SAY NO GRACEFULLY
NO; a two letter word yet a very important stand you need to take in your quest to live a happier and fulfilling life. Most often, it is easy for the agenda of people around you to determine your actions especially when you are not clear about your goals and have not made any effort to be more intentional about your life. It gives people around you the opportunity to fill you with what will not necessary be good for your growth in the Lord and most especially living a purposeful life. Saying ‘no’ can be hard; when and how to say no is an art. The courage to say ‘No’ to the wrong things in life will give you the power to say yes to the right things in life.
Saying No to people is not disrespect, neither is it an affront to your character nor should it make you feel bad and uncomfortable, as a matter of fact, anytime you feel bad or uncomfortable about something someone wants you to do, you must understand that it is the very time you have to say no. it is a necessary word every individual who want to live the Valued Life must keep. Titus 2:11-12 read;
for the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people, teaching us (you) to say NO …
God in His time has released grace to teach us to say No to all manner of things that contradict his word, things that do not resonate with you and stand the chance to prevent you from living your life to its full potential.
In 1 Samuel chapter 17, a story is told of a giant philistine parading himself as a great warrior and defiling the army of God. A young boy named David appeared on the seen sent by his father to give food to his brothers decided to take up the challenge to fight the giant philistine. When the king, Saul, heard about this, he decided to give his armor to protect him on the battle field. But in 1 Samuel 17:39, David said;
I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them. So David rejected the King’s armor, yet he was victorious over Goliath.
Sometimes we allow the people around us to push their thoughts, bad habits, ungodliness etc on us and this get to distort our original plan of living. If David had gone into the battle field with the Kings armor he wouldn’t have been able to walk not to talk about getting closer to his opponent and hitting his target with his staff and stone (1 Samuel 17:41).
It is time to Say ‘NO’ to bad advice, ungodliness, to anything that will prevent you from living the valued Life. We need to understand and master self identity because self-knowledge is the stepping stone to self-mastery and living a fulfilled life.