Tag: Communication

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The Hard Side of Change Management

Change management is an approach to transition individuals, teams, and organisations to a desired future state. For over three decades, academics, managers, and consultants, realising that transforming organisations is difficult, have avoided  the subject.

My Way or the Highway

Major organisational change is profoundly difficult because the structure, culture, and routines of companies  often reflect’s persistent and difficult-to-remove ways of working, which are resistant to radical change even as the environment of  organisations change.

What started out as a financial buzzword in the early nineties  has become fundamental business practice, with executives recognising the need to keep abreast  with the competition in a rapidly developing corporate new world.

Navigating  change

Globalisation and the constant innovation of technology result in a constantly evolving business environment. There is an ever-increasing need for Change Management Lead’s / Senior Managers who can help organisations successfully navigate change in today’s business environments. The focus of this movement to date has been on how to  partner with organisations to define education, training and communication platforms that help to support the change initiatives and concerns of company employees. The critical aspect is a company’s ability to win the buy-in of their organisation’s employees on the change initiative.

While a project team is important for success, a senior level advisor is invaluable and can work  with an organisations  leadership team to avoid common pitfalls that change management projects often fall into. There are four key areas where an Advisor should act as this resource as follows:

1. Defining A  Strategy  

Executives should start by asking themselves  what exactly needs  changing and why? Organisational change directly affects all departments from entry level employees to senior management and  must be aligned to a  companies  strategy. Too many programs are heavy on the jargon and light on the substance.  Executives are often sold on an idea only to realise as the change initiative begins that they need a different outcome, tool or process to be successful.

In this situation the strategy for change needs to be re-aligned with the organisation and its goals.

An outside senior advisor with a unique perspective of the organisation will  play an important role in helping an executive to explore and shape the strategy they are defining and highlight whether it will truly create the outcomes they desire. This upfront partnership can save money  on the back end of a project, by avoiding costly re-scoping of initiatives.This relationship  between senior advisor and executive should therefore begin as early as possible in the process.

2. Coalition Building

Its important to give  people multiple opportunities to share concerns, ask questions, and offer ideas  and to make following up with answers and updates a top priority.  Executives must reach out across their functional work streams to build a large cohesive team to support the project once the correct strategy has been set and the urgency for the project has been established. A good senior advisor will be able to guide an executive though these interactions.

As a senior change management professional, it is important that you help leaders of the organisation craft the correct message. While leaders often know what it is they want and see the urgency for themselves, the outside view that a coach provides can support the development of a team around the initiative and  help to navigate the strategic and political interests in linking the change to the interest of multiple team members.

The more people are involved in the process, the fewer will  be acting as internal saboteurs.

Communication Is Key to Successful Change Management

3. Communication

Don’t confuse process visioning, planning and endless powerpoint presentations with communication.  

Change is uncomfortable, and adapting to change is messy. A  Gantt chart can not capture  the  hard side of  change management. Why? Because tasks are easy to list, but behaviour and long-held habits are not easy to change. Gather outside information, solicit perspectives, and adapt the approaches for your organisation and group.

The importance of communication within an organisation around the change cannot be underestimated.     Executives often fall short on communication in two main  areas, not communicating the right message and not communicating it frequently enough across an  organisation. It is often thought that everyone else in the organisation is on board and understands the change, however, the  reality for an executive  is not the reality for another worker who may have lost a job because of a well intended change initiative.  A senior advisor can apply consistent pressure to the leader of the change around the need for communication and its messaging.

Quantity Is Fine, but Quality and Consistency Are Crucial

4. Share  Relevant  Information Quickly

Most CEOs and managers are quoted as saying, “You can’t communicate too much,” Part of the communication will be the support the urgency in messaging.     “My way or the highway”  is often used, but is not an effective communication strategy.     Senior Advisors can work with executives to tailor their message to each area of the organisation in order to define content that is important to them.

A study by  Towers Watson  shows that “only two-thirds (68%) of senior managers say they are getting the message about the reasons behind major organisational decisions. Below the senior management level, the message dwindles further  to  (53%) of middle managers and 40% of first-line supervisors understanding  reasons behind major organisational  change.

