LISTEN!!

What we are going through on a personal level or even tasks at hand can often feel overwhelming and cause us to feel trapped in our own thoughts.  We go through phases during the day when things are fine and then suddenly we get this overwhelming, over barring feeling as if we cant rid ourselves of the thoughts and feelings which create the fear of not being able to accomplish what we want.

These overwhelming thoughts are created by focusing all the thoughts on ourselves, when we can be focusing them on a higher purpose and thereon to the greatest of the task.  One of the greatest gifts we can give to others and to ourselves is the gift of giving. Making the solution about how we can help others, or how the changes or benefits will affect others is a great way of doing so.  We might not always be ready to do so but by starting we have already created the opportunities to move forward in this way.  Yes the thoughts and feelings with flow back and forth into our minds and bodies, such is the rhythm of nature, but with discipline and commitment we can accomplish that which we are asking for. 

Know that every struggle, every challenge allows us to be stronger more capable.  We only have to look back in our past to find success stories of our own growth and achievements.

TIME ZONE

New York is 3 hours ahead of California but it does not mean that California is slow, or that New York is fast. Both are  working based on their own "Time Zone."

Some one is still single. Someone *got married* and 'waited' 10 years before having a child. There is another who had a baby within a year of marriage.

Someone graduated at the age of 22, yet waited 5 years before *securing a good job*; and there is another who graduated at 27 and secured employment immediately !

Someone became CEO at 25 and died at 50 while another became a CEO at 50 and lived to 90 years.
Everyone works based on their 'Time Zone',

People can have things worked out only according to their pace.
Work in your *time zone*

Your Colleagues, friends, younger ones might "seem" to go ahead of you.
May be some might "seem" behind you.

Everyone is in this world running their own race on their own lane in their own time. God has a different plan for everybody.Time is the difference. *Obama retires at 55, Trump resumes at 70*

Don't envy them or mock them, it's their 'Time Zone.'
You are in yours!

Hold on, be strong, and stay true to yourself. All things shall work together for your good.

You’re not late … You are not early ... you’re very much On time!

You Are In Your Time Zone

Like our  blog,follow and share.

Food of thought for the wise.

Prof. Abletor Sedofia from University of Ghana. "Academic excellence is overrated! Did I just say that? Oh, yes, I said it.Being top of your class does not necessarily guarantee that you will be at the top of life. You could graduate as the best student in Finance but it doesn't mean you will make more money than everybody else. The best graduating Law student does not necessarily become the best lawyer. The fact is life requires more than the ability to understand a concept, memorise it and reproduce it in an exam. School rewards people for their memory. Life rewards people for their imagination. School rewards caution, life rewards daring. School hails those who live by the rules. Life exalts those who break the rules and set new ones. So do I mean people shouldn't study hard in school? Oh, no, you should. But don't sacrifice every other thing on the altar of First Class. Don't limit yourself to the classroom. Do something practical. Take a leadership position. Start a business and fail. That's a better Entrepreneurship 101.Join or start a club. Contest an election and lose. It will teach something Political Science 101 will not teach you. Attend a seminar. Read book s outside the scope of your course. Go on missions and win a soul for eternal rewards... Do something you believe in! Think less of becoming an excellent student but think more of becoming an excellent person. Make the world your classroom!"

SOME WORDS TO ENCOURAGE YOU.

1) Heavy rains remind us of challenges in life. Never ask for a lighter rain. Just pray for a better umbrella.
That is attitude.
2) When flood comes, fish eat ants & when flood recedes, ants eat fish.Only time matters. Just hold
on, God gives opportunity to everyone!
3) Life is not about finding the right person, but creating the right relationship, it's not how we care in
the beginning, but how much we care till ending.
4) Some people always throw stones in your path. It depends on you what you make with them, Wall or Bridge? Remember you are the architect of your life.
5) Every problem has (n+1) solutions, where n is the number of solutions that you have tried and 1 is that you have not tried. That’s life.
6) It is not important to hold all the good cards in life. But it’s important how well you play with the cards which you hold.
7) Often when we lose all hope & think this is the end, God smiles from above and says, `Relax dear it’s just a bend. Not the end'. Have Faith and have a
successful life.
8) When you feel sad, to cheer up just go to the mirror and say, `Damn I am really so cute` and you will overcome your sadness. But don’t make this a
habit coz liars go to hell.
9) One of the basic differences between God and human is, God gives, gives and forgives. But human gets, gets, gets and forgets. Be thankful in life!
10) Only two types of persons are happy in this world. First is Mad and second is Child. Be Mad to achieve what you desire and be a Child to enjoy what you have achieved.

