...Burnt out or fired up?

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and he called the name of
it Ebenezer [stone of help], saying, Heretofore the Lord has helped us.” (1Sam7:12AMP)

Oh what a year! Like it or hate it, the days of 2010 are numbered and the number is shorter
than the ones gone by. Now it’s the time to take stock again, the time to thank God that you
made it to the end of another year, an indication that you are still useful to God in His
scheme of things. It may also be time for some to mope and groan about all that did not
materialise according to their dreams and expectations.

This time of the year is always a time of mixed feelings. Some are grateful to God for a
successful year while others are full of gloom over failed dreams and expectations. It is at
this time some ask “what’s there to be thankful for” while others have many things to be
thankful about. The truth is those standing on both side of the extreme of gratitude or
complaints are wrong. For the motivation of their actions was based on their experiences in
the year concerned and this is not agreeable in the Christian world for the scriptures is clear
in saying the just should live by faith.

To live by faith is to live a life governed and controlled by the word and the Spirit of God. It
is to be fully consumed by the word of God to the exclusion of environmental changes that
they no longer determine your actions and inactions. So if as a believer you lived by faith
throughout the year, you can never come short in praise of God. For you will be in
continuous praise for what the Lord had done for you, what He is doing for you or for His
unchanging promises in His word which guarantee that whatever you desire is still within
reach, and you will thank Him for what He is going to do for you. For a man of faith
therefore, there are no times of regrets, no time of gloom and even no time of failure,
because God’s word say all things work together for the good of people of faith. Hallelujah!

Part of what I am saying my brethren is that a life of faith makes you give thanks to God in
all things and at all times hence, the year end is no exception for there is no special time of
praise for a believer but a life of praise. So not withstanding what the situation might be to
you as the year ends, you are not to be devoid of thanksgiving of your God. Also I want it
registered in your subconscious that the year end is not different from any other part of the
year in the real sense but it is just an opportunity to count your blessing.

Now, let’s talk about the year ending, how has it been to you? I guess it has its ups and
downs, its victories and challenges, its successes and failures. That my friend is the way life
is and it is the way it will ever be. Like it or hate it, everything will not always work out right.
The earlier you live with this fact the better for you. And I believe that one of the wisdom
God placed in the calibration of time was so that we will be able to bury the failures of the
past in the year ending, rejoice over the victories attained and look up ahead for greater
challenges and a fresh hope of a better future ahead. There is nothing like a challenged free
year neither is there a year no matter how bad that one will not have at least a victory.

What causes us to feel joy or sadness therefore is in the comparison of the victories with the
failures. How myopic this idea can be especially when for example when almost all that you
did was victorious but just as you approach the year end something goes terribly wrong.
Because of that you forget all the good experiences so this unfortunate event made you
conclude, “It is a terrible year”. The converse also applies, things had not been looking up
since the beginning of the year, it seems all that you did never worked and every step was
just a bad one. Then as the year ends you had a major breakthrough, so you conclude, “this
is my best year”. Well, for truth, life is not always as simple as that but most of the time
what we call a great year is when things happens according to our own personal
expectations or better still when things happens according to the general expectations of
others. We judge the year most of the time when things fall in for us according to man’s
sequence of event of the way things ought to be.

That is how pathetic we appear as believers when we are living on the world’s expectations
without knowing it. So you are either burning out because your expectations did not meet
the generally set dreams of your environment or you are fired up because the world had
given you a pass mark. But this is not the way as believers we should be living, for the
scripture says we are in the world but not of it. If that is true (and it is) then the world
should never be the final arbiter of the way we view our lives. So, am I saying that you
should not expect the good things of life? Far from it! Am I saying you should not rejoice
when things are happening well for you? Never! Do I mean it is a sin to have a sense of
discomfort when disappointments are all that faced you? At all! All I am saying is that your
life is much more than things you got or didn’t get.

