Living a Life of Purpose

God’s master plan for everyone is that we should live a purposeful life. A purposeful life is a life of impact, a life of fulfilment, a life of immortality.

When you live a life of purpose, you can never die, for even when you die, the life you lived and your great deeds will continue to live, at least, in the hearts of men. Your works will continue to speak for you long after you have gone to the great beyond.

Recently, I was going to Lokoja High Court and on my way, I saw a long white car bearing the inscription, “Asanlaye.” The car is used as an ambulance. Behind the car were several shiny and expensive coffins. Both the car and the expensive coffins were packed in front of the coffin maker’s workshop. 

The word, “Asanlaye” is obviously not an English word. It is a Yoruba word. And because of my sojourn in Yoruba land, I come to know that “asanlaye” means life is vanity. What this implies is that death puts an end to everything we are doing. 

Of course, no one is permitted to live on earth forever. Be that as it may, God did not create us for nothing. God is a purposeful God and He created us for a purpose. He created us so that we should worship Him and be a shining light to the world.

When you live the kind of life that God wants you to live, you will not see life as vanity, for though you die, yet you live – you live in the hearts of men. You depart this earth fulfilled. Coming generations will come to remember you for the purposeful life you lived.

The main issue now is not that we will all die; the main issue is how we live our life on earth. The important question, then, is: are we living the kind of life God wants us to live? Are we living a purposeful life?

We need to take a cue from our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a purposeful life. He knew the call of God in His life. He knew what God called Him to accomplish and He fulfilled it. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

For three and a half years, Jesus engaged in a dramatic public ministry of teaching, preaching, healing and deliverance. He went about doing good. He was a positive force who went about overcoming negative forces. That was over two thousand years ago. Many generations have come and gone, but he continues to impact lives positively. Jesus has and is still influencing lives the way no other person can.

Life of Purpose is Life with God

The number one reason God created us is so that we should worship Him and do His will. We are to worship Him in spirit and in truth, for that is the kind of worship that God accept.

Life without God is a purposeless life. Often, we live our life as if we will not depart this world one day. Many of us don’t even think of death until we lose a relation or our loved ones.

To live a purposeful life, we must constantly remind ourselves that it is appointed unto us that we MUST die and after that, there is judgment.

The life we live is not ours. At the end of our sojourn here on earth, we are expected to give account of how we live our life. It now behoves us to repent of our evil deeds and amend our ways. We should also rely on Jesus’ redemption work at Calvary, as that is God’s plan of salvation for mankind. 

When you do this, you will be on the right standing with God. And that is when God will pronounce His verdict of “Not guilty” on you. Life with God is a personal issue. Nobody compels you to amend your ways. God does not compel you either. But like loving parents, God’s plan for us is good and not evil (provided we do His will).

Life with God is what counts. When you choose to worship God and do His will, you are living a purposeful life. When you live a purposeful life, life will no longer be vanity because you are living the kind of life God wants you to live.

May we live the kind of life that will earn us accolades at the end of our sojourn here on earth. May God say to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Life of Purpose is Life of Relevance

Life is not about accumulation. King Solomon is perhaps the richest man on earth. After acquiring everything his heart desired, he thought about life under the sun and concluded that “Vanity upon vanity all is vanity.”

But dear reader, life needs not be vanity when you live a purposeful life. If you realise that God created you for a purpose, and you resolve to live the purposeful life that God created you to live, then life will no longer be vanity.

How long you live here on earth is not even important. Jesus spent only thirty-three and one half years on earth and out of these years, he spent three and one half years to accomplish the purpose for which God sent Him to the world. Jesus has impacted and is still impacting so many lives today.

The reverse is, however, the case with Methuselah. Methuselah lived nine hundred and sixty-nine years on earth, yet there was no single record that showed the meaningful contribution he made to his world.

A life of purpose is a life of relevance. And a life of relevance is a life of positive contribution. Life is all about positive contribution. A life of purpose goes beyond accumulation. It is not the amount of wealth that matters. What matters is what you do with your wealth to make life meaningful to mankind.

God did not create you for nothing. He created you to live a purposeful life. The way to live this purposeful life is to be relevant to your world. This generation and indeed future generation should remember you for the positive contribution you make in people’s lives.

The Late Chief M.K.O. Abiola once said, “I count my riches in the amount of smiles I put on people’s faces.” M.K.O., as he is fondly called, is remembered today for his great philanthropic work. 