WHY MANY KEEP RISING AND REVERTING TO SIN AFTER SALVATION.

- What You Need To Do TO avoid Falling Back into sin

Many people desire to serve God and live life of holiness. Many, knowing fully well that the only way to escape eternal destruction and danger of hell is by serving God, but they can’t why it is difficult for them to serve God in genuine salvation without falling back into sin. Many people have tried several times to repent and confess their sins but they can’t understand why they keep confessing and committing the same sins, why they keep reverting back to sinful vomit or why they are only struggling with their Christian life and can’t stay long. Answering altar for salvation many times but can’t resist temptation of sin.

On the other path, some are serving God in a way but they always find themselves back to the old addicted sin that is serving as a stronghold in their Christian life. It could be a sin of masturbation, fornication, adultery, pornographic, anger, etc. and unfortunately many have been discouraged by the devil to abandon their desire to serve God. The devil may tell you, “See, you are not meant for this Christian life, no matter how many times you try, and you are always a failure, you are too weak spiritually for God’s standard, just stop deceiving yourself.” Such thought is from the pit of hell to discourage and destroy you.

The Lord is revealing to you right now why you keep confessing and committing sins, why your Christian life is always forward and backward, why you keep falling back into those sins, and why you have not be able to steadfastly serve God. There are three things you lack all this while and when you understand these 3 things now, your Christian life will never remain the same again, you will experience total deliverance from sins with the peace and strength of God to serve Him for the rest of your life without falling back again. Here are the three things you need:

GENUINE REPENTANCE
Before you can experience genuine salvation and serve God in righteousness, you must first experience genuine repentance – which is the foundation of salvation in Christ. There is difference between repentance and remorsefulness, which is difference between Peter and Judas Iscariot. Genuine repentance is to realize all your sins and ready to forsake them. If you only realize the immediate sins, maybe like masturbation, fornication, and you ignore some other sins, you are not genuinely repenting so there will not be genuine salvation. If you realize all your sins and you are not ready from your heart to forsake those sins, you are not repenting; you are only being remorseful or being sorry for your sins and such will not bring victory over sins. Genuine repentance that guarantee total freedom from sins is to realize all your sins – both small and great, serious ones and simple ones, and ready to forsake them.

This is the first step into total freedom from sin and genuine salvation that guarantee eternal life. Before you confess your sins, before you answer altar call, you must first genuinely repent in this respect so that your confession will not be empty. Confessing sins without genuine repentance of realizing all your sins and readiness to forsake them all is a waste of time. How you keep confessing sins without first repenting from those sins.

The false gospel of this modern day that leads people to altar-call and confession of sins and confession of Jesus Christ as the Savior without first teaching and leading people into genuine repentance is satanic manipulation to give people fake salvation and false hope in Jesus. No matter how many times you confess your sins, no matter how much time you answer altar call or repeat prayer of salvation, without genuine repentance, you will keep confessing and committing the same sins.

“He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13.

AFTER YOU ARE SAVED
After you genuinely repent, confess your sins and saved from sins, you will need two things to do and keep doing for you to maintain your salvation. It is a bad news that many people are saved but they lose their salvation and fall back to old bondage of sin because they lack the understanding of new life in Jesus Christ. It is possible for you to be saved in the morning and lose the salvation in the evening if you don’t take these two necessary steps. Salvation is conditional, not an unconditional certificate.

