GOOD DAYS
Blessed be God for showing us mercies again the last quarter. Many of us were faced with all kinds of threats, dangers, challenges and difficulties but the LORD saw us through. There is so much to thank Him for. He protected us and provided for us. He kept us in the faith and kept us growing and going forward. He kept our families together when many marriages are breaking up. He gave us peace both in the day and in the night. Our going out and our coming in was blessed, our children were shielded from every harm, our wives did not have miscarriages, etc. When others were talking of a casting down we were testifying of a lifting up. The keepers of Israel neither slept nor slumbered over any of us. We are beginning to see the new things He said He will do for us this time. For all these and many more we need to truly show Him our heartfelt gratitude. To Him be all honour and glory and praise. Stop a while and honour Him and pledge to Him your loyalty giving Him thanks and praise and dedicate your life afresh to follow Him as you enter this new quarter.Blessed be God for showing us mercies again the last quarter. Many of us were faced with all kinds of threats, dangers, challenges and difficulties but the LORD saw us through. There is so much to thank Him for. He protected us and provided for us. He kept us in the faith and kept us growing and going forward. He kept our families together when many marriages are breaking up. He gave us peace both in the day and in the night. Our going out and our coming in was blessed, our children were shielded from every harm, our wives did not have miscarriages, etc. When others were talking of a casting down we were testifying of a lifting up. The keepers of Israel neither slept nor slumbered over any of us. We are beginning to see the new things He said He will do for us this time. For all these and many more we need to truly show Him our heartfelt gratitude. To Him be all honour and glory and praise. Stop a while and honour Him and pledge to Him your loyalty giving Him thanks and praise and dedicate your life afresh to follow Him as you enter this new quarter.
GOOD DAYS My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.(Prov. 3:1-2 KJV)
By now you must have discovered that one of God’s greatest and key provisions and gifts for life is time. Man seems to take for granted many of God’s greatest provisions because they cost them nothing and they assume they will always be there. So, many take the air they breathe for granted, etc. Above all, they take time for granted and so do not really appreciate it and give gratitude to the Giver, guard it jealously and make the most of it, especially their Day. But by now you should be able to treasure time and appreciate it more, guard it jealously and exploit it fully for maximum profit. This “My son” Proverb quoted above, like all others like it, should not be taken lightly by any son, or daughter, who wants to succeed in life. The Father wants you to succeed but if you must do, then you must pay attention to His teachings and remember His commands. It is by these that the sons and daughters will have a good long life with peace. Length of days talk not of only a long life but also days that are lengthy and peaceful and so profitable. One of the greatest needs of every growing person is time. You have 24 hours every day but as if they are always short and never enough. One reason is because the hours and minutes are not wisely applied for the right things and sometimes the days become full of troubles and without peace so that nothing much is achieved. There can be too many reasons for this but the fact is that the days are ‘shortened’ and full of troubles so that even though your years may be long, in the end not much is achieved. You must pray about this. You need length of days and a long life full of peace without much troubles and distractions if you will post success in life.
For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile: Let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and ensue it. (1 Pet. 3:10-11)
Again, you should want to enjoy good life and have good days full of peace and quiet. This will not come automatically. So there are instructions here for you to follow. Instructions about your tongue and relating with others and seeking for peace and helping people live peacefully. This means that good days, full of peace and blessings will not just be. You need to pray about it and pursue it because someone wants to waste your life and days in troubles, disquiet, tension, confusion, etc. You must pray and watch against these and insist that your days are good and that you live a good and quiet life. Now even when evil days come they will not last and will not really affect your day adversely because you are already for warned and for armed. There is an evil day for everyone.
Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil days, and having done all, to stand. (Eph. 6:13 NKJV)
There is a day of evil when the hosts of Satan are particularly active and vicious in a believer’s life. On such a day you just find that things are not going well; you may just find yourself unhappy and just not able to get along with others, as if you got up from the wrong side of the bed, etc. If you do not put on the whole armour of God, resist and steadfastly withstand the enemy, such days can prolong and you can be pushed to transfer aggression to others, get wearied and tired and can even get depressed. All of these are attempts to rob you of joy and a good life and steal your time and make you unproductive. It can even make you an agent of the enemy. Friend, you need to desire good days, a peaceful, quiet and productive life. Pray about this and refuse a life full of rancour, noise, troubles, contradictions, etc. This is not the will of God and it is designed to steal your time and make you fruitless and unprofitable to both God and man.
