Week 31: Personal Confessions ~ Faith without work is dead

Hi there and welcome to week #31 of personal confessions! Every other week or so I share with my readers my personal confessions and these range from what I am going through, been through or has happened or affected me in one way or another. If you missed my last confession click HERE, my last confession was about fear and how crippling I found it to be due to a bad past experience. This week I wanted to share something even more close to my heart and that's my faith.

Disclaimer:  In sharing this I do not claim to be an expert or wishing to impose or force anyone to conclude that my faith or church or background is better than anyone. Here I aim to share person experience from my point of view, this is by no means a post to offend but to enlighten.

Born in '87 to two amazing parents with great faith and coming from parents who were either preachers or where people to be thought of as "close to God" in all sense. Baptised same year of birth and being brought up to believe in Christ the lord our redeemer, to love thy neighbour as thy self and to love God above all else. Growing in neighbourhood of fellow believer though of different denominations but praying to the same God. From birth till 14 years of age, my parents interceded on my behalf and spoke for me to my lord and saviour. I would at 13 start to be taught to take on the responsibility of talking to God directly and asking him myself instead of my parents. I cherished (and still do) the teachings of the bible and looked forward to the day I will stand before the lord and;

"renounce Satan and all his works and ways and surrender myself to thee, o' trying God, father, son and the holy spirit in belief and earnest resolution until my end amen"

Before I took on the role to intercede for myself with the lord, I had to seek forgiveness from my parents for all the things I did wrong or offended them with whether knowingly or not. Though an emotional and though felt like hard decision it was one that I would not change or trade for the world. From start to finish of preparations, I was taught the 10 commandments and the 12 vows of the church, though I understood the words I probably did not grasp the full meaning until fast forward 13 years later.

After growing up in a country and deep down to the town of fellow believers and encouraging peers to a place, a town where faith is not as common as a daily enjoyable activity tests ones faith, tests ones promise to the lord. When I look back 12-13 years ago, if I missed a service or even a choir practice it was because I was so ill or was out of town and even then it was highly unlikely. Fasting forward back to today and I can count how many times this year I have been to the lord's house. I can feel the small light left in my soul flicking in the darkness that threatens to consume me.

Faith comes from doing the work, the work of the lord uncompromising and no excuses. I ask my fellow church/temple/mosque goes when was the last time you were in the Lord's house and felt his hand on your shoulder? When was the last time you felt the scripture was read specifically for you? Who do you run to when in need of the love that Christ showed on the cross of Calvary?

At the beginning of this year I promised my lord and saviour change was in sight, I would attend church or praise my lord at every opportunity and I can I have mostly done that but I feel for the light to grow even more than before I need to put in more work to propel my faith and let the hand of God guide me through this jungle called life. My life to me may not be easy at times but I have so many blessings that the hard times can not even compare or measure up. The blessings I received daily both visible and non-visible to my naked eyes I appreciate them, the air that I breath even just waking up and seeing another day is more than good enough as I know not many people can say that.

My words of wisdom for the day "don't compare your life to someone else, be happy with what you have even though not perfect its perfect for you and always look at the positive and never the negative"