The Alpha of Excellence

UV 3018/10000 The Alpha of Excellence
Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

Deuteronomy 33 v 29


Excellence is of many kinds: material excellence, intellectual excellence, excellence in performance or achievements, moral excellence, professional excellence, spiritual excellence. Scripture speaks of holistic and all round excellence. Like Israel or Jacob, we can give up our struggle for excellence in whatever we seek and surrender our lives to the Lord. The plan of salvation He has for us is excellent. His word working in our inmost places will execute or carry out excellence beyond what we can think, imagine or ask. Like a sword, it will kill that which is mediocre, not worthy, not godly in our lives and produce the gifts and fruit of excellence that comes from the Holy Spirit. He helps us overcome our spiritual and mortal enemies and neutralizes their weapons against us by the power of His word that first created us. We need therefore to be not in quest of excess but of excellence of the Lord’s power working in us. The enemy deceives us by prompting us to feed our lusts and pride and only seek material or professional or intellectual or excellence in achievements. But the Lord sees our heart’s desire and enables us, helps us seek and find all round excellence for His excellence is eternal, the joy of many generations. In order to tap into this source of eternal excellence, we need to find pleasure and increasing pleasure in the treasure without measure- His word.


It is not as if we can stop striving or putting in diligent efforts towards all round excellence. But as we go the extra mile as Jesus exhorts His followers, He will reward us in abundance. He will cause the seed of our labour and of our love to grow and bear fruit, much fruit. Whatever we have set our hearts and minds on, He will cause to prosper as we submit the fruit or the final results into His hands. It does not also mean that we will succeed in everything we do but even if we fail, He will make us wise enough to learn lessons from it and improve on our efforts and give us the determination and confidence to try again.

Our quest for excellence is not based on the miry sands of deceptive human desires and vain efforts but on the rock -solid faith in the infinite impossibility working power or grace of the Lord. As we persist with diligent efforts, the Lord’s infinite power is helping us continually. As nothing is impossible for the Lord, if our imagination is regulated by the Holy Spirit, we will be able to do. As we strive, He renews us, He refreshes us with a word of encouragement, guidance, inspiration. He removes the visible and invisible barriers and obstacles in our path. God’s eye on us helps us hit the bull’s eye of all round and holistic excellence.