new year | KOINONIA ART

Consider how embarrassing it would be if the Queen of England was discovered befriending beggars. Imagine how it would be for the Oba of Benin or the Emir of Kano to be found in local bars with locals. Strange right? Now, imagine the King of Kings, Jesus, being found with the lowest class of people in His day.

Jesus was found with those who society rejected, from fishermen to tax collectors to prostitutes to insane people to blind beggars. He was not embarrassed to be in the company of outcasts.

Jesus feels at ease among those who have been marginalized by society. He has no hesitation about identifying with those who are struggling, spiritually blind, or sick in any aspect of their lives.

Here is one of the numerous instances where Jesus demonstrates His undiscriminating love for mankind;

Matthew 8:1 When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. ²A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

³Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy.

In Jewish culture, lepers were considered unclean and were ostracized from society. They were not permitted to live among people and whoever touched them was considered unclean as well.As a result, they were stigmatized and treated as lower-class people.

I can imagine how the leper felt seeing everyone avoid him due to his condition. I can imagine it because I’ve been through something similar before. I know what it’s like to be treated like a scumbag because of how life has treated me. I know what it’s like to be scorned and abandoned when you need people the most.

Do you know how it feels? To have visible spots on your character, health or mind that you refuse to wash away. And because they are visible, no one wants to be with you. You are left alone!

That is the climax of whatever punishment you want to give to a person. Even God said it is not good for man to be alone. We were never created to be alone.

But there is a way the circumstances of life will treat you, you will be considered unattractive by many. And you will be left alone. Left alone to ponder on the misery of your situation. Left alone to beg for food to eat. Left alone to live for survival.

The leper was left alone because of a leprosy that was never his fault! Have you ever gone through battles you did not cause? Have you ever found yourself in tough situations you know you did not deserve? This leper was in such situation.

But one day, Jesus was passing the very place the leper was. And the leper ran to meet Him. This is where some of us fail as believers. I wish I had done this earlier. Some of us run from Jesus instead of running to Him.

We do not want him to see our leprosy so we either run from Him or try to hide our leprosy.

So in Church, we act like holy saints when we are dying in sin within. We shout ‘praise the Lord’ when we are doubting God within.

We dance in Church and cry at home. We smile in public and mourn in secret. We put on a false appearance because we afraid of being judged or condemned like in the past.

But Jesus does not condemn 😥Isaiah 42:3 says, ‘A bruised weed he will not break’.

Men condemn and abandon because that is the only thing they can do. They have no power to change, deliver or heal. But Jesus is our savior. He can mend the broken hearts and set the oppressed free!

The Leper asked for healing.

I was walking home (Benin, Edo state, Nigeria) one day, and a very little girl ran to me. She was dirty looking and had a very bad odor oozing off her mouth.

She also had a pus on her face. Obviously, she was a beggar. I was so irritated by her appearance that I crossed to the other side of the road just to avoid having to look at her.

I was disgusted by the appearance of a beggar with a little pulse. Imagine how Jesus is supposed to have felt being close to a man with stinking LEPROUSY! Any other person would run away, but Jesus stayed. Because He is not disgusted by our leprosy. In fact, our leprosy is the reason He wants to be with us.

He came for the sick, remember? Luke 5:32.

And He touched the leper. No man had ever touched the leper for years, but Jesus did, and His touch healed the leper.

Jesus wants to touch you. He said to the leper, ‘I am willing’ (Matthew 8:3). Jesus is willing to heal you. He is willing to make you whole again.

What is your ‘leprosy’? Depression. Anxiety. Fears, even doubts. Confusion. Uncertainty. Today you feel you believe God and the next day, you are on the verge of losing hope.

You are the exact person wants to touch. He is the physician looking for the sick. The Advocate looking for the condemned. The Light looking for darkened hearts (John 8:12). The healer looking for wounded souls (Matthew 8:16). The High Priest looking for sinful lives (Hebrews 4:14)

All you have to do is open up your heart, your heart, your weaknesses to Him. Welcome His presence into your life and trust Him not to make you better, but to make you NEW.

Written by

Nwodo Divine

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How was this year for you? Ever asked yourself that question? Well. It was until this morning that the question rang in my ears. Did it ring in yours too?

There’s a very easy way to rate your year. It’s not by checking how much you have in your bank account or how comfortable your life is. Grab your jotter or the piece of paper in which you wrote your New Year resolution for 2021 and check how many were truly fulfilled.

