For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
Galatians 5:6 NKJV
At some point in my life, I started asking some serious questions because I found out that alot of times,Christians that should have the advantage were clearly disadvantaged. I even had a personal example of when I tried everything I knew to do, at work, and yet I had a boss that made life miserable for me. I started pondering on why my prayers for God to intervene weren’t answered, infact, they seemed to come right back at me. In response, God led me to the Scripture above.
You see, there’s one major challenge we have in the body of Christ and that’s pride. There seems to be something about the fact that we know that we’re making heaven and that neighbour who clearly needs Jesus but we have refused to witess to them, is going to hell, that makes us pompous. For some reason, it makes us feel like good mighty humans and satisfies that place in us that wants to craves power and superiority. But at the very root of this pride is a lack of love. I truly do not want to call it hatred but it’s something close to that. When we secretly wish someone else evil or have grudges or bitterness towards a fellow human, regardless of who was wrong, we shoot ourselves in the leg.
The story is told of a fellow who was sick and came to Bro Kenneth Hagin to pray for him but before Bro Kenneth could say a word, The Lord ministered to Him about the man and it turned out that this fellow was living in unforgiveness. He was asked to go and forgive the person and he did. He never came back to the healing line because he became well after then.
It will amaze us how many of our prayers are stuck somewhere above our heads because we have refused to walk in love. The hallmark of Christianity is love and everyone responds to love; everyone! You can have all the faith in this world and quote all the scriptures but if you don’t love, You’re on your own. Love is like the highway our prayers run on and faith is what fuels our prayers. You need both to have an effective prayer life and because the enemy knows this, he fills our minds with lies and evil pictures that cause misunderstandings and disagreements we do not effectively resolve, thus leading to strife, anger, bitterness etc. We don’t need any of it at all.
Back to my story, I eventually forgave this boss even though I didn’t feel like it and it didn’t make sense to me but I did and I opened up my heart to God to heal me of the pain even as I started interceding for same. Till date, how God turned it around, I don’t know. I just know that at some point, I realized the hostility wasn’t there anymore but because I was praying for them, my heart had already softened so I wasn’t looking out for any changes, I just stumbled into it later.
This year, make up your mind to love. Love with your heart. Love truly and genuinely. Love without expecting anything in return. But love from a healthy standpoint. If you have any grudges towards anyone and you find it difficult to forgive, start praying for the person daily and make it sincere. If possible, buy them a gift that cost you something. It’s hard, almost impossible to hate someone you pray for everyday, so pray for them and keep at it.
As we start 2020 remember, love knows they way. Love has the way. Love IS the way. Keep loving

Xoxo
Aijay Ufomadu