HaileyWrites

King David is probably one of my favorite biblical figures. His story captures a lot of elements, whether it was times of victory or times of loss, but throughout it all, we see him keep his eyes fixed on the Lord. The first time I heard about David was at Sunday school. I heard the story of a boy who killed a giant using a stone and a slingshot. Obviously, when I grew up, I actually found out that the stone didn't kill Goliath, but it caused him to fall, and then David used Goliath's sword to cut his head off. It makes sense why that detail wasn't shared in Sunday school, but as a child, I never questioned it. I heard that David killed Goliath with a stone and that was it for me. There weren't any doubts. I didn't try to view it from a logical point of view. I just knew that Goliath was killed with a stone and a slingshot. It makes sense why Jesus told us to have childlike faith. As a child, it is easy to believe what you read or hear, but as you grow, you start to...

Luke 1:45 (NKJV) "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." I came across this scripture a couple of years ago on Pinterest, and I was quite fascinated by it. At that point in my life, I wasn't reading the Bible regularly; I simply enjoyed looking at scriptures on Pinterest. So when I came across this verse, it stood out to me, even though I didn't fully understand the context at the time. Here's the context. After Mary encountered the angel and was told that she would give birth to the Saviour, the angel also informed her that her relative Elizabeth, who had been called barren, was already pregnant with John the Baptist. When Mary went to visit Elizabeth, the child in Elizabeth's womb leaped for joy. Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke these words to Mary: "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord....

Hi there, it's been a while ( insert awkward smile ) It's been a while since my last post and it's not like I didn't know what to write about; I just wasn't sure how to get started. Last year in October, I published a post titled Progress Over Perfection , where I talked about how I sometimes struggled with posting consistently because of my need for perfection. When I published that post, I thought I had already overcome that struggle, but clearly, I hadn't. This year, I aimed to become more consistent with my blog, and that hasn't been the case. I love my blog. I love this platform. I love talking about God and sharing my walk with Him. But at some point, writing started to feel difficult. It felt like my writing depended on my mood and my circumstances, and if I let that dictate my blog, the reality is that there would be no output. Writing this post is a little difficult because it forces me to confront a reality that I don't always like to admit: ch...

El Roi: The God who sees me. Hagar was an Egyptian slave. When Abraham and Sarah couldn't yet conceive, they grew impatient and were unable to wait on the promise of the Lord. As a result, Hagar was given to Abraham so that Sarah could have children through her. Bearing in mind that Hagar was a slave, it means that she probably didn't have a choice and she was bound to heed the word of her mistress Sarah. After Hagar conceived, she stopped respecting Sarah and as a result, Sarah mistreated Hagar. Genesis 16:4 (NKJV) So he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. Genesis 16:4 (EASY) Abram had sex with Hagar and she became pregnant. When Hagar knew that she was pregnant, she no longer respected Sarai. As a result, Sarah dealt harshly with Hagar, and she fled into the wilderness where she met with the Angel of the Lord. The Angel of the Lord told Hagar to go back to Sarah and submit to her authority, an...

There is a song I absolutely love and listen to a lot. It is a cover by Lawrence and Godswill Oyor titled Oshimiri Atata (which translates to, "River that never runs dry"). The song talks about how Jesus is the river that never runs dry. He is the One that provides never ending nourishment. He is the One that fills us up.  There is a particular line in the song that stood out to me the very first time I heard it: "The son of a lion is a lion." At the time, I didn't understand why the line stood out to me but after a while, it made sense. One of the biggest topics in our generation is about identity. We all desire to know who we are. The problem starts when we want to discover our identities outside of the One who created us. Before fully giving my life to Christ, I was in the pursuit of my identity but I was using the world's standards. I wanted to find my place in society, I wanted to fit in. My search was outside of Christ and that led to a lot of confusio...

It has been a while since my last post. I've had so much to blog about but it has been hard translating my thoughts into coherent words. I have some posts in my drafts but I can't seem to complete them yet.  One of the reasons why it takes time to complete a post is because... I just realized that I want to be a perfectionist when it comes to my blog. The desire for perfection actually ends up getting in the way because I often feel like my posts aren't good enough to be posted. The desire for perfection in terms of my blog keeps me stuck and unproductive. I also think I have placed a lot of pressure on myself when it comes to my blog. When I gave my life to Christ, I made the decision to use my blog as a platform to share the gospel and simply talk about my walk with Him. That decision hasn't been the easiest because I feel like it contributed to the pressure I put on myself (stay with me now). It was easier for me to blog about whatever topic I decided on but once I m...

