When you tell another person that you will do something for them, especially when you say the words “I promise”, you are committing yourself to doing that thing at any cost. To love your neighbour means to keep your promise.
A good neighbor keeps a promise because no one likes to be disappointed. Or would you like to see your friends not show up for your birthday or a visit after they had promised they would? Or how about not meeting your friend at home when they had promised they would be home?
A promise is a strong commitment and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Even the bible cautions us not to make promises we can’t keep. Jesus said that we should stand by what we say. If it is a “yes” we should stand by it. And if it is a “No” we should allow it to be a strong one and not change our minds. This is also a way to love your neighbour.
Matthew 5:37 (KJV) But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.
Your neighbor could be counting on you for help with something. It could be helping a classmate at school with some school work. Or helping a friend with some money. And you could be their only hope at doing or getting something. If you end up doing otherwise it could damage your friendship with them. It could also make people to label you as a bad and not trustworthy fellow. This indeed is not a way to love your neighbour.
Again, you only treat people as you would want them to treat you. Remember, no one likes to be disappointed.
May the Lord help you to make promises you can keep. May He also help you not make promises that you can’t or wouldn’t keep. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, give me the grace to not make empty promises. Empower me to make good my promises. Help me to obey the “love your neighbour” commandment. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Action point: Before you commit yourself to help someone, pray and let the Holy Spirit lead you.
Husbands are to appreciatetheir wives, while the wives are to praise their husbands. That’s the magic.
I will dedicate the aspect of ‘wives praising their husbands’ to all husbands and fathers. To mark our father’s day celebration. The day is for fathers’ so let’s focus on how to make them happy and feel good because that’s the essence of marriage.
I believe this is in order. Then the aspect of ‘husbands appreciating their wives’ will come up tomorrow.
The two words appreciate and praise have same elements but are slightly different. We just concluded celebrating our fathers and by extension our husbands. It feels good to know that at least a day is set aside to shower encomium on our fathers and husbands.
Every wife should know how to praise her husband. If you wait till your husband is perfect, you will wait a long time. Besides, who says you have the right standard to judge him? You may have a thousand things against him, look for and focus on the good things he has done.
How he has been faithful? How he has been a good father to your children? He didn’t neglect you when you were pregnant, he didn’t abuse you, he provided for you, he prayed and fast for you.
The truth is that your husband has done so much for you, that you are not even aware of. It will take eternity to discover some of the things our husbands have done for us. Just like it will be in eternity to unravel the so many things our heavenly father has done for us.
Sometimes we have misjudged their motives, yet God is the judge of all and He looks into the heart.
God our heavenly father loves praises and men are created in the image of God, so there is a part of every man that craves praises.
If every wife will look beyond the pains and hurts and just praise your husbands for what they do, I believe that praise will work wonders.
But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced in the midst [before the company] and pleased and fascinated Herod, And so he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Matthew 14:6 – 7 AMPC
That is what praise can do. We can learn this principle from this young girl, who despite who King Herod was or whatever he had done, danced with all her heart, honored him till he felt so wonderful.
She could access what the king had by simply honoring him. She brought herself to a place of prominent to forgetting herself and praising the king first. She was rewarded for it.
Let us all as wives focus on praising our husbands. Let us be selfless. Let us not be too mindful of ourselves.
We can’t dance unless we learn to forget whatever issues, grievances we had towards our husbands. For us to dance in a way that pleases and catch the attention of our husbands, our hearts must be free of offences.
Have a light heart. So you can dance well. All you want is for your king to open his mouth and give you half of his kingdom, his heart, his life, his commitment, his loyalty, his attention.
The principle is do his own first.
May God grant us the heart of humility to rid our hearts of everything that will not make our hearts light, so that we can dance for him.
God bless our marriage
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I will honour my husband and king
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Father, teach me how to honor my husband.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (Proverbs 31:11-12 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Praise your husband today.
What do we do with all the things we have been learning, reading, and listening to? How do we become productive with all we have learnt? The Scripture rightly says that a man of knowledge increases strength. But again, the same scripture says that knowledge puffeth up! Where is the balance?
What do we do with knowledge so that it becomes strength?
1. Be a doer, not just a hearer
But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (James 1:22 KJV)
When we hear only without doing, the Bible says we are deceiving our own selves. Now, sincerely, that is not a good place to be. The greatest level of deception is when you deceive yourself!
If you heard in church that sleeping around is not good for you, don’t just hear that, be a doer by disconnecting from all sexual partners. That is when knowledge becomes wisdom, and that is when your strength is increased.
If you read in a book that life is about working principles, not just floating around, sit down and apply that to your life! It is one thing to acquire so many books and tapes, it is another thing entirely to sit down, eat those things and do them.
Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like (James 1:23-24 Message)
Can you imagine that? Hearers who are not doers have identity issues. They don’t know themselves and they don’t know who they are in God!
2. Do not allow what you have learnt to slip
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. (Hebrews 2:1 KJV)
You are asked to give more earnest heed. It means to keep a firm grip on what you have heard. Why? Because knowledge is slippery in nature! You can hear something in the service in the morning, and by afternoon if you are not careful, you have allowed it to slip carelessly.
So what do you do with what you hear? You keep a firm grip of that knowledge in your heart! How do you do that? If the heart has hands, it would just have been explicit on how to do that. The hands of your heart are stretched out in meditation. You place a firm grip on what you have heard when you meditate on that thing. That way, it becomes difficult to slip away.
Another thing you can do to keep a firm grip on what you have heard is to pray in the Spirit over that thing. It will take you to a higher level of understanding.
