Daily Devotionals

The key to fruitfulness and to prosper in your work is by meditating in the law of the Lord. If you take the advice of the wicked and the lawless. You will become as worthless as chaff, scattered by the wind. You must seek out the harsh realities of life, and prefer that to the comfort of lies. When you have the true state of your work. You can repent, and get better. But when you embrace lies and falsehood, you are soon trapped. Feedback on the true state of things will help you identify strengths and weaknesses. Allowing you to grow. If you want to build a long lasting home, career, business or ministry. You have to establish it in truth.

“Fake it till you make it” is a terrible strategy. Once you begin to lie about your results. You begin to destroy yourself. There has been countless reports about researchers that falsify results to match a particular outcome. Entrepreneurs that lie about their numbers in order to attract new investment. For example, Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to prison in November 2022, for deceiving investors with claims about her startup Theranos. Christian ministries that lie about their real impact, trying to appear bigger than they really are. They hide their laziness by telling lies. Every unrighteousness is a sin, and leads to destruction.

If you compromise your integrity by an inch. You are already compromised by a mile. Every lie, and every falsehood would require more lies and deception to keep going. Do not build on falsehood. It takes humility of heart to maintain integrity. The humility to admit that your career, business or ministry is not working out as you had hoped. When you admit this to yourself and in public. You open yourself up to the grace of God. God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble. You cannot claim to be dependent on God for success, and continue to lie about your work. You must seek out feedback about your work. Determine the true extent of your work, and make a commitment to improve it.

If you are going to succeed in your mission. You must guard your heart against any form of falsehood. This is not a simple matter of being on guard against people out to deceive you. This is also about you not deceiving yourself. Self-deceit is real. Do not allow lies to flourish around you. At every turn, the Bible condemns all lies and falsehood. Lies replace the objective universe around you; a reality that only works with the truth. And distorts it into what you want to see. You will fail in your God-given mission when you put your trust in falsehood.

“Fake it till you make it” did not work out so well for Elizabeth Holmes. Her startup, Theranos, was built around a very powerful mission. But she lied. She lied so much that the web of lies she spun around herself replaced the real state of her work. Elizabeth Holmes was sentenced to 135 months in prison after being convicted on four counts of fraud in January 2022 for deceiving investors with claims about her startup Theranos. Holmes raised $945 million for the startup, which promised to revolutionize health care by using only a few drops of blood in tests. Her technology did not work, and she chose to buy more time by lying to the world. Everything came down crashing.

The real world doesn’t care about your convictions. It does not care about your religious affiliations. Your religious fantasies and ideals are not important. What is important is the truth. Your task of steering us towards a better future requires you to be truthful at all times. You have to stop being emotional about your mission. It is unnecessary. And it will mislead you. Your life will change forever when you start looking for what is present. And stop wishing or twisting what you see into what you want. The good news for you is that Jesus describes the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Truth. Yield to the Holy Spirit, he will guide you towards the truth.

Each of us is given a spiritual gift so that we can help one another. A spiritual gift is an empowerment from God to give us a special way of serving others. 1 Corinthians 12:7 (ESV) says, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.” You must begin to think about your intelligence and creativity as a gift from God for the betterment of your world. This approach will help you remain grounded and humble. God gives grace to the humble. And he will help you to maximize your gifting.

A spiritual gift from God is not intended for personal gain. A wise man once said, “Intelligence is not a privilege, it’s a gift. And you use it for the good of mankind.” Your world is in a state of darkness. With very little or no enlightenment. God then gives you a gift in accordance with his will for your world. This gift empowers you to solve the problems in your world. There are generational problems; the desolation of many generations that you can solve in a few weeks. These are the dimensions of creativity and intelligence you could be operating in. However, as long as you are obsessed with making money for yourself. You will soon become puffed up, and will lose your way.

You must think about your gift of creativity, inventiveness and intelligence as something sacred from God. It is a gift in the same way we consider prophecy, healing or word of knowledge as spiritual gifts. If you would consider it greedy and selfish for someone to use their prophetic gift for personal use. Then you should also be mature enough to use your own gifts for the benefit of the larger society. Do not create for your private enjoyment. Engage your creative faculties for the greater glory of God, and to the benefit of your world.

No matter how hard you try, you will not be liked by everybody. You will have enemies. As long as you stand for something, you will be opposed by people who have a conflict of interest. There is no servant of God in the bible that did not have any opposition or enemy. Jesus had to deal with political and religious oppositions to his radical ideas. He promised his followers that they would also face similar persecution. You have to make peace with the idea that no matter how perfect you are. Some people will never like you. They will never cooperate with you.

