WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION. BY: REV. FR. AKAKPO MATTHEW.

The Feast of the Archangels, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael
Monday, 29th September, 2025.
Theme: Be an angel in the lives of People
(Rev. 12:7-12,Ps 138, Jn 1:47-51)

The archangels are simply the leaders or the chief angels in their respective roles or assignments. Michael is noted for his protection of the people of God, hence a warrior(Rev. 12:7, Dan 10:13,12:1). Therefore, Michael is the chief angel of the warrior-angels. Gabriel is the messenger of good news(Lk 1:11-38), hence he is the chief angel for the messenger-angels. Raphael is the healer(Tobit 12:15), hence he is the chief angel for the healer-angels.

Angels are basically messengers of God. God uses them to accomplish his mission in our lives. Hence we need to employ these angels according to their respective roles in our lives. If you want a spiritual battle then you invoke Michael and his warriors to take charge of that. They are those who do all our spiritual battles on our behalf. Of course, they can’t do this without the Lion of Judah, Jesus Christ himself. If it is about Gabriel, then he and his team always deliver good news to us. Hence we invoke them when we expect good news from God. Raphael leads his team of healers. God and for that matter Jesus uses them to heal us. Invoke them in moments when we need healing from God. But this doesn’t take the central role that Jesus plays in our lives. We are not taking the roles of the angels to replace that of Christ. They only give assistant to accomplish these missions in our lives.

But more to the point we have to also avail ourselves for God to accomplish his mission in the lives of people. The angels are always at the service of God. God wants to use you to accomplish a particular purpose in the life of someone. And mostly he does this through the gifts he has endowed in us. Someone is in a serious trouble and God wants to use you to help that person. That help may be financial, pieces of advice, material needs, using your position to salvage a situation and so forth. May be someone needs your prayer of intercessions for a breakthrough. Someone only needs words of encouragement not to give up in life.We are the messengers that God uses to help others. To accomplish these tasks then we need to be in tune with the Holy Spirit. It is the promptings of the Holy Spirit which can make us angels in the lives of people.

Someone needs an angel in his/her life today. Be that angle of God in his or her life.

May Jesus touch us today so that we can be the angels in the lives of people . Amen .
Have a Blessed Week.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Memorial of St. Jerome
Tuesday, 30th September, 2025.
Theme: Learn to be Tolerant
(Zechariah 8:20-23, Ps 87,Lk 9:51-56)

John and James couldn’t understand why the Samaritans would prevent their master from using their villages as a route to Jerusalem. This posture of the Samaritans has a long history between them and the Jews. In fact, the Jews and the Samaritans weren’t in good terms. This attitude of the Samaritans annoyed the apostles to the extent that, they wanted to call fire from heaven to destroy them. But Jesus made it clear to them that they need to be tolerant. They should let them be and find other alternatives for the sake of peace.

Beloved, we can’t get everyone to agree with us all the time. Not everybody would like what you like, and do what you do. That makes us very unique among the creatures of God. We are different, therefore we do things differently. Sometimes it is good for people to challenge you. Such moments help us to take informed-decisions. The situation of only expecting praises all the time is not helpful. Successful people had to experience a lot of challenges and oppositions.

The fact that someone disagree or challenges you doesn’t make the person your enemy. Unfortunately, this is the situation in our churches, work places, and the society at large. Anybody who doesn’t agree with me is my enemy. That person doesn’t want my progress. This is not a Christian attitude. Sometimes after a deeper reflection on the position of the other person or people, you would see the sense in their submission.

A number of leaders are in this category of people. Any of their subjects who disagree with them becomes their enemy. They would hate such a person and would never appreciate anything from them. They always want people who will sing their praises even if they are wrong. Such people will not help you to grow as a person and as a leader. As human as we are, sometimes we can make mistakes and these need to be pointed out to us. Welcome criticisms in good faith.

The criticisms should also be done objectively and not destructively. Some of us are not objective about people. We would never see anything good about those people. Even when we need to praise to encourage them, we would condemn. Such an attitude is not Christian and we must desist from it. There is a saying that ” You don’t need to be a friend to praise, and you don’t need to be an enemy to criticize “. If it is good say it, and if it is bad say it. That makes you an objective person.

