Moving Forward

"And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward" (Exodus 14: 15).

It is somehow surprising to find some youths who remain static in their plans and progress for future prospects. These youths stand still in life with little or no progress at all. They share the same dreams, visions, the same proposal and opportunities and think the same way over the years without moving forward.

These sets of youths are wishful thinkers with no courage or power to take actions to move forward. There is no significant improvement in their spiritual life, study habit, academic achievement and life pursuit.

God is interested in your physical growth, spiritual development and academic advancement. The gift and potentials to grow and move forward are available to you in Christ. All you need to do is to "stir up the gift of God, which is in thee" (2Timothy 1:6) to achieve your life ambitions. You have no cause to remain static in your spiritual life, academic pursuit, future plans and life achievement.

Thirst and hunger for growth by studying, exploring opportunities, generating new ideas on how to do things better and learning to improve yourself through reading of biographies of great achievers. You can always improve your performance on any area of life pursuit. The day one stops learning to increase in knowledge and improve his lot in life is the day he becomes obsolete. Man must learn from the womb to the tomb.

Ensure you learn everyday from the Bible, books you read and from other people around you. As you learn, let growing be your goal. This was the experience of our Lord Jesus Christ who "increased in wisdom and stature"(Luke 2:52).

You must grow daily in knowledge, wisdom and understanding of the word of God. You must also advance in your academic pursuits. This is the way to be on "forward march" for progress.



CHALLENGE: Only hungry minds can grow- John Mason

PRAYER: Keep me as I move forward in life, Oh God.

THE PROFIT OF PATIENCE DAY

"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing"(James 1:4).

The world is in a hurry. The mad rush is alarming. Road signs read: "No waiting" "No U-Turn", "No Packing", "Keep Moving", etc. This is affecting everything negatively especially, spiritually. Patience has been removed from the dictionary of many people. Are you among the people that have no time for patience? Many youths do not want to study patiently again, all they want is certificate even if they have to get it by cheating and violence.

All this is because they want to "enjoy life" now. Many people can no more wait on the Lord to receive lasting Christian experiences of Salvation, Sanctification and Holy Ghost baptism and renewal of strength. It ought not to be like this. We should learn patience and practice it. Patience is profitable:
(i) it brings perfection in the knowledge of the gospel, the will of God and righteousness
(ii) it brings personal completeness in all graces and gifts of God
(iii) it prevents want or lack in spiritual and temporal matters. From the word PATIENCE there are many profits to derive:
P - Perfection.
A - Abundance of blessings.
T - Transformation into greater spiritual level.
I - Integrity will be built up.
E - Experience.
N - Nourishment in the presence of the Lord.
C - Completeness, calmness and comfort of the Spirit.
E - Exaltation by the Lord.

Learn a lesson from the frog which is very slow and patient. While other animals are running and birds flying about looking for what to eat, the food that the frog would eat usually comes to meet it right on the same spot. Be patient with God, your blessings, admission, promotion and provision will come and meet you as you pray, and wait patiently before the Lord.



CHALLENGE: "He that believeth shall not make haste"

PRAYER: Lord, help me to be patient today and always.

The good Shepherd!

Unless we have the right leaders doing the right things, we may never have the desired success. Leadership isn’t only about who to be; it’s also about what to be. A leader is a seer, seeker, servant, strategist, shepherd, sustainer, steward, and spokesman.

It doesn’t matter what type of organisation you are in: leadership determines success. It is a critical variable in development calculus; and its dearth is the sole restrictive force that has barred some organisations from moving forward and upward. Let there be competent leaders, as many as are needed, and any movement would leap from recession to recovery, from limitation to liberation, from collective doom to continuous boom.

Leadership is influencing others to accomplish an objective. In the process, the leader keeps the various components of the organisation steady and running so that the set objectives can be achieved. Here, stated in this simple explanation of leadership, is the basic thing that leaders are needed to do: To birth visions, take the organisation to new heights and ensure it stays alive and runs well. For any organisation this translates into seven leadership roles.

*Dream. Leaders are needed to birth visions. Visions are dreams about desired future state, an imaginative portrait of change. Without vision, development isn’t possible. For example, the people may be dissatisfied with the status quo and begin to press for novelties to turn the tide; but it takes a leader to conceive, characterise and crystallise the change so desired and then construct the mechanism for its realisation.
*Decision. The running of any organisation involves making appropriate decisions. While inputs may come from members, it is the leader who sets the stage, garners the inputs and decides what holds and goes. Decision–making is the most crucial aspect of leadership. If decisions are wrong, the organisation is heading for storms.
*Direction. A leader leads by giving others direction. Someone says a leader knows the way, shows the way and goes the way. Thus, without a leader an organisation or a people are like a ship without a compass.
*Design. Any organisation runs according to specific designs – operations, staffing, training, architecture, wages, and so on. The leader designs the models for all this and decides on their adoption.
*Development. Every organisation needs leaders who can conduct diagnostic examination of its moribund institutions and sleepy workforce, and inject them with appropriate revival measures. Without effective leadership, development isn’t possible.
*Defence. The threat of the enemy is real. An organisation needs protection from crippling effects of sabotage from rival companies. A leader is needed to arrange defence and ensure there is a safety zone from where the organisation or nation can operate.
*Discipline. An organisation’s workforce requires both reinforcement and sanction to keep productivity high and ensure compliance to work ethics. Motivation helps to keep productivity on the up; but it is discipline that builds an organisation’s reputation.

Discipline and corporate control are vested in the leadership. The leader hands out the juicy carrot, but also wields the limber rod. The foregoing are the basic roles of leaders. They all add up to this: the leader’s duties are about taking the organisation somewhere and ensuring it gets there. Thus, leadership is conceptualised in terms of change and progress. You don’t need leaders if you have settled on a plateau and all you want is to ensure that the clock ticks on as usual.

If you have come to rest and deadness, you should get a manager, an administrator, who will ensure that things are done right, including your organisation’s burial. If no change is contemplated, no revolution is desired then leaders aren’t needed. But if you are seeking some sort of dramatic turnaround and a break of stale record, you need someone to make it happen – a leader.