Moses did not only deal with Pharaoh and Egyptian opposition. He also had to deal with dissent within the camp of the children of Israel. Despite being a top-performer for the King, Daniel was still attacked for his faith. The Apostles faced persecutions for their unwavering faith in God. When you make peace with the idea that everybody will not like you. It makes it easier for you to focus on what matters. The most important thing is to gain clarity around what God wants from you and stick to it. People who share your values will befriend you and support you. You have no business with those who don’t share your values.

It is part of the human condition to get into disagreements with people. In fact, if you are always in agreement with people, something is wrong. It usually means that someone in that relationship is holding back from telling the truth. As Jesus continued to minister the word of life and truth, many stopped following him (John 6:66-69). There is no relationship worth having, that would require compromising the truth. You can never get everybody to like you, no matter how nice or well behaved you might be. Therefore submit yourself to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Do your work. It will attract like minded people to you. It will also turn away a lot of people from you. Be prepared.

A wise man once said, “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes, because God is interested in good craftsmanship.” The way you approach your work matters. Your Christian beliefs and the principles that flow from them enable you to do your best work that glorifies God. Insisting that beliefs do not matter in the workplace is false or misleading. When it is well understood that doing your best work requires belief and conviction in your work. You must believe in the importance of your work in order to put in the effort.

Psalm 24:3‭-‬4 (ESV) says, “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully.” You see from this verse that it is not enough to have a pure heart. You should also ensure your hands are clean. Clean hands symbolizes doing the right things. A pure heart symbolizes having the right motive for what you do. You can do the right thing with an evil motive. And you can also do the wrong thing, but with a godly motive.

It is important how you approach your work. It has to be with clean hands, and a pure heart. The ideas and mission God has placed in your heart must be carried out with careful consideration. Without any form of falsehood. Every unrighteousness is a sin. Christians achieve their goals despite having to fight off the wolves and vultures that seek to prey upon them. God demands from us discipline and integrity at all times. You cannot steer your world towards a more righteous future if your Christian faith is compromised. This is the reason you must make every effort to develop a strong Christian heart that can take on the world. And conquer the world for God.

God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. It is the working of God in your heart that makes you desire a better world. The redemptive work of God within the world comes from a place of love, according to John 3:16-17. God loves the world so much that he made plans for its salvation, redemption, and healing. If you have this same love in your heart, you will seek your world’s salvation, redemption, and well-being. To love someone or something is to wish for their betterment. You now see that it is the love of God in your heart that wills you to influence your world for God.

A lot of Christians avoid engaging the world due to bad doctrine. They imagine that working in the culture, business, economy or governance will compromise their walk with God. This is false. Philippians 2:13 (ESV) says, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Jesus said people will glorify your father in heaven when they see your good works here on earth. Not just your good works amongst your Christian community, but the world at large. You need to understand that it is the love of God in your heart that makes you desire to salt and light up your world.

St Augustine is paraphrased as saying, “love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.” Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” There is nothing in the world that is capable of compromising your walk of faith, virtue and power. As long as you do not wish to be compromised. You need to stop thinking that you will lose your salvation if you engage in the marketplace. If you love God. And your mission is an outflow of the workings of God in your heart. You are in a good position. If you love God, you will not cower in the church. You will seek the greater good of your world.

A lot of Christians just want to hide behind their church doors and pray. Isolating themselves from the socio-economic affairs of life. This is not a good idea. You cannot light up a world you are isolated from. Consider 1 Corinthians 5:9‭-‬10 (ESV), “I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.” This implies that the Bible does not support the idea of cowering away on the sidelines. Doing nothing. While the sexually immoral, greedy businessmen and scammers run free. You are to engage and beat them at their game.

A lot of Christians struggle in their business or career. While on the surface, it looks like they are suffering for Christ’s sake. The reality is that they have been foolish. You do not have to be the Christian that fails in entrepreneurship and career. We have a rich history of believers that have made an impact in industry, economy and government. They did it without compromising their Christian stance. You must be humble enough to learn how the world works. You cannot ignore the world or isolate yourself from it. That is nothing more than a recipe for poverty and unfruitfulness.

