The Reward of Obedience

In thy seed shall all nations of earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all earth is mine: Ye shall walk after Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. That thou mayest love Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in land which Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. For children of Israel walked forty years in wilderness, till all people that were men of war, which came out of Egypt, were consumed, because they obeyed not voice of Lord: unto whom Lord sware that he would not shew them land, which Lord sware unto their fathers that he would give us, a land that floweth with milk and honey. If ye will fear Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against commandment of Lord, then shall both ye and also king that reigneth over you continue following Lord your God: But if ye will not obey voice of Lord, but rebel against commandment of Lord, then shall hand of Lord be against you, as it was against your fathers. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat good of land: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey voice of Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey voice of Lord our God. And kingdom and dominion, and greatness of kingdom under whole heaven, shall be given to people of saints of most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. And they that are far off shall come and build in temple of Lord, and ye shall know that Lord of hosts hath sent me unto you. And this shall come to pass, if ye will diligently obey voice of Lord your God. But men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him! And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even unclean spirits, and they do obey him.

Prioritize in 2005

Do you get overwhelmed? Are you running on cheap fuel of adrenaline? Do you get depressed because you make promises to yourself and others that you cannot keep because you run out of time? If so, and you would like to change your sense of defeat into a sense of control this coming year, read on.

There is a program taught in most coaching circles called "The Personal Foundation Program". This program helps us reconstruct underpinning of our lives by strengthening ourselves in a variety of ways and learning how to accomplish more with less effort. One of first things program recommends is choosing a personal theme for each year. I've been doing this every year since I entered coaching community. My theme for this year is "Prioritize in 2005" and here's why: I have a tendency to procrastinate whenever I am feeling overwhelmed by a task. I tell myself that I will tackle it some other time when I am feeling more courageous. The irony of this of course is that act of procrastinating increases my sense of being overwhelmed and further erodes my courage to roll up my sleeves and just go for it. As I began looking for ways to mitigate this reflexive habit, I found that if I took time to plan my day and prioritize my actions, I ended up being much more successful and productive. You see, most of us are (as one of my coach friends describes himself) "easily distracted by shiny objects!" It's very easy to get sidetracked from our goals. Choosing a theme helps up cut down on distraction time. It's a way to keep end in mind as described so clearly by Stephen Covey in his bestseller "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People".