He remembers no more!

Romans 8:12 “For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more”

If there is one childhood experience I’ll never forget, it would be the time my elder sister put me in the freezer because I said I wanted to feel how cold London really is. We both conived and I gave my consent. Apparently, we watched a movie where a boy put his brother in the freezer, so we decided to try it out. Some time later, the whole family sat watching the same movie again, and when that particular scene came up, my younger brother remembered our escapade and told my cousin, who told my mom, who told my dad. Of course, my dad took his cane and began to really beat me. As he was flogging, I began to scream “daddy forgive and forget”! Surprisingly, he stopped, and I thought that was the end of it, until I did something else, and he brought up the whole issue again. Of course, I felt since he had forgiven me, he’ll never remember (I told him to forgive and forget). However, he may have forgotten, but when I offended another time, he chose to remember it. I’m sure my father is not the only typical African parent that has done that. Most of our parents do same even as at now. But guess what (drumrolls!), it is so not the same with God! And I’ll tell you how and why.
So sometime last week, I was having my moment with God, and while I was praying and interceding, the accuser of the brethren (devil) began to remind me of my shortcomings. I started stuttering in my prayer because I was reminded of the plenty sins that I had committed. Even the ones I had confessed, and asked forgiveness for. Suddenly, Psalms 103:12 dropped in my spirit and I came back to my senses. That verse says “He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west”. I became so reassured, and I continued my prayer without fear or uncertainty. Most times, we choose not to pray, not because we don’t want to, but because we feel dirty and unfit to make our requests known to God. Someone once said that God cannot forget our sins because he is omniscient and he knows all things. You see, God doesn’t say he’ll forget. He says he’ll remember no more! That is way stronger than forgetting. It means that even if we offend again, he’ll never bring up our sins like my dad did. Once we fall short and we confess, God totally formats our system and starts all over again with us. He doesn’t just put it in the recycle bin where it can be restored, he empties it permanently, never to be recovered again so that we can pray freely without feeling dirty or sinful. For our sake, God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God. Our sins have been covered, our shame has been removed, our fears and uncertainties, our weaknesses, our shortcomings, God has chosen not to remember them. He has chosen not to remember our sins in the way he treats us, but to treat us as righteous. We are the ones guilty of remembering our sins when praying. We cannot keep giving the devil the guts to bring our sins back to memory when they have been completely deleted by God. Can you tell how far the east is from the west? Can you tell where the border line for east lies, and the beginning of west? Of course not! They are so far away from each other that we can’t even tell the demarcation between both. God is saying that that is how far our sins are from us and from him. So when next the devil points his finger at you and remind you of your shortcomings, remind him that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death, and you are no longer held for your sins because God has locked them up in a box, and he has thrown the keys into the deepest part of the ocean where it can never be retrieved! Once we confess our sins, God forgives us, and remembers them no more. So when next you pray, don’t consider yourself as sinful, but pray as the righteousness of God that you are because God remembers those sins no more! Until later, God bless!

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The Power that we have!

2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.

    As a child, whenever I was told to pray, my favourite phrase was “whatsoever we bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatsoever we loose on earth is loosed in heaven”. I particularly liked that phrase because it usually made my prayer longer, and my dad would not have to pray again after I prayed already (he still does it though😒). However, as I grew up, that verse began to make more meaning to me. I looked for it in the scriptures, and Jesus was saying to Peter somewhere in Mathew that “And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. Whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven”. Super awesome right?! You see today I wanted to do a part two of the last post on love. But I was reading the scriptures today and I came across this verse, alongside several others and the Holy spirit said “Praiselyn you know what, it is high time God’s people understand what they have.” So today, prepare to be awed! When you’re done reading this, I hope the Spirit of God quickens your spirit man and helps you realise what you’ve been missing all these while. So as usual, I’ll start with a story.

    TJ’s dad got him a very beautiful car as a reward for getting a job in an envied company. TJ was so happy and glad. He couldn’t wait to start work on Monday! However, when Monday came, TJ was at a loss on what to do. He got into the car and waited for the car to start. But the car wouldn’t just start. He pulled and pushed and hit and pressed, but the car remained dead still. TJ tried all he could, but nothing seemed to be working. And so he took the bus to work that morning. And the next. And the next. For 3 whole months, TJ faced a whole lot of struggle trying to catch the bus every morning because his car had refused to start. One day, TJ was going through his room and came across the envelope his dad had given him when he got the job. He saw some papers containing instructions and guidelines in using the car, and he saw a set of keys as well. TJ immediately read through the papers and discovered that he needed the key to start the car. He had the keys all these while, but he was ignorant of its use. 

