WORDS OF LIVING WATER DAILY INSPIRATION (by: Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew)

Monday, 6th October, 2025.
Theme: You can run, but you cannot hide from God
( Jonah 1:1-2:1-2,11 4:5-12,27-29,Ps (Jonah 2), Lk 10:25-37)

Jonah thought he can run away from the call of God. Possibly, he saw the invitation as a huge task with a lot of demands from him. But the more he thought he was running, the more he was moving closer to God. It is God who calls, and it is him who gives the grace for the mission he has entrusted unto us.

Sometimes we also behave like Jonah. The Lord is sending us for a particular mission, but we continuously turn down the invitation. We are giving our own reasons of refusing. Some are a feeling of inadequacy, some because of material possessions, some because of the freedom to do what they want. Someone told me he has been having a strong feeling or desire of doing a particular ministry in the church, but it will take much of his time.

Some people refused God’s invitation for a particular calling, and they had to go through a lot of difficult moments before coming back to that invitation. Some have to experience serious sickness. And in the moments of the sickness, they come to accept this calling. God has a reason of choosing you for that task, so why should you reject it? Are we wiser than God?

These days some people allow the spirit of materialism to lead them in this kingdom business. Some consider the places they have been asked by their superiors to go as poor areas. To go to preach the message of Christ in such areas is seen as a punishment. Some go with hearts full of sadness, some also refuse to go at all. They want to be sent to the cities or rich countries, where they can easily make money and buy expensive cars.

The missionaries who brought Christianity to us left their comfort zones and came to this poor part of the world. Most of them even lost their lives. But today our own brothers and sisters are not ready to serve us. Some teachers and other workers refuse to work in remote areas. In fact, they don’t consider those people in such poor places to be human beings. Meanwhile, people are coming from other countries who take joy in serving these very people. They see it as a calling to serve the people of God in such neglected areas. My area Afram Plains is one those areas suffering from this situation. Even priests, pastors and other ministers of God are not ready to come and work in such area because of the economic hardship. But the truth is that if you respond and you go to such places, you will never regret working in such places. Please, serving people in the various capacities in life is not all about material possessions. It is about finding fulfilment in what you are doing. It is about finding joy in what you are doing. Some workers have found much fulfilment in working in deprived areas than in the cities.

Today, some people have followed money and had travelled outside the country for greener pastures. I tell you, a number of them have regretted from travelling. Some people have stayed in the country and are thousand times better than their colleagues who travelled outside. Some even want to come back, but the means is not there. Please stay in your country and make a better place for the future generations. The place you are forcing yourself to go, it was some people who toiled to make it a better place. In fact, if you care to know, those people never enjoyed what their people are enjoying now. We need to suffer for others to come and enjoy. It is a privilege and a blessing to be part of the success story. Don’t ignore a call to work in a deprived area, because God want to use you to build a success story.

May the Holy Spirit help us not to disregard a call of God to serve his people in any capacity or area. Amen
Have a Blessed Week.
Shalom.🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr.Akakpo Matthew.

Memorial of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary
Tuesday, 7th October, 2025.
Theme: SIT AT THE FEET OF THE LORD ALWAYS
(Jonah 3:1-10, Ps 130, Lk 10:38-42)

My dear friends in Christ, the gospel reading stresses on choices that we make in life. Our life is full of choices with its corresponding consequences. The choice we make will either bring us closer to Christ or send us far from Him. But Jesus invites us to choose the word of God which will lead us to eternal life. Concentrating on other things other than listening to the word of God cannot guarantee our salvation. But unfortunately, this is what you and l are always busying ourselves with. We spend more time with things which do not have any or little bearing on our salvation. We must make the word of God the topmost priority in our lives. We should always love to sit at the feet of the Lord to listen to His counsel.

