Living According To The Will Of God

On The Path Of Winners

BY BAYO OGUNMUPE

Living According To The Will Of God

HERE are six steps by which you can enjoy the life God wants you to live. One, believe that Jehovah wants you to succeed in life, so abandon the unscriptural notion that this life has no meaning. Allah has a special work for you which was why He created you. You ask, ‘‘What defines success?”

  The progressive achievement of your God given goal resulting in feeling good about yourself is the answer to your question. ‘‘Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do,” Deut. 29:9. Two, consult God before setting your life goals. According to the scriptures, ‘‘We can make plans, but God determines our steps,” Proverbs 16:9. If you are constantly tired and confused, you may be on the wrong track. Go back and check with God. Perhaps you misconstrued His goal for you. But certainly, it is His will for you to triumph in such areas of your life as: spiritual, relational, physical, mental, social and financial.

  ‘‘Whatever he does shall prosper,” Psalm 1:3. Three, invest in yourself. ‘‘Though it costs all you have, get understanding,” Proverbs 4:7. If you are willing to spend money in fine restaurants but not on good books, your future is already determined. Cultivate a teachable spirit. ‘‘Let the wise listen and add to their learning,” Proverbs 1:5.

  Four, do something by mapping out your goals. Five, do something on your goals today. Six, do something everyday. We read about those who sail around the world in a thirty foot sailboats or those who overcame great handicaps to win gold medals at the Olympics. We later find their stories are all about persistence.

  If you want to know your future, look at your daily routine. You don’t determine your future, you determine your habits and your habits determine your future. The secret to success lies in doing the right things day after day. If you do that, you will eventually succeed. But here is a caveat, important priorities have a way of slipping out of place while you are focused on less important things. Some sacrifices are simply not worth it. One, in your attempt to build a reputation, do not lose your character. Reputation is what people think you are, character is what God and your associates know you are. Two, don’t sacrifice your family for your career, if you do, you will end up winning the admiration of the mediocre while losing the love of those who matter.

  Three, do not sacrifice your relationship with God for material things. Jehovah said: ‘‘You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me” but remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth; if you ever forget the Lord, you will surely be destroyed,” Deut. 8: 17-18. Furthermore, ‘‘Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness in front of others, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven,” Mathew 6:1.

  What you think, know or believe is, in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what you do. If you are serious at succeeding in your calling, you must take steps through action. Sir Edmund Burke, the British orator and statesman said, ‘‘Nobody made a greater mistake, than he who did nothing because he could do only a little.” Praying is good, but there comes a point when you have to step out in faith and act. And if you are the diffident type, you have to confront your fear and take the step by acting. God promised the Jews to part River Jordan so that they can enter Canaan. But the waters parted only after they stepped into the river, Joshua 3: 11-17. The same principle applies to you. It is easier to learn by doing. It is easier to stear a car when it is moving than when it stands still. So before the sun sets today, do something that will move you further toward your dream.

  Our champion today is Carl Lotus Becker, the famous American historian known for his work on American intellectual history and on the 18^th century Enlightenment. Born in September 1873 near Waterloo, Iowa, Becker died in 1945. He was educated at the Universities of Wisconsin and Columbia, Becker taught at the University of Kansas, Lawrence from 1902 to 1916 and at Cornell University, New York, from 1917 until he retired in 1941. In The Beginning of the American People (1915), he advanced in his doctoral thesis of a dual American Revolution – the first being the struggle for self government from Britain and the second, the ideological battle over the form such government should take.

  In the Eve of the Revolution (1918) and the Declaration of Independence (1922), Becker probed the relationship between 18^th century natural rights Philosophy and the American Revolution. During the 1920s, he began challenging the orthodox assumption of the superiority of a scientific methodology in historical study. Becker examined the ideas of 18^th Century Enlightenment Philosophers, stressing their intellectual fervor and their success in bridging traditional Christianity with Enlightenment secularism. During World War II, he urged the need for a reinsertion of moral statements in historical writing.