Wendy Grages, Author at 1Africa

What Google Maps tell us about God

Wendy Grages

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June 17, 2016

I recently realised that my “Maps” app on my phone had an update. I put in the address of the destination I needed directions to and I was surprised to see that the app appeared to take me the long way around, yet it was the shortest route.

The improvement in the map was that it factored in traffic at the time of my drive and although my usual route would normally be quicker, because of traffic congestion, the longer road would get me to my destination quicker and with much less stress.

That’s when it hit me. Google maps just showed me something so profound about how God works with us. Google maps revealed God to me!

You see many of us are going about our everyday lives, studying, working, raising families, and we have found ourselves settled into a comfortable way of doing life. We know where to go, what to do and what to expect. We have gotten pretty good at steering our own ship and making our own way in life.

But living that way causes us to miss out on the fact that God longs to be actively involved in our everyday lives.

Just like the Google maps app had the ability to see beyond what I could, God has the ability to see far beyond what we can. The Bible says that He knows the beginning and the end of every detail of our lives.

It would have been foolish of me to ignore the suggestions from Google maps and insist on going my own way. I would’ve found myself gridlocked in traffic, frustrated and late for my appointment.

So what can we learn from this?

Check in frequently with God’s instructions (the Bible) to find out which way to go. God promises to use the Bible in our lives to lead us in which way we should go and how we should live our lives.
Trust that He knows best. Many of us stubbornly follow our own way and then we get frustrated with life and end up blaming God for where we find ourselves. Let’s instead trust Him that He knows best, follow His directions in our lives, and live out the good plans He has in store for us.

If you’ve insisted on going your own way and found yourself gridlocked in the worries of life, frustrated and questioning God, you are not alone! Click on the link below or the pop up window to find out how you can surrender to God and begin following His way for your life.

Using porn to ‘spice up your marriage’?

Wendy Grages

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June 14, 2016

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I was paging through a pregnancy article when I came across this line, “Use porn to spice up your marriage.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe what I was reading.

You see, one of the major problems in our society today is that it is saturated with sexual explicitness. Years ago, only dodgy magazines would dare give that kind of advice. Society was generally good and wholesome whether you were a follower of Jesus or not. I’m afraid today, many well-known and reputable magazines and online platforms are talking about pornography and sadomasochism (inflicting pain for sexual enjoyment) as a normal, everyday part of life and relationships.

This pregnancy article I was reading even went on to explain which forms of sadomasochism were safe in pregnancy and which acts should be avoided. I was horrified and shocked beyond belief!

There are so many problems with their casual advice to “use porn to spice up your marriage”, I don’t even know where to start. And just in case you thought this might be something to consider, please allow me to share some facts with you:

1. Watching pornography with your spouse gives you an appetite for someone else: I heard of a lovely young Christian wife who naively agreed to watch porn with her husband to “spice things up” – and what ended up happening? She became bored with her husband and began having an affair.

2. Using pornography can alter your brain chemistry: I am no scientist, but studies have shown that pornography, like many addictive substances, alter the chemicals in your brain, which in turn dictate changes in your behaviour. I read about one husband who could not be intimate with his wife without the use of pornography.

The bottom line is pornography is dangerous and highly addictive. What may start out as curiosity can have devastating effects on your marriage, relationships, and even your job. Get as far away from it as you possibly can.

Good news is that abstinence from pornography or any addictive substance or behaviour not only stops the physical and psychological damage caused, but can also reverse it!

I am coming to realise that pornography is not a struggle confined to men alone. Many women have found themselves caught in its clutches. We need to start shining a light on this dark, looming force that seeks to destroy our minds and hearts.

Freeing yourself from the clutches of pornography may seem impossible, but it’s not! Start by reaching out to God in prayer and then find someone you trust that can lead you closer to God and hold you accountable as you distance yourself from your old habits.

Your future you will thank you!

To know more about a relationship with God that can help you overcome every obstacle in your life, or to get specific help overcoming a porn addiction, click on the pop up banner or link below.

What you need for a miracle

Wendy Grages

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June 10, 2016

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Last week, I talked a little about some of the miracles I had experienced over the past few months.

Have you experienced a miracle in your life? Have you seen God perform one in the life of someone else? I firmly believe that miracles are not just for Bible times but we can see God do miracles in the here and now.

Maybe you’re thinking miracles always happen to someone else. It’s always someone else getting the breakthrough, receiving the healing, or being blessed with finances. Well, I’ve got good news for you! Miracles are not so much about what you don’t have. Almost all miracles start with what you do have.

What do I mean by that? Check this out! Many of the miracles Jesus performed in the Bible didn’t start with what people didn’t have – they almost all started with people giving Jesus what they did have.

