29 July 2016

Life Update & Quiet Time Shenanigans

Hello! LOL isnt this a nice surprise? I'm actually quite shocked myself. I was just here doodling and listening to Christian EDM and all of a sudden I'm like "I should write a blog post". I'm still actually trying to figure out what it's going to be about. #HolySpiritcomethrough. I'm kidding but I'm also not.



But before the Holy Spirit shows me what exactly this post is going to be about lets catch up aye? I literally have a month left before second year of university starts and I'm sitting here like *squints* *lowers oversized sun-glasses* wasn't I in 10th grade 1.3 seconds ago? Whats going onnnnnnn. You guys I've literally slacked the entire summer. It's so amazing. Amazingly amazing. For the first month I was like sleep.eat.read.repeat. I honestly can't remember what I did for like..May and June. But let's super casually forget about that. Casually.

Anyway, second year is fast approaching and I'm STILL here like *squinting* *ugly crying* *beating self up for not doing anything during the summer*. I'm kidding I kinda did get stuff done. But more on that later.

ANYWAY. I think I've figured out what this post is going to about wooo! So you guys, honestly one of my favorite things ever is gerrin lost in my quiet time. I still struggle with doing it consistently and stuff. *confession* I get super distracted by my phone/ general internet stuff. It's so bad. But I'm working on it promise. So on the days that I'm able to have a "good" quiet time, it gets so....lit. For lack of a better word. I'm joking, dope is another word that could describe the types of quiet time I've been having recently. I usually use a daily devotional and my Dakes Reference Bible (a super dope Bible with extra explanations etc) and so far its working for me. So I'll read the Scripture for the day, read above and below it a bit. Usually by this time I've been hit by an amazing Scripture that is just blowing my mind away. YALL.

I really wish I was joking but for real, like I'll just be hollering "YAAAAAAAAASSS" but in my head. *insert church claps for extra measure* A couple tears of joy may spring to my eyes because I'm just like "?????" why are You so good to me God?

ANYWAY, enough with my shenanigans. One of those days, I was reading the book James and I stumbled upon James 1:22 which says.

"But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves"

And this is basically what I journaled about it:

So practically it is possible and probably hella easy to hear the Word and not do what it is saying. It’s like receiving wisdom and encouraging the message but practically you are not applying it to you life. Meanwhile you really need the wisdom, but it’s just there, hanging in the air. You’ve got to obey the Word of God. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth. That thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein (Joshua 1:8-9) Don’t just hear it and encourage it. Do it. Otherwise you’re just deceiving yourself. Don’t try and reason blahblahblah. What does the Word of God say?  Then do it. God says don’t steal, kill, lie, so don’t do it. Don’t make excuses for it. Jesus said “feed my sheep” (John 21:17) . Just do it. Ask for the wisdom and strength to do it. Be doers of the Word. We argue too much about what the Bible says. If we accept it as 100% the Word of God then we might as well get to obeying. Holy Spirit, help us to obey the Word of God, to be doers and not hearers only.
I know I've become like that without even knowing. It’s amazing. You hear a powerful word or sermon that requires you to do something. Bearing fruit. It’s powerful, you encourage the message but when you close from church you’ve forgotten the message about bearing fruit. It’s difficult. God didn’t say it was going to be easy. But it is required of us. Go out into all the nations and preach the Gospel. We are sitting comfortably in our air conditioned homes.  We have become hearers only. And we somehow justify it too. I’m telling you it is really God’s mercy that we are even still breathing it’s amazing. I know that I am guilty. This verse has convicted me. Lord have mercy on me. Help me oh Lord


So yea, super convicting. Kinda uncomfortable to read but I think very necessary. Sometimes you have to use the Word of God as a mirror and kinda see where you're at, how you're doing, how you're looking at the moment.