    Most of us are exactly like TJ. Including myself. We are so unaware of what we have, and that is why we keep allowing the devil to fill us with fear and reproach and lack and failure and all that. I told a friend today that if only we believers realised the power that we have as children of God, a lot of us would not be in that mediocre position that we are in currently. Take a look at TJ’s story again. He kept struggling and encountering unnecessary difficulties because he failed to realise that he had the power to change his position. All he needed to do was to go through the guidelines, and discover that he could control the seemingly dead car. As believers, we have power. I don’t mean the kind of earthly authority that our president and our governors and our BUSA president and our LAWSAN president and our course reps.have. I mean the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. The power to decree a thing and it is established. The power to resist the devil. The power to rise up and take charge. The power to say no to circumstances that threaten you. The power to be above and not beneath. We have that power! Luke 10:19 says “Look I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing shall by any means harm you” Common! What else do we need? What other confirmation are we expecting? The most sovereign God, to whom all power on earth and in heaven belongs, has given us unlimited power to overcome. What more could be greater?! Sometimes in 2016, I was having a mid semester and I became blank in the hall. I spent the night before reading and scoring, and all of a sudden I was lost. I wondered what explanation I was going to give to my parents and my friends. But then I remembered that I had the power to ask for anything in the name of God. I remembered that I possessed the Holy Spirit within me, and that spirit had given me the same power that raised Christ from the grave, and I didn’t have to fear because God had not given me the spirit of fear but of power and a sound mind.  I whispered a prayer in my heart, and as surreal as this may seem, knowledge came flooding into my memory, and I remembered even more than what I had read. There are so many other testimonies that I could share, but the whole point is that we do not have to manage when we can have it all. We do not have to keep being ignorant of the power we have like TJ because we have the holy Spirit in us that gives us assurance of the manifestation of that power. We have our bible that contains the confirmation and assurance of the powers that we have. So why do we keep getting scared when we are not sure of our scores or exams? Why do we keep getting afraid when the doctor says he can’t help us? God has said that whatsoever you decree on earth would be bound in heaven. He said if you sayeth a thing, it shall come to pass. He that is in you is greater than he that is in the world! God delights in impossibilities. His power works best in weakness. We have that power already because we have believed in Christ and we have the Holy Spirit in us. It is important to note that this power cannot be manifested if the presence of the Holy Spirit is absent in our lives (This would be explained better later). Just like TJ later did,we need to start digging into the scriptures to discover how we can lay claim to what God has given to us. We need to understand the authority we have in order to ride the seemingly “dead” storms in our lives. We have the keys to the kingdom of Heaven already. It’s time to get into that car and overcome all the unnecessary difficulties that may have threatened us and our faith. We have the power to overcome! And overcome we must! Until later, God bless!

P.S: Please feel free to share your thoughts,your benefits or gains, your likes😉, your questions, and your encouragements. God bless you!

The Hardest Task in the world! 1

1 john 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his lives for his friends”

       Annie hated her class mate Sarah. She despised her to the extent that she could do anything to hurt her. Sarah was just a young timid girl who loved Jesus with all her heart. All the teachers loved her, and were awed at her level of wisdom even at a young age. But Sarah never had peace in school. Annie was always looking for ways to torment her and make her cry. She would pass false rumours about Sarah, and turn everyone against her. Annie harassed Sarah daily, calling her names and sometimes, hitting her. But in everything, Sarah remained calm. She never hit Annie back, never called her names, and never reported her to the teachers. One day, Annie did not come to school. The teacher announced that Annie had gotten into an accident, and her sight had been badly damaged. Sarah was so distraught at the news. After school that day, she asked all her classmates to wait behind, and they all prayed for Annie. On her way home, Sarah visited the hospital to see Annie, and overheard the doctor telling her parents that she would need a transplant. Two weeks later, Annie was operated on, and she started to see again! Someone had donated both eyes to Annie. When Annie got back to school, wanting to start the Sarah torment again, she was told that Sarah was no longer coming to school because she had donated her both eyes to someone who needed it. Shocked, Annie ran down to Sarah’s house, and found out that Sarah was her donator. When asked why she did it, Sarah replied saying,”I wanted you to experience true love. You needed to see love how it truly is. I was only carrying out the commandment of my saviour. I hope you can see clearly now what love is like”

