Bode has always lived to impress other people. He has always compared himself to others, allowing other people’s lives and purposes to determine his own goals. He has never been true to himself. In no time, he had worn out himself and at the end of the day, he still lacked fulfillment.
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. (2 Corinthians 10:12 KJV)
Why would the Bible say that falling into comparison trap is foolish?
1. You are unique
You are uniquely created. There are over seven billion people on planet earth and yet nobody else has an exact match of your fingerprints. As I write now, the world’s population is at 7.9 Billion!
You have been uniquely packaged for a specific assignment on earth. It is foolhardy then for one to compare himself with another.
2. You have different assignments
Everybody has a unique purpose to fulfill on earth. God told Jeremiah that
Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5 KJV)
Your purpose precedes your creation. That is how powerful it can get! Everything you need on earth to fulfill your purpose was packaged into you while God is creating you. You are not inferior, you are gifted and you only need to discover it!
3. You have a different life span
Some people would have achieved so much by thirty that you are wondering how they are able to do so many things in a few years. But then before they are fifty, they are out of this world. Some people are great achievers too, just that they are latecomers. Their limelight begins when they are over forty or fifty! Stop comparing yourself with what others are doing, focus on God to help you do what you are supposed to do!
4. You will weary yourself
When you compare yourself, you will end up getting tired because you will be drawn to do what you are not gifted to do. You will want to impress others and you will soon get tired trying to do that!
5. You will be distracted
Comparison trap breaks your focus. It gets you on the wrong lane of purpose. It is a wasted and futile effort with no reward from God.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am focused
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord Jesus, help me to be focused
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5 KJV)
Focus on your marriage to make it work at all costs and against all odds. Lay the bed on your marriage well, so you can enjoy all the beauty in your own marriage. Learn all the principles you need to learn, drop all bad habits you need to drop. Break all pride, cockiness, selfishness, deception, and let your own marriage work.
If you are already separated, decide what you want, walk with God, and let him show you what next to do. Whichever way, God loves you and still wants the very best for you.
How to focus on your own marriage
1. Focus on yourself You are a vital part of that marriage. Discover yourself. Who are you? What are your desires, what makes you come alive, what makes you enjoy living? Love yourself. Be a happy you.
2. Focus on your spouse As a married person, the most important human being on earth is your spouse. Begin to treat him/her as such. Let nothing absolutely come in between that. Let the whole world know, your spouse is so important to you.
Some people treat their wives like ‘one kobo’ and expect her to treat them like ‘ a million dollar’, it ain’t gonna work that way.
Seize every opportunity to let everyone know this one human being is number one on your list.
3. Focus on God Now, it will be very foolish to want to focus on yourself and your spouse and leave God out. It can not work. God is the center that holds the pieces all together. God is the vital force that crowns all our efforts with success.
4. Focus on your strength You have strengths. Whether it’s your beauty, your home-making skills, your intellect, your being jovial, whatever it is, focus on it. It’s your selling point in your marriage. Don’t let go of your strong points.it is what will make your spouse keep coming back to you.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
5. Focus on minimizing your weaknesses Don’t ever make the mistake of pretending your weaknesses don’t exist. Don’t ignore them. Your weaknesses have the potential of destroying the marriage you are building, so destroy your weaknesses before they ever destroy your marriage.
6. Focus on satisfying yourselves Why should you spend your energy, time, money on trying to please or satisfy another man’s wife? That’s called wastage.
Don’t go into an unprofitable venture. Ask yourself, if I satisfy her, how does it add to me or make my own marriage better?
Tend your own garden. When it’s harvest time, you won’t go and harvest on another man’s farm. It is not your own, so focus and build your own marriage.
He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
Pro 12:11
God bless you and bless your marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY My marriage is blessed
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, teach me to embrace your love
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Isa 49:16 (GW) I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always in my presence.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Register, pray and plan to attend camp meeting now
Good morning, married folk out there. God bless your marriage. God is committed until your marriage becomes all it has the potential to become.
Your marriage can work out beautifully well. You can enjoy and have that dream marriage you always desire. Don’t for once ever feel it can never happen.
If you believe it can never happen, gosh, you just announced it won’t happen. Don’t give up, but be willing and obedient to do and give your marriage all it takes to make it work.
You know married couples should begin to have this attitude of ‘my marriage is personal and I got to make it work’.
