Author: admin

Do you have a safety net adequately surrounding your life? Are you prepared should you unexpectedly stumble? Everyone makes mistakes. We are all vulnerable to occasional setbacks. The question is not whether we can avoid stumbling but, how quickly and successfully can we get back on our feet? The key is the safety net of godly friends and counselors we place around ourselves.

Godly friends do not gather around you haphazardly or of their own accord. They must be recruited and cultivated. But they are supremely worth the effort. When you make a mistake or show bad judgment, they will be at the ready to help you get back on track. They will offer sound advice. They will come to your aid. They will believe in you and cheer you on as you get back to your feet. What confidence it should give us to know that, should we fail, there are those ready to stand with us through thick and thin.

It is a different story for the ungodly. They have friends as long as things are going well. While there is a party, people crowd around them. But when adversity strikes, such companions evaporate like the morning dew. Those who developed casual, shallow relationships will discover to their dismay that they melt away in times of trial and adversity. When the wicked stumble, great is their fall.

Few things are less agreeable than someone who is continually critical of others. Yet there are people whose greatest pleasure is mocking the efforts of others. You can find them holding court wherever they can find an audience. They will go to great lengths to laugh at what others are doing. No fault is too small to highlight. No shortcoming too minor to shout from the mountaintop.

To make matters worse, such people are often better at criticizing others than they are at performing superior work themselves. Scoffers are often driven by the misguided belief that by putting down others, they somehow lift themselves up in peoples’ eyes. If everyone else looks stupid, then they must appear brilliant.

But the fact is that scoffers leave a bad taste in peoples’ mouths. Criticism and mockery drain the soul. It quenches the spirit. It views life through a negative, dark lens. The only ones who enjoy listening to the constant banter of a scoffer are shallow, small people who delight in demeaning others. Don’t allow yourself to be drawn into their huddle. Wise people avoid such gatherings and topics. If, however, you find yourself attracted to such bitter venting, beware. At first you may only be a passive member of the audience. But before long you will develop a scoffer’s heart as well. Watch out for scoffers, for their words are poison to your soul.

It is extremely easy to make a mistake! In fact, you can make many without even trying! Some errors are not serious. We brush them off and keep on moving forward. Others can be devastating, for us and for those we lead. In some cases, one mistake is enough to ruin us. One costly error can cripple or destroy an entire organization. While we cannot inoculate ourselves from errors, there is much we can do to avoid big mistakes.

Scripture repeatedly advises that there is great wisdom in gathering advisors around us. One trusted friend is helpful. The value of many candid counselors is inestimable.

Most people “connect” with certain kinds of people. Often they are the ones who act and think like we do. Sometimes they are older, more experienced colleagues or people with expertise in areas where we are largely ignorant. We can be tempted to be content with minimal counselors. After all, seeking advice takes time. Touching base with one or two trusted friends may be all the time we think we have. We may have a deadline to meet or many responsibilities to fulfill. We may think: Seeking counsel is good, but getting the job done is most important.

Yet getting the job done is not as critical as getting the job done, correctly and efficiently. Without gaining proper counsel, we may meet the deadline but we may also suffer from mediocrity or worse. If you cultivate effective counselors in your life and work, seeking their advice need not be cumbersome or time-consuming. Actively develop a system of wise counselors around you. It could be the most important job you do.

Few things are as rewarding as children who honor their parents. We can accumulate many rewards and honors over the years, but they don’t compare to offspring who love and respect their parents.

The challenge for some is that they invest their time and energy into winning the respect of their peers and colleagues but not in earning trust and devotion from their children. Such people would do anything for their colleagues but are preoccupied when dealing with their family. No problem is too great at work, but household issues are draining. There is a way to beget a wise child: pour wisdom into them. If we want our children to respect us, we must relate to them in a respectable manner.

Likewise, as children, we have the power to bring enormous blessing to our parents. Living wisely brings them honor. Expressing gratitude and appreciation to them bestows great blessing. Conversely, living foolishly dishonors those who gave us birth.

How is the way you are living bringing honor to your parents? How is the present way you are raising your children sowing seeds of future honor for you?

Though our souls may be reborn from above, our flesh continues to suffer from its contamination with the fallen world!. Our carnal flesh constantly desires to satisfy its every whim. Food and drink are two of the most powerful temptations we can indulge in, but there are many available to us.

Some practice constant self-control over their body and its appetites. Others willingly and carelessly surrender themselves to whatever they desire at the moment. Stay away from such people. Those who joke about how much they overeat or those who brag about the level of drunkenness they attained are fools. They demonstrate disdain for their Creator by the way they abuse their bodies. They disrespect themselves through their lack of self-control. They also endanger others by luring them to join them in their abandonment of restraint.

While people may boast of their parties and wild merriment, there is a price to be paid. Such lack of self-control ultimately leads to ruin. If people cannot control themselves, how can they be entrusted with the care of others? If people would abuse their own precious body, what else might they treat carelessly? Beware those who live in excess!

