MAKING POSITIVE IMPACT - we can change the world

Take time to look around you and you'll see people in pain, distress and sorrow. You'd see a lot hurting but concealing their aches and pains with frosty smiles, heavy make-up and artificial gait. You'd see people roaming the streets hopelessly and helplessly - their faces contorted with sadness and their heads bowed with feelings of guilt, shame, disappointment, worthlessness, dejection and despair. You'd see people with bleary eyes and knotted chest, crying silently but trying to choke back the tears.

The fact is, despite the glitter and glamour the world promises to offer, its people are in want. Even the rich suffer from the feeling of emptiness gnawing them within. They feel incomplete and unfulfilled. There's a void in the lives of many - a void you can help fill! It might be a spiritual need - the search for freedom from the shackles of sin; or an emotional need - the need for wise counsel to solve a painful puzzle or mend a broken heart. It might be a financial need or any other kind of desire which people need someone to help them fulfil.
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LOOK AROUND to see distress signals indicating the presence and patterns of voids to be filled
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LOOK IN to check your resources and potentials and ascertain what you can do to help the needy
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LOOK OUT to find the means by which you may deploy your resources to help humanity for their temporal and eternal good
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God could use you to meet someone's needs if you will let him. Some steps are summarized below.
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1. Surrender your life to Christ and be born again. Consequently, you will experience a transformation in character, attitude and disposition [2 Corin 5: 17]. Charles Warner says ''No one can sincerely try to help another without helping himself''
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2. Consider the people around you whom you've neglected or hurt in time past; shun selfishness as you willingly pour yourself out for their good
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3. Recognize that life is not what one has but what one gives out. Learn to consider the needs of others and share what you have. You should offer specific help to others working to realize their own dreams
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4. Give people attention, affirmation and appreciation. Anytime you make contact with people, you should begin by giving them your undivided attention during the first thirty seconds and affirm them and show appreciation to them in some way as well as say something encouraging.
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5. Learn to empathize with people as occasion demands
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6. Be courteous, friendly and avoid unwholesome criticisms.
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7. Be prayerful, diligently seeking God and doing what pleases him always
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There is only one life to live; and it will soon be over! But what our lives impact upon others - for good or bad - will endure.