The Past Lost its Power in Christ Jesus

 The Past lost its Power in Christ
We would want to think that the 20th and the 21st centuries brought about the consciousness of women's rights but that would only be because of not taking notes of certain things in the stories of the Old Testament to make us the mind of God about the subject.
When Zelophehad's daughters protested their exclusion from the inheritance of their tribe because their father had no male child, Moses was first taken aback. He had to consult God to know what to do. Of course, God gave them justice by permitting them to have their father's inheritance. The justice of God protected their rights.
Much more than that, we can see God's graciousness in the genealogy of Christ Jesus. Ordinarily, we list genealogy by the patriarch of each generation. It becomes interesting when mothers' names are also listed. Not only were certain women named, but these women aren't those that will fit into the normal religious narratives.
The first that was listed was Tamar. The woman who by trickery lured her father-in-law, Judah, to sleep with her. Perez, one of the twins that were born of the uncommon siring was a forefather of Joseph, the man God chose to be the earthly father of Jesus.
You'll then see names like Rahab, the harlot. What's the name of a harlot looking for in the list of the foreparents of the one who would save the world from their sins?
The Ruth, the Moabitess, a foreigner from a tribe detested because of their ancestry. Moab was a son of Lot. His mother was his big sister who, with her sister got their father drunk to sleep with them to have children.
Another woman who made the list was Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, the man David murdered to commit adultery with. I thought David had more religiously compliant wives. 
Well, we are the ones who care about the stories of the past, God's redeeming grace overlooked all that to show us the character of this great God who forgives and forgets when we turn to Him in love and repentance.
What qualifies us before God is our love for Him and our willingness to turn away from our sins to follow Him. He cleanses those who love and follow Him from every stigma of past sins, dealing with them as if they have no past. The humility that comes with repentance is a powerful magnet of the great grace of God. Jesus Christ said, the one who is forgiven the most, the same loves the most.
There's nothing your dirty past can do to you in the face of God's grace. Despite the fact of your past, God's grace is sufficient to bring out of you a glorious vessel for His service. With Him, we can dream of a great future, our past notwithstanding as long as we aren't planning to go back there.

Simplicity and Godly Sincerity Part 2

Simplicity and Godly Sincerity. Part 2

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2Corinthians 11:3

But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. 2Corinthians 4:2

For our boasting is this: the testimony of our conscience that we conducted ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God, and more abundantly toward you. 2Corinthians 1:12

Continued from Part 1.

To cultivate simplicity and godly sincerity devoid of worldly wisdom but resting only on the power of grace, we must first renounce every hidden thing of dishonesty. We must not entertain those thoughts that can't be justified in Christ Jesus or that can't be brought to the open in a godly conversation. 

I understand that the new way of dishonesty is to put lies and errors to people's faces as the truth, blatantly and boldly with satanic courage and confidence. But it's always with selfish cover up agendas and always to gain a psychological advantage to bully and stubbornly manipulate others to accepting errors as the truth. 

Lots of the times, ungodly and worldly ambitions, bothering on the lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life are foundations of our lack of simplicity and godly sincerity. We want to have more money, we want to be seen as great people in the sight of the world irrespective of what Christ called greatness, we want to build empires and edifices of physical temples with our names attached like Nimrod, we want to be renowned, and we want to beat others to it. We want to make history that impresses men, breaks records and lays new ones, we want to lay up treasures on the earth and not be content with just food and raiment, but to be hailed by the world. 

We'll always need people to make these things happen and these people will either be won by certain false promises and pretences or be won by coercion and manipulations. In the process, the word of God is distorted to give a sense of divine approval to the error and people are led away into trouble and destruction. 

It is good that we develop a sense of confidence in our personal and individual relationships with God. Each believer must have that sense of right to independently explore God's word and His Spirit with minimal and only necessary help of third parties. The lie that we can only access God through third parties is the ground for manipulation. It is there that people's hearts are corrupted like that of Eve through deceit. 

Wherever God knows we need third parties, He is always ever faithful to give us pastors after His own heart, like Jesus Christ the great shepherd of the sheep Himself, who won't fleece us to satisfy their indulgences and selfish desires on our submissiveness and simplicity. 

