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