Breakfast With God

I'm ending the year in a fantastic way. For the first time in 12 months, God has blessed me with more time for myself, and I'm loving it! It's also a fantastic opportunity for me to self-reflect - which can be a great and scary thing in pretty equal measures. In the last month, the Holy Spirit has helped me realise how selfish I actually am and how I've been so clueless as to how I constantly put my needs first - but that's a post for another day. Today, let's talk emotions. We all have them. It's not exclusively a female thing (even though we tend to be more expressive with them), it's a human thing. Anger, jealousy, hurt, disappointment, covetousness, pain... we feel it all from time to time - and we have every right to. But w hat God is currently teaching me about emotions is life-changing.  I used to describe myself as "an emotional person", whereas here's what I really was: a person controlled and consumed by emotions. Wh

I learnt the most powerful thing about marriage last Sunday: "marriage is a test-run for your eternal relationship with God". My pastor might not have realised the impact of his words or the lasting effect it would have on me, but boy , did it hit home. Recently, I've had recurrent issues in my relationship - issues that frequently take me to my knees (I sometimes make the mistake of forgetting to take them ALL!). In particular, lately, I've been praying the 1 Corinthians 13 prayer - Lord, help me to patient, kind, keep no record of wrongs... I'm still praying this prayer, but with a different outlook - and end goal.  Marriage - yours and mine - should be a mirror/reflection of our relationship with God. Developing patience, kindness, compassion, gentility, loyalty and all these other wonderful attributes isn't just for our earthly relationships - they cross over to our relationship with God. If we ask and let the Holy Spirit work within us to change us

This morning, I was reading Matthew 6 ( loving it, if I'm totally honest!)  and this entire chapter was jumping out to me in a whole new way.  Most of us know the popular verse from this chapter: "You cannot worship God and Money both." (vs. 24, MSG) It's not a new passage to me. When I read it, I think, of course, yeah; money is the root of all evil and stuff. So, can't have both, can we?  However,  this morning, my understanding of these words went so much deeper. The Holy Spirit revealed to me a brand new meaning in these lines. We often think "worshipping money" means being a gambler, total shopaholic, avid lottery player or all those other things. Images of people going as far as killing others to get that cheddar come to mind. Now, this is the reality: we do it every day. As a Christian, every time you dwell on the current state of your bank account, allowing it to give you sleepless nights, you worship money. Every time you trust in your

They say, "you are what you eat." I say, "you are what you prioritise." I've been spending a lot of time focusing on my problems lately; the things that irritate me; the things that are wrong; the things that need to change. While I wouldn't advise squashing your problems (no matter how illegitimate you think they are) and pretending everything is fine, it's important not to be consumed by them - something I am quite the expert at. All focusing on everything that's wrong in your life does is it makes you forget the big picture - lose track of what's really important. I believe it's a tool the devil has used many times on me to make me forget why I'm really here on Earth: to be an extension of God - every day. I am here to care and love; I am here to show people there is another Way to joy in life; I am here so that people will know the truth that God is their beginning, middle and end; their breath, life and very being. Source: t

I have a habit in my life of being controlling. It took me years, having a fight with my partner where he told me I was "a control freak" and doing some real soul-searching, to realise that this was truly one of my biggest issues - and biggest blind spots. From what to have for breakfast in two days, to my free time, to my future kids' first birthdays, I love the feeling of having every little detail sorted out. I thrive on it; I revel in it. I would almost describe it as my drug.  Now, as you can imagine, that's a very challenging drug to be addicted to when you're in a relationship with God; a relationship where there should be complete dependence; a relationship of total submission; a relationship of absolute trust. Not being able to independently make decisions that affect my life is one of the biggest challenges I face in my life. Last year, I realised something about myself I really wasn't comfortable with and knew I had to do something about. I ha

