Meditating on the word of God simply means allowing the bible verse and its truth truly sink into your heart instead of just gathering information. It's more like chewing on a food over and over rather than just swallowing it. Chewing on it allows you to truly enjoy the food's taste and sweetness. This is what meditation is about. That we can ruminate on a bible verse rather than reading and forgetting about it.

Here's how meditation works:

• The first step of meditation is to read the bible. You cannot meditate on the word of God and not actually read the word of God. I don't mean to glance through but read it like you're preparing for an exam, thoroughly and through.

• After you have read it, ask "what is God trying to tell me through this verse"?. Ponder on it for a second and allow the verse to digest.

• Pray with the bible verse. Don't just read it and think about it, go further to pray with the bible verse. This allows you to believe it more.

• finally apply the bible verse in your daily activities. After you must have prayed about it, believe it, live like it. Let the bible verse change you and how you used to think and do things.

I've come to learn that meditation is very important when reading the bible. It gives strength, peace, wisdom and a renewed mind.

Don't just read it in passing like you're gathering information but sit with it and let it sink in, change you and truly influence your worldview.

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There was a family of four who lived in a small town. They had a dog. Not just any dog though this dog was family.

They adopted him when he was little, when his tail wagged at almost everything. He slept near their doors, followed them from room to room, and somehow always knew when one of them was having a bad day.
He was their comfort animal more like their companion and their little child with fur.

They loved him, and he loved them even more.

They taught him little tricks. They taught him to run errands, they trusted him and he took every one of them seriously, because that is what loyal dogs do.
They didn't understand that he wasn't doing those things because he was trained to. He was doing them because he loved them.
And for a while, life was beautiful.

Until, somehow, the family stopped needing him. There was no specific day the love disappeared. It simply became less. A little less attention, a little less affection, a  little less warmth.

Until one morning, they dropped him off at an animal daycare. "Just for the day," he thought except sometimes, they forgot.
One day became two, two became three.
And the dog waited and waited convinced that today would be the day they came back for him.

And eventually, they did. But something had changed.
They would pat his head, give him a small belly rub.
Just enough to remind him of what affection used to feel like. But never enough to make him feel truly loved again. The dog wasn't completely unloved, he was just loved insufficiently.

And sometimes, being given little pieces of what you desperately need hurts more than being given nothing at all.

At the daycare, he began noticing the other dogs. Some were picked up every evening. Some had owners who couldn't stop talking about them. Saying things like "I missed you!", "Look at my boy!". They hugged their dogs they, kissed them and celebrated them. And the dog watched quietly.

He watched people love their pets loudly while his own family loved him quietly, reluctantly, almost as though affection had become something he didn't deserve.

He began wondering what was wrong with him.
Was he too loud, too needy or too difficult? Had he done something wrong?

Why did everyone else seem worthy of being loved so openly? Why did his family seem to have enough love for everyone else, but only enough for him to keep him wanting more?

So he started barking not because he was angry...not really anyways but he was trying to say something.
"Please notice me." "Please don't leave me here." "Please love me the way you used to."

But humans have a habit of misunderstanding the things they have already decided not to understand.
They heard a nagging dog they didn't hear a lonely one. They heard noise.

And eventually, they decided they were better off without him. So the dog was adopted by another family. This time a family that loved him. A family that noticed when he was quiet, a family that rubbed his belly without being asked. A family that didn't make him earn affection. They gave him everything he had once begged his old family for.

But there was a problem.

The dog didn't know how to receive it anymore.
When they reached for him, he sometimes moved away.
When they told him he was loved, some part of him wondered how long it would last.

Because somewhere along the way, the dog had learned that love was temporary.
That affection can disappear without warning.

That being loved today doesn't mean you'll be loved tomorrow.
And so, even when someone finally loved him properly, he was afraid to believe it.

All along He wasn't difficult to love, he was just loved by people who weren't consistent in loving him that they eventually stopped trying.

I like to think of myself as intentional. In fact, I'm intentional about being intentional. I'm intentional with my friendships, my growth, my goals and anything and everything that matters to me.

Today, I want to talk about friendship. I don't have many friends and that's by choice and that's the way I like it. I've always preferred a small circle over a crowded one. Fewer people but with deeper connections.

Lately though, one friendship has left me feeling... invisible. Not Hated or disliked Just... Neglected.

It's quite an exhausting feeling when you're always the one checking in, always the one trying to keep the conversation alive, always the one making sure the friendship's fire doesn't quietly die. After a while, you begin to wonder if you're asking for too much, doing too much or being too much.

For the longest time, I blamed myself. Maybe I wasn't a good friend, maybe I wasn't interesting enough, maybe I wasn't doing enough or maybe I wasn't just the right fit for this person.

