HELLO BRIGHTNESS,

Welcome to the tenth month of the year….yay! So it won’t be a bad idea if we start with a verse to meditate on this month, shall we?

^“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” [Phillipians 4:8]

As I observed my morning devotion, I came across this verse and I had a flashback to the first time I ever read this passage. I remember it so vividly; some years ago when I was a fresh  undergraduate student, I had this guy asking me to be his girlfriend and I was confused because everyone around had one and it was so weird saying you are single, I knew that the only reason I had not yielded to this pressure was because I knew  I wasn’t ready for marriage at the time.

So I had this guy who was always asking me out on a date, buying gifts (which I  always refuse by the way),  because of his constant calls and never-giving-up attitude we became friends; I was cool with that but he insisted on going beyond “just friends”, as time goes by, I started growing fond of him and I knew I had to do something fast before I let my emotions make a drastic decision on my behalf.

I remember also,  it was the year I rededicated my life to Christ and I was still kind of struggling on how to maintain constant fellowship with God, but I needed desperately to hear a word from God about this guy. I decided to go to the bible and search for an answer since I had learned that going to His word is one of the ways to hear from God. With my heart racing, I carried my Bible and made up my mind that whatever answer I get, I would strictly comply to; I know you already guessed by now the verse I found was Phillipians 4:8; that was the first time I ever saw/read that verse, I had to read it over and over and the part that kept ringing in my ear was; “whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

Although I all I wanted was a verse that would give me a direct “NO” or “YES”, I learned that God has not made us a robot, He will never impose anything without giving us the chance to make our choices even though He wants us to pick the best. For the most part of that day, I kept on meditating on this verse asking myself the real reason for getting into this relationship; then I started answering my own questions ( with the help of the Holy Spirit of course) I knew, first of all, the relationship was to fulfill the campus desires of “having a lover”, it wasn’t for marriage prospect (I mean, I wasn’t even sure what I wanted in a future husband as at then) both of us were not spiritually strong and one thing might lead to another, then we end up defiling God’s temple. After so many motives searching, I found my answer. Immediately, I texted him the same passage “hey friend, this is the verse I got as a reply from God” and that was the end! Was I happy to let go of my friend? of course not! but I was satisfied I had done the will of God and felt this unexplainable peace about it.

You see, It’s important we check our motives when making decisions by asking some questions like: is what you want to do scriptural? is it right when examined by morality and decency? is it to be a form of help or for selfish reasons?

The truth is; most times we already know what is right through the impression of the Holy Spirit or our conscience but we love hearing lies disguished as shades of grey. Truth is always the truth no matter how much it’s been compromised.

Stay Shiny, 

    Oyinkan_God’treasure