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Can you imagine having to work with a clock whose time you cannot predict? I have had to deal with that for some time now.

To ensure my children focus on studies, and avoid wasting time thinking they will have another opportunity later to do their work, I use the parental control settings on the Huawei router I bought from a Telco to schedule their internet usage. It worked perfectly — permitting connections at the right time and cutting them off promptly when the time runs out! But I started having problems a few weeks back. Whatever time zone I set, this router is always 8 hours ahead. I discovered this painfully through a lot of hustle, when it would just not allow the kids to connect on one particular day. I did everything but nothing worked, till I checked the system time and realized I was scheduling against the wrong clock. I tried changing it several times, but it would still go back to the same within an hour.

Since then, I got used to setting everything to GMT +8 hours, which is Beijing time! Then I checked  this morning and it was GMT+1 hours. I just checked again and its now GMT. I am praying it stays the way it is now.

We all like stability don’t we? We want stable relationships; stable jobs; stable families and friends, and even stable environments! Have you gotten frustrated because you fear your current partner will leave you; or your current employer will fire you; or you are not too sure if your family or your friends will stand by you in crisis; or you were looking for something and did not find it where you left it the last time? All these are cravings for stability!

I have craved stability for years. I thought I could get it by leaving the church I was born into, but that didn’t work! I thought I could find it by leaving the highly acrimonious extended family environment I grew up in, but I was wrong.  I thought I could find it in a great career, but I was wrong again. Then I heard a lot of talk about marrying and “settling down” and I thought that was going to do the magic. I guess my overly linguistic brain over-interpreted the “settling down” expression to be synonymous to “stability”. I was sorely disappointed! That word, “settling down” is very seductive, especially when used in tandem with relationships. If there is anything human relationships bring into our lives at all, it is complexities; because you now have to think in twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes etc., and on almost all fronts! It is a folly; and when I discovered it, I wondered how on earth we could think that adding another imperfect being or beings, to our existing imperfections, would suddenly make everything perfect! Unfortunately, we can conceptualize and postulate; but we won’t understand some of these things till we experience them.  

What would finally bring some stability into my life has always been there; right from my childhood; but I just didn’t think it was the answer. It is that very personal relationship with God; where I could virtually feel Him telling me,

“Do this! Don’t do that. Go here…etc”

Where I could feel Him telling me,

“Don’t watch that video. Read this book. Study this etc.”

Don’t get me wrong. I was born into a very religious family. My grandfather, with whom I spent my very early years set up a church and a school; and was the catechist cum organist cum choir master at a point! I attended mission schools till I had to go to the university. I was born into the Methodist Church, went to join Assemblies of God in my teens, and then became a Baptist purely by serendipity, after university. Religion was all around me!

But being around you, and being within you are two very different things. I learnt that lesson  a few years back; but until then, I struggled a lot!

You can go to church judiciously, participate in all church activities joyfully and even hold leadership positions in the church; you can even preach, or teach (like I have done for years), but if you don’t have that intimate and personal relationship with God, you will still miss the stability you need in your life. It is a very personal thing. No one can do it for you, and no one can force you to do it. Coercion, manipulation, and even threat of death cannot compel you to do it.

You just have to personally recognize that you are not here by chance; that you have a divine mandate to fulfill; and until you align yourself with the source of that mandate, the one who created you, the Almighty God; you will never find the rest you need.

Saint Augustine of Hippo, who practiced a hedonistic lifestyle for years before getting dramatically converted; and about whom I wrote in the devotional entitled “Restless” is quoted as saying in his autobiographical work called “Confessions” ;

“Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.”

In the book of James, considered wisdom literature just as the book of Proverbs, it is written;

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17)

True and lasting stability can only be found in God.

MEMORY VERSE

“Every good and perfect gift is from above…” (James 1:17)

QUESTIONS

1. Have you been struggling to find stability, and rest, in your life?? 

2. Do you know they cannot be found anywhere else, except in God?

PRAYER TIP

Almighty Father, we have searched and searched and searched and are tired and weary. Please help us find stability, and rest, in you.

Written by:

BENNY MALM

For:

TESTIMONY DEVOTIONAL

URGENT CALL

If you don’t know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Personal Savior, you need to do that now!

Please visit “The Believer’s Prayer” for guidance.

We will be happy to hear from you through the contact information on that page. God bless you.

🌹 SPECIAL GRATITUDE 🌹

Thank you for visiting the Testimony Devotional Website. 

We would not have gotten here without your prayers, goodwill and overall support. We are grateful, and humbled. 🙇🏽‍♀️🙇🏽‍♀️🙇🏽‍♀️🙇🏽‍♀️🙇🏽‍♀️🙇🏽‍♀️

We thank God for counting us worthy to share in His Great Commission.