May the Holy Spirit give us the grace to always accept people who may not be on our side as we want. Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Memorial of St. Therese of the Child Jesus
Wednesday, 1st October, 2025.
Theme: Be committed in Following Jesus
(Nehemiah 2:1-8, Ps 137,Lk 9:57-62)

Some people declared their intentions to follow Jesus, whiles Jesus himself also invited some to follow him. But in all, they had reasons to delay the intention of following him. Each gave various excuses of delaying the fact of following him.

We are not different from these people. Some of us love to follow Jesus, but worldly attachments is not permitting us to do so. For some of us, it is Jesus himself who is calling us daily in following him. But our hearts and minds are so centered on worldly things to the point that we always ignore this invitation. You have a strong desire to do the work of God, but your work always become an excuse. Meanwhile, you were always before God when you were jobless. Today, this same work is preventing you from dedicating yourself for God. Think about it!

Some of us can spend all our time for funerals, weddings, out dooring, and what have you. But we find it difficult to find time and attend church programs. We will find all the excuses not to go for such activities. But these worldly attachments can never win us our salvation. Let’s remember our creator when we have breath. You don’t know when you will die, hence be prepared and work for the Lord at all times.

For some of us we can spend all our money for other things, but not for God related things. Forgetting that it is God who has blessed us with such material possessions. But it pains us to serve him with these same gifts given to us. If you are not careful, you would lose what he has given to you. In fact, if I were God, all those who are refusing to serve me with what I have given them, I would have taken it from them.

We need to serve God with all our soul, mind, heart and strength. We can’t be lukewarm in following Jesus. You are either for him or not. Seek the kingdom of God and it’s righteousness, and the rest shall be added (Matt 6:33). We shouldn’t also spend all our time in church without working. Expecting a miracle from God. It doesn’t work like that with God. There must be a balance between worshipping God and our worldly activities.

May the Holy Spirit give us the grace to always follow Jesus with our whole being . Amen.
Have a blessed day.
Shalom 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Memorial of the Guardian Angels
Thursday, 2nd October, 2025.
Theme: Be a Servant Leader
(Nehemiah 8:1-12,Ps 19, Matt 18:1-5,10)

Beloved in Christ, leadership is all about service. In the gospel of Mark and Luke, this text comes immediately after Jesus told his disciples about the fact of his death and resurrection. The twelve began to argue among themselves who will be their next leader. But they were not looking at how this new leader will be a servant to all but rather how this person will be considered the greatest among them. So it was not about serving but rather greatness. Jesus used the symbol of a child to teach them about his type of leadership. A symbol of humility, service and sacrifice .

Jesus said that he came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a random for many. Leadership is all about sacrifice. A good leader lays down his life for his subjects no matter the difficulties that he has to face. The difference between a Christian leader and a worldly one is that, the worldly leader lords it over their subjects, but the Christian one serves them in humility. They want to be worshipped like gods. We want the people to rather serve us always.

I have encountered some bishops who will rather prefer to serve you at table when you visit them. In fact, they are down to earth and very humble. A servant leader is always humble. It takes humility to serve people under you.

A servant leader also comes to the level of the subjects but do not see himself to be above them . You identify yourself with them. It is only by doing this that you can smell of your sheep. This is very unique of children. They relate with everybody, irrespective of your status or background in society. Children can really teach us a lot about leadership qualities. Learn from them if you want to become a true leader of your people.

Today we remember our guardian angels. These are angels that God has assigned to each person for protection. Each person has a guardian angel. They guide and direct us in this life, and protect us against forces of darkness and all human negative tendencies. They truly exist and I want you to invoke their intercessions always.

May God make us servant leaders as we learn to imitate his Son Jesus Christ. Amen. Have a blessed month.
Shalom🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Friday, 3rd October, 2025.
Theme:Repent and be opened to the Word of God
( Baruch 1:15-21,Ps 79, Lk 10:13-16)

The people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum did not accept and appreciate the message of Jesus. Scholars indicate that Jesus spent about 50-70% of his ministry time preaching in these areas. But they didn’t pay attention to his message. Surprisedly, these were Jewish towns. So Jesus expected his own people to receive his message. Tyre and Sidon which were gentile towns rather welcomed his message with joy. Chorazin and the other Jewish towns can be compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, who refused to repent from their sins. Hence they perished. Chorazin and the other Jewish towns had the opportunity to receive the message of Christ more than Tyre and Sidon, but they didn’t make use of these opportunities.