The important question we need ask ourselves is, “What do I want to be remembered for? What can I do for my family, community, country and the world that I will be remembered? When you can find answers to those questions, you will be on the path to living a life of purpose.

Life will remain vanity until we discover our life purpose. Your life purpose cannot be exactly similar to those of others. Don’t spend your life living other people’s purpose.  Don’t waste your precious time trying to copy others. Discover your own life purpose.

God gives unto every person a mission, a purpose or a dream which, if discovered and pursued to a logical conclusion, will establish you as one of the legends of the ages.

IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A LIFE OF PURPOSE, BE RELEVANT TO YOUR WORLD. TO BE RELEVANT TO YOUR WORLD, YOU MUST MAKE POSITIVE CONTRIBUTION TO THE BETTERMENT OF YOUR WORLD.

Remember also that a life of purpose entails life with God. The main reason you are alive is so that you should worship and serve God. When you are in tune with God, you automatically become a shining example to the dark world. You are created to function as light; and anywhere you appear, darkness should disappear. Your light should shine and give glory to God. 

You don’t need to start going around announcing that you are light to your world. People don’t normally pay too much attention to what you say about yourself. But they are more influenced by the lifestyle you live. You just need to allow your light to shine by living the dignified lifestyle of a true worshipper. A true worshipper is easily identified by the kind of life he lives.

If you are a true worshiper, you will never see life as vanity because by virtue of your true worship, you are living a life of purpose.

Life with God and life of relevance are what count. Life will remain vanity in the absence of them. But when you key into them, you will discover that “In all these things,” you are more than a conqueror. 

Go and be victorious always!

Secret of Overcomers

One great point I notice in the life of overcomers is that they are conscious, not only of the battles they have to fight, but also of victory they will record at the end of the day.

A Christian lady once walked into a law firm to see her female friend (a female lawyer). After her discussion with her friend and as she turned back to leave the law firm, I saw an inscription on the back of the red T-shirt she wore, which instantly grabbed my attention. The inscription reads: “Overcomer at Home.” 

Impressed, I commented, “I admire your T-shirt and the inscription on it. So, you are an overcomer at home? And if I may add, you are an overcomer not only at home but also everywhere. We are born to be overcomers everywhere.”

The girl then cut in: “If you can overcome at home, you can overcome everywhere.”

Wanting more explanation, I asked: “Are you then saying that the battles at home are greater than the battles outside?”

She answered, “You should know, you know better.”  

I then replied, “This is food for thought. You have given me a good point to reflect upon.”

After waving her goodbye, I did take time to reflect on the girl’s mantra: “Overcomer at Home.” Overcomer at Home! 

After a deep reflection on the girl’s mantra, I cannot but agree with her that if one can overcome at home, one can overcome anywhere.

The lifestyle of overcomers can be likened to the lifestyle of undergraduates on campus. To ensure students are well trained and well grounded, teachers teach and bombard them with assignments, tests, class works, etc which combine to form what is called in Nigeria’s parlance, Continuous Assessments. Students who take the pains to learn and to do their assignments, tests, class works, etc, always come out the better for it in their examinations.

The same thing applies to life generally. To overcome anywhere, you must first overcome at home. There is an old English proverb, “Charity begins at home.”

A child that refuses to yield to home training and discipline may never grow up to be an overcomer. A child that dodges responsibility at home and does not want to undergo the pain of hard work may never cultivate the quality of an overcomer.

Overcoming at home also implies overcoming present challenges that we face daily. Every day, we are confronted with various challenges. Some are little, some are not. These challenges are what we have to overcome before we can actually overcome bigger and future challenges.

The present challenges are meant to prepare us for bigger challenges in the future. If we can overcome present challenges, we can as well overcome future challenges.

Dear reader, how do you handle present challenges? Do you run away, dodge or surrender to challenges? Or do you stand your ground, face and confront them?  How you handle present challenges matters, because it goes a long way in determining how you deal with future challenges.

How to be an Overcomer

To be an overcomer anywhere, you must first overcome at home. You must first overcome present challenges and when you do this, you are well prepared for future challenges.

The question is: what does it take to be an overcomer. There are just three steps you can take before you can overcome at home and everywhere. These steps are:

1.    Be battle Conscious    

Every overcomer is always conscious of battles he/she has to contend with as he/she moves on in life. The awareness of battles on ground helps one to actually brace oneself up for them.

If you must be victorious in life, you must first be conscious of battles on ground – battles at home, battles of the moment, battles in the future.