So if all you have is any of these three things, I believe you are a perfect candidate for a miracle:

1. When all you have is need: The first miracle Jesus ever performed was turning water into wine at a wedding (you can read about it in John 2). They ran out of wine so Jesus told them to fill big pots with water. All they had was need; all they had was not enough; but they were obedient to give it to Jesus and He did a miracle with what they had.

2. When all you have is inadequacy: Another miracle Jesus performed was when a hungry crowd of over 5 000 people gathered and there wasn’t any way to feed them all (you can read about it in Matthew 14). All they could scrape together was five loaves of bread and two small fish. It was totally inadequate to feed all those people but they gave what they had to Jesus. He blessed it and as He began dividing it up, it kept multiplying so that everyone had enough plus there was baskets of food left over!

3. When all you have is failure: An experienced fisherman had spent all night trying to bring in his catch of fish but caught absolutely nothing. He was despondent and desperate so when Jesus told him to throw out his net one more time, he must have thought Jesus was crazy (you can read about it in Luke 5). But I love what he says in verse 5: “We’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” He was obedient to try one more time and he caught such a large catch of fish that he had to signal for help to reel it all in! He gave Jesus his failure and Jesus was able to turn it into a great success.

What about you? Are you willing to give Jesus your need, your inadequacy, or your failure? If you are, you may just see Him do great miracles in your life. Let me know how you go!

To know more about your own relationship with Jesus, click on the link below or pop up to find out more.

Do followers on social media matter?

Wendy Grages

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June 7, 2016

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“Click here for an instant 1 000 followers on Instagram”. Have you ever seen this posted on social media? Whether it’s Facebook, Twitterm, or Instagram, it seems everyone is obsessed with how to get more followers. Does the amount of followers you have on social media matter?

Check this out! As of March 2016, here are the top five most followed Instagram accounts:

Instagram has 144,125 million followers
Selena Gomez has 69,26 million followers
Taylor Swift has 69,13 million followers
Kim Kardashian has 63,56 million followers
Ariana Grande has 63,08 million followers

Here are some ideas and thoughts floating around cyberland:

Your popularity is measured by how many followers or friends you have on social media.
People with lots of followers are happy and important.
You have to post certain things so that more people will notice you on social media.

What a load of rubbish!

I am sorry, but I know social media has its place and purpose and can be helpful in marketing and networking. But since when did it get to dictate our self-worth to us? Since when does it get to dictate to us what is important and what isn’t? Since when does social media get to tell us what we should post and what we shouldn’t?

I guess the reason I am so fired up about this topic is because I recently took a little break from social media. Why, you might ask? Well, honestly? It was consuming way too much of my time. It was making me self-conscious about what I was posting. I was analysing likes and comments and shares and it was starting to drive me a little crazy. Guess what I discovered when I took a break?

I had a lot more time on my hands.

I was able to read books and magazines.

I found myself actually talking to people instead of staring at my phone.

I felt free, as if an invisible chain had been broken between my hand and my phone. It was quite exhilarating!

Whatever your social media preference is or for whatever reason you use it, that is totally up to you. I am simply sharing some of my views and frustration on the matter. Take a minute to evaluate what you use social media for and how it makes you feel. If you discover it’s having an impact on your self-worth, I pray you can honestly address that and realise that nothing and no-one gets to tell you how important, awesome, or popular you are or aren’t. Nothing has the power to do that, except the power we give it.

Remember, your number of followers does not make you better than anyone else. Hitler had millions, Jesus had 12. How many do they both have now? Just something to think about!

Real self-worth is only found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. To find out more about this for yourself, click on the link below.

Do miracles still happen?

Wendy Grages

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June 2, 2016

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What do you think about miracles? Have you ever seen one? Have you experienced one? If you’ve ever read the Bible, you’ve probably read about some, but that was then right? Can we see miracles today?

I believe that the God who performed miracles in the time of the Bible is the same God I know and serve today. The dictionary defines a miracle as “an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency.”

I’ve actually experienced a few miracles myself and I wish I had time to tell you about them. But for today, I will just share one that happened a few months ago. I was walking towards a cafe and my foot must have slipped because I began to fall and slip epically and embarrassingly, head first into the cafe. It turned out that I had injured my ankle so badly that I couldn’t walk on it.

I was on crutches and two days later, I saw a couple from my church who offered to pray for my ankle. I wasn’t sure what would happen but I thought anything would be better than the pain I was in. They prayed for God to heal my ankle and then asked me to try and walk. Sadly there was no change and I could still not walk. So they offered to pray a second time and when I got up to see if I could walk, the pain had worsened! I was just about to call it quits when they asked to pray one more time. I allowed them to but this time something was different. I felt warmth come over my whole body. When I got up to try and walk, all the pain was gone and I took a step without my crutches. To my amazement, I was able to walk, completely pain free! I put my crutches away and could walk from that minute on. God miraculously healed my ankle and I am so grateful!

