As you celebrate with friends and loved ones, remember those around you who need a little help from you to make their celebration a little more blissful.
Can you provide for someone in need during this season?
You probably worked hard, earned quite some money this year, got promoted, extended your business frontiers, made it into that major league, or some other really fulfilling accomplishments, and you for sure survived 340+ days of this year. What better way to celebrate, to express your joy, and to show you are grateful! Give someone else a reason to rejoice.
The good thing about giving is that you gain too. Apart from God’s promises about us receiving more and more when we give, there’s this good feeling, this joy you get when you put a smile on someone else’s face.
Luke 6:38 – Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full–pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.
Here’s my good advice. Rework your budget for the month to allow for more philanthropy on your part. Let the love and joy go round until it touches every portion of this planet. You’ll be glad you did.
It’s December already! Can you believe it? Soon we’ll be singing carols, going on vacation or traveling home for the holidays, giving and receiving gifts… and then that special moment will come when we gather in central locations with loved ones or with total strangers to count down… 10! 9! 8! 7! 6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! And we’ll scream, shout, laugh, cry, hug, kiss, slap high-fives, pop champagne, eat chocolate cake and just be merry. I can’t wait!
2017 has been quite a year, hasn’t it? During the thanksgiving service today, we were asked to write down all the reasons we could recall for being grateful to God. I had mine scattered all over my journal so I decided to write them all out on one page. By the time we had to stop, I was on number nineteen and I wasn’t done. So I’ve got some work left to do.
There’s so much to be grateful for. January to December is a long time and you’re still here. You made it this far. I pray that God will see you through to 2018. Have you written your list yet?
I’ll share a few of my testimonies:
A friend who got married years ago finally had a baby this year
Another friend who really wanted to get married finally did so this year
Micah’s reading has really improved. His siblings were best pupil overall and best maths pupil in the past session
Diseases healed
Sins forgiven
Preservation of life and general wellbeing – family and friends
Projects completed
Speaking & singing engagements
My Whole Life & No Other God single releases
If I had more time, I would have added:
Safe travels
Safety on the job and at home
Love and peace in my home
Streams of income
Fresh food in Eket
A sound mind
What are you grateful for?
I encourage you to write your own list today. It’ll be worth your while.
In this part of the world, the last four months of the year are referred to as EMBER months and that comes with a negative connotation. You see EMBER sounds a bit like ‘mba’, a popular Igbo word that means NO. Over the years, most people have come to think of this period as difficult, dangerous, treacherous, and packed with an air of impossibility. It is also usually accompanied by an increase in accident rates, crime rates, and so on, so a lot of people live in fear during this time of year.
How about looking at this time differently from now on? We may not be in control of a lot of things but there are a few things we can control or influence. Let’s make the most of those opportunities.
Plan better and work with your plan – avoid last minute brash decisions that leave you rushing and predispose you to accidents or other mistakes that could cost you a lot.
Determine to make safe choices all the time. Bear in mind that your family and loved ones still need you, so do all that lies in your power to get home safe.
Know that the world is not scheduled to end on December 31. There will probably be a next year, so if achieving certain dreams or aspirations this year will cost you your sanity, health, life and overall wellbeing, consider deferring them. Remember, if you die trying, that dream will still remain unachieved, but it you live, you can try again and probably succeed.
Stay positive. It is common knowledge that we often draw into our lives what we expect or what we think about the most – like Job who eventually said ‘What I always feared has happened to me. What I dreaded has come true’. Don’t spend your energy on the negative. Believe for good to come your way. Expect favour, goodwill, kindness and extend the same to others.
Finally, depend on God to guide, protect, bless and keep you. He’s the One with the power to control those circumstances that are beyond you. He’s the One who can orchestrate events for your good. He’s the One who can make perfect all that concerns you and bring you to a place that’s better than what you imagined.
I believe these four months will be the best time of this year for me. I expect increase, promotion, perfect health, a happy family, favour, wealth, more opportunities for positive impact, and overall wellbeing.
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