Jesus in the gospel passage seems to discourage the act of hospitality of Martha to the laziness of Mary. We all know that it is culturally prudent to give good reception to our visitors. This is exactly what Martha was doing and Mary was rather doing the opposite of what culture demands. He should have scolded Mary for not being hospitable. You cannot receive visitors and choose to be chatting with them without serving them. Jesus was not by this trying to frown on the hospitality of Martha, but He only wanted to make a point. The fact that we need to spend quality time with the Lord all the time aside the other activities we carry out. The other activities should be secondary. It is good for her to serve, but the priority should be given to the word of God. Her hospitality should flow from Christ, the Word of God. The other activities are also good for our human survival, but they should be inspired by the word of God. If she carries out these activities and fail to sit at the feet of Jesus for His counsel, then she has missed the point. It is good for her to serve Him, which is not bad in itself. But God first before any other thing.

This is very important in our Christian journey. In the first place, we should know that the activities we carry out can only be sustainable and make impact on people’s life if we are always in touch with God. Because, we draw strength from Him to carry out these activities. Some people also say that their work is their prayer. Meaning the work, they do is the prayer they are offering to God. But the Latin phrase ora et labora ( pray and work ) defeats this notion. You need to be in touch with God in order to be inspired to touch people’s life. The truth is that we become empty if we fail to have that daily communion with the Lord. We become empty vessels if we fail to go back daily to the Lord, who is the source of our strength.

Again, it is important to point out the fact that not all who perform good moral values are in touch with Christ. It is one thing to exhibit good moral values and other thing to be rooted in Christ. There are a lot of people who have vehemently rejected Christ and for that matter God but are morally sound. This is very common in the developed countries. You can meet a number of these atheists who totally reject God but have good moral values. The foundation of these moral values should be Christ. The Christ factor is important.

The focus of our entire life should be on Jesus and things of God. Sometimes some of us are too busy with our work, social activities and other worldly activities to the neglect of religious activities. The time and resources we spend on other things cannot be compared with that of God. We spend little on things of God. Just check the amount of time we spend on social media to the one we spend with God daily. Check the time we spend on funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies to mention a few. How many church programs do we attend apart from Sunday Mass or Sunday church service? Some of us we only step the church premises only on Sunday or when there is funeral. Some of us have turn into funeral contractors but we show little interest in things that will lead us to salvation. Every wedding you will be present but when there is a church activity which will impact on your spiritual life, then you can give thousand and one excuses. Some of us can spend our entire salary on other things but not on things of God. We can sponsor a lot on programs but the same cannot be done in religious related activities. What a misplaced priority?

My dear friends, God wants us to set our priorities right. Are you Martha who busy yourself with a lot of things of this world or Mary who spends quality time with the Lord always? Do you spend time with the Lord daily or you are always busy?

May God who has called us give us the grace to always sit at his feet. Amen
Have a Blessed Day.Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Wednesday, 8th October, 2025.
Theme: Share in the joy of repented People
(Jonah 4:1-11, Ps 86, Lk 11:1-4)

Jonah was expecting the people of Nineveh to perish, because he considered them to be sinful people. Of course, this was a gentile town, and for the Jews, gentiles had no place in the kingdom of God. He was praying that God will destroy them, so that they will perish in their sins. As scripture says, God doesn’t want a sinner to perish but to repent and be saved. He was angry with God for not destroying them. And that was the reason why he refused initially to the call of God to go and preach to the people. My concern is, what was Jonah going to gain from the destruction of Nineveh? And why should he be angry with God because he is merciful?

Beloved, we are not different from Jonah. In fact, some of us are even worst than Jonah. We think that we are the best human beings on this earth, whiles others are the worst of all. Some of us don’t think that some people deserve the mercy and love of God. For us, those people don’t even deserve to be called children of God. In fact, if we had the power, we would destroy them in a second. This was the attitude of the Pharisees and the Scribes. The attitude of self-righteousness; We are holy and others are sinners. Those people don’t even deserve to come to the house of God. Why, are we God? Are we the creator of those people? Do we know how painful it is for God to lose a creature of his to hell fire? Why should we then be looking for the destruction of others?

We should rather be praying for the conversion of those people and be happy when they are converted. Salvation is a collective responsibility. You have a role to play in the salvation of someone. Maybe you need to correct the bad behavior of someone for him to get closer to God. Maybe you need to be praying continuously for the conversion of someone. That might not necessarily be a relative or a close friend. Don’t take pleasure in the public sin of others. Some of us are happy when others are called certain names because of their bad lives. We will never hope that those people should change.