To develop simplicity and godly sincerity, we need to learn to absolutely depend on God and on His grace. Without the active operation of grace, worldly wisdom will become an alternative and we'll slip into insincerity. 

There is nothing God wants us to become or to have that He hasn't made provision for in His plan for our lives. If we have the promise, then His plan has covered it from the foundation of the world. We need not cut corners or become corrupt to achieve the things God has ordained. God created the whole world without iniquity, there's nothing He has promised us that will require us committing sin against Him to achieve. We don't need to steal to have what God has promised. This underscores the difference between Isaac and his son, Jacob and their different natures of struggles to gain God's promises. 

For every plan of God, there's is power and every resource already available to bring it to pass. God's omnipotence exists to bring God's will and plans to pass. The purpose of the power of God is to bring to pass the plan of God. Once we can be sure that God has a plan for our lives, we should also rest in the assurance that He has all the power and the resources needed to bring it to pass. If it is His will, and we are willing too, His power is always available to bring it to pass in His time. We don't need to become insincere or to become complex and difficult to understand in our bid to make God's will happen. 

If the vision is His, He will make it happen. He had enough provisions to bring His vision to pass. The same way He had made us available for the vision with adequate passion and equipment, same way He has made other things needed available to bring the vision to pass. 

1Corinthians 2:9-11 tells us of the plan of God for our lives in things God has prepared for us, and Ephesians 3:20 tells us of the power at work in us to bring to pass things beyond what we can ask or imagine. Jesus is clear about the fact that God won't start a project He already doesn't have enough to complete. 

Our faith in this phenomenon triggers the release of grace to make things happen towards the fulfillment of the promises of God for our lives. We need not become anxious and fearful. When we walk by faith in this phenomenon, we will fear no man, we will fear no force, either in the spirit realm or in the physical. We'll fear no rejection of men or depletion of resources. No threat will be strong enough to scare us, we know we have the backing of God. We won't walk in envy, if we know these things, we know what God has planned is beyond what anyone can compete against or we compete to get. We will have restful confidence, as we wait on God doing His will. 

Let no selfish ambition, fear of failure or personal insecurity push you out of simplicity and godly sincerity into worldly wisdom and into acts of hypocrisy and dishonesty. There's simplicity in Christ and in it there's abundance of grace to power us all into all that God has in store for us. 

Jesus Christ is Lord!

Simplicity and Godly Sincerity Part 1

Simplicity and Godly Sincerity

For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you. 2Corinthians 1:12

It's amazing that apostle Paul would see it something to be boastful of and a testimony of Christlikeness and of the Christian behavioural system, a life of simplicity. It's more understandable to accept godly sincerity as a godly virtue than simplicity, simplicity sometimes presents as naivity and no one wants to be naive. But to Christ's Paul, both are of equal importance in the behavioural system of godliness.

Simplicity is that attitude without complexities, complications, unnecessary depth. It presents as innocence, lack of subtlety and an unpretentious way of dealing. An easily understandable kind of life. There is no guile in simplicity. It is transparent and clear that you can always see through it. 

While the King James and other related versions put it as simplicity, other translations use other words like holiness, purity, integrity, singleness (of mind), graciousness and generosity as translated from the Greek word, 'hagiotëti'. (Strong's 572)

The other virtue that Apostle Paul boasted of is godly sincerity. Sincerity speaks of truthfulness and conscientiousness. He called it godly sincerity probably because the possibility is there to be wrongly sincere. The translated word implies clearness. A dictionary explains it as the absence of pretence, deceit or hypocrisy. In sincerity, what you see is what you get. 

These two words and the thoughts around them show a little more often in his second letter to the Corinthians than in his other writings. 

2 Corinthians 2:17

You see, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit. We preach the word of God with sincerity and with Christ’s authority, knowing that God is watching us. NLT

2Corinthians 4:2

But we have renounced disgraceful, underhanded ways. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we would commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God. ESV 

2Corinthians 11:3

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. NKJV 

In studying through Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, it is clear that Paul was uncomfortable with certain preachers of his days. He saw insincerity in their ways through the underhanded complexities of their dealings. He tried to let the people know how he and his colleagues had dealt with them in sincerity and in simplicity. 

