I fancy playing some team sports when I’ve got the time to. Maybe on a picnic or sometimes just wanting to break some sweat. But one thing I notice they all have in common (Soccer, Basketball, Volleyball, etc) is the change of attitude a player has when he switches sides. Take for instance player A in team A is suddenly told to change over and join team B, thus becoming his former teammates opponents.
Now he may have teamed well with his former players but now he has to advance strongly AGAINST them. He is suddenly employing all that he has to score against his former team.
As Christians that kind of mindset should permeate our being especially in view of repentance.
No longer are we advancing the same course with respect to our former ways which are in disharmony with the word of God. Paul had this to say about the Thessalonians Church …“and how you turned to God from your idols to serve a God Who is alive and true and genuine, and how you look forward to and await the coming of His Son from heaven, Whom he raised from the dead – Jesus,”
Consider the phrase “turn around” and “look forward”. This connotes a complete reversal of thought.
I love the way Paul conveyed this in the book of Corinthians. “When you became distressed in a godly way, look at how much devotion it caused you to have. You were ready to clear yourselves of the charges against you. You were disgusted with the wrong that had been done. You were afraid. You wanted to see us. You wanted to show your concern for us. You were ready to punish the wrong that had been done. In every way you have demonstrated that you are people who are innocent in this matter.”
A clause I must however add at this juncture is this: We walk by faith and not by sight. Our turn around must be established on the Word of God. It is a turn around with the word of God before us; not just antagonizing all we ever did, but viewing all in the light of God’s word.
Enjoy your game but don’t let this mindset ever escape you.
– Dr bolaji akanni
I once saw a sticker in a friend’s room that read – ‘This year, it is my turn to shine’. So I asked him – ‘whose turn will it be next year?’ He said, ‘well, I may also shine, but it will be more evident this year’. He appeared to sure of this year, but not of the subsequent years. His words made me remember Proverbs 4:18 – “The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine” (MSG).
It’s not God’s intention that we flourish in turns just as birds don’t wait for one another before they can fly. There is enough room for all of us. Our ‘tomorrow’ should always be better than our ‘today’. When we say ‘the good old days’, it should be because we are experiencing ‘the better new days’.
Can a fish say – “this year, it is my turn to swim”? It doesn’t make sense right? We have to exercise care to ensure that we do not keep on treating the rule as the exception. The default makeup of a believer is that he would always shine. 2 Corinthians 2:14 makes us understand that we serve a God who always causes us to triumph in Christ.
However, there is a reason why we sometimes have rising and falling experiences. We were taught initially in school that the sun rises from the east and sets in the west. A further study revealed that the sun does not rise, but because the earth is constantly rotating, we have day and night depending on which part of the earth faces the sun. Such is the case with our experiences with God; all his resources have been made constantly available to all believers in immeasurable quantities, we are the ones who are always changing our principles, thought patterns and actions.
Beloved, the ball is in our court. As long as we are not meandering between conflicting principles and keep our eyes steadfast on Jesus plus his ways of doing things, we can be very sure that “the longer we live, the brighter we shine”.
tope aladenusi