Anywaaaaaaaaaay.  Yes. So apart from that, I'm just sorta kinda recovering from a really amazingly annoying cough/cold sorta thing. Coughing it up here really quickly.
But yes. I hope you've been doing weeeeell and fingers crossed you'll hear from me soon.
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13 June 2016

5 Things Freshman Year In Uni Taught Me!



Hello! WOW. You guys. Lets casually not mention how I disappeared for 848424837897891 light years and pretend my blog hasnt began to collect dust. *clears throat* *scratches scalp*

OKAY. Hi! So. Weirdly enough first year / freshman year is over. I dont really get it either I know. It's like yesterday I was all like #gapyeargoals #whatislife #livingitup #whatiseducation. And now i'm like. Well actually I'm still like #whatiseducation. ANYWAY. I'm done. It was a very interesting year to say the least, but let me just stop babbling and get down to this blog post! Great.

SO. First thing I learnt during this eye-roll inducing year was

1) God's mercy and grace abounds.
YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS. YO. I've never felt grace and mercy like I did this year. Like, the amount of times I had to ask *ahem* beg God to have mercy on my foolish self was just too amazing. But man. Whatta God you know? He would just turn up and save the day, as is His nature. Like grace. Undeserved favour. Yea that was basically the theme for this year.

2) Prayer is so important!
YOU GUYS. PRAYER. WORKS. You can't understand how many times I've been walking to class late because 1) I woke up late 2) there are no shuttles and maybe 3) I really couldn't care less at that point in time, and I'd be praying and saying "when I get to that class which I'm already late for the lecturer will NOT be there. I will get to class before the lecturer does." Mind you my faculty is like 93892898493992 miles away from my hall so. So I'd walk into class and LO AND FREAKING BEHOLD THE LECTURER IS NOT THERE. I'm just like *crying emoji* Jesus why are you so good to me??? No comprendo. I just can't right now. This happened like a gajillion times.  But apart from those emergency prayers, prayer is so important. 

I'm reading this book "How to Pray" by Bishop Dag Heward Mills, and he says  that prayer releases the power of God on your behalf. Like. I don't really know how to explain but I'm so thankful for the ability to open my mouth and talk to God and then He actually hears me and ANSWERS MY PRAYER? LIKE. Sheesh whatta God am I right? I love that I can pray and things can happen for my good.

3) The Christian walk is not easy. 
This year was honestly the year that I was like "Hoooold up, this Christianity thing is SO DIFFICULT." Like woah. But then its like you can't even do it on your own so just stop and let God work it out for you. The Bible says that God's grace is sufficient for us because His power is made perfect in our weakness.
Struggles were so struggly. But the key to being able to get up when you fall is by not isolating yourself from the body of Christ. Being surrounded by God-fearing friends who can pray for you and declare good things over you is such a blessing. Having mature Christians give you advice and impart wisdom onto your silly self is pretty much a gift from God. I'm really grateful for that. I think it's the thing that kept me almost... sane.

4. Friends that pray together, stay together.
Friends that can pray with you as you're walking to above mentioned class that you are late for are definitely keepers. Friends that allow you to stay in their rooms till 1am doing annoying assignments are also keepers. YALL. Friends are awesome, but friends that get you and want to know, love and serve Jesus literally fall from heaven. It's pretty dope. Also friends that make you laugh so hard that you snort are the best.

5. Time is precious. Don't waste it. 
I learnt this lesson the hard way. And by the hard way I mean, all nighters, all dayers, falling asleep on tables, asking God to cancel my classes (WHICH HE DID #PRAISEHIM) handing in work and ultimately praying over them and asking God for another chance (see lesson number 1). You guys. I could have honestly saved myself the trouble, stress, sleep deprivation, almost ugly crying in public if i had just not procratinated my life away. YEA. So. Lesson learnt. I think. 

ANYWAY. So those are just 5 things I learnt over freshman year. Theres about 939200293 more, but when I do think of them I'll let you guys know. This is just a sweet and short blog post to kinda blow away the dust that has settled over here. heh.

By the grace of God I'll be on here a bit more regularly. *nervous laugh*

But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
 - James 1:22


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Maira Gall