Steve Lyston | Honour our own first

Honouring and valuing your leader is the quest or pathway for prosperity and to receive from God. Many countries and community churches struggle for solutions and cures, because they always think others are better than their own.

Honour first begins in the home. Home can be the place where your family dwells, or it can even be the organisation with which you work.

In Mark 6: 4 it says, "But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honour except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house'." Words spoken by Jesus to the people of Nazareth - the town in which he grew up.

They refused to believe in His teachings because they considered him one of themselves, and, as such, was without authority to preach to them.

While they knew that the teachings and demonstrations of Jesus were true and that he was the Holy One of God, and despite the fact that they identified that he had wisdom and did mighty works, because he did not attend their prestigious rabbinical school, their thoughts were focused on the fact that he was the son of a carpenter, from their town, and was not known to have a special or elite family background.

Therein lies the biggest hindrance for any nation to advance. Some nations and organisations would prefer to fail than accept those within their environment who have the solutions.

We often tend to think that whatever is external to us is better than who or what we have within.

Sometimes a political party would prefer to lose an election rather than promoting those within the constituency to win. They use classism, racism and even family background, and they would bypass those who have been working in the area to promote others based on visible, external factors - because they fit the 'profile'.

Many times, I have seen companies experiencing great challenges and they would bypass those within the organisation - who are doing the work and are keeping the organisation at the fore - to hire foreign labour and pay double or more to keep them; and, sadly, many of them come in without insight or solutions. They keep such persons as figureheads and still revert to the faithful ones.

Familiarity, ego, pride, colour, social status, school attended and family background should never be the basis on which we determine a person's worth or value. This is why we oftentimes ought not to be going all around seeking to find an external expert when the true experts are in-house.

Our people prefer to purchase goods or services from overseas than from their local manufacturers/distributors. They would want to pay very little for local products and spend double the amount for foreign products. That is why foreign entities will buy our products for a low price, take them overseas, relabel them and sell them back to us for double the price.

Failure to honour

When we fail to honour our own - whether our family members, those within our country - we always get deceived.

What have we done to truly honour our past sportsmen, athletes, civil servants, bankers, teachers, security personnel and media personnel? What did we do? We bypassed those who served us well?

People bypass their local pastors who are serving them genuinely every day, and they would prefer to send thousands overseas to pastors they have never met and neglect to care for their local pastor.

I have seen on the social network where many promote and share the banners and messages of other leaders, while they refuse to acknowledge or value those who are directly touching their lives.

Step out

I always tell people, never be afraid to step out of your circle. Our own are too blind to see the value in their own and that is why we are losing good teachers, good doctors, good economists, good sportsmen, good security personnel and good opportunities.

Your talents and accomplishments are highly regarded by everyone except those at home, which includes those in your family, nation and church. Familiarity always brings dishonour and disrespect.

Many times, family members face struggles and the answer is right within the family. Most countries will create great opportunities for those on the outside of the country to enjoy the benefits of the country more than those within. Tourism is a prime example.

Very often, international guests to the nation may make a statement that hits the headlines in no time, but the media ignore the locals who have been reiterating those point daily and behave as if the view expressed is something new.

Honour will only come when we change our way of thinking, otherwise we will miss the value in our own.

- Steve Lyston is a biblical economics consultant and author of several books, including 'End Time Finance' and 'The New Millionaire'.