You know while growing up, my dad will always say this proverb, ‘ as you lay your bed, so you will lie on it’. Then, I would wonder, why is he worried about how I lay my bed?
I don’t have a care about how my bed is, once I hit the bed, I don’t have enough time to notice how it is, I just sleep.
Did you miss out on yesterday’s devotional, we’ve got you covered kindly go HERE. For KHC video Devotionals kindly go HERE
Later, I realized it’s not just about my physical bed, but it’s about life generally. Talking about our physical bed, it’s very good to learn to make our beds well and train our kids to do so too.
Someone said, laying your bed before leaving the house every morning gives you a sense of achievement. It may look small, but somewhere in your sub-conscious you feel good, you have at least a good, well laid bed…lol
For us married, the bed is also very important.
Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Heb 13:4
My husband will jokingly say, the bed is the most important furniture to the couple. I want to agree with that.
The bed is the legalized furniture for love making. Of course not the only furniture, several others have joined in the quest for ‘orgasmic’ love making.
Now, talking about focusing on your marriage, you have to decide what you want your marriage to look like. No doubt there are a lot of factors that may want to stand against this but you have to stand your ground. Stand your ground to live a worthy legacy for your children and generation yet unborn.
How exactly do we focus on our marriage?
I will show us tomorrow.
God bless our marriage.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY My marriage is blessed
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, teach me to embrace your love
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Isa 49:16 (GW) I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are always in my presence.
1. Focus A great marriage is made of a couple who are so into themselves. They focus on each other’s needs. They love each other tirelessly. They are best friends of themselves.
For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.
Isa 50:7 (KJV)
God will help, but you must set your face like a flint, which means to focus. Focusing on each other will help you to be faithful to each other in your marriage.
2. Forgive A fantastic marital journey is made up of two forgivers. In fact, there is such thing as advanced forgiveness. As couples, avoid bitterness like a plague. Runaway from strife and don’t touch it with a mile-long pole.
3. Forget Oh, you must learn to forgive the hurts of the past. Dear couples, help your spouse by not repeating what you promised you won’t do again. If you keep repeating a particular thing you promised not to do, you make it difficult for your spouse to forget.
Each reiteration of the act will be a painful reminder of that which has been buried.
Absolutely forgetting a thing is almost impossible, because that has to be a condition of amnesia, however, you can forget the pain that comes with it.
4. Forsake There are things to forsake as you move on in the marital journey. There are things your spouse does not like and which keep bringing conflicts from time to time. Forsake them, that is what growing is all about.
Don’t assume a fixated posture like you cannot change. It’s only God that changeth not, and you are not God.
You deal with the flesh. You put the body under. You remain disciplined. You get better by the day.
Good morning. God bless you.
CONFESSION FOR THE DAY I am getting better by the day
PRAYER FOR THE DAY Lord, help me to dutifully focus on my spouse
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Isa 50:7 (AMP)For the Lord God helps Me; therefore have I not been ashamed or confounded. Therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.
ACTION PLAN FOR THE DAY Write out the word you are standing on
Yesterday, we started the series on how to be creative with your worship of God. Today we will look at one way to do so – the art of prayer.
Prayer is a time of communicating with God one-on-one. Imagine that you are in a room with God and discussing with Him. You open your heart to Him about what you need, what you are going through and more. Prayer is more like that. It’s a closed-room session with God, where no one or anything is allowed in or should be allowed in.
And in that room, you can’t be talking with Him and also be talking to someone else. All of your attention should be on Him and what you want to say to Him. You shouldn’t be distracted by anything or anyone or allowing your thoughts to wander. If you want to stand, sit, kneel, bend or take any form, do so with the knowledge of being in His presence.
Having wandering thoughts breaks your connection to Him and in the process, you lose hearing Him speak, put impressions in your heart and sometimes hear something wrongly.
When you focus on Him, it helps to strengthen the connection between Him and you. Your prayers reach Him and you receive answers to them. Think of your TV set plugged into the wall socket. If you put it on without it plugged into the socket, it won’t come on. Much the same way if you go into God’s presence in prayer and losing focus.
One way you can be focused during prayers is by finding a quiet place to pray.
May the Lord help you to remain focused on Him during prayers, Amen.
Prayer point:
Lord, give me the grace to focus on You only during prayers. I remove every hindrance or distraction from my prayer time with You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Confession:
I am focused. My prayer is with utmost attention. I am not distracted in the place of prayers. I pray till I see my heart desires.
