God’s Grace

Hi guys, it’s been a HOT minute - but I’m back!

& today I’ll be doing sum a lil different ;) Today we have a special guest - my mama! It’s her birthday today - wooo, and so I thought a nice way to bring back the blog would be by gleaning some wisdom from her!

So I have asked her to give us a brief version of her testimony of how Jesus saved her, and then a few lessons on what God has taught her over the years. Initially when I asked she was like, yeah sure shall we do 45 lessons for 45 years? Lol - I meannn I would love to fit that all in, but I said today we’ll keep it at a few key points, lessons and things that God has taught her over the years and how these points have kept her up until now!

So first lets start with her brief testimony…

FYI: This has been written by me - Khai, whilst listening to my mom - so yeah lets go…

Before Christ, I very much lived life to the fullest. I had large circles of friends, lived in London for a while and would travel back and forth to Jamaica. I had lots of worldly ambition, and although I was very broken inside I had learnt to put a facade on. Friends would probably have said that I was the life & soul of the party - just loud. I was becoming a reflection of a lot of hurts, worldly influences, poor decisions and sin. And although I always believed that there was a God, it was hard for me to slow down enough to find a moment to consider who He even is?

Until 2003, when I had Khairah… Suddenly I had a responsibility and an overwhelming sense of “I can’t mess this up.”. And without knowing God, I knew that this was bigger than my own capabilities. However this soberness only lasted for so long, and when I moved back to Birmingham, with all its familiarity it wasn’t long before old habits started to sneak back in. And for about 8 months I was in a cycle of wanting to be the best mom, whilst still being a slave to sin.

Then one rainy day - around about the 18th August 2007, in Birmingham city centre a group of young people were doing outreach and my 3 year old Khairah wouldn’t move from the music that they were doing. And we were invited to their concert later that evening, and so we went! I had no idea what to expect, I don’t even think I knew what I was going to. But it was free event, Khai liked the music, and you could bring your kids - so I thought why not. And when my Pastor got up to preach suddenly everything that he said made sense, and his source was the Bible. And so I had this overwhelming impression that I needed to read the Bible. There had been so many times in life where I just didn’t have the answers to life’s circumstances and suddenly I was confronted with what I know now to be the truth.

I didn’t end up giving my life on that day because I don’t think I understood what the alter call was, and my friend that I went with rushed me out telling me she was a backslider and I thought it was some skiing term - I had no idea what relevance that had to us leaving the concert. But the next day - something had changed. I woke up feeling new, and I knew that it was whatever I had experienced at that church and so we went to the next service and not long after I made the decision to give my life to Jesus.

So fast forward to today, looking back and reflecting over the past years I would say some of the main things God has used to keep me and help me to grow are:

Keep it simple - In moments when I have overcomplicated life and become distracted that scripture in Revelation 2:5 that tells us to repent and do the first works sobers me, and reminds me to keep it simple. Shut out the noise and go back to the sweetness of prayer, His Word and loving others.

Keep your heart right - this has so many dimensions to it but I’d say guarding what I meditate on by aiming to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

Waiting on God in prayer - so often we can rush from the presence of God, and miss the connection of the depths of what He wants to do. It’s so easy to miss the fundamental reason for why we got saved in the first place - which is to have a relationship with Him. There is a peace that comes when you know that you can carry it and lay it all down at your Father’s feet. The more time you spend with Him, in prayer and in His Word the more evidence you have of Him in your life.

This is just a few things, but there are so many testimonies, so many times God has showed up, so many reference points - as I’m sure there is in anybody’s life that walks with Christ. Overall - I am so grateful to have a household that serves the Lord. I am beyond words - God has done more than I could have imagined. And to know that by His grace I have time still ahead to grow and continue to see His hand at work is a blessing.

Before finishing up - one of the key people that was instrumental in my salvation was my grandad, and so I wanted to quickly share a few things I gleaned from his life…

My grandad who was a born again christian would always bring christian literature (tracks) to my home as a young girl, but it meant nothing to us - it just felt like more of a cultural thing, I never understood the importance of the message that he was trying to share.

Over the years we lost contact as I was forging my own life. However fast forward to early years of salvation, I remember standing up to worship in church and I had this impression of him standing beside me, and I knew that I had to contact him. I did, and he said that he had been praying that I would contact him as he had bowel cancer. And God made a way that we got to spend the last months of his life with him. There was alot of peace made in the family. But why I am really telling this story is because when he passed away as we was going through his belongings three things stood out…

1. Every single thing that I found testified of his love for Christ - and that made me wonder when I pass into eternity when people go through my private things - what story will it tell of me?

2. Secondly, amongst his things I found a prayer list with my name amongst other family members names. And it was forwarded to different churches that he had written a list of. The date was 1997… I gave my life to Christ in 2007 - 10 years later. Looking back over those years there was a lot of near misses and situations where the outcome could have been very different - little did I know that there was people praying for me. So the point of that - never give up praying for peoples salvation.

3. And last, when my grandad was passing and was really frail, he would ask me to read scriptures to him, and when I would stop and say - “you know what I think?” - he would purse his lips (iykyk) and give a slight corrective laugh and say - “Suf, its not really what you think its what’s written in here (the Bible)”, and he would constantly bring me back to this place of checking my own thoughts and my own understanding of things against the Word of God. So basically if it ain’t in there - forget about it.

Right guys, it’s Khai again :) How beautiful, I am a first hand witness of what Jesus has done and IS doing in my mom’s life. I praise Him for what He has done, because He change the trajectory of our lives and has blessed us with more than what we ever have deserved or asked for.

And while this is to look and thank God for what He has done in my ma’s life, this is also to tell you that the same way He has changed my mom’s life, He can change yours. You are never too far gone, He loves you so much. And if you are reading this and are already saved - keep going, don’t stop. Despite the slips and all the imperfections of life He desires to keep us and carry us - His plans for you are good. So keep going :)

See ya’ll in the next one!

My mom’s favourite scripture…

“but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’” - 1 Peter 1:15-16