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Leading Yourself IN Success Part 4
From Ponder to Action
We always spend a lot of time talking about how we think because Proverbs 4:23 is the truth. Out of your heart spring the issues of life. The point of that is not to let what is in your mind show present itself your actions unless it is of Christ. Guarding your heart means taking those thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ before you act on them. This is a deliberate action taken every minute of the day. You commit to setting your mind on Jesus and renew your commitment every single day, every single hour, every single minute and every single second.
The commitment will only work if you are replacing your nopeful thoughts with hopeful ones. I hope that last week you tested out the waters. Did you attempt to at least recognize your nopeful thoughts (hopeless thoughts). The way to do that is to tag them as hopeless. Name them hopeless. Ask yourself if there is any hope within that thought, anywhere? If the answer is no, take it into captivity because it is hopeless and not worthy of any of your time.
There is hope for everyone including you. Your nopeful thoughts are robbing you of any hope that you thought you had. And those thoughts will continue to rob you of any future hope you will have. There is no sense in going forward in our discussions unless we deal with this. Are you ready?
I have told you this before, but it bears repeating – hopeless thoughts will not go away until you make them hopeful. A couple of examples might help here then we will move to how to transform them. What do you think when you look in the mirror. Just yesterday I said to my husband, “My old thought of my ugliness snuck its way into my brain.” I was getting ready to go out for dinner with my kids and my hubby when I looked in the mirror and saw ugly. I quickly changed that to my favourite saying, “You look like Jesus.” And walked away. I hadn’t seen that ugly thought in months. It took me years to get rid of it and I am not going there again. What do you say to yourself when you look in the mirror? You know you are created in the image of God, right? Then say, “Hello, Jesus.” when you look in the mirror.
What do you say to yourself when you get dressed? I have spent probably $50,000-$100,00, over my lifetime on clothes to make up for my face. I now buy what I like to wear. The problem with all of us is that we are so hung up on what other people say and think that we forget what we like. Who has God created us to be? Did He create us to be carbon copies of someone else? Certainly not!
So, let us get into how we are going to change our thinking. We know we all think bad thoughts at one time or another but what we really need is to NEVER camp on them. You will need to come up with a phrase, sentence or word that will instantly work to snap you out of that hopeless thought. When I started doing this for myself, I said, “Now, stop that!” this sentence was long enough for me because I was VERY dedicated to changing the way I think. You might need a longer sentence because it takes a few minutes to change your thinking. Your brain wants to go back to that bad thought but don’t let it. A lengthy sentence will help you leave that bad thought and switch it to a good one. You could memorize a verse, such as, Romans 12:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5; Philippians 4:8 or make up your own sentence like I did. No matter what you choose to do you must do the same thing each time.
I cannot say this enough. Your brain will begin to recognize your BUZZ WORDS. It will be like pressing on a buzzer for your brain each time. It will learn what to do and you will be successful at modifying, transforming and thinking on good things rather than bad things. Now, go take a few minutes to pray about what you are going to do. Write out what you are going to say and make sure it is buried in your brain.
You will not regret the work you have done to make this happen in your life. The Lord wants us to have a sound mind, so we can do the things He wants us to do. A sound mind comes from taking the hopeless thoughts captive and transforming them into hopeful thoughts that last. They will not get in the way of our decision making or our problem solving. When you ponder your thoughts and act on the ones Jesus wants you to act on your fruit will last for all of eternity.
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Leading Yourself IN Success Part 3
If you think you CANNOT you WILL NOT
The issue with thinking badly is that you think yourself out of doing the things God wants you to do. There are so many scary things Jesus asks us to do and unless we are thinking appropriately we will refuse to do them. The problem with that is the people Jesus is sending us to help will not get the help they need. Can you risk that?
The other problem with refusing to do what Jesus has asked you to do is you forgo the abundant life He has promised you when you obey Him. When you forgo the abundant life you will also bring others down with you. You believe you cannot do the things God has asked you to do and you are not afraid to tell people God is asking you to do too much. He is putting undo pressure on you to perform. Immature Christians will believe that and disobey God so He doesn’t ask them to do what they are not capable of doing.
You can as long as YOU THINK YOU CAN
Before we discuss this, I THINK I CAN, concept I want you to know that Jesus will not ask you to do something He has not gifted to do. I love kids as long as their moms are with them. I have four of my own and I don’t want to work with kids. I can do odd jobs like be a clowning for a couple of hours but no more than that. I am a hit and run child entertainer. I know this. I always say “NO” when someone invites me to work with kids longer than two hours, more than once per year.
With that said, how hard is it for you to think you can do something Jesus is asking you to do? What Jesus is asking you to do is for Him but will improve your life. He asks you to change your thinking because you will not do what He wants you to do otherwise. The way we think has a huge impact on our life and on our witness to those Jesus sends to us.
Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking
You are capable of doing everything Jesus asks you to do because He is training you to do what He is sending you to do. He will not send you to speak to someone unless He gives you the words. He will not send you to do a work unless you are capable of doing it. His goal in asking you to work for Him is to give you hope and to give others hope. Yes, he does say no to you but it is because there is not hope for you in that direction.
In the Leading Yourself IN Success Workshop the third session “Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking” I will talk about sixteen different ways we think. Your goal in this session is to stop thinking “you cannot” and begin thinking “you can.” That is the only way you can gain the abundant life. As long as you open your mind to recognizing your nopeful thoughts, you will be able to swap them out with thoughts that are hopeful.
