Love yourself

Lev. 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of yourpeople, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD. NIV 

Most people think that anyone who loves himself is selfish. But this is not always true. God gave us the standard for loving our neighbour. We must love our neighbour as we love ourselves. We might say that loving ourselves sounds selfish, but we can love ourselves in a way that will not be selfish. Until we learn to love ourselves the right way, we cannot love others well. We give what, to us, is very good and pleasant. If our standard of good for ourselves is low, we will not offer more than that without grumbling.

Whitney Houston in one of her very popular songs, “The Greatest Love of All” said, “Learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all.” Those who treat themselves badly find it hard to treat others kindly.

We must understand that if there is any special treatment we must give, the first person to receive such is treatment is us. Even in sacrificing ourselves, the worth of the sacrifice is related to how much we value ourselves. God wants the best, and the best should be of great value. The sacrifice Christ made of Himself is of high value because He loves himself, He, being the firstborn of God, and loved by God.

As we through life, we must have it on our minds that we deserve the best; and if no one will grant us the best, we must do so ourselves.

It starts from the mind

Romans 12: 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. NIV

The mind is one part of the human system that controls the rest of the person. Whatever we achieve, in the true sense of achievement, starts from our minds. And if we fail in anything, we must know that that failure started in our minds. That is why we must take control of our minds.

Whatever your mind says is possible, you can achieve it if you don’t give on the way. You may encounter difficulties but you will find solutions to the problems that come up. 

If you want to change something around you, change it in your mind. We do things that our minds tell us are good. If you change your perception about anything, you will start reacting to that thing differently. This happens to us most of the time unconsciously. For example, we refuse to eat certain foods we liked in the past when we hear about how dangerous that food could be to our health.

We can take control of our mind by consciously telling ourselves what we want to do. If you have a tough task to perform, tell yourself it is easy. Your mind will find easy ways of accomplishing the task. But if you continue thinking about how difficult it is, you will never achieve anything.

Take control of your mind and you will succeed.

Honesty: Your Best Policy

Mat 5:37 But let your word be, Yes, yes; No, no. For whatever is more than these comes from evil. NKJV

It is easier these days to tell a lie than say the truth. The consequences of saying the truth are more pleasant and therefore more desirable than speaking the truth. Sometimes you must resist pressure from colleagues in order to say the truth. But the consequences of not being frank are long lasting, even though they are negative.

If you say ‘YES’ today, instead of ‘NO’, you must be ready to keep saying ‘YES’ when that particular question comes up. The day you say ‘NO’, you should be ready to provide explanations which make you unreliable. Once you obtain that attribute of unreliability, even those who encouraged you to lie will doubt you the next time you speak.

The world is looking for honest people to do business with. It is better to say NO and be free than to say you will do something and fail when you know you can’t do it. It is better to refuse a job with tight deadline than to take it and disappointed the client.

Let your yes be YES, and those who hate you today will praise you years later for being honest. But if you try to be nice, those you are trying to please today will be the first to condemn you.

Let your yes be a big YES, and when you must say no, fear not. Let your no be NO.

Your Weekly Inspiration: Don’t be too gullible

Your Weekly Inspiration: Don’t be too gullible: Judges 6:39 And Gideon said to God, Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once. I pray You, let me test but this ...

Don’t be too gullible

Judges 6:39 And Gideon said to God, Let not Your anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once. I pray You, let me test but this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew. NKJV

In normal ‘faith talk’ we must believe whatever we hear and not doubt. This in most cases is taken to me swallowing hook line and sinker without question what you are told. Well, sometimes that is what takes the fish to the grill or to the frying pan. There are times, and most of the time you have to question what you hear.

For the today’s Christian, Gideon stands to be strongly condemned for demanding proof from God; not once, but twice. How come a man questions God in a face to face encounter about what God wants him to do? The answer is he wants to be sure before he moves.

There is so much deceit in the world and a lot of people playing either holy or expert. Many people have fallen victim because they take whatever they hear at face value and are cheated and duped.  This realisation comes only in the last moment.

That is why we must ask questions before accepting whatever we are being offered. If something is too good to be true, then know that you must believe it only after opening it up. Questions are what open such boxes. The juiciest baits hide the most vicious hooks.

If Gideon could test God in order to be sure, then there is no mistake if you question any human beings idea, offer or proposal. The fish that jumps at the bait end up being a game.

