Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 07, Issue 04: The Beauty of Generosity

I happen to live with a really extravagant individual. He is extravagant with himself, with me and with the people in his life in general. He gives more than is needed, mind blowing proportions sometimes. Earlier in life, I regarded this attribute as wasteful and irresponsible. But in recent times, I have come to appreciate that generosity is such a beautiful attribute to possess.

This is how God is with us, utterly generous. The Bible says that God will do immeasurably, abundantly above, what we could ask, think or imagine. If this is not the epitaph of generosity, then I don’t know what is. Since we are to become like God, then generosity is one of the things we ought to work on.

Granted, generosity isn’t natural for some of us. I am amazed at some of the things I goof at as far as generosity is concerned. This is something we have to be intentional about. We have to set our mind on being generous, and keep it set.

God doesn’t give us just a little bit of mercy. His mercies are new every day! When you go to him with yet another mess, he doesn’t say, ‘sorry, you have used up all the mercy I set aside for you’.

Our God is Jehovah Jireh, the God of more than enough, the God who provides, the generous God. God is not stingy with his forgiveness, his help, his provision. He doesn’t set aside a little tiny bit, barely enough for us to get by. He has given us more than enough, and he expects us to do more than enough for people.

Live in a way that God can trust you with wealth by being a channel of God’s blessings. Be a generous giver. Have a no-lack attitude, not just when you have plenty, but starting right where you are.

The Psalmist wrote in Psalm 112 that blessed is the man who fears God. This man is generous and lends lavishly, he lavishes gifts on the poor, his generosity goes on and on and on. What a way to live! Being generous doesn’t deprive us. The Psalmist’s told of how blessed this man’s home is, his house brims over with wealth, a generosity that never runs dry. This generous man is ever blessed, relaxed among enemies. Sunrise breaks through the darkness for him. He lives an honoured life, a beautiful life. Who wouldn’t want to be generous knowing this?

Make up your mind to be generous. Give generously to people. Be generous with your compliments, with your gifts, with your support, with your giving, with your appreciation, with your gratitude, with your love, with your forgiveness, with your understanding, with your encouragement, with your time.

Be an excellent person who goes the extra mile. Let us not just do what we have to do, but always want to do more than we have to do. Let us guard against selfishness by being aggressively generous. Ask yourself what you can do for someone else every day.

What do you do when someone comes to you with a need? Let’s live with an open hand and an open heart. Let’s stop asking God to do things for people that we can easily do ourselves but don’t want to make the sacrifice to do.

Spur yourself unto generosity, starting with where you are. We don’t need to keep hearing about draught in some parts of the country around this time every other year. No Kenyan has to face starvation when some of us have more than enough, and it doesn’t have to be just the government’s responsibility. How about partnering with the Red Cross and adopt a family or two, or 10 families, or 1,000 families until the draught is over!

Dare to be generous. Trust God for you to be able to provide decent meals and shelter for a million needy people every day. Trust God for you to be able to provide school fees for hundreds of thousands of needy students every year. There are people who do these kinds of things. Let’s want to be one of them.

Generosity is love in action. You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. Don’t give people just a little bit of you, when it’s convenient. Be generous with your time, with your mercy, with your kindness, with your energy, with your praise, with your talent.

Keep in mind that you cannot be genuinely generous with people if you are stingy with yourself. If you do, you will do it resentfully rather than cheerfully. Even God says to love your neighbor as you love yourself. Start at home. Don’t hold back from yourself what is within your reach. Be lavish with yourself, forgive yourself, give yourself a break, grant yourself permission to enjoy life; and then help others enjoy life too through your generosity.

The world of the generous gets larger and larger; the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller. The one who blesses others is abundantly blessed; the one who helps others is helped. Choose the larger life. Be generous.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 03: Stretch Out

Newness comes with stretching. It will be taxing on you. New possibilities and responsibilities will come your way, opportunities disguised as challenges. Look at the treasure underneath the trash.

The children of Israel in captivity were facing humiliating circumstances when Isaiah told them to rejoice, to enlarge their tents and strengthen their stakes. They must have thought the prophet was out of his mind. How could Isaiah expect them to rejoice under the circumstances?