The forwarding and cascading of information does not work as  consistent communication around the change will be necessary at all levels of the organisation using a variety of communication pathways and vehicles.  As a trusted advisor it is important to encourage executives to lead by example in both their messaging and communication of the change  agenda.

Only 25% of Change Management Initiatives Are Successful over the Long Term

Maintaining The Change

Many leaders and managers underestimate the length of time required by a change cycle. It is paramount  that as the  change effort reaches its completion that  leaders of the change recognise that the process does not end there.   The role of a Senior Advisor will be to guide them to the idea that work must be undertaken  to maintain the change over time. Maintaining change does not mean that an executive must own the initiative  forever, just that they take the necessary steps to ensure that change has a lasting impact by integrating the change into the corporate culture and measuring the benefits  and highlighting areas for future improvements.

The outside unbiased view is  that a Change Management Lead is crucial to the success of a change management program.

This article  provides food for thought rather than counsel specifically designed to meet the needs of your organisation or situation.  Please use it mindfully.

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Project Manager or Scapegoat?

You Need to Stop Pointing That Finger

Big Project Failures Claim Their Victims in Spectacular Fashion

You’ve just been assigned a high visibility failing project  and  you’re working round-the-clock to get the work to the client on time, despite the fact that the job bears barely any resemblance to the project  you initially discussed. The  scope keeps creeping, the risk  and issue alerts are coming in thick and fast, the project is already  two months  past the original deadline, the clients are getting antsy even though they’re yet to provide you with various key pieces of information in order to baseline the project.  Is this your chance to shine  and showcase your skills?

If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, You Will Probably End up Somewhere Else – Laurence J. Peter

If you manage to turn the project around and the project is successful, you will attract many fathers. However, if the project fails, you will probibly be  offered up as the  sacrificial lamb (scapegoat),  there is absolutely no way around it.  A  high percentage of projects fail to deliver useful results, that’s a  fact.

Project managers are  regularly blamed for schedule delays and cost overruns for projects they inherit by no fault of there own, however, in most cases, the fault for such issues rarely lies with just one person.

Sufficient data has been gathered to indicate that blockers such as unsupportive  management, senior sponsorship or low  resource availability are as much to blame for project failure as ineffective stakeholder management or poor communication.

Capture  all decisions

The only way to protect yourself is to ensure that you capture all decisions made in the project. In most cases  many of these decisions  will have been made by people above you. While you can influence decisions made by people under you. Get into the  habit  of building a dashboard early in the project and updating it each week with actuals.  Also consider using a  standard repeatable technique to analyse the health of your project.

Constrained resources

If you are in a project where resources are constrained, clearly outline the resources that you require to deliver the project in terms of time, scope, budget, risk  and  quality. If resources are pulled from your project, clearly articulate the affect of that in delivery terms and measure that to time delayed or cost added.

Risk and issues register

Operate  a strong risk and issue register,  ensure  it is both visible  and assessable so  your team can  actively participate in updating it.

Stop  the project

Always remember, cancelling the project is not always a failure. There can be many reasons why the project may no longer be desirable now. If you have done your job well, you can be really successful by ensuring a project does not continue to meander along, wasting time and money when there is no possibility of completing the project.

Organisational change management

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said when there are organisation change management issues.   While there are a  few project managers who feel their jurisdiction ends at the triple constraint, most now  understand the need to achieve the expected benefits from their projects.

So when is it fair to blame a project manager for poor implementation of a  project’s deliverables,  this is assuming that they were employed at the beginning of the project?

  1. If they didn’t perform good  stakeholder analysis during the project initiation stage as well as at regular intervals.
  2. If they turned a blind eye and deaf ear to factors that could impact value achievement
  3. If they didn’t insist on a clear communication strategy and progressive information sharing with relevant  stakeholder groups.
  4. If they didn’t engage influencers from key stakeholder groups throughout the project lifecycle.
  5. If the organisation management deliverables were not built into the project’s scope definition and work breakdown structure.

Assuming the project manager was appointed at the start of the project and had undertaken  all of the above, what are invalid reasons to blame the project manager  if the project failed?