A sleepy organisation needs a push; hence the call for leaders. Leaders have become so scarce because we cop out of raising them. I won’t mention names; but many great past leaders didn’t leave successors. They were voices without echoes. Pick one leader among the great ones you know and see if he has left a lookalike. If An organisations and institutions would create seedbeds for leadership capacity building, we might soon stop bemoaning the dearth of people with the brain and character needed to improve our collective existence.

For, make no mistake: human leaders aren’t heavenly creatures waiting for redeployment to the Earth. They are men and women around us who have the latent capacity to move people to achieve a set goal or arrive at a pre-determined destiny. They may be hidden from view; and we may have to pray and advertise to bring them out. But they are out there! They are raw and green and might be unaware of their leadership attributes.

But dust and brush them up through purposeful training and send them into the trenches. You’ve got generals out there in front lines. There is a theory of leadership that accounts for the raising of leaders by this method. It is called the Trait Theory. This theory is similar to another one known as the Great Events Theory. It claims the existence of innate leadership qualities, and attributes the emergence of a person as leader to some great events, which help unlock his potentials and put them into action.

John F. Kennedy provided some support for this theory. He had saved his crew from harrowing death by hungry sharks. The feat made him a hero. When asked how he did it, he replied with a shrug, “It was involuntary; they sank my boat.”

The application of both theories, however, yields a misleading assumption that leaders are born, not made. Our experience and those of great leaders contradict this claim. Granted that certain leadership traits might be inborn, a lot of leadership attributes are acquired, not inherited. Courage, integrity, character, love, judgement, technical competence are just a few examples. The most acceptable theory is named Transformational Leadership Theory, which holds that people can choose to become leaders, by learning about the art and science of leadership by formal and informal means.

The first step in such a training process is to learn some general things about leadership, which I will outline. For easy grasp, I have used the acronym of the word “leadership” to outline some basic facts about leaders.

Love. Leaders are lovers; otherwise they risk having treacherous yes-men on board.
Envisioning. Leaders are visionary people; they like moving things forward and are not comfortable with inertia.
Attitude. Leaders have a positive attitude about their tasks, the people and
Life. They are incurable optimists.
Dynamism. He or she may not look like a muscle builder; but a leader isn’t a weakling with a chicken’s gait. He has enough brawn for the day’s job.
Empowerment. Effective leaders share their influence and spread their authority down the hierarchical lines. They empower subordinates.
Resilience. Leaders aren’t quitters. They may suffer a setback; but they are soon back in the trenches.
Stress Management. Leadership is stressful. But effective leaders know how to avoid burnouts.
Heroism. Leaders harbour a success mentality and inevitably become heroes because they accomplish great things.
Integrity. This relates to moral uprightness. It’s the chief attribute of a leader. Without it a leader loses his worth.
Passion. This relates to strong enthusiasm.

All great leaders are men who pursue their goals with passion. Leadership isn’t only about who to be; it’s also about what to be. A leader is a seer, seeker, servant, strategist, shepherd, sustainer, steward and spokesman. These functional qualities speak volumes about the nature and type of leadership that your organisation may needs

Managing stressful situation

*Victims of stress
Granted the variation in stress-coping capacity, all leaders are susceptible to stress-related problems, but some more than others. Coping capacity depends on some personality factors, scholars say. Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman, both cardiologists, have identified two types of personality, which they called Type-A and Type-B. Type-A people are extremely extrovertible, active, highly emotional, restive, polyphasic, workaholic, hasty, time-conscious, ambitious and success-driven. I call them the go-go, dream-dream, do-do, get-get leaders.

Said D’souza: “Type-A leaders rush to meet deadlines, become irritable and aggressive, their blood pressure rises, their cholesterol level increases, and in other biochemical ways they do damage to themselves”. Type-A leaders are very vulnerable to stress because of their characteristics and conduct. Their lifestyle exposes them to stress and its awful effects.

At the end of the behavioural personality continuum is the Type-B leaders who are on the softer side of leadership practice. They tread the leadership pathway with gentle, easy steps, calculating, calm, cool and collected. They are patient, oblivious of time and deadlines, realistic goal setters, introvertible, more tolerant and accommodating. Unlike Type-A people, they are more relaxed and go for leisure. Both types of leaders, however, are achievers because a leader’s effectiveness doesn’t depend on whether he is of Type-A or Type-B. But the stress coping capacity of each type of personality differs. Type-A are more likely to go down with stress-related illness than Type-B.

All effective leaders will experience stress in a measure. But we may all learn to manage the effects of stress such that we stay on top of it and our health and behaviour remain unaffected. I will state the coping mechanisms as tips.

* Control or avoid work-related stressors
To do this, avoid working without a schedule or plan; and when at work give no room for interruptions to prevent nerve jarring. Have intervention teams who help you investigate conflict, broker peace and write reports for your consideration and approval. Make your island bigger if you’re doing too little; trim your schedule if it’s getting too busy. Pursue change with steady calculated speed. Too many changes in one swoop will unleash stress and burn-out.
When decision-making becomes too tough and cumbersome, float a think-tank to help simplify the process and absorb some of the heat. You only need to look at their reports and decide what should be done. Don’t bottle up emotions and flaming feelings. Express them through interactive communication. Regard failure as a detour on the road to success and resist the urge to quit.

* Cut and share responsibilities
Effective leaders practise dispersed leadership that duplicates and deploys leadership talents such that authority flows upwards, downwards and laterally through the hierarchy. Dispersed leadership results in load-shedding and load-sharing, and thus keeps stress at the barest manageable minimum. Distribute “stress” across the hierarchy. Don’t share only the bucks; share the burden, too.

* Cultivate the appropriate lifestyle
Effective leaders don’t live anyhow. There is a lifestyle appropriate for effective leadership, which can help leaders stay on top of stress. Such a lifestyle is marked by exercise, good diet, good rest or relaxation, meditation, and communication through writing or speaking. These activities help to cope with stress when applied as relief techniques for tension. A walk might help you shed some heat off your system and get the blood flowing again when you feel dazed, dizzy and glued. Good green food and purposeful eating helps you build a strong healthy body with good immune function. Good sleep refreshes your mind such that you have a better shot at coping with further stressful situations.
Research has shown that people can reduce their stress level by expressing themselves in writing. When you have too many tasks competing for attention, put them down with the method statements for accomplishing them. And work on one task at a time.

