I experienced this choice recently when I was dealing with some very challenging behaviour with my own child.
It had been a long busy day. I was not equipped to fight. I just wanted to rest. But the situation with my child, gave me an inkling that a “sin-storm” was just about to hit!
Have you heard of a sin-storm?
No?
Me neither.
I only heard of a sin-storm this morning when I was typing this post and the two words coupled beautifully together.
A sin-storm is where everyone sins in a stormy situation!
During these times, a Christian slides down to the tail end and starts to engage with serpentine thoughts at the tail!
Instead of engaging with my child, I simply walked out of his room and closed his door.
I said nothing.
At that moment I realised something significant. Every difficult situation does not require a sin response or even an immediate disciplinary action for my child.
Sometimes in life, withdrawal is only possible as you allow the other parent, God Himself to take over and supernaturally parent!
God never sins. He certainly does a much better job with our children than us!
I told God, “You are a parent too. Please help me parent this child. I can’t do this alone!”
God knew I was exhausted. God knew that Satan always likes to attack us at our weakest point. When this happens, it is easy to sin then. For me, saying something rude and unsupportive to my child would have weakened my parenting skills and I would have probably said something I regretted.
We often forget God is a Father. He has children. He gets it! He knows we all struggle with family issues.
After I chose to say nothing and withdraw from this difficult situation with my child, I saw the old defeated Helen! But only in fiction, thank God!
She was shouting at her child, she was slamming the door and then she went to bed miserable for losing her self control. Then she woke up the next day, feeling awful.
But thank God, a better non-fiction Helen emerged that night!
She wasn’t shouting and losing the plot, no, rather she was trusting God in the silence.
It was a Helen who had not picked up the tail!
What do I mean by that?
One night I had a dream.
In the dream there was a small snake on the ground!
Like a rattle snake.
I will only talk about the end scene in the dream.
The snake.
After waking, I asked God what the dream meant.
His message was clear.
“Do not pick up the tail.”
Rather stay at the head position with Christ.
When we pick up Satan’s tail, we start to engage with Him and move away from God’s best.
Satan wants to be your head, so you can be his tail!
God wants you and I to know, that during difficulties in life, we must not pick up Satan’s tail end.
“If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.”
I’m very thankful to God I did not embrace this sin-storm that night!
I went to bed with zero regret.
I felt a great peace.
It was a wonderful feeling.
Thank you Lord!
I had kept my mouth shut while I trusted God to open His.
When you are facing this space….just before a sin-storm hits, PAUSE.
This one PAUSE will truly change the whole course of your week for better.
In the PAUSE, you recognise God’s power to help you not sin.
When I think of the word minimalistic, I tend to think of the physical reduction of stuff!
This morning, I am thinking about the benefits of the mental reduction of thought! Permanently!
Minimally thinking!
Only because last night was difficult….
I was trying to send an email response back to someone who asked about my qualifications regarding tutor/mentor work.
(Please 🙏 pray for me to get this job if it’s God’s will. I would really appreciate that.)
Last night, I simply sat for ages, reading my email response draft over and over again. I was trying to send a very simple response back but was really struggling to do so.
My mind felt very slow and foggy and I humbly felt 100% inefficient!
Of course my loud kids did not help!
I thought, “What is the matter with me? I’m trying to do something so simple and I feel so incompetent!”
I eventually sent the email and felt very humbled by my lack of quick!
Does this happen to us women at this age?
I’m sure it does!
This morning, I decided that I want to live as a minimalistic on the inside!
As a 53 year old, I often struggle with feeling exhausted and mentally drained. I think this is especially caused by menopause symptoms.
As a big thinker, I realised this morning, that I have to give my mind a permanent rest from now on.
No longer do I want to be concerned about anything! It’s too difficult to keep this maximised mind going!
Especially at 53!
Last night, reminded me of that!
I think we keep the maximum screen going on in our head because we are fearful, anxious and worried!
I believe God wants us to reduce our thinking every day!
Because He has thought already!
He has everything sorted out! In the quietness of faith, we learn to silently 🤫 trust God.
This is a mind at peace.
God will supply all your needs, remember?
He holds “all thought perfectly” and He is the omnipresent thinker of all.
