Did you ever have friends back
then in school who never seemed to study but always passed their exams?
I did. I
preferred to study during the day, but my friends preferred night-time.
My
mistake during the day, was playing with these friends instead of studying. At
night, I would be tired and fast asleep, while my friends studied.
These friends identified their
best reading and playing times and maximised them. I on the other hand, did the
complete opposite! The consequence was I didn’t performed as good as I could,
until I changed my pattern of behaviour.
I find that this refusal to
know our strengths and weaknesses causes some of us to walk or even dance into
some avoidable temptations. We sometimes reason that just because Person A was
able to avoid it, we can also. We easily forget that what could be food for
someone may be poison for another.
Jesus urges us in Matthew 18:9 to pluck out our
eye if it causes us to sin. And in Proverbs 6:27, we are asked, “Can a man
scoop fire into his lap and not get burnt?”
In both cases, we have to first
identify the ‘eye’ and ‘fire’ (weakness) that has the capacity to ruin us. Then
and only then can we remove it or avoid it.
What is fire to you? Look
inward, search your heart, take an inventory of your habitual sins and notice
the pattern. What starts the vicious cycle? Once you can identify the trigger,
you will know how to deny it opportunities from developing into full -fledged
sin and regret.
Its not easy or pleasant to
carry out this exercise, but only the truth will set us free. I encourage you
to read up this article about people who failed to identify their weaknesses
and how it cost them their destinies.
May God give us wisdom to live
the beautiful lives He planned for us. Amen and amen!
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Image1 courtesy:http://d3e4298tco5ouh.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Examine0.jpg
Image2 courtesy:https://users.bible.org/sites/users.bible.org/files/u21652/playing-with-fire.jpeg
Amen!
ReplyDeleteThanks Omalicha for stopping by. God bless you dear.
ReplyDelete