Breakfast With God

This morning, I had a very in-depth chat with someone I love very much about guilt. This person is currently struggling with feeling as if something they have done has created a "permanent dent" in their relationship with God. Their challenge is not unique. Many, many Christians - and non-Christians alike - struggle with not being able to stop beating themselves up, and feeling as though there is no coming back from what they have done, especially  when it's a repeated sin. It's something I often struggle with as well. Because there is no better way to explain how powerful guilt is, the impact it can have on our relationship with God, and just how (WELL) the devil uses it to keep us down, here is exactly what I told my loved one this morning: Think back to a few weekends ago when you were so excited about God, you felt so free and you felt like you finally understood certain things. That feeling right there is what the devil is going to constantly attack you ...

I'm lucky enough to teach a lovely, lively bunch of children at Sunday School every week. Two weeks ago, at a Saturday session at church, I had learnt more about the Holy Spirit, who He really is and why we have Him (and need Him). Immediately, I thought: Hey, this is a great lesson to teach the kids soon. Yesterday, I decided today would be the perfect day to approach this topic with my young squad. I particularly thought this was a good idea because I needed to learn more about the Holy Spirit. While preparing to teach, I researched how to go about teaching younger children about this not-so-easy topic. You hear so much about God and Jesus, but not that much about the Holy Spirit (which they affirmed today, btw). I got help from this great Sunday School website, which suggested to use a great visual analogy: An egg. An egg is made up of three parts: The shell, egg white and yolk. Although the different parts exist, it's still an egg; each part is 'folded' into ...

Reading Genesis 5, from start to finish, you'll find the chapter talks a lot about Adam's family line. This person lived 905 years and had XYZ children; this person died after 830 years and had so-so amount of sons. The story (recorded) was pretty much the same for all them - Adam, Seth, Mahalalel, etc. - until you get to Enoch. For the first time in the entire chapter, something other  than just how old they were when they died, and how many kids they had was documented about someone!  Of course, each of the men in Genesis 5 weren't 100% identical, with the exact same experiences, relationships with God, attributes and talents, but only Enoch got the chance to have a more significant part of his story told - and centuries and centuries after, people are still reading/talking about him. When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.   After he became the father of Methuselah,  Enoch walked faithfully  with God  300 years and had ot...

I'm constantly amazed by how much of what God has done for me, and the access he's given me to wonderful things that I actually have no clue about. And that's simply for the reason that I didn't go searching for it in the Bible. The awesome promises of God for all of us who believe in Him are right there in His Word; a lot of the time we just don't know because we don't go looking. Do you know there are some difficulties you don't have to endure, for the simple fact that you're a Christian? A lot of the time, all we really need to do is put pressure on the Word of God to work for us! God's great promises to you are right there in the Bible, but they won't work in your life unless you do! You are a child of God; a co-heir with Jesus Christ (God's Word says so); you are higher than the angels (as grand as they seem), for Heaven's sake!  "For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are my Son; I have become your Fath...

How many times do you feel like there just aren't enough hours in the day to fit in quality time with God? How often do you spend roughly about one minute saying a quick prayer, just before jetting out of the house? How often do you subconsciously think - or sometimes even use the words - "God understands" - that you're busy, tired or too stressed to focus on Him.  This isn't a guilt trip - because I'm super guilty of all of this and more.  A preaching I heard last Sunday really challenged me to push myself and my faith MUCH further than I ever have.  I spent the entire day thinking about the amount of time I spend working, on Twitter/Snapchat, talking to my Significant Other, or unwinding with a little TV/series time.  The answer is: A lot.  I purposely, deliberately, actively created -and maintained - TIME for each of those things. So where in the heck did I get the idea that spending time with God would just magically work itse...

Earlier this week, while I was praying, a series of words came out of my mouth that I hadn't really planned: God, I'm committed to you. God, I'm committed to this relationship. I know there have been - and will be - ups and downs, but I am committed to walking this journey of life with you. God, this is a marriage. All of a sudden, I paused, opening my eyes, to really  think about those words. My next set of thoughts were:  How had I never thought about my relationship with God like this? Because that's exactly what we are (or supposed to be) in with God: A marriage. For the first time in my life, in that moment of solitude and communion, I recognised that my relationship with God was totally a 'for better, for worse' situation. It was an epiphany point. Billions and billions of us have either said those words or will say those at some point - whether or not we realise the gravity of it at the time - in our lifetime. And if we can say those words...