Perhaps you are coming from a sloppy yesteryear and nothing is looking up yet. You could be facing the worst season of your life. Then you hear it’s a new season and wonder how? How could things possibly turn around?

Don’t limit the sovereign God who rules and reigns. When we say magnify the Lord, we are saying, ‘Lord, may your greatness come to bear in these circumstances. May your glory be seen in my situation’.

Get a new perspective of God; know whom you have believed. May God be magnified in your life, in your situation. May the glory of God come to bear in your situation this year. Allow the majesty of God to come to bear in your circumstances.

Don’t become a prisoner of your circumstances and your past. God is doing a new thing. Lazarus was dead and buried; Jesus told his sisters that ‘even now, if you believe, you will see the glory of God’.

Dare to believe. Your dreams may look dead and buried. But even now, if you believe, you will see the glory of God. God is able to do immeasurably more, above all you can think or imagine.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 02: Make up Your Mind

I like the excitement of a new year, even more the beginning of a new season. This being a new season, it’s not business as usual. We’ve got to play the part.

Like every other new year, we want to do better. This new year it’s time to take flight. Don’t just make another set of new year resolutions; make up your mind to some stuff.

Don’t say you want to do something, do it for a few weeks and then quit, like you did last year, like you did the year before last. You say you want to spend more time with your family, get closer to God, get in shape, get a promotion at work, start your business, go back to school? Will you do what it takes to get what you want for a few weeks and then turn around and get distracted, eat like crap, lazy around, procrastinate, show up late at work day after day and do the bare minimum while there?

How long is it going to take to make the decision, to make the shift, and show some courage, show some character? Character is the ability to carry out a resolution long after the excitement of the moment has passed.

How long will you continue to live below who you were created to be? The greatest sin in life is to miss your mark, to not be who you were created to be. To be a chicken instead of an eagle. Don’t live and die a chicken when you were born an eagle.

Forget a new year resolution. Let’s make a new life resolution. To be fully and authentically you. Make up your mind to some stuff. Decide once and for all that eating right and keeping fit is your lifestyle. Set your mind and keep it set about aiming high in life. Kick timidity, mediocrity, laziness and procrastination out of your life for good.

Let’s step out of our comfort zones this new season. Fortune favours the bold. What do you really want? It is the cave that you fear that will hold the treasure that you desire. You have great opportunities in front of you right now. Don’t blow it.

It is time. It is time to go from mediocre to meteoric. It is time to go from being counted out to being counted on. It is time to fly like the eagle you are.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 07, Issue 01: It’s a New Season

Happy New Year! I sense that this is not just another new year, it is a new season! Every year is what we make it out to be. What do you discern for yourself in 2017?

It is a new season. God is a God of new things. He loves new things. God’s favour, grace, and mercies are new every morning. He gives us a new heart when we turn to him; he enters into a new covenant with us. When we drop the ball, God ushers us into a new season, a new beginning, a new opportunity.

New is not the usual common thing. This is not just a new year with business as usual. This is a new season. God is ushering us into newness. It’s up to you to take this as a new season, or just another new year.

When God says he will do a new thing, he is referring to something more glorious, more grander, more spectacular, bigger and better than before. God is doing a new thing in 2017. Don’t remain stuck in 2016. It is a new season. Don’t get wrapped up with what God did last year, however amazing the year was for you. Great and glorious things are in-store for us in 2017.

Perhaps you were blown away by God’s goodness in 2016, it was a glorious year for you. But there are new frontiers to reach for. God wants us to go to the next level. He will do a new thing. It’s a new season. To experience the new thing God is doing in 2017, forget the former things. Forget the glories of 2016. God wants to do even glorious things in 2017. It is a new season of growth and fruitfulness. Don’t bask in the glories of 2016. Reach out to God for a new thing in 2017.

Perhaps you have nothing to write home about 2016. It was probably the sloppiest year ever as far as you are concerned. It’s time to leave it behind you and take on new hope for a grand turnaround. It is a new season. Don’t let the disappointments of yesteryear keep you from the possibilities of the new year. Great and glorious things are up for grabs in this new season.

