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Prov. 24:16 - "For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again,..."
I will be equating the "righteous man" as the successful person. A study of Proverbs will reveal the righteous ones are successful ones because they have been blessed by God. They Get Back Up It doesn't matter where you work or the sports you liked to participate in you can testify to this truth. As you were on your way to being successful you were knocked down by something. It may have been an illness, a medical set back such as a torn ACL, a rejection of your resume, failure to accomplish a set goal or the death of a loved one. There are thousands of ways to get knocked down but if we intend on being successful we know we must arise. We must get back up on our own two feet. How Do You Get Back Up? How you get back up doesn't really matter. What matters is you find a way to become motivated again. What does it take to re-invigorate you? For some it would be conversation with someone that you respect, or watching a movie or reading about other successful people. Are you one that is able to motivate yourself? Or are you the kind who will graciously allow others to help motivate you? It doesn't matter which method works for you. What matters is the successful person will get back up and move forward with another plan and a new head full of ideas. How Many Times Do You Rise? You rise every time you get knocked down is the correct answer. But the writer of Proverbs says you get back up 7 times and that is true if you believe he is speaking literally. I believe he is speaking figuratively. The number "7" in the Bible means perfect or completely. Every time you get knocked down by life you get back up on you feet. Why Does Life Knock Us Down? I have trained myself not to ask the question "Why". I always ask myself "What". What can I learn from this trial? I then write down the things that I can learn and allow these to help motivate me positively to keep moving forward to accomplish my goal. If you ask "Why" you may never be able to determine if the answers you come up with are true. If you're knocked down get back up and you'll be glad you did. If you are on your successful journey plan on meeting some events that will knock you down and also plan on getting back up once you have been knocked down by the life events. Think On These: The difficulties of life are to make us better - not bitter. Say what you will about trouble; it always gives us something to talk about. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Prov. 22:10 - Drive out the scoffer, and contention will go out,
Even strife and dishonor will cease. NASU
The scoffer is the one person on your team you can do without. This person is constantly mocking other people with either words or their actions. When you catch them mocking someone and you call them out on this they are going to say, "I was only joking around. What you can't make any jokes around here?" NO, they weren't just joking around. They were causing contention; they were starting to divide your team. (When I use the word "team" its intended meaning is either a sports team or work team.) The longer you allow this person to be on your team the more damage you are going to have to repair. This will only take away from what you really are supposed to be doing, accomplishing the goals you have set for your team.
This is not an easy thing to accomplish, but if you are a leader you already know that the tough decisions have to be made by you. You cannot have constant contention on a winning team. When you remove the scoffer you will be removing contention, strife and dishonor. As a leader have you ever thought, "Man, I would like a little peace and quiet?" If you want peace and quiet you will have to remove the scoffer from your team, if you have one on it.
One thing you will want to remember and that is scoffers many times are really talented. Your first thought is "I hate to lose them." or you may also think, "How am I going to replace them?" What you really need to be thinking is how much greater your team is going to be when the contentious person is removed. You really need to remember this: A scoffer on your team will make you regret the day you hired him/her or recruited him/her. You would be better to replace them with someone who has half the talent, but doesn't cause dissension and strife within the team. Always remember your team can do without a scoffer. Think On These: The bigger a man's head gets the easier it is to fill his shoes. The man who is self-centered is off-centered. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word I Kings 19:2-4 - Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time." And he was afraid and arose and ran for his life and came to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die, and said, "It is enough; now, O LORD, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.
1. He is forgetting what God has done with him. 2. He is believing a lie. Elijah had displayed great faith in God and defeated 450 false prophets of Baal. He challenged them to pray to their god and he would pray to his God. The God who sent down fire from heaven and consumed the sacrifice would be the true God to be worshipped. Baal failed to answer his 450 prophets. Yet, the God of heaven and earth did NOT fail to answer his one prophet Elijah.
