God’s Plan

Deuteronomy 1:27
You grumbled in your tents and said, “The LORD hates us; so he brought us out of Egypt to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites to destroy us.

As believers we know God has good plans for our lives, but sometimes it seems as though where we are does not align with a good plan. Life is full of curves but it does not mean you will not get to the finish line. It will all work out well for our good later. “We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be” (C.S. Lewis).

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Words

Isaiah 50:4 KJV
The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season
Proverbs 17:28 KJV
Even a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is counted wise

“Perhaps the greatest communication
strategy you can learn is to gain a solid instinct
about when to speak—and conversely, to learn
when words will simply get in your way (Cheryl Conner). “Most of the successful people I’ve known are the ones who do more listening than talking” (Bernard M. Baruch).

Final Exam

Ecclesiastes 12:1 KJV
Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them;

Much like wanting to ‘play the field’ before ‘settling down’, most people would like to ‘enjoy’ life before adhering to the Christian lifestyle. Being a Christian is receiving the grace to be the best one can be, not just a stringent lifestyle. What best time to be the best one can be than in one’s youthful days? “I was thinking about how people seem to read the Bible a whole lot more as they get older; then it dawned on me… they’re cramming for their final exam” (George Carlin).

Peace-full

Isaiah 48:18 KJV
O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea:

Christians should be the most peace-full (sic) people on earth, but most times we are not when we try to do things our own way. It is easier to call Christ “Lord of our life” than to actually allow Him to be it. Going our own way is not worth the trouble. “By going out of God’s ways we go out of His government, and so lose our good frame of mind, and find ourselves overspread quickly with a contrary disposition” (Richard Sibbes).

Societal Expectations

Ecclesiastes 9:11 KJV
[11] I… saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

The timeline that society places on people makes it easy to feel like a failure if you are not married, have kids, a car, a house and a certain kind of career by a certain age. Nobody knows where these expectations come from but they do exist. This kind of mindset puts you in competition with everyone else. However, the only one you should be striving to surpass is the past version of yourself. Live life at a pace that the grace on your life can handle. “Living happily is a matter of choosing to fulfill the positive demands of your inner-self over your societal expectations” (Edmond Mbiaka).

Voices

Genesis 3:2 KJV
And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: James 4:7 KJV
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Compromising on our faith starts from engaging voices that are opposed to the voice of God. Those voices can include people’s opinions too. You cannot bargain with the devil and walk with your holiness intact. “Spiritual death happens one compromise at a time.”

Progress

Philippians 1:10 CEB
pray this so that you will be able to decide what really matters and so you will be sincere and blameless on the day of Christ.

Sometimes we mistake motion for progress. It is important to always know the “why” of every activity you find yourself doing with your precious time. Not everything is worth your time. As a child of God your lifetime is not yours to waste. “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter” –(Francis Chan).

Humility

Philippians 2:3 KJV
[3] Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

Esteem means to admire or respect, or consider. There is nothing shameful about esteeming someone as better than yourself, even if they don’t seem so. There is always something you can learn from people around you. Let us humble ourselves so that God will lift us up. “If you cannot treat everyone with same respect as you give to your pastor, then you are a fake person” (Sunday Adelaja).
[ASeDa©️]

Pleasant Words

Proverbs 16:24 NIV
Gracious words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

There are uncountable people out there who have been shattered by negative words from people they highly esteemed. It is better to be quiet than to say unkind things. “Be nice.. Harsh words don’t break bones but they often break hearts” (Joseph Simmons)

Power

2 Timothy 3:5 KJV

[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Though Darwin (of the evolution theory) had not completely renounced his faith in God, he expelled creation science as a plausible explanation. He acknowledged the power of God, just not God’s power to create life. Many of us are like this. We believe that God exists, we have heard others’ testimonies and we might even have our own, but we have placed a mental limit on what we believe God can do in our lives. Either one believes in God’s power totally, or not.