The most popular podium for Apostle Paul's ministry or Kingdom service was in the prison. He wrote some of his letters (if not most of his letters) in detention as if he was crime addicted

We have furnished places, decorated halls to worship; play various instruments and dance to stupor, but the major place he had his podium was in the prison, yet his faith didn't faint or fail. Unlike is common in our days, ordinary hunger of the stomach had made so many believers to look back behind Jesus; abandoned Faith in Christ to go in for easy life — the fast lane — a departure from the Faith lane.

Look at a remark or submission that Apostle Paul gave about his state, "Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me HIS PRISONER, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God" (2Tim 1:8).

The Mercy of GOD upon our time is so much that at least we eat up to 2 to 3 times a day cooling under a good breeze. We sleep in the night and sometimes snore, rest in the afternoon, take little sleep in the evening and leave the rest till night. We have our jobs and businesses of all kinds, yet we think we are suffering because there is an amount of money we want to see in our bank accounts, a particular car we want to buy but have not, or we need a good spouse and we are yet to be given.

May GOD open our eyes to the true demand of our calling in Christ Jesus. May God give us Grace in all His fullness, to help us to stop being vain in our pursuit of GOD. Until we can see that our lives count beyond the material elements of this passing pleasure of the sinful world, we wouldn’t completely yield our all to the counsel of His will for us.

Money is good no doubt, but it is not the value for your life. As far as GOD is concerned, the worth of a soul weighs so much than the wealth of the whole world put together. God is not against anyone working to earn a living, but there is more to our lives on the face of the earth than living for survival or earning money to settle our bills. Even as we do that, we must not neglect the reason for our birth. None of us was born on his or her account. We were not released/sent to the earth because there is money to be earned on the earth. It is the existence of a man on the earth that gives value to money, not the existence of money that gives value to man. It is not money that defines your worth; it is your existence that gives value to money. We were born for what God has intended to do with our lives on the earth. To live and exit the earth without fulfilling what brought us here is just like we didn’t come at all.

³⁶ For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? ³⁷ Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? ³⁸ For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:36-38.

But unfortunately, many have abandoned their souls in the pursuit of Mammon (money). For as long as our souls are occupied and controlled by the material world, we can't be consumed at the same time in love towards God — the longing in our souls for our Father and GOD will die, cumbered with the struggle in the flesh, and paralysis in our obedience towards God's Truth and Will.

May GOD help us to seek Him until our appetite is completely taken over by fervent love towards our Father and GOD and the Kingdom of Christ and ours in Jesus' Mighty name! There is no second race, it is one race for all, don't mishandle yours; run to win.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am John Ojoagbene!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!