According to Paul, Christianity is done in simplicity and in godly sincerity as God watches our hearts and intentions for doing things and in our devotion to Him. 

It is a sign of some evil when we become complex, complicated and compounded. When it becomes difficult to be understood because of lots of coverups, most likely there's already a drifting away from Christ. 

Christianity isn't a cult. When our dealings start to take the nature of cultism, it is because of the 2Corinthians 4:2 syndrome. There are already disgraceful and underhand things going on. And there will be dishonesty and tampering with God's word to gain access into the lives of the innocent. 

When we have things to hide, we resort to worldly and fleshly wisdom to cover up. We dare not depend on the grace of God and on His Spirit at that point. That's when you hear people talking about 'applying wisdom'. Of course, it's not the wisdom that comes from above. It is such cunning craftiness that helps to earn things God hasn't given or hasn't promised which the sinful nature craves. 

In our quest to satisfy the cravings of worldly definition of success in building great organisations, wealth and popularity, which God may not have promised, we can't but slip into insincerity and complexities. A film script writer said 'saints don't build great things', implying that to build great things in the eyes of people, you can't assume absolutely moral posture. The Yorùbá people say the foundation of wealth may be messy. 

As we try to protect and to advance our fleshly causes, we fall into the sin of Jeroboam, the first king of the Northern kingdom of Israel after the split, who led Israel to sin, the sin of personal insecurity. Who in his bid to maintain a throne he gained only through grace, he raised idols in Israel to keep the people from going to Jerusalem to worship God as ordained by God, in case their hearts were won over back to the house of David. He formed alternative altars to the one ordained of God and called the idols, the God who brought Israel out of the captivity of Egypt. 

Apostle Paul saw the same dishonesty in display in his days and if we look around today, we can see same things ongoing. The danger is what Apostle Paul pointed out in 2Corinthians 11:3, how the simple hearts of believers can be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ Jesus or away from their simple devotion to Christ.

To be continued... Watch out for the Concluding part.

Jesus Christ is Lord!

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How not to be a Hypocrite Part 1

*How not to be a Hypocrite* 

 _Part 1_ 

Jesus Christ our Lord didn't hide His disdain for hypocrisy, He publicly called hypocrites out. The gospel according to Matthew recalled 14 times when He mentioned the word 'hypocrites'. 7 of those times are in chapter 23 addressed to the scribes and the pharisees and all the seven were accompanied with the word 'woe'.

In the 6th chapter, He warned His disciples not to be like the hypocrites in giving, in praying and in fasting. Nobody, except God needs to know how much of a giver you are, how prayerful you can be or how much you fast and how painful your fasting is. These are meant to be secretive to people for God to see and to accept them. They aren't for show. 

In chapter 15:6-7, He queried how they, being hypocrites, would twist the commands of God to suit their personal indulgences and their religious advantages. He confirmed what Isaiah said about them as true, saying they only drew near to God with their mouths but their hearts were far away from Him. They really didn't intend obeying God from the get go. 

In chapter 16, He called them out for claiming to know what the weather will be like by watching the skies but won't use same mental acumen to judge the times and the seasons of God by looking at how society was changing.

In chapter 22, they came to Jesus pretending to want to know the truth about paying taxes and tributes to Ceasar, under whose domination Israel was at the time. They spent Caesar's money and knew the implications of that in taxes to him, but wanted to catch Jesus by His words, probably He, being a 'King' would make a rebellious statement against Caesar and be arrested.

Then come the 7 woes in chapter 23. 

He pointed out how the religious leaders shut the gates to God's kingdom, assuming a false position of gatekeepers, they won't enter and they won't let others who desired to enter.

He pointed out how these religious leaders would use all manners of religious and pious acts just to devour widows' houses, extorting from those who have none through pretences of religiosity and false and manipulative spiritual mysteries. 

How they'll travel the world to make a convert, only to make such twice a child of hell fire. Hypocrisy makes religion become an avenue to hell fire.

He spoke of how they would pay the tithes of the tiniest of things in religious obligations, but those weightier matters of godliness, in showing love, justice and mercy, were left untouched since they don't suit nor add to their popularity and fleshly indulgences. 