Every unrighteousness is a sin. You are supposed to operate as the salt and light of your world. You are not supposed to join them in their immorality, greed, and scams. There is a grace from heaven that you should channel into your world. Your mission is to steer your world towards where God wants. Without compromising your Christian values. This takes a lot of discipline and integrity. With a heart rooted in God’s love, and guided by divine principles, engage your world. You join the workforce, and within three years, every stakeholder sees your good work. And they give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

You will have to deal with vile people if you want to be the salt and light of your world. People who are the worst of the worst. If you are tasked with guiding us to where God wants us to go, you must be prepared to deal with iniquity and evil. There is no nice way for the will of God to be done on earth. You will face serious opposition. People who do not play by the rules. They do not fear God. They do not believe in justice, and are prepared to do anything it takes to win. You cannot approach them like a fellow believer. You must treat them as they deserve to be treated.

King David has some excellent advice for anyone who has to deal with the “sons of Belial”. The phrase “son of Belial” does not imply that Belial is a real person who fathers children; rather, it describes people who are worthless or corrupt. The personification of wickedness and evil. 2 Samuel 23:6‭-‬7 (KJV) says, “but the sons of Belial shall be all of them as thorns thrust away, because they cannot be taken with hands: But the man that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staff of a spear; And they shall be utterly burned with fire in the same place.” You cannot approach your mission within the world in the same way that you would a mission within the church.

You need iron tools to chop down the sons of Belial that oppose your mission. There must be a willingness to let them burn. You must be prepared in your spirit to deal ruthlessly with opposition to your mission. They are ready to shut you down, and drown your light with more darkness. Nehemiah 4:11 (KJV), “And our adversaries said, They shall not know, neither see, till we come in the midst among them, and slay them, and cause the work to cease.” You will fail in your mission to help the needy. Get to the lowly. And empower those who are willing. There will always be some sort of opposing force to contend with. You will be forced to abandon your mission sooner or later. Unless you rise to the challenge.

You cannot succeed in the real world if you lack a working knowledge of the world. Many Christians base their lives on religious sentiments and fallacies rather than realities and common sense. Matthew 10:16 ESV says, “behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” A Christian must be rooted in God’s love. Christians represent God’s righteousness, justice, and lovingkindness. Nonetheless, a Christian must be wise enough to know when to be as harmless as a dove and when to be as cunning as a serpent.

A popular quote from Niccolò Machiavelli says, “any man who tries to be good all the time is bound to come to ruin among the great number who are not good. Hence a prince who wants to keep his authority must learn how not to be good, and use that knowledge, or refrain from using it, as necessity requires.” While this quote is bound to offend your Christian heart. You should see some similarities between this quote and the words of Christ in Matthew 10:16. If you continue to live your day-to-day life as the harmless dove, refusing to grow in the might of the Holy Spirit. You will be victimized. And your life might just be cut short.

You must seek to understand the logic and wisdom of the world. So that you protect yourself from the wolves and the leviathan out there. A lot of Christians are eager to be airlifted to heaven because they just cannot figure out how to succeed in the real world. This is folly. Jesus Christ tasks us to be the light of this world, the real world. Righteousness is not synonymous with stupidity. You must not be too nice to succeed in the real world. With humility of heart, seek out counsel that works in the real world. Holding onto religious ideals and fallacies will hurt you in the long run. No wonder Jesus Christ was always at loggerheads with the religious establishment in his days.

Everybody has the potential to be a creator. To give life to a new idea that will be found useful. The same creative ability that makes it possible to write a poem or code a website, also makes it possible to build bridges and tunnels. The major difference between these dimensions of creativity is your approach to creativity, and the amount of knowledge you possess. A lot of creative people work spontaneously. Their creative output depends upon “when the spirit moves”. There is no consistency. And there is no commitment to long-term projects that can really deliver value. Creativity is best planned for and structured. If you approach creativity with structure and long-term planning. Your creative output will surprise you.

Creativity is the highest expression of the Spirit of God. The same creative ability used to create the heavens, the earth and all that exists, is within your spirit. When God created the heavens and the earth, we see the first step was illumination. An illumination around the entire purpose of creation. And each day of creation began with a clear statement of purpose. If you can approach creativity with some discipline and wisdom, you will be unstoppable. You can create a poem in a few hours. You can create a website in a few days. But to create something that will make some major economic impact, you will need the ability to think and plan ahead.

There is nothing you cannot create. You only need to understand that you cannot create massive projects spontaneously. Your creative talent requires discipline and consistency. You will unlock your creative potential with planning and long-term thinking. You should think about how you can create the conditions for your creativity to flourish. Inventors who develop new technologies must devote many years to research. To make the vision a reality, they may need to invent up to a dozen new components. This level of creativity cannot be imagined and realized in a single afternoon. It takes time. For maximum impact, think about what you can create over a ten year period.