Monday, September 19, 2011

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.

Sunday, September 4, 2011

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.