Category: Religion

DISAPPOINTMENT: In The Wrong Place at …

30.04.2018

Author katiem

The one who found themself in the wrong place at the wrong time knew that they should not have been there, and would never have been there, but for the disappointment in their life. The disappointment clouded their judgement and drove them to the place in which they should never have been. And now in that place, they stand in the line of fire. But are they truly in the wrong place at the wrong time? Is there such a thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time?

In the spring time, at the time when kings go off to war – King David remained in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 11:1) Four chapters earlier, God had promised to establish David’s house and give him rest from his enemies. At this stage David was already married, with at least four wives, Michal, Ahinoam, Abigal, and Maacah. Three chapters in from the promise, David sought to send his condolences to Hanun for the passing of his father the King of the Ammonites. Unfortunately, David’s kind gesture was not received well and instead resulted in a battle between David against the Ammonites and the Aramean’s.

Entering into chapter 11, in the battle against the Ammonites and the Aramean’s, the Aramean’s withdrew and David was left to battle against the Ammonites only. But instead of going off to fight for his country and finish off the enemy, David remained in Jerusalem. When David remained in the place in which he should never have been, he met Bathsheba and consequently committed adultery. Bathsheba became pregnant, which culminated in events in which David became a murderer when he ordered the death of Bathsheba’s husband. How did David end up at this point? Of committing adultery and ordering the death of another? I believe David found himself in that situation because of disappointment. David may have felt disappointed that God promised to give him rest from all his enemies (2 Samuel 7:11), but instead, out of a gesture of kindness, David now faced a battle which in his eyes should never have been.

If this is the case, then I believe that David’s disappointment was rooted in a great misinterpretation of what God meant by “giving him rest from his enemies”. I believe that what was promised to David in his lifetime referred to “rest” as the assurance of victory in every battle he faced. Prior to the promise of rest, the Israelites had been oppressed and defeated in every battle (2 Samuel 7:10), but immediately after the promise, (chapter 8), the Israelites had nothing but victory against their enemies.

While the disappointment may have led David to a place where he appeared to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, the place that should have been the wrong place turned out to be the right place, because after David repented, it was through his marriage to Bathsheba that they birthed King Solomon, who was known to be the wisest man to have ever lived. Furthermore, what is most fascinating, is that David had at least four other wives before Bathsheba with whom he had children, yet none of those children went on to play such an important role as Solomon. And not only did God fulfil his promise for complete rest from his enemies through the King Solomon era, God also fulfilled his promise to establish a house for David forever, for it is through the David and Solomon lineage that Jesus came!

So, if we embrace this new perspective, is there such a thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time? If it is indeed true that God directs our footsteps, when we give Him the reins of our lives, then there is no such thing as coincidences or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. While it may be true, like David, that at times we walk in a path that displeases God and leads to the wrong place, God in His omniscience omnipresence, and omnipotence, knows about the wrong path before we take it. He goes ahead of our path and turns it around for our good so that that wrong place that could have had devastative consequences, becomes the wrong place at the right time to work for our good!

Although we may not be able to understand the ways in which God works if we allow God to harness the mess which we have made of our lives by giving ourselves over to Him in faith, our disappointing situations will transition from the wrong place at the wrong time, to the wrong place at the right time.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

HEARTSTRINGS II: The War of Silence …

22.04.2018

Author katiem

There are times when the heartstrings tug for an explosion of words, and other times when they demand silence. Silence, which has the extraordinary ability to articulate louder than any spoken words ever could. And sometimes, silence remains the only means to cure the ailment. Just as there are seasons to everything, a season will come when conflict will arise, and sometimes the only way to overcome the conflict may be dependent on the ability to brace the tongue in the season.

In the Old Testament, there was a woman by the name of Hannah, who had been tormented for many years by her nemesis, her husband’s second wife Peninnah, for being unable to conceive children (1 Samuel 1:6–7). Hannah could have retaliated by using hostile words in this battle with Peninnah, but she knew that the battle which she fought was not one in which she could win with offensive words. So instead, Hannah chose her battle weapons wisely and opted for the weapons of silence, tears, and prayer to reach the Father’s heart in heaven.

