Excerpts from Maximize Relationships by Uyoyou C. Charles-Iyoha
I
have no idea what relationships you are in and they appear to be limiting you;
prison like in the mold of Potiphar's wife, daily harassing Joseph to sin
against God and his master Potiphar. I challenge you to be like Joseph and
honor God rather than the Potiphar's wife in your life. That decision may mean
prison (increased financial or any other type of hardship). Do not be dismayed
for God has not changed. Of a truth, your weeping will be cut short as the
night will run faster than expected so that your joy will unfold to keep
leaping in bounds and bounds as you settle into your rest prepared for you by
God. I suggest that
you pray this short prayer; Father, I plead with you to have mercy on me and
move me out of the prison I am in into my rightful place, Lord in Jesus mighty
name. Whatever and wherever this prison
is Lord, please help me to get out in Jesus mighty name, Amen.
Other
examples of such relationships include Samson and Delilah; Jesus Christ and
Judas; Jephthah and his brothers, Jacob and Laban, Isaac and the Philistines
and as many more that you know about which I will be glad to learn from you.
Even if people are not useful to
you, they are useful to God one way or the other. God may need you to minister
to some of their needs and He rewards you for doing so. Moses and Pharaoh make
an interesting case study. Ordinarily, there will be no point of reference
between the two princes yet God needed the meeting point and reference. He sent
a rather unwilling Moses to Pharaoh. Pharaoh made mockery of the visit by
calling on his magicians to replicate whatever miracles Moses thought he had
performed by the power of God. The idea behind Pharaoh’s actions and utterances
was to weaken the resolve of Moses. Pharaoh continued to capitalize on this by
his refusal to let the people of Israel leave Egypt; denying them access to
certain rights and privileges in addition to making life really difficult for
the Israelites.
Yet, Moses persevered, visiting
and making requests to Pharaoh as directed by God. Though the visits and
Pharaoh’s negative responses left Moses drained, he held on because he had been
with God and he knew that a victorious end was in sight. And when it was time,
Moses was the one who told Pharaoh that Pharaoh would never see his face again.
Please, see Genesis Chapter 10 verse 29. That was it. God had accomplished His
purpose in that relationship. Moses was therefore free to walk out of the
relationship, away from Pharaoh’s pride, arrogance, insolence, rudeness and
oppression. Every relationship has a time span and when the end comes, the
relationship ends. Some end in anger, violence, death, malice while some end in
peace. Nevertheless, every relationship requires certain levels of creativity,
wisdom, knowledge and understanding alongside tolerance and wit for successful
navigation.
Associations
foster either wealth or poverty depending on the type of
associations/relationships that you keep. If you keep associating with people
who are poor (poor because they fritter time and other resources, are lazy,
chatter boxes) because you feel that they are underdogs, disadvantaged people
who need a helping hand, then you will remain poor as most times, such poor people
cannot help you out of poverty.
God’s
instruction in the Bible is to give to the poor, support the poor but not
necessarily hang around the poor so you are seen as a friend of the poor. If
you do that long enough, you will invite the many dimensions of poverty of the
poor to yourself; their inability and refusal to develop themselves; refusal to
invest time through wasting time in fruitless activities. Once you have done
your bit of giving money, personal development advice and whatever else you can
offer to the poor, let them know that time is very precious to you and can only
be traded for what brings honor or glory to God, for the salvation of the souls
of men, for intercession, for money making activities, for personal development
purposes and not for time wasting activities that have no purpose or meaning in
life.
Most poor
people actually have no understanding and value of time. That explains their
poverty. Do not let such poor people decide and determine how you spend time
with them, the amount of time you spend with them. Spend very limited time with
them and be diligent about the business God committed into your hands. Time is
money.
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