Elijah has just defeated these false prophets. Their god Baal was useless to them but Elijah's God was not useless. He was the true God. We don't worship Baal. He is useless. We worship and serve the only true God. How can we forget so quickly what He has done for us?
What lie is the devil telling you now that you are believing?
I asked him one night how he got to be as tough as he was. This what he told me: My dad told me to rake the leaves in our front yard. When I had them all raked the neighborhood bully who just happened to be walking by came in and kicked them all over the yard. As he was kicking them I was headed up on the porch. When my dad came out of the house and asked me "Where are you going?" He told me, "I had a choice fight the bully or fight him." So I fought the bully and won. After that when I was about to fight someone I could hear my dad saying, "Fight the bully or fight him."
Think On This: Anyone in the world can give up, it is the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else in the world would understand if you quit, that is true courage. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Prov.13:20 – ”He who walks with wise men will be wise,
But the companion of fools will suffer harm.”
Can we learn anything from the smartest man in the world? In this one passage there are two lessons for us and they are both about with whom we associate. The wisest man in the world says, it is important that we associate with the right people and avoid association with the wrong people.
Wise people in the Bible were successful people. Wisdom is the art of being successful, of forming the correct plan to gain the desired results (Definition from New Bible Dictionary, InterVarsity Press). They had been blessed by God and used these blessings to help themselves and others.
Our parents were trying to protect us but we thought they were trying to rob us from having fun. When in reality they were trying to save us from harms way or suffering according to Solomon. Can you see the person’s face or remember the name of the one your parents didn’t want you to associate? Are you like me thinking man I wished I had listened to them? I wrote a Pump Up several months ago and it was “Show Me Your Friends and I Will Show You Your Future.” Solomon is saying the same thing only he said it 3,000 years before anyone.
If you answer yes to that question then you will want to associate with wise people. You cannot say I want to be successful and associate with fools. God’s word promises that association with the foolish will only bring harm to you. Who are the “foolish” people Solomon is referencing in Proverbs? They are the ones who know what they are doing is wrong and they don’t care. They go right on doing what they know is wrong. Listen to this question, “If a “foolish” person doesn’t care about his life do you think for one minute he will care about yours?” Make Your Life Profitable Associate With The Right People. Think On These: Knowledge knows a fact and wisdom knows what to do with that fact. Advice is that which the wise don’t need and the fools won’t take. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Matt. 7:12 - “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, …”
Zig stood over the ball, looked at the hole and as he drew the club back and made the birdie putt, he looked at his son and asked him, “Were you cheering for me?” His son immediately answered, “I always cheer for you dad.” What would our answer be to our loved ones if they asked us that question, “Were you cheering for me?”
Yet, Jesus gave us a life lesson that never becomes outdated when He said, “treat people the same way you want them to treat you.” This is Jesus' most important lesson that He ever taught. I am sure we all would rather be cheered for in this life than be criticized. So why is it that we find it so hard to treat others the way we want to be treated? The Pharisees criticized Jesus for healing on the Sabbath, but when one of their animals got incapacitated they immediately went to help regardless if it were the Sabbath or not. Jesus’ life lesson here will never become outdated when he said, “Treat people the way you want to be treated,” plain and simple.
He never ever called his wrestlers names or belittled them in any way when they were on the mat wrestling or any other place. Coach Hampe was the Cheerleader for his wrestlers and I am sure some of those boys won matches because they didn’t want to let their coach down who was cheering them on from the edge of the mat. I believe Coach Hampe was living out the teachings of Jesus by treating people the way he would want to be treated.
You not only can but you absolutely need to break this pattern. Become a positive influence in someone’s life today. Be a cheerleader to others because we all know we can accomplish more with positive reinforcement than negative criticism. Think on These: Blowing out someone else’s candle won’t make yours shine any brighter. Criticizing another man’s garden doesn’t keep weeds out of your own. The difference between coaching and criticizing is your attitude. Stay Pumped, Gary A Serago Minister of God's Word |
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