OPEN HEAVENS DEVOTIONAL - SUNDAY - 05/10/2014 - A PROFESSIONAL OR AN AMATEUR? - BY PASTOR E.A. ADEBOYE.

A PROFESSIONAL OR AN AMATEUR?

Memorise

And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do; the heads of them were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their commandment.

1 Chronicles 12:32

Read

1 Chronicles 11:11-25

11 And this is the number of the mighty men whom David had; Jashobeam, an Hachmonite, the chief of the captains: he lifted up his spear against three hundred slain by him at one time.

12 And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, who was one of the three mighties.

13 He was with David at Pasdammim, and there the Philistines were gathered together to battle, where was a parcel of ground full of barley; and the people fled from before the Philistines.

14 And they set themselves in the midst of that parcel, and delivered it, and slew the Philistines; and the LORD saved them by a great deliverance.

15 Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim.

16 And David was then in the hold, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem.

17 And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!

18 And the three brake through the host of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David: but David would not drink of it, but poured it out to the LORD,

19 And said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing: shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.

20 And Abishai the brother of Joab, he was chief of the three: for lifting up his spear against three hundred, he slew them, and had a name among the three.

21 Of the three, he was more honourable than the two; for he was their captain: howbeit he attained not to the first three.

22 Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day.

23 And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian's hand was a spear like a weaver's beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand, and slew him with his own spear.

24 These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and had the name among the three mighties.

25 Behold, he was honourable among the thirty, but attained not to the first three: and David set him over his guard.

Message

Success in life, business and ministry does not come easy. Success is realising God’s desires for you and responding obediently in order to reach your maximum potential. Attainment of success is determined by multiple factors, but it takes a combination of drive, patience, energy, a ‘can do’ attitude, efficiency and toughness to be successful. Slothfulness is one of the worst enemies of success. Proverbs 18:9 says:

“He also that is slothful in his work is brother to him that is a great waster.”

Do you want to be successful in your chosen field? Be professional and avoid slothfulness. The two things that differentiate a professional from an amateur in any discipline are: thought patterns and the order of prioritisation. Though there is no single behavioural characteristic alone that can be said to lead consistently to success, there appears to be quite a consistency of behavioural patterns among successful people.

For one, all successful people are intensely interested in their ventures. They are disciplined, focused and sincere disciples of their trade. Moreover, a very successful person has a feeling of personal adequacy. They all have the attribute of “I can do it if I try hard enough”. In addition, successful people are hardworking people. A sense of direction is another secret of success. A sense of direction urges action, shapes action, allows the value of action to be assessed and allows decisions to be made more easily. All highly successful people are both effective and efficient. They do things right and manage their time and resources very efficiently. They never stand still and expect things to fall into place. It must be said also that there can be no success without the personal attribute of honesty, sincerity and integrity. All successful people are goal-setters and go-getters. They set short term goals but more importantly, long term goals. Another important trait of successful people is that they are creative. Success comes as a result of generating new ideas, seeing things differently, and mobilising profitable ideas to get results. Finally, production, enthusiasm and commitment to make things happen are critical to success. A lethargic person who is not interested in innovation and production cannot be successful. Who are you, and how prepared are you for good success? Are you a professional or an amateur?

Action Point

Outstanding success is of God and mediocrity is not righteousness. Pray and plan to be successful in your chosen profession.

BIBLE IN ONE YEAR

1 Samuel 18:17-20:42

Proverbs 6:28-7:9