He pointed out how they will wash the outside of the cup, looking pious and sanctimonious on the outside but their inside are full of dregs. They whitewash the outside of the graves, leaving the inside with dead people's bones.

They would repair the graves of martyrs, same people they would have killed had they the opportunity, a reason why God will demand their blood even from them.

And lastly, He indicated in chapter 24:51, how hypocrites won't make it to heaven but have their places in hell.

It is clear that hypocrisy is a slippery place for the religious person and those who claim to know God. It is so easy for those who preach righteousness to slip into hypocrisy, becoming pretentious, and living double lives. The more reason we all must walk most carefully and to know for sure what we are doing and the demands of the reputations we claim...

It is the same reason the world system stereotypes us all as being hypocrites. Of course, many believe it is impossible to live godly in this world. To many, holiness is an impossibility and so when you present a holy outlook, they quickly tag you a liar without any proof.

No one enjoys being called a Hypocrite. People would rather want to have a good reputation before the public and be seen as good people deserving of recognitions, honours and appointments. The problem is that they aren't usually so passionate about maintaining same desire when not before the camera on the podiums of the world. People love the public applause while they do differently in secret when there's no one to hail and to clap for them...

So how do we navigate through this slippery place and not be caught in the web of hypocrisy and fall into the damnation of the hypocrites? We'll try to answer the question in the concluding part 2. Watch this space. 

Jesus Christ is Lord! 

To be continued...

The Holy Spirit and Marital Choices

The Holy Spirit and Marital Choices

One wonderful way God keeps the believer on the path of righteousness is by the leading or the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

I'm not here talking only about righteousness which is translated to mean having a right standing with God, which I understand quite well, I'm talking about the practice of righteousness where we practice what is right before God, walking within His core values, doing the things that bring Him pleasure and living according to His predetermined counsel for our lives. 

Without the leading of the Holy Spirit we can't walk in the plan of God for our lives. The new birth gives us the opportunity to be carried by the wind of the Holy Spirit in running through the divine courses for our lives to their ends.

John 3: 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

6 Flesh is born of flesh, but spirit is born of the Spirit.

7 Do not be amazed that I said, ‘You must be born again.’

8 The wind blows where it wishes. You hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” (Berean Study Bible)

Romans 8:11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.

12 Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation, but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it.

13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Berean Study Bible)

The New Creation was designed to operate by the Spirit of God blowing the believer around. The New Creation lives and derives identity and empowerment from the quickening (giving active life and vitality) of the Holy Spirit within to live according to God's will and not according to the flesh.

This isn't just in some areas of our lives but in every area, be it career, calling, marriage, or in spiritual decisions about our services to God and our lifestyle choices. It is our default state in following God's plan for our lives, either in the short, medium or long term.

We can't walk in God's plan for our lives without the Holy Spirit and we can only be sure about making the right life's choices if we are led by the Spirit of God.

This is the design of God for the New Creation.

But in the last two decades, from the late 90s to be precise, because of the frustration pastors feel about growing number of misters and spinsters of marriageable age remaining single, they feel the leading of the Holy Spirit in making right choices in marriage can be sidelined.

 They feel it should be by individual charms and desires. Just 'point and kill' like they say in some restaurants, where you choose the live fish you want and the chefs kill it and prepare it for you.

The result of that change is everywhere for all of us to see. The last decade presented to us as probably the period with the most dysfunctional marital relationships in the body of Christ in the last half century. 

If we need the Holy Spirit in making other choices that may be less important to our destinies, then we would need Him much more in making marital choices.

Does the Holy Spirit leading us mean our senses and intelligence are unnecessary? Of course not, the Spirit of God works with them so they won't lead us astray. There is a way that seems right into a man but the end is destruction. But with the Holy Spirit who sees the end from the beginning, we are safe. We shouldn't take every intuition, dream or vision as God's leading without judging, so also we shouldn't take beauty, charm and charisma as what's good for us without checking with the Holy Spirit. 

Without the leading of the Holy Spirit, our intellect, senses and brains would be influenced by the flesh and consequently empower our lusts and inordinate affections to influence our choices wrongly, leading us through their vanities unto destruction.