Again, some of us even doubt the conversion of people. We fail to accept the fact that they are new people in Christ. We still see them as prostitutes, thieves, cheats, liars and so on. We should know that when someone is in Christ, he is a new creature, behold the old is gone and the new has come. People can really change and we must accept them when this transformation takes place in their lives. Of course, it is true that some people can fake it, but by their fruits we will know whether there is a change or not.

Everybody has a history, which is about our old self. Some of us behave as if some people can’t truly repent, but our story is not different from this people and possibly even worst than them. People who are known to be harden sinners, when they repent become great instruments of the Lord. No wonder St. Paul has become the greatest missionary ever in the history of Christianity. None of the apostles could even match him in terms of reaching out to people with the word of God. That’s how the spirit of God works. The best we can do for them is to encourage and guide them to mature in their new found faith just as the early Christians did for Paul. We don’t have to despise them. Jesus came because of sinners and not for the righteous. And besides who is perfect at the sight of God?

May God who has called us give us the grace to always help people to turn from their bad ways and discover God. Amen
Have a Blessed Day.Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Thursday, 9th October, 2025.
Theme: Never give up in Prayer
(Malachi 3:13-20, Ps 1, Lk 11:5-13)

After teaching his disciples how to pray, Jesus encourages them to continue to persevere in prayer. You can pray but if you don’t persevere, you may not see results.Whoever perseveres in prayer receives a positive result.

The Syrophoenician woman could have easily giving up after hearing the discouraging statement from Jesus ( Mark 7:24-30). But she never gave up. I know Jesus was testing her faith in Him, and she passed the test. She was not moved by the discouraging words at all. She remained focus and determined until she achieved a positive results.

Continue to wait on the Lord in prayer. Your right moment will come. It is a matter of time and your story will change. Never give up, surely God will answer you at the appointed time.

Someone has given up in his situation. You think that God has abandoned you and the fact that God can’t do it for you again. Please nothing is too late for him to do and nothing is too hard for him to do. In fact, God is never late in any situation. He is always on time.Nothing is impossible for God to do and as I always say what God can’t do doesn’t exist

It doesn’t matter how long you have been waiting on the Lord. You only need to wait on him for his own time. This is the challenge of us Christians, the fact of waiting. The spirit of waiting eludes us most of the time. We fail to wait and as a result, we end up going to other sources for help. Please have the courage to wait on the Lord, whiles you continue to seek his face in prayer. God’s time is always the best. As humans as we are it is not easy to wait, especially when it seems to be delaying. If you should find yourself in such situations you would understand. Please try to sympathize with such people and encourage them. Maybe if you were in their shoes, you wouldn’t have survived.

God would come to your aid and deliver you. Your moment will come. God will shame those who think all is over for you. Just trust him and hope in him. We have a God who never fails, so never give up. Stop crying and be strong because your moment of deliverance is just at the corner. Your God has a track record of doing mighty deeds in our lives. He has never fail and he will never fail you.

May God strengthen us never to give up even in difficult moments. Amen. Have a blessed day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Friday, 13th October, 2023.
Theme: Appreciate the Gifts of Others.
(Joel 1:13-15; 2:1-2, Ps 9, Lk 11:15-26)

The forces of evil are strong to the extent that when you allow yourself, they will control your life. The Pharisees and the Scribes allowed jealousy and envy to control them, hence they never saw anything good about whatever Jesus did. After casting out a mute demoniac, they accused him of using the powers of the prince of demons,Beelzebul. Instead of acknowledging the good works of Jesus, they rather discredited all his efforts .That’s what jealousy can do to humans.

No wonder they fabricated lies and incited the people against Jesus.But the more they did so, the more the people believed in him.Because of his mighty works a great number of the people followed him. This was a cause of worry to the Pharisees. The only option was to discredit him and his message.

Evil triumph in souls full of jealousy and envy. It doesn’t matter whether you are a minister of God or even an angel. Satan and the bad angels were with God in heaven, but when they allowed evil to enter their hearts they became anti- God. We can fast for forty days and nights, but if you don’t allow the spirit of God to take charge of your life, you can still be instrument of Satan. The truth is that most of us in the church have become instruments of Satan and some of us have matured to become diabolic. The fact that you stand at the pulpit to preach or go to church doesn’t mean his spirit dwells in you. We are not better than these Pharisees in terms of religiosity, but still evil thrived in them.