1 Samuel 1:12–16 says, As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine.” Hannah replied, “Not so, my lord” … “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the Lord. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.

Needless to say, not only did her weapons of silence save her from an unnecessary battle, in the end, choosing to trust in God and not man, led to a favourable situation in which she had six children, one who remains known as one of the greatest prophets of all times (Samuel). Just like Hannah, regardless of who your nemesis is, there too will be times when your victory will be dependent on your choice of weapons – with the weapons of silence being the most effective, designed to reflect and rationalise before responding.

Similar to Hannah, another person in the Old Testament knew the power of choosing his battle weapons wisely, he understood the need for the weapon of silence, and this person was King Hezekiah. King Hezekiah had been requested to surrender by the powerful King of Assyria (King Sennacherib) who had invaded and captured many cities. When King Hezekiah rebelled against King Sennacherib, King Sennacherib sent his chief officer and his field commander with a large army, to threaten King Hezekiah into surrendering.

But when King Hezekiah and his people were tormented by the enemy, King Hezekiah did not retaliate with words or conventional weapons, instead, he commanded his people to remain silent and not to respond (2 Kings 18:36). Next, King Hezekiah went straight to the temple of the Lord to wage the war on the enemy, with weapons of prayer (2 Kings 19:16–19). Again, needless to say, not only did King Hezekiah survive the threat without raising a sword, the Lord caused the mysterious death of hundred and eighty-five thousand of the Assyrian soldiers in one night and caused King Sennacherib to fall by the sword of his sons while worshipping his god Nisrok (2 Kings 19: 35–37).

You do not always have to raise the sword in battle. There will be times to use words, and times to use silence and prayer. And when the sword seeks to destroy, annihilate, and humiliate, it may be appropriate to consider initiating the weapon of silence. Proverbs 26:4 says, “Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools, or you will become as foolish as they are.” And in the times of silence, prayer should arise, remembering that words are ineffective in an Ephesians 6:12 battle, for in an Ephesians 6:12 battle, your love will not be enough and your words will certainly not matter, and silence and prayer will remain the only unrivalled weapons for victory.

As such, in the season of conflict, the key to a successful relationship will be dependent on knowing when to pick your battles, i.e., when to fight with words and when to fight with silence and prayer. Whether you choose to use the weapon of words or silence, at the end of it all, heed Ephesians 4:26 which says, “In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry…” By “do not sin”, it is implied that at any time during the argument, “do not let any unwholesome talk (words designed to hurt and maim) come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

HEART STRINGS I: The war of words…

25.02.2018

Author katiem

The severed heartstrings, which once joined souls together, now lie detached and motionless with no more force to tie the two together. Choose your battles wisely, they say, for not every battle is worth fighting. As true as the saying is, on the other side of it is also the fact that if you are still fighting, then you are probably still loving.

Sometimes the danger is when there is no more fight left and no more words to say. Being designed innately different in our characteristics and personalities, it is inevitable that every now and again we would clash in our world point of views and personalities. When the emotions are invested, they tug at the heartstrings and demand a reaction – be it of love or of anger. And should the feelings of anger be aroused, this can culminate in a fight. Not a physical or abusive fight, but a fight in the quintessence of the soul’s strings, fighting to remain attached and fighting for the relationship.

When the strings are connected, and one still cares, you talk about it. But when the strings are severed, and the emotions become disengaged, the line of communication is broken. The day to be weary is the day when the emotions fail to tug the heartstrings. For when this day comes, the one with the severed strings, too tired to fight, will flee just as Jonah tried to flee from the Lord (Jonah 1). Jonah is a man in the Old Testament who once was passionate to see the destruction of Nineveh.

As displaced as his passion was, when he cared for this unrighteous outcome, he talked and argued with God about this (Jonah 4). But when the day came when he could no longer be concerned for the Nineveh’s outcome, and his emotions failed to tug his heartstrings – the day when he stopped caring – he ran away from God’s will (Jonah 1; Jonah 4:1–2).