  1. A lack of timely resource availability or commitment by the organisation
  2. Directives to the project manager to not engage certain stakeholder communities
  3. Ignorance by senior sponsors to management risks raised by the project team
  4. A management decision  that is too bitter a pill to swallow in spite of how much it has been sugar coated

Have any comments or stories that could help to expand this article?

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43 Great Quotes To Inspire You To Be a Better Christian Leader

Anyone who has responsibility for the work of others understands the unique challenges that come with managing people.

Over the years, various thought leaders have come up with pearls of wisdom in the form of quotations that when given some thought, have a lot to teach us.  Sometimes a simple quote is just the thing to lift our spirits, to make us smile or to give us the energy to keep going when we’re feeling low.

Here are 43 such quotes to make us better Christian leaders.

  1. “The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.” –  Unknown
  2. “In most cases being a good boss means hiring talented people and then getting out of their way.” –  Unknown
  3. “The good news is, God has provided us with a LifeBook to help us – the Bible.” –  Unknown
  4. “Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul.” –  John Maxwell
  5. “There’s only two things you can start without a plan: a riot and a family, for everything else you need a plan.” –  Unknown
  6. “Rejection is an opportunity for your selection.” –  Unknown
  7. “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” –  John Maxwell
  8. “Leadership is getting people to work for you when they are not obligated.” –  Fred Price
  9. “Running a project without a work breakdown structure is like going to a strange land without a roadmap” – J Phillips
  10. “You don’t have to hold a position in order to be a leader.” –  Henry Ford”
  11. “Have a good plan, Execute it violently, Do it today” – General Douglas McArthur
  12. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that is has taken place.” –  Unknown
  13. “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”  –  Winston Churchill
  14. “A project without a critical path is like a ship without a rudder.” – D. Meyer
  15. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams
  16. “What’s measured improves.” –  Unknown
  17. “A goal without a plan is just a wish.” –  Antoine de Saint Exupry 1900-1944, French writer and aviator
  18. “If it is not documented, it doesn’t exist. As long as information is retained in someone’s head, it is vulnerable to loss.” –  Unknown
  19. “It must be considered that there is nothing more difficult to carry out nor more doubtful of success nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things.”  –  Machiavelli 1446-1507, Italian statesman and philosopher
  20.  “No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra.” –  Unknown
  21. “Luck is for the ill-prepared.” –  Unknown
  22. “Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I may remember, involve me and I’ll understand.”  –  Chinese Proverb
  23. “Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is  coordinating the talents  of those who work for us and pointing them towards a certain goal.” –Unknown
  24. “PMs are the most creative pros in the world; we have to figure out everything that could go wrong before it does.” – Fredrik Haren
  25. “Why do so many professionals say they are project managing when what they are actually doing is firefighting?” –Unknown
  26. “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between, the leader is a servant.”  –Unknown
  27. “Ensure your documentation is short and sharp and make much more use of people-to-people communication.” –Unknown
  28. “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” –  Henry Ford
  29. “Leadership offers an opportunity to make a difference in someone’s life, no matter what the project.” –  Bill Owens
  30. “Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.” –  John C. Maxwell
  31. “Leaders have two characteristics: first they are going somewhere, and second they are able to persuade other people to go with them.” –  John Maxwell
  32. “The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.” – Kenneth Blanchard
  33. “The manager asks how and when; the leader asks what and why.” – Warren Bennis
  34. “The best example of leadership is leadership by example.” –  Jerry McClain
  35. If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” –  John Quincy Adams
  36. “The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.” –  John Stott
  37. “We can be tired, weary and emotionally distraught, but after spending time alone with God, we find that He injects into our bodies energy, power and strength.” –  Charles F. Stanley
  38. “Jesus said, “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.” –  Mark 10:45
  39. “We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations.” –Unknown
  40. “Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” –  Mother Teresa
  41. “The greater your knowledge of the goodness and grace of God on your life, the more likely you are to praise Him in the storm.” –  Matt Chandler
  42. “Continuous effort  – not strength or intelligence — is the key to unlocking our potential” –  Winston Churchill
  43. “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” –  John Piper

If you know a great quote or scripture that will inspire others to lead their churches better, please feel free to share it in the comments below.