* Change your thinking
Besides your genetic traits, your stress level is directly proportional to your perception of the stressful situations you face. If you’re always positive about your job, you have a better shot at reducing your stress level and stay unruffled.
Have a low stress month, Amen!

Getting along with stress

Stress is part and parcel of active life. You can’t but welcome stress if you’re alive and active.
In fact, experts say stress is useful as a work-life morale booster. But there is another kind
of stress that results in distress, fatigue, emotional disorders, mental breakdowns,
and other health problems. That is the monster all leaders should learn to manage.


Some years ago, Ghana’s Jerry Rawlings collapsed on state duty. By his fall, the handsome former airforce pilot, who was president at that time, made a breath-taking scene. He fell for no apparent reason. He just went blank and off. Later, after the charismatic leader had come round, he gave the bewildered public the reason why he suddenly pined out: He had been working for years without leave! Praise God, Rawlings strayed into death’s orbit and walked away alive. But you can’t be sure you would if you tried! The airforce officer was felled by stress; and leaders who failed to manage stress would fall ill and go down in like manner.

Stress is part and parcel of active life. You can’t but welcome stress if you’re alive and active. In fact, experts say stress is useful as a work-life morale booster. In his book, Leadership, Anthony D’souza of the Haggai Institute, says: “Not all stress is bad. Stress wakes us up and gets us going”. This is the type of stress that helps pump you up with adrenaline, keeping all your body lights on when you have some urgent tasks to perform or you’re in frenetic pursuit of a vision with a close deadline.

Stress at such a time is a booster helpmate, giving you the needed high. It is positive stress called “eustress” and all effective leaders need it! It is a natural concomitant of active leadership; and some of us leaders are on high gear when pressure is put on us at full throttle.

But there’s another kind of stress that results in distress, fatigue, emotional disorders, mental breakdowns, physical wear and tear, low productivity and sundry health problems. That’s the stress that rattled Rawlings. It’s the monster all leaders should learn to manage. The monster is a creation of exposure to continuous or prolonged stressful situations. Short-term or seasonal stress is a boon to effective leadership. But where stress is allowed to assume a permanent feature of leadership practice, it puts the leader’s health and productivity in jeopardy.

Experts say people show symptoms of stress depending on their psychological characteristics and the variety of stressful situations they suffer. The lists of symptoms are long but inexhaustive. In an article he wrote for Healthwise (2005), Stuart J. Bryson listed seven physiological stress-related problems: Rapid heart-beat, headache, stiff neck, tight shoulders, backache, rapid breathing, sweating and clammy palms, nausea or diarrhoea. Anthony D’souza (1989) added “muscle tension or spasms, hypertension, coronary heart-disease, ulcers, insomnia, skin rashes, dizziness or blurred vision, gum disease, excessive tiredness, blood and hormonal changes”. Enough sicknesses to kill the strongest of all leaders!
Stress also produces such psychological problems as tenseness, sadness, boredom, temper flares, worry, depression, inferiority complex, and fuzziness.

Nor does stress spare your behaviour. While suffering from its effects, you would experience behavioural shifts from conviction to indecision, clear thinking to confusion, attentiveness to poor concentration, calmness to haste, rationality to impulsive behaviour, accommodation to intolerance, and moderation to intemperance. Your problem-coping power may dip and frustration set in. Also, your relationship with your family and society might be affected by the carry-overs of stress-induced behavioural problems. For all the problems it could unleash on the human life, stress is a negative experience all leaders should wish didn’t exist. However, the world is a stress arena. It pulsates with stress and we can only learn to cope with it, not wish it away.

The first step in coping with stress is knowing what it really is. The psychology of stress holds that stress isn’t influence of a bad occurrence. It’s your mind’s response to your body’s protest against stressful situations (stressors). If your mind interprets the situations negatively, stress results, with its symptoms. D’souza says “stress is an anxiety reaction to the way people look at what happens to them”. I’m afraid this is a dangerous conceptualisation of stress. If we operationalise stress as a function of the mind, we risk overlooking its external factors. We might reason: a leader may carry on as he will so long as he has programmed his mind to call billows bliss and view problems as pleasures, he will suffer no hurt. I don’t think you can always fool your mind so as to stretch your body beyond its elastic limits. No matter how good you are at mind conditioning, if you stretch the body beyond its capacity it would snap.

The mind may toughen the body to the extent that the body is capable of accepting the hardening. The human mind seems to know this; and when it tells the body it’s biting more than it can chew, stress is looming. One way you might cope with stress is to toughen your mind and condition it to be realistically positive about the crosses of leadership. But while you’re trying to do this, cut your duties according to your strength. That implies having a correct assessment of your stress-coping ability; for too much work invites stress. Now, what is too much for Rawlings may be too little for me! Gabrielle Reece (2007) says “one person’s stress is another’s holidays”. Quoting Hans Selye, the world’s leading stress expert, D’souza (1989) says that “if people are race horses, they will find great stress in trying to live the life of turtles”. On the flip side, “if people are turtles trying to keep up with the race horses also leads to burn-out”. Thus, as regards stress, what is safe for the goose may be dangerous for the gander.

The Power of an effective communication

Are you a leader at the helm of your organisation? And you think you’ve got all it takes to keep the organisation running and moving up? But if good communication skills aren’t among your credentials, your leadership is heading for storms. Effective leadership without effective communication is impossible.

A leader may have all other attributes; but if he comes short of good communication, his organisation will record more groans than gains. Of course, good communication skills aren’t the only thing a leader needs to achieve corporate success. If the leader lacks all other attributes such as love, courage, technical skills, visioning, judgement and dynamism, his good communication skills will achieve nothing. You don’t build and run a world-class company with sheer gift of gab.

Yet, communication is central to leadership effectiveness because it is something all leaders must do – and always do – to succeed. Can you name anyone among the 100 top world leaders in any field who isn’t good at communicating? Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, America’s Abraham Lincoln, Britain’s Winston Churchill, India’s Mahatma Gandhi, Manhattan (atomic bomb) Project’s leader, Robert Oppenheimer, Herman Miller’s Max De Pree, Europe’s business celebrity and former chairman of ABB, Percy Barnevik, General Electric’s Jack Welch, Chrysler’s Lee Iaccocca, and the brilliant constellations on the Fortune 500 CEOs … to name a few. All these are men skilled in the art of communicating.