If You Believe, You Can Fly

Isaiah 7:9b  If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. NIV

Whenever you decide to do something new, you will come against a lot of resistance, from people and situations. Discouragement is one thing that prevents us from taking the first step into innovation or revolution. The people around us, and even we ourselves will come out with so many reasons why our plan or project will fail. Much of the reason we find are realistic and rational. However, those who have succeeded in changing systems and replacing old institutions with new ones did not achieve such feats based simply on rationality.

Faith plays a strong role in ground breaking success. Faith is that strong urge to take a step into uncertainty, disbelieving what is rationally obvious and trusting what is rationally a risk. One of the greatest sayings about faith (I believe) is from Archbishop Desmond Tutu: “Faith is a risk, but one I can’t risk living without.” If you fear risk, you can live at all. The only way we overcome the fear of risk is to stand firm in our faith.

Instead of brooding over the ninety-nine reasons why your project will fail, hold on to the one good reason that tells you it will succeed. Just like a drowning man will hang on to a little piece of wood with the hope of being washed ashore with it, believe that you will certainly make it. 

Had James Woodward believed with the rest of the world that electric bulbs were impossible at his time, our nights will have been darker than it is today. Had Bill Gates believed that computers could be made easy to use by clicking icons instead of learning difficult command languages, you will not be reading this post today.

Stand firm in your faith, take the first step and you will change uncertainty to certainty.

Persistence: The Key to Your Success

Exo 17:11 – 12 And it happened when Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed. And when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses' hands became heavy. And they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. And his hands were steady until the going of the sun.

Success is a battle you cannot you cannot afford to lose. Even in moments when it seems you are losing you must persist. In the text above, the Israelites won the battle due to the persistence of one man – Moses. He chose not to give up even when his was worn out.

Persist in your struggle to succeed so long as you know that you are fighting the right battle. In moments when you realize you can fight alone don’t hesitate to call for support. Moses had help from Aaron and Hur and his hand remained up till the end.

Until you see the result you want, let your hands be up. Never let your hand down.

Provocation Must Bring the Best out of you

1Samuel 1:6 – 7.  And her foe also provoked her grievously, in order to make her tremble, because Jehovah had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of Jehovah, so she provoked her. And she wept and did not eat. NKJV

It is easy to lose control and break down when you are provoked as happened in the life of Hannah. That is the reason for all provocations. It is intended to make you focus on the worse side of yourself. Provocation points to your failures and tries to define you by them.

But surely, you are not defined by your failures unless you choose to. You can change provocation to motivation. This is because failure is not final. Failure only shows you how not to succeed. Once that lesson is learnt, you can move on to find the way to achieve your aim.

The provoker is happy when you break down and cry. His aim is achieved. But when you ignore the taunts and focus on achieving your aim, the provoker is defeated. Hannah was provoked for years by her rival until she decided to seek the right solution in the temple. That day was the beginning of the end her barrenness. When you are provoked, take it as a challenge. 

A young man who once worked as a cleaner in a university told a story about how he was insulted by a university student because this young man was a school dropout. This young man took the insult calmly. He enrolled in remedial school and now has university degree. He said that insult motivated him to seek education.

Thank God for those who provoke you. They are those who encourage you the most.

YOU CAN STILL MAKE IT

Take Authority

Luke 10: 19. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

Every one of us has authority. We must make use of our authority in order to bring change in our work environment, our homes, our communities and society. When we refuse to take authority, snakes and scorpions take over and cause havoc and destruction.

Snakes and scorpions are those individuals and situations that creep in without permission, hide and bite. Such bites are deadly. The only way you can prevent them from causing harm is when you take your authority and begin stamping it. Yes you must stamp your authority.

Don’t say you don’t have any authority because you have. Supposing you are the gateman who must open the door for those who want to enter, you must know that you have the authority to open or close that door. No one can enter or come in unless you open that door. Stamp that authority. Wherever you find yourself, you have some legal authority.

You have moral authority. When it comes to what is wrong and what is right, it doesn’t matter whether you are the boss or not. Stand for what is right. Reject what is wrong. Whenever you have the opportunity to choose between right and wrong, stamp your moral authority and choose right.

You have spiritual authority that goes beyond the physical. Whatever happens in the spirit affects the physical. Take and stamp your spiritual authority. Pray about the situation that is beyond your physical or moral control.

The snakes cannot harm you if you take authority. You can make a difference.