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7 Signs that Suggest You Should Step Away from Managing the Church Project

Signs That You Aren't Cut-Out To Be A Project Manager

The lack of project management training or experience of many Christian leaders can be an enormous stress factor for them. Whilst natural organizational ability is enormously helpful, in itself it is no guarantee of any project being both successful and low stress.

As a Project Manager, you will need to manage every aspect of the project from start to finish, working on a series of pre-determined goals and objectives.  Not everyone is cut out to be a Project Manager.  It’s not even necessarily a highly desirable job.   You get a lot of visibility, but not necessarily a lot of recognition, unless the project is very successful and highly visible. As such project management is  not  for the faint-hearted.

Although specific responsibilities vary from industry to industry, the role of a Project Manager will generally include the following:

  • Defining the project
  • Scheduling
  • Budgeting
  • Risk assessing
  • Project control
  • Providing direction and support to the team
  • Quality checking
  • Reporting progress, problems, and solutions
  • Assessing results of the project
  • Closing down the project
  • Managing and working with multiple stakeholders

When it comes to project managing, it is important to have certain skills to be the most effective Project Manager you can be. Some people have these skills and others do not. Here’s our list of indicators that you may not be well suited to be a Project Manager in no particular order:

1. You’re a poor communicator

More than 50% of a Project Managers time is spent on some aspect of communication.  The majority of conflicts in a team involve problems in communication, either as a cause or an effect. A lack of understanding can result from ineffective communication and can then lead to further communication issues. Communication skills are ranked first among a job candidate’s ‘must have’ skills and qualities according to a 2010 survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).

Poor communicators will often believe that giving people facts about a situation will be sufficient to influence them into following a particular course of action. However as Richard Nixon said,

“People Are Persuaded by Reason, but Moved by Emotion; The Leader Must Both Persuade Them and Move Them.”

Avoiding communication is a common occurrence when a difficult conversation is anticipated. Project Managers  with low confidence will tend to ignore opportunities to pass on difficult messages with the result that the communication vacuum only serves to increase the size of the problem in the team. The old adage that “no news is good news” doesn’t usually apply in such circumstances as the  team  on the receiving end of the silence will fill the void with their own perceptions, doubts, and fears.

Poor Project Managers  also  tend to react emotionally and erratically when communicating with the team which can make it difficult for the team  on the receiving end to anticipate how the communication will progress. Lack of honesty and not sharing how you really feel can also lead to a lack of trust in the  team.

2. You don’t work well with people

Good Project Managers make an effort to spend a lot of time with clients, stakeholders, and team members.  If you don’t like working within a team and prefer to stay in one location and focus on your own work, you probably don’t have the collaborative ability to be a good Project Manager.  While one person working alone can have an impact, your role as a leader is to guide your team to accomplish bigger goals than they could achieve on their own.

A Great Person Attracts Great People and Knows How to Hold Them Together — Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

3. You don’t like to manage people

You don’t have much of a project if you’re the only resource. If you want to be a good project manager, you need to be able to manage people well. You will probably never have a  100% responsibility for people, but you will need to show leadership, hold them accountable, manage conflict, etc. Some project managers say they could do a much better job if they did not have to deal with people. If that’s how you feel, project management is probably not for you.

Earn Your Leadership Every Day – Michael Jordan

4. You don’t like to document things or follow processes

Many aspects of project management requires documenting things, including status reporting, communication plans, scope changes, and project plans.  A Lack of process  increases the risk that tasks related to the project will fall through the cracks, that projects will have to be re-worked, and ultimately that a project won’t be completed on time or on budget. A good project manager needs to be effective at process and information management.

The Art of Leadership Is Saying No, Not Saying Yes. It Is Very Easy to Say Yes —  Tony Blair

5. You cannot tell the client “no”

Clients aren’t the same as customers. Sometimes they need to be guided in the right direction. This is your job.  Clients who change project requirements all the time or who demand unreasonable working hours need to be managed.