Beloved in Christ, the word of God call on us to be docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Jesus is pointing out the fact that some of us are blinded and deaf to his word. Sin has blinded us, so we are not able to live according to the demands of the gospel message. Until we repent and always listen to his words and put it into practice, we shall perish in hell.

We are not different from these people. Our society have become full of vices without any fear of God. Our consciences are dead to these sinful acts. We don’t call them sin anymore but mistakes . Sin has become something normal to all of us. Something which we felt shy to do, now it is easily done without any shame or shyness.
If we don’t repent, my brother or sister, we shall also perish like them. The message of repentance is preached to us everyday, but we turn deaf ear to it. Time is not there for us. You don’t know when the Lord will call you, therefore prepare at all time.

We worship God with our lips, but our hearts are far away from God. We have only become *lip-service Christians.* Some of us have hardened our heart to the extent that, we don't seem to hear any message of caution. We are so comfortable in our sinful acts.This posture was not different from that of the Pharisees, the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, who refused to accept the message of salvation brought by Jesus.

 Brethren in Christ, life they say is so short, hence the need to make amends and repent now. We have only the now but not the future. Because anything can happen at any point in time. Don't be like the rich man who was looking for second chance after his death(Lk 16:19-21). *Like I know they say is always at last* . Ask yourself whether the life you are living when you die right now, you can be with God in heaven. Don't deceive yourself that there is no hell. Heaven and hell are real. Therefore, repent now and be saved. 

The word of God always has a new message for us and we have the opportunity to listen to it everyday and every moment. In fact, the word of God has been brought so close to us than ever. So you have no excuse to give to God when you face your judgement.But because we have become so familiar with his word, we fail to accept and live it.” Oh that today when you listen to his voice, harden not your hearts” Ps 95:7b-8a

May we allow the word of God to transform our lives always. Amen
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew.

WORDS OF LIVING WATERS DAILY INSPIRATION
Memorial of St Francis Of Assisi
Saturday, 4th October, 2025.
Theme: A sinful life is full of calamities
( Baruch 4:5-12,27-29,Ps 69, Lk 10:17-24)

The prophet Baruch gave a deeper reflection on the circumstances that led the people into exile, and the domination of the Israelites by foreign powers. He asserted that, the people experienced these confusions and unpleasant situations in their lives because they disobeyed God. The Israelites were lamenting of the fact that God had abandoned them in the hands of their enemies. But they forgot that it was as a result of their own sins. They refused to keep to their part of the covenant, resulting in these calamities. It is observed that things were going on well with them when they obeyed God, but sorrow and calamities befell them when they disobeyed.

Sin brings sorrow, pain and unpleasant situations upon our lives. Sometimes we experience what we are experiencing because of a sinful life that we find ourselves. Sin has its own negative consequences on our lives on this earth. When we choose to follow God, we experience his goodness but sin brings the opposite upon us. Check yourself, possibly there is something you are not doing right. When we live in a life of sin, we dissociate ourselves from God. Sin separates us from God. Hence we don’t give him the chance to control our lives again. In other words, we tell God to excuse us so that we can manage our own lives. When God leaves the scene, then Satan has the power to take charge and destroy us. It isn’t the fault of God but our own. Let’s take responsibility of our own actions.

The sins of others can have effects on their generations. This can lead to what we call generational curses or ancestral curses. The sins of Adam and Eve had effect on the whole human race. The sin of Gehazi, Elisha’s servant had effect on his descendants ( 2 Kings 5:27). I can go on with a lot of examples in the bible. This is to prove to those of us who don’t believe in the effects of one’s sins on his or her generation. Hence we have to be careful of what we do, because we can bring much sufferings upon our generations.

But it is not all the time that, evil happenings in our lives are as a result of sin. This was the major theology of the Israelites. This is what in scripture we call divine retribution. The fact that evil happens to us because of our sins. For the Israelites, you suffer because you have sinned. God used the situation of Job to teach them about another concept of life. The fact that a good person can also suffer. God sometimes allow evil to befall us to teach us a lot about life. These are mostly matters of faith, like in the case of Job. These moments help us to mature in our faith. Hence we need to be positive about them but not being negative all the time. Negativity about such situations can blind us from seeing the good things they present to us.

May the Holy Spirit help us to avoid sin and strive for holiness always. Amen
Have a Blessed Weekend.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew.