Author: ohsonicolle

To compare is a slow mental death

Posted on by ohsonicolle

GOOD MORNING BEAUTIES! 😀

I hope that all is well, today I was just having a thought. I had in fact started writing this yesterday morning and I didn’t get to finish it because I was rushing to work, I then revisited it and had kind of forgotten what was on my mind to write about-yeah that sounds stupid– but I think God has been trying to talk to me about this so I thought I would write! As I am on my way to work right now, I apologise for any spelling mistakes lol

Lately, (well to be honest it isn’t lately, that’s a lie, I’ve always been like this lol) I think I can be too hard on myself sometimes. Now some may say that it’s actually a good thing but I find myself constantly looking for ways to improve myself with my walk with Christ- which yes indeed is amazing– but I think I find myself sometimes looking to improve my walk with Christ based on other peoples walk with Christ, don’t know if that makes sense? 

I find myself comparing myself to others and sometimes even being jealous at their walks with Christ because I think that they are more ‘further’ (so to speak) in their walk with Christ then I am. I find myself looking at their life and then my life and wishing I had certain aspects, characteristics and abilities that they have. 

It was only till the other day, –yes I know, slow slow realisation. Sigh.- that it became more and more apparent to me that in anything in life and I repeat, anything in life comparing your life to someone else’s is a silent and painful mental death- a bit too much? Maybe I’ll explain a bit. 

Without knowing, we compare our walks with Christ, our relationships, our academic achievements, our material gains etc with other people and it does more damage than it does good. I’ve realised that I can’t keep on looking at other people because it makes me forget where I’m heading. You can’t base your life on looking at the lives of others, it won’t work. You have to keep on focusing on God, because you don’t know what other people have been through. My pastor spoke about something I would never forget, he said never despise small beginnings! 

Just because someone may be doing better than you it doesn’t mean that you aren’t ever going to do as good as them. What if God eventually even makes you excel past them?! You can never ever be sure of what God is doing, but you can be sure that whatever He is working on, it’s for the best. 

I just wanted to encourage you all today because I feel like I’ve been going through this battle and I know I’m not the only one. Watching other people won’t help make things in your life progress in the way you want them to. The bible says fix your eyes on the things above and I believe that part of the reason the bible said that was so that we know not to watch others because it’s only from God that our help can truly come from, right? I don’t want you to be disheartened when you see others progressing faster than you or getting closer to God than you are because the truth is, everyone has their time, you haven’t been left behind, look at it this way, God is still working on yours while He is blessing others. Your time Will come.  

Delayed By Design pt 2

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Sometimes when your dreams are delayed, you forget all what God has done. You tend to forget the dreams you have because you are so focused on thinking about how much God may have forgotten you. This is you forgetting Gods power. 

Still sticking to the people of Israel, in psalms 106:7-8 the bible says that they forgot many times how God showed them His love. After all that God did to rescue them out of Egypt, they forgot what He had done in a matter of days when they were at the Red Sea.

 God sent 10 plagues on to the Egyptians just to rescue His people and at the Res Sea the children of Israel thought they were going to die. They forgot what God had done. But despite of this, God still preformed a miracle. What did he do? He parted the sea for them to cross over safely. 

Even when they got to the other side, what did the Israelites do? Started complaining about how they were going to survive, demanding better food and ‘testing Gods patience to the breaking point’ (NLT)  the bible says. The point here is that there seems to be a reoccurrence of the Israelites forgetting even though they were still progressing. And this is what we do sometimes. We forget what God has done and act like He hasn’t done anything for us even when He may be doing stuff right in front of our eyes!! 

You need to remember that God has done so many things in the past and you can count on Him to do it again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. You have to just trust and believe! Remember Gods promises. There are over 7,000 of them in the bible, they are there for a reason! During times like this, stand on his word! Here’s a promise for you: 

“If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny who he is”. (‭2 Timothy‬ ‭2‬:‭13‬ NLT)

Rick warren said something amazing, he said: 

“God may not have fulfilled the promise in your life because he’s waiting on you. He’s waiting on you to learn to not fear, not fret, not faint, not forget. He wants you to learn that before he delivers you. God can do things immediately, but he’s working on a larger agenda. The delays that come in your life do not destroy God’s purpose. They fulfill God’s purpose in your life.”

