I learnt a lot from by biological dad while growing up. He is a God-fearing and highly principled man. As my childhood mentor, I still remember his fearless approach to tough issues. He had this favourite saying: “I will never be Pilate.”
“‘Do you want me to release to you the king of the Jews?’ Asked Pilate knowing it was out of envy that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him. But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have Pilate release Barabbas instead. ‘What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the Jews?’ Pilate asked them. ‘Crucify him!’ they shouted. ‘Why? What crime has he committed?’ asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, ‘Crucify him!’ Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them. He had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified.”
~Mark 15: 9-15
Pilate, the Roman governor at that time, capitulated to the demands of the Jewish priests to crucify Jesus, even when he found out that Jesus was innocent. So my dad always made reference to that fatal compromise. He always took the tough decisions. He always put his feet down. Sometimes my dad would take decisions that my mum, my siblings and I won’t be in agreement with; but he would always put his feet down because he understood that as the head of his home, it was the way to go.
The truth is that if you’re not prayerful, you will buckle under pressure, and will begin to compromise unnecessarily. But when you’re prayerful, you begin to do the tough but necessary things.
Personally, I have had to take tough decisions in the various spheres that I’m involved in. For instance, it took toughness to lead our church, Citizens Family, through the transition that we just came out from. I had to take certain tough decisions. I had to be firm but I had to be prayerful. If I didn’t continue in prayer, I would not have had the strength to execute the changes that took place in our family. And today, because of these changes, we are growing and expanding at a faster rate. Before now, we were bogged down with weights, but today we have peace; we have clarity; and we can fly.
The reason many folks are bogged down is because they don’t pray. If you don’t pray, you won’t have the inner strength to lead your family through change, and to lead yourself through evolution. Because to create metamorphosis in whatever you are doing, you need to take tough stances, and the strength to do this, comes through prayer.
Praise God.
Memory Verse:
Ephesians 3:16
“I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen with power through His spirit in your inner being…”
Prayer:
Lord, please enable me to pray at all times so that I can successfully the tough decisions needed to create metamorphosis in my life, in Jesus’ name.
Amen.