"Make me better" by Mali Music

"How can I reach out to someone else when I ain't got it together myself"

Whenever I listen to this song, it amazes me how much sense it makes and how I can relate to the message. The way people listen to music is so different, especially how we interpret certain messages. To me, this song is about a conversation with God, explaining how weak and no where near perfection we are with the type of person He wants us to be. I think this is the bitter truth most Christians find difficult to admit. That they are NOT perfect, nobody is. We have our weaknesses and our strengths, and most times in life we tend to give in to our weaknesses and live our life a certain way that isn't exactly "best behaved person" of the year. Honestly, I think it's fine as long as we end up realising our faults and confessing our sins. It seems like it's the only way we can move forward with God by admitting that we are sinners but the Important thing is that we try! That is all that matters, regardless of how we appear or what preconceived idea people have of us. With time the better version of you starts to come out if we just keep fighting for it.

The verse that really touches me in the song goes like this. "How can I reach out to someone else when I aint got it together myself" I relate so much with that saying because I guess that's exactly how I feel with this blog. I see myself as a voice speaking out to many young people going through the struggle of having that relationship with God but at the same time it's hard to make a balance with the way we live our life. Most times, I feel like who am I to encourage others about Christian things when I myself fall short from living that way. It's hard but I guess this is when the issue of God seeing the heart comes in. The Important thing is that we try :)

Stay Blessed&Inspired!

Zephia. xx

Precious gifts

What is your gift in life?
Are you talented musically? Are you extremely charismatic; there's just something about you that everyone loves? Are you a dreamer; who sees things that cannot even be explained Or do you have the power to speak and grab the attention of thousands?
Who are you....??


I think the most important thing in life, is identifying who we are as individuals. Living in a world, where we're wrapped up with so many things that influence us, we usually lose sight of who we really are. Probably because we're trying to be someone were not. We see things on TV and literally want to transform into a completely different person, not appreciating our own gifts or even realising that we have any. I know I'm such a culprit with this example. Most of the time, I want to be something I'm not just because it excites me at the time, but you know what ? That excitement dies overtime, because the true you eventually starts to come out and gets tired of being the person the world wants you to be.


The question is who are you? who do you think you are? Most of us probably just see ourselves with an average eye, especially if we don't have any talents (or rather we think we don't have any talents) I've always believed that everyone on earth has a hidden gift . A gift that is so unique about us, and that is what sets us apart from everyone else. "In His grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy,speak out with as much faith God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously and if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly" Peter 12:6-8.
God has given each and everyone a gift, but the problem is recognising what the gift is and how we can use it to make an impact positively. We weren't created on earth to just "chill" there is a task everyone has, we just need to tap into that special gift that we have that is God-given.
So now if you've been trying to be someone else or something you're not...two words STOP IT!
You will fail woefully! There can only be one you in the world. We need to stop trying to do what everyone else is doing and literally start doing what we want and not limit the things we are curious about because of fear that people would label us differently. But hey, if what everyone else is doing excites you, there is no harm as long as you are not trying to be something you are not, and lose yourself along the way.


I'll be honest with you, with this blog thing I'm sure people who think they know me socially are confused. They might not say it but they probably think "This is the same girl I see going out clubbing and doing this and that" yada yada but hey who said I was perfect? who is perfect? NOBODY. The beautiful thing about imperfections is that God always seeks out those who need Him the most, He is attracted to the lamest people and the biggest sinners believe it or not. I'll prove it "There is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God than over ninety-nine others who are righteous and haven't strayed away" Luke15:7 Cool huh? So now I have that motivation to not give up and work towards the person I really am, but hardly show. Now who are you?


Stay Blessed&Inspired,
Zephia Ovia

Your faith will give you wings

"Hold me together..."

"Its not easy but I know you see me when I loose my way"


I recently just got introduced to this band called "Royal Tailor" from a friends blog and I've been hooked on a lot of their songs. Anyway the song "Hold me together" kind of explains everything I was trying to say previously, with my post on commitments.( SEE POST BELOW)


"We drop things in life and we mess up but HE can fix it"
"It doesn't matter if we make bad things happen or bad things happen to us He is going to be right there to hold us together"

Stay Blessed&Inspired,
Love Zephia

Commitments

One of the hardest challenges in life has to be making commitments; especially when you make a promise to yourself that you would be dedicated to seeing something through. Why am I talking about commitments? Recently I have found myself in a sticky situation where I made a pact with myself that I would start living my life a certain way and do things differently.
The problem now is keeping to that commitment, particularly when it involves God. We make promises all the time to people and sometimes we break them because we are only human, it is in our nature to be far from perfect so it is inevitable to break promises.  


