Believe while others doubt.
Plan while others are playing.
Study while others are sleeping.
Decide while others are delaying.
Prepare while others are daydreaming. Begin while others are procrastinating. Work while others are wishing.
Save while others are wasting.
Listen while others are talking.
Smile while others are frowning.
Commend while others are criticizing. Persist while others are quitting.

Moral of this story:
The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings’ palaces. Proverbs 30:28
This week I want us to learn wisdom tips from Spider. Everything a spider needs to survive and succeed in life, God put within it. Swipe it with a broom and before it hits the ground its fall is broken. It just reaches inside, releases another protein-filled silk-like thread, slides down, finds a safe place, then comes back stronger than ever and builds a new web. What’s the message of the spider? Everything you need, God has placed within you! The Bible says, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and Godliness… He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:3-4NIV). What has God given us? “Everything we need.” What has God made us participants in? - “His divine nature.” Wow! Your future is not determined by who you know; who you don’t or who likes you or who doesn’t. The power to fulfill your destiny is within you. The warfare over your life and the struggle you’re in is about what you were born, called and gifted to do. So, “Stir up… the… gift of God… that is in you - 2 Timothy 1:6. In other words - start producing. Life may have knocked you down, but it hasn’t knocked you out. What’s at work within you will triumph over what’s at work around you. Stand on God’s Word, draw on your faith, hold on, and when the smoke clears, rise up and announce, “By the grace of God, I’m back!” You say, “But I’ve lost so much.” As long as you still have what God put within you, you can make it! Have a great day!!!!

Do not worry - Matthew 6:31

We live in a wonderful time in history when men and women are asking questions that only the God who rules and reigns in the affairs of men can answer.

Nations are experiencing difficult moments with the loss of jobs, homes, relationships like it has never been in history of mankind, the encouragement this week - “DO NOT FEAR” The Psalmist said, “I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread” - Psalm 37:25. Has God ever failed you? No, and He won’t now: “You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you” - Joel 2:26.

You will also be a blessing to people around you in this time of the world’s economic recession. Remember always ” GOD CAN NEVER BE ON RECESSION”

I love to collect true life stories, fictions and great works of art but every week I prayerful selects what I believe is appropriate for the week. This is another fit for this work week. Enjoy and apply!

A story tells that two friends were walking through the desert. In a specific point of the journey, they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face. The one, who got slapped, was hurt, but without anything to say, he wrote in the sand:
“TODAY, MY BEST FRIEND SLAPPED ME IN THE FACE”. They kept on walking, until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who got slapped and hurt started drowning, and the other friend saved him. When he recovered from the fright, he wrote on a stone: “TODAY MY BEST FRIEND SAVED MY LIFE”
The friend who saved and slapped his best friend, asked him, “Why, after I hurt you, you wrote in the sand, and now you write on a stone?” The other friend smilingly replied: “When a friend hurts us, we should write it down in the sand, so that the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. And when something great happens, we should engrave it in the stone of the memory of the heart, where no wind can erase it”

Moral of the story:Learn to write in the sand, when you have differences and hurt feelings from your friends, spouse, colleagues and loved ones. Learn to write on stone when your friend had done some thing really good to you, appreciate them with genuine love. Life is too short for an experiment on how well we can hold on to offences, we must take on the nature of God who forgives and forget. People have come up with theories, excuses and strong reasons why it’s not just possible to forgive. We must always remember that the wrath of man has not and will never work the righteousness. We must not take laws in ours hand and melt of justice in our intra/inter-personal relationship with others. We must live the life of joy, peace and fulfillment, which God designed us to live. Shalom!

When questioned about his incredible success, Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, offered these 11 insights to anyone starting out. They are worth considering this year:

(1) Life isn’t fair - get used to it.
(2) The world doesn’t care about your self-esteem; it expects you to accomplish something before feeling good about yourself.
(3) You won’t make $100,000 a year or be a vice president with a cell phone right out of school. You have to earn it.
(4) Do you think your teacher is tough? Wait till you have a boss - he’s not tenured.
(5) Flipping burgers isn’t beneath you; your grandparents called it opportunity.
(6) If you mess up, it’s not your parents’ fault.
(7) Your parents weren’t always boring; it came from feeding you, cleaning your clothes and paying your bills. So before you rush out to save the rain forest from the ‘parasites’ of your parents’ generation, try delousing your own cupboard.
(8) Some schools may have abolished winners and losers, but life hasn’t. They may have eradicated ‘failing grades’ and given you as long as you want to get the right answer. This bears no resemblance to reality.
(9) Life isn’t
divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off. Employers aren’t interested in helping you ‘find yourself’; you do that on your own time.
(10) Unlike television, real people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to work.
(11) Be nice to nerds; chances are, you’ll end up working for one someday!

Moral of this story:The Bible says: “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” and “The sluggard craves and gets nothing, but the desires of the diligent are fully satisfied” (Proverbs 13:4). As we begin the work week in this new year we must remember in 2009 that there are no shortcuts on the way to success rather we’ve got to work for it!

Throw your net on the right side - John 21:6 NIV

When you make decisions based on doubt and unbelief, they never turn out right. After hearing Jesus promise to rise from the dead, and then actually seeing Him alive, the disciples still went back to what they were doing before they met Him: fishing. Now God will use our past experiences to teach us, but He always leads us forward - never backward. When fear and uncertainty make us want to go back to the security of what we know, we end up like the disciples: “They went out and… got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing” But there’s good news: If God called you, you’re still called. Notice how Jesus addresses them: “Children, have you any food?” (John 21:5 ) In spite of your lackluster performance, you’re still His child! Next He tells them: “Throw your net on the right side of the boat… When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish. Then the disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’” (John 21:7) That morning Jesus ate breakfast with them, renewed fellowship, removed their doubts and sent them out to change the world.

Moral of the story: When we work outside of God’s will it’s like fishing on the wrong side of the boat; we wear ourselves out and in the end we have nothing to show for our efforts. Are you succeeding in life right now? No? Maybe you’re fishing on the wrong side of the boat! Things aren’t going to work out right until you submit to Christ, renew your fellowship with Him and allow Him to direct your steps. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, for He delights in his ways; allow God to teach you to profit this week and lead you in the way you should go. Have a great week of renewed fellowship with your God!!!