A Leader is One who Knows the Way, Goes the way, and Shows the way — John Maxwell

6. You don’t like to  plan and  are not organised

The project managers job is to organise everyone in the team. If you cannot plan, you can hardly be an effective leader.  When a client gives you a project, if your first inclination  is start working, you probably don’t have a project management mindset.  The Project Managers overall task is to keep the project on budget and on target. Sticking to deadlines is very important.

The Key to Successful Leadership Today is Influence, Not Authority — Kenneth Blanchard

7. You Micromanage the team

Babysitting the team.  It’s very common for poor Project Managers to treat their job like an enforcer, policing the project team for progress and updates.

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Manage Your Project More Effectively Now

There are a few who get project management right from the outset, but for many it’s a minefield. In theory, project management seems easy, but it’s not as straightforward as it seems. If you’re like the majority of people, you follow what seems like a simple project management process. You start by setting your budget, you choose the right people to join the team, and hope the project gets completed without too many hitches along the way.

But, realistically speaking, project management is nothing like this – it’s hardly ever so straightforward. Mistakes are made. You might choose the wrong people to complete the project. Your team might have no idea what’s expected of them or what the project goals are, or in some cases they might even receive conflicting information, which puts the whole project in jeopardy. Sometimes the scope of the project changes, and because of everything else that’s going on, your team is unable to fulfill the requirements and meet the project deadlines.

It happens, and you’ve got to be prepared for any situation while working together towards the common goal – successfully completing the project.  

Don’t throw in the towel just yet. It might seem daunting, but there are few surefire tricks of the trade which businesses and project managers can implement to better their chances of successfully completing a project on time and within budget.

1. Know the Project Details Well

Before starting, you need to create a thorough project scope that outlines every single thing. This then needs to be approved by every stakeholder involved.

Your scope needs to have as much detail as possible such as the short-term milestones, deliverable dates, and a budget outline. It makes sense really. The more detail it includes will improve your odds when it comes to completing the project successfully.

What’s more, you’ll also improve your relationship with your client throughout the whole project process from the beginning right through to the end. Of course every project will encounter a few changes along the way – this is the norm, but having a detailed plan will help you manage your client better when something is off course.

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Choose your Project Team Members and Size Wisely

2. Choose your Project Team Members and Size Wisely

Naturally, if you want your project to be a winner, you need the right people for the job, which includes having the right project manager on board. Keep your team as small as possible – size does matter; so don’t let anyone else tell you otherwise.

The smaller the team, the better the communication. It also eases the stress and takes the pressure off the project manager. With a smaller team made up of the right people, the project manager will be able to organise their group without losing sight of all the details and work that’s needed doing. So, if you really want to have an effective project, limit your group’s size and only use those people and their skills that can benefit the project.

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3. Highlight your Expectations from the Outset

You need to outline what you expect and what the client expects, which includes all the milestones, from the very beginning. Setting more milestones more frequently will allow you to follow the project’s progress more effectively. This way you’ll be able to jump on things quickly when they begin to go off scope, allowing you and your team to remain on target and on time.

Setting frequent milestones in a project will also allow you to review your spending and the investment thus far, which in turn will help you stay within the budget.

Milestones remove any ambiguity. They allow people to stay on target and there’s less risk of derailing the project.

Milestone setting should be a team effort. Everyone should be on board, so there won’t be any excuses later on down the line.

4. Does your Team Know what They’re Doing?  

It may sound like a given, but it’s really important to be crystal clear from the beginning regarding people’s roles in the project. In other words, you need to highlight who is responsible for what, and what their deadline or deadlines are.

Things can get complicated with many people working on the same task. Sometimes things get misinterpreted or lost in translation. Avoid anyone being confused by clearly stating who should do what right from start, and make sure you enforce accountability.

You don’t need to worry about manually managing such tasks, as there are plenty of easy-to-use online task management programmes that can do this for you, so embrace technology and ease your pressure.

You may think it’s a waste of time spelling it all out, but this ensures that the full scope of the project is understood, people are clear of their role and individual and collaborative timelines. This is the key to keeping people on task and motivated.