In fact, down the ages, men who aspired to lead knew they had to have the ability to communicate well; otherwise their leadership would end in fiasco. The Biblical Moses appreciated this ability and confessed he lacked it. It was one of the reasons why he besought God to send someone else to lead Israel on a risky journey to Canaan. Moses didn’t take the job until God promised the smooth-talking Aaron would help out.

The importance of communication
A leader shuns communication skills at his organisation’s peril. Without good communication abilities, the most brilliant of all leaders will fail to deliver on the bottom-line. For, his organisation’s synergy will rupture, the workforce will be fluid, visioning will fail to catch, and progress will be a fantasy. How? Workers need to be wisely “talked into” commitment, loyalty and higher productivity. And bosses who snort at such pep-talks may watch their employees leave in droves. Monte Enbysk, Microsoft’s lead editor, claims that a study in 2001 of 20,000 exit interviews found that people leave jobs chiefly because of supervisors’ poor communication skills. So, it isn’t the poor pay that makes most workers leave. It’s the leader’s poor communication.

Also, communication serves as a potent weapon of influence especially when workers need motivation to buy into the leader’s progress plans. For example, consider visioning. You may birth a vision alone; but you would need your team’s support to shape, launch and actualise it. You would need to share the vision such that the workforce catches it, develops a passion for it, and resolves to be committed to its actualisation. Sir, you have no other means of doing this save by communication! Find out: Not all people in your team are willing to follow you on the vision trip. Most of your workforce might comprise people who are content with business-as-usual and would suffer inertia gladly so long as wages and fringe benefits are paid. Even in religious organisations, key leaders and workers aren’t quick to accept radical measures for lifting the organisation above conservative levels so long as they feel good and secured by the organisation’s routine existence.

So, your workers would need to be convinced that progress is necessary, and fresh ideas are required to attain new levels. They would need motivation to buy into your progress recipe and be committed to it until your organisation attains the new height. How do you go about achieving all this? By communication! Even if the nature of your organisation permits that things remain fairly the same for long, you still would need to keep the people on their jobs by communication. You would always have something to tell your subordinates; who relay your message to other leaders down the hierarchy and throughout the organisation. Thus, without communication you can’t function. Can you think of any leader doing anything in his organisation without engaging in communication? Planning, coaching, visioning, coordinating, counselling, evaluating and supervising are basic leadership functions; all of which can only be done through the communication process. See? Effective leadership without effective communication is impossible.

Explaining leadership communication
It is necessary to explain what communication is, especially in leadership. But I won’t bore you with various arguments about the right meaning of communication. You wonder how such a day-to-day action as communication has stirred up so much debate about its meaning. Leave the debates for scholarship circles; but we must clear some points about the subject. Remember: Our interest is in leadership communication. First, leadership communication isn’t a linear process (see diagram), but a cyclic flow of message and feedback. The sender sends the message through a channel to the receiver; who receives it and sends feedback to the sender. And the cycle continues as long as the process lasts.

Leaders still in love with inflexible top-down command-and-control leadership style miss this point and its advantage. They issue instructions and orders but seldom pause to find out if they are heard. They hardly wait for feedback, stopping the communication before it runs its full cycle. Later, they wonder why “Smith and John never do exactly what I say”. Leadership communication is an exchange. The sender and the receiver swap encoding and decoding roles; and feedback travels in both directions.

Donald Clark, a leadership writer and coach, was right to have said in one of his web-articles that it is “not just a give, as all parties must participate to complete the information exchange”. Doing this calls for effective listening by leaders – a communication skill only a few leaders know how to practise! A leader’s failure to listen effectively turns communication into a monologue, robbing the organisation of the gains that interactive communication attracts.

Second, effective leadership communication thrives on a good working climate. I mean the non-monetary working conditions that make the workforce feel wanted, appreciated, fulfilled and secured. Brent Filson, author of 23 books on leadership and president of The Filson Leadership Group Inc, underscores the critical presence of this element in the communication cycle; and recommends: “To best communicate an idea, wrap it in a human being”.

Filson counsels leaders to check on human relations aspects of their communication before they encode their message. Hear him: “Whenever you intend to communicate as a leader, you should assess not only the information you want to impart but also the human relations aspects of how you will go imparting it…” Yes, you must have in place some kind of homophyly, a degree of shared experience and commonness, and an air of civility. Otherwise, you won’t be able to use leadership communication too well as an instrument of inspiration for sustainable productivity and change.

Third, leadership communication isn’t a success joker in conflict times. You don’t communicate with your subordinates only when you have some ideas to sell, when you want to pass on a dream. You communicate to keep your organisation’s energy and synergy steady, steadfast and sure. You also employ communication to mobilise and motivate your workforce for change.

In short, you keep the organisation running through communication. Selective use of leadership communication is counter-productive. For instance, you fell back on communication to keep hope alive and dissuade workers from leaving when the going was tough. Then, you shunned it when the organisation soared into smooth-sailing. Result: Your team soon saw through the manipulation and resolved not to dance next time you play the hope tune.

Effective communication
Seeing communication is so important and central to leadership, all leaders should strive to be good communicators. I’m glad Prof David A. Owens of Vanderbilt University’s Graduate Management School says good communicators are made, not born. Which means you can study and practise leadership communication. You can assess your performance now and see where and what you need to improve on. And then take remedial measures.

Seven communication tips an effective leader must have

“When I send a man to buy a horse, I don’t want to be told how many hairs the horse has in his tail. I wish only to know the points”, said Abraham Lincoln. Effective communication calls for painstaking search, selection and stringing of picture-building words.

* Empathise with the audience
Leaders who operate aloof of the people, pass the buck but keep the bucks and look for scapegoats, can’t use communication for persuasive end. If you didn’t identify with the problem, the workforce would perceive your motivation as condemnation and seek defence.

Walter Dill Scott, the former president of Northwestern University, observed that: “Every idea, concept, or conclusion which enters the mind is held as true unless hindered by some contradictory idea.” Thus, if one grain of contradictory idea is allowed in the gambit of a message the chance of its acceptance dips.

