Uwakmfon UdehAs 2023 rolls over and like most people on the face of the earth, I have tried to intentionally look back on this year in order to find words to describe all that my heart truly feels.
My heart wells up with gratitude as I think on God’s mercies this past year summed up in one word “Òránmónisefàyàti”. It was sometime earlier this year as I sought the Lord about my life’s path, I kept asking Him: How shall these things be? In those moments all I could see was a destiny too big for a small, fearful child like me.
One thing I’ve grown to love about the Lord is that He doesn’t respond to us emotionally. He will always say what we need to hear. In response to my pleas, He said to me “I am Òránmónisefàyàti“. I had heard this word being thrown around in christian circles and having spent 6 years of boarding school in Yoruba Land, Ogun state to be precise. I could piece together some thoughts but as I googled the complete meaning of this word, I was blown away.
“A God that sends his child on an errand and backs him or her with his chest“
A Worthy Illustration
Of the many things that seem to be going right in Germany, their transportation system is definitely not one of them. So, on this fateful day i was taking a detour because of suddenly cancelled trains. We were packed like sardines in this bus heading to the next city. With nothing to do, I started to observe others in the bus and God used a little girl(4-6 year old) and her mum to teach me a valuable lesson.
There were few free seats scattered around the bus far apart from each other and so, after a long time of standing, the mum says to her baby girl, “Baby, mama is going to sit over there okay? And she points to a seat not too far away, you sit here okay? I’m right there“. The girl agrees and the mum goes to sit.
The bus stops and people start moving around and block the girl’s view of her mother. Immediately, I notice her start getting distraught and she begins to cry because she can no longer see her mum. As soon as her mum hears her baby’s cries, she beckons on her to come saying “Don’t worry mama is here“.
The more I watched this brief interaction, the Holy Spirit started to speak to my heart. As long as the girl could see her mum, she was okay, immediately the situations started to change, she allowed them to cause her to lose sight of the fact that her mum said i’m right here okay? And truly, her mum never moved!
How many times was I like that little girl this year? What about you dear friend? Did you allow situations and uncomfortable circumstances blur your convictions from the truth that it knows which is that your God says He will always be with you and will back you up?
Mercy! Mercy! Mercy!
If you’ve found your self like the little girl this year, I want you to look at the other part of the story. It didn’t matter in that moment that she had told her baby that she wasn’t going anywhere, she wasn’t angry that her baby failed to trust her words, she knew her baby’s frame. Immediately, she heard her cries she stretched out her hands and said come to me.
God is saying same thing to you and I today. As we step into 2024, He is saying I am still that same God who promised to back you up. I will never change, you can count on me, you can trust me to carry you.
I don’t know what you have on your plate dear friend but I know this truth that we must be strong and courageous to wage the good war of faith. To stand strong in the days to come, we must keep forever in our hearts that our God is solidly behind us.
Jesus has overcome it all for us. If you needed a strategy for 2024, you just received one. Be strong and courageous, He backs you up!
See you on the other side in February 2024 xx
Happy New Year!!!
