Breakfast With God

"Prayer can be closed-ended or open-ended. When we think that our perspective is the only accurate one, we pray closed-ended prayers calling on God to solve the problem our way, believing it’s the only correct way. However, closed-ended praying produces two problems. Firstly, it locks us into rigid thinking and blinds us to other perspectives. Secondly, it keeps us from seeing God’s perspective, the one that can heal and restore the relationship. Open-ended praying asks God to solve the problem His way. ‘Pray then like this…Your will be done…’ Ask God to reveal His will to you both, wait until He does, then pray accordingly." (Source: UCB Word for Today) Kunmi x

The way you think about God is the key to everything. Most of the world – if they believe in Him at all – think He’s a strict headmaster with a whip in His hand, ready to punish you for sneezing at the wrong time. Others think He’s some distant, far away ‘concept’, who can’t relate to our everyday realities. Some see Him as this massive unfathomable Maker of the entirety of the earth, and therefore has no time or concern for our petty lives. To me, God is simply Dad. I won’t sit here and tell you that it’s always been like that. God and I’s relationship has gone through massive transitions over the years. Although I’ve always believed in God, for a long time, I too saw Him as ‘that far away King’ who I couldn’t quite relate to. I had no idea of who He really was, prayed empty prayers and didn’t even begin to understand the concept of grace and endless love. Although God was a reality to me, He was not real to me. That all changed so much over the last three years. I met inva

"The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." (v. 21) Adam and Eve betrayed God. They betrayed His love, His trust and the freedom He had given them. We all know, on some level, what it feels like to be betrayed by someone you love and hold dear. It stings, and can sometimes take a lot to let go (if that's you right now, ask God for the grace to forgive. Only He can and will help you).  Magnify that feeling you've felt by 1,000 - that's how God must have felt when the very creations of His hands, people who He held so close and communed with 'in the cool of the day', chose a more appealing Plan B. Here's the unbelievable part: Despite that deep hurt, God STILL chose to cover Adam and Eve's shame, and re-clothe them.  It's the same with you. Through Jesus, your Father in Heaven has re-clothed you with His love, grace, hope, favour, peace which surpasses all understanding, and the promise of Eternity. Yo

Quite early on in 2013, I knew I was waking out of God's will. In retrospect, I understand that that had to happen so that I could realise some things; however, at the time, it felt like I was carrying a huge bucket of guilt on my shoulders. I felt like I was hiding from God because I was not at peace with the choices I had made at the time. I felt like I had let Him down and therefore my prayers were half-baked and lacking in depth. I believed I didn't have the right to be in His presence because I wasn't at peace with my decisions.  What I failed to realise was, like I explained in this part one of this series, is God's love is 100% NOT performance-based. So, it wasn't about Him loving me more or loving me less. However, aside from that, peace in your heart is priceless. Listening to one of Joyce Meyer's podcasts, she explains that even if - especially when *emphasis* - you don't understand why your heart is not at peace with something, avoid it. It

Here’s the thing: The more time you spend with someone, the better you get to know them. Married couples start to act like each other, have the same mannerisms, and in certain cases, even look each other, after a while! It’s not a conscious process; it just happens naturally because you’re around someone a lot. The same thing applies to our relationship with God. The more time you spend with him, the more you’ll start to look and act like Him (which is the ultimate goal). We sometimes overcomplicate this idea of spending time with God. A good friend, who’s also an amazingly talented dancer, once asked me if dancing for God in the privacy of his room qualifies as ‘spending time with Him’. My response? Of course! We tend to think it all revolves around reading a few chapters of the Bible and saying a prayer, but it can be anything you want it to be! If you are good at writing poetry, write God a poem! If you play an instrument, play God something beautiful (even if it isn’t, He’ll

Now, this is the challenging bit. It's not been an easy thing to put into practice because I am human; however, I believe that  as recipients of love, we must also be givers . It is very easy to love the people who love you - your Significant Other, parents, siblings, friends - but loving people who are down right unloveable is the true test, and a task which requires a good amount of grace!  Over the past few years, God has really focused on this aspect of my life. He really highlighted areas (and people  who were unpleasant to say the least and frankly, didn't deserve it)  where I could put this instruction to love into practice. He made me realise that it is not about them, or whether or not they deserve it, or whether or not I felt they needed me to love them; I was simply to love because He loved . He IS love  - and if I claimed to be striving to bear the very stamp of His nature (that's a post for another day), then I couldn't pick and choose what I wanted

Not your friends... Not that Christian lady who always looks like she has 'this God thing' on lock down... Not your favourite preacher... YOU are HONOURED and LOVED ! Good morning! :) Kunmi x

I can't emphasise this statement enough; not just to you, but to myself. Everyday. The reason why I think people - not in any way excluding Christians - don't fully understand this is because we live in a world which thinks it knows what love is, but honestly has no idea. Truly unconditional love is a foreign concept to us! Hence, it is inherently difficult to understand that there is a God somewhere who actually cherishes you, no matter what you have done, are doing or are going to do. The human mind cannot fully grasp this because we are so used to the way the world works. But in recent times, The Lord has really called my attention to the reality of His boundless love.  You see, before I was trying to 'earn' it. Hey, nothing in life comes for free!,  I thought. I felt that if I did all the right things, said all the right things, thought all the right things, that I was 'paying my dues'. I knew God loved me, but common, surely He would love me ju

For a long time, I struggled with feelings of contentment; with where I physically was, what I was doing, what I had and didn’t have… the list goes on. I wasn’t truly happy for most of my late teen years because I always felt like I lacked one thing or another. I believed if I was with my family, instead of on my own in another country, I would be happy. If I were more ‘spiritual’, I would have a deeper relationship with God. If like my brother and sister, I met The One at 17 years old, then my joy would be complete. It’s a lie the devil tried to sell me, and one he will try and sell to you too. True contentment cannot come from things or people around you; it can only come from being satisfied in, and with, God – and God alone. Not God and a great big bank account, or God and a wonderful family background, or God and world-class education – God alone . Seeking satisfaction from a relationship, money, a great career or being famous will only leave you frustrated, because none o

" How do you respond when you're treated badly? A man stopped by a news-stand every morning to pick up a paper. The man behind the counter was always nasty, yet the customer was always nice to him. When a friend asked him why he remained so kind in the face of such rudeness, he replied, 'Why would I let his attitude dictate my attitude?'  How do you respond when you're tempted? You say, 'I'm in love with him. He's married and I know it's wrong, but I can't help it.' Actually, you can. You can spend an hour listening to stories from women who lost their husbands to infidelity. Look into the eyes of their children. Hear the betrayal, and see the broken promises in their eyes. When you do, you'll think new thoughts!  The Bible says, '...Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh' (Galatians   5:16 )" Kunmi x

It’s one thing for God to teach you something using His word; it’s another for Him to use a real-life experience. And boy, does He love throwing a good experience your way every now and then! In the last few months, I’ve truly had to learn the meaning of forgiveness and acceptance.  I came face-to-face with a situation that I absolutely did not expect, and my faith was pushed to a new limit. One thing I would like to highlight at this point is: Don’t worry about the trials you are going to face in future. Instead, ask God for the grace and strength to deal with them well when they do rear their ugly heads. You can get past even the most difficult things and times if you just lean into God. “As the body without spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2: 26)   Perhaps the biggest lesson I learnt is that we all sometimes need unpleasant experiences to bring out what is really inside of us. It’s easy to believe that you can extend mercy to so