Today’s Scripture
“…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…”
(Hebrews 12:1–2, NKJV)
Run Your Own Race
It’s easy to be tempted to go through life competing with everyone around us. When we see someone who’s more talented, better looking or has more gifts, instead of running our race and being comfortable with who we are, oftentimes, we feel inferior and think, “I’ve got to catch up to them.” The problem with this unhealthy competition is that it’s a never-ending cycle. There will always be someone ahead of us. But it’s very freeing when you realize, “I’m not competing with you. I don’t have to have as big a house as my neighbor to feel good about myself. I don’t have to keep up with my co-worker. I don’t have to be a certain size. No, I understand that I’m not in competition with my friend, my neighbor or my co-worker. Instead, I’m going to be the best me that I can possibly be.”
When you focus on being who God made you to be, that’s when you’ll rise up higher and position yourself for every spiritual blessing He has in store for you!
A Prayer for Today
“Father, I humbly come to You giving You all that I am. I choose to keep my eyes on You and allow You to work in my heart and mind. I declare that I am free from competition today in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
Amen
The Village Gods of South India (London, 1921) by H. Whitehead
Ancient Greek mankind, trying to explain certain metaphysical phenomena and anxieties, invented amazing myths concerning the Cosmogony (the creation of the World) and the Theogony (the birth of the Gods).
“What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics.”
? Nikola Tesla
Haitian Voodoo is a syncretic mixture of Roman Catholic rituals developed during the French colonial period, based on traditional African beliefs, with roots in Dahomey, Yoruba, and Kongo traditions, and folkloric influence from the indigenous Taino peoples of Haiti. The Loa, or spirits with whom Vodouisants work and practice, are not gods but servants of the Supreme Creator Bondye (pronounced Bon Dieu). In keeping with the French-Catholic influence of the faith, voodoosaints are for the most part monotheists, believing that the Loa are great and powerful forces in the world with whom humans interact and vice versa, resulting in a symbiotic relationship intended to bring both humans and the Loa back to Bondye.
In some traditional African religions, morality is associated with obedience or disobedience to God regarding the way a person or a community lives. For the Kikuyu, according to their primary supreme creator, Ngai, acting through the lesser deities, is believed to speak to and be capable of guiding the virtuous person as one’s conscience. Traditionally, as now, the Kikuyu were monotheists, believing in a unique and omnipotent God whom they called Ngai. The word, is related to the Maasai word Enkai, and was borrowed by both the Kikuyu and Kamba. God is also known as Mungu, Murungu, or Mulungu (a variant of a word meaning God which is found as far south as the Zambesi of Zambia), and is sometimes given the title Mwathani or Mwathi (the greatest ruler), which comes from the word gwatha,…