God Has Not Forgotten You

Ever been in a storm? Or in the middle of one right now? There’s good news for you- God has not forgotten you! Many people including King David in the bible & our Lord Jesus (like you) felt neglected once.

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? – Psalm 22:1

For sure it’s natural to feel forgotten when in the middle of great trouble. Such times are times of great emotional confusion. You are frustrated by today’s pain and wonder what tomorrow will bring, you feel lonely and defeated, thinking that God has abandoned you, however the truth is that God has not forgotten you.

This kind of feeling can range from being unwanted to being easily irritated. At times you may not even be able to trace the origin of your emotions. I felt like this not too long ago. At that time, my loving father who knows me more than anyone else, sent me a message in form of a sermon titled Weep No More: God has not forgotten you, it was given by a woman of God that I respect a lot.  The interesting thing is that I really didn’t go around at this particular time thinking God has forgotten me. However, when the sermon came, I was extremely comforted and got a huge boost to continue life and ministry with joy.

Can God Actually Forget Me?

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me.” “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me. – Isaiah 49:14-16

“…for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!] [Josh. 1:5.]”

‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭13:5‬ ‭AMP‬‬

God has not forgotten you

If God was the one that said this how could he then forget. He remembers you as well as His promises to you.

Why Then Do We Feel Forgotten? 

Its natural to feel. Its normal for emotions to arise.

Fear, trouble, pain and the likes make us doubt God’s faithfulness towards us. Even sin or lack of time in God’s presence cause us to forget how unconditional his love is towards us.

Don’t let today’s trouble distract you from receiving his perfect love and grace. Don’t doubt his love nor your rights in him. Let your heart trust in God.

What you feel is not always an indication of the truth. God’s love for you is perfect no matter what you feel or are going through right now. He is not a man that will deal with you based on your wrong. The devil wants you to believe it that way though. You must remember that He cares about you unconditionally and has a plan for you. Run to your father and enjoy his love even in the midst of trouble. He has not forgotten you.

Remember also that the fact that you feel this way does not conclude the story. You can disregard what you feel and act on what you KNOW.

In my newest book:  Weep No More: God has not forgotten you, I worked with a number of wonderful people with the aim of bringing hope to you or anyone you know that is feeling neglected by God. It is a book that is more or less a tool in times of needs. With lots of testimoweep no more God has not forgotten younies from people that have called on God in their times of need. You will be greatly encouraged by each of the more than 14 stories. Get the book on Amazon today.

 

How To Always Remember God Has Not Forgotten You

1. Count your blessings, name them one by one. Take stock of the thing God has done lately. You will be shocked to see that He truly cares about you.

2. Meditate on his promises. God’s words have a way of brightening our paths. Trust in the Lord with all your heart…they are life to those who find them and healing to their bones.

3. Listen to other people’s testimonies of God’s unfailing love. The book: ‘Weep No More: God has not forgotten you’ will help, it has 15 different individuals recounting what God did for them in the past. Get yours and get one for others today. You may even decide to use the book in your bible weep no more God has not forgotten youstudy group or with your accountability partner.

The book comes with a guide (embedded workbook) for you to recount and write down your own testimony. Get yours now.

You are blessed!

Launch My New Books With Me

The past few weeks have been extremely busy as I have been working on finishing these 2 new books.  And I praise God as they are available on Amazon now or whereever books are sold.

 The Story:

Weep No more: God has not forgotten you – I was under the ministry of a seasoned woman of God, Rev Regina Kehinde when I felt led to put this book together. After much prayers towards the project I felt led to ask for testimonies from many others to add as part of the book. I worked personally with the contributors to put this together. It was an amazing process and today the book is here.

Perfect Love: Your Happily Ever after Story – As part of our annual Vessels of Grace Conference in Canada (vesselsofgrace.net) each lady usually receives a book from me. However this year, they get a book I co-authored with some of the ladies I have been working with for the past 10 years. I am so thrilled for this debut and I can only say Thank You Lord. 

Launch the book

They are both ready and being launched here.  You may decide to launch the book with me by making a donation and I will surely appreciate that a lot (it will help to offset some of the cost and possibly provide for the next project).