Opposition: Another thing you don’t want to meet on the road to success

Gen 26:21  And they dug another well, and they strove for that also. And he called the name of it Opposition. MKJV

In the previous post we talked about disputes as one of the things we must deal with when moving towards success. It is easier handling disputes when compared to opposition. Disputes are like floods you wade through; opposition is like a wall. Once you hit that wall there are only three things you can do: take a U-turn which means giving up, change course to see if you can get past the wall, or break through the wall advance.

Isaac moved from the well known as disputes only to meet with opposition after digging another well. That is what happens in our quest for success. There are some people who will oppose us for various reasons.

Don’t be surprise that people oppose you because you are about to succeed. Your success is someone’s defeat. No matter what, life is a competition. Someone must be first to reach the finish line. Some people will always want to pull others back thinking that will give them the opportunity to succeed.

Others oppose out of envy. Your success exposes someone else’s slothfulness and they will oppose you just to preserve their integrity. 

Now no matter how the opposition is, no matter how thick the wall, you must find a way of moving on. You might decide to change direction, move along the wall until you find a way past it. No matter how long the wall of opposition, it has an end. But changing direction calls for a lot of patience.

You might decide to break through the wall. In this case you need to be strong and resolute. You need strong faith. No wall of opposition can resist the power of faith.

But there is one option you must not choose if you want to succeed: going back. You are destined to succeed. NEVER GIVE UP.

Things You Don’t Want to Meet on the Road of Success: Disputes

Genesis 26: 19 - 20 Isaac's servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, "The water is ours!" So he named the well Esek because they disputed with him. NIV

When we are thinking of how to succeed and making plans to that effect, we hardly think about certain difficulties we have to face. Disputes are one kind of such challenges. We hardly imagine having to get into certain disputes in our march forward. This is what happened to Isaac. He was determined to succeed. He made all his investments to ensure there is water supply for his farm. Then all of a sudden, the people of Gerar came around and quarreled with him.

Disputes are bound to happen but how they are handled is what matters most. You should be ready to engage in healthy disputes as you move ahead. But if you see that the dispute will draw you back, then move on. There is no need to stay where you are quarreling to the detriment of achieving your aim. And that is what Isaac did.

When there is too much dispute about a move we are making, it could be pointing to us that there is something wrong with the project we are doing. This is not about the rightness or wrongness of the project, but might be related to where and how it is being done.

You must be ready to take a transfer to a different territory, region, town, department or branch if there is too much trouble where you are now. You don’t necessarily have to quit the job.What matters most are your goals. Don’t fear. Make a move away from disputes.

Still! Be Still….

Psalm 46: 10. He says, "Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth."

When you are at a loss not knowing what to do in difficult situations, slow down, be still and see how God arranges your life for you. But, it is not easy to refuse to act in such critical moments as that could spell doom. That is the message we get from our natural inclinations. So how can we be still in such situation? Here is what we can do to remain still.

Prayer
We can in prayer hand over the situation to God. Most of the time, we find ourselves in such situations because we are in control, or want to be in control of things. So long as we are in control, things will be difficult. That is why we must surrender the situation to God. When we pray about any situation, we tell God that we know he is in control.

Thank God
In such confused moments, we might say there is nothing to thank God for. But the challenges and the opportunities they bring are worth thanking God for. No matter what happens, you will never be the same again. As you thank God, you begin to see things more clearly. You experience some peace in your inner being.

Praise
Can you sing, can you say a psalm of praise, raise your voice and say something good to God. Prayer opens doors but it takes praise to stay in. There are many stories in the Bible that point to this. Battles were worn, nations were saved, nations delivered, and confusions removed when praise was offered.
Be still and see what God can do.

Slow Down, Be Still….

Psalm 46:10. Be still, and know that I am God! I will be praised among the nations, I will be praised in the earth. MKJV

We are living in a very fast world. We cannot help but run along because we risk falling behind and never being able to catch up. As the days go by, the speed gets even faster. Although we are able to follow the rhythm most of the time, its gets to a certain time we are totally overwhelmed by happenings around us.

It gets to a time we must make decisions and choices between options that we are not clear about; and these choices must be made quickly or we lose everything. This is the time to slow down, if possible come to a halt. Yes, come to a stop.

It is only at this time that you see a Divine hand at work in your affairs. Although we claim a lot of successes in life, we are not the ones who actually make things happen. It takes the hand of God to arrange the details of our lives. The big events are just like roofs on a foundations long laid by God.

I learnt this fact from fishermen at the beach. A drowning man who struggles with the tides gets carried away and dies. But the one who lets go and frees himself is thrown out and is saved. That is how life is. When the storms and the waves get out of control, let go. Be still and see what God can do.

