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Daniel’s Excellent Spirit

The Bible teaches us that Daniel excelled because he had an excellent spirit in him. This is undoubtedly speaking about his animating energy. This excellent spirit is his attitude, his character, and how he conducts himself.

“Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm”.

We can have this same excellent spirit and generate similar results to Daniel. We may never be a high-ranking and powerful official in the land, but we will be infinitely more successful if we have excellent spirits.

Attitude

A good attitude leads to success. This is where it begins. Attitude influences everything we do, but can also be shifted in a moment. Have you ever “snapped out” of a bad mood almost instantly? If you have, then you know it can be done. Knowing something can be done is incredibly valuable. Now all we have to do is figure out how to do it.

Whatever you do, attempt to shift your thinking to an optimistic mentality. Approach every task as if you can do it. Approach every obstacle as if you could crush it. Maybe you can and maybe you can’t, but your optimistic attitude will propel you farther than a pessimistic attitude will.

Aura

Be enjoyable to be around. No one wants to be around a Loser who makes everything around him worse. When you enter a room, make a concerted effort to leave it better than you found it. Give the compliment. Start the conversation. Focus on optimistic outcomes.

Look Beyond Obstacles

Don’t let the struggles of the present distract you from what you can accomplish. We mistakenly magnify our struggles, whine about them, and make them much bigger than they should be. But nothing is ever that difficult in the modern world. To think it gives external events more power than they deserve and drains us of our strength. Instead, train your mind to look beyond the moment and into the future.

Continual Effort

Focus on the long term. Learn to be patient with and love the process. Deliver the same excellent results day after day and you will be rewarded in the material world. But beyond that, you will gain confidence that you didn’t have before. That sense of value in yourself is worth its weight in gold.

Professional Efforts

Notice that Daniel became a success in the physical world. This physical success was due in no small part to his spiritual success. Do not let people discourage you from pursuing excellence in your earthly life. We are built to do work with all our might and truly attempt to achieve. It is only those people who want to justify their lack of success who look for moral reasons to avoid work and training.

Recognition

Daniel’s efforts and successes made the king take note of him. When you do work to the best of your ability, eventually, the best may take note of you. It’s not guaranteed, but you are more likely to be noticed if you are excellent and have an excellent spirit than if you are mediocre in work or attitude.

Competition

The workers around Daniel were jealous of him. This is the normal course of events that occurs when you become more and more successful. Your success is a spotlight on the failures and missed opportunities of others around you.

Humility

Daniel’s success did not make him arrogant. He kept it in perspective. Always placing spiritual things above physical things in a rank of importance. This is critical to remember that in all this success, we must prevent success from becoming an ideal we worship.

Copy these traits of Daniel and become more successful

Women Take Your Strength

Proverbs 31:3 – “Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings”

What is the Bible talking about when it mentions “giving your strength to women”? The text is almost certainly talking about sexual discipline. Many ancient texts throughout history have taught the importance of controlling one’s sexual drive. As the Bible is the true authority for life, it is even more impactful when a similar teaching is found in the scriptures.

The lesson of Proverbs 31:3 is quite clear: a man is supposed to control his sexual drive.

The Bible teaches that uncontrolled sexual drive leads to a depletion of strength.

Physical strength
Mental strength
Emotional strength
Spiritual strength
Strength of will

All of these are damaged when men mindlessly engage in sex or sex substitutes.

This is what the Bible means by “do not give you strength to women”.

We know what to do.

We are told to control our sexual drive.

We are taught that uncontrolled sexual drive depletes our strength. What are some quick tactics for doing it?

The first step is to maintain a controlled environment. The environment contains triggers that lead to craving which leads to failure. The best way to control yourself is to control your environment. Environmental control is 80% of discipline. Get out of those situations that would lead to temptation:

Parties
Late night one-on-one interactions with women
Late night on the computer.

Be very selective about the information and media you consume. If you want to walk into a cesspool of lust, log into your social media feed.

You have to maintain control of what goes into your mind. If you feed your mind lust-producing entertainment, you will make your struggle ten times harder. The sexual urges will be more powerful and will surface more often. You have to cut off the supply at the root. Prevent your mind from being able to generate those cravings in the first place.

Next, work to fix the parts of your life that are lacking. Uncontrolled sexual drive is often the result of a lack of purpose and other emotional problems.

Men do not use sex because they want sex. They use it to numb negative feelings in other avenues of their life. Negative feelings exist because we are doing something that is in opposition to our nature.

If you begin to work on this lack of purpose, the problem of compulsive sexual urges will begin to resolve naturally. This is because many men use sex and pornography as a way to numb emotional pains. These emotional pains are often the result of problems with a man’s day-to-day life.

Identify the problems in your daily life.

Where are the areas of life that are leaving you unsatisfied?
What are you unhappy with in your life?
And What is within your power to fix [almost everything]?
And What are you going to do to fix it?

Many men find that with increased purpose through meaningful work, family, the church, and marriage they can take the high ground against sexual temptation.