I want you to keep these words in your mind and your heart. God will allow you to go through things before He can give you what He has planned to give you all along. Sometimes He does it so you can prove to Him that you believe in Him, yoi aren’t anxious, you aren’t fretting and you aren’t afraid. 

This is why the bible says “I will bless the Lord and not forget the glorious things he does for me” (Psalm 103:2) because during the midst of troubles, you should alter your mind to make it impossible to foget all what God has done for you and as it becomes a habit see how God shows up and shows off in your life. 

I want you to remain positive at all time, even when it’s hard, please remember that even though there may be a delay, your breakthrough is on the way. 

I love you all x

Delayed by design Part 1

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Morning beauties, apologies for the silence lately, had to take some time to try and realign my mind with God. I’ve been engulfing myself in the word and today my post is based on a Rick Warren teaching that I’ve been studying. 
We all hate to wait. When you are in a hurry & God is not, it’s the most difficult stage in our lives but this is a test. 
When things don’t go ahead on our timetable, we tend to run ahead of God to make things happen and this often results in making wrong decisions. 

Numbers 14:2-4 says, “All the Israelites grumbled against Moses … ‘If only we had died in Egypt! …. We should choose a leader and go back to Egypt” (NIV).

The israelites gave up on their dream after having a little bit of a delay and just like them, when you start to use phrases like ‘if only’ and ‘go back’ it’s a sign that you are discouraged. Your ‘if only’ is you second guessing your dreams. We sometimes go for things and at the time we are happy about it, then once it starts to get a bit tricky we start to think whether or not it was a good idea or questioning whether we actually heard from God or not! The ‘if only I done things different’ or ‘if only things were different’

Then we say, let’s go back to Egypt. When we go through the delay phase of life, we tend to idolise the past, we start talking about the ‘good old days’. Rick warren said something that actually makes a lot of sense, he said, the grass isn’t greener on this side of the fence or on the other side of the fence, the grass is greener where you water it! 

The good old days always look better in hindsight than they really were and this always happens when we start something, there’s a delay and then we want to start giving up. 

The Israelites would have preferred to go back to Egypt where they were faced with slavery rather than face their freedom and that’s how some of us are. We would rather face our slavery than face our freedom and shy away from actually being willing to push through it and say nope! I’m going to work on this until I get it right and then that’s when we start to settle for mediocrity in life. 

“Never settle for less than God’s best for your life.”


Rick warren says If that means going through a tunnel of conflict, take the tunnel. In the middle of the tunnel, it will be dark, and you will want to run back to the light. But you’ve got to keep going until you come out on the other side and  into the light.

Tomorrow I will continue with this same topic, as I am doing my studying on this topic, I try to write my notes alongside so I can share them with you. 
I pray that this has touched your hearts in some way. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow, God bless you. I love you all x

Hold on to the Gifts

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Good morning beautiful people. I thank God for waking us all up this morning. I pray today is filled with love, joy and productivity! 

Sometimes we learn lessons and wonder why we have to learn them in such a hard way. For example, the talents and gifts God has given to you, there are times where you will go through certain experiences — some good, some painful, and some educational and sometimes it can be confusing because one may think, well, if God gave me these talents, surely there must be more good experiences than bad and painful ones…right?

But that isn’t always the case. God has designed you to be unique and effective. He designed you the way he did so you could do good works. Even before you were born, God predesigned a role for you in life and he allows you to go through these experiences that hurt you and are painful sometimes because He wants something done in the world that will take a certain kind of person to do it! 

Think of it this way, there is no one like you, therefore there is no one that has your talents, abilities and gifts. So of course there will be times where you will face trials and tribulations but this is God just shaping and moulding you into the potentional he knows you and your gifts and talents can reach, because he knows that only you will be able to use the gifts he has given you in the way that he planned! 

