As I write this, I find myself on a stagnant, unending queue at the bank on a Thursday morning. There are people from the start of the queue leaving the line, but for some reason I'm still on the same spot. I don't even understand anymore. I'm tired, I'm hungry, and my legs are killing me. *sigh. I hate banks.
Today's mail has nothing to do with banks, though. I just wanted to make known my hatred for banks. I initially couldn't make up my mind about what to write on until someone quoted a particular statement from my last letter.
"A lot of us just want God to deal with all the steps involved but the first step is ours to take. God handles the rest."
I immediately got reminded of an angry passenger I had sat beside earlier in the week, who had been ranting about a lot of things really loudly. I initially didn't pay much attention to all he had been saying until he started sharing a particular experience he had in his school days. According to him, he had called out to God one faithful day, asking God to speak directly to him rather than through a pastor. And apparently, God's response was "My son, you are too religious. You need to face your book." The passenger said he pulled out of church after that and started paying more attention to his studies. In his words, "I started seeing so many 'A's after that." Then he said something pretty profound: "One thing about God is that He won't help you until you do something to help yourself. Once you do something first, then He'll help you."
Now, I have no idea if it was God that man heard but he was right about something: God won't help you until you do something to help yourself.
You know, a lot of us are stuck on the same level because we're "waiting on God" to bring us miracles. But we seem to forget that before the widow's jar of oil could be multiplied, she needed to get vessels to store the oil1, before water could come from a rock, Moses had to strike the rock2, before the wall of Jericho could fall, the Israelites had to march around it for 7 days3, before water could be turned to wine, the servants had to fill water pots with water4, before Naaman could be healed of leprosy, he had to wash himself in the Jordan river 7 times5, before 5000 people could be fed with 5 loaves and 2 fishes, someone actually had to bring the "5 loaves and 2 fishes.”6
Yes, God is omnipotent and He has the power to make all you desire fall onto your laps. But He won't just do that. Don't get it mixed up; God is kind, God is loving, and God unquestionably wants to see you thrive and prosper. But He won't just give you that prosperity when you're too lazy to work for it. Think about it, a good part of the book of Proverbs was practically throwing shades at lazy people.
Proverbs 21:25 NIV
[25] The craving of a sluggard will be the death of him, because his hands refuse to work.
You can't sit at home all day expecting that breakthrough to just knock on the door. Breakthroughs don’t knock, you have to chase them down. It's like a turkey, it won't exactly come to you to be captured.
You might think you're just trusting and waiting on God to make a path for you, but oftentimes, He already has. You just need to find it. You can't just sit at home watching TV and expect God to bring you that employment you've been praying for. You can't spend 4 hours watching TikTok and 20 minutes studying, then expect God to give you all 'A's in your exams. God is more than willing to help His child, but only if that child is willing to help themself.
A lot of us have this misconception about God that leads us to believe we don't have to do a thing and it'll all just fall into our laps. That's not true. You have to get up and work first. God won't just bring you prosperity. Being a child of the Most High, the assurance you have isn't that you'll flourish regardless of if you work for it or not, but that once you veritably work towards flourishing, God will undoubtedly back you up.7 But when it comes to being backed up, there has to be something for Him to back up in the first place. I believe it was Apostle Selman I heard say something like this: “the anointing on your head won't, by itself, make you prosper, it only multiplies the substance currently in you.” Having a call on your life is wasted if you don't work towards fulfilling that call. That's why “many are called but few are chosen.”8
The first command God gave to man was to be fruitful and multiply. It was a command. He didn't say to just relax and everything will work itself out. Being a student, one advice you might have heard is “pray like you didn't read and read like you didn't pray.” But you have to understand that praying like you didn't read won't be effective if you don't actually read like you didn't pray. A lot of people quote “do your best and leave the rest for God” but they forget the "do your best" part. But if you genuinely do your best and then leave the rest for God, you'll get remarkable results because God is faithful. Trusting God doesn't just stop at believing He'll come through for you. It also involves the action you take in line with that belief.
“The man that trusts God is not the man sitting at home, it's the man that has carried his fire and his wood and started the journey” - Sir David Obute.
And regarding what the angry passenger claimed God said to him, there is indeed such a thing as being "too religious." But God isn't in search of religious people, He's in search of children. He isn't looking for people who go to church every day of the week but have no private devotion with Him. There's a difference between being religious and being a child of God.
God wants you to flourish in every sphere of your life. Don't get so caught up with church programmes that you forget you have an academic life, a family, a job, and other responsibilities. Don't misquote me. Paying more attention to other spheres of your life doesn't mean you make God less of a priority. No, He should always be first. And your motivation in other spheres of your life should come from your love for God.
And lastly, I might not be a genius like Einstein, but one thing I know, is that if you hear a voice tell you to stop going to church, it isn't God.
From Yahweh's Grace,
M.I writes. 🕊️
2 Kings 4:1-6
Exodus 17:1-6
Joshua 6
John 2:1-11
2 Kings 5:1-14
Matthew 14:15-21
Under the condition that it is in alignment with His will, though.
Matthew 22:14
"God is more than willing to help His child, but only if that child is willing to help themself."
Thank you so much M.I✨
God bless youu!.
God bless you M.I🙏