For example, if your audience is moved to say: “No Sir, we aren’t totally at fault” at the beginning of your talk, you have moved them into a condition of rejection. That is why the world’s famous master of oratory, Dale Carnegie, in his bestselling book, Effective Public Speaking, advised communicators to keep their audience yes-minded. One way of doing this is to launch your message with a common point of view. This is the wisdom America’s celebrated president, Abraham Lincoln, often adopted. “My way of opening and winning an argument,” revealed Lincoln, “is to first find a common ground of agreement.”

Be wary of buck-passing when discussing a problem or sharing a challenge. Tactical collectivism in communication helps galvanise group cooperation by neutralising opposition. Don’t look for scapegoats if you want to turn your workforce into change agents.

* Express yourself to impress your audience
You must express your mind in such a way that your audience is impressed and moved to do your bidding. To do this, you must demonstrate conviction and faith by your tone and flaunt enthusiasm by your manner. You must sound sure before you can assure your audience. Let your voice ring with contagious enthusiasm. Dale Carnegie advised that: “if you would impress an audience, be impressed yourself”. Your attitude to your own message will determine your audience’s attitude to it. Unless you are sufficiently motivated and can show it, you will never be able to motivate others. So, as you speak or write, be earnest. Stir up yourself. Keep your hairs up.

* Employ the appropriate language
Clarity is the first law in leadership communication. Choose words that say exactly what you mean and can appeal to your audience’s emotions without throwing up semantic blur. Often, when communication fails to catch, it’s because the audience don’t comprehend the message or they aren’t pinched by it owing to inappropriate diction.

Carnegie’s book, Effective Public Speaking suggests using concrete, familiar words that create pictures. People are soon put off by colourless phraseology and bland abstract expressions that feed listeners’ souls with boredom.

Let your words conjure images. Send your audience into dreaming. Massage their imagination. Abraham Lincoln was a master at this. Hear his objection to the long, complicated reports he received daily at the White House: “When I send a man to buy a horse, I don’t want to be told how many hairs the horse has in his tail. I wish only to know the points”. How visual! His words call up pictures and stick up like glue.

William Strunk Jr, in his book, The Elements of Style, wrote: “…The greatest writers … are effective largely because they deal in particulars … Their words call up pictures”. The French philosopher, Alain, said: “An abstract style is always bad. Your sentences should be full of stones, metals, chairs, tables, animals, men and women”. Effective communication calls for painstaking search, selection and stringing of picture-building words.

* Expect feedback
Communication is an exchange, not a monologue. As a process, it isn’t complete and fulfilling until the receiver has given his response to the message of the sender. You can’t be sure that your message has been received and understood if you received no response. Many times, however, leaders don’t pause for their subordinates to respond to their communications before they close the talk. Later, they wonder why the workforce doesn’t behave as envisaged.

Without feedback, communication is reduced to a give; but the giver may never know what impact his “gift” has made on the receiver. “The link of feedback”, writes Prof Anthony D’souza of the Haggai Institute, “completes the chain of communication”.

One of the major factors of communication failure is the neglect of feedback. The boss issues an instruction, growls at the end, “Have you got that?” and ends the talk without waiting for the addressee’s reply and reaction!
Such communication only results in frustration as staff scoot off to do what they feel is the leader’s directive – only to end up making painful mistakes.

I agree we all do this and seem to get by, especially in minor daily leadership routine. But where a specific far-reaching change is our goal, there must be plentiful interactive communication. Leadership communication for change thrives on negotiation. The leader must lay out his vision, allow some haggling, and close the deal with the people’s “aye”.

Feedback, however, may be misleading. Subordinates may hide their feelings and give the impression that they are in agreement with the leader’s views, especially if they fear a different opinion might offend the leader.

Therefore, to receive accurate feedback you must do three things. One, you must desire it. Let the workforce know you sincerely cherish their feelings and views about any communications they receive from you.

Two, you must demand it. Don’t just speak to or speak with. Ask the group or person what they think about what you’re saying. Or build feedback promptings into the message. For example, in sharing a vision for the organisation’s expansion, you might share your plans inviting your supervisors’ contributions.

You might say: “I can see it’s time we re-invented our organisation to maintain our share of the market. I’m looking at our brands and sales outlets, our marketing and customer retention strategies. All seem out of tune with the changing landscape and are crying for overhauling … Or what do you think? …”

But, if your staff know that you’re averse to contrary opinions, they would shy from giving any. Therefore, the third thing you must do is demonstrate your sincerity about listening to opinions of others.

To listen effectively, however, you must keep an open-mind, avoid prejudice, separate ideas from factual details, keep the man and the message separately, and avoid speculative cut-ins. When listening to your subordinates, just listen.

* Expel the barriers
No matter how skilful a leader is in communication, he wouldn’t influence many people by it unless he removes certain barriers. These are inhibitions that limit the power of communication as a weapon of organisational influence. The barriers are associated with the sender, the channel and the audience respectively. Details on these barriers can be found in the relevant literature; only an outline of them will be attempted here.

The sender (the leaders) must avoid wrong attitude. Don’t be judgmental, hostile, touchy, impatient, rash, proud, domineering and vindictive. Otherwise, your audience may accept and treat your message with deception, pessimism and disbelief.

Argument is another barrier. Avoid it with your subordinates as much as possible. For, you may win the points but lose the person. Also, watch against these: information overload, illogical presentation, abstract language, and ambiguous diction. Above all, in case of inter-personal communication, ensure that your verbal and non-verbal cues rhyme.
For example, don’t say “Well done” with a frown; or “Is there any way I can help?” in a sarcastic tone. For channel-related barriers, the leader should ensure that the medium is functioning well.

A malfunctioning system not only hinders smooth passage of the message, but may also distort meaning. Moreover, the channel and the message should match. Inappropriate channels can diminish the intrinsic power of a message.

Finally, the audience–related barriers: these are barriers the receiver may deliberately or inadvertently erect. Three of such barriers are explained by what is called the “Selectivity Theory”.

First, there is selective exposure by which people choose which communication they would receive or reject. Second, there is selective perception by which people choose to understand some communication and misunderstand others. Your workers may adopt selective perception if they see they can’t practise selective exposure.

