We can make 2013 our best year ever. It is a matter of choice in paying the price in doing our part. A lot of things have been written about 2012. For many, it was the worst year in living memory. For me, it was my best year ever. I have seen God crown my efforts with success in an unprecedented way. The year of course had its own challenges, including personal and national tragedies. There are certain things we do not have control over. I remember growing up, the serenity prayer whose rhyme sounded fascinating but whose import I never grasped until much later in life:
God grant me
The serenity to accept the things I cannot change
The courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference
For most of us, especially in the area of business, finance and relationships (communication), we lack the wisdom to know the difference. We ask for serenity to wait for the things we can change to change by themselves. According to the late Jim Rohn, acclaimed as America’s foremost business philosopher;
– If you will change, everything will change
– To have more, you need to become more
– Don’t wish for things to get easier, wish that you get better
– Don’t wish for less problems, wish for more skills
– Success is something you attract by the person you become. Success is not something you pursue. Success is something you attract by becoming an attractive person
The summary is that you have to set yourself up for success by working on yourself. You prepare for war in time of peace. The outbreak of war is not the time to enrol in the Defence Academy. That is too late. God will pass the ball, but it is your responsibility to score the goal. If you are not ready and prepared, no matter how beautiful the pass, you will miss the shot.
Let me give you a simple illustration. A building contractor believes God for a financial breakthrough, and daily bombards Heaven with his request, doing all he knows how to ask. Let’s say the opportunity presents itself and he messes up the job. He becomes an embarrassment to the person who linked him up to get the job. He will not be given other jobs, and no amount of prayer and fasting will change things. A story goes that when the male lion wakes up in the morning, he stretches, announces his presence with a bone chilling roar and prays a simple prayer:
God, show me the animal that is my lunch today and leave the rest to me.
Our success in 2013 will depend on how much we cooperate with Heaven. Prayer, giving and confession alone are not enough. Faith without work is dead. We have to roll up our sleeves and change the things we can.
We need a new mindset, new thoughts, attitudes and beliefs about ourselves. We need new goals – spiritual, mental, physical, financial, relationship, career etc. We need new skills, new habits, new information, and new way of looking at things. What we have so far has brought us this far. We have reached the last bus stop and the bus is not going farther than this. To move forward, we have to leave the old bus and join a new bus. We have to leave the old behind and embrace the new. We cannot do the same old things and expect a new result. We have to raise our standards. We have to go where we have not gone before and do what we have not done before. We need to go the extra mile. We need to exceed our former limits. We need to move to the next level.
Our best years are ahead of us. They will not manifest through slogans for the year only. It is when opportunity meets preparation that miracles happen. The supernatural happens when the super meets the natural. We have encompassed this mountain long enough. It is time to blow the trumpet and move camp. We can make 2013 the best year of our life and 2014 even better. Happy New Year!
Usiere Uko is editor of www.financialfreedominspiration.com and author of Practical Steps to Financial Freedom and Independence – www.amazon.com/Practical-Steps-Financial-Freedom-Independence/dp/147006832X .
While growing up in my early days as a Christian, I always imagined what it would mean to have eternal life. The mystery that surrounded the never ending life would leave me in wonder. To live on and on and on was the common thought that went on in my mind. I must be frank there wasn’t so much attraction to it asides from the curiosity of wondering what we would be doing living on and on and on. As a kid, I knew I could get tired of playing basketball after a long while so you would understand my part interest. The other attraction to it; as it were, was that the idea of perishing or living a temporary life wasn’t so fanciful either.
Then, gradually I came to realise that eternal life meant the very life of God. This time the thought of being called to be a partaker of God’s life was too good to be true. But it was evidently written all over scriptures. I couldn’t wait to partake of this life. Like so many others, I couldn’t suffer in this life and suffer in the hereafter too. ‘Let me take all the suffering I can knowing that a glorious life awaits me’, I concluded.
The concept of heaven suddenly turned to an afterlife destination. I tried to make myself qualify for the race to make this destination known as heaven. I thought of how beautiful it would be to finally lay aside this life and put on the glorious life of God. I thought of the ‘other fellowship’ in heaven in this light in the various songs in praise to God.
Gradually, the reality of living in the reality of who we have been made came. The concept of heaven changed from a destination I would do all to get to. But rather to what I have been made to partake of in Christ Jesus. I tried to live out this life by every means possible till I realised I was helpless and really needed help. I kept becoming born again, again and again because I felt I needed a fresh start – a new beginning, a new slate.
But thank God for illumination by his word which brings me to our discourse today which is: living the reality of sonship today not tomorrow; on earth and not in heaven. Let me illustrate this a little by saying that I am yet to see a soldier at the war front who decides to save up ammunition so that he could have some to take back home. The home has no need for his ammunition. What was given to him is meant to be used and used urgently at that.
As Christians, Titus says how we are to live in this present world
“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” Tit 2:11 – 12 NKJV.
We are saved to live out the glorious life we have received right now and not later. The world is meant to see the gradual unfolding of the Sons of God. Rapture shouldn’t be an escape route due to our being battered, shattered or frittered by just about anything on earth. It should be likened to the eager yearning of soldiers who have conquered and held the frontlines (and possibly even extended it).
Quite a number of times I have been drawn into waiting to get to heaven to finally live right as no act of goodness is possible here on earth. But friends, this is far from the truth. We are not called to live in desperation or frustration rather we are called to live in the victorious reality of all that Christ has obtained for us.
“But now in a single victorious stroke of Life, all three–sin, guilt, death–are gone, the gift of our Master, Jesus Christ. Thank God! With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.” 1st Cor. 15: 57 – 58 MSG
Our salvation is now and the reality of all that we have become ought to be displayed now. We have been packed full and packed deep to be a sign and a wonder. We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.
We were created a wondrous spectacle for the angelic hosts of heaven WHICH WE ARE!!! The question is ‘Are we living in the consciousness of this reality?’
“God, who is the Creator of all things, kept his secret hidden through all the past ages, in order that at the present time, by means of the church, the angelic rulers and powers in the heavenly world might learn of his wisdom in all its different forms.” Eph 3:10 GNB.
Someone said that no matter how terrible situation of things are, the lion never eats grass. I tend to think of that in line with the believer. We are not cockroaches or rats neither are we squirrels hiding in holes till an opportune time. Rapture is not what ought to distinguish me from the unbeliever but our distinction should be evident now.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (is a command that still reverberates even up till now). Matt 5: 16 KJV.
It is important to realise that these things do not fall on one like ripe cherries. There needs to be an expression of the reality that we have attained to in the inner man.
These find expression by engaging ourselves in exercises that would renew our mindset in line with the above.
I trust that you would find this out through a constant study of God’s word as it is clearly made plain for all to see.
Cheers.
-Dr. Bolaji Akanni
And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some. And this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I might be partaker thereof with [you]. 1 Corinthians 9:20-23
Jesus is not coming to walk the face of the earth again. But praise God, He is still here – in you. People need not look for Him anymore for He is evidently displayed in you.
Is he?
The brevity of the question bellies the utmost importance it connotes. Is Christ seen in your everyday life? Is he heard in your private conversations/is he perceived in your presence? Is he felt in your touch? Is he tasted in your attitude? Is Christ the reason for your living? Are you ready to say “not the I but the You in me”? Are folks readily introduced to the overwhelming grace of God? Are you forward to let known the reason of the hope in you?
You may likely be anxious about how your message will be received. But let these words of the apostle Paul be to you an encouragement.
But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Acts 20:23-24
– gideon gbeja