Develop a vital relationship with the Holy Spirit by walking in the consciousness of His position and operations in your life, trusting that, just as the Word says concerning Him so is He within you. Getting Him involved in daily decisions and promptly yielding to all of His pressures in order to be in step with Him. And when it comes to marital decisions, it won't be strange following Him into marital bliss. 

He leads, we follow and we are safe! With the Holy Spirit, we can always choose right!

Discipleship is Discipline

Discipleship is Discipline.

Discipleship is learning from a master towards becoming like him. Discipleship to Christ Jesus is learning from Him to become like Him. The goal of discipleship isn't to become an attendee of a religious gathering but to live like Him in our society.

It demands total allegiance to the principles of the Master and the applications of those principles in day to day life within the host communities.

It is a narrow and strait way and door. It doesn't give room for any serious maneuver. It is a yoke, howbeit an easy yoke. It would demand cutting off of excesses that won't fit in into the strait way. You can't come in with everything.

Yet, it is freedom. It removes the heavy yoke and frees the follower of the weight of the world's worries, anxieties and cares. The narrowness is made of guardrails to keep the follower from the dangers of excesses that may trip one over the cliff and not made of fences to restrict freedom. Freedom has boundaries, beyond those boundaries are dangerous snares. Discipleship is meant to keep us from those snares.

One day, Jesus Christ was going somewhere and a large crowd followed Him. One should be glad that a great crowd follows you'll think. But suddenly he stopped and turned to them and gave a speech.

Anyone who wants to follow must be ready to 'hate' father, mother and every social connection including self. Such a person must forsake all he possesses, such must deny self, carry his cross in readiness for crucifixion and then follow Him... Anyone who wants to follow must sit down and count the cost of following vis a vis the Kingdom to gain and then make the decision either to follow or not to follow. Luke 14

This is the discipline of the disciple. It is such that these conditions have to be considered in every decision to be made in order to remain in discipleship. If I have to choose between the principles I'm learning from Christ and the comfort or the pleasures these things bring to me, my discipleship demands that I deny myself of those enjoyments to maintain my stand as a disciple.

Putting any other person, including oneself, before the Master, makes that person or oneself the master. In that case discipleship allegiance changes. You can't be a disciple to two masters same time.

If you have a possession or an opportunity to possess something that you cannot leave or forsake, if you have to choose between it and your allegiance to Christ and His principles, then discipleship allegiance changes from Christ to whatever that possession or opportunity is.

If you have to be crucified for your allegiance to Christ, you are to offer the cross you're already carrying for the purpose instead of denying Christ.

Every opportunity isn't a good one for a disciple, except it protects your allegiance to Christ and to His principles. Self denial is part of the discipleship deal. It is the discipline of discipleship.

The world knows this and would offer opportunities with conditions that negate our allegiance to Christ probably to even demand allegiance to other ways of life.

Improper discipleship is the foundation of falling away from Christ under unfavourable conditions.

Apostle Paul prophesied that in the last day, perilous times would come. Some other translations rendered it as, in the last days, it will be difficult to be a Christian. And these are the days. 2Tim 3

Each one of us would have to ask ourselves if we are merely part of the hosanna shouting crowd or those who believe to the saving of the soul and are ready to die for what they believe?

Ask if the things you enjoy from the world are compatible with your convictions of Christ and decide what you want to do about it.

Know this, that this is where our faith is tested. Reading through Hebrew 11, we see that faith and conviction are matters of making choices between things that are compatible with one's convictions against things that offer pleasures and comfort but aren't compatible with what one believes.

And we see how God came to the defense of each of those patriots of faith and how He rewarded their steadfastness, even those who laid down their lives, as they joined the cloud of witnesses, in that better country with foundation, where the maker and the builder is God, a heavenly city, prepared for us by God.

How are you doing with the disciplines of discipleship? Are you a disciple of Christ or of something else? It isn't by being born into a Christian family or bearing a Christian name, attending a big church or being a minister with a big title... It is by your convictions about Christ...and how strong they are in making you able suffer discomfort in maintaining your stand for Jesus Christ.

Good day to you!

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Where is Boasting?

Where is Boasting?

We met energy here. Life isn't man made. The potential to live and to make things happen came from God but how we use life and the energy we met here depends on either we lean towards fulfilling God's desires or  on following our own purposes.

