Dear God

I hope I’m not sounding contrived when I say good morning to You. Maybe I’m just being naughty and trying to get your attention. But I’ve had that since, so this can only mean one thing – it’s time to talk.

When I come to You with my heart full and needing to pour just to breakthrough
It’s no April fool or a tool to jump the lines to get to You.
I just need You!

When in Your presence I seem unsure of that which once was but now feels like force. I chose to trust that You will sense my hesitation and hold my attention.
I seek You!

It’s only a fool that says there’s no You. For if they were true to their essence and paid heed to the gapping hole in them (that isn’t assuaged by anything), only then will it become clear… that You seek Truth and Spirit, not brute and spirits.

When my lips can’t say what my heart feels, understand me
When layers and layers of clothing cover the “truth”, search me
When rights prevent me from obedience, don’t turn away, pull me
When it’s more than I can bear, and I can’t draw on Your strength, carry me

Dear God, it’s me again… is it OK to say talk to You later? I seek rest. Read me!

I Am IMAN – I Manifest Adonai’s Nature
#UnapologeticallyMe #iman #imaniking #imanwrites #imaninspires

@imanikel 01042024 Frances Kelvin Otung (c)

Dear God

Dear God ❤️….
I may not often express what my heart feels towards You because I know You can read my unsaid. Yet, I realise that it floods my being with tenderness and deep love when I do. I get soaked into Your arms, love, and presence. I step into a time and space that I don’t want to leave anymore, and it leaves me wanting more and more of You; activating in me a hunger for You that is not easily assuaged.

Today, I’ve come to pour my love on You as it gushes from my core, my Lord, my Glory and Lifter of my head, my Lyrics and Song, my Lifeline, my Anchor, my Wonder. It is You who makes every day worth waking up to. You put rhythm into my unsteady steps and add the beats to it. You remind me of the times and seasons that only You could have made possible and yet still paint me a picture of more to be expressed.

How do I repay this Love that leaves me weak and unable to articulate the flow within me?
How do I get the world to feel like I do and more?
How do I get them to understand that Your expressions are beyond the things, the tangible, the seen to that which the mouth cannot utter?
How?!

It may take more than a lifetime, but as long as I draw breath,…
I will say “Thank You”,
I will carve the words, “I love You!”
I will declare that You alone art worthy to receive my praise.
I may not get the words right, but I’m glad that You understand the depth of my unsaid and know I mean it.

I stopped by to say You are good to me, and I love being Loved by You! ❤️ 😍

I Am IMAN – I Manifest Adonai’s Nature
#UnapologeticallyMe
#Iman
#imaniking
#imanwrites
#imaninspires

@imanikel 01032024 Frances Kelvin Otung (c)

#Freedom Friday – Don’t hate me…

Don’t hate me for dropping lyrics to Him, ascribing to Him all the beauty my mind can conceive.

Don’t give me the eye for lines that fly, in sync with the One who makes me wink, but when I look into them, they make me sink into His unending love.

Don’t start a fight, it’s my right to respond to Him in words that describe how I see Him.

Dear God,
I think You are cool in jeans and a fitted shirt, with a touch of red. I love hats, so I’ll add that to the looks too and maybe some blues.

You are ageless and don’t need to lean, but I’ll give You a walking stick for more swag. I’m not really into blings, so I’ll leave that out, but a dash of grey on the beard is a fact.

I love eyes, I won’t imagine Yours, but when I look into them, make me find a kaleidoscope of colours without defining lines. Let me be drawn in as it goes from Greenish Grey to Brown and other mix of blue in-between.

Your voice, definitely deep and soothing but light enough to hit any modulation when we worship. Your touch, more comforting than any touch my mind could fathom.

You are beyond description, but if I had a choice to give You a face, I won’t because the awe would be too much to grasp.

This is me checking You out this morning and i hope You love my painting of a Friday You!

#UnapologeticallyMe #UnapologeticallyYours

@imanikel 09102020 Frances Kelvin Otung

In Awe…

 

©2017. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved

#LyricalMonday – More

© 2017. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved

Quotes I love…! Working through Failure

My reading plan for last week was titled “Working through Failure”. I got a different understanding of how I can engage failure to cultivate good and positivity in me. What do you think?

And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. – 2 Corinthians 12:9

If our reaction to failure is despair, then we are feeling the hollowness of a broken idol. But if our reaction is perseverance, then we are experiencing the gracious power of God.

Norm Goodyear (Cargo Pilot):  “There’s no perfect flight…. In the flying world, when you make a mistake, you just have to go on because if you dwell on your mistakes (whether as a pilot, a child of God or whatever) you’re going to keep looking in the past. In the airplane, as well as life, you’re going at 300 – 500 miles/hr and you can’t dwell in the past because the future is coming at you pretty fast.”

It’s important to learn from our mistakes, but we can’t let them become obstacles. We have to move forward, trust God for both forgiveness and guidance, and prepare for what’s next.

