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.