But then I looked at my other friendships. Friends who live so far away, people I barely get to see, yet we somehow make it work. There has never been a question of whether we value each other and I could feel the intentionality.

That's when it dawned on me. Maybe I wasn't a bad friend, maybe I just wasn't being chosen and that realization stings. It hurts more than I expected.

Friendship isn't supposed to feel like always convincing someone to keep you in their life. It shouldn't feel like always trying to Keep the friendship fire on all by yourself, hoping the other person will meet you in the middle.

The painful part is that this isn't just about me and my friend. I started to wonder if this is how Jesus feels everytime. He's always reaching out, always calling, always loving, always knocking on the doors of our hearts.

Yet He's the One we reply to when it's convenient. The One we remember when life falls apart. The One expected to keep the relationship alive while we slowly turn away from him.

Imagine constantly pursuing people who only remember you when they feel like or when it is convenient for them not minding how you feel.

Maybe that's why friendship has been teaching me so much lately. Not just about people but about the kind of friend I've been to the One who has never stopped choosing me, JESUS.

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We say "I love it" a lot. I love this person, I love this dream, I love this job. But love isn't just a word we say or text or a feeling we post or tell someone. Love is what you do when no one is watching. Especially when it is hard, boring and costing you something.

So the real question isn't if you love it. It's do you love it enough? Do you love them as much as they love you?

Loving something is easy on the good days. The hard part is loving it on the days it doesn't seem to be loving you back, that's when "I love it" is tested.

Last week I almost gave up, not because I stopped wanting or stopped loving but because I felt like I was caring too much and I was tired of it. And in that moment I asked myself "if this never got easier or as smooth as I planned it out to be, would I still choose it?"

Loving something or someone requires you to give your all. John 3:16 expresses this.

You can't say you love something or someone and not put in your maximum effort, it doesn't work that way. The life you dreamed of, that job, that friendship you long for and that person you want to keep in your life is very possible you just have to love it enough to give it all it takes to be a reality.

Jacob was in love with Rachel and he said he'll work 7 years for her father in order to marry her. After the 7 years was complete He was offered Leah. But because he loves Rachel he worked another 7 years to get her making it a total of 14 years. And the Bible said it seemed like only a few days to him because he loved her.

How many of us can sacrifice this much for something we claim to love? Can you?

You say you love it yet you can't sacrifice your time, attention, resources or even putting in the necessary effort for it. No you don't love it enough you just like the idea of it.

You don't have to love it perfectly. You just have to love it enough to choose it, fight for it, water it, feed it, nurture it. Because things worth having are rarely the things that are easy to love.

Whatever "It" is for you whether a craft, a person, a calling, a job, a life. Love it enough.

So do you love it enough? If yes then prove it today.

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I was reading the book of Genesis chapter 20 which was about the story of Abraham and Abimelek, the king of Gerar.

Abraham and Sarah does this thing where they agree to say they are siblings so the men of the place they are residing won't kill Abraham because of his wife's beauty.

As usual, he told Abimelek that Sarah was his sister and he took Sarah with him with the intention of adding her to his list of wives but God appeared to him in a dream to warn him to return Abraham's wife and also told him of the consequences if he decides to be stubborn.

Without hesitation, he went to Abraham, and asked him what he did to have deserved the deception from Abraham.

Here, I want you to pay attention to Abraham's response. Abraham replied, “I said to myself, ‘There is surely no fear of God in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife'...". Genesis 20:11. Abraham did that to instill the fear of God in Abimelek and the people of Gerar. If he had not done that Abimelek would not have known taking someone else's wife was wrong and disobeying God's instructions can attract His wrath.

The fear of God opened his eyes of understanding to God's greatness. Hence, Abimelek did As God had instructed. "Then Abimelek brought sheep and cattle and male and female slaves and gave them to Abraham, and he returned Sarah his wife to him". Genesis 20:14.

Fear in this context means recognising that God is great, awesome, to be taken seriously and also choosing to align your life with his ways. Wisdom on the other hand is knowing that God is God and you're not.

Fearing God means living with a deep respect for God that changes how you think and live your life. A bible character that didn't have the fear of God was Pharaoh, king of Egypt and oppressor of the children of Israel.

Wisdom here means having a God centered understanding and ability to live in a way that is right and spiritually sound. It involves having a right reverence for God, knowing and doing what's truly good and right, making decisions in line with God's ways and recognising your need for God.

I must add that real wisdom starts with a proper reverence for God. Recognising how great God is begins to shape our day-to-day life, how we think, judge situations and make decisions, treat people and how we live our lives in general.

The fear of the Lord is the foundation wisdom stands on.