First Things First 2

1Cor 6:12 "I have the right to do anything," you say—but not everything is beneficial. "I have the right to do anything"—but I will not be mastered by anything.

Freedom is good. But there cannot be absolute freedom. There are times no one puts any impediments in your way to act. But you yourself must refrain from certain acts if you want to succeed. The mark of adulthood is to be able to take decisions with the future in perspective. This again will depend on your priorities.

There are a lot of things that we can do legally. No one will punish us for such actions, but we may be harming ourselves with such actions. Before you jump to action, you need to know the effect of the particular action on the rest of your life.

Food is good, but eating certain foods will be dangerous for you. This is not just about dangerous foods and good food. The food could be good in all sense of it. But eating it could lead to a lot of problems for you.

Those who are focused on achieving their goals know when to do certain things. They are not swayed by the immediate thrills offered by such things. The future and their goals are more important to them than the momentary happiness.

Be wise today. Choose well what you do. Self discipline is the best kind of discipline. If you discipline yourself, no one will discipline you. You must be ready to give up certain pleasures today for greater benefits in the future.

You are blessed.

First Things First

Matthew 6:33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The above verse is usually interpreted in relation to the kingdom of God. And most of us are fully aware of the need to put God first in whatever we do. That is what will guarantee our success. However, I want us to look at it in a different way which might be a bit removed from religious talk.

We need to set our priorities right in order to succeed in our endeavours. There are certain things that are basic for us to succeed; others only add glamour to the success. We must set our priorities well so that we are seen doing more of the basic things. Then the glamour that is associated with it comes by itself.

In a football tournament, every team plays to win the cup. The moment a team does this, there is a lot of excitement. But that excitement is the result of scoring goals. A team whose members spend a lot of time on the field dreaming about how they are going to lift the cup certainly ends up at the losing side.

Another example is about scoring a goal in a football game. What is necessary is the ball crossing the goal line within the post from a non offside position. Whether it was beautiful or not, a goal is a goal.

You are on the playing field. You must do what you have to do – play hard, really hard; score goals, and lots of them. Your priority should be the basic things that make you score the goals. That means if you have a task to perform, choose the simplest legal means of achieving your target.

What is necessary should be done first. What is not necessary can wait for the right time.

HAVE A NICE WEEK

Be Smart, and Not Necessarily Fast

Ecclesiastes 9:11 I have seen something else under the sun:
The race is not to the swift
or the battle to the strong,
nor does food come to the wise
or wealth to the brilliant
or favor to the learned;
but time and chance happen to them all.

Every day of our lives we have to make decisions which affect the rest of our lives. The choices we make determine how successful our future will be. That is why we must be smart in these choices.

Now, being smart has nothing to do with being fast. You can be fast and yet unwise. For example, when a fish sees a bit of food in the water around, it only wants to get it as fast as possible. But that bit of food might well turn out to be bait. The race is not for the swift. It is about making the best choice.

There is no need rushing to take a decision whose consequences you can’t tell. It is smarter to pause for a second to consider the pros and cons of that decision before jumping. Let’s consider this example.

There are two offers, one worth $1000 for one month and the other $200 a week for six months. The fast person will go for the $1000 because $200 a week makes 800 a month. But the smart person will go for the $200 a week because he will be making a total of $4800. There is no guarantee that you will the $1000 offer will continue.

Let us consider the decisions we make on a daily basis very well. Patience is a virtue. When opportunities come, we must look at the carefully before making the choices. The race is not for the swift. Watch out for the opportunity that is yours.

Fear Not

I Sam 17: 8 – 11 Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, "Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us." Then the Philistine said, "This day I defy the armies of Israel! Give me a man and let us fight each other." On hearing the Philistine's words, Saul and all the Israelites were dismayed and terrified.

There is nothing more fearful that fear. When you are afraid, you cannot do what even a child can do. But if you are courageous, you will overcome even the fiercest of the enemies. In the story of David and Goliath, the tactics the enemy (Goliath) used was fear. His appearance alone was so fearful to scare the king away. All the men of Israel took to their heels when they heard Goliath speak.

It was so surprising that they could not see that Goliath, because of the sheer weight of his armory was more vulnerable than any person around. Goliath was just a moving mass of iron, as useless as the word. Yet his appearance frightened kings.

It took a teenage boy to see what others did not see. This teenage boy, David, used the simplest of weapons and old huge Goliath died like a miserable bird.

