Everyone of us at different times of life usually get to a point where we just want to quit, we get to that point where the end we saw in our mind when we first started pursuing those goals no longer look like something we can ever attain no matter how hard we try.

Truth be told, we all go through this season of life where there is only a tiny thread holding us back from putting up our hands up in defeat.

On reasons why you shouldn’t quit, permit me to share the lessons I gained from a devotional I read early this year, I believe it will bless you.

The study is based on this verse of the bible;

2 Cor 4:16 ( I personalized it)

So I am not giving up. How could I! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on me, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his unfolding grace.

Unlike other devotional study on the bible app which starts with a note from the author and then bible verses for that day, this study starts with a video introducing the central theme for the day and then the bible verses for the day. 

I'll be putting the link at the end of this post should you want like to glean from it personally too.

Let me share some of the lessons I learnt that will be of tremendous blessing to you

-     -  No matter what happens, you need to keep moving forward regardless of anything that plays out as you move through life.  

-      - There are many reasons you should not lose heart, one of which is because a lot awaits you in the future, and there is so much in your future that you can’t even see.

      - Another reason is that you know your future.  And while you might not know all the details in full, be confident that since Jesus is right with you, then whatever your future will be, it will make sense.

-      - Strength is for service, not status.

-       That you are strong in any area of your life is not just for flaunting it around but to serve others as much as God allows you to.

-     -  If you were standing next to Jesus, imagine the kind of smile that will be on your lips,  now live in the reality of that consciousness every day, always bear in mind that Jesus is with you.

-      - Jesus did all He did on the tree for you so that you will always have a future to look forward to and by so doing have a reason to live and live well.

-      The same one who raised up Jesus from the dead will always raise you up and be with you every step of the way, this is why you are not to lose heart.

-      Pain Has A Purpose

-      Whatever your troubles are, they are light, and they are easy.

I know it’s difficult to believe this especially in the midst of the hottest part of the fire that you might be encountering, but it is the truth. Believe it!

-      Paul didn’t have light troubles, a man who was going from one prison to the other certainly didn’t have light troubles at all, he knew his readers challenges would be anything but light, but he was convinced that when brought face to face with the things coming up in the future; the glorious things the Father has in stock for them, then it is just light…

-      Every little thing has a purpose; it will all make perfect sense very soon.

-      Heaven is your ultimate home.

-      You are to keep going, no matter the pain involved.

-      Keep fixing your  eyes on the things that cannot be seen.

-      While Christ was on this side of eternity, a lot happened to him, especially the climax which was the death on the cross, but even at that, he endured through it all, He kept going and he is beckoning on you too to keep going. A step today, another tomorrow. A little here and a little there is all it takes.

-      Christ is your Superhero…

Jesus is your superhero and he has promised to stay with you till the very end.

-      Don’t lose heart, Jesus your hero will never leave you.

Trust that this study has given you a renewed energy for you to keep moving on.

Let me end with the lyrics of this song Can’t Give Up Now by Mary Mary

There will be mountains
That I will have to climb
And there will be battles
That I will have to fight
But victory or defeat
It's up to me to decide
But how can I expect to win
If I never try

I just can't give up now
I've come too far from where
I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
And I don't believe He's brought me this far
To leave me

Never said there wouldn't be trials
Never said I wouldn't fall
Never said that everything would go
The way I want it to go
But when my back is against the wall
And I feel all hope is gone
I'll just lift my head up to the sky
And say help me to be strong, oh

I just can't give up now
I've come too far from where
I started from
Nobody told me the road would be easy
And I don't believe He's brought…

It will all make perfect sense at the end, it's the truth, believe it!

Are you interested in the study, then you can click here to do that.

Have comments to share,  please do.

The day Ruth told me that she heard Sola tell someone I wasn't a good friend was the day I lost all faith in the word called  friendships. 

I sat down on the chair stunned listening to what Ruth was saying. 

I mean how can someone say so many wonderful things in your presence while still saying unthinkable things in your absence?

I just couldn't wrap my mind around it.

You might wonder who Sola is, she is my friend, she was the first lady I clicked with when I started attending God's grace chapel immediately I came back from NYSC.

She was a member of the choir and she had sang the choir ministration the day I attended service for the first time, the song was the song we sang in the last NCCF conference I attended in Kebbi State, and remembering all those memories made me so emotional.

I can't remember how we became close, but one thing led to another. We got very close to the extent that we started sharing each other secrets, not too long after that we became prayer prayer partners, we become so close that if we were members of the opposite sex, people would have said we were dating. 

There was nothing we couldn't talk about, from creams to the perfumes that made you smell like someone whose monthly income is on seven digits, to investment portfolios and the investment plans that were offering about 40%-55% in a year and everything in between.

I just loved her and we gelled well.