     There are several commandments in the bible, but to me, the hardest and most difficult is found in John 13:34, which says, “ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”  Now you might say “what’s so hard in loving each other”? Take a look at that verse again. Can you see what makes it so hard now? Christ is not just saying that we should love one another. He said we should love as he has loved us! Common! If that isn’t difficult, then nothing is. Let’s get something straight though. The kind of love we are talking about isn’t the romantic one that is so common in our world today. We are looking at the Godly kind of love, the Christ-like love. Honestly, this topic is so broad. I have a lot to say and write (or type, whatever).  Just the mere thinking of it alone gives me the chills (I know. I think I’m weird too😣). Most people would define love as a strong and intense  feeling for someone or something. I won’t disagree with that. But you see, the kind of Love I am more concerned about is the “Christly  love.” So to fully understand how to love others like Christ loved us, we need to understand how Christ himself loved us (and still does). Let’s go back to the verse at the beginning. Of course we are used to the familiar everyday reminder that Jesus died for us. But we need to understand that Jesus did not die so he could love us. He loved us, and then chose to die for us. That is why he doesn’t stop loving us. That is why even in our iniquity, he still loves us. That verse says “Greater love has no man than this”. Meaning that nobody could ever love us like Jesus did. I always get awed anytime I think of how much God loves us. Recently, I read a book called “reedeming love” by Francine Rivers ( incredibly awesome book) and I got to realise that I didn’t even understand the depth of Christ’s love. There is nothing we can do or not do to make him love us more or less. So even when you think that you’ve done the worst thing on earth, he still loves you! How on earth can I love somebody that much?! Jesus put his own needs aside and did what was best for us. Even when he was spat on and beaten, he didn’t say “I’m not doing again”. Now if that was the case, and Jesus is telling us to love others like he did, how humanly possible is it for us to carry out this commandment? How can I love a fellow mortal like me, who is bound to make mistakes and be ungrateful? Sweetheart, it is very much possible! First of all, we need to understand that Godly love doesn’t follow feelings. If it did, Sarah would have personally killed Annie. If it did, Jesus would have changed his mind about going to the cross. God’s kind of love is unconditional. That is, whether we are good or bad, he still loves us. This kind of unconditional love requires us to love God first. That is, before we can love each other without strings attached, we need to first love the person who can provide the strength and ability to give this love to others. I always say that no man can really say he loves me, and actually mean it if he hasn’t loved Jesus first. Because I would love to be loved unconditionally, and the only way a person can love unconditionally is only if he has first loved the father who is an unconditional lover. This means that we can’t love like Christ by our own strength. Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit produced in us when we walk dependent on the Spirit’s power. If we try to love others by our own strength, we would eventually wear out. Because truth be told, it is very difficult. It is impossible to love like Christ consistently without the power of the Holy Spirit. 1St John 3:16 says “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for our brethrens” (I love the fact that the verse starts with”we know love by this”). Of course Jesus is not expecting us to die for anybody. He simply wants us to do the equivalent of that. As per, go out of our way for others even when it is not convenient for us. Look at the illustration above. Sarah had every right to hate Annie, and to wish her bad even. But what happened when Annie was in need? Sarah gave up her sight just so her enemy could see. Do you think she could have done this herself? It takes only the Spirit of God to love others, including the haters,just as Christ loved us. Unconditionally. And since it is a commandment, we can’t opt out of it. We can’t choose not to obey. We just have to obey. 

    Like I said earlier, love encompasses a whole bucket load of friends that helps us live love itself. Don’t worry we’re not discussing that now! Until later, God bless!

The Grace mystery 1

Hey guys! So today, for my very first real post, I’m going to be sharing my take on one very special gift that God, in all of his graciousness, gave to each and everyone of us (drumrolls). To be honest, this was not what I intended to write about today. I had a whole different idea. But you know, the Holy Spirit is indeed wonderful. Somehow yesterday, I got into a discussion with some of my friends on whether Cardi B is a Christian or not (when we had a 7am class the next day). Well we brushed several topics on Christianity, modesty, and some others,and finally got to God’s grace. I can’t exactly give you the full detail (we kept arguing for over an hour), but the area of concentration, which I want to discuss, is the question one of my girls asked. She said, “Praiselyn, tell me why God gives grace to some people more than others”. Suddenly, all eyes turned to me and I recall them chanting “answer!answer!”. I won’t lie to you, for about a minute, I was plain blank. I didn’t have an explanation for that, and I could tell Ayo really wanted an answer. So silently in my heart, I made a short prayer, and the answer to that prayer is what I’m about to share now.

   Let me tell you a short story. Anna and Stacia were both students of a known high school in London. With excellent grades, and high moral commendation, both girls were bound to soar in Yale university, their dream uni. Anna and Stacia were also firm lovers of God. Their zeal to serve God drove them to start a fellowship in a rented studio, and together, they led many souls to Christ. Fast forward to 4 years later, both girls graduated from Yale with a breath taking GPA, and were both offered excellent job offers in the same company. On the day of the interview, Stacia had a terrible accident that took away her sight and her two legs. However, Anna did well in the interview, got the job, and even got married to her heartthrob a year after. 