Many people do experience genuine salvation but fall back into sin because they fail to take these two steps after they are saved. And the same thing is applicable to falling back into addicted sins.
Failure to do the right things after you are saved will lead you to fall back into sins you have rejected. Let’s look at the Word of God, Matthew 12:43-45:

“When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 44 Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 45 Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.”

This reveals why many people who were genuinely saved usually fall back into sin. Behind every sin is an unclean spirit, and when you genuinely repent and experience salvation, the unclean spirits will go out of your life, including the addicted sins, and your heart will be swept clean and in order, but if you do take the right steps of total separation and devotion after you are saved, some forces of those sins will come back and you will fall back into old sins.

So if you don’t want to keep rising and falling, if you don’t want to keep falling back into the addicted sins, you need SEPARATION and DEVOTION after you genuinely repent from all your sins. Let’s look at them one after another:

SEPARATION
After you have experienced genuine salvation, the first step you will need to take immediately is separation, you must separate yourself from every connection to old sinful life, from things that will not help or support your new life in Jesus Christ such as worldly music, movies, magazine – you will delete or destroy them; you will immediately stop going to places that will not help you spiritually includes worldly churches. You must detach yourself from people that will not help your spiritual life, friendship or relationship. You must destroy every sinful, worldly or cultic material in your possession including all the worldly dresses, clothing, jewelries – you don’t keep them or give to people, but you get rid of them completely and immediately.

After you experience salvation, failure to separate yourself from old sinful and worldly things and people will lead you to fall back into sins. Instead of you to move forward with Christ in new life, those things or people will pull you back into darkness and your old vomit. That is what Apostle Peter says in 2 Peter 2:22, “But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”

Every Christian journey that will successfully lead to heaven must daily involve separation as a continuous exercise. Separation from worldly, sinful things and people is not only for new convert, it is not only useful for us at our early Christian level but continuously till we get to heaven because when you separate yourself from this sinful or worldly thing today, the devil will introduce another thing tomorrow. That is the reason the Bible warns us to daily search ourselves so as to continue the spiritual exercise of separation. Unfortunately many long-time Christians and Christian ministers are majestically marching straight into eternity without realizing that the devil has implanted some ungodliness, uncleanness or worldliness into their lives, because they fail to exercise daily spiritual checking for separation.

DEVOTION
Salvation in Christ is the beginning of new life as the foundation of our faith, separation is your commitment to settle your new life and devotion is your consecration to God to seal your new life in Christ Jesus. Devotion unto God involves three things:

(i) Daily prayer. To maintain a victorious Christian life, you need a fervent prayer life, praying for God’s sanctification, strength and grace every day; praying for the spiritual understanding and knowledge of God to help you avoid errors. A heavenly minded Christian must spend much of his prayer time on his spiritual life, but the carnal minded Christians pray more about earthly stuff, blessings, provision, and attack against enemies. You must pray morning and evening about your new life in Jesus, let your spiritual life be your priority in your daily prayer, and every other things good will follow. Prayer strengthens us to resist the temptation of sin. Matthew 26:41. “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

(ii) Daily Bible Reading. It is a must for you to spend at least 30mins daily to read and meditate the Word of God. Don’t just read, but prayerfully read and meditate, thinking over and over the Bible passages as you read until you understand and take note. The Word of God helps us not to fall back into sin.
Psalm 119:9-11,
“How can a young man cleanse his way?
By taking heed according to Your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought You;
Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
11 Your word I have hidden in my heart,
That I might not sin against You.

The more you read and meditate the Word of God, the more you are being purified and renewed in the Lord.

(iii) WATCHFULNESS. Watchfulness is simply to work out your professed salvation with trembling and godly fear. It means to carefully apply the Word of God you read and the grace of God you receive through prayer into your daily living. That is when we become fruitful in the Lord. So that the grace we receive in prayer and the strength we receive in the Word of God will not be in vain, we must be watchful how we live our lives, how we talk, how we behave, how we response to people’s provocation, how we abstain from distance appearance of sin, how we dress, cloth we wear, the motive behind our dressing, the motive behind our desire for money, all these must be controlled by the Word of God – this is what watchfulness is all about.