The healing power of communication should never be underestimated, for issues unresolved leave holes and wounds unmended. Healthy relationships are built on the ability to talk about issues. But when communicating, as James 1:19 says, we must be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.

Where is there passion, emotions are bound to arise. Even Jesus had righteous anger (Mark 11:15). But in the heat of the moment the one who wins the fight, even in losing the war of words, is the one who fights fair without going for the jugular, for this one never has to live with the haunted mind of the words that can never be taken back.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

ANXIETY: And the chaos of tomorrow…

21.01.2018

Author katiem

At some point in our lives, we may have heard the phrase, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’, and yet many of us we try to master our future in one day. With haste and no precision, we take a thousand steps into our future and then find ourselves unnerved by the vastness of the dream.

It is true, that only a fool brags about not planning ahead (Proverbs 13:16), but we also need to be wise enough to understand the right time to slow down and take a thousand steps back, if necessary, in order to re-calibrate our focus.

There’s a reason why God does not show us our entire journey to the mountain top. He knows that if He showed us the entire journey, we would either purposely or subconsciously speak or take actions against the steps which we are required to take to get to where we are meant to be. Just like Joseph, God knows that if He had shown him what he would face before becoming governor, Joseph would have talked himself out of following the dream – being anxious over the horror of the pit, the humiliation in slavery, the accusations in the palace, and the pain and loneliness of the prison cell, before the arrival to the throne (Genesis 37; 39–48).

To protect us, God only shows us a glimpse of what is yet to come — that one day we will be triumphant as the head and not the tail; with the sun, moon and stars bowing before us (Deuteronomy 28:13; Genesis 37).

God will get us to where we need to be and only asks that we trust in His plans for us. There will be times when we will be required to march on covering vast ground, and other times when the wisest thing to do, will be to retreat and focus on surviving today’s battle alone. There will be times to set goals and envision the future, and other times to sit back and take each day as it comes.

When the time comes to take a thousand steps back and focus on ‘today’ alone, rest in the Word and in knowing that Jesus has already gone into your future to establish the peace which you will experience in the chaos of tomorrow. And when the chaos of tomorrow tries to steal your peace of today, remember the encouragement from Jesus, “…do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matthew 6:34). The emphasis is not that we should not plan for tomorrow, but that we should not be anxious about things that are not in our control, for worrying about them will not add a single hour to our lives (Matthew 6:27). But instead, we should cast our anxieties and burdens to Him who has control over them (Psalm 55:22; Matthew 11:28-29; Philippians 4:6-7).

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

SILENCE: And the vision board of dreams…

17.01.2018

Author katiem

We all have a dream. Some even place the dream on a vision board. And every day, we wake up to work on the dream and fight to keep it alive despite the perpetual voices of doubt and whispers of discouragement from ‘them’ and the many detours on the way.

But the greatest obstacle to our dream, is us. Regardless of how we fight ‘them’ to keep the dream alive, if we can’t fight ‘us’ then we sabotage and destroy our own dream. The dream can never be kept alive if the mind and the tongue are not in unity with the dream.

We can place the dream on our vision board, but if we fail to control the negative voices within, and worse still, if we allow those negative voices to speak, then we dredge a grave for the dream. The wise words in the Book of Proverbs say, “[B]e careful what you think, because your thoughts run your life” (Proverbs 4:23), and Proverbs 18:20–21 says, “From the fruit of their mouth a person’s stomach is filled; with the harvest of their lips they are satisfied. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.”

Because the tongue is as lethal as the mind, God took the drastic step of silencing the tongue of one man until his dream came to pass. That man was Zechariah. For many years, he fervently prayed for his dream. He had his vision board and every day he would do what he could and then ask God to do the rest. One day while he was in prayer fighting for his dream, God sent an angel to tell him that his prayer had been heard and he would receive that which he asked for. One would think that such news would have been received with great elation, but instead, Zechariah stood startled by all this and questioned how he could receive that which he asked for, given that he and his wife were both advanced in years (Luke 1:5–14).