We need to trust His mind and take the shortcut to Him!
Usually we find we tire ourselves with non-minimalistic thinking.
Remember the minimise button on your computer? We often use it to close a screen to open up another one.
I like to compare my new minimalistic mind, to this minimiser button.
God does the big think.
I do the small think.
When my worried mind starts to open up fully, like that maximised screen, I can simply reduce it, and rest in God’s promises.
God’s peace = the minimiser button.
When we permanently live with muted smaller minds at peace, our faith, love, hope, trust in God grows.
Like a small child, we say, “Dear Father in heaven, your peace will guard my heart and mind as I live in Christ Jesus.”
Today I had a really interesting conversation at work!
I had no plans to blog today!
I work as a Christian Support Worker.
I work with a gorgeous Christian client who was diagnosed with stage four cancer some time ago. We often pray together and discuss the Bible. I love this pastoral care!
My client and I believe that God wants us to take His commandments seriously.
If we don’t, we can reduce God to fiction and shelf Him away as if He is pointless.
Today my client shared with me this experience that I thought needed to be written down!
How did this Christian she knew, deal with the troubling issue, when Terry (name changed for privacy reasons), continued to say God’s name in vain…. in ordinary conversations?
Meaning, he was not praying to God, but he was simply using God’s name like a constant “fill in common word” during a sentence.
As the Christian observed this, it troubled him.
He knew his co-worker was unaware of his carelessness of speech.
The Christian decided to be silent for awhile.
Eventually Terry spoke.
He questioned why the Christian had been giving him the silent treatment.
These are not the Christian’s exact words as I did not record their conversation, but the message was pretty much the same….
The Christian said, “How do you think God feels when you speak His name, and He answers you? God says..Yes? I’m here.”
“But then you simply ignore Him?”
It was like Terry had constantly been initating conversations with God, the way Christians do, but the difference was it was like He left God hanging and completely ignored Him after that.
What a huge missed opportunity to speak to the real God Himself!
It’s really strange to understand this, but some people are so far from God, that to use His name, simply means nothing to them.
As if God Himself is nothing.
The usage of God’s name like this, produces zero conviction, zero fear, zero desire to pray and zero interest in a real God who truly exists.
Sadly we see this approach in so many movies today!
Even when watching something online, our hearts can become desensitised to hearing God’s name like this! I am guilty of this too.
“Forgive me Lord!”
Some time ago, I watched 👀 a comedy series and it was truly very funny. But later on, I got rid of them.
I thought, “How did I even watch that?”
The actors were saying God’s name carelessly with no respect but as the humour was strong and powerful, it seemed that everyone forgot that great respect for the real God Himself!
I never want to dishonour God’s great name.
I am so glad God is never common and ordinary.
God has a name.
His name is God.
He is our Father in heaven.
He does answer our prayers.
But only when we recognise who He really is.
Christians, only use “the word -God” with great respect and fear.
To speak the word, God, is our most important word in the world!
The word God, is never to be used as a filler word, to fill in boring gaps or to plump up a conversation.
Every time we use God’s name with great reverence and respect, we open a supernatural door that leads to a beautiful ongoing relationship. God lovingly responds to us and we know He is truly real!
God knows when someone is really calling His name or just using His name!
There is a huge difference here.
So huge that a person using God’s name only, will never find Him! Mind blowing really!
Trust in the Lord with all your heart And lean not on your own understanding In all your ways submit to him And he will make your paths straight. (Proverbs 3:5-6)
The Bible is the true Word of God.
Writing about life from a hindsight perspective “after the suffering”, is an important topic for the Christian writer.
This is because we are reminded how important hope is.
No matter how difficult the situation may be, when God explains Himself, everything make sense.
Read the New Testament to learn about Jesus.
This question was once asked in my family,
“Why couldn’t God just forgive our sins without Jesus having to die on the cross?”
I like the reply of another family member, “Because there was simply no other way.”
Jesus is the only way!
What if we asked this question today,
“Why can’t we go through life without experiencing suffering?”
What if the answer was, “No, we cannot go through life without experiencing suffering because there is simply no other way.”
I found this above comment on YouTube.
How do we explain then that we have no choice in partaking of this human suffering?