So you can imagine my shock when Ruth told me she called me a bad friend.

I mean this is a lady who has been my friend for over three years.

After that experience, I made the decision that everything called friendships and I are definitely going our separate ways.

***

Some of us have not been so good with friendships, while some people have been so fortunate to have great friends all through their lives without any betrayal, some haven't been so lucky. 

Some have had their closest friends stabbed them so hard as only a friend could.  

It's quite understandable that what they did was unjustifiable but is it enough to totally canceal out the role of friends?

Of course not.

That you got hurt by a person doesn't mean other great people don't exist in the world, but if you keep holding on to the hurt of yesterday, you won't enter into the prepared places of today.

Release The Hurt From Your Heart.

Do this, release that friend who has hurt you.

Look Forward To Having Friends

Life was never meant to be lived alone, it was supposed to be enjoyed in the company of others who love you and who are equally loved by you.

After man was created, one thing God saw about him was that it isn't good for man to be alone.

It is the enemy's greatest desire to keep you alone, because he understands the power that comes from having people around you,he understands the power that comes from having a tribe, and he'll keep fighting tooth and nail to make sure you are by yourself.

Don't let the enemy keep robbing you of the tremendous benefits that comes from having solid friends in your corner.

You can do well on your own, but with the help of others in your corner, you can do so much more.

Pray to God to have great people in your corner, eagerly look forward to it too.

Be Discerning

Not everyone who greets you can be allowed into your space.

I was listening to Rick Warren's video earlier in the week and the man who was the guest minister in that show illustrated the circle of friendships, he mentioned that there are casual friends, there are close friends and then there are are core friends.

Casual friends are your acquaintances whom you spend the least of your time with and they have the lowest influence on you.

Your close friends are people whom you spend more time with and they have a higher level of influence on you than the casual friends.

While your core friends are those you give more attention and spend more time with and they wield the most influence upon you.

Know which circle the people you call friends hitherto fall into ,and be careful to bring in someone else into your life without a pass in your spirit. 

Friends are very important part of our lives and thinking otherwise will be equal to denying ourselves the tremendous benefits that comes with great friendships.

... And yes, we really need friends in this life...

So it is a great thing that you have started working and then earning money to be able to live well, give out of what God has given you to people as well as give out of the things God has given you back to him.

It is a great thing to want to be diligent at work as the bible says that he who does not work should not eat as well as he who cannot provide for his house especially those of his own family has denied the faith as so is worse than an infidel.

But then, there is only a thin line between working to be able to bring glory to God and your career advancement is fast becoming an idol in your heart.

What is an idol?

Simply put, an idol is anything that is important to you than God.

You used to be on so much fire for God before you gained employment, but the same job you prayed before getting God is the excuse you are giving as why you no longer have time for God anymore.I wish this is funny, but it isn't!

Now might be a good time to go back to your board and have some time to introspect, check out your spiritual life alongside your career in the last seven months of the year, and see how you have fared so far.

HOW TO IDENTIFY IF YOUR CAREER IS BECOMING AN IDOL?

1.   You Can Do Anything Irrespective Of Its Conflict With God’s Principles

This is one way to know when your career is becoming an idol. You just can do anything and anything once it guarantees you a rise in paycheck or makes you look good to your superiors, while there is nothing wrong in doing all of that, but it becomes wrong when you suddenly don’t care about the core of who you are again all because of a 25% increase in salary.

I know that increase will go a long way in making life a little easier for you, I also know it’s easier said than done especially when there are bills to be paid and the income isn’t doing so much justice to it anymore, but in the midst of all, God’s grace is available.

2.      You No Longer Have Time For God

Having time for God is relative and what someone living in a particular city can have the luxury of attending all midweek services as well as all unit meetings, another person in another city might not have that luxury.

You no longer have time for devotion.

No prayer life anymore.

No sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

The only thing in your heart is your job, job and just your job.

This is not saying you shouldn’t give your best at work, far from it, I frown at it and I am always consistently wanting to improve the quality of the way I do the tasks assigned to me, but I also bear in my mind, that when the contains are down, it will be just me and my God.

I am not saying you should quit your job especially if you do not have a calling to a full time ministry, but you have to decide to do things differently if you will continually be a person who has  an on-going relationship with the Father and not a  once-upon-a-time Christian.

Things you can begin to do differently

~ Look for Godly alternatives

If you sincerely can’t attend midweek service because of the distance of your office to your church, how about creating out time to fellowship with other believers in another bible-believing church during the week.

I for one live and work here in Lagos, Nigeria, and if you have ever heard the news about Lagos traffic, you’ll agree that Lagos traffic is indeed second to none. Although my route to work is not as traffic-prone as the other person, but it is quite a distance to my home.  And my home is quite a distance to my church too.

