“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a person sows, this he will also reap”. – Galatians 6:7
Welcome to the last month of the year 2024. How far have you gone on the goals you set for yourself at the beginning of the year?
This is the time of year when places of worship fasting and prayer programs for various reasons. In the most part, it is an annual ritual. For some adherents, it is a time to get their spiritual battery recharged so they can be equipped with power to succeed in the uncharted territory of the coming year. I admit you need God on your side to embark on a journey through a pathway you have never traveled before, especially in view of the consistently harrowing situation that the world currently finds itself in.
However, prayers alone will not cut it, especially when it is used as a copout or a way to get God to literally violate His own principles to please us and grant our desires.
You are not smarter than the Creator of all things. The wisdom of man and his exposure to various philosophies and ideologies like education, liberalism, creationist theories, existentialism, innovation, etc., make him believe that he can violate the very principles that undergird creation. Try as you may, however, you cannot outsmart life. It is sustained by principles. Principles are inviolable laws of operation that pair action and consequence together inseparably. A smart farmer understands that the fruit is simply a consequence of the seed and the environment in which it is sown. Principles hold creation in place. They are no respecters of persons. Laws of nature are simply man’s discovery, not his making. The law of gravity does not respect race, class, gender or social status. What goes up comes down. It existed before it was discovered by Sir Isaac Newton. It is the reason why we are held firmly on the earth in a globe that constantly revolves on its axis.
Principles are drivers of purpose. Success is not just a pursuit. It is a discipline. The principles for operating anything come from the manufacturer and they help to manifest the original purpose for making that thing. Your life is no different. For everything you want to achieve, there is someone you need to become.
When you violate the principles explained in a product’s manual, you risk damaging the identity of the product thereby undermining its potential to deliver expected outcomes. Furthermore, you rob it of the power for performance. Principles have inherent capacity to generate power for accomplishment. Simply put, to violate them is to abuse the product.
Whatever you are praying for this December, get principles. If you want to get out of the economic hole you find yourself in, know that whatever prayers inspire, it takes principles to operate and sustain.
Principles protect purpose, and by extension, focus. Once principles are established around a thing, action or inaction will guarantee consequences. Principles are the prophecy of outcomes because they protect process. To sustainably get the best of anything in life, seek and follow the principles surrounding its operation. If you understand the principles undergirding meaningful relationships, you will not only have doors opening to you, but you will also know how to keep them open. Principles are the stability of sustainability.
Being no respecters of anyone, principles ensure universal applicability and results anywhere under the sun. In addition, principles undergird natural justice. You cannot be neutral or indifferent to principles. You are either a victim or a beneficiary of them. A few days ago, I went on a work-related supervision of some establishments. A Nigerian owner of one of such establishments asked me how I was able to get the kind of job I am doing in such a short time of settling in the USA. She said I must have been very lucky. When I told her what I spent my time doing and how much money I invested in growing myself for relevance in the system while I was awaiting a Green Card, she said, “No wonder.” I will be the first to admit the hand of God in it, but I was not docile while waiting and praying.
The Bible is a book of grace, God’s free offer of salvation, justification and eternal life to sinful man. And He throws miracles in the mix very often. However, the Bible is also a template of principles. Miracles do happen and may suspend principles temporarily, but only when God’s purpose supersedes such principles. But never in perpetuity. The miracle of the Immaculate conception has never been repeated. Neither has the arrest of the sun by one degree as happened with Joshua. Only principles run creation in perpetuity. To discover and operate them is to discover power for living.
Wealth, success, marriage, and relationships all respond to principles. Seed and harvest follow principles. Every day, we live in a harvest of our past seeds. Today is a harvest of yesterday’s compliance with or violation of principles.
Several times, we violate principles and still expect to succeed significantly. We love people who are succeeding and desire to become like them. But we are unwilling to pay the price that got them there. The harvest life delivers to you reflects the seed you gave it.
You must first become before you perform. It takes about three weeks of consistent practice to develop and assimilate a habit. Becoming is a process that entails personal discipline, a word we often associate with punishment. Yet, without it, there can be no consistency. Discipline is about decisions you take based on the destination you have ahead of you. It is your commitment to both the journey and the roadmap if you must get to the destination. The routine of discipline is God’s pathway to the palace of pleasure.
Sustainable success is first about what you become internally. Garbage in. Garbage out. To succeed significantly, invest significantly in personal growth. Not more activities.
What do you want to become? Life delivers things to you on the platform of opportunities. What do you do with them? God uses people. How do you relate with them? There are 24 hours in the cycle of every day. How and where do you spend them? What are the things you need to know in your pursuit? Learning is a way of sharpening your axe so that when you cut, your strokes are effective. If you simply labor without preparation. You will work harder with minimal, if any results.
What makes us violate principles and think of escaping consequences? Deception. Very often, we are deceived into thinking that if we play the victim enough, or pray more, or go on a long fast, or blackmail people emotionally, or become defiant, the consequences of our indiscretion will just go away. These may only work for a season.
So, we are warned not to be deceived. Whatever a man sows, he will reap. Become the kind of person you want to manifest long before the manifestation. When the manifestation comes, it is others that would point your attention to the fact that you are manifesting it because you are simply doing what you have become.
Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!
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