Choosing to suffer affliction, rather than pleasure

Blessed be the name of Jesus for all his goodness and his mercies, for his love and long suffering. I know Jesus has done a great things for me for he has given me a hope of salivation through faith in his marvellous work of the cross. I know Jesus has done things that no one else would do in this life and in the life to come. Therefor, I willingly choose to praise and thank him and give him all the glory he deserve. I worship Jesus and him alone for he is the only true God and everlasting life. The scripture teaches us a lot about him, who he is He is the first and the last and he is the last, which is he is the beginning and the end . Not only he is the beginning and the end, but he is also everything that is in between . He is the alpha and Omega, he is the one who was, is and going to come as the scripture declares saying, "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." Revelation 1:8. Praise God for his word.

We know that God is our father and creator for it was written in the scripture that God created man in his won image at the beginning. It was written God created man from the dust and give him a breath of life in his nostril then man to become a living soul. Therefore, we know that as a human being we would be born, grow, and live a life we meant to live before we die in the time God set for us. We know the life we are living is the We know that we all do all we do, think, reason, learn, search for the right ways to live, aspire, hope, believe and trust, love and being loved because of God. We know that we we think, reason, and some times confused, and perplex because of what God install in us. , we know that we move and tit, come out and come in because of God.

we know that we rise and we fall, we know that we hope, aspire, and we lose hope and discouraged because God believe, we living things including man has the beginning, the middle and the end. That is what we could learn about the beginning when we incline our ears to the word of God. That is the history of humanity based on the word of God. The truth is we are in the middle of this great history of humanity in the story of creation. We might be in the middle of these great history of creation. I know I might be in the middle of our life for we have understanding that we were born in certain time and in a certain place. We might know and tell our history for we know where we came from as individuals. We might know and tell our individual story of who we are, who we think we are, where we came from, what knowledge and experiences we had. We may know tell our stories, fascinating, amazing stories about ourselves , we may tell our unique experiences in our journey as people.

The underline fact about our life as individuals is I have been travelling learning the things I learned from my family, my surrounding, from school, community and from society in general. I believe I am in my journey trying to explore ways, paths that will lead me to my destiny. I know the fact that my life is in the hand of my creator who created me with a purpose. I know he has a plan for me , and I know it is a plan of hope and prosperity, not a plan of evil. I know he knew me before even I was born. Therefore, I believe and trust him, and determined to worship and follow him I will.

The fact about this life is through God has all our life in his hand we still need to trust and obey him until he levered his clear purpose for our life. That is why we have to trust him and keep trust him in all stages of our life in our journey. We have to learn to trust him in what ever path we are going. We have to accept the principle that says, " Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." Proverbs 3:5-6. We have to trust him in all states of our life, in all situation, venues, and paths he allowed us to pass. One truth about our journey is it is full of events for we would face many challenges from many directions. These challenges may come from our sole enemy, Satan, and it may come from the world we are living. That means the challenge in our journey could come through anyone and any thing. When we are in warfare Satan would throw all forms weapons through anyone and through anything to heart us, and kill us, mean would attempt to still our faith in God, to attempt to stop our journey with God. Therefore, when our enemy Satan wage warfare all these challenge could come. It could come from people that we are very close to, a family, a brother and sis in Christ, it could come from classmate, co-worker, but we have to know that it could come through anyone and through anything in this world. Satan would bring all forms of challenges, he would bring all forms of sins, diseases, confusion, uncertainty, tough situations that would force us to leave the things of God. We would overcome all the devices of Satan by knowing what Jesus has done for us on the cross. Jesus shade his blood on the cross to destroy all the works of the enemies and death, which is our greatest enemy We would overcome the deception of the enemy by the blood of the lamb and by our testimony. Blessed be the name of Jesus for he has done for us on the cross.