The fear of God steers our heart in the light of the direction and path God wants us to follow. As demonstrated in genesis 20, the fear of God helps us make wise and well informed decisions.

I also like how this connects to love. Fearing God doesn’t push you away from Him instead it draws you closer to Him. You respect Him so deeply that you want to know Him, obey Him, and walk with Him.

The fear of God is the posture of a heart that recognises God's greatness enough to allow Him shape every area of their lives.

I hope this has helped you in some way, I'd like to get your opinion on this in the comments.🫶🏾

There is this greek phrase that explains this situation...TA EPH'EMIN TA OUK EPH'EMIN. It simply means, "what is within our control, and what is not within our control." Simple words with heavy meaning.

The truth is that a lot of stress and anxiety comes from mixing these two categories. We worry about being liked, we overthink the outcomes of things, we replay past scenarios and deprive ourselves of sleep and rest over outcomes we cannot determine.

The Stoics believed that peace begins when we clearly separate things we can control from what we can't.

Some things are under your control like our attitude, choices, discipline, motivations, and our response to life.

Contrary to this, the things not within our control are: people’s opinions, outcomes, rejection and how people's reaction.

These things have never been fully under your control. Yet, this is where many of us focus our energy and then wonder why we feel exhausted.

We can only break away from this when we finally choose acceptance. Acceptance doesn't mean giving up. It means seeing reality clearly and refusing to carry things that was never yours to carry.

You cannot control every outcome or reaction, but you can control who you become during the process.

As Christians, we understand this in a different way. We know that it is wise to do our part and trust God with the rest. For instance we plant and God gives increase, we pray and God chooses when to answer our prayers, we obey and God rewards our obedience and so on. This is peaceful.

We become lighter and unburdened if we can learn to separate these two things every single day. In essence, knowing What is yours to handle and What isn't?

So today, ask yourself "What am I worrying about that is not in my control? Also, what would happen if I finally let it go?"

I know some of you will say that's just how it has been since the beginning of time and all of that. However, I did my research and I've been enlightened, so let me share with you. Walk with me.

Firstly, God sometimes use trials for character building.

Personally, I get pissed when people choose to not be nice in situations where they could have been nice. It just seems unfair that I'm choosing to be a good person and someone else is just wicked for no reason. Does that mean I should change from my good ways to being a bad person?? Never and here's why...

The Bible says that "when sin is not punished quickly, people feel it's safe to do wrong and even if a person sins 100 times and lives long, those who fear God will be better off...but the wicked will not prosper because they do not fear God..." Ecclesiastes 8:11-13.

One of the characters of God is patience. He is a very patient God. This is the reason He decides to give us humans more time and opportunity to repent. Although, He despises the wicked, His wish is not for anyone to perish in sin. Just as 2 Peter 3:9 says, "...He does not want anyone to be destroyed but he wants everyone to repent".

However, remember that God's patience Is not the same as approval and time is not a reward or punishment.

We live in a world of sin (a fallen world). In some cases, God may take the righteous home to spare them from enduring or witnessing future evil or suffering.

At the end of the day, the real question may not be why the wicked live long or why the righteous sometimes die young. The real question is whether we will continue to trust God when life appears unfair.

Are we going to keep trusting in God especially when things don't make sense?

It dawned on me that I've been hiding behind the mask of _"I'm a realist"_ whilst overthinking the worst that couldn't have happened. Any single opportunity I get I say "let's be real..." then think about something not near realll. At this point I don't even think I'm a pessimist, I am probably way worse than that.

You may be wondering why I said that. Well, the reason is that thinking about the worst that could happen is sometimes safer than thinking of the best thing that could happen.

Thinking of the best thing raises our expectations and when it doesn't happen our expectations wash down the drain but picturing the worst that could happen sort of prepares us for any disappointment, when the worst happens we're unfazed when it doesn't..glory be to God.

However, overthinking doesn't always have to be all about the worst that could happen, it can also be about the best can happen too. Also, you're deserving of that possibility.

Hold this thought for a second, what if the reason the worst thing you could have ever thought of happened was because you thought of it in the first place? What if constantly expecting darkness makes it harder for us to recognize light. Proverbs 11:27 says "If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you!" This verse made me realize how powerful our thoughts can be.

The worst that could happen was on its own and now it has found you only because you THOUGHT of it. This just shows how much power our own thoughts have and how it determines the course of our lives.

Our mind is not just a place where thoughts pass through, it slowly shapes the way we see life, ourselves, and even the future ahead of us.

Stop treating joy like it's unrealistic.

Maybe being a “realist” shouldn’t mean preparing for disappointment all the time. Maybe real growth is learning to leave room for good things too.

Sometimes, the best thing that could happen is waiting to happen you just have to entertain it.