John chapter 15 captures one of Jesus’s intimate moments with his disciples, as he took them through what it meant to be truly connected to him. He used the life of a vine to emphasise his relationship with the Father and us. In conclusion, he told them that: “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11 GNT. In essence, Jesus was saying that a good relationship with the Father will yield joyfulness. The Father is joy, and He wants us to be joyful.

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For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT)

What do you do when it feels like the blessings are beyond you and the calling on your life is too much for you to handle? You feel the assignment is just too overwhelming to even start and you seem constantly in over your head? God says “Yes, that is exactly my plan for you”. TD Jakes once said, “If the vision you have for yourself is enough for you to handle by yourself, then you should be worried because it is too small”. When God gives you a vision, it has to be too big for you to manage on your own. The path to the fulfilment of the vision or prophetic word God gives you is a complicated one. This is because God usually gives us snippets of the story of our life; He doesn’t give us the whole picture as it will be too big for us to comprehend.

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About a year ago, I went to my usual parkrun one Saturday morning as part of my plan to maintain my fitness. During the morning brief at the parkrun, it was announced that part of the route had to be changed due to the park being used for another event. You can imagine what went through my mind when I heard that; I became nervous! The new running route was a bit more uphill than the original route and looking at it from a distance, it seemed very challenging. Also as I was not familiar with the new route I had to follow other people around so I don’t get lost which meant that I had to run at their pace. I was good up to a point during the first lap of the run when I begun to feel tiredness kick in. At that moment, I felt the Lord begun to speak to me about “running the race”. It was a powerful moment for me and I was encouraged to finish the race and not quit, though it was challenging.

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