Psalms 141:5
Let the righteous strike me; It shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; It shall be as excellent oil; Let my head not refuse it.
Beloved,
It is important we talk about voices that you must not allow around you. The prevalence of such voices in your life can cause a lot of damage to your journey in life. Such voices include:
- The voice of flatterers: A flatterer is the one who shouts your praise and compliments you—but not sincerely. I like the word “sincere.” Sincerity is a major attribute that our journey in life needs and we need to surround ourselves with people who would be sincere with us.
When we surround ourselves with people who only see good things about us even when things are not right, —we are on the road to pitfalls. When Ahab surrounded himself with flatterers and disdained the presence of Micaiah who was sincere to tell him the truth, he lost his throne and died on the battlefield (1 Kings 22). Everyone likes praise but we have the responsibility to ensure that it is not at the detriment of sincere truth that would keep us on the right track of our walk with God.
- The voice of negative people: Some people never see anything good. They specialise in seeing impossibility in everything and when you surround yourself with such people, they infuse your mind with negative words which invariably affect the way you perceive life. Words of negative people are very deadly to the existence of your faith.
It is time to shut this voice up in your life. If you don’t, it will affect your disposition to God and pollute your faith-life. You must know that one of the attacks of the devil is to affect your thought-life. Don’t let him.
- The voice of “confucianists”: Some people are specialists at causing confusion. They like to contribute nothing specific. They know what is wrong but would never contribute solution. If they would contribute at all, they would give you 13 conflicting solutions to a singular problem. In fact, they leave you more confused than you meet them.
Get rid of people like that. I think some people’s problem is the mindset that there is strength in numbers. It seems logical, but it is not a complete truth. With God, strength is not in number, it is in the obedience to God’s instruction and the presence of God. If at all there would be strength in numbers, it would be with the right people. One bad head in your team corrupts the whole team. So, the number of people that you have around you is not as important as the quality of people who are with you.
I commend you to God and to the word of His grace.
I call you BLESSED. I call you NATIONS.