Genuine repentance to salvation in Christ Jesus, total Separation from worldly and sinful things and people and complete Devotion unto God through daily prayer, Bible reading and watchfulness. These are the steps we must daily and carefully take in our journey to heaven.

“For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” 2 Peter 1:8-11.

The Grass is not always Greener...

Dr Ubani works in one of Houston's biggest cardiology centers. His wife heads over 200 people in an IT firm in Texas too. Living above average they have one dream for which they saved religiously. The dream to someday go back home to Umuahia in Abia state and set up their own businesses.

Meanwhile...... Martins and his wife who both run successful businesses in Umuahia have not missed their "prayer point" in the last 4yrs. "Lord this dream must come through, we must relocate to America. Lord I decree"

Uche Nwokocha watches through the window of his high rise Zenith bank office everyday. Admiring independent businessmen. Hating his cage. "Sorry his job I mean" and wishing to be a self employed entrepreneur someday.

Meanwhile... Mike Ohimai walks pass that same Zenith bank building everyday. His CV in his hand and sweat on his forehead, asking God "when"?. When would I say "I work for Zenith Bank. That should be my office up there"

Mrs Aisha Bello, wife of a multi billionaire wishes she could turn back time and re-pick her husband. Can't believe how hellish it is and wishes for singleness.

Meanwhile Funke who works for her would give anything to be Mr Bello's wife. 4th wife is ok sef. "See fine man with cash. Kai some women are lucky" she says.

The stupidity that is inherent in envy and comparison of lives is the kind that needs exorcism to expel. Given the shoes of the man with the life you want may be all that you need to cure you of your inordinate longing. The saying "the grass is always greener on the other side" means you see only the glamour and not the pain.

In conclusion I say in all things let's learn to give God thanks, be contented with where & who you are on the way to accomplishing your desires.

THE GRASS IS NOT GREENER ON THE OTHER SIDE, WATER YOURS....

I AM A WOMAN!!!

So what?
I get into an argument with a man,  he slaps me, I feel the pain, yet they tell me I provoked him. I should have been quiet,  I should have been patient.  I should apologize to him.

I get into an argument with a man,  I slap him,  they tell me I have no respect, no home training. I should have been quiet,  I should have been patient. I should apologize to him.

Because I am a woman,  I don't have a right to be angry. So, the degree of my innocence is directly proportional to the degree of my  silence in the face of oppression and brutality.....

Because I am a woman, my husband cheats on me, I am told to tolerate it to save my marriage. The barbaric and stupid excuse is that ''it is in their nature to cheat,  I should slim down,  dress better, cook better,  pray harder and be more pleasant to him"

I cheat, and I am called a whore, I have committed an abomination, I have no right to look elsewhere for the love and emotional support I lack at home,  I am an irresponsible mother.

So I am sent packing, from the home we both built,  with all my earthly possessions stuffed into a tiny box on my head.  I am henceforth forbidden from seeing my two older children,  I'm lucky to be allowed to go with my little one still suckling on my left breast. Three years later, the little one is tagged a bastard. Now, my new name is "after-three",  because I am a woman. 

He is 28 and runs a company. He's tagged  wonderful, hardworking,  focused,  career oriented,  successful at a very young age. 

I am 28 and I run a company " Hmmmm, she is not even married, unserious, can not order her priorities right, a hustler,  loves money,  let her go and get a husband oh"
And I wonder if being successful has anything to do with a person's gender.

Because I am a woman,
I am not allowed to have wits or be a prodigy, I cannot be financially buoyant,  professionally successful or be treated with respect without a man beside me.

Then I am tagged

THE AGENTS OF SATAN IN DISGUISE

1. PROSPERITY PREACHERS - The preachers who preach more on earthly blessings than heavenly preparation. For example, if you follow 10 consecutive messages of a preacher, maybe his Sunday sermons, books, yearly watchwords or tapes, and 6 out of the 10 messages focus on blessings, success, healing or any earthly stuff, that preacher is a prosperity preacher, and that is a supreme agent of Satan in your community.

2. MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKERS - All motivational speakers in the church or in any ministry are agents of Satan. Starting from Normal Vincent Peale - the father of all motivational speakers and prosperity preachers - the man who compared Jesus Christ with Sigmund Freud, believing that Gospel should be like a social psychology for emotional relief, to motivate and uplift people even in their sins. If you don't know the motive and people behind what you claim, you may be on a wrong path. Motivational and prosperity preaching is another gospel Apostle Paul warned us against.

3. PROBLEMATIC PRAYER MINISTERS - These are the ministers whose prayers focus more on problems of life than purity of life, they ignorantly pray against satanic forces more than sinful natures; they battle deliverance from enemy's bondage more than bondage of sin. They emphasis on demonic attacks, generational curses, evil arrows, and pray "fall down and die" prayers. They pray and fast to be free from enemy bondage than to be free from bondage of adamic nature, they pray against the witches and wizards in their families to die than they pray for the sinners in their families to be saved. These are agents of Satan in disguise. Be warned!

4. MIRACLE PREACHERS– These set of preachers whose priority is miracle, they believe follow signs and wonders which lead them unbiblical activities such as INCESSANT usage of anointing oil, candle, water, handkerchiefs, Jerusalem stuffs, and other stuffs which make them look more like soothsayers. Jesus Christ said signs and wonders shall follow believes (Mark 16:17), but they follow after signs and wonders which had led many into cult groups. Any preacher that preaches more on miracle than message of salvation and sanctification is an agent of Satan in this end time.

5. RICH PREACHERS – Any full time preacher who is financially or materially rich is an agent of Satan! You are marveled? Then let’s go into the Bible. First, there is different between a full time preacher and part-time preacher, there is different between an Elder and a pastor, prophet or an Evangelist. From the Books of Genesis to Revelation in the Bible, there was no single full-time-called minister who was a rich man or woman in the ministry; priests, prophets or apostles. Those who were rich before they were called into full time ministry were to forfeit their earthly riches. Starting from the priests and Levites who were forbidden landed heritage in Israel or the prophets in the Old Testament or the Apostles in the New Testaments – Immediately they were commissioned into the ministry, the earthly gains and riches faded away from their ambitions “But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ” Philippians 3:7, 8.

Since the inception of the church, there was no rich preacher of genuine Gospel from Martin Luther to John Wesley to D. L Muddy until early 1950s when Normal Vincent Peale came with another gospel.

6. LUXURIOUS PREACHERS - You never wonder why the founders of faith lived a simple and moderate lifestyle in opposite of the present day preachers? It is because they don’t have the same gospel. All ministers who live luxurious lifestyles, use expensive things, pile up money in their bank accounts, own houses in different places, have private jets are all agents of Satan. Check them, they all have same types of messages, methods and mission; they are anointed agents of Satan all over the world.

7. Money Making Ministers – MMM. (Funny enough, I wrote  this message before I knew about the current MMM) These are the ministers who care and collect your money through different means for their personal gains. Some years ago, I went to a church here in Abuja, and I was told in the church that they were having a yearly Holy Ghost night, and their daddy G.O was to come, and they said anyone who want to see Daddy G.O in a private meeting would buy a card for N15, 000 so the person would be permitted to see their Daddy G.O in a private meeting. The same church also asked their members to redeem their firstborn with amount of money; some churches sell anointing oil, water, handkerchief, etc. and another dubious way these money making ministers are using to enrich their pockets is by first fruit offering, telling people to give their first salary of the year to the senior pastor, for what? Just to enrich him and family at the detriment of the members. MMM’s school fees are more expensive than Government school to enrich their pockets.