This morning, I was reading a message from a WhatsApp contact that made me see/understand a famous verse from Psalm 119 in a totally new way. Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path. (v. 105) For the first time, this message painted a visual in my mind: I imagined myself walking along a garden pathway, holding a lamp or lantern. What I realised was, in actual fact, the lamp wouldn't light up the entire pathway, from start to end; it would only show me the next few steps on the way. Just the next few steps. The truth is, if we're going to walk with God; if we're going to really trust Him, just those next few steps need to be enough. God hardly shows us the full picture; He requires us to trust that even if/when we don't see the entire pathway illuminated, we will continue to walk with Him, lamp (the Word of God) in hand, ready to take on what life brings. It also helped me remember the importance of the Bible as an actual everyday guide . We shouldn&

A few years ago, I read an article where the author suggested that the way we communicate with God changes in different seasons of our lives. I understood it; I agreed with it; but I couldn't very much relate to it until about 5 days ago. I've been through a fairly difficult time in the last two weeks, and I have to admit that instead of that pushing me to speak with God more, I felt I was spending a significantly smaller amount of time praying. That's a bad thing, right? Well, maybe not. The truth, in fact, was: I was probably spending more time praying than usual, just not in an 'actual', 'formal', 'Dear God...' kind of way. I was consistently muttering, thinking, saying prayers throughout the day.  But that's not where I'm going with this.  The truth is: communicating with God does not remain constant through all the seasons of your life. That's something the author of that article pointed out: he went through a phase where he

Recently, the Holy Spirit has been helping me understand that there is so much pride in me, and that if I continue to let it grow and fester, it will only lead to my own destruction. You see, pride is a funny thing. It masks itself as self-respect; as self-worth; as knowing who you are and simply being confident in your own achievements. But sometimes, it's (a lot) more than that.  The truth is, sometimes, we place ourselves on such a high pedestal and subconsciously glorify ourselves so much that we can't stand the thought of accepting anything less. Let me put this quick disclaimer here: I don't believe in settling for just anything ; that's not what this is about. I realised, with the help of the Holy Spirit , that I had gotten to the point where I despised the 'days of humble beginnings' my career was passing through; where I felt I was on a 'certain level' where I couldn't be treated any less than the best; where I was worried about what p

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on this massively eye-opening reading in my YouVersion plan. "T he main focus of God’s plan is God, not us," the author said - to which I was like: Say what? What do you mean  everything God planned, did or will do wasn't about me? But didn't He come to die for me ?  My natural, self-absorbed self just couldn't grasp it. "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord. "And my ways are far beyond what you could imagine." (Isaiah 55:8, NLT) This reading below testifies to that completely. We often get lost in ourselves and (if we're being completely honest), our belief that God's plans should revolve around us and our comfort. Hence, why, like I said, this reading was a massive eye-opener: God had all His plans in place when He created us. He knew exactly how much everything was going to cost, knew exactly what His ultimate goal was, and knew how everything was going to turn out

I love Breakfast With God so much because it provides me with the great opportunity to share personal, life-changing moments with people all over the world. A few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s birthday get-together, but this was a different type of shindig. While all 20 or so of us guests (all ladies) were there to celebrate my amazing friend, she made her special day really about Someone else. The celebration was all intended to point the attention to God and his overwhelming love for us. I thought that was a fantastic idea. ‘Small chops’ (a sort of Nigerian take on canapés/starters), lots of banter and beautiful worship music later, my celebrant friend, calmly and unknowingly, said the most mind-blowing thing: I was walking home one evening, with the Lord – I know that sounds strange, but yes , it does happen – by my side, and the Holy Spirit revealed something amazing to me; that this – this closeness, this friendship, this intimacy – is why Jesus really died for us.

Ever heard the saying, "Heaven helps those who help themselves?" Ever wondered where exactly that scripture can be found? No where. Because it was never written in the Bible! There are many misconceptions about God and His Word. A very common one that often gets overlooked is: What it actually takes to make it to Heaven. What God's Word actually says  and the message we - directly 0r indirectly - often hear being preached are two completely different things. "Whosoever believes and is baptised will be saved..." (Matthew 16:16) : That's what the Word of God says. But very often, I hear Christians ask questions like, "If God came right now and met me doing this, would I go to Heaven?", or "Oh, I don't want this thing to prevent me making Heaven, so I'm not going to do XYZ." While choosing to live a life that makes God happy is honourable, and the absolute right thing to do, none of that is - by no means - what grants you acce