If you are a human being like me, you can agree headaches and migraines are the worst. I’m constantly thinking of my next meal, school fees, my health, my family and how they are fairing on and how unfair or frustrating work can be. There’s my social life, bills to pay, mouths to feed, goals to be achieved, scores to be settled and at the end of the day, the list never gets any shorter. Just when you think you can breathe, life happens. You try to chart a way forward but it never seems enough…have you felt that way? I know I have…

At one point I listened to motivationals back to back to help me get out of the feeling of being stuck but instead, I never felt more stagnant in my life. One discouraged evening as my family hurdled for an evening prayer, my father was winding up his speech and he said, “When you feel like praying, start at once.” And I have never felt such peace in my life ever since I started.

The Truth

Here’s the thing, we try to escape the hamster wheel of life using our plans but they still fail. Even a prisoner breaking out of prison has a blueprint of the area. And for us, that blueprint is the Bible. We need to know what it says so that it works in our lives.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

Matthew 6:26

For a believer on earth, life has you grinding away to the point of swallowing up your devotional time, your prayer time and sucking away at your spiritual man. No wonder we are told not to be conformed to the patterns of this world, it can get crazy real fast. Pause for a second and be grateful for where God has taken you from to where He is taking you to. The Word says that the great work He began in you, He will accomplish, so stop worrying and focus on Him.

What now?

The only thing left to do is to after giving God your burden, is to create a more positive thought process. I will not kid you, it’s not easy but once it is a habit, you will be established. For a habit to be formed, there must be discipline, in this case being very mindful of what you think of because what you think is who you are.

“And He said, ‘What comes out of a man, that defiles a man.'”

Mark 7:20

Remember the advice at the beginning? That is where radicalization comes in. Because of the noisy, constantly bombarding world we live in, we believers have to take back time for God. Find a way to incorporate God in your life in a way that suits you. What worked for me was morning prayer and recitation of verses. So what I’d do, is I’d arrive at work before the place is open to the public and I would pray, walking around committing the entire staff to God, praying for a great day and asking for His presence to saturate my workplace. So far no-one has told me or opposed me despite the numerous CCTVs in the ceiling.

“And to be not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God,”

Romans 12:2

There have been days when I don’t feel like praying, or I’ll still pray but the contention would be great. I have learnt to push myself and commit to the routine no matter what happens. In closing, placing yourself in God’s hands as you take the Word doesn’t only just give you strength and faith, it changes who you are and how you see things.

Be radical, stay the course.