BIBLE ADMONITION
“ If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness, 4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions, 5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain[c]we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.2 1 Timothy 6:3-10

TEMPTATION, SATAN’S TRAP TO ROB YOU OF YOUR BLESSINGS

I have discovered by experienced that when God is about to bless me financially more than before, there would be different temptations on my way, and afterwards I would receive  a financial or material blessings. Many Christians remain financially and materially unblessed because they fell into one sin or the other. When you cheat in exam, you are handing over your certificate to Satan, when you are committing fornication in your courtship, you are handing over your marriage unto Satan, when you bribe to get job, contract or whatever, and you are missing God’s own blessings.

The Carpenter

   
Once upon a time, two brothers who lived on adjoining farms fell into conflict. It was the first serious rift in 40 years of farming side-by-side, sharing machinery and trading labor and goods as needed without a hitch.

Then the long collaboration fell apart. It began with a small misunderstanding and it grew into a major difference and finally, it exploded into an exchange of bitter words followed by weeks of silence.

One morning there was a knock on John's door. He opened it to find a man with a carpenter's toolbox. "I 'm looking for a few days' work," he said. "Perhaps you would have a few small jobs here and there I could help with? Could I help you?"

"Yes," said the older brother. "I do have a job for you. Look across the creek at that farm. That's my neighbor. In fact, it's my younger brother! Last week there was a meadow between us. He recently took his bulldozer to the river levee and now there is a creek between us.  Well, he may have done this to spite me, but I'll do him one better. See that pile of lumber by the barn? I want you to build me a fence an 8-foot fence -- so I won't need to see his place or his face anymore."

The carpenter said, "I think I understand the situation. Show me the nails and the post-hole digger and I'll be able to do a job that pleases you."

The older brother had to go to town, so he helped the carpenter get the materials ready and then he was off for the day. The carpenter worked hard all that day -- measuring, sawing and nailing. About sunset when the farmer returned, the carpenter had just finished his job.

The farmer's eyes opened wide, his jaw dropped. There was no fence there at all.

It was a bridge .. A bridge that stretched from one side of the creek to the other! A fine piece of work, handrails and all! And the neighbor, his younger brother, was coming toward them, his hand outstretched..

"You are quite a fellow to build this bridge after all I've said and done."

The two brothers stood at each end of the bridge, and then they met in middle, taking each other's hand. They turned to see the carpenter hoist his toolbox onto his shoulder.

"No, wait! Stay a few days. I've a lot of other projects for you," said the older brother.
"I'd love to stay on," the carpenter said, "but I have many more bridges to build."
  
Remember This...  
God won't ask what kind of car you drove, but He'll ask how many people you helped get where they needed to go. 

God won't ask the square footage of your house, but He'll ask how many people you welcomed into your home. 

God won't ask about the clothes you had in your closet, but He'll ask how many you helped to clothe.  

God won't ask how many friends you had, but He'll ask how many people to whom you were a friend. 

God won't ask in what neighborhood you lived, but He'll ask how you treated your neighbors. 

God won't ask about the color of your skin, but He'll ask about the content of your character.

God won't ask why it took you so long to seek Salvation, but He'll  lovingly take you to your mansion in Heaven, and not to the gates of hell.

Are you a prisoner of your mood?

Too often we let ourselves be ruled by our moods — which leads to procrastination, a lack of exercise, eating poorly, constant online distractions, and more.

Mood is a poor indicator of whether you should do something.

Consider the following examples:
You want to write a book, and you commit to writing every morning. When it comes time to write, you feel like checking your favorite online sites instead, and don’t really feel like writing. So you put off writing. All procrastination works this way.

You tell yourself you’re going to work out today … but when it comes time to do it, you’re tired. So you put it off and say you’ll do it tomorrow.

You plan to meditate, but instead get distracted by your phone. Checking your phone is always something you’re in the mood for, but meditation rarely is.

You create a healthy meal plan for yourself, but in the afternoon you feel like a snack, so you eat some chips or a pastry. You aren’t usually in the mood for vegetables, but you’re always up for fried, salty, fatty, or sweet things.

Allowing our moods to dictate our actions leads to procrastination, distraction, lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, and bad habits.

