Success by Luck?

Most of us believe the wrong stories about how to become successful. We are buying into these lies like; “you don’t need to work so hard”, “you need fortune or good luck to smile on you” “just stay positive, pray and believe” and so on and you will become successful. I guess that’s one of the reasons why so many youths have given into playing the lottery to get rich.

Agreed there is a certain amount of randomness to life, but more often success and failure are all about making choices and repeating them most of the time. Our society always like to use certain labels to describe successful people, we are told they got lucky, they had a miracle, they didn’t work that had, they just prayed and believed but while all that may be true, successful people didn’t just do only that, they made good choices and decisions.

Unfortunately today many of us are not willing make the right choices and decisions yet we want to be successful. We consider the right choices as being too difficult a sacrifice to pay now. Many of us are not willing to delay gratification; if come across little money, all we think about is how to spend it. Successful people understand that they have to spend their time on things that matter, always focusing on their dreams and goals. They face their responsibilities and hold themselves accountable. They are always willing to step out of their comfort zones and face their fears even when it will be much easier to stay where they feel safe.

Guard Your Heart

The bible commands that we guard our heart with utmost care because it is in there that all our thoughts are formed. In today’s world where we are being daily bombarded with unsolicited negative information, we need to be careful what we let into our hearts. All the information we receive are seeds that are being planted in our minds, and like all seeds they must produce fruits after their kind.

The life you are living now is the product of the kind of seeds (information) that has been planted in you over time. Just like it’s said our character is the sum of our actions, and our actions are the result of our thoughts. Therefore as you think in your heart, and as you dwell on certain kinds of thoughts in your daily life, you begin to manifest those thoughts in your reality.

What thoughts have you been thinking lately? Do you always think thoughts of misery, failure, defeat, discouragement and poverty? Or do you always think thoughts of power, success, good health, love, happiness and long life? Whatever it is you are thinking, you don’t need to see a shrink for your results as your life is already manifesting your thoughts.

Less is More

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You are responsible for the results you are achieving both now and in the future. Yet many of us always assume that we need the influences of others before we can do better or accomplish more in our lives. Folks realize that God has deposited all the power, energy, ability and resources for building a highly successful life in you, and that all you need do is to look inwards and start trusting yourself to take action on your life.

Every one of us has a gift which is distinctively ours. And we all have a responsibility to discover, develop and use our individual gifts. The fact that your gift isn’t as loud as that of others doesn’t make it less valuable and impactful. You also do not need to have many talents and the ability to do many different things to be successful but rather your success is determined by your ability to make practical use of your one great talent given to you by God.

Learn to Live Until You are Dead

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“Lord make me live until I am dead.” What a powerful prayer every one of us ought to be praying, considering that most of us are dead even though we are still breathing. Some of us are just going through live without growing along with it. Take a look at your life, are you growing or just going along in life? If in the last week or months you haven’t read a book or learnt anything you aren’t growing my friend…you have simply enrolled into the class of people who are just going along in life.

Some of us have been left behind in the trends of our industries and career. While the world has advanced in technology, we are still operating the way our professors taught us in school years back in college, yet we claim to be aspiring for success.

A passage in the Bible talks about people of the tribe of Issachar, and how they understood the times, they were in and were always ahead of the other tribes in Israel. In today’s world if we want to live our greatest lives, we must be like the Issachar generation. We must always be ahead or in step with the trends as regards knowledge and information. Don’t be dead while your still alive. Seek to learn.

Everybody Can Teach You Something

Some of us are waiting to hear from God about our purpose, career, life calling, relationships, marriages, money, success, school, health, and so on. We pray, attend churches/seminars/workshops hoping to finally hear or have a divine solution towards that life’s problem.

Doesn’t God speak anymore? of course He does, as the scripture says, “Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.” Every day passing day each of us is  being spoken to, we are being offered solutions to our problems and challenges, yet the world is still filled with people who are yearning for more.