How to Launch the books

  1.  Paypal Simply donate $50 or more and I will have both mailed to you.

2. Email money transfer to olusobanjo@gmail.com 

Or you may send any donation between $25 and $45 and specify which of the books you want. Let me know if you want more copies to give out to orders and we can arrange something.

Your Next Book?

For those of you that want to write a book in the next 4years or thereabout. You have a message, or an idea that you will love to share with the world. For the next  few days I am offering a free package on here- Get Help Writing a Book from A – Z.  This will be a free step by step guide from a – z, for writing your next book or joining me on my next project. Feel free to sign up by sending me an email at olusobanjo@gmail.com and let me know a bit more about what you see. 

Again its been wonderful working on this project.

I pray that in all you do, Christ will forever be exalted.

Thanks again and God bless!

Once again, here is the donate button.  

I am sure that God will use you continually to move His work forward.

Forgive to Achieve More 

I am sure you are wondering what the correlation is between success and forgiveness. That’s the same way I felt until I personally got it as well. First let’s try to understand what unforgiveness truly is.

When someone wrongs you, it affects you in 2 ways. First you are bitter against that individual and second you hurt because of what they did. Depending on the value you have placed on what they took away from you, you might find it harder to move away from the wrong.

For example a friend that took your hard earned money and ran away with it. There is a huge chance that you will begin to resent the fellow for eloping with the money you suffered to earn. You are bitter in your heart towards them. You may even feel like hurting them back.

The truth is that resentments and bitterness are high maintenance emotions. It takes a huge portion of your mind to resent another person. This reason is why someone you hate can ruin a special day for you by just showing up. Merriam Webster dictionary defines resentments this way:

  • Painful emotions: felt or experienced in a strong and unpleasant way
  • Angry and unhappy because of unfair treatment

You may still be wondering the correlation between achieving more and forgiveness. Do you agree with me that it’s torture for you when you have hateful thoughts about someone? The pain is felt deep in the heart. This kind of pain takes a toll even on your productivity capacity. Reducing the impact you can ever make with the limited resources you have.

drinking

Someone described unforgiveness as ‘drinking poison and expecting the other person to die’. It’s true that when someone wrongs you it really hurts but when you choose not to let go, you are the one drinking poison. The bitterness and resentments control you.

Successful people are competent people in the area of building and managing relationship well. They are not willing to allow a relationship ruin their day. They are quick to forgive, make excuses for other’s wrong behaviours, they are quick to apologize and move on.  Don’t get me wrong here, the point is not to allow people walk over you repeatedly but choosing to be in charge of your own life, not allowing other people’s action tie you down in the sea of unforgiveness.

How do you forgive? Choosing to forgive first of all is choosing to release the person that wronged you. You let go of every feeling of bitterness against such persons. As we approach the end of the first quarter in 2016, I want to remind you that achieving greatness this year will hang on the competence you display in relationship and capacity management. Do you have people that have wronged you? Letting go will do you good. Your health and your life in general will be richer if only you stop drinking the poison of hatred, resentments, bitterness and unforgiveness.

Many people are living lesser than their optimal level because they are using part of their mind to manage the people that offended them in the past. It’s also easier for others to hurt you further when you are hurting-you get easily offended. It takes a lot from you daily to do a mental analysis of those that you will never talk to, the people that are making life difficult for you.

In order to live like an achiever, you must be willing to forgive. Of course based on the magnanimity of some wrongs, you may need help to forgive and I will explain more about the help you can get to forgive.

However, note that when you are rich in love, you are able to forgive easily. When you enjoy real love, from others – your spouse, friends and family. Their love for you will nullify the desire to get back at others for what they do. You must consciously remove people from your enemy list one by one until you are left with only Satan. Removing people from your enemy list is not necessarily turning them into friends. You simply release any bitterness you have against them and move on in close relationship with them or not. In order words, you stop drinking poison hoping they will die.