We cannot explain this fully as God doesn’t always provide answers to every question.
I like to think that the answer is found in the space between the words.
I heard this statement recently but I am not sure who said it.
“Sometimes the most profound statements are made in the spaces between words.”
This place is where we run out of words and we allow God to fill it with His statements so profound, that only by biblical faith, do we understand them now.
Earth has never heard these statements before.
This muted heavenly language is only reserved for God Himself.
When any area in life doesn’t make sense to me, I like to nestle all question marks under Deuteronomy 29:29.
“The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that He has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”
Recently I saw this question online, “Can a Christian starve to death?”
As a writer at helenolenjin.life, I am answering this question today.
If you followed my short term Uganda project, you will know why I am writing about this.
Spend time praying to God today.
If you asked fifty different Christian writers this question, I am sure they would all answer a bit differently.
My response is certainly not complete and misses so many other vital areas. But for now, I will share a few thoughts on this subject.
God will never deceive you.
Firstly, God’s spiritual food is what trulyendures.
When there is no physical food around just yet, there is no famine of God in 2024!
Recently when communicating to a hungry soul who lived in Uganda, I had no choice but to share God’s Word with him.
What other option was left?
Zero.
At least GOD was available 24/7.
These conversations I had with him were awkward.
He may have even asked the unthinkable question, “Is it God’s will that I starve to death?”
There was good news though!
This young man was eating spiritual food!
He was reading the Word of God on his phone.
He had faith.
He was praying.
I was very thankful for that!
“For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of what we eat or drink, but of living a life of goodness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17)
“Look what happens to mighty warriors who do not trust in God. They trust their wealth instead and grow more and more bold in their wickedness.” (Psalm 52:7)
A comment I found on YouTube.
Writing this post during famine, brings up the deception of physical food without God.
Physical food is not God.
Physical food can become our idol.
Since when did fruit, vegetables, meat, vitamins and minerals, get you to heaven faster?
A full stomach is not an express ticket to heaven.
A full stomach can be a deceptive stomach.
Remember the rich man in the Bible who ignored the beggar Lazarus?
I am sure he felt very warm and filled but it certainly wasn’t the filling of the Holy Spirit.
It was only a deceptive filling.
Like the Psalm 52:7 mighty warrior!
The Bible states he ended up in hell.
And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.” (Luke 16)
Keep a Bible by your bedside.
Physical food is important.
But not the most important in God’s eyes.
Dying of starvation, does not mean God spiritually deprived you of Himself.
You were deprived of physical food.
Not of God Himself.
I like what Tim Challies said,
“That destination may be death, or that destination may be greater holiness. But whatever it is, that destination is not nothing, it is not meaningless. What this tells me is that any suffering we experience in this life is in some way under the sovereignty of God, in some way under the banner of “I shall not want.” God gives his people exactly what they need in order to lead them where he has determined they ought to go. Where they ought to go–where they will go–is the place that will bring glory to God.”
God is omnipresent.
God’s earthly food, is not the only resource needed, to help a soul survive and do His spiritual will.
What is needed the most, is God Himself.
Man does not live by bread alone, remember?
But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” (Matthew 4:4)
God’s authority will never bow to food.
God is Your Supply!
Not the supplies themselves!
We must believe this!
Otherwise earth can become an idol to us.
When God Himself is our food and drink, we can rest assured, that no other earthly resource is better than God Himself.
God is the One Who keeps us going.
His breath of life!
Not the sliced bread in life!
God satisfies you perfectly. Food doesn’t.
Today, food has become an idol to many.
Food has no soul.
Jesus did not die for food.
We hold food in very high esteem.
Food has an unhealthy control over us.
We think, “If I can just get my diet right, then everything will go well.”
We then hang everything from this root.
But from this root, comes dysfunction.
Why?
Only because we are trusting the power of food more than God Himself.
Meaning, “If I eat YOU right, YOU will give me long life, YOU will give me strength, YOU will give me good health and YOU will help me stay in control.”
Replace the “YOU” words with “GOD” and read the above sentence again!
Feel better? Yes! Me too.
The idolatry of food can draw us away from trusting God fully.
No wonder God weaned me off diets and drew me to only Himself!
“The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.” (1 Corinthians 10)
It was a painful experience for me during my Uganda project.