I seem to gravitate towards writing about obedience and its because when I read the Bible, obedience stands out the most to me. Also, disobedience seems to be the downfall of most biblical figures and of course, disobedience leads to sin. Obedience is about submitting to God's commandments, His laws and His will.  It makes sense why obedience is difficult because it requires us to lay down our own wills for God's will. Walking with Christ requires the willingness and ability to lay down your own will for His because His ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isaiah 55:9). Disobedience was the reason for the fall of mankind. God commanded Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because it would lead to death (Genesis 2:16-17). Scripture provides a lot of instances that show disobedience and its consequences. This post is dedicated to studying King Saul and how his disobedience led him to being rejected as King by the Lord. I ...

Jonah 4 vs 1 - 2 (NKJV): 1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry. 2 So he prayed to the Lord, and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my country? Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing harm" I am sure we all know the story of Jonah. If you don't, here is the background. The Lord sent Jonah(a prophet) to deliver a message to Nineveh to say that the Lord had a cry against the city because of their wickedness. Jonah fled from the Lord because he didn't want to deliver the message so he got on a ship. When Jonah was on the ship, the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea. The people on the ship were afraid. Long story short, they threw Jonah out of the ship because he was the reason God caused the storm. When Jonah was thrown into the sea, he was swallowed by a great fish for 3 days until the Lord spoke...

When I was younger, I had a book with all the Bible stories. It was a children's storybook so of course, it didn't go into depth but it still gave the overall message. I remember thinking, "okay, God talked to Noah and he listened". It looked like an easy enough task to me at that age but now my view has changed. Genesis 6:8 (NKJV): But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Genesis chapter 6 tells us about the state of mankind's heart in those days. The fear of the Lord was not present and people were just living life in a way that grieved God to the point where God regretted making mankind. The earth was corrupt, filled with violence and the intents of the thoughts of mankind's heart was evil continually. It is good to remember that God sees our hearts and He knows our hearts. Besides the physical wickedness perpetuated by man on a daily basis, the states of their heart were just continuous evil. God was grieved in his heart and he was regretful. These ar...

When we study the great figures of the Bible, one thing stands out. They all had an intimate relationship with God. In the previous post, I mentioned that Abraham was probably able to discern the presence of God in the three men because he knew God and he knew how it felt to be in His presence. The problem with our generation is that we believe going to church on Sundays is enough. We forget that Jesus is the Bread of life, in the same way we eat food every day to satisfy our flesh, we need the bread of life (Jesus and the Word of God) to nourish our spirit. Prayer and reading the Word are some of the ways to cultivate a deep relationship with God. Another problem is that we distance ourselves from God by only knowing him as God and not regarding him as our Father. That change in mindset really makes the difference. Knowing God as our Father means that we desire to talk to him through prayer because we know the importance of daily communication. We desire to bring honor to his name by ...

Genesis 22 vs 1 - 2 (NKJV): 1 Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham , and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am." 2 Then He said, "Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I tell you." One of the many things I struggled with in the past was selective reading. I would read the Bible and misunderstand so much, leading me to have a lot of confusion when it came to God. The day I started praying before going into the Word was such a gamechanger and I recently understood why.  The Bible was written by people that were led by the Holy Spirit so definitely, if we read it without the help of the Holy Spirit, confusion is bound to arise. Without the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that we can only receive from the Holy Spirit, we are reading from the flesh. That right there is the problem, I was reading words wri...

Initially, this blog post was going to be focused on Abrahams obedience. However, I did not know how to go about the blog though the vision was clear. Then it dawned on me, I cannot talk about Abraham's obedience without touching on his faith. His faith is the one that fueled his obedience. His faith made it easier to obey God because he trusted God. Genesis 12 vs 1 - 3 (NKJV): 1 The Lord had said to Abram, "Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you" These three verses show God's promises to Abram (before his name was changed to Abraham). God did not just tell Abram to leave his country, but He gave Abram promises. We see here that God knows his people....

Discipline has a lot of definitions but for the sake of the message, I will define discipline as the ability to keep working at something difficult. Motivation is defined as a reason for acting or behaving in a particular way.  The main difference between discipline and motivation is that motivation is driven by feelings whereas discipline is driven by self control .  So now that I have established the key difference, let us dive in!  I have come to realise that the reason why my walk with Christ would always seem to flatline was that I would tackle it from a place feelings. I would make the decision that I want to take my walk with Christ serious, I would feel the fire, I would find a good bible plan. All the works.  Then two weeks into that decision, I start giving into feelings of laziness. Three weeks into the decision, the fire has died down and I start entertaining thoughts of, "I don't feel like God hears me when I pray", "I am not in the mood to read the Bib...

Dear readers, A very happy and blessed new year to you. I am beyond grateful for the love, support, feedback and just taking time to read what I have to share. My blog has been a huge part of my Christian journey and I hope that it has helped you too in some way and that whenever you read, there is a seed planted within you to continue seeking God. I am excited to see what God has in store for us in 2025 _______________________________ Around this time last year, I was making my new years resolutions and saying that I would take my relationship with God much more serious. Unfortunately, that did not last long but things are different this year. The new year doesn't mean that I have to start afresh with God, I just have to keep walking with Him and choosing Him everyday. My encouragement unto you for this year is:  1 Thessalonians 5 vs 17 (NKJV): "Pray without ceasing" This verses encourages us to pray continuously for many reasons. There is power in prayer and prayer is w...

