I know a woman who meticulously plans and executes her things without as much as a word to God sometimes. Rather than seek His counsel she seeks His stamp of approval when she has figured it all out without Him. Like a misguided child she believes He will be pleased when he sees how she managed to do it all by herself. She doesn’t realise the toll this has taken over the years and how frail she is from a thirst left unquenched for too long.

She has also become so accustomed to the discomfort of thirst that she has developed a subconscious aversion to refreshment where she sabotages oases leaving her soul fragmented and unable to find lasting peace. This woman’s plight is a representation of the secret drama unfolding in some of our Christian lives today. I don’t know about you but I have problems in my Christian life and I’m proud to say I am at my wit’s end because when I take my hands off it, it can now bring forth the fruit of God’s hand on it.

As we were chatting the other day my best friend said;

“I’ve come to learn that the reason we hold on to our will and our solutions is coz we’re convinced there’s some sinister plot from God to impose his perfect will for us into our lives, but we forget there is a phenomenally greater good for us that’s only found in his perfect will”.

Once she said this I suddenly realised that I am the woman dying of thirst but trying to quench it without the refreshment of surrendering to God’s perfect will. It’s like I’m the star creation and I don’t want the Creator to cramp my style by ordering my steps because he already got his time to shine when he laid the foundations of the Earth and now it’s my time. Needless to say this arrangement has totally not been working out. I’m finding that God is persistent in His love for us and He will cause you to stay in pre-school until you’re ready for big school.

It’s the real unedited truth that we are loved by God. The bible says “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world: but that the world through him might be saved [John 3:16-17]. There is no greater love than His because He knew exactly what He was getting into when He formed us yet He still went on to make a willing sacrifice so that we could be reconciled to Him.

Again in our very deep conversation with bestie another pearl of her wisdom came up when she asked “Why would God send his own son to die for our sins if he could just punish us instead?” and finally the quote by Marianne Williamson made sense.

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear our presence automatically liberates others.”

It has never been God who needed to come into our lives, it was us who needed to acknowledge Him in ours as He continues to prove His love for us daily through grace, mercy and loving reminders that we are lost without Him. Beyond thus sayeth the Lord and thou shalt not, there is a profound thing that changes when your heart is involved with God because you have chosen it rather than succumbed to the social pressure to do so. I urge someone to choose life today not out of obligation but because you can and it will positively change your life forever.

Sharon Rateiwa is a lover of art with a natural flair for the artistic.  When she isn’t sharing inspirational pieces with the world, she designs and performs as a singer and poet.  Sharon believes that we of God’s generation have a mandate to take up Godly arms in the fight for a meaningful existence.  She gives encouragement by sharing her own colourful encounters.