That is how your challenges are. You don’t need sophisticated weapons to overcome them. All you need is a simple strategy. Tackle the problem from where it is easiest to do. David hit Goliath on the forehead which was not covered. That was the easiest spot.

Have the faith and courage of David as you face the challenges. No matter how big they are, there is an easy spot. Focus on this spot and begin from there. You will overcome.

Take Up Your Challenge

2Co 12:7 - 9 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

There is no glory without a cross; there is no success without a challenge. Every position we occupy in life comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Accepting the advantages will mean accepting the inconveniences as well. Refusing to accept the challenges will mean denying the opportunities and the benefits.

That is why you must always accept to face the challenges that come your way. There are certain challenges that will not go away as we will want it. You can only manage them. That is what the thorn in the flesh mean.

These kinds of challenges are there to make us humble in the successes we make. Without them, there will be no meaning to life. Success in itself creates negative pride which leads to destruction. The challenges that come with success are guard rails that hold us in check so that we don’t go overboard.

Every leader has his own Judas Iscariot, in one way or the other. If you discover your Judas, then know that you really are in leadership. Just as Jesus did not throw out his Judas, but kept him in the fold even though he (Jesus) knew very well that Judas is the one going to betray him, you must also accept your challenges and move along with them.

Don’t lose hope

Romans 8: 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

There is a place for disappointment in our lives. Disappointments are not pleasant for anyone. No one will ever wish to be disappointed in any way, but disappointments (whether we like it or not) come.

What we need to know is that disappointments are ways through which God directs us to new grounds and fields we might not have thought about. We all have planned our ways to go in certain directions, but we hit the wall and are forced to go in a new way.

There are a lot of us doing jobs we didn’t consider in our school days. And we realized that despite everything, the jobs we do now are the best for us. Another aspect of our lives where disappointments are greatly felt is in terms of relationships. We put our hopes in certain people as the only ones who would guarantee our future happiness. But it was when such people left that we found the right persons.

That is what Romans 8: 28 is saying. All things, especially unpleasant ones contribute to making our lives better. Success makes us excited only to make serious mistakes later. Disappointments make us sober leading to better decisions in our next endeavours.

Have you had any disappointments in the past weeks, take advantage of them and make this week better.

Have a blessed week.

You Are the Head and Not the Tail

Deuteronomy 28:13 And Jehovah shall make you the head, and not the tail. And you shall be always above, and you shall not be beneath, if you listen to the commandments of Jehovah your God, which I command you today, to observe and to do them

You are born to make a difference. You are a leader whether you know it or not, whether you like it or not. There are a lot of people who look up to you for direction. This is a special blessing from God. He says you will be the head and not the tail. Let us take a look at some of the functions of the head.

Reason
The head is able to analyse situations very well and make the right decision. All the decisions the head makes affect the rest of the body. There is no other part that decides for the head. If you truly must be the head you are, you should be able to critically examine situations so that you can make the best choice.

Vision

Apart from touch, all the other senses of the human body are on the head. The eyes that give sight, the ears that hear sound, the nose that smells scents, the tongue that tastes flavours are all on the head. In the same way, you being the head must be able to see far beyond what everyone sees, listen more than all others, investigate things thoroughly, and examine what comes to you. A leader must have vision.

Direction

The head points to where the body goes. You must all the time provide a positive direction to all those who follow you. Whether they are following you by their own accord or they are compelled by circumstances, you must provide a good direction. People follow others basically for direction. They want to follow footsteps that lead to success. Examine the direction you are pointing to as head.

A head is not a sign post; sign posts provide the direction but they never move from where they stand. The head provides the direction and gets there with the rest of the body. If you are truly the head, you will get to the destination with your followers.

Finally, being the head does not necessarily mean being first. It is about function, being above the rest in positive influence. Function as the head at all times.

You are not a tail, you are the head.

God Has a Plan for You

Jeremiah 29:11. I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to bring you prosperity and not disaster, plans to bring about the future you hope for.

Are you at a point where it seems your road is blocked and you really need to break through? Are feeling that all hope is gone and there is nothing you can do to change your predicament? There is hope for you. The situation you find yourself in today is not final. It is the beginning of the plan that God has for you.

The future is not as bleak as you will imagine it. There are many people who at once thought it was over for them, but the intervention of God made them realize that life is not just about feelings.