The third is selective retention by which people choose to retain in their memory certain messages they like, and wipe off their minds those they detest. If your workers choose to forget your message, the chance of influencing them in any way is nil.
However, audience–related barriers can be removed by creating and adopting appropriate working climate and applying the basic communication rules we have been discussing.

The road to effective communication has no short-cut. But those who keep learning and practising will get there.

Wait For Your Blessings

“And it came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac; and Isaac dwelt by the well Lahai-roi” (Genesis 25:11).

Life does not always run on the fast lane, nor does it roll on the conveyor belt of a fast food production joint. More often than not, life involves patiently waiting for the right time. For believers, this underscores the necessity of faith, trusting God to act appropriately in His own time.

Isaac always had the choice to take laws into his hand and attempt to fast forward God’s promises to his father, Abraham and by extension, to himself; or to wait for God to work out His plans in His own way. He chose the latter, even though the signs initially were at best confusing, and at worst troubling.

His father had taken another wife who promptly gave him six sons, seven grandsons and three great grandsons. Yet, in his patience, Isaac soon started possessing his blessings. First, his father willed all his wealth to Isaac. Then, he gave handsome gifts to the children of his concubines, and promptly sent them away so they would have nothing to do with Isaac, upon whom the promise of God rested.

Abraham himself was blessed with long life and so had time to put his domestic affairs in order before he eventually died at the ripe age of 175 years. It was after all this that God blessed Isaac. Wisely, too, Isaac, made his permanent residence in the land God had promised to give his father, Abraham.

Many times, people are in a hurry to receive blessings from God. They worry that the signs around them do not look good. They may be getting old and there are no wives or husbands, or children. They have left school for sometime, yet there are no jobs. They may be working and there appear to be little to show for it. They may be sick and the healing is not coming fast enough. The temptation would arise to take laws into their own hands, to work out their personal agenda to success, to help God to fulfil His promises to them.

You must not act that way. You must trust God to make all things beautiful for you in His own time. You must patiently “wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.” It is only in patience that you can possess your blessings.

Thought for the day: Heaven help only those who wait on the Lord.

The Source of Eternal Hope

Key verse: “For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end” (Jeremiah 29:10,11).

A lady, who had been treated for depression, hanged herself with a belt in her bedroom closet in 2006 after receiving a message saying the world would be better without her.

The Lord knew the right words that would encourage Israel at the hour of her need. Against the backdrop of his struggle with incurable false prophets at home, Jeremiah addressed a letter of hope to the exiles at Babylon. Jeremiah’s letter was intended to calm their nerves and bring them hope from the living God.

He mentioned that the Lord has thoughts of peace towards them and not of evil. That God is not out there watching to bring evil upon them but to seek their peace if only they can cooperate and obey Him. His plan was to give them an expected end: that is, a future and a hope. They must, however forsake the counsel of false prophets prophesying an immediate end to their captivity, while praying for the peace of the city wherein they were taken captives.

God knows the thoughts He thinks toward us and His thoughts are the only ones that count for He knows what tomorrow holds for us. It makes no difference what other people think of us. His plan is towards our eternal happiness. Desiring to know what God thinks of us is all we should be concerned with. Too often we get caught up in other people’s opinions of us while we neglect the one opinion that matters.

God knows you — by name, by address, by spirit, by personality. His thoughts toward you are of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11). God wants to give you the desires of your heart if only you can let Him reign supreme in your heart.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: you relinquish the desire to control your future, you obtain: happiness.

The Lord is full of Mercy

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8,10).

Few years ago, a particular Korean lady, ravaged by cancer and left with a few moments to live, was brought to a revival meeting presided over by a distinguished servant of God. During the prayer/ministrations, the power of God struck her and she was instantly healed and delivered. She was so amazed and wondered why God healed her because she never knew Jesus, neither had she been to church before. This was nothing short of a miracle of mercy.
This is God’s benevolent act which the psalmist, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, acknowledged in our text today. He noted with excitement the manifold benefits of God to him: forgiveness of sins, healing, redemption from destruction, love and mercies bestowed, provisions, good health and sound mind and God’s righteous judgements. The psalmist, with awe, acknowledged God’s nature and attributes juxtaposing this with the brevity of man’s love. He also exhorted and beckoned on angels and ministers of God’s entire creation to bless the Lord.
The psalmist’s upbeat attitude speaks conversely of some who think that all the benefits of protection, success in business and career, good health and sound mind, are the result of their personal righteousness and good deeds. Curiously, they fail to recognize the need to experience God’s gracious act which should culminate in the salvation of their soul and consequently for them to be of service to His kingdom. All the benefits we have received are acts of God’s mercies. We do not merit them.
God is the Almighty Creator who must be revered and venerated by His creatures. To the redeemed who have tasted of His saving grace, appreciation and gratitude must proceed from their lips naturally. To those who do not know how to acknowledge God’s undeserved benevolence and unmerited favour, it is simply indicative of one thing: the absence of Christ in the heart. For such, a total surrender of his life to Christ will be first step to gratefulness.

Thought for the day:To praise the Lord is to acknowledge His greatness.

Enjoying God's Favour

“Now Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon gave charge concerning Jeremiah to Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard, saying, Take him, and look well to him, and do him no harm; but do unto him even as he shall say unto thee” (Jeremiah 39:11,12).

It was C.H. Spurgeon of blessed memory who said, ‘After all, what can a man do without the Lord’s permission. He puts a bit into the mouth of rage, and a bridle upon the head of power. Let us fear the Lord and we shall have no one else to fear. No cup of cold water given to a despised prophet of God shall be without its reward; and if we stand up for Jesus, Jesus will stand up for us’.

God had promised to see Jeremiah through all the troubles and ministerial challenges he would face. The Babylonians in their superstition had respect for magicians and fortune tellers and because Jeremiah had counselled cooperation with Babylon and predicted victory for them they treated him as a seer: they accorded him special treatment and favour on the instruction of the king. And Ebed-melech, a despised Ethiopian who showed kindness to Jeremiah was promised deliverance by the Lord.

Believers and servants of the Lord are assured safe landing in their flight through life. The sea may roar, and the wind may blow, the promise of God for His children remain unchallengeable. It is only very important that we exercise absolute faith in Him who has called us to grace and glory. Our faith will be rewarded, just as the faith of Jeremiah and prophets of old was honoured.