These challenges could come from the word we are living for we are living in the world full of things. The truth is we are living in the world full of things to see and full of things to hear that would easily take us away from the way of God if we are not careful. That mans anything we see and hear would tempt us to follow the things of the world. All what we see in this world simply summarised as beauty, money, fame, power, glamour, material things like possessions. These are the things that we see day today in our naked eyes, in television screen. These are the things we hear everyday, everywhere. The only way we would overcome is to see the things of God, by seeing the salivation of God who is able to save us not to be trapped by the things of this world. We would only overcome only when we find ourselves in the word of God as most of the father of faith did. David was able to see himslef through the lens of the word of God about himself in God and said, "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee." Psalms 139: 13-15. Another man of God Jeremiah encourage us to believe in God and his word saying, "Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." Jeremiah 1:5. We would only overcome all the things of the world by finding ourselves in the word of God. We believe in the word of God and all what it teaches us to overcome the temptation of this world. We would only overcome to the things of this world only by hearing the word of God, which will guide us to heaven, to the kingdom of God. We would only overcome the things of this world only by seeing the cross and by hearing only the voices of the lord for we have given a powerful instruction that says, " And the Lord spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice." Deuteronomy 4:12

These challenges It could come from our flesh as well for there is a clear teaching from the bible that says, flesh and spirit oppose each other. These natures of us in us for we are made up of flesh and spirit. Therefore, there will be a huge challenge comes from within, it could come from our own flesh. I know it is the most changing battle for us as believers for the our sole enemy Satan, and the world would support the flesh. What makes this on more changeling is the flesh would be susceptible, and sensitive to this world and the temptation of Satan. Therefore, we should stay strong and fight these battles. I believe this one is the most changing battle for it is the battle encompass from within and without. It is a battle that requires patience and intelligence because it is all about trying to control the flesh, which is part of yourself. What makes it hard is it is almost impossible to go without the flesh as long us we live in this life. We have to, and must fight until the end to subject and control the things of the flesh, its desire, its ambition. We would only succeed and overcome these battles only by allowing God to work in our behalf. I believe we would only overcome these changes that the flesh would bring only by asking God to involve in all mattes, through prayer, learning and studding the word of God, through sharing experiences with other believers. Ultimately we would overcome these changes by submitting and surrendering the flesh to God to control it full by his spirit for it was written it would become challenging when the flesh take the upper hand. It was clearly indicated how hard this battle would be. It was written, " This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." Galatians 5: 17-18. I believe the only way to overcome these battles would be learn to lead by the spirit of God.

I believe we would overcome all these by focusing our eyes on the prize that God has for us at the end of our Journey. Jesus promised he would go to prepare a place for us and he promised he would come back to take us to himslef. I believe all the deception of Satan, the temptation of this word and the flesh by focusing our eyes in the work of Jesus that he has done on the cross and by focusing on the great and wonderful promises of everlasting life that he promised to everyone who believes and accept the gospel that is preached by the apostles and prophets. We would overcome all these challenges through the blood of Jesus shade on the cross and by our testimony as it was written, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Revelation 12:11.

It is true the journey is long and tough. It is true there is a lots of uncertainty in between for we have no idea what is ahead of us in our life only God knows all from the beginning to the end. Our only responsibility is to trust him, follow him by seeking, asking and knowing for his wills and plans for our life. We have to trust and keep trusting him, we have to seek and keep seeking him and we have to knock and keep knocking the door of haven until we find the perfect will of God and his purpose in our life. That is what makes our Journey tough, fascinating, and intriguing at time for we lively see the battles in our life. We would see all the battles, the woulds, the healing, the defeats and the victories, the doubt and the faith, the sadness, and the happiness, the affliction and the resurrection, the hopelessness, the hope, the discouragement, and the encouragement. We would see the all the defeats and the victories, we would see the battles within and without.

The truth is if we believe God , his word, and trust his power and wisdom he would lead us to our destiny in our life. Since he is the outer and the finisher of our faith he would be able to sustain us through all these segments of battles. He is able to sustain us, guide and direct us to the way out, the way to victory in our battles. Our journey itself should serve us as means to learn his faithfulness for he was able to keep and sustain us throughout all our battles. The truth is he is able to sustain us, keep us , bless us and fulfil all his promises that he made and guide us to our destiny that he was for us. One only can pray saying let your will be done for that is what one seek and aspire in his life.