5. Stop Micromanaging

It’s important to constantly touch base with your team members. However, there’s a fine line between supporting them and breathing down their necks. Give them space instead of micromanaging. Empower your team, trust them, and you’ll get their best work.

6. Use a Reliable System to Manage the Project

Communication is key. Most people rely on emailing, but when it comes to managing a big project with a number of different people working on it, this can hinder the project’s progress. Constantly referring back to old emails and previous correspondence is only going to waste precious time. Use software that keeps everything in one place from communication to any project information and updates. This will save you and your team a lot of time and money.

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Motivate your Team

7. Motivate your Team

Everyone works better with positive reinforcement. Set milestones and reward when they’re reached. Your milestones will keep all people on track. Celebrate milestones together, but be sure to also recognise those who can’t meet them.

8. Frequent Short Meets to Stay on Track

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It’s a project with many people collaborating, so holding regular meetings is a must. This is the only way to ensure that everyone and the project are on track. But you need to keep it short and sweet. Don’t meet for the sake of meeting. Have an agenda and stick to it. If you’re doing your project virtually, it’s even more important to touch base on a regular basis, so keep those communication lines open.

People do tend to go on at times when given the floor, so give everyone a set time to speak and make sure you all stick to it.

9. Allow Time for Change

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No project ever runs 100% smoothly and specifications do change along the way. So to avoid the unnecessary stress and running around frantically, do some forward thinking, and set aside a certain amount of time for any changes in the scope – you’ll thank yourself for doing so in the end!

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How To Handle The Uncertainties of Life

How To Handle The Uncertainties of Life

The uncertainties of life are things beyond our control and knowledge. We cannot predict the outcome. Maybe we can do little to influence it. These can keep us awake at night. Not only do they bother us all night long, they are ghosts that troll us during the day. We lose focus. We are unable to connect with people around us because these uncertainties have taken hold of our mind and heart.

“Is my job secure?” “Do people approve of what I’ve done?” How can we handle these kinds of uncertainties? How do we fruitfully manage them?

1. Trust the love of God.

At times, failings and incapability cause other people to lose love and confidence in us. Friends shy away. Relationships end because you lost your job or you made a complete fool of yourself in public. But God is not repulsed by any of that. He loves us passionately. He loves us the same, whether we do well or not. Lamentations 3:22 says God’s love is stedfast. It never stops. His love never wavers. His love is forever loyal.

Trusting the love of God allows us to remain secure in the middle of uncertainties. God loves us. He will work things out for our good (Romans 8:28).

2. Trust the wisdom of God.

That we do not know something can be very debilitating. We are unable to proceed because we don’t know what’s ahead. Decisions are hard to make because we are banking on predicted outcomes before we even take the plunge. We don’t want to act aimlessly. We don’t want to invest efforts and emotions into something or someone when there is no promise of fruit.

It is in these times that the follower of God needs to trust the wisdom of God. Keep holding on to Him and the truths and promises of His Word. Maintain a life guided by the principles of His Word. Joshua 1:8 assures that those who live by the wisdom of His Word will be prosperous and have good success in his life. Although this may be material in nature, it is not solely so. The Hebrew root word translated as prosperous carries the meaning of “advancement” while the root translated as success carries the meaning of “to understand, to gain insight”. This means Scriptures are never dated or obsolete. This means dedication to God’s Word leads to advancement and understanding in life. This means that in God’s Word you find what you need for right and fruitful living.

Best-selling books sold on shelves today talk about how to be successful in dealing with people. People buy pricy self-help books and attend expensive seminars to hear life coaches encouraging them towards positive and successful living. But in the very pages of God’s Word are all the tools we need to live positive in this negative world. In His Word are principles for right communication and relationships with the people around us.

Now, in immersing yourself with the guidance of His Words, uncertainties will still present themselves. It is in these moments that you need to trust the wisdom of an all-knowing God who plans good things for you, never evil. When you doubt and worry about the things He allows to happen in your life, seek assurance and comfort from His Word. Never let the enemy sow lies. God promises to never abandon us. (Hebrews 13:5) So at all times, run to God and not away from Him.

 

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