Too many of us have dreams which if we were honest with ourselves, we would find that we really do not believe that the dreams will ever come true. The dreams remain a good idea on the vision board to make us feel better for ‘at least’ having a goal which we really do not believe can be achieved but nonetheless is there for all to see, that ‘at least’ we have a dream.

But God does not want us to be an ‘at least’ people. The dreams come from Him, and because He gives the dream to us, He promises to work on the dream with us until it becomes a reality (Philippians 1:6). And sometimes, in order to refrain us from sabotaging our dreams, He might silence us as He did with Zechariah until the fulfilment of the dream (Luke 1:20). The silence might be that uncomfortable place where you have no one and nothing to turn to, but God. But know that even in the silence, God is working with you on your dream and at the appointed time, it will come to pass.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

2018: The year to be more…

14.01.2018

Author katiem

The fresh aroma of the New Year inspires endless possibilities to be more than we were last year, to conceive that which was never dreamed / possible, and to go where our limitations barred us. Last year, we may never have dreamed, like David, that we could be more than the dust on our feet. And yet overnight, at the dawn of the new day, David went from a shepherd boy tending to sheep in the field, to a future king of a great nation (1 Samuel 16).

The woes or victories of last year do not determine the outcome for this year. The re-set of the New Year offers a clean slate to rewrite this year’s ending, but the choice to re-set our minds and rewrite the ending, remains ours.

We can choose to advance with the configurations of the year that was because they worked and the year was filled with victory. But the example of the mighty Samson should stand as a reminder that we should never be so comfortable as to live only in yesterday’s glory and fail to plan for tomorrow’s battle (Judges 16).

Conversely, the year that was may have been painful and bitter, and we can still choose to proceed with the same configurations, lamenting and calling ourselves Mara (the one whose life is bitter) (Ruth 1:20–21). But if you are sick and tired, of being sick and tired, you can give the reins of your life to Jesus so that He can be a new force, turning your mourning into joy, and remind of you of His promises—that despite your location, your name and destiny never changed in his book, and a bright future awaits you.

For those who were victorious last year, allow God to direct your footsteps and He will raise you higher than you could ever dream for yourself: for “no eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for those who love Him  (1 Corinthians 2:9).

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2018.

WHAT IF: The plague that starved the coward…

22.12.2017

Author katiem

There was once a man who had a thousand reasons to pursue his goals, and a thousand not to pursue them—but in the end, he chose not to, and lived with the plague of “what if.”

The melody in his head of “what if” crippled him to do nothing throughout his life, and left him haunted with the question – the question that now could never be answered. His life was a clock that could never be unwound.

What if – the cousin of “should have, could have, and would have”—the terrorist family of doubt, specialising in using fear as a weapon, and causing the Stockholm syndrome in which the act of avoiding is irrationally justified to be better than the act of doing. In reality, the weapon (f.e.a.r) in its true sense is merely “False Evidence Appearing Real.”

The “what if” plague has existed since the days of old and brought destruction to the Israelite grumblers and doubters (Numbers 13 & 14). The Israelites were promised the land flowing with milk and honey, but to get to the land, they had to explore the land and defeat its inhabitants.

Twelve spies were sent to explore the land, and out of the twelve, ten spies, despite knowing that God was on their side, chose to see themselves before the opposition as nothing more than tiny grasshoppers and, irrationally concluded that the opposition were giants. They told themselves that the conquest would be impossible, and gave up.  But the two remaining spies, Caleb and Joshua, saw themselves as the giants and the opposition as grasshoppers because they knew that they had the greatest weapon on their side, God (1 John 4: 4 says, “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because greater is He who is in you, than he that is in the world”).  Caleb and Joshua would not listen or agree with the negative report, so when the ten spies said it was impossible, Caleb silenced them from delivering the negative report (Numbers 4:30). In their eyes, the report was merely the opinion of the ten spies, and that opinion was not a fact.