For a starter as believers we should of importance measure our lives according to purpose.
The greatest question you should be asking yourself is, “Am I fulfilling the purpose for which
I am born?” Not how many cars, healings, promotions etc should take the front burner.
Once you can answer that correctly and accurately, then you can at the end of every year
measure your life with how far you are fulfilling purpose. When you live like that, then at
the end of every year, you are evaluating, checking out on your achievements, mistakes and
errors, measuring how far you have gone and sometimes listening for instructions on the
next course of action.

My friend, if your life is governed by purpose you can never burn not withstanding how the
year turns out because a Christian life is a bundle of adventures, not that thing will never go
wrong but because you are on the right side of God, every contradictions and hindrances
fires you up. Every delays and disappointment becomes an opportunity to prove your God
again, you will be permanently fired up. Listen to what Apostle Paul said, “we are troubled
on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not
forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed... For we which live are alway delivered unto death
for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh... For
which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is
renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far
more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2Corith4:8,9,11,16,17). Glory! Hallelujah! You
should be shouting for joy right now!

Again if your life is governed by the word of God, then what had not manifested should not
of necessity be a source of worry to you. If really you believed God’s promise, you have seen
it, you have appropriated it to your life, you have prayed, you believed in what you prayed
for, and you believed you have received, then voices of rejoicing should never depart from
your mouth because the bible said it is impossible for God to lie, and as the Bible said about
Abraham, “... he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred
years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God
through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Rom4:19,20) So time is not
the most important consideration for a man of faith, a man standing upon God’s promises,
rather the promises of God is suppose to be your motivation. As long as you are standing on
God’s promises therefore, you can never experience a burn out rather you will remain
strong and get even stronger by praising your God more even though another year of
supposed disappointment seem to be passing by.

Most times when we claim to be standing by faith, we are actually marking time. The reason
we do this is because we are living by human expectations, we are too much concerned
about what people will feel or say concerning us, so when “time” as we know it seems to be
passing us by we get despondent, discouraged and agitated. As the year ends, because we
have been marking time, so is the weight of our disappointed expectations hence the burn
out.

Finally, when you live in the understanding that life is not a destination but a journey, then
you will understand that success and failures are in themselves not destinations but journey.
Because you failed today does not make you a failure, so the year ending in failure and
disappointment does not mean you are defeated neither does it make you a failure, it is just
a passing phase. So bury the failure and disappointments with this year end and be fired up
for a greater and better year ahead. For if you refuse to see life from this perspective,
chances are that you will be burnt out and remain burnt even as we step into the New Year.
Also, with this same hindsight, because everything worked according to plan, because you
got all you expected (which is unlikely) does not make you a perpetual success, if you don’t
do the right thing in the upcoming year, you might be a total failure. As they say, the enemy
of best is good. Since you know there are still more distances to cover, rejoice and thank
God for all that happened for you but brace yourself up for better and greater challenges,
believe God for more! Be fired up to overcome fresh challenges, to do more to the glory of
God, experience what you had never before and expect to share more mind blowing
testimonies. Let the fire of your expectations based on God’s word burn more!

Not minding that the year is ending, not minding that things did not happen for you as you
expected, not minding that those long expectations have not come to pass, not minding that
you are almost on the same spot (which is unlikely), not minding the many victories, not
minding many breakthroughs, not minding that you got all you desired (which is unlikely),
not minding the open doors, not minding many dreams realised, as the year comes to an
end I want to challenge you to remain fired up because God is still on your side. Remain
fired up because you are marked for victory, remain fired up because you are not helpless,
remain fired up because you are the living prove of God’s goodness, remain fired up
because time and season happens to us all, remain fired up because God makes all things
beautiful in its time, remain fired up because this is just how far the Lord has helped you,
more victories are still ahead of you! I believe God with you that next year shall be greater
than this and that it shall be filled with overwhelming victories for you all year round. See
you at the top and happy New Year in advance.