They may conspire against you; but you are destined to succeed!
God is the ultimate judge!
In the past few weeks, during our family bible study time, we took sometime to read through and meditate on Matthew chapter 27 and Isaiah chapter 53; both which state the details of the final moments of Jesus Christ and the suffering He endured to secure us our salvation. Salvation did not come at a cheap price; Jesus Christ paid a price we could not afford. The scriptures came very much alive as we saw how He was unfairly and painfully treated and accused. ‘He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed’ (Isaiah 53 v 3 – 5). If you have had a chance to watch the movie called ‘The Passion of the Christ’ you will have a pictorial understanding of the brutality, harshness and cruelty of the death He suffered. All for your salvation! They accused Him but could not find guilt on Him yet they proceeded on to crucify Him. Sometimes in life it’s not easy to stand up against false witnesses and false accusations when all your systems proclaim your innocence. Jesus found Himself in a similar situation ‘and when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing’ (Matthew 27 v 12). He knew that only God was the true witness. When you stand up for what is right you will attract those that will rise up to pull you down through false accusation and false witness; but God is the ultimate judge!
Your reward is from God
Pilate gave the people a chance to choose whom he should give amnesty between Jesus and Barabbas (Matthew 27 v 15 – 17). Barabbas was a crook; a thug and a murderer! He had raped their women; he had murdered their children; he had stolen their property and robbed them of their hard-earned finances. Jesus Christ had healed their diseases; he had forgiven the falsely accused; He had opened the eyes of the blind and strengthened the limbs of the crippled; He had brought hope to the hopeless and life to the lifeless. Yet at the critical hour; at the defining moment when He needed their testimony the most; they chose Barabbas. Even Pilate was surprise and said, ‘Why, what evil hath he done? But they cried out the more, saying, Let him be crucified’ (Matthew 27 v 23). Isn’t life like that!? Isn’t that the paradox of life!? That you can spend all your life sacrificing your time and resources for some people; who when they have earned what they want they wanted in life they turn their backs on you; and worse still they side up with your enemies; with those that conspire against you! Or they stand at a distance and watch when you need them to intervene and support you - they stand and watch from a distance! When you rise up to pursue your calling and vision never expect your reward from those that you serve. Don’t count on anyone! Your duty is to serve and its God’s duty to reward you – not those that you serve! ‘For God is not unrighteous, so as to forget your work and the labour of love which you showed toward his name, in that you served the saints, and still do serve them’ (Hebrews 6 v 10). Never be discouraged!
Don’t rise on people’s shoulders!
The ministry of Jesus did not rise to prominence on the shoulders of other people; through media campaign or belonging to the right camp. His ministry rose because He was obedient to the call that was upon His life and He executed His mission as if His whole life depended on it (and it did). Hence, when everybody turned away from Him, it pained Him yes, but it did not disorient or dishearten Him because He did not depend on them for the fulfillment of His dreams and visions. As you aspire to succeed you will definitely need people’s support, backing and assistance but never depend on people’s sympathy to earn your success. Don’t receive your success while standing on other people’s shoulders; but earn it through hard-work. Your success should not be based on an external locus of control but on an internal locus of control. That is, your success should not be dependant on other people’s feelings and views about you but should be based on your inner values, morals and self-belief and a reliance on God and God alone! People can make you up; people can crush you down! People can lift you up; and the same people will pull you down. Because Jesus did not depend on people’s views and feelings for the fulfillment and success of His mission; He managed to see the successful accomplishment of His mission – to earn you your SALVATION – and He boldly and confidently proclaimed ‘It is finished’ John 19 v 30.
Some day we must together proclaim ‘we have finished’ when we have seen the consummation of the dreams, gifts and visions which are in our hearts.
Peter Mbada
v Thank you to all who supported the seminar. The next seminar will be on the 25th of March at
Thanks for partnering with me in inspiring the world by purchasing a copy of ‘Destined to Succeed; Unstoppable and Unlimitable’!
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