The question “what if” will always rear its ugly head – “What if I try and fail?” But the same can also be asked in the positive, “What if I try and succeed? What if the glass is half full and what if the glass is half empty?” Seeing the glass as half full divides the leaders from the followers. To live with the plague of “what if” is like the lion that saw itself as a grasshopper and dared not to explore the jungle for his meal. Like the Israelites, we must overcome before we can achieve. Our adversities may seem like giants from afar, but if we get close enough, we will find that our biggest hurdle was only grasshopper.  Silence the negative “what if” and you will silence fear in your life. In the long run, the ones that live “Oh well, I tried” lives, are those who have no regrets. They learn and grow from their experiences to become better people for it. The coward that lives plagued and haunted with memories of “what if” will always be left the same as when they started, or worse.

As William Shakespeare said in Julius Caesar, “A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once …”

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2017.

RELATIONSHIPS: The one who completes me…

19.12.2017

Author katiem

It was the morning when he woke up and realized that he did not know the woman whom he slept next to anymore, that it was time for a change. He gently tapped on her shoulder and as she roused from her sheepish demure, he said, “Honey, I don’t know who you are, anymore.” Her heart sank, but there was truth to his words. She replied, “I don’t know who I am, anymore, either.” They exchanged a long, wistful gaze—but they found no semblance of the people with whom they fell in love years ago.

After 10 years, the endless, eclectic sprawl of ups and downs throughout their relationship seemed to fade away, as they became total strangers, sitting in silence, doubting the longevity of their marriage. Once upon a time, they could finish each other’s sentences for hours. Now, even simple conversation felt stale. The answer for all of this was simple: one of them had lost their identity.

The moral to be learned in this story is that you should never lose your identity in a relationship. If you lose sight of yourself, you run the risk of losing someone else. All too often, we are told to find someone who completes us. This message is peddled non-stop in popular culture. But, the truth is, God created you in his image, perfect and complete, separately as male and female (Genesis 1:26–27, 31).

God introduced the partnership when He saw that man alone would not be as fruitful than when he had woman by his side to be his helper. “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

And while the word says that “… a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Gen. 2:24), it does not infer that couples ought to lose their identity, or that one person ought to relinquish their power to the other. Rather, the very essence of the statement is emphasised for the couple to move together as a unit, thereby creating the partnership to help each other grow.

Finding someone to complete you means that your relationship will never be complete. Instead, find someone who complements you. You are already complete on your own. Finding someone to complement you will help the both of you work together and grow. Ecclesiastes 4:9–10 says, “Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.”

Searching for someone to complete you gives them power that is not theirs. They did not create you. God already completes you, and that Power is His and His, alone. Yielding power to someone else makes them your puppet-master. They will control your emotions, and heaven forbid, if they leave you, they will leave you feeling fractured. Your identity should be found in God, who created you in His image. Accordingly, your identity should be in the following order:

  1. First and foremost, you are a son/daughter of the Most God; and then
  2.  You are a husband/wife; and then
  3. You are a father/mother; and then
  4. You can become everything else.

If you place your identity in God, you will always find peace in the midst of any storm. Jesus emphasises this sentiment in John 15:5, where He says, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me, and I, in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” Through Jesus, you will always know your role in any relationship, and have the patience and grace to build a foundation that will never wither within any storm. We are but broken people that cannot complete ourselves, and therefore can never complete another. With our flaws, we complement each other, and that is the foundation by which God has graced us.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2017.

TIME: The sixth hour of darkness…

03.12.2017

Author katiem

When the story of your life is not adding up, the wheels are falling off, and your now does not match your vision – how do you get your now to line up with your destiny? They say to have a little hope when the storm is pouring cats and dogs on your life and pounding you with its brutal force… but what is hope? How can you contain hope when every day is like yesterday and yesterday is the nightmare that won’t stop stalking you? Hope is said to be an expectation or desire that events will turn out for the best, but how can you hold on when you’ve been doing so, and the only thing you seem to be left holding on to is the darkness? When darkness came over the land, He cried, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken?”…

This is the Man who had hope in the garden and even said, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not my will, but Yours be done.” Never once did He cry “God why hast thou forgiven.” In the garden, when the darkness crept in, He held on more tightly to the light and prayed even more earnestly that His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground (Luke 22:44). The first hour on the cross, He smiled. He could see the purpose and end result. The second hour, He meditated. He needed to focus on the end result. The third hour, He prayed. He needed to readjust His grip.