Whatever challenges you are facing in your personal or ministerial journey, always rest assured that you will overcome. Because the Captain of the host is the one to whom belongeth all power. As we support the Church of Christ and servants of God, giving a cup of cold water when necessary, we will be dully rewarded if we faint not.


Thought for today: There is a promise of deliverance for Christ’s faithful followers.

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD

“The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23: 1)

Good shepherds keep the sheep with care and diligence. It is the shepherd’s responsibility to provide for the sheep and protect them from danger. Lost sheep are often sought with all diligence while the weak ones are gently led by good shepherds (Isaiah 40: 11; Luke 15: 4).

It is a very rare privilege to have the Lord of heaven as one’s own Shepherd. Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep”(John 10: 11).

Jesus Christ is the Good Shepherd who laid His life down for the sheep. He is the compassionate One, the Saviour who is “touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin’ and who ‘is able to succour them that are tempted”(Hebrews 4: 15; 2:18).

Any youth who makes Christ his Shepherd shall not want any good things of life. An unfailing life insurance is signed when Jesus becomes your Lord. Come under His fold today and begin to enjoy His protection, promotion, power, peace, progress and prosperity.

Challenge: Christ is the Good Shepherd
Prayer: Dear Lord, make me to enjoy the blessings in your fold as I make you my Shepherd.

Released and Restored

Key verse: “For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after” (Jeremiah 30:17).

It was Robert Anthony who once said: ‘Hope is the expectation that something outside of ourselves, something or someone external, is going to come to our rescue and we will live happily ever after’.

The nation of Israel had passed through incurable grief owing to their frequent departure from the will and ways of the Lord. Yet, though the captives suffered justly, and could not help themselves, the Lord, from this passage, intended to appear for them as their deliverer and to punish their oppressors who had placed them in perpetual bondage and oppression.

As the afflictions and distresses of the Jewish nation are expressed by sickness, wounds, and bruises; so their prosperity, both spiritual and temporal, is signified by sound health. To complete their freedom, the coming Messiah would bring comfort, resettlement in their estate, with their city rebuilt, their offspring increased and religious worship and praise re-established.

Christ, through His authoritative pleadings at the throne remembers our persons and pleads our cause. His dominion over principalities and powers and absolute majesty in heaven, he employs for the benefit of those who trust in Him. His high estate is as much at our service as was his condition of abasement. He is the very present Help at the hour of need; only He can deliver from death and the power of the grave.

Like the backslidden and captive Israel in our passage, we need the Savior today, We need someone who can be our deliverer. Someone to save us from captivity to sin and Satan, and manifest the power of the Almighty in our lives and our world. You must turn to Jesus today.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Look up for your help! Not down.

PLAN FOR PROGRESS

“Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field; and afterwards build thine house.” (Proverbs 24: 27).

Good houses are often built from a well-structured plan of an architect. Road constructions are executed after a proper survey is carried out before the commencement of the work. No tangible work can be done in any field of human endeavours without a laid-out plan of actions. This explains the reason why progress is often thwarted without proper plans of actions. Proper preparation precedes progress and prosperity. You can only prosper in your life endeavours when you plan your work properly and make it fit before taking actions on your plans.

It is a common saying that, he who fails to plan has already planned to fail. You must always plan for progress. As a Student, a well-structured time-table is needed where you will spell-out when and what to read at a given time. It is planning that will give you the opportunity of allocating more time to difficult tasks in order to master such. Planning will accord you the benefit of looking ahead and preparing for eventualities.

Students who plan their works well will overcome the problems of doing their works haphazardly. You will be more organized to have a clear direction in your work when you plan before taking actions. It is of great advantage to always plan on daily, weekly and monthly basis in order to build on past achievements and to work for the prospects of future achievements.


Challenge: Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Prayer: Dear Lord, give me a sense of direction to plan my work well for progress.

Grace to Give

Giving falls within some acts that are governed by the law of reciprocity. For instance, it is what the farmer plants that he will harvest and what he sows is what he will reap. The quantity of what is sown suggests the proportion of what he will reap.

The Bible says, “Be not deceived; God is not mucked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Galatians 6:7). Nobody can deceive God! What you give is what you will receive. “The liberal soul shall be made fat; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself” (Proverbs 11:25).

It pays to give and share out from what you have. The giver can never lack for “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Luke 6:38; Acts 20:35). You do not need to wait till you have much to give before you start to give. The widow in Jesus' time had only two mites to give and she was commended by the Lord. The widow of Zarephath had nothing more than “an handful meal in a barrel” and she gave to the man of God. You can also share with people from the little you have to receive more blessing from God.

Human beings have varieties of things they can share with one another. You must first give your life to Christ as the ultimate of your giving. Then, you share your testimony of God's goodness with others to give them the gospel of light. You can give your time and talent to help others in anyway you can.

There are other things you can give like money, food and water to those who are in need of your service. Always remember that when you give, God will reward you if you do it selflessly, with simplicity and sincerity. (2 Corinthians 9:6-7). Give and it shall be given unto you.

Challenge: Jesus gave His life for you, what will you give to him?

Prayer: Give me your grace Oh Lord to give in a scriptural way.

GOOD MANNER

“Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous” (1Peter 3: 8).

The Christians are expected to be well behaved at home, in the school, workplace and in the society. Your conduct and character, to a great extent, show who you are to the outside world. Jesus calls believers the light of the world (Matthew 5: 14-15).

As a command, He said, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven”. Truancy, lateness to school/workplace, disobedience, trouble-making activities and other bad behaviours are inconsistent to the Christian way of life. The attitude of noise-making in the class, jumping of queues, cracking of filthy jokes or riddles and contempt or despise to constituted authorities are not to be mentioned among true believers.

The word of God declares that, “Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure and whether it be right” (Proverbs 20:11). True Christian youths must be obedient, kind, loving, respectful and good to others. The Christian youth ought to have a testimony of good behaviour among the other students. He must be a shining light in the darkness of the world where he lives.

The teachers and the other students will envy you as you are humble, honest, loyal and respectful in building up a dignified reputation. Every young Christian who desires to live a good life, pleasing unto God must learn to be of a good behaviour. Always remember that a good name is better than silver and gold. Good behaviour will earn you the position of honour here in this world and the one to come.