Help to forgive. If you seem not to be able to forgive easily it’s because you are lacking in love yourself. The greatest love a person can enjoy is that of Christ’s. When you realized that the King of kings died for you, it’s a feeling that cannot be compared with another. He took your place, became everything bad you have ever been and can ever be and He gave you His clean life. Now you are at peace with God for what Christ did.

Wow! You feel really rich when you understand what He did for you. You are rich in love, not lacking at all. In this case you can easily forgive others. You can easily assume they didn’t know what they were doing. You can release the bitterness you have against them and ask God for help so as to heal from the hurt they have inflicted on you. So that each time you think about the situation you don’t feel like hurting them back or getting back at them.

When you are able to forgive you free up your mind to think clearly. You become more productive. You are able to achieve a lot more with your time. You are also able to get the most of every person and opportunity. Start depopulating your enemy list today and start achieving greatness inside and out. Go for success, you were made to thrive!

A true Friend

 I have discovered that in life you need people around you always. We were not designed to do things alone.

This month as the L.O.V.E topic resonates, I want you to keep it in mind that true friendship is not really found in those you party with, get the most excitements with. True friends are those who are willing to take you as you are.

As I have travelled through life, I have met different people on the way:

Second class 

  • Those who manage me because they didn’t find anyone else
  • Those who want me for what I have
  • Those who were indifferent
  • Those who couldn’t stand being around me
  • Those who just need me to carry out their plans
  • Those who want me for what they can turn me into

First Class

  • Those who feel I am an answer to their prayers
  • Those who see in me what could not see and would do anything to get me to see and become
  • Those who love me just the way I am
  • Those who just cherish being my friends

If you are in anyway similar to me you may have met one or two in the above categories.

As you continue your travel through life, for another decade or would you prefer a century, remember that you need true friends.

Take some time to analyze your friendships. The people you hang out with the most. Those whose comments and ideas make you move or shrink. Are they in the first class or in the second class?

It’s normal to have friends in both classes however, depending on the kind of person you ar- you may be strong internally; that you are still able to move when friends discourage you. But if you are the kind that feels scared to be wrong before others, you must work hard to not allow the second class friends dominate your activity or inactivity. 

Don’t spend all your time managing wrong friends. Those whom you hang out with definitely have a huge say on whom you turn out to become.

Good for you if you are reading this as a child, teenager or single because you work on your friendship skills now. When I was a child, I thought older people just made a big deal out of issues surrounding love and friendship but now after different experiences, I can truly say that I see better now.

L.O.V.E is a major topic and we all get it wrong in one way or another in the early part of life. So before you say I do to a person, a career or a business opportunity, try to check very well is they fall under the first class or second class. 

You need at least one true friend in order to successfully live a purposeful life. Don’t settle for wrong friendship, look for it every day but much more than that, you be a true friend to another person. 

“A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you become who you should be” – Anonymous

Here are a few things you can do to be a true friend to another person. 

As a child,

these do:

Look for a good kid that seem not to have a friend to play with, find out something good about them each time you see them and tell them to do it more.

As you grow, your friendship might change, if you have to chose friends based on whether they help you develop or if they help you have fun, chose the first over the second because you will soon find out there are many who can help you have fun but those that help you develop are a bit harder to find.  Start early.

As a teenager,

consider these:

who  do you regard as your best friend? Have you noticed some improvements in you since you met them?

Did you know that getting life right as a teenager is a big plus for success in life. Learning a culture of reading books and learning from seniors is a good thing if only you can cultivate that now. Start now. 

As a single,

consider these:

No matter how good or bad you may think you are, you were actually made good, so find the good in you and stick to that knowledge of you. Do it as often as you can.

Your best friend must not be someone you are settling for, he or she must be a person that fits more in the first class than in the second class above.   

Be free to reveal the real you as you meet people from now on and dont be quick to give up on someone until you find at least 10 good things about them, even if they annoy you. 

As a married,

consider these:

Discover something great about your spouse, one quality each week, tell them in as many ways as possible.

Listen carefully for the main goal your spouse has for this year and help them achieve it.

As you do the 2 above, carefully share your main goal this year with your spouse and show them how they can help you achieve this.