Maybe the reason you don’t hear God is because you are looking for a divine medium to talk to you. You fail to realize that you can learn from and are encouraged/challenged/blessed by everyone, every situation and every experience. You see, everyone you encounter; the beggar on the street, the child passing along the way, the neighboInspiratr you are not in terms with, the co-passenger in the bus you travel in; the challenge you are going through; that misunderstanding with your spouse/partner…all have something for you to learn.

“Bodily Exercise and Food Gives Little Profits”

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Many of us are very picky and particular about what food we eat. These days there have been so much consciousness on healthy diets. This is so because we know that our bodies reflect the diet fed them. Physical stamina, resistance to disease, body size, even how long we live are all closely related to what we eat.

While many of us have almost perfected the art of healthy dieting, we have failed to also realize that our minds also reflect the kind of “mind food” we feed them. We may have very healthy physical bodies, but we feed our minds with unhealthy junk meals. – Through the information, habits, and attitudes we pick from our environments.

Our environment shapes us, makes us think, talk, or walk the way we do. You are where you are in life largely because of well fed or how malnourished your mind is. Its time to become as conscious about what you feed your minds, as we are about what we feed our bodies, because the size of your thinking, your goals, your attitudes, your personality are all a reflection of your state of mind.

Share this and be blessed!

“This life is a school. This school does not give out passing grades, but demands a perfect ‘A’ from each student on every subject. You can never quit this school and this school has no time limit for graduation. You will not graduate until you get it “right.” If you are a Christian, your schooling might end when you draw your last breath.

God is not democratic. He demands of His children the best they can be. He demands they be like Him and the cost for failing the courses is your liveliness and happiness. However, as long as you are fighting the battle tenaciously and courageously, the magical, unseen hand of the Divine is there to aid. This is not merely rhetoric, but a common experience that many people have found to be true…”

Stay On Your Goals

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Let me share this story with you: “A Canadian bird decided that it was too much trouble to fly south for the winter. He said to himself, “I can brave a winter. A lot of other animals do it. It just can’t be that hard.” So as all the other birds flocked away toward sunny South America, he stayed behind and waited for winter.

By the end of November, he was having serious second thoughts. He had never been so cold, and he couldn’t find any food. Finally he broke down and realized that if he didn’t get out of there soon, he wasn’t going to make it. So he started flying south all by himself.

After a while it began to rain. And before he knew it, the water was turning to ice on his wings. Struggling, he recognized that he couldn’t fly any longer. He knew he was going to die, so he glided down and made his last landing, crashing to the ground in a barnyard.

As he lay there stunned, a cow came by, stepped over him, and dropped a plop right on him. He was totally disgusted. Here I am, he thought, freezing to death. I am about to die. I am on my last breath, and then this! What an awful way to go.

So then the bird held his breath and prepared himself to die. But after about two minutes, he discovered that a miracle was happening: He was warming up. The ice on his wings was melting. His muscles were thawing out. His blood was flowing again. He realized that he was going to make it after all. He got so excited and happy that he began to sing a glorious song.

6 Biblical Principles For Success

Everyone desires to successful,although success may mean different things to each of us. So if you want success in your life, here are some bible based principles that can help us achieve success. This is a post I had written and shared before here on my blog in September 2013:

1. Walking in truth:
“I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” III John 1.
“If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” John 8:31-32
“And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth: And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee…” Deuteronomy 28:1-2.(KJV)
“Who then are those who fear the Lord? He will instruct them in the ways they should choose. They will spend their days in prosperity..” Psalms 25:12-13

2. Faithfulness:
“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord” Matthew 25:21 (KJV)
“Blessed are they who maintain justice, who constantly do what is right” Psalms 106:3 “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him….” II Chronicles 16:9 “a faithful man shall abound with blessings.” Proverbs 28:20

3. Diligence:
“My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” Proverbs 4:20-23 (KJV)
“…He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him” Hebrews 11:6
“The hand of the diligent maketh rich.” Proverbs 10:4 (KJV)