THE DICHOTOMY OF CHOICE (I)

I write about a challenge not experienced by everyone. Only those who have come to the point of understanding by the spirit, acceptance by decision and salvation by grace can relate with this, and I say so in all humility and anticipation that any non-Christian reader may one day become a Christian.

How many in their quest for God, pursuit of purpose, and thirst for his leading have found themselves thorn between HIS will and their will?

Your heart burns to do something, the passion is real, the ideas are flowing, but that deep sense of uncertainty hunts you: “Is it God’s will for me, is it time?”

How many have found themselves slowed down by this feeling of uncertainty?
We know that anything we lay our hands upon with God’s approval or leading is bound to succeed, no matter how hard it may seem, but what do you do when you try to embard on an “impossible” feat, but lack that certain assurance that God is there?
You tend to wait, tell yourself you’re waiting for God’s time, or God’s leading or something else, but you simply don’t do anything.

Is this waiting on God or fear?
Is this dependence on God or leaving your responsibility to Him?
Is this a fruit of a weak relationship with God, that only runs to him at such times, rather than maintain a living relationship with him every blessed day?

Stay connected
Don’t expect God to act like a 911 emergency response squad, He wants a constant relationship, so build it, and keep it growing. With a constantly growing relationship with God, making decision come easier, coming before God to seek his face becomes natural and fun.

Find the Balance
I have come to know and believe that every aspect of my life is of importance to God, and a part of his purpose for my life, so weather is career based, ministry based or business based, I believe decisions should not be made without God. However, this has to be balanced, for there are decisions that God will never make for you, nor speak to you about, even if you pray from now to eternity.

Decisions based on basic scriptural principles like love, tolerance, faithfulness, diligence, righteousness cannot be contested. Don’t bother praying “Lord should I forgive him?”, “should I take the bribe now that I don’t have any money to survive on?” He will not answer you.

The degree of our ignorance of the scriptures and God’s absolute will in certain matters, increases the degree of our confusion at times of decision

The degree of our refusal to accept God’s laid down standards also increases our chances of being confused at tough times in life.

Give it time
Another problem we have when we desire to make choices based on God’s will is our refusal to actually take time out to sit with God, talk over the matter with him, and think deeply about the implications, costs, benefits, and whether or not we are really ready to commit ourselves to the task at hand.

Sometimes, we do our decision making in casual ways, pray about tough decision in passing, rather than setting time out to settle them. If it’s that important to you, then SET TIME ASIDE TO CONFRONT IT.

Lastly
I Started out this post with questions and a burden in my heart, but I’m ending it with answers to my own question. This is I find to be one of the greatest blessings of writing, I end up blessed, sometimes, more than those who get to read it.
I think someone needs to pick up a pen and w rite!


TiOLUWA...
...still living Deliberately.

Planning 1

Life is made up of years, and years are made up of months, weeks and days. Time is life’s currency and a life well spend is the sum total of hours, days, weeks, months and years well spend.

YOU CREATE YOUR FUTURE BY DELIBERATELY CONTROLLING THE SMALLEST UNIT OF LIFE, TIME!

We can never get to our desired destination in life by chance, it must be by a calculated effort towards a desired goal.

PLANNING IS THE KEY TO CHANGE, ACHEIVEMENT AND TRANSFORMATION.

But planning is not just saying "i will do this", it involves strategy, detailed analysis, then of course, action.

In order to fully maximize ones potential and more easily achieve goals, it is important that we work towards developing every area of our lives. So in planning, we must plan to develop our total self, not just our finances or academics for example


AREAS TO PLAN
• Finance
• Relationship
• Academics
• Recreation
• Career/Business
• Family
etc.


STAGES IN PLANNING
Planning is divided into systematic stages.

Identify the goal
This is the first step, which must be done carefully and in as much detail as possible. “To become somebody “ is not good enough as a plan, rather, becoming a first class student within 2 semesters, or own my own house, buy my first car, grow my business to a 10 million naira investment in 1 year, these are specific plans.
Of course, you will most likely have a lot of goals you would like to achieve, but make sure you list them all and make them specific.

Break them down

Next you need to break the goals down into smaller steps. Becoming a first class student demands that you score all As in your courses, such a goal can then be broken down into scoring As in individual courses. A goal must be broken down into individual and distinct steps, the sum of which leads to the ultimate fulfillment of your goal.

Another reason why goals must be broken down is to make them look more attainable. When you focus on achieving a small segment of the goal at a time, it makes it easier than when you only have the big picture to steer at all the time. after a while, the big picture will begin to intimidate you, when time passes and you are still far from achieving it in your own eyes.

Set a time frame
There must be a specific time within which you desire to achieve your goal. This has two advantages: first, it drives you and places a measure of healthy pressure on you, especially when the set time begins to draw near. Secondly, it gives you a way of measuring your progress.
However, ensure that the time frame is realistic.

Find out what you need to achieve your goal
Every dream has its requirements, every vision has its demands. To achieve your goal, there are things you must have, know and do, you must discover them all. You do this by asking those who have done what you want to do, and generally searching high and low, even the internet for information. This state is very crucial as a laps in this area means you miss out on a requirement which in the end could spell failure. Books are one of the most important means of getting such information.

NOTE: In setting a time frame for achieving your goals, ensure you put into consideration the time you will need to spend in learning and training, especially if demands a lot of it.

Set up Indices
You must have land marks, points you define that help you measure your progress. For example, you can define a level of progress within a week of a few months, which if you achieve, lets you know that you are on schedule.


Be accountable to someone
This is very important as you could get discouraged, tired or just bored along the way, but if you are accountable to someone it helps you stay focused and constantly reminds you that you have work to do.

Make sure you celebrate the little achievements at each evaluation point, it encourages you and helps you know you are making progress, even if you are still far from the goal.

Work daily
Every day, pick a task and tackle it. Don’t be weighed down by the size and volume of work to be done, simple take things one day at a time and after a month, you would have done 30 tasks (assuming you perform a task a day).

Planning Tools

There are various tools that make planning easier, some of them include:
• Outlook or other PC based organizer
• Task sheets for writing all tasks to be done and daily tasks.
Tasks are crossed out as they are accomplished
• Spending planner and budget sheet
• Organizing that you can carry about.
•

Live Deliberately.

TiOLUWA