Not all of these will be motivating for everyone. For example, I can tell you the church itself does not motivate me to be sexually disciplined. I don’t draw much strength from my local church – which I understand is a problem, but it is a reality at the moment.

Whatever you can find to draw strength from, use it. Use everything in your arsenal.

Nothing is off-limits.

Start with these tactics and begin to go to war against lust.

Drinking Damages Justice

The NKJV quote of Proverbs 31:4-5 is: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.”

Key lessons from Proverbs 31:4-5:

1. Abstaining from Alcohol

The text advises kings and princes to avoid wine and intoxicating drinks. This applies not only to people in high-ranking positions but also to people who rule their own lives. We are all kings over our own lives. We make decisions that impact our immediate and future success.

The same applies when we make decisions for our families. We have to be careful to ensure that our minds are sharp, and in the best possible condition possible or we risk making poor decisions.

Alcohol is one of many ways we blunt the strength of our minds. If you want a guaranteed way to perform worse, think slower, make worse decisions, and damage your mind, choose alcohol. It is great for all those outcomes.

2. Maintaining Mental Clarity

In this text, drinking is linked to the risk of forgetting the law. The lesson is clear, a man’s mental facilities are damaged by using alcohol. I don’t think this is a surprise to anyone. Did anyone think that a person’s mental abilities are improved by drinking alcohol? Better decisions are made with a clear mind. Keep your mind clear.

Otherwise, you may forget the law and cause suffering for those around you.

3. Preserving Justice

Sobriety is crucial for leaders to ensure just decisions, safeguarding the rights of the afflicted. The negative effects of alcohol are widespread. This teaching demonstrates that society as a whole can be negatively impacted when a ruler makes poor decisions.

We’ve seen the effects of when immoral men rule in positions of power. It’s also the case that many times they are using drugs to keep them focused and driven and alcohol to keep them relaxed. Their foundation of immorality prevents them from making just decisions at every stage of Justice.

4. Responsibility of Rulers

This passage is a teaching for rulers to maintain sobriety. They have a unique responsibility to keep their minds clear when making legal decisions so that justice within a nation is preserved. When a ruler’s mind is unclear, those he rules over suffer. The ruler carries a heavy responsibility to make the best decisions possible for those around him. And good decision-making is the result of clear minds.

5. Avoiding Moral Pitfalls

Moral problems arise when those in positions of power dilute their mind through the use of alcohol. There is no benefit to a leader who cannot think clearly. At that point, you would be better off having no leader than having a drunk leader. Many modern leaders have difficulty thinking clearly as it is! There is no need to worsen the problem by adding alcohol.

6. Focus on Legal Principles

Leaders are meant to concentrate on legal matters and think clearly with their rational minds. This demands that their minds be clear and unaffected by intoxicating compounds like alcohol. So much rests on the mind of a leader. The leader then has the responsibility to keep that mind in perfect working order and firing on all cylinders.

7. Recognition of Vulnerability

Leaders are vulnerable to corruption and indulgence. With high-pressure work comes the need for ways to relieve that pressure. Many leaders and modern executives in the world turn to depressants like alcohol. While they use these compounds to relax and destress, they end up adding to the stress in life because they generation so many poor decisions of their own.

8. Prioritizing Societal Health

The passage implies that leaders must prioritize the greater good of the afflicted over personal indulgences. Something bigger than the leader is at stake. The system of justice within the societal system hangs in the balance of a leader’s clarity of thought.

9. Wisdom

Leaders are urged to use wisdom in their choices, recognizing the potential impact on the administration of justice. A man can’t be wise while under the influence of a compound. Wisdom demands complete presence of mind.

The principle of this passage is clear – kings and princes don’t drink. And if it’s good enough for kings and princes to be sober, it’s good enough for us as kings and princes over our own lives and individual family units.

Pride Leads to Shame

Proverbs 11:2 (NKJV)

“When pride comes, then comes shame; but with the humble is wisdom.“

Lessons from Proverbs 11:2

1. The Consequence of Pride

When we are arrogant, people look for us to fall. They are waiting for it. And they will be excited by our failure. The inevitable result of pride is that we tumble from the tower of pride we created. It comes as surely as night follows day.

It may not come today or tomorrow, but eventually, we will reap the results of our pride. And when we elevate ourselves through pride, we have nowhere to go but down. This is why the Proverb is a universal truth – because when we elevate ourselves, there is only one direction to go from there – down.

2. The Path to Wisdom

The gateway to wisdom is humility. Through humility, we recognize that we don’t know anything and have much to learn. Without that humility, we prevent learning from ever taking place. And if we never learn, we ensure that failure is coming soon.

If we think we know something, we prevent learning. You cannot teach the person who thinks they already know everything. Pride gets in the way of knowledge and understanding.

3. Humility is a Virtue

This passage shows that humility is a powerful, commendable character trait. It makes a person look better at his surroundings. The Proverb states that humility leads to wisdom. Humility is the bedrock of all skill acquisition.

4. Self-Reflection

If humility leads to wisdom, we need to self-reflect and ensure we are humble. Arrogance prevents the full actualization of who we are.

