In this Episode, we shall take our theme on Overcoming Challenges and Crises further
with the topic-Walking with God. In Episode 34, we saw that if we want to be adequately
prepared for the waves and storms of life, we must develop an intimate and close
relationship with our Heavenly Father. In this Episode, we shall consider other aspects
of our walk with God which we must not take for granted in order to be prepared for
challenges when they come. So we are still considering the things we should be doing
as Christians to prepare ourselves for the crises and attacks of the devil which are
inevitable.

Renewing The Mind
Recall God’s instruction to Joshua in Joshua 1:8 not to let the Book of the Law depart
from his mouth but to meditate on it day and night. We cannot over emphasize the
need to read the word of God, meditate on it, spend quality time on it and make it a part
of us, so that we will be stronger in the inner man; And also to know the mind of God
concerning issues of life. According to 2 Pet 1:3 “through the divine power of God, we
have obtained all we need pertaining to Life”. The word of God teaches us the mind of
God concerning the challenges we face and how to handle them.
Romans 12:2 instructs us-Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. I have repeated many times that our minds
are renewed when they come into agreement with the word of God so that we begin to
think and respond to issues like God.
I read in a devotional recently-that the word of God is like a prescription from your
doctor. You don’t have to understand how the medication works-you just have to
faithfully keep taking it because something amazing happens when you feed regularly
on God’s Word.
When we read His word, we are allowing God to talk to us, thereby partly fulfilling His
desire to fellowship with us. We need to study and personally receive the revelation of
the word of God before we can use it as our source of protection and defense to the
challenges of life and to reject circumstances that are not God’s plan for our lives. We
need to store God’s word in our minds for future use. Psalm 119:11 says; “Thy word
have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee”. It is the amount of God’s word
already stored in your heart that you can use to fight the devil and difficult situations.
When the waves come suddenly for instance, you may not have the time or the
presence of mind to search the Bible.
We also need to confess the word of God concerning our future and His purposes for
our lives. Confessing the word of God over our lives and circumstances is the only way
to give birth to the word already spoken by God over our lives. When we repeatedly
confess the word of God over our lives, it is very likely to avert challenges, difficulties

and attacks of the devil in the future. You do not need to get sick before you confess the
word of God concerning good health and healing over your life. You do not need to wait
for your children to face difficulties before you confess the word of God concerning your
children over their lives. You do not need to face financial crises before you confess that
the Lord shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Phil
4:9). The words of God are spiritual vitamins which will avert some negative situations in
our lives if we take them on a daily basis. According to Proverbs 4:22, the words of the
Lord “are life to those who find them and health to a man’s whole body.”

Lifestyle of Thanksgiving and Worship:
Genuine worship is the proper recognition and celebration of God, returning to Him the
glory that He alone deserves and honouring Him with our lives and our words. Mathew
22: 27 instructs us to love the Lord with all our hearts, souls and minds. We should
develop a habit of praising, blessing, rejoicing in, exalting, extolling and worshipping the
Lord. The idea is that we worship God with all that we have. Worship should come from
a grateful heart and not done just to fulfill all righteousness before we start making our
prayer requests. Our attitude of thanksgiving and gratitude should radiate from the
inside. Perpetually complaining, making negative confessions and grumbling do not
reflect gratitude. Worshipping God as an everyday lifestyle should start with a daily
personal time with God; extend to serving others as an act of worship; to worshipping
God during times of trial and finally to submitting circumstances, relationships and even
our trials to God as sacrifices. In this case, you are saying-“Lord I turn this situation over
to You”. This kind of worship is not dependent on physical circumstances. I pray that we
can key into the Grace of God which is available to us to help us value intimacy and
fellowship with God and to appreciate His sacrifice for us so that we can worship Him
from the deep recesses of our hearts.

Praying
Off course our relationship with God cannot be complete without praying in and out of
season. Our prayers are an important means of experiencing God, communicating with
Him and maturing spiritually by also listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Please
don’t make your prayer time a time of making endless requests fro God. Spend time to
praise and worship Him. Listen to Him and sometimes just be quiet in the presence of
God.

Fellowship
Hebrews 10:25 urges us not to neglect meeting with one another but to encourage one
another. When we fellowship with other Christians by praying together, studying the
bible together and sharing our experiences, it helps us to grow and mature spiritually
and to learn from the experiences of other Christians in their time of crisis. In these

days of so much business and investing so much time and effort to build our careers,
we still need to find a balance in order to fellowship with other brethren.