Welcome to 2017.
Here is the second set of salient points from my blog posts last year 2016:
22. Since we have been recipients and beneficiaries of God’s grace, we should also extend the same grace to our fellow believers.
23. Grace has brought you and me into a new existence in which it is our responsibility to bear other people’s burdens. That is also a facet of grace in action. As we do this, we fulfil God’s directive, God is pleased, we will be fulfilling the reason for our existence and people’s lives will be touched by our lives.
24. God holds us responsible for our actions in our lives and since you are responsible for your matters, there is no reason to compare yourself with anyone else. Evaluate your life in the light of the word of God. That is the kind of appraisal God expects of us: sincere self-examination devoid of deception. Proper self-appraisal is one of the processes God uses to make diamonds out of us as He refines us and helps us identify areas of improvement.
25. Sowing and reaping is a reality of life, a divinely instituted principle that remains perpetually in operation. It has implications in time and eternity and emphasizes to us the weight of our choices. Learn to sow the right seeds. Sow to the Spirit and you will reap a bountiful harvest of life.
26. We need consistency in sowing the right seed. A proper season of harvest is coming. God has perfect timing. He ensures that things fit into His plans accurately. So don’t give up and don’t let anything dissuade you from carrying on in sowing the right seeds. Remain consistent in sowing the right seed.
27. Don’t merely wear the cross as a pendant on a necklace or use it only as a piece of art hung up in your house. Draw confidence in life from what the cross of Jesus Christ represents to you-God’s love displayed, God’s grace in operation, God’s eternal plan brought to fulfilment, full payment for our sins, eternal redemption for our souls, newness of life as liberated sons of the Most High God. Let that be your ground and foundation for life.
28. We have a God who is Almighty and All Powerful. He is not agitated or disturbed by the efforts of adversaries. His plans cannot be thwarted. His power cannot be withstood. Even when an assorted conglomerate of opposition forces aggregate against Him, God laughs!
29. A) There is a deep void in man that only God can satisfy. There is an emptiness is man’s soul that only God can fill. There is a “God-sized hole” in every human being that only the living God can fill.
b) For believers in Christ Jesus, at salvation we enter a wonderful love relationship with God which needs to be nurtured in deep intimacy and longing. Rise above complacency, busy schedules, distractions, entertainment and other pleasures to an increasing experience of intense desire and longing for the living God.
30. God wants His people to excel both in inward character and outward behaviour. He has not called us to simply drift through life. God desires that we abound in our lives. He has not called us to a life of mediocrity or lethargy. Whatever stage you are in life, God is calling you to abound. God’s desire is for you to excel and He has given us resources to enable us achieve just that.
31. The biblical perspective of striving for excellence is different from the secular perspective. Striving for excellence is not a desire for superiority over others. It is not about competing with other people. It is about being the best that God has called us to be utilizing all that God has given us. Never be satisfied because you appear to be better than others. Don’t settle for the status quo or set the bar so low when God wants you to abound much more. Strive to be the best that God has called you to be.
32. While striving for excellence, adopt a disposition that views excellence as a direction and not a final destination. Always remember, you have not “arrived”. You are not at your final destination yet. Focus on the process (excellence) and then the product (success) is assured. Go on striving for excellence and God will bless the endeavor with success.
33. The springboard from which you should reach for excellence as a child of God is an understanding that God has already placed His seed of excellence in you. You have a divine enablement that should propel you in your pursuits in life. Go ahead and give expression to God’s seed of excellence in you. I say to you just as Paul wrote to the Corinthians and Thessalonians, “Go ahead and excel!”
34. Striving for excellence requires some crucial internal attitudes:
a. Determination: Desire alone many times is not enough to sustain us as we strive for excellence. Talent, ability or giftedness is also not enough. Education and training alone are also not enough. It requires determination.
b. Faith in God: Our determination must be alloyed with faith in God for us to walk in excellence. In fact for the believer, it is our faith in God that should fuel our determination. Faith in God enables us to look forward to the endless possibilities no matter our current or even past circumstances. God is who He says He is, He can do what He says He can do and you are who He says you are. You have to accept all these realities and walk in excellence by faith!
c. Humility: True humility is an attitude of not having any exaggerated opinion of one’s self but accepting God’s estimation. Humility keeps us teachable. Humility makes us seek to improve and abound further as we walk in excellence.
35. Only a practice of personal communion with God helps us build confidence in Him and ensures that we have no other recourse but God Himself even in our great trials.
36. Believers in Christ Jesus ought to have a settled assurance of God’s blessings and favor. We should have the divine perspective that God’s blessings and favor are ours already. If God has blessed, no one can reverse it! No hordes of hell or human machinations can change that. You can say in the words of the Psalmist: "I am blessed, blessed by the Lord; His favor surrounds me like a shield"
37. God created man with the ability to make choices. Every choice has its consequence. This is the reality of life as God has designed it. You are where you are in life today as a result of choices you have made in the past.
38. Simple choices when repeated become patterns that form character. We are usually in control before we make choices but sometimes once choices are made, those choices then control us. Eventually our choices go a long way in determining our successes or failures in different aspects of our lives.
39. Factors that influence us to make wrong choices include uncontrolled emotions, physical conditions like hunger, anger, loneliness and tiredness, pressure from others or peers, impatience/hastiness, the trap of instant or immediate gratification and Substance use.
40. 5 practical steps in making right choices: Choose to follow explicit commands of Scripture, Choose to follow clear promptings by the Holy Spirit, Choose to follow principles from the Word of God, Choose to approach the right people for advice, Choose to pray.
41. Along with acceptance, security and purpose, identity is a basic human psychological need. Identity developed from childhood into adulthood guides the future construction of adulthood. The choices we make are usually determined by our sense of identity.
42. Your true identity is not about what you do, how you look, what you have or do not have, or what other people say about you. Your true identity is in who God has made you and how He sees you. Your true identity is not based on feelings but on spiritual facts and realities. This true identity of God’s children is clearly elucidated for us in the Scriptures and confirmed to our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
43. Our spiritual union with Christ should form the basis of the believer’s identity. Rather than follow people’s opinions or the perceptions of culture about our identity, we should focus more and more on who God says we are in Christ Jesus. You are more than just how you look. You are more than the things you own, or what people say or think of you. You are who God says you are. So, dear child of God, fill your mind with the realities of your union with Christ and let these facts form the basis of your sense of identity.
As we begin this year, I seize this opportunity to remind you that our God is unchanging in His unending grace and everlasting love toward you even in the midst of life's uncertainties. I have chosen "All He Says I Am" by Cody Carnes as my song for the week. May our hearts be drawn in passionate pursuit of God as His Spirit floods us with the knowledge of His will and may we walk in abundance as He leads us into greater depths and richer experiences of His grace. Amen.
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