J ourney - an act of travelling from one place to another. When I first started this blog, I did not know that it would get to this point. I never imagined that I would be using this platform to share the Word of God, let alone, having a relationship with Him. I was very unhappy in my life, not that everything was bad. Life was relatively good but I felt incomplete. Jesus was missing in my life, and when I look back, I truly see how my actions, speech and thoughts were of someone that was not in Christ. I had to live without Him, to fully appreciate His presence. There are moments where I wish I would have fully given myself to Christ at an early age so that I would be ahead in my journey with Him. However, I am learning to understand that we serve an intentional God and His timing is always perfect. He is never late or early. He is always on time. I have been on both ends of the spectrum: in the world and recently, in Christ. The difference is very clear and I can see the subtle chang...

C hosen - selected or marked for special favor or special privilege. I went through a time in my life when I was severely depressed, and in that dark season, I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. I didn’t talk to anyone about it, and I didn’t pray about it either. Instead, I carried the weight of it all on my own, convinced that I had to “fix myself” before I could even think about coming to God. I often used to think I had to be "perfect" before standing in God's presence, that thought alone kept me away from Him for a long time. Quite frankly, I don't know where the thought stemmed from. Jesus said it in His Word that He came for the sinners so why did I think that I had to first "work on myself" before surrendering myself to Him? I am coming to realize there are a lot of things that actually try to keep us from seeking God. Instead of going to the Creator to restore me, I tried doing it on my own. By doing that, I was leaning on my own strength and unde...

I ntentional - done on purpose or deliberately. In my previous post, I shared my decision to be intentional with my walk with Christ. I have decided to delve into what it means to live intentionally for Him. The first and most important thing is to choose Christ by your own volition. I grew up in a Christian home, so Christ was all I knew. As I grew up, I tried to find my identity in Christ, but it was always short lived — due to my actions. I would have a burning passion for Christ for a week or so. Then the inconsistency would start, and eventually, I would fully withdraw myself from His presence. This would be a cycle for many years, but I decided to end it. I had to come to terms with how unhappy I was with my relationship with Christ, and I had to be the one to decide to do better. God has always been waiting for me, all I had to do was surrender to Him. This is very cliché, but who you surround yourself with is very important. I am surrounded by friends who are pursuing Christ, s...

N ew beginning - a chance to start afresh or to do things differently.  The reason I stopped blogging is simply because I lost inspiration, my life got hectic and blogging was the last thing on my mind. Apart from that, I just didn't feel like I had anything worth saying. When I began my blog, I made a promise to myself that I would do my best to keep this blog as authentic as possible. That meant only posting when I felt like I had something worth sharing - I didn't want to post for the sake of it. Maintaining authenticity was, and still is, my main priority which is why I took a long break.  As the title says, this is a new beginning. When I first started my blog I stated that I wouldn't stick to a specific theme and would simply share my thoughts and feelings as they came. I have been contemplating resuming my blog for a couple of weeks now and I finally got the revelation on what direction I wanted my blog to take. I realised not sticking to a particular theme also cont...

P erspective - a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something.  I have come to a realisation that perspective influences a lot of things from my mood to my state of mind. How I view things is the delicate line between me feeling motivated or me being on the brink of a mental breakdown. We often face failures in our lives and we usually take those failures as a sign to give up but having perspective enables you to take those failures as motivation to work harder. Truth be told, that is so much easier said than done but like everything else in life, practise makes perfect. Towards the end of last year, nothing in my life was going as planned and that caused me to fall into a deep hole of sadness. I was so ready to give up. One of my biggest flaws, that I am working on, is throwing in the towel too easily. When things dont go my way I am quick to give up, wallow in self pity and go down the "Am I not worthy?'' cruise ship. Buuuut I am proud to announce that, that...

F ea r - an intensely unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain or harm. I recently started reading a book titled, "Welcome Home" by Najwa Zebian and one paragraph deeply resonated with me. It says, "One of the most defeating forms of self oppression - to know you have power, but not to use it. To know you have a voice, but not to speak. To know you are in the wrong place, but stay where you are. To know you have so much potential but not use it. I think its safe to assume that the reason behind these forms of self oppression is simply fear. The paragraph resonated with me because I have a lot of irrational fears that cause me to miss out on a lot of things. After reading the paragraph, I had a playback of all the missed opportunities because I was scared to speak up. At times, I am my own enemy. I often overlook my own potential and succumb to my fears. However, its a new year and that needs to stop! I have been a slave to my fears for many years now, I al...