“You are your worst critique”. Have you ever heard that cliché saying before? I know I have and it is SO true. We tend to judge our own life too harshly instead of seeing the small victories that will lead us to where we want to be. If you don’t know how to celebrate your own strengths, you won’t know how to address your weakness.

In 1^st Samuel chapter 14 verses 24-30, King Saul at the time had sent an oath out to all the Israelites stating that they could not eat before the evening came because the king had to avenge his enemies. Saul’s son Jonathan had not heard of his father’s oath so he decided to have some honey. I love the power that is in the verse 27-30 that so encouraged me, which state “But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath, so he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened. Then one of the soldiers told him, “Your father bound the army under a strict oath, saying, ‘Cursed be anyone who eats food today!’ That is why the men are faint.” Jonathan said, “My father has made trouble for the country. See how my eyes brightened when I tasted a little of this honey. How much better it would have been if the men had eaten today some of the plunder they took from their enemies. Would not the slaughter of the Philistines have been even greater?” (NIV)

 In these verse we can see that, Saul wanted to win so badly that it kept him from winning eventually. Have you allowed the enemy to turn your day of deliverance into a day of distress? Saul Did. If you don’t stop to enjoy the spoils of the battle you are in, you won’t be able to endure the struggles of the next one.  King Saul had a victory and the battle moved on but the battle was not done; so Saul made a decision to defer his celebration until He had reached a place of perfection, which stopped his progress. It is not because God did not provide the strength, it can be because you chose not to eat the strength that God provided.

All Sacrifice and No Celebration = No Strength.

You won’t be able to strengthen others if you don’t strengthen yourself. It is possible that you may be failing NOT because you are weak but because you are not well fed.  If you don’t eat what is sweet (Jonathan ate of the honey), you will always turn to something bitter. Don’t let bitter people keep you from enjoying God’s blessings. Win a battle and take a bite! Don’t deprive yourself from what God put in your path to develop you because, if you don’t fill up on the honey that God provides, your appetite will find another way to be satisfied.