The foundation stones of honesty, character, faith, integrity, love and loyalty are necessary for a balanced success in life. The ability to give expression to all what we are in the Spirit is so important to how we live out God’s will on earth. We cannot afford to live out of and depending on our faculties of feelings and emotions especially if they have been untrained and developed. The reason for a lack of consistency, dedication and real ability is because we have not learnt, developed and allowed our lives to be run by time-tested principles. Living principled centred lives will help us to become excellent in all we do. I have seen talent without dedication fail to produce consistent results. We need to live a principled life.

We shall be looking at integrity, faithfulness and diligence (hard work intelligently directed).

INTEGRITY-this is from the word integer- it means amongst other things wholeness. It is when our hearts agree with our words and actions. We should live out of our convictions, speaking and acting in harmony with the values of our hearts. Our conscience is a value-based faculty inside us. When we live below our value-system we sense a discordant note in our spirits. To live in integrity is to wake up to the inner convictions rather than ignore them. This becomes ever so vital as we grow in our understanding of God, His operations and will on earth. Our lives should be lived out of our inner values. We should build God’s Word in us and allow the Word to form our inner values. In Genesis 20, we read about Abimelech who in operating out of the integrity of his heart wanted to err before God and God stopped him. Read verses 1-13. This is interesting as we can learn here that whatever we do out of integrity, God will keep us from falling.

FAITHFULLNESS: LUKE 16:10
The unjust steward was judged to be commendable in his deeds and we have some lessons to learn from this story. To be faithful is to be trustworthy and trustful. In other words reliable and trusting to see predictably good results. Being faithful from these verses 1-13, implies taking initiatives in service with the end result of serving right. It implies recognition of what can be done to get the right results. Faithfulness in little implies faithfulness in much. God seems to watch our faithfulness now to determine what will be committed to us in future. Faithfulness implies understanding how to invest in things that have future benefits. Relationships have benefits for the future.

Diligence: To be diligent is to apply effort steadily, to use speed in labour and to be earnest. The diligent hand makes rich, bears rule and will stand before Kings and not mere men. Proverbs 10:4; 12:24; 13:4; 21:5; 27:23;

All these principles await your decision to put them to work in your life. You are a decision away from a principled life. A quality decision is one that there is no turning away from. You commit to what you have decided to do. This resolve releases heaven’s resources to back you up.

May God bless you as you commit to the principles of God’s Word to bring you to maturity.

Rev. Kola Ewuosho