Joseph in the dungeon in Egypt thought that was his end. The dreams he had about being a king, to him, could no longer come to pass since he is now a condemned slave in a foreign land. But the hand of God lifted him from there and the unbelievable happened: a slave became a king in a foreign land.

At the crossing of the red sea, the down to earth practical Israelites knew that they were going to die, because the devil in form of Pharaohs army is after them and the Red Sea (not even a blue one) was before them. They saw no future for themselves. Even Moses was about to give up. His cry to God was out of desperation rather than faith. Yet the hand of God intervened and there was a future for them.

In the same way, your future is still assured even though you don’t know how. You don’t need to know how it will happen; you only need to wait to see it happen. Your horizon is limited by a lot of things, but God’s horizon is broader. When you come to the end of the road, don’t give up. There is song that says:

“You may not know how,
You may not know when
He will do it again”

He has a plan for you. It is a good plan. God would not take his time to create you just for fun. Don’t take yourself for fun.

God Knows You

Jeremiah 1:5 Before I formed you in the belly I knew you; and before you came forth out of the womb I consecrated you, and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.

Before we came into the world, God had made a plan as to how we should live and the purpose we should fulfill. We are therefore born into the world with a purpose a job to do. There is no way we can really succeed in the world if we don’t get to know this purpose for our lives.

There is no one who is an accident in the creation of God. What this means is that God does not make a mistake by creating anybody into the world. Every one of us deserves to exist in the world and to impart the world.

However, people can make a mistake by assuming that they don’t have a place in the world, and that is a great mistake. No matter how useless you feel today, you still have a place and a role to perform. It is only God who can decide whether your purpose in the world is over or not. People may look at you and write you off; but so long as life is still in you, God has not written you off.

Most of the times, we fulfill the purpose of God in very little insignificant ways. But it is those insignificant actions that keep the world alive. Human life is a total dependence on one another. The absence of one person makes the world uncomfortable for all. That is why you are needed, no matter where you are, and what you do.

You should therefore get out there in full confidence to play your part, no matter how small that part is. You are needed in the world until God decides.

KEEP ON LIVING.

You Are What You Think

Rom 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, in order to prove by you what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God.

The mind is the source of all that we do. There is nothing that we do that was not first conceived in our minds. Even the most impromptu actions we undertake are only after a very fast process of conception. That is why those who wish to control people try to take control of the minds of people. Once the mind is under control the body is fully under control.

You must strive hard to be in control of your thoughts and you will be in control of your life. A quote from Proverbs 23:7 says “for as he thinks in his heart, so is he”. The way you think makes you what you are. A person’s life is the product of his thoughts.

When you spend all your day thinking about what will make you good, you will surely become good. If you spend your whole life thinking about how bad you are or will be, you end up being bad. Our thoughts have tremendous power. If you think always about how difficult it will be to succeed in any project, you fail to find the many reasons that make success possible in that project.

If this is so, then the best thing each person should do is to think only about what is good, what is positive and what is progressive. If you want to make a change in your life, then begin to think the change. That is what it means by being transformed by the renewing of the mind.

If you succeed in changing your way of thinking, your life will change in response. So what are you thinking about now?

THINK SUCCESS, SEE SUCCESS

You Are Wonderfully Made

Psalm 139:14 I will praise You; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are marvelous and my soul knows it very well.

Every one of us is special. There is no one who should be written off just because of the circumstance in which they find themselves. God has created each and everyone for a purpose. For that reason he takes his time to create a unique person, not just a copy of another person. God does not keep molds when it comes to making human beings. Like a perfect artist, he takes time to craft each person in very unique ways so that each individual is different.

There are a lot of things in you that show that you are precious to Him. When you contemplate a little on the verse for today, you will agree with the Psalmist that you are wonderfully and fearfully made.

The whole human body and how it works is a big mystery. There are no Doctors who will fully comprehend the things surrounding the human body. If there is any complex mechanism in the world, then the human body is the first. And you are part of that wonder of God.

Take a little time and consider how your body has grown over the years. Look back to when you were just a child and lacking knowledge and wisdom in many things. Compare it to what you are toady and you will see the wonders of God in you. You are a wonderful creation and you must accept that and treat yourself as such.

That is why you need to respect yourself. There is no one like you, and there will never again be another you in the world. You must let this show in your actions and relations. You are highly esteemed before God. If God could take his time to create such a unique person like you, then you must also treat yourself well in reverence to God, as a way of gratitude to him. Destroying yourself in any manner – physically, emotionally or spiritually is the greatest ingratitude to God.