When you are aware of battles around you, you won’t be taken aback when you come face to face with any. The reason people are disorganised whenever they encounter problems is that they are not consciously aware of the problems and because they are not consciously aware of the problems, they are not prepared to handle them. And because they are not prepared to handle them, they get disorganised.

There are some people who believe that having problems is abnormal. To them, one should live a trouble-free life. But sincerely speaking, can one find a person living a trouble-free life?

Every true overcomer knows that as long as one is alive, one is not immune against problems. Problems are part of life. You need to keep reminding yourself about it so that when you encounter one, you will quickly brace yourself up to deal with it.

The girl above was conscious of battles around her. For her, battles at home are battles to be conscious of, to be prepared for, and to be dealt with. Once that is done, one becomes well equipped to overcome all battles everywhere.

Dear reader, do you want to be victorious in life? Then you must remind yourself constantly that there are battles around you which may confront you anytime, any day, anywhere. When you do this, you won’t be taken unaware and you will be in a position to prepare and fight the battles.

2.  Focus on Victory

To be victorious in life, it is not enough to be battle-conscious; you must as well be victory-conscious. The difference between the overcomer and the loser is that the overcomer is battle-conscious and also focussed on victory; while the loser may or may not be battle-conscious, but he is focussed on defeat.

The loser has not fought a battle yet, but he concludes that he cannot win the battle.

Dear reader, how on earth do you think you will become an overcomer when you don’t even believe in your ability to overcome? It is belief in your ability to overcome that helps you to focus on victory. 

When your mind is set on victory, you unleash the unlimited potentials within you, which enable you to conquer every battle that you are facing at the moment.

One thing I notice in the life of victorious people is that they think, talk, and dream about victory all the time. The girl above is no doubt an overcomer. She is not only battle-conscious, she is also victory-focused. The impression on the back of her red T-shirt: “Overcomer at Home,” buttresses this fact. What it takes to be an overcomer is to be victory-focussed or victory-conscious.

3.  Fight the Battle

Overcomers are not talkers, but fighters. They don’t just talk about victory; they fight to win. You are not victorious yet until you are willing and prepared to fight the battles confronting you.

One quality I admire in overcomers is that they don’t waste time complaining and lamenting over the problems that confront them; they rise up and grapple with the problems. They fight their way through.

Dear reader, regardless of the battles confronting you, never stop fighting. Keep fighting. Victory comes to those who keep fighting. Like soldiers in the warfront who are willing to fight to the last drop of their blood, the only way to overcome is to keep fighting. 

It is settled that you will be victorious. Victory is what God has promised every one of us. But you will have to fight. Don’t be like the children of Israel in the Bible who wanted to get to the Promised Land, but were not willing to fight their way through.

The proof of your desire to get to your Promised Land is your willingness and preparedness to confront everything that is standing your way to your Promised Land.

Make up your mind today. Forget about the idea of being victorious without a fight. 

You must fight before you can win. No fight, no victory.

The secret of overcomers is laid bare in this article. To become an overcomer, you must:

a.     Be battle-conscious;

b.     Be victory-focussed; and

c.     Fight your way through to victory.

When you do those, you have the assurance that you will emerge victorious at the end of the day!

Best Advice on Marriage

Marriage is an institution established by God. Marriage was instituted because God thought man should not be alone, but needed a helper. God also instituted marriage because of the need to “multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it.” 

By God’s design, man is expected to leave his parents and be joined to his wife, and be united as ONE. This “living together” of a man and woman having different character, personality, habit, culture and mentality, etc, is not without problems.

More often than not, couples are embroiled in so great a dispute that they find it difficult to reconcile. In the end, they end up in divorce. It is a tragedy of a sort. Tragedy in the sense that no serious man or woman goes into marriage expecting to divorce later.

The desire of any couple is to enjoy marital bliss for a lifetime. The affirmation, “For better for worse... till death do us part,” is the indication of readiness to stay happily together forever. But no sooner had they settled for marital life than they start thinking of divorce because one problem or the other.

In fact, statistics conducted sometime ago show that 7 out of 10 divorces occur within the first three years of marriage.

The Fundamental

Many a divorce occurs not because of any other thing, but because of immaturity on the part of one or both of the parties. Marriage is not a child’s play and it is important that one should be matured before going into it.

