Devotion Column: Progress in life

File pic: Bible

It’s noble and worthy of praise to desire better life. Stagnant life can be boring and is deficient of self-drive and motivation.

Leading a moribund life may lead to depression and in worst cases, to suicide. Positive changes leading to better life refresh and give you the impetus to live on. Improvement to the standard of life nourishes.

Changes aimed at upgrading life should be the heartbeat of every breathing being. Dawdling through life must never be the custom.

We should individually work towards transforming ourselves, families, communities and societies.

Systematic and generational commitment to raise livelihood should flow in our veins. There should be constant effort to add more value to life and the cause of humankind. This determination will change nations and the world as a whole.

In life, you can face unforeseen circumstances and fall into unfortunate predicament. Sickness and debt can hit you so hard and condemn you to the point of nervous breakdown. Retrenchment and divorce can come unannounced.

Both good and bad fly in the realm of man. Though you can be well meaning, with good intentions, you can catch the bad unintentionally.

Aquifers of evil may seem plugged to your life. There comes a time in life when it seems the reservoirs of bad and evil are opened upon you full throttle. Mountains of disaster can fall upon a person to the extent that lifting the head to think and plan becomes impossible.

Trouble can pile mercilessly with the nozzle tuned tight to leave just a small valve to breathe through. Such can be life.

When life pushes you to the corner, you need to engage the gear they call do or die and take the bull by its horns. Use all the energy left and crawl out of the mud. Squeeze yourself out of the vice grip.

There should come a time in life when you should go for broke to get your breakthrough. The sages teach that if you don’t live your life, life will live you.

There are many wandering evil missiles aiming at those living purposelessly. If you live your life by your terms, evil will not force its choices on you. Human space is full of arrows meant to kill destinies. Tragedies are roaming day and night seeking to strike.

If you run directionless like a decapitated chicken, you will be shot. The same space also offers good options to those that define their course and commit to following it. Satanic powers don’t easily prowl the orderly and determined.

The Bible records the story of a woman who had a plague of flow of blood for 12 years, which serves as a good example of determination for better life.

After seeking solutions from all possible avenues without healing, she finally heard about Jesus. Jesus was on a journey to heal a girl who was at the point of death.

The woman with the issue of blood was bold and resolute and interrupted Jesus’ journey. Her conviction and determination for better life drove her not to care about the urgency and seriousness of Jesus’ trip or the crowd which meant it was difficult to reach Jesus.

The story reads in Mark 5:25-29, “[25] And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, [26] And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, [27] When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. [28] For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. [29] And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.”

The celebrated American self-help author Anthony Robbins succinctly teaches: “Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards. When people ask me what really changed my life eight years ago, I tell them that absolutely the most important thing was changing what I demanded of myself. I wrote down all the things I would no longer accept in my life, all the things I would no longer tolerate, and all the things that I aspired to becoming.

If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviours and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve. I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment and life’s greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.”

Without adding much, yearn for more and commit to better your life. Yearn for change and shift your paradigm.

Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Grace and peace be multiplied to you through knowledge.

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