Beloved in Christ, let’s be opened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. I know we are all weak beings, but with the grace of God we can become powerful instruments of God. We should not become brood of vipers in the house of God or in our societies.

Some of us are even worst than these Pharisees. We don’t see anything good in what people do. All the time condemning others except ourselves. Please it is not a good spirit. Repent today from it. No matter how bad someone is , there is a level of goodness in the person. Try to be positive about people and stop always projecting negatives about them. For some of us, we have just refused to see anything good in people. We will always find fault with what others do.

Ask yourself whether your deeds put you on God’s side or on the side of Satan. It is time to repent from jealousy and envy and be delivered from it’s shackles of slavery. Jealousy is a powerful evil force that can destroy you as a Christian. To overcome it the first step is to appreciate people and what they do. You can’t be that other person,but you are also unique in your own way. We have different gifts, what you can do others can’t and vice versa. Then why should you be jealous of others?

There is no sense to be jealous or because the person has acquired something in life that you don’t have. But all fingers are not the same and can never be the same. You are also better than someone just as someone is better than you. It is a fact in life and we must accept it.

May the spirit of God touch us today so that we will not allow ourselves to be controlled by the spirit of jealousy and envy. Amen .
Have a Blessed Day.
Shalom. 🙏🏼🙏🏼
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew

Saturday, 11th October, 2025.
Theme: Jesus came for Everybody
(Joel 3:12-21,Ps 97, Lk 11: 27-28)

The Lord Jesus didn’t come for a particular group of people not even his family. He came for the entire humanity. That’s why in today’s gospel he indicated that ” blessed are those who obey his word and keep it ” but not necessarily his family. The woman thought that Jesus would have favoured his mother and his family more than others. In other words, she expected his family, especially the mother to benefit from him more than others. The only qualification to be part of this universal family is the fact of accepting him as your personal savior. God’s salvation is for all.

Tribalism, nepotism and the other forms of discriminations is not in the dictionary of Jesus. Because you are my family member so I give you more preference than others. This is what is happening in our societies today. We are not looking at merit anymore but relationships. As the boss of the company I will make sure I employ only Ewes, Akans, Frafras, Gas and so forth. When you go to some companies, you would think it is for a particular family. Even if those people qualify, are they the only people who qualify to be there? Why can’t others also be there but only your family members? And you have some so called Christians defending this. Please Ghana is for all of us, so we should open every opportunity to everybody but not to only a favoured group of people.

The same is happening in our churches. Our elections and choosing of certain leaders are done on tribal lines and relationships. But not because the person is qualified to lead the people of God. The same situation is affecting our national politics. We vote for people not because of their good policies or their competence but because of their tribe and their background. There is no way some of us will vote for a particular party. Even if it is an animal that stands for that party, we will vote it. This is not a Christian attitude, so we must stop it. Let’s mature in our Christian lives and choose leaders based on merit and not based on tribal lines. Our churches and the society will continue to be stagnant in growth, if we continue this way of life.

Don’t help people based on tribe or human relationships. That is the character of some of us. If we are to help some people we tend to pay more attention to people coming from our tribe or those we are related with in one way or the other. We should be opened and love everybody irrespective of their background. That’s the attitude of a true Christian. A true Christian doesn’t discriminate, therefore stop the discriminatory attitude and treat everybody equally.

There shouldn’t be anything like special treatment for anybody, because Jesus didn’t have any preference for anybody. He treated everybody equally, no matter your background.

Sometimes some of us behave like the Jews who thought that God was for them alone. Others were not qualified to be called children of God. We also think that some people don’t deserve to even be in the church. We are the only true children of God. Why because maybe we think we are holier than the others. We are living a perfect live, whiles others are very sinful people. We have even taken the place of God in our churches and societies.

May the Holy Spirit help us always not to look down upon people in his house and avoid discrimination. Amen .

Have a Blessed Weekend. Shalom.
Rev. Fr. Akakpo Matthew