Maturity here has little to do with age. Maturity has to do with mental, physical, and spiritual preparedness for marriage. You don’t jump into marriage simply because your friends are getting married. You get married because you are prepared for it. Marriage is for a lifetime and so it is not something you jump into. Marriage is worth preparing for. I may be wrong but my opinion is that if couple takes time to prepare thoroughly for their marriage, they would avert many problems that may threaten to destroy their marriage.

The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule says, “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” Jesus proposed this rule and lived by it. Hundreds of thousands of books have been written on relationship and marriage. But if you are asked to summarize any or all the books in one sentence, and you use the Golden Rule as your summary, you will discover that it fits with the overall theme of any of the books.

This goes to show the efficacy of the Golden Rule. It works when both partners work it. The advice is here is that both partners should strive to apply both the Golden Rule at all times. The more both partner practice the Golden Rule, the happier they enjoy their marriage.

The Ultimate

 At stated earlier, it is God that established the marriage institution. As such, He alone has the best advice on marriage. One of God’s pieces of advice is the Golden Rule discussed above. You can find God’s other related advice in the Bible His Word. Take the Bible and read it. Make it a habit it regularly. All the pieces of advice work if only you work them. When both partners are sincere and willing to follow God’s advice on marriage, they will enjoy rather than endure their marriage!

SPECIAL FEATURE: MAKING GREATER IMPACT

It is gratifying to note that Centre For Victorious Living (CFVL) is one year old this Month, July. This online motivational and personal development blog was set up July last year, 2011 for the purpose of empowering people for victorious living.

Looking back so far, I can confidently say that it has been so good. Of course, there were challenges here and there, but they could not stop CFVL from impacting lives positively.

I give thanks to Almighty God for giving me the opportunity to make positive contribution to the advancement of mankind through the inspirational and motivational articles I write and post regularly on both my free and paid blog – centreforvictoriousliving.blogspot.com and centreforvictoriousliving.com respectively.

My passion, my mandate is to give people hope. Hope is the anchor we need to survive the storms of life. This hope is not mere hope, but hope that is firmly rooted in the Book of God, the Bible. This Book of Life holds the answer to every problem of life. It also reveals to us the mind of God towards us. One of God’s plan for each and every one of us is to have DOMINION over the earth. We are mandated to RULE our world. And to enable us carry out this order, God deposited within us unlimited potentials. We are expected to deploy these unlimited potentials to achieve success, prosperity, and victory.

It is God that gives us power to get wealth. And it is His will that we should prosper. And to prosper, we must align our God-given power with the success principles embedded in God’s Word.

The contribution of CFVL is to teach these Biblical principles for success and victorious living. Every human principles and ideas will fail. Only God’s principles can earn us success and victory. CFVL is here not only to teach God’s principles for prosperity and victory, but to inspire, motivate and give you hope.

God’s plan for us all is to give us a FUTURE and HOPE. As far as God’s plan for us is concerned, we are to prosper and be victorious. If you have not yet made it, it does not mean you will never make it. If you don’t have money today, it does not mean you will not have it tomorrow.

The present unfavourable circumstances have nothing to do with your future. In God’s scheme of things, your past or present failure and defeat do not determine the quality of life you will live in the future.

The economic downturn cannot halt the plan of God for your life. The only person that can disrupt God’s plan for your life is YOU. The truth is, we are the determining factor for our own success in life. 

God has already made the provision for your success and victory. He has given you the power to achieve whatever you want to achieve. He has given you unlimited potentials to do great exploits. It now behoves you to harness these unlimited potentials, while applying God’s success principles in order to achieve your set goal.

The Two-Step Approach

Many books have been written on success, prosperity and victory. These books teach a thousand and one principles. However, if all these principles were to be distilled into a two-step principle or approach, I believe the following could be the best approach:

1.    Use the unlimited potentials God has given you to prosper and achieve victory.

2.    These unlimited potentials should be applied together with God’s success principles in order to achieve maximum success.

  1. Use the Unlimited Potentials Within You

The potentials God deposited in us has been likened to the sea which can never dry. Scientists have made us to understand that on average, we use only 10% of our abilities. The remaining 90% of our abilities we leave unexplored.

An up and coming screenwriter and dramatist once told me after writing a script, which by my opinion is a potential bestseller, that the script was the best he would ever write and that he could not come up with any script that would be better than it.