Rick warren said in his daily devotional: 

“One day you’ll stand before God and he’ll ask, “What did you do with what I gave you?” If you don’t use your experiences and your shape for what God intended, you missed the point.

We are saved to serve. It’s called having a ministry — using your talents and gifts to help other people. Fulfillment means being who and what God meant for you to be.”

So even though you may face times where you feel to just throw in the towel and give up on what you love, remember that we all have been saved to serve and God has given you these talents and gifts for a reason! The Bible says, “God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other” (1 Peter 4:10a TLB).

I love you all x

Truth triumphs over fears

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Good morning beautiful people!! I hope all is well! 

I do apologise for not posting at all last week! I was busy trying to hand in my dissertation, it was so stressful and the combination of lack of sleep and stress got to me big time! But despite all of that, I managed to submit (Thank you Jesus!!!!) and now I await my results, so please keep me in your prayers! 

Today I want to talk about a message that I heard at church delivered by my pastor Michael White and it was about having peace and being blessed. (As usual I am commuting to work, so if you do see any spelling mistakes or sentences that don’t make sense Lool I apologise! I did proof read it before I posted!) 

Anyways! Sometimes we tend to think that peace is about having silence and meditating-which it can be at times of course– but peace also comes in the form of confidence. Confidence that God WILL do what He said he will do.

In Philippians, Paul was writing to the church about joy, peace and thanksgiving. Verses 4-8 hold some significant commands that we as humans tend to forget when life’s downfalls capture us at times. It reads: 

“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 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“. (‭Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭4-8‬ NIV)

This passage of scripture is so important because this tells us how we should be on a daily basis but can we be real and say it’s so damn hard sometimes?! Drama will happen and this passage of scripture will completely go out of our heads. That’s why we need to acquire that ultimate peace; when drama is going on on the outside, peace will protect what’s on the inside. Ever been in a situation where there’s complete chaos but for some strange reason you are just calm and collected? Yup that’s peace, peace that you know God will step in, just in time. 

I want to encourage you today that regardless of the stress and the torment that it may bring to the mind and heart, the blessing lasts no matter where you go. The blessing is on you no matter what! that’s why the devil tries so hard to attack you, he will bring lies to try and cover the truth because he knows that once you stand upon the truths that you KNOW, you will elevate and progress! I want you to know that truth triumphs over fear! Every single time the devil tries to attack, remember that statement, because in your bible, in your mind, in your heart Gods truth is present so have peace that what He said, He will do and that should be the focus point of having your peace in your heart. Focus on the fact that God will sort things, he will step in! 

I want you to all have a blessed day, start the week off with knowledge that The blessing is on you no matter where you go & have faith that God will step in just in time.

I love you all x

All you can, When you can

Posted on by ohsonicolle

“Life is preparation for eternity. It is a test! Your shape is important because how faithful you are now with what God has given you will determine how much more he gives you in eternity.

The Bible teaches very clearly that your role and rewards in Heaven will be based on how well you did with what you were given in this life. And if you are faithful and make the most of what God gave you, he’s going to give you more. But if you don’t use what God has given you, it’s going to be a tragic loss in eternity.” Rick Warren.

We have a duty on this earth to use what God has given us to make a contribution. We haven’t just been out here for no apparent reason whatsoever, we all have a meaning and a purpose for being placed here. “God wired you in a unique way and gave you certain talents, and he’s watching to see how you use your shape.” (Rick Warren)

One day, when your life on Earth ends and you go into eternity, you’re going to stand before God, and you’re going to give an account of how well you used what he gave you — the opportunities, the networks, the relationships, the mind, the talent, your shape and to be honest with you, that kind of scares me lol because I don’t want to get to those gates and think ‘darn, I could of did so much more‘. My husband taught me such a great way to think, he always says to me; Nicolle, you don’t want to look back at situations you were in and realise you didn’t do ALL that you could have. And I realised that you have to do all you can, when you can. 

Isaiah 44:21 says, “Take it seriously, Israel, that you’re my servant. I made you, shaped you: You’re my servant.”