As a Senior,

consider these:

  • Yes, I know you are wiser due to your experience, but try to carefully listen first to people before advising them.
  • Someone around you now needs a true friend, look around for someone (in your family, church, neighborhood…)

So my dear friend, determine to help a friend achieve a goal this month. You will be wiser if you do. 

All the best! 

 

 

Achieve Your 2016 Goals With Ease

 2016 can be way better for you than the previous year depending on how easy your plans are. What was your To Do List like last year? How many of the things planned were you able to achieve? If not much you may just be doing it wrong like many others. In this piece I am going to show you the simple way of planning that you can start implementing right now in order to cut down on your worry level drastically, live a more healthy life and achieve your goals this year.

“Lack of direction, not lack of time is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.” Zig Ziglar.

  1. Focus on 1 or 2 goals for the whole year. Yes, for the whole year. I was speaking at church last week Sunday when I asked each member of my audience to write down one thing they would love God to do for them this year – this can be something tangible (like I want to buy a new car) or it can be something intangible (like I want to become more like Jesus). It was interesting to see the struggle that most people had in finding just one thing. The reason for this exercise was to get people to focus. The act of focussing is hard for most people and that why many do not achieve much. It was so hard to choose which on thing was the most important. Someone even spoke out her frustration at church that day saying: “Just one?”  My aim most importantly at that point was to know where each person was, what he or she was focusing on. I wanted to also know what percentage of the audience retained what I was encouraging them to do in my sermon which was to be fully devoted to a life in Christ.  It was really nice to see that about 70% had goals around the topic I was focussed on. Good to know as a speaker.

An easy way to get point number one done is to take a trip mental trip to December 31, yes you will take a trip there in your mind. Just imagine you are sitting with your family over dinner on the 31 December, or around the campfire with your friends, or you out for a party with a few friends to celebrate into the new year, or may be you are you at church, you know, thanking God for the year and transitioning into the new year. As soon as your imagination is clear about where you are, then you must  ask yourself ‘what am I happy about right now?’

Remember your current location is the 31st of December at the mental moment. Ask yourself ‘what made me fulfilled, satisfied or excited? What am I happy that I was able to achieve this year? Start writing down whatever comes to mind. These will form goals that you will see if you want to achieve this year.  As you do this, you may come up with 10 points, its ok. The next step will be to consider each point and to choose 2 out that you really want by all means. The rest are not all trash, you can leave them in the cooler for next year or as extras as you achieve some. However for now you will only focus only on 2 goals.

Examples: Launch side business, loose 20lbs all year, Finish from Grad school and land a job in your field, Buy or build a home and move in by December.

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” Brian Tracey. 

  1. Break each goal down into smaller goals. After you have decided on 1 or 2 goals, the next step is to break each goal into smaller goals. For example, a goal of starting a side business with a projected December income of 100,000 is a huge goal that can not be achieved just like that. There are so many other things to do in order to be able to start the business before December and make the money. What kind of business idea will I run with, is this a product or service? Who is my target market? Will this business be from home or will I need a facility to work from, is it Virtual or physical business. Would I need some further education at a school or simply take some online course, Do I need to get a license to offer what I want to offer? How much Capital do I need, where do I find Capital? Be as exhaustive and possible. I have some videos that will help you further on this example.  Watch them here.

Write down everything that comes to mind as smaller goals towards your major goal. Then you can organize them into a nice Monthly calendar. This will form your monthly time line. This will lead you into the next step.

“Never Confuse Motion with Action” –Benjamin Fraklin.

  1. Create Your Weekly Todos: At this stage you are ready to create your action steps. Your to do list for each week. Based on what you wrote down as each month’s goal, you will create some steps you need to take within the month in order to complete the goal for that month. For the step you can either use the same calendar you have been using but now go deeper by using the weekly calibrated area to write or you could create your own agenda using Google sheet or excel. I prefer Google sheets, cos Its available for you anywhere, plus you can edit your document offline and update the sheet whenever you are online. That way you always have the same document to work with.

