READ: 2 TIMOTHY 2:3-5
In his prayer to move up
from average to outstanding, Jabez said, ‘O Lord bless me.’ To many, this
appears a very simple prayer but it is not. When an anointed man of God says,
‘God bless you,’ it is not a trivial prayer. Some people have come to me after
telling them ‘God bless you,” they will ask me to pray for them or bless them.
It amazes me when people do so. It shows they took the ‘God bless you’ as an
ordinary greeting. It is because they do not know better. Do you know the
greatest prayer you can ever receive, and which you should always put yourself in
the right position to receive from a man of God, is ‘God bless you?’
It means that every curse in your life has been cancelled. It also means that your life will from that moment become a symbol of the blessings of God. To all users of this devotional, I say, ‘God bless you.’
Like Jabez, I was born financially handicapped. I was raised in one of the poorest families in the world. We were so poor that in the midst of poor people, my father was called a poor man. My father told me of an incident when members of our extended family gathered on their communal land. One after the other each would get up and say, ‘when I grow up, I will build my house on this spot.’ When it was my father’s turn, he too got up and said the same. Everybody shouted at him saying, ‘shut up! Don’t deceive yourself. You can never build a house.’
The day my father bought an umbrella, my entire family celebrated it. That was my father’s greatest treasure in his lifetime. I did not have shoes until I was eighteen. When I gained admission into secondary school, my parents said I wanted to disgrace them because they did not have the money. It took a three-day hunger strike for my father to accept my resolve never to die poor. He then sold his ram and that was how I started. When people look at me today, they wonder if I ever had set backs in life. Some even tell me I have achieved a lot but I tell them, No, I have not arrived. I have not even started. I have chosen not to die average. I have decided to be outstanding. What is your decision today?
It means that every curse in your life has been cancelled. It also means that your life will from that moment become a symbol of the blessings of God. To all users of this devotional, I say, ‘God bless you.’
Like Jabez, I was born financially handicapped. I was raised in one of the poorest families in the world. We were so poor that in the midst of poor people, my father was called a poor man. My father told me of an incident when members of our extended family gathered on their communal land. One after the other each would get up and say, ‘when I grow up, I will build my house on this spot.’ When it was my father’s turn, he too got up and said the same. Everybody shouted at him saying, ‘shut up! Don’t deceive yourself. You can never build a house.’
The day my father bought an umbrella, my entire family celebrated it. That was my father’s greatest treasure in his lifetime. I did not have shoes until I was eighteen. When I gained admission into secondary school, my parents said I wanted to disgrace them because they did not have the money. It took a three-day hunger strike for my father to accept my resolve never to die poor. He then sold his ram and that was how I started. When people look at me today, they wonder if I ever had set backs in life. Some even tell me I have achieved a lot but I tell them, No, I have not arrived. I have not even started. I have chosen not to die average. I have decided to be outstanding. What is your decision today?
MEMORIZE:
PROVERBS 10:22 –The blessing of the Lord, it makes rich and He adds no sorrow
with it.
