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.