Challenge: A good name is better than gold.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, grant unto me the grace to always be of a good behaviour.

Hold on to the Promise

“And he said unto them, Where is your faith? And they being afraid wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! for he commandeth even the winds and water, and they obey him” (Luke 8:25).

Many times, Christians have allowed fear to rob them of the great benefits they should enjoy from the promises of God which must be appropriated through faith. Fear works in such a way that it kills faith in the believer and makes him completely forget the unfailing promises of God, thereby making him a helpless captive of the unpleasant circumstances around him.

The disciples of Christ in our text had been told by Christ that they were crossing over to the other side of the river. Having walked with Christ for some time now, they ought to have known the power and authority in His words. More than that, the fact that Jesus Himself was with them in the boat they were travelling ought to have boosted their confidence and assured them of their safety.

But when the storm arose, they forgot the promise of God and were unable to personally exercise faith in the promise. They thought only of one thing – that they all would perish. As Jesus calmed the storm, He equally rebuked the disciples for their fear and lack of faith.

The journey of life can only be navigated successfully through abiding and unwavering faith in God and His promises. As we walk with the Lord, in happiness or in sorrow, in perils or in excitement, so must we rest assured that we are leaning on His everlasting arms. That God appears distant does not mean He has abandoned us.

His eternal charge to us resonates clearly: “Lo, I am with you always…”.
When we choose to concentrate on the things our eyes see and our ears hear around us, they will send fear into our hearts and sink our faith. As Christians, we must realize that the promises of Christ can never be changed or swallowed by the storms of life. If we will hold on to the promises of God and refuse to give in to fear, we will go through every storm and emerge victorious.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Don’t let fear sink your faith.

For Glory and Beauty

“And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty” (Exodus 28:2).

A preacher was excitedly dishing out the word of God to what he thought was a captive audience. All eyes were fixed on him as he blasted on with his sermon - oblivious of the fact that his shirt was not properly buttoned. He missed out a button hole causing his appearance to be funny.

It was this that engaged the attention of his audience and distracted them from his message. No doubt, both the character and the grooming of God’s ministers count and therefore deserve special attention.

In readiness for unified worship in the tabernacle, it was necessary to maintain a family of priests for Israel. Aaron and his children were divinely appointed to serve in the priest’s office. In doing this, the Lord was careful enough to spell out the details of their official dressing.

The recommended garment for Aaron was a multiple piece comprising a breastplate (in which were set twelve precious stones), and an ephod (a short cloak without sleeves), and a robe (an upper garment), and a broidered coat, a mitre (a turban), and a girdle (a linen band tied around the waist). The garments were to be made by no mean persons but only those that were wise-hearted, whom God had filled with the Spirit of wisdom.

Underlying these specifications was the consideration for glory and beauty. Observe the special materials (fine linen) and the choice of colours used - gold, blue, purple, scarlet – all standing for nobility and majesty. It was intended that the priest’s appearance should reflect the character of God to the people. Utmost care was therefore taken to clothe them as such.

Contrary to the perceptions of many Christians, the Lord does not delight in beggarliness. He deserves and demands the best of our talents, material resources and time. The house of God should reflect the character of God – sacred and dignified. A shabby church setting is for neither beauty nor glory.

God’s own children, especially the ministers, must be so exemplary in character and dressing as to point men to God rather than distract men’s attention from God.

Thought for the day: We must present ourselves well if we must represent God well.

PRAYING WITH PASSION

“Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months” (James 5: 17).

There will be lots of changes in our life experiences if we choose to pray rather than complaining. Most people tend to grumble on many things. There could be many things that bother our minds at home, in the school or workplaces and in the society that may tempt us to murmur.

Great things will begin to happen in our lives if we start to pray with passion on life challenges. Nothing brings profits to sincere seekers of God like passionate persevering prayer of faith. If you have tried all other things to no avail, begin to pray. Prayer never fails. Prayer is the key. Prayer changes situations.

As a young Christian student, the best way you can develop yourself for future prospect is to learn the act of praying. People that are given to praying are people with God. The youth that prays has power with God and will do exploits. A prayerless youth will panic in problems instead of prevailing with God’s power.

People who learn to pray are people who lean on God and not on their own understanding. Victory is assured every person who will call upon the Lord with passion and earnestness. Learn to pray and be sure you are praying. Pray and pray until you are sure you have prayed. You can move God’s hands by praying in a purposeful and passionate manner.

Challenge: Prayer will turn the night to day

Prayer: Dear Lord, give me you grace and Spirit power to be praying.

Strengthening Our Souls

Memory verse: “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak” (Mark 14:38).

Ever seen a hen or a chick having its legs entangled with a twine? Its movements will certainly be impeded by the entanglement. Though it may have the desire and longing to be smart and swift in its legs, this will not be possible for as long as the twine or thread remains wrapped around its legs.

This describes the struggle many people have with their spiritual life. Within them is the desire to soar high spiritually, to be victorious over sin, but unfortunately, this is not often the case. Though they sometimes are sincere about the desire to live above sin, they often find themselves weakened and defeated by their flesh.

The spirit within them indeed is willing, but unfortunately, their flesh is weak. Their flesh is a clog on their soul, slowing down and hampering their spiritual progress.

This reality is clearly brought out in the passage under consideration. Peter and the rest of the disciples openly and that sincerely, expressed their desire to follow Jesus all the way, even unto death. However, they failed to take note of the warning of Jesus that they would soon abandon Him.

Peter, basking in self confidence, boasted that he would never deny the Lord. He trusted his resolution but failed to seek the strength, support and grace of God to be able to watch and pray.

Jesus knew that however genuine and sincere our desire and resolve to follow the Lord may be, we will fail if we do not watch and pray. Our spirits may indeed be willing to please the Lord, but our flesh, which unfortunately we sometimes yield to, overpowers and weakens us.

To overcome, Jesus gives the simple panacea – watch and pray. There is the need to subdue the flesh, conquer its desires and be free from its grips through watchfulness and prayerfulness.

Watchfulness will help keep us on our guard while prayerfulness will give strength to our spirit and help it reach a height sublime. If you truly mean your vows and commitment to the Lord, then back it up with prayers.

Thought for the day: Prayers will strengthen your soul’s willingness and bring your body to submission.