GRATITUDE

Hello there dear gist partner!!

How are you doing this fine day that the Lord has made? I hope you're doing fine and if you aren't, I pray that God visits you today and gives you His peace and joy. 

Welcome to today's gist. 

I had a lot of things that I wanted to talk about today and while I was thinking of which exact one to talk about, I fell into a bit of a "down" time today, in fact I was so 'out of it' that as at 6pm today, and was thinking of not even gisting today because I didn't feel like I had anything to say anymore that wouldn't be forced or pretentious. 

I went to God in prayer with a heavy heart and a distressed spirit, for about 15 minutes, I was just pouring it out to Him and telling Him just how "not fine" I was, I went through a list of the things that were worrying me today and I kept asking Him to please help me and do something about them. 

Fellowship today was by 6:30pm so I finished up and dragged myself to attend. In fact, I was even contemplating not going because I didn't feel up to it but God prevailed upon my heart and I finally went. 

You know what? Let it never be said that God does not hear or answer prayer because He does!

I went to fellowship today, late of course because I'd dragged my feet for a while, and it was a prayer meeting, our last before we go on break for Externship, and all we were doing today was giving God thanks. I had barely begun to even arrange myself when the prayer leader said something that really struck me; he said we're so caught up in all that's happening in Law School and all that's not going right that we forget the things that God has done for us, and so we do not thank Him like we should, I'm paraphrasing by the way. But when he said those words, I realized the very fundamental error in the place I had been –I had been so consumed with all the many things that are seemingly wrong with me that I wasn't even thanking God for the things He has been doing, at least not like I should. 

See I had so trivialized the gifts God has given me because I was so focused on the things He hadn't yet done. And I've been struggling with bitterness, my heart has been heavy and I've not felt as grateful as I should, even me inside my mind, I dey know say I suppose grateful pass the way I grateful but because of where my heart and eyes were fixed, my gratitude wasn't as sincere as it should be and I kept doing it halfheartedly, so it wasn't that I was ungrateful, it was that I wasn't as grateful as I should be. As I write this, I remember a video clip I saw of Pastor Laju Iren speaking of how we seem to have created cadres of gifts and how much gratitude we think each gift should garner, a wrong thing to do by the way, and as I think of that, I am convicted and I realize that I really do need to be more grateful, even of the gifts I think are trivial –or maybe especially because of them.

I know that all I have said doesn't quite tally with my saying God answers prayers when what I asked was that He do something about the things I took to Him in prayer before fellowship but here's the thing, He did something about them, He just didn't do what I was looking towards, what He did instead was to do something about my heart. These issues are still there and are no less real than when I went to fellowship, but my heart's different, and that is what matters. So I'll stay waiting, with a heart of gratitude and watch God answer in His own time. 

I've decided that I'll be praising Him for all that He has done and praising Him as I wait for Him to do these things I desire: no matter what happens, I choose to call God faithful!

So that's my story, I don't know how you're feeling or what you're going through, it may be really hard to see the light that's supposed to be at the end of the tunnel but I'm here to tell you that The Light isn't even at the end of the tunnel, He's with you in the tunnel, walking you through it to where He's taking you to, if only you would hold his hand and let Him do it in His own time. 

And while you wait, STAY GRATEFUL!

NLS HOT GIST: we've written tests everyday of this week. It's been such a crazy, yet wonderful, experience for me. And God has used this period to reaffirm to me that the work I'm doing is not a waste of my time, I've sha seen areas I need to work on but all in all, it's been good. 

Well, that is that about that as far as that is concerned, please make sure to be intentional about gratitude to God for all the things He has done and is doing for you, may God help us!

See you next week!

Love,

Achenyo. 

PS. Don't forget to leave a comment, I'd love to hear from you.