Hope you get the point?

My church’s midweek services are on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and while I would really love to attend them, but the distance from the office to church is about one and the half hours all things been equal, the last time I attended a midweek service, it was so funny as I got inside the auditorium just in time for the benediction. It was a funny scenario.

After that incident, I knew I had to do something about it.

As a person, I love attending bible studies, while I have my time for personal bible study, I love been amidst other believers as someone shares the word to us, and I knew that attending bible study in church isn’t something I want to let go and I wasn’t about to resign either.

So I looked for another bible-believing church not too far from my home but which is on my way back from the office, so once I am coming from work on Wednesdays, rather than going home, I go to church and fellowship with other believers and then go back to my home church on Sunday.

That has been what has worked for me for about a year.

Your case might be quite different from mine, as there are so many things beyond your control, probably as a mother who have young children waiting for you at home, you might not have the luxury I have as a single lady, but while that is a tenable excuse, but you shouldn’t be willing to give it.

There is always a way if only we are desperate enough to find it.

So many services are been life-streamed, if you can’t get into the church auditorium, you can as well have your family sit down in from of the TV or your mobile device and watch themed-week service.

The same children you are reluctant to take to church now as a young three-year old, God forbid they grow up with no love in their heart for Christ.

While taking them to Church is not the ultimate determinant that they will grow loving God, but it sure puts their feet on the right path that you will be glad they followed.

That was a huge digression up there, but a woman had to hear that!

There will always be one excuse or the other, but you have to be strong to rise above it all..

I wrote a post on how to make time for God even with a busy schedule; you can check it out Here.

-          Create Another Schedule

There is a cliché that doing a thing same way repeatedly and expecting a different result is a sign of insanity. This isn’t far from the truth at all.

If you always put water on the cooker after which you pour your rinsed rice into it, and then leave it to cook for about 30 minutes before adding salt and then sieving the excess water which contains starch after about 45 minutes that you have cooked it in general.  After this process has been done and then you are expecting pounded yam, isn’t that going to be out of the normal?

But that is almost the same way some of us live our life, doing the same thing we have always done over the years, and then we are surprised that we are getting the same result we have always had.

How about you start leaving home at least 30 minutes before your normal time to be able to create out time for God before the office gets crowded and you get involved in so many things. Your getting to work on time will help you be in a great place as you wouldn’t have your mind on the fact that you are running late as well as the fact that you have a lot to achieve.

You get to work on time, you worship God for a while after which you bring out your devotional or go to whatever portion of the scriptures you are been led to, or just listen to a sermon or pray.

You can fully have your mind on God unlike if you had stayed back at home and then you can’t even concentrate on what you are doing as your heart is divided between God and the traffic you are likely to encounter on your way.

On your way to the office, you can begin to set your gaze on Christ by listening to worship songs or by praying either loudly if you are driving or under your breath if you are in a public bus. Then the climax can be if you get to the office.

Creating another schedule might involve you sleeping early so you can wake up every night to pray.

Find out what works for you and by all means begin to do it.

We can’t keep giving the excuse that we are not having time for God because of the job He has given to us, this far, no farther, the Devil isn’t having the final say over us anymore!

When our time on the job is finally over, what will be left of us?

Think about this.

Related: How To Shine Your Light At Work

I wish I didn’t have to talk about this, but it is so real.

The statistics shows that eight out of every ten person you meet have a low self esteem, this shows that low self-esteem is a challenge most people battle with.

There is a thin line between having a low self-esteem, having a healthy self-esteem and being proud.

The middle phase is a good place to be, while the other two are the extremes.

This self-esteem issue is gotten from different situations, for some, it is as a result of their upbringing, or the kind of home they grew up in, this kind of upbringing has now conditioned them that although they are no longer in that situation they were several years ago, they can’t seem to move away from there in their mind.

All of these although happened a long time from the present are not things that can just be easily erased except if conscious steps are taken to overcome it. For some, some of those experiences that helped shaped their mindset and view of themselves happened 10, 20, 30, even 50 years ago. Yes, don’t be surprised that some older adults have this issue too.

Jude is a young man who grew up in a family of four, theirs was just an average family where although they didn’t have things in abundance, but they never lacked the basic things. He grew up having his classmates laugh at his school uniform which always looked more faded than his mates and he grew up always having a kind of consciousness that he was disadvantaged and that really shaped the way he saw himself.

Fast forward to twenty years later, he is thirty-four and still stuck in the happenings of his past, and while he is quite comfortable than his parents ever were, he still feels a little tingle in his heart when he is told to go represent his company at national events and know begins to do things and acquire things just to prove a point to anyone who cares to know that he isn’t the same disadvantaged boy that he was several years back.

