Proverbs 12:26 tells us that “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with,” Jim Rohn. Therefore spend your time with the right people or invest in your friends, family, co-workers and fellow congregation to add value to their lives and yours.
Matthew 5: 14-16 The Message (MSG)
You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.
If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you?
I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
There is a famous story of a woman who went walking down a sandy beach with a little girl beside her. The woman carried a bucket of crabs in each hand. One of the buckets was covered with a lid, the other remained open. After they had walked a little while, the young girl asked the woman, “Why is only one of your buckets covered?” The woman answered the young girl quietly, “There are different types of crabs. The ones that are covered cannot be left in this container because they will work together, stacking themselves on top of one another until they reach the top and escape. The ones here in this bucket, which is uncovered…they won’t let another crab get ahead of them so they are never able to work together to climb out.”
So often I come across a new personal training client with great expectations, big dreams, and high hopes for life-changing results. These dreams and hopes can often sour the second these clients are able to share their excitement with the ones they love, telling them how they are about to break free from the unhealthy life that they are living and enter into a life of increased energy and higher self-confidence. They are instantly greeted by discouraging comments, sarcastic remarks, and closed body language, bringing them back down to a life of mediocrity, doubt, and complacency.
The other day I was asked why I started writing a blog. My response to that question came to me as I was writing this post. The purpose of this blog is to help as many people as possible transform their bodies, rebuild their faith, and reclaim their life in Jesus Christ, by reaching them where they are and helping guide them to where God wants to take them.
Get connected with the people around you and start depositing hope and inspiration into their lives, to help balance out the daily withdrawals that negative people take from their spiritual account.
God has been developing all of us by putting the right people in our lives at exactly the right time. He leads us through certain situations not only for our good but also for the good of others. He makes us strong so that we can help the weak, teaches us lessons to pass on to others, builds up our faith to help piece back someone else’s, gives us hope to inspire the hopeless, loves us so that we can love the unloved, and strengthens our belief. All so that we can minister and counsel to the weak who feel attacked by others trying to drag them back down to the bottom when they are so close to breaking free.
2 Timothy 2:20-26 The Message (MSG)
20-21 In a well-furnished kitchen there are not only crystal goblets and silver platters, but waste cans and compost buckets—some containers used to serve fine meals, others to take out the garbage. Become the kind of container God can use to present any and every kind of gift to his guests for their blessing.
22-26 Run away from infantile indulgence. Run after mature righteousness—faith, love, peace—joining those who are in honest and serious prayer before God. Refuse to get involved in inane discussions; they always end up in fights. God’s servant must not be argumentative, but a gentle listener and a teacher who keeps cool, working firmly but patiently with those who refuse to obey. You never know how or when God might sober them up with a change of heart and a turning to the truth, enabling them to escape the Devil’s trap, where they are caught and held captive, forced to run his errands.
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