LOVED

Hi there!

How doth thou fare? Tis mine desire that all is well with thee.

Welcome to today's gist. 

Randomly this week, I remembered something really annoying that happened to me last year.  There's a market really close to where I stayed as an undergraduate, it's really a short walk from my area. One day, in February during that cash scarcity madness, I was coming back from the office where I was interning at the time and stopped at the market to get ingredients to make soup. Because everyone was trying to get cash, which I barely even had by the way, most vendors weren't collecting transfers, some like the tomatoes and pepper sellers didn't seem to even have accounts for you to send the money too. Suffice to say, I had just about used up all the cash I had at hand with me and was going home wondering where I would get cash to commute to work in the coming days. 

And as I was jejely trekking my thing home, this man decides to spit from inside the keke he was in and where else would it land but on my leg. To say I was furious was putting it mildly! The man was trying to apologize, I just turned and continued by walk home because if I had stayed there any longer, una for for see me for Internet say I dey fight person. As I was going home I was just complaining about such uncouth behaviour that led to my foot being covered in someone's saliva, I mean why would someone be spitting out of a moving vehicle? 

As I was thought about this incident again this week, I for vex in arrears if the Lord did not tell me "I was spat upon for your sake." I don't think those words have made the kind of meaning they made to me that day. 

I imagined the scene that day 2000 years ago when Jesus was bearing humiliation because of me. The Bible tells us in ‭‭Mark‬ ‭15:19‬ ‭that: "And they struck him on the head with a reed stick, spit on him, and dropped to their knees in mock worship."(NLT) Imagine the indignity! The derision! The utter disrespect for the person of Jesus! 

And as I watched, in my mind's eye, the humiliation Jesus let Himself go through, I thought to myself, "He had the authority to destroy all of them oo. He created them, He could very well just, with one look, command their organs to collapse and quit working or something", yet He forsook the shame and willingly bore the humiliation for my sake. 

That thought filled me again with wonder at the immeasurable love that God has for me. Because me, I no go knowingly gree make person spit on me because of another person, see how angry I was for a mistake, then imagine God allowing Himself to be spat on by the very creatures He made and for what reason? For me! For you! There's nothing that I'll ever do to make me deserving of Jesus experiencing such indignity for my sake, nothing!

So I'm here today to remind you, in case something or someone has made you forget, of just how much God loves you. He loved you enough to create you for His pleasure, loved you enough to die to bring you back to Him and loves you enough to receive you when you come to Him. No matter what you're going through, no matter what life throws at you, I want you to remember today, and every other day you spend on Earth, that you are loved by God, and His love is a wellspring that never runs dry. What you're going through is not the determinant of God's love for you, He already proved His love for you in the most amazing way possible, "in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8, KJV)

And when you understand just how loved you are by God, let that understanding inspire love for God in you, a love that will result in living for His glory, that's really the only way you can ever respond to God's love. 

NLS HOT GIST: let me just tell you that nothing will test your discipline like deciding, without any external influence, to study. Since I've been home, the struggle to read has become even more tenuous; on campus, when everybody is reading, even if you no get ginger, you go find am make you no look like the mumu wey no dey read. But since I've been home, I've had to be drawing from my discipline reserve to study because e get one side of my brain wey dey deceive me say na holiday, but alas! God big pass devil. It's been a struggle honestly, but God has been helping me. Please keep praying for me to have more studying strength and stamina abeg🙏🏾. 

No matter what the devil tries to tell you about yourself, remind yourself, and him, that you are loved by the Most High, and that is enough! May God help us all to find our worth in Him and in His love. 

See you next week. 

Love,

Achenyo.