Pointers To A Low Self-Esteem

You Are Usually Not Free To Talk In The Open

Some put this up to shyness a lot of time, but when you introspect, you’ll be able to tell if you are just being shy or you are small in your own eyes.

You Buy The Things You Don’t Need To Make An Impression

One of the pointers for you to know if you are battling with low self-esteem is if you are always buying the things you don’t need to just create a false image about yourself.

While buying of things is not the main point, but it only serves as a cover up for what the real issue is, people like this would constantly think that by acquiring things, they will start feeling good and that those things they are buying will go a long way to boosting how they appear in the sight of others and in turn make them feel good, while this is true, but it is only true to a point, buying of things as a means of feeling good is only a cycle, because as much as you buy a piece of item, after few hours, days, weeks or months, another upgraded or more beautiful version of what you bought would be in circulation and then you will be forced to buy that too, and then before you say jack, another product is out, and the cycle continues.

Way Out

Get Knowledge

One of the reasons why you might be feeling like a fish out of the water in a gathering is because you don’t have enough knowledge about the topic in discuss, while this might not be entirely true as there are people who have the head knowledge about a certain theme but still doesn’t know how to communicate it. But, let’s start from this point first. Get knowledge, this will go in a great way in improving how you begin to see yourself.

A good way to start might be reading books, listening to podcast, watching videos that are tailored towards that need as well as just doing anything that is due to bring you out from the seemingly pit that you are in.

A note of caution here, you might discover that the more knowledgeable you are getting, the more pride begins to find root in your heart, do not give this a chance. Do not let your knowledge drive you towards pride. The goal is for you to have a healthy sense of esteem.

Constantly Say Words Of Affirmation To Yourself

If no one will affirm you, you owe yourself the duty of affirming yourself.

It isn’t just enough to hate how you feel when you are around people, but you constantly have to renew your mind by speaking to yourself.

You might think this doesn’t work, but it does.

Rather than agreeing to yourself that you are worthless, start telling yourself you are valuable.

If you can, write on sticky notes around your room or where you are most likely to see it and let it sink into your sub-consciousness and before you know it, you will begin to feel better.

Words like;

I am beautiful

I have a creative mind

I am in a good place

All things are working for my good

It is all working perfectly

Good things answers to me…

Create others and constantly say them to yourself.

Limit Your Exposure To The Social Media

As much as social media is a good thing, it has also been the cause why people feel bad about themselves, especially if you do not have a healthy self-esteem.

If you are constantly scrolling through feeds, you will begin to see pictures of the life others are living, and if you are not in a good place mentally, it is only a matter of time before you begin to feel less of who you are and then you’ll begin to compare your life’s  journey to the life of the random person you see online.

If you are still struggling with low self-esteem, limit your exposure to the media, it can get overwhelming sometimes seeing pictures and videos of people living wonderful life while in your own opinion you aren’t doing so well yourself (note my choice of words, in your own opinion and this is because, often times, we have a lot going for us, but just seeing other people life can make it appear like so much isn’t really going well with us).

Hope you get that point?

Don’t Compare Your Life To The Person Next Door

Every one of us is a unique being, and except for multiple births, no two people are the same in every way.

This is so true, I recently tried unlocking my twin sister’s phone with my fingerprint and it didn’t work, so you see even multiple births have their uniqueness, and this goes to show a long way that we all are different and that your life journey is particular to you.

That the next person is taller than you don’t mean that you aren’t beautiful in your own right too, that the boy next can sing so well does not mean you don’t have other great talents embedded in you too.

Everyone has something unique about them, take time to discover yours too.

The scripture says When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise (2 Corinthians 10:12).

I am sure you are wise, so stop comparing yourself with others.

Scriptures To Re-Condition You

1.        You were bought at a price… ( 1 Corinthians  6:20a)

Someone considered you valuable enough to buy you, and it isn’t just money but with blood. Let this re-condition you.

2.      I have loved with an everlasting love ( Jeremiah 3:13b)

You are not hated. God loves you, and His love is everlasting.

3.       But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession (1 Peter 2:9a)

This is you. You are not rejected, you are chosen

4.      You are wonderfully and fearfully made ( Psalm 139:14)

Irrespective of what the scale reads when you are on it, you are made just how God wanted it, and He makes no mistake.

Let these scriptures re-condition you. 

Always remember that you are unique and you are loved.

Let me end with this scripture, you remember when Moses sent out twelve spies to Jericho to have a view of the land and bring back report, they came back with two out of the lot saying they were able to go up and take the land, while the majority of the lot, about ten of them mentioned how small they appeared in their own sight.

Now, this was not the report of the other nation, this report came out directly from their own mouth, how do you see yourself?

You are either big or small in your own eyes, the choice is ultimately yours.

Choose wisely.

 You can also read One Lie We Often Believe