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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.