I'm very critical of myself; overly critical, one person really close to me tells me at least once a week. It's a good and terrible thing. On the one hand, my acute awareness of my flaws can leave me feeling frustrated and overwhelmed with myself; on the other, it drives me to better and better - because I know I can do and BE more. Over the last few weeks, I realised something about myself I really hadn't noticed for most of my adult life (which isn't that long at all, actually.): I enjoy satisfying myself more than any Christian really should. I love comfort, long, lazy weekends, and nice, tidy endings to my day. I love my day, week, life going according to (my) plan. I love when nothing and no one ruffles my schedule - whether that's giving someone a lift, which will take me off my usual route home, or having to take a bigger life detour. It's mostly because I'm organised, and subconsciously proud enough to believe my plans are the best.  But, w...

Honestly? Growing up listening to Nigerian worship music, I wasn't totally in love. With us two, there was just no real connection, so it took a while (I'm talking over ten years) for me to really start enjoying - not enduring - Christian music. About seven years ago, when I discovered the likes of Hillsong Worship, the game totally changed. I fell in love - and it's a love that's just kept on growing.  The deep lyrics and soft melodies totally took me to another dimension. I felt like I was right before God, just there singing to Him. So, here are the top 5 worship tunes I cannot get enough of! I hope you love them just as much! Love, Kunmi x 1. Yahweh - Elevation Worship 2. I Can Only Imagine - Tamela Mann 3. For Your Glory - Tasha Cobbs  4. O Come To The Altar - Elevation Worship 5. Koma Si (No One) - Tim Godfrey ft. Ccioma and IBK

I'm a champion at beating myself up. I don't need other people to highlight my shortcomings; they are glaring to me, and over-exaggerated in my mind.  I'm a lot better now, though, I have to admit. And that's because of a beautiful God who doesn't condemn me the way I do myself; who isn't shocked at or overwhelmed by my personal failures; who doesn't remind me of every thing I'm not doing right.  Yet still, lately I've been feeling like an extra crappy Christian. I don't spend as much time absorbing the Bible the way I'd love to. I haven't been spending enough quiet time with God, just talking or waiting or listening. And I've allowed other things and people to take centre stage, in all honesty (much as it hurts me to admit it).  Worse, I've whineeed about it for WAY too long. Because, all the while, I've had the power - with God's help and grace - to do something about everything I was unhappy with. And you ...

Diversity.  Nothing will kill the one-on-one time you spend with God faster than repetitiveness. One of our biggest challenges as Christians, who've been sold the lie that we have  to be a certain way to be accepted by God, is the failure to realise (and truly understand) that God has no interest in religious rituals. The minute the heart and soul of your worship is missing, you lose God's attention. Growing up, I used to believe alone time with God had  to be me getting up at the break of dawn, sitting down with a big, fat KJV Bible, reading words I didn't understand, singing songs I'd heard over and over that never really made sense to me, and saying overcomplicated prayers, throwing around words like 'sanctify' so that it was all more authentic. FAIL. Obviously, years  later, I'm way past all of that. I now understand that God treasures an honest, simple heart - and honest, simple worship - more than anything. And that now translates to every pa...

How many times have you heard some preacher, motivational speaker, or life coach tell you that exactly what your life is missing is a little bit more gratitude? If your timeline is anything like mine, how many Instagram quotes on being thankful do you scroll past every day? Most of us understand the concept of gratitude; why it's necessary; all the things we even have to be grateful for - family, good health, work that we enjoy/at least, pays the bills, and all that goodness. We get it.  Lots of people, from just around the corner from us, to halfway around the world, don't have a quarter of what we do, so QUIT that whining right now! But the truth is, many times, it's very difficult to put thankfulness in practice. Because even though we are incredibly blessed with all these beautiful things, it's hard sometimes not  to focus on all that's missing in our lives - especially when we believe we deserve it! Turning a blind eye to what's going wrong is tough b...

I recently got into the Nigerian radio industry, which a year ago was completely uncharted waters. I had an idea of what I wanted to do, but no real idea of how I could do it, or how long it would take to get where I wanted to be. I can categorically tell you that I could not have gone through the last 12 months without the support of people who love me.  I don't always have the strength, mental resolve or drive to keep going, but G od has very thoughtfully placed the most incredible people in my path to push, prod and propel me forward. It's a journey I could never have walked on my own.  And every single one of us, on all our different journeys, at all the various stages, absolutely NEED pushers, proders and propellers. God is totally in charge of your life and everything that happens to you - as long as you ask Him to be a part of it - but He's also given us people to help with some of that encouragement. The truth is: We are all (supposed to be) each other's ...