Just then I replied: “You are not right in saying that you can never produce something better than the present script you have written. The fact is, you can never run out of ideas. And as long as ideas keep coming, you will surely come up with ideas that will surpass the former ones. Similarly, you can never run short of the ability to translate the ideas into reality. If you can write such a great script, you can also come up with better scripts.”

Like this up and coming dramatist, we often fail to make progress in life because of the negative opinion we hold about our abilities.

It is important to note that our attitude – negative or positive – plays significant role in the level of success we achieve in life. Our negative opinion about our abilities, and not lack of abilities, is the factor that is holding us down in defeat.

Doubt or unbelief can be likened to the “Off” button of a desktop computer. When you press the “Off” button, it shuts down the system. In the same vein, when you start entertaining doubt in your mind, or when you start holding negative opinion about your ability, you are shutting down the unlimited potentials within you. Doubt and negative opinion are “Off” button. They shut down your ability when you dwell on them.

The problem is not your ability, but your negative opinion about your ability. The fact is, you can achieve anything you set your mind upon to achieve, provided you trust your ability to carry you through.

BELIEF IS THE ACTIVATOR OF YOUR POTENTIALS. Belief is the “On” button that awakens your potentialities. And it is when your potentialities are awakened that you can become capable of achieving greatness in life.

Never doubt your ability to achieve greater success in life, because God has already given you unlimited potentials. With these potentials, you can live the life God wants you to live.

There is room for improvement and there is no limit to what you can achieve, if you BELIEVE that you have what it takes.

Years ago, an apprentice learning under a great artist once came up with a very good portrait, which his master approved to be good. The boy was so excited about the art work that every day he spent a whole lot of time admiring it.

One day, his master took the art work from him and destroyed it. As he watched his masterpiece being destroyed, he cried.

His master called him and said, “No doubt, the work you did is good, but it is certainly not the best. You can do something better. What is restricting you from doing excellent work is that you kept gazing at this work thinking that this is the best work you can do.”

The apprentice grasped what his master told him and he later became one of the greatest artists of the ages.

What a great lesson for all of us! Regardless of our present level of success, we should not be complacent. We should not rest on our oars. We can do better. We can build bigger and we can achieve bigger.

Your present level of achievement is certainly not the best. You can do better than that. What is actually restricting people from advancing is that the hold unto the belief that the level they are now is the highest they can reach. And because they believe they can go no farther, they are never inspired or motivated to move to higher height. 

Dear reader, if you believe in God’s rich endowment on you; if you believe God has deposited unlimited potentials within you, then you also have to believe that there is no limit to what you can achieve when you tap into these unlimited potentials within you.

Where you are now is not the highest you can reach. You can go higher than that. You can make greater impact. You only need to constantly tap into the unlimited potentials within you. Keep tapping into it. Keep digging your goldmine. You cannot exhaust it. It is not possible to exhaust it.

The more you tap into the unlimited potentials within you, the greater your level of success. YOUR PROGRESS IN LIFE ONLY STOPS WHEN YOU STOP HARNESSING YOUR UNLIMITED POTENTIALS WITHIN YOU.  

2. Apply God’s Success Principles

For real success to happen, you must apply God’s success principles while harnessing the unlimited potentials within you.

Often, the reason for our under achievement is that we use our God-given potentials wrongly. We fail to realise that until we apply God’s principles for success, all our efforts will be in vain.

For instance, the “grab-grab” approach to wealth which characterise the world economy is not God’s way of succeeding in life. The “get-rich-quick” scheme is not God’s way to prosperity either. Attempting to succeed at the expense of others or violating the laws of God and the laws of man all in the bid to succeed in life can never lead to REAL success. Real success must be accompanied with peace of mind. Success with clean hands is REAL success. And the only way to achieve it is by applying (harnessing) the unlimited potentials within you without offending God and man. 

When you have a “conscience void of offence towards God and man”, real success can never elude you.

This is the kind of success CFVL focuses on and preach. There is victory for everyone who practises God’s principles for victorious living. God’s desire for every one of us is that we succeed and be victorious. 

Do you want to be up and victorious everyday of your life? Then follow God’s principles. Obey the laws of God and the laws of man.

The mission (mandate) of CFVL is to teach, guide, counsel, inspire and motivate you to practise God’s laid down principles for all-round success.

As CFVL celebrates its one year anniversary, it is more than ever before committed to constantly bringing your way uplifting and life changing articles for helping you stay motivated. For, it is only when you are motivated that you can actually get up and achieve the great success that God has ordained for you.

Till I come your way very soon, go and live victoriously!