I believe that God is always watching, He never stops watching, He never gets bored with our lives, before we were born, He had us in His mind, and I think that that thought should always be pasted on our minds so that we can always think about the talents and gifts that we have so that we can use them to make a difference on this crazy planet! Finding your purposeis a process that is not easy, can be confusing and may take a lot of going back to the drawing board. But it is worth it when you have found your calling and you are doing all you can, when you can.

Jesus said, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much .…  If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?” (Luke 16:10-12 NIV)

I encourage you today to remember the talents and gifts God has blessed you with and use them to make a contribution. There are many people out there that need help, need love, need disciples of Christ to be in their lives! How are you going to use what God has given you? 


Give a prayer away 

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Good morning beautiful people. I hope all is well.

Today is another glorious day and I want to thank God that he allowed me to wake up and write this and I also thank God that He woke you up to read this! 

Today I want to do something a tiny bit different. Today I would love to give a prayer away. I believe that encouragement can come through word but I also believe that encouragement can come through prayer. 

If there is anything that may be on your mind or anything that you feel may you want to go to God in prayer with then comment below or drop me an email: NicolleAkinnewu@gmail.com and I will reply with a prayer.

There may be things that you don’t want to disclose & that’s fine, I don’t need to know, that can be between you and God! All you need to do is put ‘unspoken’ in the subject box of your email and I’ll know that I need to give an unspoken prayer away asking God for strength and direction in whatever it may be. 

I don’t just want my blog to be any kind of normal blog, as well as helping people through what I write, I want to try and reach out to my readers in a different way too! This blog all started by a small email idea I had, I would email a few mates some scriptures & encouragement, eventually the number of people joining those email threads grew and grew until I had to create a blog! I’m all about spreading the love of God, I believe God has put me on this earth to help others in whatever way I can. So email me, comment, find me on Twitter (@ohSoNicolle), you can reach me anywhere! 

Have a wonderful day, may God bless you all x

Connections

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Good morning beauties! 

Apologies for not posting yesterday! I had one written up and I forgot to post! Forgive me! Also forgive me as I am currently commuting to work on a massively packed train, so If there are any spelling mistakes I apologise!!!! 

As I was reading my morning devotional written by Rick Warren I came across a few things he said that I’m going to keep with me and I want you to keep it with you too! 

“Did all your experience mean nothing at all? Surely it meant something!” (Galatians 3:4 GNT)

Rick Warren said we can learn a lot from our experiences — good and bad. To apply them to your work, you have to go back over time and ask, “Where was I successful and where was I not? Where was I fulfilled and where was I not? What got me excited about work?”

He goes on to say that All of the lessons for our lives are there in our experiences; we just have to spend time examining them – “When you do, you’ll see that in every failure are the seeds of success — if you learn from them.”

It’s encouraging to read because we tend to look at failure in such a terrible way, on the onset it’s embarrassing, we feel let down, and we tend to ask God why, but it’s true what Rick warren says, if we look closely we will be able to see that seeds of success have been planted in these ‘failures’. 

Sunsay I went to church and we had a guest preacher all the way from Nigeria come to visit us, his name was Pastor Emmanuel. The title for his teaching was ‘God is not a man’. He explained that we tend to look at God in the ways we view human beings, sometimes we ask God for things but don’t necessarily believe that we will get it because there have been figures in our lives that have let us down and we’ve become used to that. But pastor Emmanuel said God is not a man, He won’t let us down and disappoint us like the disappointments in society that we have seen around us. 

We have to accept that within our failures and bad experiences there are always lessons. Lessons that we don’t see, lessons that God has put there for a reason that we may not know the answer to as of yet. But I want to encourage you this morning that God holds all the answers, you have to trust that God KNOWS exactly what he is doing.

Sometimes we don’t trust God because it is our connections with God that are damaged. If I’m struggling with something, I KNOW that I can go to my mum and she will do all that she can to help me. I know that 100% why? Because the connection with my mum is SO strong, she has shown me that she won’t EVER let me down, she will always do what’s best for me. This is the same with God, we have to learn to build up our connection with Him so we can put our trust in Him, 100%. God has shown what He can do, countless times in the bible and in our lives, so why do we still doubt and not believe? That’s our proof right there! 