I learnt about the real power of prayer today, from this amazing short clip of an interview with War Room's  Priscilla Shire. When we have an issue we need to overcome, or an obstacle standing in our life's way, we tend to opt for physical solutions , because they are the ones we know how to handle/utilise most effectively. "However, if we are always targeting what we can  see, and never get round to the undercurrent of what we can't see, then we'll never have any lasting change. Because that undercurrent will still always be effective," Priscilla Shire explains. Here's the absolute truth: For every visible, physical event that we see happen in our lives or around us - positive or negative - there is a spiritual counterpart that we cannot see.  There is a VERY REAL ENEMY, who wants us to focus our attention on everything else apart from the real target - HIM. In our culture, homes, churches, workplaces, we are under a very real threat.  So, we ...

I woke up this morning and felt immediately discouraged.  First of all, Tuesday morning marked the end of the glorious three-day weekend, and I really wasn't quite ready to face the world yet, or deal with fuel scarcity issues, OR manoeuvre around in this heat.  Secondly, I had allowed myself to get bugged down by this irritating, persistent issue, and I couldn't get my mind to let it go.  Lastly, everything felt on top of me: Money worries, career worries, and what-the-heck-does-the-future-hold worries.  So, really, I didn't want to get out of bed. Because the minute you do is the minute you actually have to DEAL WITH YOUR LIFE - and man, I just wasn't ready. But a clear, simple thought (in actual fact, it was a prayer) came to mind, and came straight  out  through my lips, with no hesitation: "Lord, forgive me for every time that I've forgotten that I'm built to worship." Not focus on every little thing - real and imagined - that ...

You can be cooking and smiling at yourself. Dressing up and laughing at yourself. Getting to work and swing your hips from side to side because you know you are happy. You feel happy and you know it deep down. As a woman, feelings are like second nature. You call a woman fat or skinny and it hits a nerve immediately. A fuss could be created or a tear could be shed but essentially it all boils down to feelings.  Women nowadays go after their hearts and guts and that's the way to  finding oneself. The best way to go is to lean on those little voices that direct you to matters of the heart where empathy lives and love is created. Little wonder why women do so successfully in fields of medicine, academia and social sciences. It all boils down to what matters most; the issues of the heart.  But consider all that love of finding purpose, finding true love, finding God and not actually finding oneself? Apologies to oneself is already in the works if the realisation that a...

“My help and glory are in God —granite-strength and safe-harbor-God— So trust him absolutely, people; lay your lives on the line for him. God is a safe place to be.” (Psalm 62:7-8 MSG) I love this verse. There's just one tiny detail I'd change had I written the Psalms -  God is the safest place to be.  Be rest assured that no friend, parent or partner loves you more than God. God has your back the way no one can. What better place to be?    I pray that God will reassure you of the truth of his love and protection, even in the darkest and most difficult of times.  Kunmi x

Sometimes, a really important message is best when it comes straight from the horse's mouth. So here's one of the most eye-opening UCB daily messages of the year, for me, so far. Enjoy! "When Ananias and Sapphira saw others selling their land and giving the proceeds to the church so the poor could be cared for, they thought it was a great idea - in theory. However, when they sold some land they withheld part of the money and then lied about it. They wanted increased visibility and spiritual status without paying retail for it. They wanted to ‘look the part’ without having to pay the price.  But Peter exposed their sin, saying, ‘You didn’t lie to people. You lied to God!’ (Acts 5:4 CEV). Not only were their motives exposed, they both dropped dead. And as a result, ‘Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened’ (v. 11 NLT).  One pastor says: ‘Numerous Sundays I’ve preached a message that deeply moved the members of my congreg...

“My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you’ve been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live Him . You’re deeply rooted in Him. You’re well constructed upon Him.  You know your way around the faith. Now do what you’ve been taught. School’s out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.” (Colossians 2:6-7 MSG) Have a lovely day! Kunmi x

In this season, God is really showing and teaching me a lot about prayer - as well as other things like fasting (what it really means and how it helps us) - and having REAL faith when I have no clue what the heck is going on with my life.  I've learnt so much about prayer in the last few months, and I will continue to share the lessons as I go along. But what I learnt this week was so fundamental: PRAYER WITHOUT EXPECTATION IS EMPTY.  I read this fantastic article on relevantmagazine.com , which is AN AMAZING WEBSITE, with lots of AMAZING articles about the Christian life. Gosh, I love it.  Anyway, the writer said: " What I realized recently [...] is that the place I may struggle the most in prayer is actually my expectancy. I’ve discovered my really biggest problem with prayer is that I just go through the motions. You might be thinking that it wouldn't make a lot of sense to go through the trouble of praying if you didn't expect something to ...