I checked mine and candidly, I still had a few that I had not achieved. So you’re not the only one who still has some unfulfilled resolutions. Lol. But I’m grateful to God that He gave me the wisdom to achieve the ones I could achieve. And that wisdom is what I would love to share with you in this post.

Here are a few tips on how to have a more successful 2022;

Go on a retreat before New year’s day.

Did you go through battles this year? Academic battles. Financial battles. Marital and family battles. Health battles. Moral battles. Spiritual battles. We all had a battle to fight. Even the struggle to survive in the midst of the virus was a tough battle.

No matter what the outcome of the battle was, retreats allow you to take some time off the battle field to restructure your life for a more productive 2022.

Switch off your phone. Grab your Bible. Go to a solitary place (your church, home or a camp ground etc) and spend time reflecting on the year.

A. Habits. Decisions. Friends. Consequences of our decisions. Mistakes. Successes. These things should be reflected upon in the retreat.

B. Correct whatever needs to be corrected.

C. Decide on the new course of action, decision and habits you are making next year.

2. Have a mental picture of who you want to be by the end of the year.

My little sister showed me a picture of a gown she wanted to sew. The gown looked quite difficult for an amateur tailor like her to sew. ‘How can you sew this,’ I asked and she replied, ‘If I have it in my heart, I will produce it with my hands’.

Who do you want to be by the end of the year? How do you want your life to be in all ramifications? Broke? Rich? Single? Married? Dating? Do you want to close 2022 with an excellent grade in school or you just want to maintain an average grade. Make your decision and be intentional about it.

Wishes do not come true in life. Only heartfelt desires come true. You can write down this picture.

3. Set ‘How-to’ for everything you want to achieve in 2022.

It is one thing to want to or be something. It is another to know and do what it takes to be it. Everything in life has a ‘How-to’. Our mothers are well cultured in the how-to of cooking. Our fathers (mostly) are skilled in the how-to of discipline and financial management. Elder brothers are skilled in the how-to of bullying. They are very skilled bullies to we last boys. Lol.

Everything and everyone has a how to including that which you want to be. Let’s say you want to close 2022 spiritually mature. The next thing to do is to find out how to attain spiritual maturity – through prayer, studying the word etc. Or you want to break out of an addiction. Find out how-to break out of it. You can even seek counsel from your spiritual leaders.

Short-term goals also help.

Short term goals are very important. Long term goals are like the mental picture of who you want to be by the end of the year. That picture is on a ladder.

A very long one. Short-term goals are like little steps you must climb to get to the long term goals.

One of my goals this year was to round off the year with a strong CGPA. That was the picture at the top of the ladder. Each step of the ladder represented a month. Month one’s goal was to read for a total of a hundred and twenty hours. It increased in month two and kept increasing until it accumulated into a scholarly student (side note: I’m blushing right now) who pushed his CGPA from 3.75 to 4.something.

Here are two more;

3. HABITS ARE EVERYTHING

John Maxwell taught that you can’t have downhill habits and expect to climb uphill. It’s like walking to the bottom of a staircase and expecting to automatically elevate to the top.

You can’t spend the whole day doing amebo (*African: Gossip or talkativeness) and expect to end the year as a wealthy business woman. Your habit has the propensity to propel you to the picture at the top of the ladder or drag you down to its bottom.

Choose your habits wisely. Cut out time spent on things that are not relevant to your goal. Whatever will help you climb the ladder and reach the picture, do it daily! I mean DAILY! Not once in a while. EVERY SINGLE DAY, DO IT! Lastly,

5. MAKE QUALITY FRIENDS!!!

Hope didn’t this prick you? I’d be happy if it did nonetheless. Those we spend time with have an unseen way of influencing our thought pattern, lifestyle and behavior.

Do not be afraid to distance yourself from friends who are influencing you negatively or hindering you from reaching the top of the ladder.

No friend is worth sacrificing your goals or destiny for… especially the ones that do not have any goal in their life. Modify your network. Make friends who share the same positive interests like you. Get mentorship from mature folks. Make relationships that will impact you positively.

Lastly. Again. Sorryyyy, but I felt this one shouldn’t be added to the list because it is a climax of everything that will make 2022 a better year; get closer to God. We all need God. Everything we want to achieve will be useless if God takes away His protection or health from us. As the scripture says, ‘in all your ways, acknowledge God’.

Please I need a very little favour from you…. just little. If this post was helpful to you, please copy the post’s link and share on your social handles with friends and family. Thank you so much… Light and love!!