 For me, the challenge is finding a balance with how I live my life and if it pleases God. It is one of the most challenging things ever, because I live in a world filled with temptation and unfortunately I always find myself walking along the wrong path and doing things I am not supposed to be doing. I drift a lot, hence why I haven't blogged in a while, because I've been drifting from the me I'm supposed to be back to how I was before and I hate it.


I guess it's like procrastination; when we set goals to achieve something, but we just keep postponing them. Procrastination is a disease and it can only prevent you from moving forward in life.
I don't know what your goals are in life, or what your trying to achieve but I think it's time to put our foot down and make sure we keep those commitments. It might be to people around us, or maybe just a personal decision we made. Example: working harder this academic term, learning to save more, being a better person towards loved ones or controlling our anger. Most importantly if it's a pact with God we have to actually see it through, because He is unchanging towards us. Hebrews 13:8 "He is the same yesterday, today and forever" so why should we think it's okay to break our promises with Him, when He never breaks a promise with us.
I've decided to try and see my commitment through and I hope you do too, whatever it is.


Stay Blessed&Inspired,
Love Zephia.

The pull of sin in correlation with his love

Sin......

What exactly is your understanding of sin? Is it when you do something you know you weren't supposed to do or doing something extremely evil or just simply disobeying religious laws? According to the dictionary, the term sin "is an immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law" In my own understanding, the word divine law has to be the laws given to us by God via the Bible. We tend to determine what is sinful and what is not. Although the Bible clearly states what is right and wrong.


One question I always ask myself is if we are made in Gods image, how is it that we are imperfect and continue to sin with ease? Honestly, I cannot fathom the idea behind it. I mean we live in a world of sin and there is absolutely nobody that is perfect on earth. We are all prone to sin and do things that are displeasing to man and God. This is mans greatest weakness; the struggle to do good.  Ecclesiastes 7:20 "not a single person on earth is good and never sins" This just shows how sin innately lives in us even from the minute we were born. There's a verse that explains perfectly what I am trying to say. It goes like this "The trouble with me is that I am all too human, a slave to sin, I don't really understand myself for I want to do what is right but i don't do it, instead I do what I hate. But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. So I am not the one doing wrong, it is sin living in me that does it" Romans7:14-17. Whenever I read this verse over and over again, it just makes more and more sense. We are imperfect because the power of sin lives inside of us as it is impossible to have a life without sin. Furthermore, when we sin and recognise our doings are impure i.e our conscience tells us that what we have done is wrong. This is good as it means that we accept our wrongs and a part of us did not mean to sin but the sin that is innately in us controls majority of our actions. We can't control it because it is part of our nature.


The reason why I wanted to write about this is because my biggest struggle is dealing with sin. I don't know what your struggle is; It may be lying, cheating, stealing, gossiping, having a bad temper or even jealousy. The truth is everyone has a side that could be categorized as sinful. In my opinion, I don't think God expects perfection from us because he knows us inside out.  Before we sin he even knows what we are about to do that is why he is referred to as the Omniscient God. The issue is not the fact that we sin, but what we do once we know that we have done something wrong.
We have always been taught that when you do something wrong you apologize or repent. However, in my case it's the weirdest thing. I simply run away from dealing with the fact that I am not perfect and I am a sinner just like everyone else. I run away from confessing my sins because I'm probably ashamed and feel like I am not worthy enough to even talk to God. This is the worst mind-set to ever have! I always felt like once I've done something wrong that's it, God is probably done with me and tired of dealing with my crap right? WRONG.


Now I see things differently when we do something that goes against Gods will. Yes, He would probably be upset about it, but instead of running away and not wanting to deal with the problem, I think He wants us to come to Him and just spill out the problem. I like to think it's like talking to a best friend whereby there is NOTHING that can turn Him against his own creation. "Nothing can ever separate us from Gods love.  Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow...can separate us from Gods love" Romans 8:38.  How deep can this love be? Think about it, reread the verse, let it sink in. "Absolutely Nothing can turn Him away from us" So we could be the biggest sinner on the planet, but He is still willing to accept us even when people reject us. It is beyond encouraging to know that regardless of our imperfections, there is actually a God who chooses to forgive us, and love us unfailingly. When I was much younger, people would always tell me "oh Jesus loves you blah blah" and I'd say "yeah, tell me something new", because it was something people always said, so I never saw it as anything big. To be honest, I don't think I ever understood how powerful that love they talked about really was until recently.