Before you do anything to yourself, remember this little fact: YOU ARE FEARFULLY AND WONDERFULLY MADE.

You are blessed.

You are the image of God

Gen 1:26 And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth.

This is one the wonderful things you get to know when start reading the Bible. Man is in the image of God. Man in this sense is gender neutral. You have been our very nature is a reflection of how God. We must however be careful not to take it the other way round by assuming that God is the reflection of man. The image cannot take precedence of the real object. The image is but a small drawing or representation of the real. God is the real and man is the image.

Being the image of God should not only be a matter of form, but it should reflect in our actions and behaviour. We know generally that God is good. This means that his image must be good. If you see a photo of a beautiful person, the photo is beautiful because the person is beautiful. If the image is not beautiful, then it will be rejected by the owner.

Being the image of God also mean that you should not be mishandled by anyone; not even yourself. You deserve to be treated well; you must give the necessary care to yourself. Don’t allow anyone to look down or you, no other human being is superior to you. All human beings are created the same.

No matter your circumstances, you still deserve dignity and you must work hard to preserve that. God whose image you are is a dignified being; and so is his image.

STAY BLESSED

Love Yourself

Mark 12:31. And the second is like this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

I have chosen to talk about this topic because this week the word love will be receiving a lot of attention. The 14th of February is celebrated as the day of showing love to one another. There has been, and there will continue to be a lot of controversy as to how this day should be celebrated, and whether it should even be celebrated at all. But there is one thing that I want you to consider as you go through the day and the week that follows; and that is “Are you loving yourself enough”

We have been told time and time again that we should love our neighbours and most often those who give this admonishment forget to add the second important part of the saying “as yourself.” In trying to love others, the standard we must follow is the standard we must apply is ourselves. Those who love themselves well will be quick in knowing what is good for them and so transfer the kind of love they give themselves to others.

Loving yourself does not necessarily mean being selfish. It only means giving yourself the best treatment that you can give to anybody. It will be very difficult for any human being to give more than he/she has. By giving more love to yourself will mean that you will have more love to be given to those who need it.

If you love yourself, you will not do anything that leads to your own destruction. Then you will not do what will destroy your neighbour. That is because, by destroying your neighbour, you destroy yourself.

We fail to love others because we don’t love ourselves. The time has come to start fixing the standard of love in the world. That is by showing more love to yourself.

Let Go

Heb 12:1 Therefore since we also are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily besets us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us

As we journey through life, we pass through many situations and challenges. These surely leave various impressions on us. We form habits, some good some bad. There are certain habits that we know are bad and we must just let go. But because they are habits, we find it difficult to let go. There is nothing best for us but just to let go. Letting go will free us and give us the opportunity to move ahead without any sense of guilt coming from self examination.

There are other things that, though they are not bad in themselves, prevent us from forging ahead in order to achieve our goals. That is where the difficulty comes. But, in order to move ahead, we must let go.

The passage chosen for today’s message talks about weights that draw us back. Those who desire to move ahead must by necessity throw away the weight they carry. When you watch athletes in an Olympic race, especially women, you realize that they throw away all the heavy jackets they wear just before the race starts. This they do to give them extra advantage to run as fast as they can. You cannot imagine any athlete running in suits today.

That is what your life is about. There are certain things in your life today; there are certain people you are holding to, there are several things that you consider good for you; but those are the very things, the very people that draw you back or slow you down. For the sake of progress, tell yourself when you realize: “It is time to let go”.
Take time and search for such unnecessary baggage and LET THEM GO.

Watch Out

1Peter 5:8 Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the Devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

Don’t be deceived that you will have a smooth road as you move towards your goals. Those who think like that usually get the rudest shocks of their lives when they come against roadblocks in their way. There is one thing you must know: achieving your goals will create a disadvantage for someone. If you are that person, you will do everything possible to stop the dream. That is why you need to wide awake as you make your journey through life.

The road of real life is not smooth; it is rough and tough. There are many traps on the way. Watch out for the baits in these traps. The aim of the trap is to stop you from going ahead and if possible draw you back, in fact destroy your dream. The bait has a simple aim: lure you into the trap. You must watch out for baits because not bait is ugly. If you want to more explanation about this, look at a mouse when caught in a trap.

Not all offers that come your way in life are good for you; in fact the same offer might be good for someone else but not you. Taking a particular offer might mean giving up your dream. The story of hungry Esau is a great illustration. When Jacob made the offer of food for birthright, Esau did not take his brother serious. He only realized the seriousness when he lost his blessing.