Okay, maybe I have time for one more! A few weeks back, a girl that I knew asked me to pray for her wrist as she was in a lot of pain. She’s a dancer and she could hardly use her wrist due to a past injury. I put her wrist in my hand and began to pray and ask God to heal her wrist. As I was praying, I felt her bones move underneath my fingers. To be honest, it freaked me out a little!

A week after we prayed, she came running up to me to say that her wrist was completely fine – all pain had gone and she had full use of it again. Incredible!

I shared these stories with you just to get you thinking about miracles and how they might fit into your life.

I hope to unpack this topic over the next couple of weeks so stay tuned!

If you would like to know about this miracle working God, click on the pop or link below.

Are you working too hard? (Pt 2)

Wendy Grages

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May 31, 2016

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Last week we had a look at three tell-tale signs that you are working too hard.

While being hard-working is a great character trait, working too hard can have a detrimental effect on your health. For instance, people who work more than 10 hours a day are at risk of developing diabetes, depression, insomnia, and high blood pressure, just to name a few!

So if you realised you are working too hard, what can you do about it?

1. Have a look at your time-management

Sometimes we have too much on our plate, but most of the time I think it comes down to more of a time-management issue. If you are not getting through all your work in your allotted working hours, perhaps it’s worthwhile looking into how well you manage your time. Start by writing down what you do in each hour of each day. This will help you to see what is stealing your time. Checking emails every five minutes? Try instead to check them in the morning and afternoon only. Prioritise what needs to be done now, what needs to be done by the end of the day, and what can be done tomorrow.

2. Make delegation your friend

We often feel like we have to get the job done at any cost and you may feel that because your boss has asked you to do it, that only you can do it. That may not be the case. Your boss may have given it to you because you are trustworthy and they are confident you will do it right, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to do the whole thing yourself. Perhaps you could enlist the help of another employee? Show them the ropes and then check in with them. Make sure you are satisfied before presenting it to your boss and who knows, you might just impress them with your ability to work with others and raise up people in your organisation.

3. Don’t be afraid to have an honest conversation

If your time-management is on point and you have tried delegating and you still feel like you are drowning in your workload, don’t be afraid to have an honest conversation with your boss. They may have no idea how you are feeling and they would much rather shift some things around than have you burn out. Come ready with a couple of solutions though – nobody likes a whiner!

When I feel overwhelmed and don’t know which way to go, I am grateful that I take these things to God in prayer. If you would like to know more about how you can have your own relationship with Him, click on the link below or on the pop up, we would love to chat to your more.

The free gift that will cost you everything

Wendy Grages

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May 26, 2016

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The free gift that will cost you everything

Salvation is free, but discipleship is costly. Have you ever stopped to think about that statement? It’s pretty sobering if you take a minute to ponder what it means. The gift of salvation is free but following Jesus will cost you everything.

Stay with me now. Before you click away because you think this blog is too harsh, give me a few minutes to reason this out with you. Deal?

The Bible says in John 3:16, “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted.”

Salvation means being acquitted of all the wrong we have done: How good is that? God freely gave His Son to pay the price for all our wrongdoing so that we can have a whole and lasting life. Great news, huh? That’s what we call salvation. And that is totally free, available to everyone and anyone, regardless of what we’ve done, where we’ve been, or where we come from.

Following Jesus will cost you everything: Devoting your life to believing in and following after Jesus is called discipleship. And that my friend, is costly. Why? Because following Jesus is counter-culture. He said in Matthew 10:39, “If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.” So what does that mean? Following Jesus is all about surrender. It’s all about giving up your right to be right, your right to be offended, your right to hold a grudge, and instead, give it all to Him so that you can find the best and most fulfilling way to live – His Way.

I know this is not the most popular truth to be sharing but it is truth nonetheless. I love what Jesus said in that verse and I have found it to be so true in my own life.

The more I have tried to control everything and live life my own way, the more miserable and empty I became. The more I surrendered my way for His way, the more whole and meaningful my life became.

So what about you? Have you accepted the free gift of salvation? Are you ready to pay the price of surrender to follow Jesus and do things His way?

Are you working too hard?

Wendy Grages

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May 24, 2016

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We can all agree that being hardworking is a good thing. But how do you know the difference between being hardworking and working too hard?

Here are a few thoughts: Being hardworking is more about your attitude than it is about your performance. Being hardworking means that you are not looking for a way out of doing things, you don’t just do the minimum required, and you’re not lazy. Not being afraid to work hard is how great families and societies are built.

But are you working too hard? How can you tell?

