anna’s story? Then I have a few questions for you

What are your friends introducing you to? Is it drugs, clubbing or ungodly relationships? Then this is the best time to cut them out of your life. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15:33 that “be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” (KJV). The people you spend more time with can have a great impact on your life. It’s either you leave them now and hang out with people who lead you on the right path or deceive yourself that they will change for the better and stay with them.

Have you defiled yourself in a lusty way or have you missed it along the way? Then I will say this is the best time for a change. God is very ready to help you get out of lustful situations. All you have to do is ask him for help and guidance throughout the way. Just take that bold step towards living a pure life.

The bible states in 1 Corinthians 6:18 that “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.” (NIV)
To flee means to run away from a place or situation of danger. The verse above is literally saying don’t waste any time at all. Just run from the danger of sexual immoralities.



So aim to live a pure life by regarding your body as a temple of the Holy Spirit and be in a relationship where God will be the centre of the decisions you make. Trust me, if he truly loves you he will wait till you get married. Learn to wait on the Lord and your strength will be renewed.

Have a fruitful week ahead and don’t forget to RUN when you sense any lustful dangers around you.

GIVERS AND TAKERS

Hello lovely followers and readers
Hope you all had a fruitful week. My week has been fruitful by the grace of God
This weekend I’m sharing on the title “Givers and takers”

A giver is someone who gives freely from their heart whiles a taker is someone who enjoys taking from others all the time.

Are you a giver or a taker? This question is actually deeper that you think it is.
Let me ask another question do you have friends who only contact you when they need something from you? Or do you have friends who always want to be on the receiving end and never on the giving end?

It is actually amazing how greedy some people can be. I know a lot of people who always enjoy being on the receiving end but never want to give something back.
Most friendships don't work out because sometimes some givers also give up on their taker friends.

Think about your relationship with God for a second. Do you talk to God because you want an intimate and personal relationship with Him or are you a type of person who always knocks on God's door only when trouble arises?

My dear reader if you find yourself always asking God for favours then I have a few tips for you.
1. Learn to thank God for his mercies upon your life rather than asking for a favour

2. Learn to thank Him for the undeserved favour you receive from him all the time rather than talking about your troubles

3. Learn to Thank God for his everlasting and unconditional love rather than talking about the car you need.

4. Learn to ask God to forgive your sins because the bible says in Romans 3:23 that "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (KJV). You don’t really want to be asking for favours when you have fallen short of God’s glory do you?

5. Spend time to acknowledge God and exalt Him for how great he is because there is no one like Him and there will never be any one like Him.

6. Pray for God's will to be done in your life because if you pray for the will of God, your future and entire life is covered.

7. Pray to God to help you become a giver rather than a taker.

There’s a lot more you could do to draw closer to God but these seven steps could be your starting point.

On the other hand if you find yourself as a giver in any relationship of your life then continue giving and never give up on giving because as you're giving and helping someone, you will also remembered and given to in Jesus name!

Writing on giving also reminds me of giving offerings and tithes to help church growth. The bible says in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 that “But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.” (NKJV)

There’s a saying that goes like “where your heart is there will your money and treasure also be.” So if you say you love God then you have to be faithful to Him in your finances. I’ve realised that not being faithful to God your finances actually robs you off God’s protection, guidance and blessings. So from now on give cheerfully to God and he’ll bless you with more than you could ever wish for.

Be a happy giver because the Bible says in Acts 20:35 that “It is more blessed to give than to receive”
Have blessed week ahead and give to someone by sharing this post with them.

WHAT IF

Do you ever think about certain things and then ponder on it more to ask yourself a simple question like what if? Well there are lot of questions that comes to our minds day in and day out but the only problem is we never really find answers for them.
Now take time and ask yourself these questions

What if, GOD couldn't take the time to bless us today because we couldn't take the time to thank Him yesterday?

What if GOD decided to stop leading us tomorrow because we didn't follow Him today?

What if, we never saw another flower bloom because we grumbled when GOD sent the Rain?

What if GOD didn't walk with us today because we failed to recognize it as His day?

What if, GOD took away the BIBLE tomorrow because we would not read it today?

What if, GOD took away His message because we failed to listen to the messenger?

What if, the door of the CHURCH was closed because we did not open the door of our heart?

What if, GOD stopped loving and caring for us because we failed to love and care for others?

What if, GOD would not hear us today because we would not listen to Him?

What if, GOD answered our prayers the way we answer His calls.

What if, GOD met our needs the way we give Him our lives???

What if, we make we become great examples for non-believers to follow????
I’m sure there would be a lot of saved Christians around if we take it upon ourselves to become good examples to our friends, family and the people we live with. As Christians we should aim to be soul winners because the bible says in Luke 15:10 that “I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.”(NKJV)

Imagine what the atmosphere in heaven would be like if more than one soul repents.

The bible says in Matthew 5:16 that “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven”(NKJV)
WE can let our light so shine in this world by standing out and doing the will of God rather than the things the world classifies as normal. For instance when your friends are listening to secular music you can choose to listen to gospel music. When you see people posting a whole lot of unnecessary stuffs on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks you can choose share the word of God or other inspiring materials.

The last question is what if you gave God your all and seek his face always?

Some days our thoughts are a mangled mess and concentration is just impossible. On such days we need A Moment of Inspiration to keep us moving on. A way to figure out what is irritating, depressing and worrying us. Today’s blog serves as broom for my brain and hopefully for you. Since I hope you were inspired and encouraged.
Have a lovely week ahead and remember to let your light so shine.

~Louisahazel