What do I need to do first out of all this things that I’ve written down? You begin to plug them into your calendar by weeks. Determine whether Sunday is the begning of your week or Monday. Plan the easy tasks to finish by the Saturday of week 1 in January, another to finish by week 2 and on that way. Note that its important to plan them chronologically and in a sequence. In other words, whatever must be done before the other must be arranged in a way to achieve them chronologically.  As you organize, you are getting acquainted not just with your main goal but the easy steps that makes that goal.

You are not just creating a to-do list like a lot of people do, not just looking for things to do in order to be busy and appear serious, you are more or less gathering the bricks you need to build.

As you organize them on your weekly agenda, you also decide the priority of each step. Some of the steps you come up with will bring you more distraction than progress, you must be ready to quickly put distractions in the back burner.

For example, when I wanted to pick a name for my online clothing business, I wanted a perfect name that I could run with for a long time – that already is an indication for distraction. My business idea was clear but I didn’t have a perfect, attractive name. Of course it took me forever to eventually find a name that I loved, that some of my friends loved and that the domain name was available. However, since there were tasks I could continue working on,  what I did was to keep moving – continued doing other apparent tasks while the name simmered in the back burner. I only worked on finding names after I had completed my other weekly tasks. And that way I was able to achieve my goal of launching out in record time and not get stocked looking for a perfect name. 

Again remember the point is not to be busy but to be progressively achieving your monthly goal. And since you are doing all these in the planning stage- you are setting a guideline for your self, you are bound to achieve success by the time you start following your plan.

Over the years, I have discovered that when I run through the plan like this, I feel a sense of satisfaction. I can clearly see my goal being achieved on paper and not only that, there is a real feeling of fulfillments around achieving it on paper. It motivates each action in real life. Similar to the way you feel when you have a GPS, when you have an idea of the road map to where you are heading, getting there becomes easier, right?

This is one major reason why I recommend this style for anyone, you will achieve your goal if only you follow through with this plan.

  1. Zero it Down to what to do Daily. Daily plans are important. You already know what to achieve each month, you have decided what to do each each week and now you will take a massive look at your life, what are you busy doing now? Your daily habits, family structure, your daily responsibilities at home, your work schedule, your commitments outside the home, at church or in the city, you evaluate your 24 hours schedule from Monday to Sunday. Check your availability to know how much time you have on a daily basis or can afford to dedicate towards achieving your goal for the year.    This is one major cause of failure for many people. They have all sorts of lofty ideas however, they fail to determine how it will flow smoothly with their current lifestyle. At this stage you may need to cut off some things from your life that are not important or urgent, you may need to reduce your time on Facebook and YouTube if it does not have a direct correlations to achieving your goal.

What you are looking for is to find enough time available to think about and do all the things you have on your weekly todo list. Say you have 2 hours on Monday nights, 1 hour on Wednesday and 3 hours on Saturdays. Then you go ahead and put daily tasks for Monday, Wednesday and Saturday of each week.

Put into consideration some busier time of year as well. Say you have a time at work that you are usually busier, you know from that that you will either need to cut off some more sleep time or reduce the tasks around your goal. Of course this might stretch the achievement of your goals a bit, its ok. You will still achieve, that’s what matters.

There you have it: the simple way to plan so that you can achieve your goals with ease in 2016. The act of going through this process helps a lot because it gives you a guideline, like a roadmap for you. This way, as distractions show up during the year, and they will surely come, (whether in form of an obstacle, other great ideas, people that want you to focus on something else, whatever the distraction) you will be able evaluate things clearly and see if this is God’s way of getting you to change directions or not. Remember to factor in money issues into each step.

So my friend, the long and short of this is to have a well organized and worry free year. With this process you are able to focus on what’s important and get a lot more done.

So go ahead, get started now and pls. share with me which of the steps you found easiest to achieve.

Have an amazing 2016.

A Wonderful Christmas – Thank You!

Lovely girl excited about her new bear
Lovely girl excited about her new bear

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas was sure a delight for many in Kuje today.

Jesus, whom we celebrate today (and always) came to our world many years ago and we continue to enjoy His love today.  We are indeed very honoured to share that same love with others.

A few of our guests were willing to change churches after the service…funny. It was nice to remind them that Christ’s body is one and that the aim was mainly to show them that God loves and cares about them. Also nice that some were not church goers that can be discipled.