What’s a better way? Use smarter things to decide your actions: whether something will lead to accomplishing what you want, whether it’s good for you, whether it will help others. Make these decisions ahead of time, and don’t listen to your mood.

When the time comes for action, instead of saying
“I don’t feel like it” (or not saying anything but just following your mood), say one or more of these instead:
It’s on my plan, I gotta do it.

Past Me said to do it, and Future Me will thank me, so let’s do it.
Once I start, I’ll be glad I did. All I have to do is take the first small step.

I don’t need to decide on this, or think about it. It’s already decided.

This is a compassionate act for myself. An act of love. Let’s get to the loving.

I am doing this for others, to set an example for others, to make the world better.

Yes, “just this once” does hurt. Let’s not fall for our old thinking traps.

It’s time, let’s get to work like a pro.

The best writers, best athletes, best entrepreneurs … they don’t just do their work or workouts when they feel like it. When it strikes their fancy. They show up every day and get to work. That’s how you’re going to approach your decisions from now on: show up as planned and do it.

WHAT IS NOT GOTTEN BY GOD CANNOT BE PRESERVED BY GOD

This is what you need to understand before you commit sin or compromise into sin for the sake of anything is that God cannot bless or multiply what you get through sin. When you get thing through sinful means, you are working against the blessings of God for your life. When God promise us fruitfulness and multiplying blessings, it cannot work for those who get their things in ungodly means.

If you get your certificate through malpractices and manipulations, how do you want God to bless you with a good job? If you get the job through bribery and manipulation, how do you want God to defend you when crises and enemies rise against you in that workplace? If you lay the foundation of your marriage on premarital sex and fornication, how do you want God to prosper and preserve the marriage? If you work and manipulate your transfer to your desired location, how do you want the presence of God to go with you? Or you are not afraid you are on your own?

If you bribe your way with the Custom officers to import or export your goods, how do you expect God to help you sell the goods? If you build a house by money you got through untruthful means, how do you expect God to be with you in that house? If you buy a car through money you got from bribed, manipulated, ungodly means, how can you expect God to keep you from auto accident with that car? If you manipulate your way to get or do things and you still expect God to prosper or protect you with that thing, then you are living in a deception of the highest order. What is not gotten by God cannot be prospered or protected by God. You can go far by manipulated wisdom, by compromising and committing sin and getting your way, but God’s protection and preservation will be far from you, and sudden calamity will shortly ensue.

PLEASE CAN YOU THINK ABOUT THIS?

When you fall into any sin, believing that God will forgive you after you ask for forgiveness, yes God will forgive you if you truly repent, and even if God restore you spiritually, but what about all those physical blessings you will lose, which Satan may permanently steal from you? Many Christians have missed abundant blessings of God for their lives, marriage, business, career and even ministry because of frivolous falling into sin. Have you not read about Esau? Let’s see what Bible says about him:

“Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” Hebrews 12:16, 17.

Esau thought he could fall into sin and repent and still get all the good promises of God, but it didn't work that way. The Bible says “When he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected” He missed all the blessings just because of “one morsel of food”, a single falling into temptation can render all the good promises of God for your future, marriage, career, ministry, business useless.  And so many are thinking like Esau today, they think if they commit sin or compromise, they can quickly repent and ask for forgiveness, yes God is faithful to forgive if you confess, but what about the blessings you might have lost in the process?

WORD

A bird born in a cage has no experience with the outside world. It knows nothing about the golden sun, the blue sky, or the lofty mountains. The idea of soaring freely among such beauty would seem like a cruel fantasy. But God wants me to say to you: beyond your cage of sin – the bondage and compulsion in your life – is a glorious world called The Kingdom of God, and it is no fantasy. It’s the real world you have never known – a world of sins forgiven, peace with God, and eternal life. The condition? Repent of your sins and receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. That will be the moment your prison-door opens and you are released, saved, set free. Welcome to the Kingdom of God. God bless you. Please pass it on to encourage a friend. REINHRD BONNKE