DON’T START WHAT YOU DON’T HAVE THE GRACE TO KEEP.
Lukek 14:28,28 28
“For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? 29 Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him”,
“It is a waste of life when we decide to do the things that God has not given us the grace for, we will not succeed, the best we can do is become a mediocre and we should know that mediocrity does not have a place in the king’s palace”
As we start a new year, we all have to be sincere with ourselves at this point in our lives especially in making life’s important decisions. This principle is about grace (ability) which I strongly believe is relative to the individual. To me, no two individuals can probably have the same kind and amount of grace at the same time. Grace comes with gifts, talents, beauty, calling, ministry, etc. This principle only focuses on making critical decisions on what to do in life. The major effect of this principle apart from aligning us with God’s purpose, it also helps us manage time. Note that time is life and anything we allow to waste our time is wasting our life because life is measured by the amount of time spent on earth. “Teach us to number our days so we may apply our hearts to wisdom”.
Teach us to realize the brevity of life, so that we may grow in wisdom…
The truth about life is that there is always what we should do, we are not meant to do everything, we are not meant to be Jack of all trade and master of none and it takes wisdom to do what you ought to do per time. Grace is only released to us in the area that we are meant to be operational, we must find out those areas and plug into them. We ought not to wander from one place to other and engage ourselves in doing many things. Paul said: “This one thing I do”. Look for the area your grace is very strong, and your weakness is insignificance, and settle there.
When I was much younger, I felt I was good for nothing, and I concluded I had no grace for anything, I mean I was not gifted in any area in comparison with my peers. You see, I was wrong! But it was so frustrating that I got depressed week-in and week-out. I see my classmates exhibiting some skills and special talents in school and I had nothing to exhibit. Sometimes while sitting with some of my friends and classmate, students from low-class grades would walk up to us with questions on various subjects, funny enough they will all bypass me and take the questions to my other friends for solutions. Some in physics, the others in mathematics, English, and so on, but no one ever came to me; to further worsen the matter I couldn’t stand in my children’s church, couldn’t talk in public as I watch other kids expressing themselves every day to the fullest. With all these, I personally condemned myself as “graceless”. Today, the story has changed, I realized I was actually lying to myself all these years. Today I enjoy public speaking and writing, I also have 16 | P a g e many other creative skills. What I am driving at is simple, discover your grace before making life any decision. Once you have discovered where your grace is, go for it at once. It is a waste of life when we decide to do the things that God has not given us the grace for. We will not succeed, the best we can do is to become mediocre and we should know that mediocrity does not have a place in the king’s palace; in fact, God hates it to the core.
Revelation.3:16
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spure thee out of my mouth
God prefers you are rather cold than staying in the middle. Let’s stay in the place of our grace and save ourselves from many headaches. Sometimes we get excited about some ideas when we see some other people successfully doing a particular thing we are tempted to attempt the same thing without a proper diagnosis to determine if it’s in the area of our grace. Don’t start when you don’t have the grace to keep going. The grace which is a gift from God will keep you in that thing you have chosen to do. You will not be like a man who went and built his house on sinking earth, building could not stand the power of the wind and the storms of life that came to test its stability.
Making decisions that align with the area of your grace is like building your house on a solid rock that withstands every threat from any contrary wind. Doing this will protect your investment and help to maximize time leading to your personal fulfillment. Above all, your reward and crown cannot be denied. Every job and assignment has its requirement, if you can’t stand for a long time, then don’t start the job of military personnel and don’t apply for the office of an usher in a church. If you can’t run, don’t attempt to become a sprinter, if you don’t want to be criticized, don’t attempt to be successful. I realized that almost everything that people do in life is a result of influence. We all at some point in our lives wanted to please others, which formed the basis of our judgment.
We do not want to hurt people and don’t want them to criticize us and extricate us from our well-valued places. Hence in making a decision we undermine our internal desire, we lie to ourselves to be accepted by people. This principle seeks self-sincerity even when people pressure you to do the things that go against your heart. Don’t start when you are tempted with a huge sum of money, don’t start even when it doesn’t look like it’s a sin, don’t start, one thousand times, don’t start! Again, this principle gives you the staying power to keep doing a particular thing for a long time without giving up and you will surely acquire a lot of experiences at different levels of success. Whenever there are storms working against what you are doing and all your efforts are been frustrated, you should never lose passion and never get tired because only tired people are due for retirement. Every day you navigate negative routs, they all get you going and make you a better person. Personal fulfillment is not about money, it’s about the power of your inner strength. When we look at the story of Ananias and Sapphira, they were both not sincere with themselves before they sold their piece of land, so it was difficult giving the entire money for the furtherance of the gospel. They started what they didn’t have the grace to keep; hence they resulted in lying even in God’s presence (the Holy Ghost) which cost them their lives. The rich man is not left out, he came to Jesus to ask what he must do to enter the kingdom of God, he told Jesus that he had kept all the commandments of God since his youth, but deep down within him he was not sure if those deeds will give him his desires, he was never sincere with himself.
Why will his heart condemn him? He knew what to do, one would have thought that when he was told what to do to have eternal life, he would have done it at any cost considering the attitude with which he had put on to ask this question “what must I do?” but he walked away, his money was his god. Somehow he desired to end up in God’s kingdom but he realized that his actions and lifestyle will not take him there. Why do people want to feast with the devil at night and desire to wake up in God’s bosom the next morning? That is not possible! They know that, but leaving the devil’s dining is their problem. As a result, they get fatted up and robust in their outward but their inward man will continue to perish. But for people who will obey this principle, here is what the scriptures say will happen to them;
Though their outward man perishes their inward man is renewed day-by day (1 Corinthians. 4:16.)
If your decision is not settled in your heart, you will soon give up what you are doing or what you are about to start, this is what I call the power of internal alignment. Your heart must be in full support of your decisions; it must support your actions as well because that is where you get the passion to stay on your job. “If our heart condemns us not, then are we right with God”. When we allow our external situation to colour our internal mood, then we are bound to make errors in decision making. Let’s be sincere with ourselves as we journey through the pathway of success
(Excerpt from the book “The 10 Don’ts Principles on The Pathway to Success”)
Uwa Robinson
Lead pastor: The House of Revelation ICC