Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He hath done.
Why am I choosing to praise the Lord?
I. He answered my prayer
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139:16
This is my prayer. It has been my prayer for close to three years.
At the beginning of the year, my pastor unveiled the theme for the year. The year of ‘Ever Increasing Faith‘. As soon as he said this, my stomach knotted up. Why? Because I understood that for my faith to increase, I will be put in situations that will force it to grow.
Later, in the anointing service, the Holy Spirit moved through the gift of speaking and interpretation of tongues. I recorded the utterance on my phone and when I got home, I transcribed the interpretation. Fast forward to December. I stumbled upon this transcription and lo and behold! Every word that was spoken concerning 2019 came to pass! This has never happened to me before, needless to say, I am still in shock!
He revealed His script for my life for 2019 and certainly His Word did not return to Him void.
II. He held on to me
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no-one can snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, no-one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand.
John 10:28-29
Living out His script means letting go of your own script. And if 2019 taught me anything, it is that submission to God is a nice statement to make, but difficult to live out.
And because my script was not coming to pass in spite of doing everything I could possibly do, my faith began to waiver. Not the faith of:
Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1
But the very anchor of all faith:
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must first believe that he exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Hebrews 11:6
Yes, my faith in God was tested. I began to doubt Him. I began to question His love for me. I began to question His character. His Is-ness.
Was He truly who I thought Him previously to be?
I had all these questions running through my mind. Questions I posed to Him and not to anyone else. And He answered me.
‘Fighting Faith‘, a sermon given by Rev. Tom Otieno during my church’s Revival conference. A sermon to the church, but a very personal response from my Father to me. Tuesday, 30th August, the day my Father spoke to my heart. The day He showed me that He is not afraid to answer my questions. The day He told me, “Noni, you are staying right here in my hand. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. I am with you in the storm. I am with you in the valley of the shadow of death.I am your God.”
And in His hand is where I belong and where I will remain for eternity.
III. He comforted me
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
“Where is your God?”
Psalm 42:3
I am generally a “cryer”. My tears are ready to drop at any moment. But the tears I cried in 2019 were not my normal tears.
They were my prayers, they spoke when words failed me.
They were my worship, when I had no strength to lift up my hands.
They were my release, my release into the comforting embrace of my Maker.
But these tears were also tears of mourning. Saturday, June 15th. The day I was serving my God in church. The day I received the news that my uncle had passed away. That is him in the picture. The picture was taken when my hair still defied gravity. It was taken to accompany an article my sister had written about his role in our lives. The role of an uncle, a father and a friend. The role of family and of love. He played such a pivotal role in my life, I just always assumed he would be there. He was the family’s ‘go-to guy’. Our personal ‘Mr. Fix It’. Always ready and willing to help. The glue that brought us all together, stressing the importance of family. And now, he is gone…just like that, with no goodbye…
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction? […]
Hosea 13:14
Until we meet again Uncle Karlo 😢
IV. He showed me His goodness
Taste and see that the LORD is good […]
Psalm 34:8
God is good all the time, and all the time God is good and that is His nature.
Except, I have said these words so many times, they lost their meaning. In the midst of the storm that has been 2019, I told God that I wanted to know His goodness. And truly I can say that I have seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
He has always been good to me. I just needed to take my eyes off of me and turn them to Him. I needed to take my focus off the two prayer points that I felt He was ignoring and see that He has answered prayers I did not even utter. I just needed to be genuinely grateful for what He has already done. And what He has done is A LOT!
Yet, even if He had done nothing, He is still good. He will always be good. That is just who He is.
V. That I am standing
Therefore, dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.
1 Corinthians 15:58
I stand, not on my own power, nor on my own might. I stand by His Spirit. And by His Spirit, I shall stand in 2020.
As you can see, 2019 has not been an easy year. So why am I choosing to praise the Lord?
Because He is God, and I am not.
Because He is the author of my life, and I am not.
Because He is sovereign, and I am not.
Because He IS, and I am not.
So whether He answers another prayer, or NEVER answers another request, by His grace, His praise will always be in my heart and in my lips.
Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our rapture, when Jesus we see.
Praise the Lord!