YOUR DAY – TIME STEALERS III We have seen that we must redeem the time because the days are evil. This means we must buy up and use every opportunity for doing good and pursuing God and our mandates. You need to live deliberately and carefully knowing that your time can be stolen with great consequences. If money or jewelry is stolen, such can be replaced but if time is stolen it cannot be recouped. That is why you must prioritize, give the best time to the weightiest matters of your life and proceed diligently and steadily and orderly with the help of the Holy Spirit. All the way and all the time you must be on guard and watchful against time stealers. We have already seen how the enemy can steal your time directly. We will now look at other time stealers.
LAZINESS The Oxford Dictionaries simply define laziness as “the quality of being unwilling to work or use energy; idleness”. It includes, indolence, procrastination, over active and busy but achieving nothing. The Proverbs and other parts of the Word of God are filled with instructions about laziness. We shall examine a few of them here:
The lazy man says, “There is a lion in the road!A fierce lion is in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges,So does the lazy man on his bed. The lazy man buries his hand in the bowl;* It wearies him to bring it back to his mouth. The lazy man is wiser in his own eyesThan seven men who can answer sensibly.(Prov. 26:13-16 NKJV)
From the above Scriptures, it can be seen that a lazy man (the sluggard) is not enthusiastic to go and confront the business of the day. So he is usually full of talk (excuses). He also imagines that there is a fierce lion roaming the streets. He sees oppositions and obstacles and is always feeling threatened and afraid. He does not want to go outside the house and get engaged. This fellow is already defeated inside and does not take bold steps in faith, so accomplishes little or nothing. This lazy man (the sluggard) is tied to his bed. He just turns here and there like a door turns on its hinges but seems trapped and cannot get out of bed. Bed is for sleep and rest and this is quite renewing, refreshing and profitable when done at the right time and for the correct length of time. But a man that loves the bed and loves sleep is a lazy man and will come to poverty. You must check that the bed and sleep is not robbing you of time you need to work. When a man is sleeping he cannot be working. When you are asleep you are in a semi conscious state and cannot be doing any real work. It is good to sleep and get out of bed and go and get engaged and be productive. You must not be a door turning about a point but making no forward movement. Lazy people sometimes are too lazy to lift the food from the plate to their mouth. They cannot even feed themselves. Such people spend so much time eating and doing simple ordinary chores. Sometimes they also love ease and pleasure. Some of them are spend thrifts who like to enjoy what other people produce but produce nothing themselves. The lazy man is conceited. He is wiser in his own eyes than seven men with good sense. He indulges in delusions of grandeur and has an inflated view of himself and his importance. Such people are not humble and are not practical and most times are dreaming rather than toiling. They may even call it faith but they are unproductive and making no progress in their purpose in life. Friend, watch this because it can lead to mental disorders. It will definitely steal away your time.
He who is slothful in his work is a brother to him who is a great waster. (Prov. 18:9)
A slothful person is slack in his work and often careless. Such destroys things and is a waster. Instead of building and gathering, he pulls down, destroys and scatters. This is a matter. Watch it! Do you discover that you are destructive – spoils things, breaks plates and other things, wastes things, etc. that is a sign of slothfulness and this may be robbing you of precious time because many times you may have to repeat things, repeat lessons, etc. and so waste time.He who has a slack hand becomes poor, But the hand of the diligent makes rich. He who gathers in summer is a wise son; He who sleeps in harvest is a son who causes shame. (Prov. 10:4-5 NKJV)
Friend, take note of all these. A man with a slack hand who does not hold things firmly and handle things properly will become poor. But a diligent man who is hard working, thorough and makes a steady effort will be rich. Such will do the right things at the right time. He will gather in summer like the ants do and will not sleep in harvest, shame, embarrassment and failure will not be his portion. (Please study also Proverbs 6:9-12; 12:11; 12:24; 14:23; 19:15; 24:30-34; 2 Thess. 3:6-16, and others). Laziness is a great time stealer and a great waster. Stop putting off what you can do now till later. Also do not be very busy brimming here and there without tangible results. You must now push at the fulcrum and apply your heart and all your strength to the assignment before you. Pray and trust God, correct what needs to be corrected, get out of that bed of laziness and His grace will help you to get engaged and post results. God bless.