       Let us analyze this story together (don’t be sad sweetheart, I made it up). Both girls were incredibly brilliant yeah? They both loved the Lord so much right? To you and I, there was no reason for any of them to miss out on the benefits attached to their hard work no? So what explanation can be given for this? Why was one person luckier than the other even when they both deserved the same thing? Let’s bring this home a little. As human beings, we are all entitled to certain rights and privileges right? We deserve this rights for the sole reason that we are human beings yeah? When we are ill-treated or denied these rights, what do we do? We sue, and also get remedies right? (don’t worry we’re making progress)

     Somebody once said that Grace itself is the whole of God’s activity towards man. B.B Warfield defined grace as free sovereign favour to the ill deserving. You know the thing about this awesome gift called grace is that it is totally the opposite of karma. Karma says “you get what you deserve, and Grace says”you get what you don’t deserve and not what you do deserve”. Go back to the illustration of the rights and privileges we “deserve”. If Grace is undeserving, how then can we lay claim to it? How can we ask God why Tola is really making waves and I’m not? How can we question God’s decision on who to show his mercy to? God said in his word that he would show mercy unto whom he would show mercy. He said that it is not of him that runneth or willeth, but of whom he  decides to show his mercy on. You see, we can never understand some mysterious things about God. We would only understand it better by and by. To be honest, I don’t understand why God let Stacia encounter an accident even after serving him diligently. But I don’t understand why Anna was privileged to be a partaker of his grace as well! Because if God was to reward them according to their efforts, then they should both have gotten the job. Romans 11:6 says, “And since it is through God’s kindness, then it is not by their good works. For in that case, God’s grace would not be what it really is-free and  undeserved.” So how can we question God’s grace and mercy if we do not even deserve it in the first place? We are not entitled to it. We did not earn it because of our good works. So why should we sue God for not being privileged to attain heights that others were able to? I don’t have answers to why things do not work out the way you want them to. But do you know that there are people in the mortuary who were probably way better than you, but are now dead, alongside their achievements and aspirations? None of us deserve to be alive today. None of us deserve the free gift of salvation. But God deemed it fit that we should be partakers of his grace and mercy. So instead of questioning God’s wisdom and choice on whom to show his mercy and grace to, why don’t we bask in the one we have been privileged to obtain by his mercy? Grace differs. People have different levels of grace. The faster we grasp that, the easier it is to appreciate God’s grace to us! Until later, God bless you!

Hey there!!!

If you are seeing this right now,I am beyond glad that you took out time to actually visit this blog. Honestly, I’ve been really sceptical about starting this. Not that I’m not a fan of writing or whatever (I write a lot!), but I was a little bit concerned about what the reactions of people might be seeing that it is a  Christian blog. Nevertheless, I’m overly excited now because I feel deeply convinced in my spirt that God is intentional about this task, and he sure knows why I set out to do this (because I don’t). Anyways, that’s a story for another day😊.

     So basically, the name of this blog says “The Christian teenage guide”. But that doesn’t mean the viewers must fall within the age bracket of 13-19. Anybody (including your granny!)can view the posts and write ups that would be coming up in the future. Moving on, the major purpose of this blog (I’ll be saying more of “this blog” and not “My blog”, and I’ll explain why later), is to write about God. Hold on, I know that sounds very boring and time-consuming. But I’m not intending to bore you out with intense talks that you’ve probably heard countless times. This blog is more of a guide for the Christian teenager(or youth). I’d be sharing my experiences with God, and how I’ve been able to survive in this oh-so-tempting times even as impossible as it seems, and how you too can. However, from time to time, we would discuss the normal things and situations that we have to deal with, and probably give advice and all. But still, if you’re certain that you have it all figured out, and you really do not need some random posts to help you understand and get closer to Christ, you do not need to visit this blog again. But if you’re curious, just like me, and you desperately need to understand the reason why you even need God in the first place, and how it is possible to live right in this era, then this is your blog!. This site belongs to you! Mind you, I am not that “holier than thou” person that knows it all already. I probably might not know more than you. But like I said earlier, this is all God’s plan. I don’t understand yet, and he hasn’t answered the “why’s”, but I’m going with the “why not’s”, believing and hoping that answers would come later on. Also, I love being asked questions!( Not exams though). So if there is anything at all that you may want clarified, whether it is in relation to future posts or not, please do feel free to ask. And if you have contributions to add, or even corrections, please do so. Let’s help each other! Finally, I’m not much of a public person (my friends would totally disagree with that!), so I might find it a little bit difficult to share some of my experiences. So please don’t be offended if in the future I am not able to be detailed about certain things. Until later, God bless you!