Make the most of opportunities in 2017. “See, I do a new thing. Do you perceive it?” Discern what God is doing in 2017. Maximize the opportunities that God will bring your way this year. Take a step of faith, step out of your comfort zone. Position yourself. Participate. Get in agreement with God.

2017 is not just another new year, it’s a new season. God is ushering us into a new season. Lay down the experiences of 2016. Forget the former things. God is doing new things in 2017. Reach out for new dreams, new beginnings and new frontiers. It’s a new season. Don't be left out. Wake up and smell the roses.

Lillian Chebosi

Volume 06, Issue 28: Authority

If my life is no different from the next person’s, if I don’t have power to bring change into my situations, then what’s the point of being a believer?

You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes up on you.

Power is force. Authority is the right to use power. You can receive all the power available, but if you do not know how to exercise the authority you have with that power, you will not see results.

The Jewish leaders appealed to Jesus on behalf of the Centurion based on his works. The Centurion countered their approach. He recognized the authority of Jesus, and appealed to that authority to have his slave healed.

When authority speaks, things happen. All the authority God gave to Jesus, he gave to us. Authority to trample on snakes and scorpions. Authority to overcome all the power of the enemy. Authority to defeat everything.

Authority is something we need to accomplish things. God has given us authority to live the Christian life. The Christian life is a victorious life. It’s not a wimpy defeated life. It is a life of victory; a life where we are not defeated by troubles and happenings. The Christian life is a life of overcoming, a life of conquering.

When a traffic police officer raises his hand on the road, the driver must stop. Not because of the officer, but the authority behind the officer.

A believer’s authority is based on the finished work of Jesus. It is not based on feelings or status. Every believer of Jesus has authority; authority to fulfil the purpose for which he called us. Authority to stand against Satan, and diseases, and all other things that mess with us.

The believer’s authority is given to prevent the enemy from coming in to steal, kill, and destroy. It is given to attack the works of the evil one. But because we don’t know what authority we have, the devil is calling the shots in some of our lives.

The believer’s authority is given to declare the message of Jesus with boldness. But most believers go about life quiet, their faith hidden and securely tucked away, not to be mentioned.

The believer’s authority is given to bind, and to lose. But we let wrong situations go on uninterrupted. We neglect the authority given to us to speak to bad situations and cause them to cease.

The believer’s authority is not for ‘name it and claim it’, it is given to bless people. Jesus has entrusted us with authority, but we keep going back to him to solve our problems. Jesus has vested authority in us to take charge over lack and sickness, yet many go unhealed.

The believer’s authority is meant for this place, here on earth. We need to walk in victory here and now. We need to be a blessing to people and do good here.

We are not helpless, and we are certainly not hopeless. May faith arise from the inside for us to realize that we are children of the King. To know that God has given us all authority we need to change our lives, and to impact other people’s lives.

May we arise above believers who ask God for this and that, and be true believers who exercise the authority already given to us. May we be Christians who exercise the believer’s authority, and live victorious Christian lives.

Don’t accept things as they are. Apply your believer’s authority. Is there a situation in your home that you need to speak to, maybe in your children, or in your office? Speak to situations in your life. Speak to situations in other people’s lives, and in the world.

Nothing shall be impossible for you, for I have given you authority to stumble on snakes and scorpions, and over the works of the enemy.

Are you sick and tired of something not right in your life? Rise up and speak with the authority God has given you. God has given us all that pertains to life and godliness. He has given us victory over every area of our lives. We have authority over what happens to us. We have authority over our lives. We have authority to effect change, and to do good.

But before we get there, why is it that many believers are unable to exercise their authority? Intimacy with God is where we get the confidence and courage to exercise authority. Our intimacy with God determines our level of authority. Jesus rose early in the morning to commune with the Father. Then he went into his day speaking the will of the Father, exercising authority over sickness, scarcity, sin, evil, and the devil; doing good.

Lillian Chebosi