By Dayo Emmanuel

Philippians 2:13

“It is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.”

The International Standard Version reads:

“For it is God who is producing in you both the desire and the ability to do what pleases Him.”

As we enter into a new week, we often have a lot of things on our mind to accomplish during the week.

Of course many of such things are carry overs from previous week(s) and we often want to clear them as new tasks join midway.

Sometimes God drops new ideas for us to process while sometimes He refuses to ‘bother’ us with new ideas because we did nothing about the last one He dropped.

Remember our text, it is God who is at work in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure. We are created to give Him pleasure. You may say ‘but I’m not a pastor, I’m not an editor, etc’ but know that whatever profession and whatever level He has put us per time, He wants to derive that pleasure He deserves.

We are in the media profession and He wants His pleasure there. He wants our productivity each day and that’s the reason He drops things to accomplish in our hearts.

Lets see what may help in accomplishing our weekly/daily tasks that can bring pleasure to God.

1. Keep a to-do list.

Like I mentioned earlier, sometimes we wake up with so many tasks and by midday we get confused just because we lack direction. Proverbs 16:3 admonishes us to “Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.”
Coming up with a to-do-list may help here.

2. Prioritize your to-do list using Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the United States of America developed that and it works effectively. It enables one to take care of the most urgent items before going for the less important ones, making one a master of scheduling and project planning. It also helps to tackle the hardest tasks at one’s peak time. We must know our peak time, our most productive period of the day.

Set yourself time-bound goals

Setting time-bound goals is also a way out sometimes. This helps to put some things in perspective and helps to avoid missing important deadlines.

Appointing Accountability partners/PAs

Sometimes we may involve a third party; a colleague, younger colleague or an intern to serve as reminders. We may tell them about a project we’re working on and apart from asking for assistance on tasks, we can tell them to help ensure we complete some tasks by asking how far we’ve gone on such tasks.

Prayer points

1. Father in the name of Jesus, help me to have clear thoughts on my tasks this week.

2. Lord, cause my operations this week to give you glory and pleasure in the name of Jesus.

3. Lord, send helpers to me who will support me with information to accomplish my task this week and make me a support to others to accomplish their own tasks in the name of Jesus.

4. Lord, bless every member of Journalists For Christ this week, give us specific testimonies on our job, supply our needs and improve our health so we could carry on with our tasks in the name of Jesus.

5. Father by the time the week shall end, let me look back to give you glory in the name of Jesus.

Have a great week.