1. You are consistently skipping your lunch break: We all have times we eat at our desk, or eat during a meeting, but if you find yourself never able to take a lunch break, you may be working too hard.

2. Work consumes your nights and weekends: Sure, we all have seasons in our jobs where going the extra mile is required and late nights here and there are what it takes to get the job done. But if you can’t remember when last you went home at a normal time or had a weekend to relax, you may be working too hard.

3. Your sleep is interrupted by work worries: This happens to many of us from time to time but if you find that you often lie awake at night anxious about your job, you may be working too hard.

Our jobs are a blessing and we should be hardworking people who give our best, but at the same time, we do need to monitor our workload so that we don’t end up burning out.

Our jobs are something we do – they are not who we are. As much as we need to be good stewards of the jobs God has given to us, we also need to be good stewards of our mental and physical well-being.

If you find that you are working too hard, check back next week for the second part of this post where we will look at practical things you can do about it.

God is the giver of all good things because He loves us. If you feel overwhelmed with anxiety and stress, you are not alone. Click on the link below or on the pop up for some more info on how you can connect with God.

When God isn’t good

Wendy Grages

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May 19, 2016

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Has it ever crossed your mind that God isn’t good? I mean people say “God is good, all the time, and all the time, God is good,” but what happens when your circumstances scream the opposite of that?

What do you do when your situation tells you that God isn’t good? How do you deal with that?

So many times, we see God through the lens of our situation. If everything is going good, then God is good. If things aren’t good, then God isn’t good. This is a mistake that so many of us make and it can leave us feeling disillusioned with life and with God. I have decided to look at things differently.

Instead of looking at God and judging Him based on our circumstances, we must look at our circumstances through the lens of God’s goodness.

What does this mean?

1. God is good, even when things around me are not: This is a difficult concept to grasp, especially when we are programmed and used to thinking the opposite way about this. If we look at life through the lens that God is good, then we can make it through bad times, trusting that in the end, God will make it good.

2. God is good at His job: So many times we try to tell God how we think He should be doing things. It’s laughable, but I’ve done it… have you? God is good at being God, He’s been God for a long time, long before we ever came on the scene. He’s got a plan and a way through for us, if we will just ask Him and trust Him. He’s not panicking and trying to figure out a “Plan B”. He knows everything. He knows how something will turn out before it even begins. If we can just relax, trust that He knows what He is doing and trust that His plans for us are good, we will come through the other side and be able to confidently say with the writer of Psalms:

“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”

So the next time everything is falling to pieces and going wrong, remind yourself to not look at God through the lens of your circumstances, but look at your circumstance through the lens of God’s goodness.

How to make your money go further

Wendy Grages

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May 17, 2016

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Do you ever wish you could make your money go further? We all know those mid-month blues, where the fridge is looking lonely and the figures in the bank account are getting smaller and smaller. Have you ever stood in your kitchen and asked, “How are we going to make it until payday?”

I think this is a reality for many people, especially those with children in the home. There never fails to be something they need for school that you didn’t budget for. Or an unexpected trip to the hospital; a car breaking down; or a pet needing to see a vet. These types of things seem to creep up at the most inopportune times and can leave you feeling stressed and anxious about how you’ll get through the rest of the month.

So what’s the answer? I’m writing this post because I’ve found myself in this very place far too often. I hope some of what I’ve learned can help you to stress less and make your money go further.

1. You decide when you go to the shops: Nothing will deplete your money quicker than impulsive trips to the shops to “pick up a few things”. Decide to make only one trip to the shop per week and make sure you take a shopping list with you and stick to it.

2. Make what you have: We’ve all seen these great recipes on social media and realise we could make it if we just had a few more ingredients. When money is tight, we knuckle down and make meals only with the ingredients we have on hand. You’ll be surprised how many meals you can make with what you have in the cupboards. At the beginning of the next month, draw up a meal plan and make sure you have those ingredients at home.

3. Use the envelope system: I need to get better at doing this one but it’s honestly where I’ve seen the most results in making my money go further. Financial guru Dave Ramsey has a lot to say about this revolutionary way of handling your finances. The idea is that once your bills are paid, you decide how much of what’s left over is for petrol, groceries, eating out, and more. You then withdraw that cash and place it in an envelope labeled “groceries” or whatever expense it needs to cover. That way, you only spend what you have in the envelope and you can see as you go how much money you have left.

Swiping your debit card, although convenient, makes it very difficult to track and curb your spending. Try these ideas out next time you’re in a pinch and I hope you’ll find your money goes further!

When life gets overwhelming and stressful, I am so grateful that I can turn to God in prayer for help and answers. Can you do that? If you’d like to know more about having a personal relationship with God for yourself, please click on the pop up or link below.

Wendy Grages

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