Occupying through resilience

Happy Monday, my Yielded People! Another week, another chance to occupy. One of the things we must be conscious of is this, we can be excited about the new year, jump around with new diaries, hang new calendars but if nothing changes in our routines, schedules, or how we manage our time and resources, nothing will truly change. We might end up having a 2025 in 2026! God forbid. Today, I want us to talk about occupying through resilience.

Resilience is the ability to recover, bounce back, adapt, and keep moving forward in the face of challenges and setbacks. A resilient person can persevere through difficulties expected to crash their mental or emotional state. It is a muscle of inner strength.

Resilience is not built overnight. You may start off as someone who gives up quickly, waits for others to beg you to show up, or loses interest easily, but through life’s challenges, you gradually learn to stand the test of time. Some people never occupy because they expected their business to make millions in one month, and when it didn’t, they gave up, they weren’t built to stand in the face of attacks and difficulties. This is one of the many reasons why many people have started 500 businesses and still failed. Occupying isn’t easy in marriage either, but many persevere through the everyday challenges of building, growing, and standing firm. You cannot occupy if you cannot master how to bounce back from setbacks.

You get up even when you didn’t make a profit yesterday. No one booked your services, but you still post again. Nobody bought your merchandise, but you’re up early creating marketing strategies. They said no the whole year? Okay, resilience means we rise again and knock again. For all the interviews you didn’t get even one job? No problem, we bounce back and apply again. You’re back on indeed, linked in, sending the cvs out. Cast the net again, you are not the only one who has faced disappointments. If you give up, nobody will know what you could’ve been, where you could’ve been, or with whom you could’ve been.

“Oh, but I’m crumbling.” I understand, maybe not fully since we all take things differently, it can feel too heavy but if you don’t bounce back, nothing will change. You will just be known as one who failed, and I refuse that for you, eh. It takes resilience to not plan to end your life after bleeding for twelve years. She surely got weak. Surely she had days when she wanted to die. Surely she missed being in community with others. Twelve years of stagnation. Twelve years of unanswered questions. Twelve years of pain. Twelve years of spending money with no gain. Twelve years of trying every strategy in the book, yet still resiliently holding on, believing that one day, as she knocked, the door would open.

It’s been five years, yes but there is prophecy over me, and Scripture says we must contend for prophecy. It may not look like I’m the one my apostle declared a word over. It may not look like I’m the one with all the certificates. It may not look like people even care. But if you are resilient, you will break through when you least expect it to. Perez! We will even ask you, how did you breakthrough?!

There are people who always seem to live in stress. Every time you speak to them, they are either giving up or planning to. Always on the edge, always complaining, always comparing themselves with others, until you can almost predict what the call will be about. There is no perseverance and no resilience. Yet what did it take for Jesus to accomplish what He did for us at the cross and restore us to our rightful place as children of God? He endured the first lash, just as painful as the second, the third, and the thirty-ninth. He did not stop halfway. Scripture says, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). He endured! He is resiliently stayed on His course to fulfill prophecy and save us.

When we choose resilience, we are declaring to the devil that we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved. The Israelites complained at almost every stop of their journey, so much so that they appointed a leader to take them back to Egypt. An inability to remain resilient often leads us back to old habits and old slavery, not because bondage is better, but because freedom requires endurance. And so many choose Pharaoh’s whips over the wilderness that leads to liberty, simply because holding on feels harder. Then there’s Samson, he’s in pain, lost everything but in resilience he said

Then Samson called to the Lord, saying, ‘O Lord God, remember me, I pray! Strengthen me, I pray, just once more, O God, that I may with one blow take vengeance on the Philistines for my two eyes.’Judges 16:28 (NKJV)

I know I don’t have eyes anymore but put my hands on the pillars. I know they shaved my head and they are laughing at me but just lead me to the pillars. I know they think they have destroyed me but I will pray again. I know I’m heartbroken by Delilah, a woman l fell in love with and hoped she would love me too, my heart is bleeding but I still have a mouth, let me pray. I know I’m in the worst state, I’m weak and weary but l will speak to my God. Not even heartbreak should make you quit!

I came to tell us in this new week, be resilient. When you fall, rise again. When you get hurt, wear the bandage and move forward. Sometimes you’d need to limp or walk slower than before. When discouragement comes, like David, encourage yourself in the Lord. You kill the panic attacks , you kill the anxiety. You do not have to commit suicide. You do not have to turn to alcohol or drugs. You can hold on until you birth your child, until the promise manifests. Whatever life throws at you, pause, catch your breath, and arise again.

People of God, as we occupy, do business, and invest, let us also learn the ways of resilience. The life of a bed of roses and chocolates is there but it’s not everyday. Sometimes it’s a bed of thorns but you lay there trusting God for a better tomorrow. I love you’se.