Who do you look to?

'I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made Heaven and earth. He will not let my foot be moved. He who keeps me will not slumber.......' Psalm 121

For some reason, I have been so vimless these days. It's really crazy. I don't know if any of you have ever gotten to a point in your life where for some reason you feel too lazy to read your Bible. Too lazy to have your quiet time and meditate, and too lazy to pray for yourself. Funny thing is I found time to stop in the middle of the day and say a short prayer for other people that I cared about. Yet I couldn't pray for myself. I dunno why. Maybe I thought my problems where so many and if i started praying, it would end up praying for like 30 minutes or something. Or maybe I just didn't want to deal with my problems, because in order to pray about something, I would have to think about it first, and I didn't want to have to deal with that. Ok, now I'm sure you think I have some pleeeeeeeenty problems. I probably don't. Hmmm... But life after college seems to be a big one. Extended family issues seems to be another one. Just those two are enough to give me a headache. I guess another thing is that somehow I figured that God would always be there for me, and He knows my needs, my dreams, my aspirations, my musings and my confusion .... or maybe I was just being lazy and stupid. Who knows. Anyway, I prayed yesterday.. it took a lot for me to pray. Yet after I finished I felt so relieved. I felt like I had just spoken to my long lost friend. My friend who was always 1 step behind me and 2 steps ahead of me at the same time. The friend who protected me from 'the snare of the fowler' and who 'sent his angels to take charge of me and guard me in all my ways ... ' (Psalm 91).  I felt so relieved yesterday, because I felt like I had properly poured my heart out. I even prayed for all my friends that I was worried about. Those who were sick, those who were looking for jobs, those with relationship problems etc.. Felt so much better than my random one minute 'Oh God, How are You? I know You are well. I'm also well. Please guide me through the day. Amen' or 'God, you said by your stripes we are healed. Please heal so and so person. aMEN'. Not that there's anything wrong with those short hurried prayers on the tube. However, its always good to spend more time with God, have a conversation with him, and pour your heart out. Trust me, when you are done, you'll feel so much better.

So here's my question for the day.
When you are in need, when your friends are in need, who do you look to? For who you look to will greatly affect your mood, your perspective, and the result you get!

Peace and Love ppl!

I Look To You - Whitney Houston

Then what?

I had a discussion with a relative some years ago which brought back something I had wondered about since childhood. I hear bereaved people say things like "I know he's in a better place now", or "I'm not worried because I know she's in Heaven now" and I used to wonder why they thought that. My relative was saying how she does believe there are such things as ghosts but she doesn't believe that everyone who dies becomes a ghost because otherwise her father (who passed when she was a teenager) would have intervened in her life in some way and prevented past misfortunes from befalling her.

Before we had this discussion, I thought of ghosts as a useless topic. I never thought of a ghost as something that could actually offer comfort to someone. My relative would have felt better knowing that her father's ghost was with her, looking out for her. She made me realise that people don't always see ghosts as scary. At the same time, I realised how focused human beings, even Christians, can become on the here and now.

How do you know what happens to people when they die? The Bible really is sufficient and as I grew up and fell a little more in love with searching the scriptures, the answer became so clear.

According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will come down from heaven...and the dead in Christ will rise first...And so we will be with the Lord forever (1 Thessalonians 4:15-17)

So if I'm reading this right, when people die, they don't go anywhere. They neither go to heaven nor hell, that's for sure. Like the living, they must first face Judgement Day. We may know this but choose to comfort ourselves with the thought of our loved ones sitting up in heaven already, smiling down at us. But so then what happens to our spirits while we wait for Judgement Day?

Is it possible that we become ghosts then? No, because the author of Hebrews says that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgement"(9:27). We're not doing anything. We're not watching over our loved ones or protecting them because we don't become angels when we die. We're only waiting. It figures because for God, a day is like a 1000 years and a 1000 years like a day (2 Peter 3:8) so we're probably not waiting very long.

It's important that Christians are realistic about physical death and what happens after because it's inevitable; and by realistic, I mean Bible-informed. One thing we know for sure is that whether our bodies are alive or dead, our spirits and souls are conscious and we can find true comfort in knowing that "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints"(Ps. 116:15). Dead or alive, God cherishes His children.

Thankful 102

Dear God,

Thanks for the other night: family time with you is refreshing.
Thanks for my job and all my colleagues at work. They are painful and wonderful at the same time.
Thanks a lot for allowing me to understand and love my work. I already see myself shining like you promised. Tell Mr. Ghost to keep me humble even when I make it to the top.
Lord thanks for transportation forth and back every day...When do I get my own ride?? My legs almost always don't fit in the darn commercial buses.
I'm also grateful for the stunt you pulled the other day. I was shocked but glad you did.
Thanks because you alone give me the strength to work as much as I do. I hope this blessing comes without gray hair. I'm still young.
Thanks for UPS Ghana. They're timely and reliable and without them I never would've been able to get a copy of Sherri Shepherd's Permission Slips.
Thanks for letting the reader of this post understamd that although the book targets women, there are some interesting things everyone can learn from it therefore reading it doesn't make me sissy. Plus it's enjoyable to say the least.
Thanks because I was wrong about the dude who I thought was gay. It would've been a shame.
Thanks for all those ideas you keep pushing into my head but good God! slow down....ok so will you add that to my swearing list? I hope not because really, I AM talking to YOU.
Thanks for understanding.
...Thanks for listening to all my prayers and answering some. Try email sometime, it's really good. You could have your own Gmail (GodMail) account.
Thanks for small mercies. I was thinking, instead of giving them bit by bit why don't you put them all together and gimme a HUGE blessing? Never mind me Lord, you know what's best for me and I thank you for not making me figure everything out myself. To have your job would be just impossible for mortal me. Your multi-tasking is off the hook! Yea, I watched Bruce Almighty. I think you were great and you made your point. Now I know for sure that you're black. lol.

Sincerely yours,

Ananse

We live to see...

Young as we are we all have needs and wants, most of which as children of God we channel to Him. Our prayers and life in general are about what He can do for us and sometimes (which should not be the case) what we can do for Him, so to speak. But have you ever wondered what your needs would be when you grow old and may have fulfilled most of your earthly requirements?
Yesterday at church a group of well aged men and women gave me insight into and a glimpse of what life ends up being all about in old age. An elderly man from the group said a couple of things I couldn't hear but their song re-emphasized it all. In a nutshell, the end is all about God's glory filling the earth and the universe thereof. Elderly people don't worry much about wants and needs as much as they wallow in great expectation of the Second Coming, when all evil and earthly desires will fade away and the Glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Then I remembered what serving God is all about. It's not about the 'going to heaven' aspect, rather, it's about the eternal glory of God and us being a part of it. Throughout our lives we hear about God in all his splendor and might and glory, and only experience a microcosm of it. Serving God is more satisfying when we hold and press on towards the goal of seeing the fullness of the His glory.