GOD LOVES YOU. ALWAYS.

Dear sibling in Christ, 

There’s a version of GOD'S love we normally don't talk about, the centrifuge-type of love✨. 

And boy oh boy is it something!

Growing up, I often tried to patch over my mistakes with whatever good deeds my younger self could muster, hoping that would spare me from being disciplined. Then I accepted the Lordship of Jesus...

When GOD is the one disciplining you, after mercy and grace are accounted for, the only way through is through😭. Mercy definitely speaks for us, and Jesus continually intercedes for us, but He still and will discipline those He loves for our benefit, so that we might be partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:6-11).

We normally love Jeremiah 29:11, the famous, ‘For I know the plans I have for you...’ scripture that almost every Christian quotes, but do you know that this verse was after GOD reassured the Israelites that it was 70 years of exile in Babylon that they were looking at, so they might as well get comfortable🥲. 

But my writing today is not to talk about GOD's discipline but His pruning. He prunes so we may bear more fruit (John 15:2). Disciplining is more or less meant for correction, and then, there's pruning when you literally could have been minding your business, quite frankly, you could have probably been like Moses on your way to do what He instructed you to do, and gbam! trials and tribulations (Exodus 4:24).

In Jeremiah 17:9-10 (NKJV), scripture says,

"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings."

Looking back at volume 2, I left camp last year thinking, wow, I really know myself. This and that and this, is who I am. This weekend I was listening to Make Me Whole, a whole year later, and whoever I was a year ago is not me at all. There could be reminders of her, but I genuinely don't know her anymore. Abi's ministration in the song, which by the way was powerfully Spirit-filled✨, was GOD's way of foreshadowing the season I was walking into. I also remember Femi talking about a revelation he had of someone during the song’s ministration, which also happened to be me. 

There are things so deeply ingrained in us that we believe to be normal, but it is only in intense seasons of trials and tribulations that they can drop off. A centrifuge love, a love that will allow you to be tested on account of the word, His word (Matthew 13:21), so that whatever doesn't look like Him can drop off. And yes, trust me, it can feel like heaven has joined hell in opposing you, but it all works out for the good of those who love GOD and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

One thing, though, that I am learning to do in such seasons is not being offended by Him (Luke 7:23). The moment you let the enemy sway your mindset into seeing these seasons as GOD's abandonment, you risk drifting from the only One who literally loved you to death!

Yes, He will give up nations in exchange for you, but He will also allow hell to collapse on you, because, as you walk through the fire, He is there with you. Sometimes, just like in the case of Shadrach and his bros, not to extinguish the fire, but so that the fire doesn't set you ablaze (Isaiah 43:1-7), all to the glory of His name, and the perfection of your faith (James 1:1-4).

So dear sibling in Christ, in whatever season you are in, a disciplining season, a pruning season, a waiting season or a reaping season, trust the One who is the author of seasons to see you through (Genesis 1:14). He will never allow the righteous to be moved (Psalms 55:22). Even as you wonder about trying to figure out the seasons, He still reproves kings for your sake saying, ‘Touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm’ (Psalms 105:15). 

Trust the One who loves you, always!

With GOD'S unfailing love,

Your sister in Christ,

Living for the Audience of One,

NancyNengai.