Today’s Devotion
Topic: SIT DOWN, ESTIMATE AND COMPLETE IT (PART 2).
TEXT: Luke 14:28-30.
28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? 29 For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, 30 saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’ Amen.
Yesterday, we established how important it is for each of us to sit down and estimate the cost of every idea or decision we seek to implement. The objective is to have a plan about how you are going to complete it. We continue today with just a little addition.
Jesus gave a second example saying: “Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” (Luke 14: 31- 33).
The above suggests that sometimes, after we have sat down to estimate the cost (in terms of our abilities, resources, preparedness and support), it may be better to re-strategize or even pause the vision for a while instead of running into the obvious and failing woefully.
Yes, you may disagree with the principle of estimating the cost before venturing. Others did too, with the explanation that since God is the final authority in every matter and a miracle worker as such, once you are found in Him, then you can take up every venture at anytime and still succeed ‘big time’. This they believed for a long time till they actually started implementing their ideas and realised it is “the wise that inherit honour; fools get only shame” (Prov 3: 35). This is because it is “by wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding He set the heavens in place” (Prov 3: 19).
You see, God is Himself the wisdom that underscores creation. It is upon this truth that creation takes its form. Therefore, claiming to know God must necessarily be a claim to apply wisdom in all we do. Those who reject this may just struggle through the avoidable and eventually blame God and others for their woes. Ecclesiastes 9: 11 states that, “The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favour to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.” And this is very true because sometimes an opportunity can be, but the timing might not be right. Only wisdom can reveal this as you estimate the cost of the opportunity before you launch out. It can also help you sustain the opportunity or vision till the appointed time without rushing to fail.
Meditate on this word and begin to pray. Ask God for the patience to prayerfully consider all things before venturing into them and also for the wisdom that should guide us every step along the way. Always remember that miracles happen to us and around us every day when we believe, but it is those determined to live by the WORD that see success.
Talking about those who apply the wisdom they discover from the Scriptures and take advantage of the grace that produces miracles with each act of faith towards success. They become like trees planted by the waters; their leaves do not wither and whatever they do prospers.
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