3. Marry the right person for you
God’s word in your life can be rendered unproductive when you align with the wrong person in your life. You cannot marry anybody and everybody. There is the right man for you and the right lady for you. Not every good person is meant for you. A good person might not be the right person for you. There is a difference between Mr. Right Now and Mr. Right!
The scripture talks about wicked men that walk with a froward mouth The scripture talks about evil men whose mouth speak froward things The scripture talks about evil men who leave the path of uprightness The scripture talks about evil men who walk in the way of darkness The scripture talks about evil men who rejoice to do evil The scripture talks about evil men whose ways are crooked
The scripture talks about strange women who flattereth with her words The scripture talks about strange women who forsake guides of their youth The scripture talks about strange women who forgetteth the covenant of their God The scripture talks about strange women whose house inclineth to death Then the scripture talks about men that lie and cheat, women that deceive and nag, and so on and so forth.
What this means is that you don’t dabble into marriage like you are playing cards. You walk down the aisle deliberately knowing what you are doing with God’s help. You don’t fall in love with anybody because falling in love with the wrong person can snuff out your fire for the things of God. You don’t fall in love with a figure; you fall in love with a person and with God’s direction.
Getting the right person can be simple, sincerely. Just get busy for God and serve Him sincerely from the depths of your heart. Serve Him with your heart and with your substance. I have shared severally from my experience. I never for once had to pray about marriage. God actually interrupted me while I was serving him. I had postponed marriage or relationship till after school but God interrupted me while I was just serving Him and getting busy for Him. The reason I didn’t run after marriage was not that I was spiritual; I was just not interested! But God was interested! Just get busy for God!
Remember Adam had to fall into a deep sleep before Eve could be presented to him? Maybe you need to sleep and put your mind at rest and then see what God wants to do in your life! What if Adam had refused to sleep? He would have disallowed God from doing what He wanted to do. Let God interrupt you rather than you interrupting God!
I pray that God will grant you more understanding in Jesus name!
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY The word works for me. I am an ardent stickler of the word.
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, help me to daily meditate on the word.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. (James 1:22 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Meditate on a verse about marriage.
Tunrayo borrowed Lola’s Geography notebook from school to copy the new lesson into her own notebook. She flung the notebook into her bag and pushed the bag aside to the wall. When it was time to leave for home, Tunrayo stuffed her books and pen into her bag, crushing all the items in it, before zipping it right. The next day at day, when she returned Lola’s book, it was not like it was before. The edges were bent, there was oil stains and water marks all over it. (Does this portray “love your neighbour”?)
‘Tunrayo, what happened to my book?’ a shocked Lola asked.
You see, Tunrayo didn’t know that she was destroying Lola’s book with the way she was handling it. And she returned it not the way she borrowed it from Lola.
Let’s see what God has to say about this in the bible, in line with love your neighbour as yourself.
“A man might borrow an animal from his neighbor. It might get hurt or die while the owner is not there. Then the one who borrowed it must pay the owner for the animal. Exodus 22:14 ICB
Well, in this case, it’s a notebook that was borrowed. Yes, Fikayo gave it back but it wasn’t the way she had borrowed it.
The thing is, would you like to receive your belongings back in a rough, torn or dirty way? If no, then why would you want to do that to someone?
Remember, loving your neighbor is a sign of how much you love yourself and how well you want to be treated. If you want to be treated well by others, treat other people well too. If you love yourself well, you will love others too; you will love your neighbour as yourself.
What should Fikayo had done with Lola’s notebook? She should have handled it with care and ensured she returned it as she had received it. Even better than she had. That would have made Lola happy and ensured that she lend more of her books to Fikayo. But with what Fikayo did with the book, Lola might likely never borrow her anything ever again.
May you receive the grace to be a good neighbour. Amen.
Prayer: Lord, make me a good neighbour. Help me to love your neighbour in Jesus’ name, amen.
Prayer point: What have you borrowed from people? Did you return them in a good condition? Or a bad one?
Yesterday, we started on the topic what a wife wants from her husband, and we listed four points that men ought to take note of.
We said a woman wants 1. A head, not a headache 2. A protector, not a manipulator 3. A caring husband, not a scary one, and 4. A praying husband, not a preying one.
Today, I will tell you two more things every wife wants from her husband.
5. A gardener, not a scavenger Every woman is like a garden of treasures. When a gardener is through working on a garden, there is order. When a scavenger is through, there is disorder. A gardener nurtures, a scavenger ruptures! A gardener prepares the garden for productivity; a scavenger is looking for what’s in it for him. It is a whole world of difference! A scavenger wants to raid your garden and if as a single you are involved with one, it’s time you send him parking and close your gate!
6. A romantic husband, not a sarcastic one Women love it when their husbands are romantic. All the things a man used to do and say while he is wooing them, they want it to continue. If the man is wise, he will oblige to that. Ladies don’t like abusive men, men who use them as joke objects all the time, identifying and poking at their weaknesses rather than emphasize their strengths! It is not a good idea when you are inspired to crack some dry jokes directed at your wife each time you see her!
You will lose her gradually doing that! Rather, learn her love language and speak that language! If what it will take for you to have a good home is to help her a little in the kitchen, then do it!
As a young couple, I would bathe our boys from when they were just four days old! My wife loved that, so I took it upon myself to do that for all the boys till they were old enough to take care of themselves. Those were the early years when I had not started writing devotionals and I had time in the mornings.
Now, that may not resonate with you, and your wife might not even want to trust you with a four-day-old baby, but find something you can do to make her happy! That is how to be a man!
May God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I receive the wisdom of God to advance my marriage
PRAYERS FOR THE DAY Father, help me to be a husband indeed.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life (Proverbs 31:11-12 KJV)
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Support your spouse all the way.