One of the greatest joys in life is developing the ability to do something with excellence. Performing average or mediocre work is commonplace. It occurs every day in every corner of society. It is what we generally expect of people. Many people function from the attitude that they should do as little as possible to achieve the maximum reward. How sad that we are pleasantly surprised when people actually provide services for us with excellence.

Most people do not realize, or care, that they rob people every time they give them less than their best. People deserve, and need, our best. Society can only achieve what God intended when people rise up and offer their God-given excellence to others. To give less is to shortchange people and to dishonor God. What a burden to have to “make due” with someone’s half-hearted effort.

What a joy it is, however, when we receive the gift of excellence. This happens when someone goes the second mile to serve us. It occurs when people refuse to offer us less than their best. When we encounter people who do things with excellence, we want to be around them! We want to hire them! We want to make use of their skills, and attitude, as often as possible.

Are you known as someone who always gives your best? Do people recognize the high quality of your work? Is your work performed at a higher standard than the mediocrity of your peers? When you excel in your work, there will always be another opportunity waiting for you in the future.

What’s in a name? Everything. Biblically, peoples’ names reflected their character. To learn their name was to know what they were like. That is why when God transformed people such as Saul of Tarsus or Jacob the deceiver; God issued them a new name.

Unfortunately, there are people who are careless with their name. As long as they get what they want, they are indifferent to what people think about them. As a result, people know them as pushy, rude, self-centered, or a bully.

Christians ought to live their lives with a keen awareness that their behavior reflects on Christ’s name. When people relate to them, they ought to come away from that encounter impressed with Christ. How sad, that many in the world today have a mistakenly low view of Christ because of their experience with one of His followers.

We may think we are just “doing business” or “getting the job done” when we treat people harshly or rudely. But we are not. We are, in fact, letting people know what we are really like. Every word we speak. Every action we take. Every encounter with people is establishing our reputation. Are you comfortable with the way people view your life? Does it honor Christ?

Wise people thoroughly prepare for upcoming challenges. They take nothing for granted. They are meticulous with every detail. They do their homework. They leave no loose ends. But, at the end of the day, they astutely acknowledge that God will work out His sovereign purposes, regardless of what they have done.

If God is not on our side, it matters not what preparations we have made. Our ultimate trust, therefore, cannot be in our own plans, however meticulous they may be, but in our God. No plan can outmaneuver God’s will. Likewise, no defense is foolproof if God is not actively working on our behalf. With God we are invincible. Without Him, nothing is secure.

Likewise, it is foolish to assume that, because you walk with God, you should not also thoroughly prepare yourself. God often lets us reap what we have sown. Nevertheless, after we have done everything we can to prepare ourselves, we ultimately place our trust in God. Those who have fully prepared and who are also wholly trusting in God are a formidable foe.

God does not need our offerings nor is He dependent upon our worship. It is we who are desperate to worship our Creator. At times we can act as if any old worship is acceptable to God. In fact, considering our busy schedules, God ought to be pleased we took the time to stop by the church and attend a service at all!

Today, God’s people act as if God must adjust Himself to their tastes and schedules. We determine what our offering to God will be and assume He will be pleased with it. But the reality is that we do not worship or serve God on our terms, but on His. He determines what is acceptable. Furthermore, it is not merely our sacrifice that is the key, but our heart. We could submit one billions dollars worth of gold coins to God as a sacrifice, yet He would view it as rubbish, if our heart was wrong or our motives impure.

God has no price tag. He does not compromise His standards based on the size of the gift He receives. He detests sin in any form, at any time. If we are attempting to serve God or offer Him our sacrifices with a sinful heart, we are wasting our time. God will not look past our sin to our offering. Our sin will instead transform our gift into an abomination.

God can afford to reject our gift. We cannot afford for God to no longer listen to our prayers. How delighted is God with the offerings you have been giving to Him lately?

Great accomplishments seldom arise from meager planning. It is foolish to assume that we will accomplish much without solid preparation. Great accomplishments tend to result from solid planning. Rarely do haphazard, last minute efforts achieve the spectacular.

Many people believe in planning, they just never have the time to do it! Typically that is symptomatic of people who are either lazy or investing themselves in the wrong things. We generally do have time to do what is most important, if we will steer clear of the less crucial tasks. But planning also takes hard work. We must first be diligent to get today’s tasks completed so we have time to plan for tomorrow. If we are constantly bogged down in yesterday’s concerns, we will have no time to prepare for tomorrow.

Planning is also something that does not cry out to us as being urgent. So we feel we can put it off until later when we have more time. Such thinking leaves us embroiled in the urgent issues of today that clamor for our attention while neglecting the essential work of preparation that will determine our ultimate success.

Are you prepared for tomorrow? What thought have you given to it? How diligently are you planning for what is to come?