I want to encourage you all to connect more with God, let the connection be so strong that you can trust that no matter the issue, no matter the time frame and no matter what the devil tries to whisper in your ears, you KNOW that God will come through!

If you are in London, enjoy this beautiful sunshine, if you are elsewhere, enjoy this day that God has blessed you with. I pray for strength and joy in the hearts and minds of all my readers. Have your way in their lives father!

I love you all x

Plant Water Increase 

Posted on by ohsonicolle

Morning beauties! The other day I wrote Plant, Water, Increase. This morning, I want to continue from that. I remember speaking about problems, and how they are not there to scare you, it’s just God planting you. I also spoke about the confusion between God planting us and feeling like He is burying us.

To close, I stated how a seed is planted in the soil first before it is watered in order for it to grow and it’s the process of watering that I want to talk about, I pray it blesses you. 

After planting, there needs to be a watering. Water in the bible, represents Washing. And God is always there when there’s washing. If you read some of the stories in the bible, where great things took place, water was present. For example, the great story of when Moses parted the sea, the story of the woman at the well also the story of Jesus calming the storm and having Peter also walk on water with Him, Jesus turning water into wine, Noah’s ark, the baptism of Jesus. I could go on for a little while lol.

My pastor pointed out that there has to be some kind of water connection if you are going to go into greater things. Look at all those stories that involve water, what were their outcomes? 

I may have said this before, but if I haven’t I will say it again, All those tears you cried, God associates it with reaping. We all go through times like this but see it as a spiritual cleansing. While water was present in all those miracles that Jesus preformed, how can we think that the tears we cry will be ignored? Through it all, alongside sipiritial cleansing, miracles, breakthroughs, testimonies will come from it! 

Understand that sometimes we think that the planting and watering is what makes It grow but alongside that that remember God says ‘I will make it grow’ 

Water doesn’t only feed a seed, it helps dry the seed, that’s why you need sunlight. With this the shell breaks and the potential on the inside is released. Once you go through your planting and cleansing, God will make you grow, in every way possible. You have so much going for you, why? Because you have God in you. You are not just an ordinary person, you are a child of God! So hold your head high in that fact and believe that through your planting, watering and cleansing God will allow you to grow and release all the potential that is on the inside and what you thought was a huge never ending storm will become your testimony that will encourage you and even others every time it’s spoken about. 

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. (‭Matthew‬ ‭8‬:‭26‬ NIV)

Have a blessed day, stay encouraged and remember That God is with you every step of the way.

I love you all x

No way out 

Posted on by ohsonicolle

It’s actually funny the way God will set things up, in a way. I believe this is another thing to add to my list of experiences of Gods work. This one holds some kind of special value though because I have NO idea why God has chosen me to go through this experience lol.

It’s funny because for the first time in a while, God has put me in a predicament where seeing the end product seems impossible. seems like I’m trapped in a problem that I can’t solve. So what do I do?

Here’s how I look at it, God has put me in a place right now where ALL I can do is trust Him, so that’s what I’ll do. It’s as simple as that.

yeah, when you read it…

Ok ok. Yes it is easier said (and read) then done lol but what else can you do? Instead of us to panic and allow it to hugely affect our lives, this is the time where we have trust God the most! Something tells me that in times like this, God is doing a lot more than working, He is also watching. Watching to see how we trust Him. Blessings don’t just come at the end of a storm, they sometimes come when we are waiting for the storm to pass. So don’t get too distracted by the problems around you, keep a look out for the blessings that God will drop along the way and hold on to them!

To anyone that may be at a point in their lives where all you can do is trust God, I just want to encourage you to keep on trusting Him. There is a reason why God has put you in this predicament and I’m pretty sure-certain in fact- that God will see you through it! Try to remember that God doesn’t just start things and leave them, He will certainly finish it to. 

Whilst going through your storm, use this time to focus purely on God, feed your heart and mind with the word, pray and watch God shower his blessings on your life. 

Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.” (‭Mark‬ ‭5‬:‭36‬ NIV)

I love you all x