But I was forced to view it through the lenses of heaven!
This supernatural perspective truly helped me!
When you go through the difficulties in life, it seems as if heaven has been cropped out!
But heaven is still there.
If God opened your spiritual eyes –
I have no doubt that you would see ministering angels, God’s provisions, new resources to come and maybe even the after shots too!
It’s the hardest lesson to learn but it’s a necessary one – trust God Himself.
Never food.
Never a full stomach.
Never money.
Never your job.
Never your looks.
Never your abilities.
Never your spiritual gifts.
Never your thoughts.
Never anything at all.
Never anyone at all.
Except God Himself.
God knows what you need! Show Him you trust Him fully.
Spiritual food and heavenly strength provided by God is what endures long after the physical is gone!
This is the only lasting power that will keepyou going as it comes from God Himself.
A soul starving to death is not the worst thing.
A soul eternally separated from God is.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it.
From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them.
And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life.
And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.
Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20)
“Dear God. Please help me to feed the hungry and minister to your lost souls.”
Do you think God allows you to struggle during your writing process so you spend more time with Him?
I find that when I write my Christian posts, there is often a real struggle happening. But then I realized something significant. What if God wants me to feel that way on purpose?
The struggle is not the short cut we would like.
But the struggle with God Himself is better than the struggle without God.
If you struggle as you write, consider this a very good thing.
This process is bringing you closer to God Himself.
The Christian writer’s struggle, keeps you in student-mode for life!
♡We write to remember God’s promises!We write to encourage ourselves and others.
I asked permission from precious Willie Torres first, before posting his comment below.
He kindly agreed and allowed me to share his comment here.
I had no idea that I would be writing about fading steps and enduring steps.
I’m so thankful to God that I wrote this poem.
Many thanks to all the readers/writers who read it.
God has been teaching me valuable poetry lessons that affect me deeply.
During my poetry writing, I usually don’t know how my poem will unfold. I simply pray and let God guide.
Seek God first before writing.
God is a poet too.
He even cares about rhyme!
Hi Willie! 😊
I am praying for you and your beautiful family.
Thank you for being a reader at helenolenjin.life.
You wrote this to me –
“What a beautiful and heartfelt poem. Your words convey such a powerful message about the significance of our steps and the importance of walking in God’s guidance. I love how you captured the struggle between seeking worldly freedom and the peace that comes from following Him.”
♡♡♡
“The imagery of footsteps and the contrast between the fading paths and golden steps is so vivid. It’s a poignant reminder that true fulfillment and direction come from staying close to God. I appreciate how you emphasize the beauty of returning to Him and the joy of walking in His will.”
♡♡♡
“Thank you for sharing this inspiring piece. It encourages reflection on our journeys and the importance of inviting God into every step we take. I’ll definitely be meditating on Psalm 103.”
♡♡♡
Encourage other Christian writers.
I love what Willie wrote!
This is a Christian writer who thinks deeply and loves the Lord.
Willie is one of my subscribers.
He understands the real meaning of a poem that has been inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Willie wrote this comment, for himselftoo. He fed himself God’s insights whilst simultaneously encouraging me also.
Imagine these “Jesus blog comments” being recorded by God as His work!
When other writers feel the Lord’s presence in my poems and make this fact known to me, I am overjoyed!
*Please tell me this!*
I think God loves when we encourage each other heaven’s way!
This kind of writer-to-writer relationship seeks no competition but rather desires the best for each other. ❤️
Did you know, your writing ministry for God, affects YOU the most?
Not your readers.
Why not initially make your writing posts perfectly Christ tailored towards your needs, not others?
I fell flat on my face when I tried to write to help others!
Don’t compete with another writer. Simply glorify Christ.
When “the helping me 1st” approach is used, the writer burn out of self is significantly less. Only because you realized that the most important person is you. Not your reader.
As a Christian writer, I no longer like to waste time writing about subjects that don’t change me personally.
As I love intrapersonal writing, I realized that the topic I pick, should be a topic, that helps me the most!
This a wonderful realization.
Write to draw closer to God. Avoid being teachy and preachy.
If God ministers to you too, when you read my posts, I’m very glad! But if not, my soul work is never lost.