Winning Smart After Losing Big,entrepreneur Rob Stearns writes that there’s a big difference between experiencing a failure and being a failure: “You are the same person after your loss as you were before your loss.” It is strength of character that enables us to get up and keep moving when we’ve failed.

Failure can be the result of others’ actions, circumstances beyond our control, our own actions, or a combination of all three. While failure is no fun, it can benefit us in the long run. When mourning our mistakes compels us to make ourselves right with God and others, God comforts us and our relationships improve.

Andy Crouch, Executive Director, Christianity Today: “All creativity leads through failure, takes you through failure and some creativity lead you to failure, you just end up in failure. In every creative endeavour, you fail before you succeed, at least when you are learning…there are levels of failure you have to contemplate or go through to get to success and get greater and greater…. The calling to the creative life…is not a calling to more and more clear success. It’s a calling to more and more creativity – which may or may not succeed – all of which is going to put you at risk for failing, all of which has to be put in the hands of God.”

Feeling sadness is uncomfortable. Without the emotional blessing of sadness, however, we would probably never muster the guts to admit our mistakes. But when we do admit mistakes, we may be surprised how often people are ready to forgive us.

©2016. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved.

Picture source: http://www.innovationmanagement.se/2016/03/21/how-to-turn-a-failure-into-a-wild-success/

#LyricalMonday – Life’s pleasures

Life has its’ own and it keeps offering you. But what you make of it, is yours to own. Knowing this and knowing that you have the mind of the Creator, it’s on you to carve out how you want the painting to be, the story to end and the display you want others to see.
Some times, it is really hard. But hey, that’s life and whilst you are in it, I can only say “Let’s swim with, against, in, above, under the tide… and whatever we choose, let’s not play dead.”
Live life!

#ThankfulThursday – Knowledge

Knowledge, though power should keep you humble, so you can reach and share with others thereby making more impact. Sometimes, all you need to have faith in someone or a thing is your knowledge of that person or thing.

What do you KNOW about the One you are with?

©2016. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved

Help!!! I’ve been pulled back

I just have to keep going, keep pressing on against the wind, against the sand in my face, through these sea of bodies. It’s a fight for survival. Everyone is doing it, so I might just get to the end of the race regardless of how my bones ache and my body is begging for respite.

Looking back, I’ve made quite some progress, nothing much to write home about, but at least I’ve left the start line and I’m in motion. That’s what it is, right? Everyone is in motion, therefore, I must count in that number. It doesn’t feel like much. As a matter of fact, I feel alone and left to struggle this out on my own.

Thought You said “You loved me?!”
“I’ll never leave you nor forsake you”
Where are You in all this?
“I am with you till the end of the age.”
Then why do I feel so alone?
“You are not alone, child, before you were born I knew you.”
‘Knowing’ shows intimacy, is this how You treat people You love? I heard that “Love gives!”
“I gave you Jesus!”
And where is He right now that I need answers?

I question the Answer as I run on, shooting down every response He gives to me. How can He be unmoved by all I’m going through?

G flies past me, no worries, I’ll catch up with you soon. O waves as he glides away, my heart sinks. Watching Z breeze easily away, was the last straw and then He stops me.

HELP!!!

Somebody help me! I’ve been stopped in the middle of my race.
Help! I’ve been pulled back by One who said He loves me. Don’t be callous, don’t race on as if you can’t see my situation. Does it not look awkward to you as I stand still, while others fly past? Can’t you tell something is wrong? Help! I’ve been pulled back by the Hand that was meant to assist me.

How sad 😦

• To fire a gun, the trigger is taken back.
• A bowstring is pulled back and the aim (target) in focus before the archer releases the arrow, so it goes further.

©2016. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved

What If…

I’d love to box God into a corner if that were possible, put a gun to His head (or something else that my finite mind can conjure) and have Him answer me “When it will happen?”, “Why it hasn’t happened yet?” I’d love to seal every hole He’d want to escape from and have Him tied to the seat or handcuffed to a pole (I must be watching too many action movies lately) and “talked to” till He begs for mercy and gives me the answers willingly. But how do you hold down an Infinite God? How do you capture One whom WORDS (seen) and WINDS (unseen) obey?

Something nudges me on the inside asking me a simple and somewhat innocent question “What if it never happens, what are you going to do?” As I sit listening to Brian Courtney Wilson – I’ll Just Say Yes and sing along, I’m still wondering ‘how long’?

By the way, I had a discussion with Him yesterday, more like a MONOLOGUE and I told Him (as if He didn’t hear it for Himself already) what the heathen said “Where is your God?”

I know where You are, but how do I explain that it is beyond what You have done and I’ve entered into, it is beyond what You have finished and I’m yet to receive or experience. It felt good venting yesterday so today, I’ll just stick to saying “Yes Lord! Yes Lord!! My life is yours!!!”

By the way, I love You <3!

©2016. Frances Kelvin Otung. All rights reserved