As you fight on, watch out for such deals that will affect your future. Avoiding such deals and forgoing such some obvious advantages of today will guarantee a brighter tomorrow.

In a race between the tortoise and the dog, the tortoise made sure to scatter juicy bones on the road knowing very well that the dog will not like to leave those bones uneaten. By the time “fast dog” finished the juicy bones, “slow but smart tortoise” had crossed the finished line. Choose which one you want to be.

WATCH OUT.

Look Ahead

Luke 9:61 – 62. And another also said, Lord, I will follow You, but first allow me to take leave of those in my house. And Jesus said to him, no one, having put his hand to the plough and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

The story of Lot’s wife reminds us all about one thing. The past will make you freeze, to the point that you can’t move forward. That is why in your walk towards achieving your goals, you should seldom look back.

Life is a race. What this means is that until you cross the finish line, the distance covered is not as important as the one to be covered. One thing is certain about athletic races. Runners who look back too often mostly do not complete the race; even if they complete it is most unlikely that they will take the crown.

There are many reasons why you will want to look back. One of them is to see the successes you have made at a point in time. But your successes can constitute a drawback to your progress. There are many people who take pride so much in what they have achieved in the past that they forget about what they must do today. In the past are also your failures and regrets. Looking back refreshes all those memories which make progress difficult.

For that reason, once you have decided to do something, don’t look back. Look forward to. Concentrate on your aim and achieve it. Until you see the result you want in what you have started, don’t look back. Those who drive know that you cannot keep looking in the mirror as you drive. The result of that action is obvious: you will crush. But when you look into the windscreen, you see the road ahead.

Therefore let this be your motto: Forward ever.

Be Focused

Mat 14:28 - 31 And Peter answered Him and said, LORD, if it is You, tell me to come to You on the water. And He said, Come. And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But seeing that the wind was strong, he was afraid. And beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me! And immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and caught him; and said to him, Little-faith! Why did you doubt?

Doing a long term project comes with a lot of challenges. Once you decided on what to do, then you start receiving signals as to why you might not succeed. There are also signals about other options of doing the same thing. Those who are married will attest to the fact that after they made their decision on a particular person, other equally capable candidates came up; some of them even “better” than the person they have chosen. There are many people who fell time and time again to these “better” options.

All those signals and options are what we call distractions. You should be focused once you’ve decided to do what you want to do in order to avoid the distractions that come your way. In the Bible story above, Peter decided to walk on the sea. He started well and he was marveled by his own performance in the beginning. Then at a point he realized that he was sinking.

Why did Peter start sinking? The answer simply is that he lost focus. When he started walking on the water he was looking at his destination which is where Jesus was. That was his motivation for the project. But he took his focus away from the motivational factor and started looking at the distractions that surrounded him. Then he realized how impossible what he was doing was. One thing that might have made Peter to look at the winds was his friends back in the boat who were making all kinds of noise in amazement of what was happening.

Be assured that there will be a lot of distractions as you aim at achieving your long term goals. Don’t take your eyes off the target – your motivational factor. Don’t mind what people around you are saying so long as you know you are moving on the right track. You have a target; you have an aim; you must succeed. Be focused.

HAVE A BLESSED WEEK.

Please leave a comment if you’ve been inspired by this.

Look Far

Gen 13:14 – 17 And after Lot was separated from him, Jehovah said to Abram, Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are northward and southward, and eastward and westward. For all the land which you see I will give to you, and to your seed forever. And I will make your seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can count the dust of the earth, then shall your seed also be counted. Rise up and walk through the land, in the length of it and in the breadth of it, for I will give it to you.

I don’t believe in New Year resolutions, but I believe that each year has a lot to offer to those who want to. That is why I believe this scripture is speaking to us again in a special way. You must expect a lot from yourself this year. The fact is that those who don’t look far are always content with the mediocre situation they find themselves in.
Those who are content with current conditions but will not look beyond their immediate view will be most frustrated. God told Abraham to look as far as possible. Whatever he sees will become his in the future. Even if you are not able to achieve all that you want within the time available, you will surely be closer to it. There is a saying that if you want to jump, aim at the sun; even if you don’t get there, you might land on the moon.
I love one thing Martin Luther King Jr. said. If you can’t run, walk; if you can’t walk, crawl. One thing is certain keep moving. But you must always move towards a direction. If you don’t look far, you will walk a little and stop. Those who know they have a long way to go are always moving.
Look far and keep moving.