Bags of 5kg Rice, Salt, Tomato paste, seasoning cubes

Thanks to all of you out there that made this day possible. One bag of 5kg rice, a sachet of salt and tomato paste and seasoning cube were the food items that people got today. Each person also had the chance to shop through our pile of gently used clothes. Kids from the same family got one toy while each child went home with an easy to ready kids book.

Everything is set, but the inspectors had to make sure
Everything is set, but the inspectors had to make sure
Another inspector on duty
So happy to have found a Ninja Turtle shirt for herself
So happy to have found a Ninja Turtle shirt for herself
Happy that the Tiger now belongs to him
Happy that the Tiger now belongs to him
Men and women shopping for free
Men and women shopping for free
Book and backpack to go.
Book and backpack to go.

 

 

When it was time to go home, many smiles became real.

IMG_6549

Time to go home

IMG_6554

IMG_6550

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMG_6553

Today was awesome and as stated below, our welfare structure has begun. Kindly join us if you feel led to.

City Wide Welfare Program-Kuje

Every society, including US & Canada,  has the need for a welfare structure to meet the need of families with a below average income level. This is why we are happy to call Nigerians in and out of the country to consider joining us. I am sure you are helping where you are but it will be nice that you consider joining us if you feel led to.  In a country like Canada, the government has a welfare structure that helps people in different stages of life that can not afford the basic needs while some other organizations (like Salvation Army) complements the government’s efforts.

This January we want to start a Structured City-Wide Welfare Program- Where people can come to pick up basic food items (one time emergency family food) after which they may choose to apply to join the full program which is a 3 month program.

In the Full Program, each accepted family will receive some food items (rice, noodles, tomato paste…) and N500 stipend per week for the duration of 3 months. They must also go through our Structured 8 Weeks Training (class every Monday) which will exposes them to Christ’s Love and Prepares them to either get a job or start a business.

Exceptional and enterprising graduates from the training school also have the chance of getting some money to start a petty trade as funds become available.

Please Join Us: Last year we asked you to join us and you did, thank you! This time we want to be able to meet the need of families that come for help on a monthly basis but we know our friends are also excited about blessing others. That’s why we are sending this to all Nigerians out there (and non Nigerians).  If you are able to join us, kindly send at least $10 or N1000 or more.  You can send by email or paypal to olusobanjo@gmail.com or use FCMB ACCOUNT #2910633010 (Overcomers Fellowship International).

If you are considering sending us something monthly, quaterly or annually, pls email me at Olusobanjo@gmail.com for more details. 
Feel free to send this to any Nigerian you know.

Some excited team members after a successful Christmas Giveaway
Some excited team members after a successful Christmas Giveaway

Again, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone that made today a great success. And most importantly to the One who loved us so that we can love others through Him.

Thank you Lord!

Looking forward to an amazing 2016.

My Birthday & Join Our Christmas Food Project


 


Here is to say a HUGE thanks for all the love I got on my birthday. God bless you all. I know many of you would have loved to send me a gift, right? ;-)Instead of my Gift you can simply make a quick donation towards our 2015 Christmas Food Project.

Ways To Donate? 

  1.  Paypal Simply donate $10 or more now

2. Email money transfer to olusobanjo@gmail.com

3. If in Nigeria send to FCMB #2881016012 (Oluwaseun Sobanjo) N1000 or more.

4. If in Abuja, donate a bag of Rice or any other non perishable food item (arrange by email olusobanjo@gmail.com)

The aim is not to completely solve the recipients financial problems as that may be a bit hard to do, but together lets add some spice to some family’s christmas season.

Thanks and God bless you abundantly.


Love Something You Do Now To Live A Thriving Life

Week # 2 of my tips and traits that we each need to work on in order to live our best lives and also maximize our creative potentials.

Find something you really get excited about in your life now and do that thing as often as you can. If you do this you generate some motivations for the other things you dont really enjoy and as such you achieve more.

Practice this often and you will also be even happier if thats an issue.

Thanks and have a fantastic day.