INSPIRATIONAL MUSINGS 4 You Have Prayed, You Have Fasted, Now It's Time To Act!

— Mitch Albom, Have a Little Faith.

If you know my story well, then you will know I am a product of God's mercy, favour and grace. In that, as it concerns my businesses and finances, I didn't use to spend much time in the place of prayer before solution comes, this was my story till God decided it was time for me to move on to the next level of His knowledge. I obviously didn't know this until much later.

There came a period everything ceased so to say, every door was shut against my businesses and finances. I prayed, I fasted, I prophesied, I praised, I worshipped, nothing happened. God was simply silent, if you have your means of hearing from God, then you will know when He is silent.

At a time I started grumbling. Later, I begged for His mercy fervently because I felt it had to do with some sin I committed and I was paying for, still nothing happened. Then on a faithful morning during my early brisk walk, the question came:" you have prayed, you have fasted, but have you acted?" It sounded strange initially because I had always worked so I was wondering what action the voice referred to.

Then it occurred to me, I had relied more on His usual grace, miraculous interventions than work in itself. Don't get me wrong, I had always worked but a time came when I decided to change my approach to how I was running my businesses. I had to change my strategy, the outcome of this repositioning required more work and greater efficiency. Unknowingly I was putting in the old level of efforts which was never going to work for the new task ahead of me.

It became obvious that from the things I ask of Him daily, from my plans and projections, prayers alone won't make them happen but work, work and even more work! I needed to be more productive and even more efficient to get answers to those prayers. That was it and that was what Ineeded to understand.

In the process, I remembered the story of Sir Bode Akindele, on how he travelled to 30 countries in 45 days to source for funds when he wanted to buy the brand GILLETTE in 1990.

I remembered the story of Colonel Sanders when he was trying to sell the idea of KFC to investors, how he tried a thousand times before he found someone who believed in his ideas, I remembered several other stories of great entrepreneurs, then I asked myself a question: sales aren't coming through, finances are hard to come by, big deal, how many doors have you knocked on? How many calls have you made? What efforts have you made beyond the usual routine to project your brand?
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I found out I haven't put in fifteen percent of the required work because I have been relying more on miracles. Apostle Paul preached in Asia for years to spread the gospel, he didn't hope for a miracle for the gospel to be heard. He not only preached the gospel

in the face of graved anger and discomfort, heal so worked as a tent maker. Moses didn't hope the Red Sea will be parted from Egypt. He led the Israelites to the point where the miracle happened. Prior to that, he had done even greater work to lead them out of Egypt.

Mighty miracles take place in the lives of very hardworking and prayerful people more than others.

I have prayed this morning before writing this, so you should understand where I am coming from, prayer and fasting didn't write this text, inspiration from God and physical efforts did.

I had written about the system of order in the chapter before this so I won't dwell on it but what people don't seem to understand about miracles and prayers as they work for success in life is that these things don't exist on nothing, work has to be in motion first. It is ridiculous to plant banana but hope and pray that it miraculously turns to pawpaw in between so you can harvest pawpaw eventually. I am sure this example sounds ridiculous to you as well. The efficacy of prayer resides in doing, its effect is much felt when there is a purpose in place. There in lies the reason every human being was born, the reason you and I were born is to fulfil a certain purpose, and there is a need to use the entire gifts/talents God gave you to fulfil this purpose. You have to put them to use, or else you will end up a failure in life. It is imperative to know these things and let them guide your thoughts and actions.

Purpose can only be fulfilled through hard work, determination and prayers in that order. My grandmother used to tell me that work doesn't kill but poverty does. That is why hard work is the fulcrum upon which success pivots. The funny thing about hard work is you need more as you progress. That is why the popular saying"the reward for hard work is more work" continues to be relevant. Anyone who puts in more prayer than work in the pursuit of success is not a realistic person and it won't be long before frustration rips the heart of the concerned individual apart. For you to understand this topic better we need to look into the concept of faith.

There are two definitions of faith. There is a dictionary definition and there is a biblical definition, I wish we discuss as the two definitions relate with this topic. The dictionary definition is: "complete trust or confidence in someone or something" while the biblical definition is similar to the dictionary meaning but it goes a little bit further. According to Hebrews 11:1 "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." This means, the biblical definition of faith is trusting in something you cannot explicitly prove at the time, but you hold on to your conviction because you believe with God all things are possible.

Truly, this is how faith works, but faith is more in doing not hoping. You cannot sit at home all day and be hoping for miracles or a call that will change your life instead of pursuing leads, talking to clients and doing a proper follow up till they buy what you want. Miracles happen but they don't happen every day like many people hope or pray for because the two greatest miracles already happened as I pen this down: "the miracle of sleeping and waking up" and "the breath of fresh air," the two are signs of LIFE and GOOD HEALTH. The two things you need to fulfil purpose eventually in life.

Miracles only happen in line with God's purpose for you which work is an integral part of, please take your time to read through the bible, you will realise that prayers that brought about miracles concerning work are very few. They don't even come to mind now, what the bible talked about concerning work was diligence all through. The bible also hammered on how God hates the slothful. When you pray more than work it simply means you are hoping for a "miracle" for your work to be done, that is corruption, corruption of the body, mind and soul. To achieve anything, you commit it into the hands of God through prayers, and then you work very hard for it. If there are prayers you need badly, they are prayers for direction to be successful at what you have started and the long life to enjoy the fruits of your labour. God bless you.

Chapter end