Why?
Only because my writing ministry is helping-my-own-soul-the-most.
I pray that your writing ministry helps you the most too.
I pray that every draft that I write, even if it’s trashed later, helps me in some way.
Instead of saying, “Draft one, draft two, draft three ….”
Rather say, “Devotion one, devotion two, devotion three and so on.”
When you influence yourself the most, under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, even trashed drafts can become an enduring heavenly joy 😊!
Only because God Himself is always present as you write every messy draft.
These drafts4self, with God, then ripple out and helps others later. Without you even really trying.
It’s like putting on your spiritual oxygen mask first, before helping others on the plane.
This is a sneaky shot of temptation. Just before it happens.
But hold that thought for now….
♡♡♡
This morning, I have my Bible open and I have been listening to Revelation on Spotify. I like to ‘hear” the Word of God being read. It’s great to hear the Word and also follow along in the Bible. I call this a “double” feeding. You hear and you also read!
Imagine the absence of temptation where you are full of the Word of God!
Not that the temptation is never there, but rather you were so aware of God Himself, that you always knew He was the best choice!
I know Satan is real.
He visited me three times in my own home.
I never forgot His presence.
It was unforgettable.
If your interested to hear the long version, please message me and I’ll share it with you later.
When Satan tempts us, He wants us to forget the power of God that is on a believer’s life, that comes when we don’t give in to him.
He tempts our senses and as a result, we become weaker after giving in to temptation.
When I think of a weaker me in the future and being robbed of God’s best, a great sense of indignation rises up!
We don’t have to be tempted as much as we are, and if we prepare ahead of time, we can finish the day strong!
Last night, my daughter and I were talking about not giving in to sin.
What helped me?
When I was in high school, in year 11, I remember coming home from school and kneeling by my bed.
Time and time again!
I pleaded to God to take away the desire to sin and to follow Him instead.
It was a very difficult battle but one thing I never stopped doing…
I never stopped praying and seeking His face.
There was no special formula.
Of course I understood the importance of reading and hearing the Word non-stop!
After the struggle, I knew victory was mine, as I felt His peace and joy in a way I had never experienced before. The year after, I was baptised and I knew it was the best choice I had ever made.
These three steps below that I made up, are very helpful when you are just about to lose that great peace and joy of God!
But then you don’t…..
Only because –
You didn’t take Satan’s BAIT
You didn’t ENGAGE with him
You didn’t ENABLE him
The devil’s B.E.E. is designed to bring you down.
Bait
Engage
Enable
The more B.E.E.S. you have, the weaker you can feel.
The B.E.E. plan of attack ensures you are tempted at your weakest point.
“They swarmed around me like bees; they blazed against me like a crackling fire. But I destroyed them all with the authority of the Lord. My enemies did their best to kill me, but the Lord rescued me.”
(Psalm 118)
Don’t be robbed of God’s great peace and joy today!
Even anxiety and anger can be demonic temptations but Satan packages them so naturally, that they seem to come from only yourself!
Recently I was thinking about how important our choices are.
Wasting God’s time, will weaken you.
It is much easier to give in to Satan’s temptations when we forget God.
“Put on salvation as your helmet, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17)
Godly obedience, helps to kill the B.E.E!
Lately I realised how much stronger I felt as a Christian, when I kept choosing God, even after I chose God!
As a Christian blogger, Christian piano player, Christian singer and Christian Support Worker, you may think I need a break from all this God stuff!
But when God’s “sharpest point” is laid down (His Word) and me gets back to me, I found that nothing could satisfy me like God could.
I found that I wanted to be with God all day long.
Satan hates when we awaken to his B.E.E.
Why?
Only because when we do, we are the least tempted! We also learn not to get angry as quickly.
When that rough patch hits, you will be tempted the least when you choose God the most!
The world will shout, “Obsessive!” (Jesus Freak)
I like to think God whispers, “Progressive.”
Imagine Satan hearing you singing to God today and he runs away!
“Why bother tempting her? She knows I’m coming. I am no longer hidden to her.”
That’s already one temptation, that didn’t happen!
Feel free to use my screen shot below.
I’m so thankful that God allowed me to brush off those angry B.E.E.S. today!
helenolenjin.life 