YES SIR!

 Hello there!

How are you doing today? Here's hoping you're doing fine? And that God continues to give you strength. 

So, let's take a trip to the Old testament shall we? One night in Genesis 41, Pharaoh had a dream, he had 2 dreams actually. In one dream, he saw 7 fat cows grazing by the River Nile, enjoying themselves and as he stood there, probably watching and admiring these cows, 7 really thin cows came up on the scene. These 7 thin and skinny cows did something really intriguing; they swallowed up the 7 cows! 

He woke up! If na me, I go say "God forbid" then start to pray against the dream. And when he went back to sleep, he had another dream. In this second dream, he sees 7 succulent and sumptuous looking heads of grain growing from the same stalk. And once again, as he watches, 7 scraggly looking heads of grain grew up and swallowed these 7 succulent grain heads. He woke up perplexed! He didn't even understand what his dreams meant before you talk of him knowing what to do about the dreams.

So he sought for someone who would help him interpret the dreams. His butler remembers one Joseph that had interpreted his, the butler, dream while in prison and informed Pharaoh of the man who interpreted his dream. Pharaoh sends for Joseph and Joseph not only interprets the dreams but proffers a solution to avert the effects of the famine from affecting Egypt. Joseph's plan was so foolproof, of course because he received it from God, that Egypt had so much food they could even afford to sell to other lands, which led to the relocation of the entire family of Israel to Egypt from Canaan.  

Suffice to say, Joseph was a renowned man in Egypt in his time. 

Then in Exodus 1, a new king arose. Verse 8 tells us that this king didn't know of Joseph's accomplishments in Egypt and all that Joseph did for that country. All of a sudden, to this king, these Israelites seemed like too much work, too much unnecessary stress to cater for and he began to maltreat them!

I remember thinking on this fact one time and saying to myself "this useless man no know say na because of the ancestor of these Israelites na im make him own ancestors survive wey dem born am. People wey e suppose dey treat like royalty, e suppose dey almost worship dem sef." And in actual fact that's the truth: Egypt, and most of the worlds at the time, owed its survival of that famine that would have destroyed all its people to Joseph, yet this king came and decided that the Israelites were too much work to cater for. His ignorance born out of the forgetfulness and negligence of his forbears led him to mistreat people deserving of honour. 

And as I thought about that, berating Pharaoh and his ancestors of course, God asked me how many times I've done the exact same thing that I was complaining that Pharaoh and the Egyptians did. Sometimes I forget all that God has done. Now, I don't forget in the sense that I fail to remember that He has done so many outstanding things for me. I fail in the sense that I  subconsciously downplay what God has done for me, I almost seem to trivialize it, without even knowing that I do so. 

You know how I found out I do that? Sometimes it just seems like such a chore to do certain things for God. I find that I neglect to do things for God not because I can't do them but because it just feels like so much work that I'm not willing to put the effort into doing it; sometimes it's going to church, sometimes it's extending a hand of fellowship to someone (I'm particularly guilty of this one because I think that I do not want to open the door to an unnecessary relationship with the person), sometimes it's stopping to pray when I'm led to do so, sometimes it's reaching out to someone (guilty again, because I'm trying to avoid awkwardness), there are so many 'little' and 'big' ways that I let myself think that doing certain things God has instructed me to do when the instruction comes are bothersome and as you read this, I want you to also stop and think of times when you do the same thing.

Guess what God told me when I thought of this? He told me that only forgetfulness of who He is and all He has done for me would make me consider doing anything for Him a chore. The moment I think it is such a bother to do what God has told me to do, I have forgotten Who It is that is sending me. Because when I think and properly appreciate all that God does for me, nothing will be too much to do for Him. 

Hey, I'm not saying it will be easy, I still struggle a lot while doing it, but now the struggle isn't in my heart, it isn't in deciding to do what God has said I should do, because for me now, it will always be "YES SIR!" The struggle now is with the things that would make it difficult for me to carry God's instructions out, understandably because the world doesn't owe it to me to make it easy for me to obey God, on the contrary, it's engineered to make obedience hard! But I've decided that no matter how hard it gets, my answer to God when He calls will always be "YES SIR!" You know why? Because God is worth more than I'll ever be able to offer, all the obedience in the world that I can give won't even scratch the surface of what God deserves, so if He decides to delight in my paltry offerings of service, God forbid that I will decide not to obey! 

My encouragement to you is that when it seems like you're teetering on the cliff of indecision as to whether you should go all in when God tells you to do something, consciously remind yourself of Who is requiring the obedience of you, refuse to suffer from temporary memory loss, and let your obedience come. 

I pray that God helps us to always remember and to always obey too. 

NLS HOT GIST: I am almost convinced that we can't possibly be using the same time with the world outside NLS. To say time flies by here is such an understatement! I'm moving from one week to another without even knowing that I've left each previous week. The fact that tomorrow is Friday is surprising to me because it feels like last Friday was just 2 days ago. Suffice to say, you lose the sense of days and time when you're in law school. May God help us!

Well that's that about that as far as that is concerned, see you next week!

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. My birthday is in 3 days!