The fourth hour, He encouraged Himself. He reminded Himself of the promises and the destiny that He saw before the first hour. The fifth, He wiggled a little…But at the very last hour, the sixth hour, He couldn’t hold on anymore and cried the cry! If Jesus couldn’t see past the fifth hour when He was in flesh, how can we possibly see past the fifth hour? How can we be expected to see beyond mountain before us? We can’t. And that’s why Jesus had to die the way He did.

Day one, it was dark and He died. Day two, there was no hope. But on day three, He rose and brought with Him the keys to death and took the power from Satan. When He rose, He became the hope that never fails. Hope is Jesus. He was forsaken so that we would never feel forsaken if we call on Jesus. Hope is Jesus, knowing that the same Spirit power of God that raised Jesus from the dead, lives in us. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, He will give life to our mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within us.

For even when Jesus was in the flesh, God gave Him angels to minister to Him and He felt better. And when He died, God personally saw to it that we would have a hope in Him, who would rise to be unshakable. Hope is Jesus, that your situation may be dead today with no hope that it will revive tomorrow, but the third is coming…So knowing what we know about the One who died on the cross for us, we don’t have to go through the first two days as though we don’t know how the movie will end.

Hope is Jesus, who went before us into the darkness in order to reverse our ending so that it would favour us. Jesus has already played out the final ending of your story. You’re just on day one; day three is coming.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2017.

 

POWER: Knowing who you are…

26.11.2017

Author katiem

When you know your name, you will never find yourself responding to someone else’s name. And the name that you respond to, is the name that you take on.If they call you stupid and you respond to the name, you will find yourself doing stupid things. If they call you clever and you respond to the name, you will find yourself doing clever things – creating and innovating.

When you know who are you are, you will not take in or let what others call you shape your destiny. If they call you by a name unknown to you, do not answer. That is why Jesus said “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand…” (John 10:27-28). When you know who you are and what your destiny is, you will not respond to the enemy’s call and lies. When you know what your purpose is, you will not conform to the majority nor do things merely to please the crowd. They were gathered to stone Jesus because of who He claimed to be and tried to intimidate Him into accepting a name that was not His. They said to Him, “We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because of you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33).

They wanted Him to accept that He was a mere man, and if He had accepted because of His circumstance, He would have acted as a mere man, thereby becoming what they wanted Him to be. He confused them because He was not like them yet looked like them. He spoke like them yet did not sound like them. He did not fit into their mould and they could see that He was different, so they tried to make Him believe that He was not different. Jesus knew this and replied, “…why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, which you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father” (John 10:37-39).

If you answer to a name that is not yours, the enemy wins.  If you answer to the lies, they gain a hold of you. If you conform to their ways to fit in, you miss out or delay your destiny. They call you by a name not yours knowing the power within you, and the name they call you by is their only weapon to try to subdue you to live a less than life. You are more powerful than you know, and your destiny will leave a mark that you once walked this earth. And so it was for Jesus when He stood strong, “…They said, “Though John never performed a sign, all that John said about this man was true.” And in that place, many believed in Jesus.” (John 10:41-42).

Even with Samson, when he was chained to a pillar with a crowd gathered to be entertained and they chanted, “Bring out Samson to entertain us” (Judges 16:25), he knew that though he was in chains, he was not weak and he was not defeated. Samson did not answer for a moment, but answered to his destiny! And so he had the last laugh over his enemies. Do not answer to “Mara” because of the season you’re in. Naomi in Ruth 1:20 said “”Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter”, but when she asked to be called Mara, she did not know that only three chapters later, she would be living in a palace and her name would be remembered forever. Do not answer to a name, not yours. Do not answer to a destiny not assigned to you. Do not answer to a temporary name given to you, reflecting only you temporarily season.

Though you have fallen, yet will you rise. Though you sit in darkness, yet will the Lord light a lamp unto your feet to guide your footsteps until you reach your destiny.

©Katie Mliswa and MomentsbyKatie.M, 2017.