There is so much that we do and a part of us KNOWS that it is wrong; call it your conscience or the Holy spirit, the important thing is that we recognise that what we are doing is wrong. The next step is the hardest step, which is simply talking to God about our weaknesses that pull us to sin. I've decided that I cant run away from the things I do because God sees all and I would only be deceiving myself.
A friend told me he felt empty when he was going through some things, but the minute he started praying, he felt like that emptiness was being filled with some sort of inner peace which is the greatest feeling ever. I can relate to what he said because, whenever I do something I know goes against what I am supposed to stand for, I feel so empty and worthless; like I can never change. I have made up my mind that in order to move forward, I cant keep thinking like that so neither should you. When you do something wrong that goes against whatever you believe and you may not know how to handle it, don't run away from it; The solution is to Pray. I mean literally have a conversation with God about everything and anything, trust me it works. "In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly you will find me" Jeremiah 30:12.




Stay Blessed and inspired,
Zephia Ovia

See no evil, hear no evil

Luke 11:34 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness”

I’ve always believed that our eyes, ears, and mouth act as a window to our soul. I believe that whatever we take in, to flourish in us is what we would exhibit consciously or unconsciously.  It’s like telling a 5 year old to cover their ears when you don’t want them to hear you use foul language, because you know they would immediately repeat what you have said.  It’s the same pattern, when we see things on TV or listen to music and start repeating the same words in our every day lingo because what we have seen/heard has made an impact on us one way or the other.

I’ll give an example, when I first heard the Gucci mane song “Wasted” The intro of the song goes like this. (I’m sure a lot of you know it already but I just have to quote it so people understand what my point is in this message) Anyway so it goes “Rock star lifestyle might don’t make it. Living life high everyday click wasted…..party party party lets all get wasted”.

Now whenever I heard that song in clubs, literally all I wanted to do was get smashed. Like off my face. Simple. (I’m going to be honest with u guys. No point pretending or tying to put on “I am holier than thou” act, that’s not what this blog is about. It’s about me in transition to being a better version of myself and still showing my true colours, because change doesn’t come overnight it comes from within and of course when you constantly pray to God to help you find the calling he has on your life).

 This is just an example how words can easily leave an impression on us. This really got me thinking about the whole theory that our eyes and ears act as a window to our soul. I started to think, the things I allow myself see and listen to how does it reflect on my character? Does it influence me positively or negatively and how do I act towards others. For a while I’ve been thinking about this and we may not admit it but the music we listen too has such an influence on us. Especially in this day and age where we are just crazy over all sorts and we let song lyrics flourish in our lives. DON’T GET CONFUSED WITH WHAT I AM SAYING.

I love Music, and I have my selected artists, that I would go out of my way to learn the lyrics. I’m not saying oh don’t listen to this or that song, what I’m saying is sometimes there’s always some sort of hidden message in the things we listen to and the things we watch. Being young we love to be ignorant of a lot of things and our excuse is always that we are young hey so why not. I remember when I was much younger whenever there was a song I was listening to in the car and an adult happened to be there with me I would always turn down the music when it got to the swear words or when I knew the artist was talking about something inappropriate. I’m sure we have had those moments when our parents would say to us “what rubbish are you watching/listening too” and I just always thought omg take a chill pill it’s just music what’s the big deal. But now looking back, I see what the fuss is. You know there are songs out there that actually influence suicide. Music controls the emotions and sometimes there are certain songs that can make u happy, songs that make you want to cry, songs that just put you in a bad mood and songs that make you feel like your life is a complete mess!

I was thinking it’s so easy to remember what the lyrics to the new song is, but it’s extremely difficult to remember what the Bible says about certain things in the world because if I’m being honest, I don’t focus on God ENOUGH, and it is so bad. I try, like I really do but the “I try” is just not enough. I feel like God sometimes tries to speak to us, but we can’t hear his voice because our thoughts are clouded with rubbish from the junk we listen too and focusing on certain TV shows or meaningless gossip that add no value to our life. Remember I’m not saying don’t watch this or that because I know I’m going to keep listening to the music I love. This post is not to condemn music but rather to create an awareness of how the things we let flourish in us may kind of distract us from what God wants us to hear. Ecclesiastes 12:1-6 “ Don’t let the excitement of youth, cause you to forget your creator. Honour him in your youth before you grow old….. Yes remember your creator now while you are young”

Stay Blessed & Inspired

Zephia