SAYING YES!

You're the only one who can say YES to you ALL THE TIME. If you keep saying NO to your unfolding ideas, then ALL hope is lost.
People will say YES to you only after you've said YES to yourself. They may not be a TOTAL 100% YES but your YES will be just enough to take you ALL the WAY.

On Life: The pain's only temporary

When we face difficult times, maybe the loss of a loved one, a natural disaster, a horrifying saga or the loss of love, etc. the tendency is to think that the pain's gonna last forever.
Yesterday, a Doc friend explained to me the struggles a baby goes through at birth. How contractions make them uncomfortable inside such that they just want to get out. How their skulls contract and expand at birth. How they look for their first breath after birth and cry as a sign of joy when they find it. She said to me, 'babies look so tender and frail but they are very strong'.
Going back, that's you some decades ago. You made it out and have continued to make it through life. You've outlasted the challenges, that's why you're reading this. If they outlasted you, you'd be 6ft beneath by now.
Don't say 'but Benny you don't know how big this new challenge is'. My friend it's not so different from the others for a man's oppositions always are commensurate to his ability. That's what my bible says.
So cheer up and let a smile through for the pain you feel right now is only TEMPORARY.
#temporarypain
#thistoowillpass
#youwillstillbestanding
#bennysavedbygrace

ON LIFE: SUCCESS AND FAILURE

The Story

I use a Nokia phone and they are known for their battery power, so I usually don’t have to swap SIMS or batteries or anything like that. There’s something else of note about my phone. The SIM slot only allows what they call a broken SIM card (it’s actually tinier). It happens then, that my battery disappoints me, or I just didn’t charge it when I should have and the phone goes off. I’ve got some important calls to make, and more important ones to receive so I have to think fast. I have another phone whose battery is charged but a little different from this one. Its SIM slot requires a full SIM card not the broken one. It looks like a challenge at first. How do I make it fit in and respond like it should? Well ‘I’ll just try’, I thought. I fixed it and it responds. I say to me, ‘that was a lot easier than I expected’.

Then the situation repeats itself a few days later and I know what to do, or so I think. I’ll just take the broken SIM and slide it into the other phone with the full SIM slot and Life’s Good. I fix it ‘like I did the last time’ but there’s no response. I take it out and fix it again, trying to adjust it a little, yet, no response. I take it out a third time and this time I’m more involved, more careful, more intentional. This third time, I am more determined, more focused, more patient. I wasn’t thinking ‘it ought to work’. I was thinking ‘what am I not doing right?’ and ‘how can I make it work?’ and this third time, it responds and for my life’s drama, I learned yet a few simple lessons.

The Lessons

1. You learn from failure, the same way you learn from success

2. As important as it is to forget about the failures of the past, you also need to forget about the successes of the past if having more success is your goal

3. When you succeed you learn that it is possible. When you fail, you learn that there are rules.

4. You’ve heard them say that ‘that you failed at something doesn’t make you a failure’. It is also true that ‘that you succeed at something doesn’t make you a success’. Success or failure goes beyond events and occurrences. They are a reflection of the character of a man’s spirit.

5. If you will look closely at the tiny little things of life, you will learn a great deal about the big deals of life.

#eyesonthegoal

On Choices: DEALING WITH TEMPTATION (ADULTERY)

I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman? (Job 31:1)
Being faithful to your spouse is a choice that starts with a decision. It doesn’t happen suddenly. You don’t get there by praying or fasting (although these may help). You don’t even arrive at marital integrity by confessing and repenting. Unfaithfulness in marriage begins with the idea that it is an OPTION. An option people consider when their spouse 'isn’t available', close by, ‘no longer attractive enough’, too busy, always tired, or any of those pathetic excuses people use in self-defense. When you are unfaithful to your spouse, it has the same effect of allowing a tiny hole on your clothes without stitching it up. It opens the door to more difficult issues in your marriage that affect your finances, kids, spirituality, the future of your family and much more.
Job was the wealthiest man that lived in his day, yet he would not be so intoxicated with his wealth to think of adultery as his pass-time like men do today. The man was actually afraid of the thought, no wonder he had the kind of life he had. If you only knew what adultery has caused families; how it has destroyed estates, ruined innocent children’s lives and shattered hearts in untold dimensions, you will look away from that temptation and make a DECISION.
Here’s how you can do that… submit yourself to the Lordship of God’s word, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
While you work at it remember, Nothing and no one has power over you that you did not give to them.
#SMF

On Life: To the Single Ladies and sundry- The V doesn’t mean as much

As I studied God’s response to Job this morning, a number of things got my attention about nature.
As ladies, we are wont to desire men who have the V, tall, dark, handsome, etc. It all falls in the list right?
Well here’s God’s poem describing the Buffalo’s strength;
“Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you, volunteer to spend the night in your barn?
Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo and getting him to till your fields?
He’s hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him, would you dare turn the job over to him?
You wouldn’t for a minute depend on him, would you, to do what you said when you said it? (Job 39:9-12 Msg)
Consider the Buffalo and learn wisdom. He’s hugely strong, yet cannot be trusted. Dear lady, it’s time to shred that 'list' and ask God for His perfect will to be done in your life. It's the safest place.
‪#‎Matchosdontalwayswinbattles‬’.
‪#‎SMF‬

On Life: Dealing with difficulty; a Lesson from Job

After his servants came to him with all the terrible news of the evil that had befallen him, the bible says 'Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped'.(Job 1:20)
Job worshiped God for loosing everything? An anomaly of some kind to the human mind, but the wisdom of God in truth. When we face dire impossible situations, our first response usually is to whine and murmur and complain to those around. Talking about it helps for sure, but you need to be sure the person you're talking to can help.
There's a better recipe; I recommend Job's path. You may not feel like it but that's when you've really begun to walk by faith. It is at that point worship becomes truly a sacrifice and an act of faith towards God with whom all things are possible.
Don't talk to people about the challenge. Talk to God in worship for He knows and already created the way out for you ever before you got there.

So you too can lift your hands in worship in the midst of the pain.

On Choices: Marriage will not Complete you

It's easy to hear singles talk about searching for the one who completes them. This aphorism has led many to miss the point entirely and brought them into some of the rudest shockers of their lives.
If what you mean when you say this, is that marriage will complete you, make you perfect, you're in for surprises because you see, marriage is your first test at sharing that life (you thought was incomplete) with someone else. So even the incomplete person you thought you were will now be shared with your spouse.
So here's what happens; She came in expecting to be completed and he came in expecting to be completed and both of them were waiting for the other. The idea of being cheated comes from the feeling that one is giving more than they are getting. That's the beginning of sorrows for many marriages.
Marriage does not complete people. Single or married, you cannot know completeness until you know the One who is completeness Himself and embrace what He's done to make you COMPLETE. He says 'you are complete in Me' (Colosians 2:10) and this has nothing to do with marital status. Christ is the One who makes us complete, not marriage.
To be continued...
‪#‎SMF‬