Words of Wisdom

with Pastor Alphonze

BOUNCE BACK

Many are the stories we have heard and known about people who were down and somehow bounced back. Athletes and sports teams who seemed to be loosing and they came back and won before the last whistle. Companies written-off and bounced back to high profits.

The Bible is a book full of people who were written-off and came back victorious. Time will not allow me to talk of Jephthah, David, the mighty men of David and Ruth, Gideon, and many, many more.

Life sometimes can throw you off balance with challenges that attacks your progress. Challenges in life are inevitable, they are going to come your way whether you want them to or not. In fact, whenever you are pursuing an aspiration with intention, it can seem as if the challenges intensify and the resistance against you reaching your objective increases. Rising to them is important especially when your well-being depends on it. All of us have things in our past that can hinder our ability to believe that we can come back stronger from the predicaments that threaten to diminish us, yet we can, You do not have to get stuck in whatever defeated you in the past. Think in real-time now and interpret the present moment accurately, you can bounce back!

There are a few factors needed to actualize a comeback.

ATTITUDE

It is famously said that attitude is altitude.

Your attitude has a great deal to do with how you process issues and how you bounce back. Attitude is an inside job manifesting outwardly, an inner knowing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Your attitude and belief are of great importance in those specific moments. Take a good look at the challenge and see it as something that will reveal how masterful you can be. Attitude is an attribute emanating from within. I call it a positive inward poise, an upright posture within, a mentality that realizes a comeback can be actualized. A mentality wrapped up with an inner  knowing that though weeping may endure for a night, joy will come in the morning, A positive mindset built up in the word of God as Job stated in chapter 22:29 “…when men are cast down, then thou shall say there is a lifting up and he shall save the humble person.” Case in point.

It is not what is happening without but what’s happening within. Attitude emanates from an inner knowing that a comeback is possible. Consider Joseph and David, both of them had experiences early in life that built in them faith that they could bounce back.

Joseph was thrown into a pit to die by his brothers. Later they sold him to the Ishmaelites who then sold him to the Egyptians. Things began to go well for him until he found himself thrown in prison. The bible teaches that his attitude was upbeat for he ministered to the prisoners instead of having a pity party. He reckoned that since one time he was in a pit and saw the Lord save him and bring him out, that this same God who saved him from the pit will save him from the prison. He maintained a positive attitude. We all know he ended up second to pharaoh and saved the known civilized world of his time.

David faced Goliath with a positive attitude that was shocking to many. He told king Saul that God saved him from a lion and from a bear which resulted in him believing that even this Goliath will fall too. Long story short, Goliath fell.

These men had a positive attitude built into their spirits. Romans 5:3 ( New Living Translation) “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation works patience; We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment.” Your attitude matters BIG TIME in actualizing a comeback.

COURAGE

Developing courage that leads to the kind of persistence and perseverance that refuses to quit and presses to the realization of an objective, requires your willingness. That willingness isn’t sharpened in times of peace, it is forged like steel in the heat of challenges, difficulties, trials, tests and obstacles. Courage helps you maintain the focus of your objectives.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said “courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the  assessment that something else is more important than fear”.

Courage is being afraid but doing it anyway.

Brene Brown said “You can choose courage or you can choose comfort but you can not choose both”

The other day my wife read me a quote — “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.”

Failure can either make some people coil in their corner and call it quits, while on others, failure makes them more determined to bounce back and give it another shot.

If you tend to be critical of the way you’ve handled things or the way things turned out in life, your anger at yourself will be a deterrent to any forward momentum you wish to make, especially when you decide you don’t want to repeat your past. Let go of the need for self punishment, and belief that the anger directed towards yourself is perhaps a valid motivational force. Learn to encourage yourself. The words you say to yourself are more important than the words you hear from anyone else. As told in 1 Samuel Chapter 30, David came back to Ziklag and found out that the Amalekites had burnt down their village and taken captive their wives and children. David’s men cried and wanted to stone him but the bible says in the sixth verse of the same chapter that David encouraged himself in the Lord his God and bounced back and pursued the Amalekites and took back their families and more spoil.

It is Mark Twain who said “Courage is mastery of fear and not the absence of fear’’.

The absence of courage is tantamount to failure.

Sometimes you have to take courage and pull yourself up by the bootstraps, pull yourself up by the collar and tell yourself emphatically, here we go, AGAIN.

RESET

There is no advancement without adjustment.

Leaving the familiar is non negotiable in order to move forward. When you fail to achieve your objectives, don’t be quick to question your capability or competency, the challenge may be in the way you mapped your pathway to your goal. Adjust the processes and patterns necessary for working together all your resources in proper order and sequence. Take a second look or a third look, and adjust. This will give you the jump-start you need, and your objectives will begin to find expression again. Adjust, Adjust, Adjust.

PASSION

Intention is powerless without passion. To be passionless is to be goal-less and hopeless. Passion is that quality that defines how bad you want something. It defines how much you value the outcome. Passion is the innate source of impetus within humans. It is the thing that drives us. Take things one step at a time and watch passion build your bridge towards your objective. When resistance comes and it feels like everything is working against you, maintain your passion and doubt your doubts and keep moving forward. There may be things you encounter along the way that seeks to diminish your vision. One thing you have to do is guard against your passions fire going out and fan its flames consistently by looking at the prize. Look at the glorious outcome, visualize the joy at the end. Just like the bible says that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him. Without Passion, you are like a ship without a sail, powerless to harness the winds, finally ending up in a disappointing rigmarole. Passion is your bouncing catalyst.

TENACITY

In Matthew 15:21-28, we read of a mother who begged Jesus for help. Initially, Jesus refuses to give her audience, yet she didn’t quit but continued pleading for her daughter.

Jesus kind of ignored her, but she kept bouncing back in front of him. As if that was not enough, she heard the disciples telling Jesus to send her away, she didn’t let that deter her. She kept on until Jesus spoke, but the words were disappointing. Jesus said He cannot give the children’s food to the dogs. She wasn’t going to be easily deterred, her tenacity was strong for she kept on persisting on the same issue. Finally Jesus said, “Oh Woman of great faith, be it unto you even as thou will”. Her request was granted. Tenacity is a stubbornness, a persistence and a relentless determination to stick to it until it materializes. It is being unshakable, like Hannah the mother of Samuel who kept going to the temple year after year praying her heart out for a son. She made a vow, saying, “Oh LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” As she kept on praying to the lord, one day Eli, the high priest observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.” “Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” 1 Samuel 1:11-17

Tenacity is what reinforces your commitment and detaches you from complacency and giving up. It is the invitation of bouncing back.

Luke 18:1-8 illustrates it even better: A woman kept coming before the judge daily for her case to be heard.  After many days the judge finally heard her case and rewarded her. Tenacity is critical for bouncing back

GRACE FACTOR

With every positive assignment and objective there is a divine enablement called grace.

God won’t allow you to endure more than you can handle. He is a God of empowerment, a God who makes ways where there seem to be no ways. A God of possibilities. His grace is sufficient as He once told Paul the Apostle.

We have to reach beyond ourselves and learn to embrace His divine enablement to facilitate a comeback, a bouncing back. The trustworthiness of His grace is the antidote to endless breakdowns and a recipe of empowerment to bounce back.

You can bounce back, lets bounce back. Shall we !!!