We cannot fix character flaws if we are not aware of them.

5. The Threat of Shame

Unchecked pride leads to shame. The Bible contains threats of punishment for evil behavior. Pride is no exception. There are consequences to behavior that God labels as sin. Even practical consequences in the physical world.

There is nothing wrong with shame. Worldly people are scared of shame. They will accuse you of fat shaming or something along those lines. But the reality is that shame is an emotion that causes us to take action. We want to avoid negative emotions. So if we want to avoid the emotion of shame, we simply avoid the pride that creates the shame.

6. Wisdom’s Connection to Humility

There is an intrinsic link between wisdom and a humble disposition. There is no way around this. Again, arrogance prevents learning. Pride prevents people from learning anything. The mind refuses to learn what it thinks it already knows. And the arrogant person thinks he knows everything.

7. Learning from Mistakes

If you find yourself making a mistake because of pride or because pride prevented you from learning what you needed to learn, you have the opportunity to self-correct. you can learn the lesson you should have learned and press on without the pride to weigh you down. But it will take a serious mistake to break up the monopoly that pride has on the learning mind.

8. Creating Humility

We need to make intentional efforts to cultivate and maintain a humble mindset. Like every positive character trait, we have to invest concentrated effort into developing that trait. It will not develop itself. We have to build it and then maintain it over time. It will not sustain itself.

9. Continual Pursuit of Wisdom

This passage encourages a lifelong commitment to seeking and applying wisdom through humility. Without continually developing the individual level of humility, we can never hope to improve ourselves or develop any appreciable level of wisdom.

Wise Counsel – Proverbs 11:14

“Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.”

Lessons from Proverbs 11:14

1. The Critical Role of Counsel

Wise decision-making is difficult without counsel from wise individuals. Counsel is the ability to gather information from multiple perspectives of people who are pursuing the same desired outcome. Whether it is generals waging war or business executives on the war lines of business, multiple perspectives are critical to prevent one person from missing critical information when making a decision.

The lesson is clear, get as many perspectives as you can before making a final decision – but don’t use information gathering as an excuse to procrastinate action.

2. Avoiding Pitfalls

The negative outcomes of a lack of counsel are obvious. From lost revenues to lost wars to tragic mistakes in our personal lives, we make poor choices when we only rely on our minds to make decisions.

The Biblical text teaches that to prevent unfortunate outcome outcomes, we need counsel. We need wise input from wise men to make wise decisions.

3. Multiple Perspectives

Whenever we are taking counsel from people, we need to ensure we are taking a broad view of the information at hand. The more perspectives we can gather the better. And the wiser those perspectives are the better. Don’t limit yourself to a small amount of information. Gather as much intelligence as you can before deciding anything.

Gather this intelligence as rapidly as you can so you don’t delay taking action.

4. Community Strength

There is power found in collective wisdom. Though not everyone is wise, and not every opinion should be considered, there is still benefit to gathering the wisest men among you to take counsel of them. If the wisdom from one individual can be valuable, imagine that wisdom compounded across multiple individuals with all of their life experiences and wisdom. You combine all of those perspectives and you have wise counsel.

5. Decision-Making Due Diligence

We need a rational approach to decision-making, to make the best decisions possible. Otherwise, we run the risk of making decisions before we’re ready or making poor decisions in general. And this is what most people do, they rush into decisions without gathering full information, and because of this, they make poor decisions.

Taking counsel for multiple men speeds up the process. You now need much less time to gather information because each man contributes a thinking brain [hopefully]. This means each person can think through the situation on his own, think through unique situations, and problem-solve more rapidly. Each man can also run the problem through his personal experience and look for patterns.

Much of wisdom is pattern recognition.

6. Risk Mitigation

We cannot mitigate risk in everything. Reducing risk is not always an option. However, we can reduce risk by taking the collective perspectives of wise individuals with any counsel. This is a rational way to take a more measured approach to risk. We all take risks from the time we get out of bed to the time with lay down. None of us are immune to it. But we can mitigate the risk in the bigger decisions by taking advantage of wise counsel and multiple perspectives. Take advantage of all the collective information that you can.

7. Wisdom in Collaboration

Team efforts don’t always produce valuable outcomes. Often you get dragged down by the weakest performing members of the team. This makes it critical to curate your peer group. You must be highly selective about who is around you. Low performers will certainly drag you down to their level.

It’s very possible to collaborate yourself into oblivion by taking poor perspectives into account. You have to use discretion and ignore people who are not wise. Weed them out and eliminate their negative influence. This is why you have to rationally evaluate each of the perspectives you gather.

Just because someone is an old man doesn’t mean he has a wise opinion nor is it guaranteed that he has gathered wisdom of his own. Wisdom does not always accompany age. But if the collective wisdom of the collaborators is high, counsel and collaboration can be very valuable in any instance. But at no point do we relinquish the ability to think with our rational minds to evaluate the information that we receive with our minds. Don’t believe everything you hear.

Take advantage of counsel.

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