Pursuing Biblical Direction
On my podcast this week (Episode 18) I will discuss three of the sixteen “Nopeful” ways of thinking. What I don’t say in that is that a buzz word needs to be used to stop yourself from thinking nopefully and shock yourself into thinking hopefully. This week watch that podcast and know the three nopeful ways of thinking and begin to recognize them in yourself. Then when you begin recognizing them come up with a way to stop doing them. In Nopeful to Hopeful Thinking we will come up with a phrase or a word that will stop you in your tracks and help you reverse your direction.
When I first started doing this my phrase was “You better stop that!” My phrase was long enough for me to get out of the nopeful thinking but short enough to say it quickly. Now, then years later, I just say “Stop!” The goal is to stop yourself from thinking and change the direction of the thought.
You can do it
When you are living your life, this week watch out for the Nopeful Thoughts you have. If you journal, write them down. If you have a smart phone, create a note, and write it down. You do know your thoughts are not good but what you don’t know is how to stop it. You cannot stop what you do not know you are doing. Know what you are thinking, and you will be able to stop it. You can definitely to this.
Email me with any questions or if you want to just talk about something you are perplexed about working out. I will first off read you Scripture then I will give you the benefit of the wisdom I have gained by walk through my problems with Jesus. I saw a cup at my book signing yesterday that said, “Don’t tell God how big your storm is, tell your storm how big your God is.” Nough said…
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The 4 Ways I love Differently
In The Different Way we talked about being different than the world in three ways: walking in the Spirit, walking in kindness and walking in love. All of the things God takes us through result in love, not only for the brethren, but for Him. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). You can fake it ’til you have it with your brethren, but you cannot fake it with Jesus. Loving Jesus is a tight rope most people will not walk because they choose not to. We will walk the tight rope and follow the narrow path of Jesus because we love Him.
Love is a tight rope because so many people enjoy their hatred. It is a comfort blanket for them, but they will throw that blanket on you if you cross their path with the wrong colour shirt. The tight rope in our world is not others behaviour but ours. Are we strong enough to handle someone with pent up anger going off on us? Is our love of Jesus strong enough to continue loving Him, in spite of what He has allowed to happen in our life? Well, the amount of love you have for Jesus will determine how much you will be able to handle what comes your way.
There are many ways in which we should love Jesus. We don’t just love Him with an emotion we love Him with our actions. Jesus told us, if we love Him we will do His commandments (John 14:15) therefore love for Jesus is proven to Him by what we do, not what we say, hence the tightrope. Let me count the ways, for you, that I love Jesus.
Way 1: I love Him with my marriage and family.
My husband Bill and I have had many problems, during our 25 years of marriage, common to man. Jesus has had to step in many times to help us avoid murdering each other. He has stepped in the middle, with me, regarding my children and their spouses. I am not proud of the things I have said and done with my kids in the past but today I am very proud of who I am with them. BUT I can only be to my family what they see want me to be. If they don’t have a relationship with me they won’t see how much I love Jesus. The family members I know, and those who choose to have a relationship with me, are privy to my love of Jesus even if they don’t love Him. Those who choose not to have a relationship with me still receive kindness, but they won’t know my love for Jesus nor my commitment to them through loving Jesus. My husband and my children know I love Jesus because they have a relationship with me.
Way 2: I love Him with my friends
I don’t have many friends but those I do have at this moment I want to influence by the way I love Jesus. I love talking about Jesus so the friends that I choose are following the Way as well. Someone who isn’t, would not be able to handle how much I talk about Jesus, either they will get saved or they will run. I tell my friends, when I die the thing I want people to say about me most is that I loved Jesus well. My friends know I love Jesus because I talk the talk and walk the walk.
Way 3: I love Him with my Biblical studies
I could not and will not love Jesus unless I keep up my study of the Bible. I would not have the strength I have today, without it. I have been through some very disturbing things lately but Jesus has been comforting me with His Word and His commands to me. If I didn’t study the Word, I would not have known to do what I have done to quell the disturbing spirit within me. His Word has sometimes been my only solace. It has been the dictionary I have used to write all of my Strategic Life Skills Sessions. His Words put my soul on fire to put women’s lives in order. Jesus knows I love Him because I love His Word.
Way 4: I love Him with my ministry
Long ago when I was first saved Jesus called me to teach life skills from His Word. I have been waiting and growing along the way, writing life skills workshops, blogs and books. The time is fulfilled for me to walk in my ministry. I know this because I know my Jesus. I love Him enough to know He is calling me out onto the tightrope of ministry. I know I will have to fight fear, anger and hatred from people along the way too. The previous years of training and learning have prepared me to call on Jesus instantly when someone attacks me or my family. I am ready and willing to start the ministry Jesus has entrusted to me. Women will know I love them because I audaciously love Jesus.
It is my love of Jesus that makes me different from you and it will make you different from me. Being different is exactly what God is calling us to do. I am so in love with Jesus that I would stand in front of gunman to save your life as He commands. I wish that I could give up my salvation to give to you. He wants us to show our love differently to people, so they see Him. He wants us to do our ministry differently, so they see Him. If He wanted all of us to be the same, He would have created us the same. He didn’t, and I am so grateful for our differences because it makes life sweet. I love to look at women and see how God has formed them in such a delicate way. It thrills me, to no end, knowing Jesus is for me and He has made me for Him.
Loving Jesus means loving everything about your life, every aspect, every intricacy, every crook and cranny, every disturbing thing and every lovely thing. He created all of us to love with love in mind. We are always on the tightrope path to were Jesus wants us to go. I think we should just hang on and enjoy the ride. Take the blindfold off to see what He has in store for you and for me. The best places in the world are the places Jesus takes us. Fall in love with Him today and you too will see those places.