It's a fact that man is a free moral agent who can make independent decisions and make things happen here on earth without God and even directly against God's pleasure. Man can be successful in rebellion against God in this world.

It is under this leverage that sin becomes possible. If nothing can happen except by God, then sin would not have been possible.

So success in any particular endeavour isn't a sign of God's approval. Babel was built to an extent and God Himself said, they would have achieved that, were He to let them be. Who knows how many millions of Babels have been built since then without God interference? 

That lack of divine interference is now making us think we can do and undo, and whatever we achieve even with God's involvement is based on our own life, prowess, energy and personal development and not God's. 

When we operate this way, we feel we don't owe God any glory or thanksgiving for what we achieve and in so doing, think God is unnecessary in man's affairs. We don't see grace, divine permission, support or any contribution of God into our success rather all the glory comes to us.

You may think I'm speaking only of unbelievers, no, it happens also among believers, even among ministers of the gospel. I once heard a man of God making comments on the infrastructure of their ministry headquarters back in the late 80s saying, when God was the only one working there, that it was all bushes and forests until he joined Him and those things were built. Though I understand the principle he was speaking from, it sure sounds as if he was the one who made the difference and not God.

Pride is a very deadly emotion. It points only to self absolving any other of any credit including God. Those who want to experience God deeply must avoid it like a plague. Pride won't give glory to God rather runs a person in direct collision with Him.

You may be a very casual Christian who don't pray much, who don't study God's word much, who don't go to church much, who don't do all the standing on God's word to receive anything specific from God, yet it will be safe for you to know that the life you have and the energy with which you live to make things happen comes from God. Give Him that credit and give Him the glory. 

You may be a big fasting and prayer person, a mighty seed sower, a giver in the realm of giving all, holier than all, working perfectly before the Lord, a man of great faith and love, yet, don't ever think that the smallest thing you receive from God is because of any of these wonderful things you do. The grace to do any work of righteousness is purely from God. He is the One who works in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. Give Him all the credit and praise. 

The truth is that we all have our weaknesses and if that's all we have, we may never be able to achieve what we have achieved, no matter how modest.

If our outcomes have been by the reason of those things we do wrongly and not by those we do rightly, we won't be able to boast of anything at all.

Jesus Christ told us through His disciples that without Him, the Vine, we, the branches can do nothing. Here in His Kingdom, we who have submitted to His Lordship should learn to work with Him and to stay within what He permits us to do and to accomplish and not to overreach beyond His workings within us. We should only work on the outside to catch up with His working on our inside, nothing more according to Colossians 1:29. Seeking self glory won't make us limit ourselves to that inner working. I know that sounds condescending but that's our life.

Because another end of boasting is to think that we deserve more than what He permits us to accomplish in spite of our gifts and efforts. Our gifts, intentions and efforts aren't enough, it takes divine working for us to become all God has prepared for us to become without becoming what God didn't have in mind no matter how impressive that may be to people. 

When we, who have submitted to His Lordship and leading, understand that we can only do so much as He permits, we won't have any reason to boast, to look down on ourselves or to query God why we aren't as big or as good as others in achievements.

Rather, we will give God glory that we are able to do as much as we do, trusting God to be able to do more if He wills. We may dream big, put in big efforts but the outcome will be within God's limits in fulfilling His own purpose and pursuit. Paul plants, Apollos waters, but the increase is of the Lord. The only One who matters according to Paul, is the one who gives the increase. To Him alone must the glory go. 1Corinthians 3:6&7

You can't measure your success or judge another person's failure by the size of outcomes but in relation with divine purpose. If we build big but fail to fulfil purpose, we fail before God even if the world sees us as billionaire achievers. Life is all about divine purpose and divine purpose depends on divine power and it is that input of grace that gives God glory.

Have you been boasting lately? Have you praised your own wisdom, power and might? Have you looked down on others to blame them for the size of their achievements compared to yours? Have you seen yourself as bigger than where God has prepared for you? It's time to repent and give glory to God. 

Give God glory and avoid boasting. God resists the proud and give more grace to the humble.

Psalm 147

10 His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,

nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;

11 the Lord delights in those who fear him,

who put their hope in his unfailing love.

12 Extol the Lord, Jerusalem;

praise your God, Zion.

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