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If you want to be Content get Self-Control
Are you always trying to figure out why your life is out of control? Is there chaos even in the peaceful times? Is reverse your common direction rather than forward? You are not alone. There is only one way to steer your life to have what you desire, self-control. Jesus has much to say in His Word about controlling yourself so you can have contentment. My books are all written with this premise in mind. John 10:10 tells us, “The thief, does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” John describes who the thief is in verse one of chapter ten. The premise is that anyone who tries to lead you into any other life besides the abundant life is a thief. Those who say they are of God and lie to you do not want you to have the abundant life Jesus came to give. They are the thief’s He refers too. I want you to have the abundant life Jesus has for you even if it is away from me. I will see you again in heaven, you can be sure of that. I write the truth, so you can see the wonderfully abundant life you can have if you love Jesus. I want you to know His voice, so you can follow Him. I want you to learn to control yourself, so you can do what He asks of you without hesitation.
You will need to pull off the road of life for a little while at a RV park to camp on a few verses to help you find the path Jesus has paved for you. He has paved a path just for you, but you will need to find it. To find it you have to garner information. The information you need can only be found in the Bible. The information you need is clear, it is wise, and it is functional. The Word of God will help you to create boundaries in your life (Matthew 5:37), listen as God directs your steps (Proverbs 16:9) and set your thoughts toward that plan (Jeremiah 29:11).
Self-control comes first by creating boundaries in your life, setting your mind to say “yes” and to say “no” when warranted. You have to set your mind to say “yes” to Jesus and “no” to the world no matter what the circumstance. Knowing what you shall and shall not be allowed to do is very important for travelling on the narrow road. The only way to know exactly what Jesus is requiring of you is written in His Word. He has boundaries for you to set your mind toward, from His Word, which you will not know unless you study the Bible. I have called the Bible the “Life Skills Encyclopedia” because it has a treasure trove of information that can be used to keep us out of the ditch. Setting boundaries based on the “yes’s” and the “no’s” of the Word will be absolutely functional for learning self-control. Knowing what to say before you are confronted with an issue is paramount to having self-control. Having self-control will make you successful at maintaining the abundant life as you allow Jesus to direct your steps.
The light to every one of your steps is the Word (Psalm 119:105). John one tells us the Word is Jesus. We plan our way in our heart but the Lord directs our steps (Proverbs 16:9). In other words, Jesus allows you to make the plans needed, using self-control, to go the step He has directed you to go in. As you make the plans He leads you to make the appropriate plans. If you take a step to serve self you might just step right into the ditch perched so precariously beside the path Jesus has for us. He puts a ditch on the right and the left of your path to teach you the narrow path represents what the world’s plans look like. I can promise you, from experience, the ditches get smaller and shallower as you learn how to follow Jesus using His Word. When you learn to control yourself and your decisions while planning to stay on the narrow path the ditches seem further away. You fall into them less and take less time to get out when you do fall in. The Light you use to get out is powerful and brighter than bright itself. When you know God is thinking about you while you set your mind to His plan it gives you more power to continue steadfastly to self-control.
It is impossible to believe that Jesus does not know who you are when He actually created you for this life but God, in His great mercy, reminds every believer in His Word on every page. Jeremiah 29:11 says He knows the thoughts he has toward us, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. You must change the way you think toward the plans God has for all of us. If anyone insists on thinking worldly thoughts she will never hear God telling her where to go and how to get there. The Lord speaks to those who love Him and if you love Him you will hear Him. Following the world is contrary to following God. Thinking like the world is also contrary to God. If we think like the world we will constantly question the direction God is sending us. The narrow path needs our full attention specifically because it is narrow surrounded by big ditches. Our path cannot be divided between the world and Jesus. A divided mind will always be fruitless and never find contentment let alone the abundant life.
This week take these three verses Matthew 5:37, Proverbs 16:9 and Jeremiah 29:11 to your study room. You have listened to what I have to say and what God has to say through me but what does God have to say to you. What is He telling you through these verses? Let Him talk to you as you ponder each of these verses in the context of obtaining the abundant life promised by our Jesus. How can you obtain that life filled with contentment? Only He has the answers but if you do the work I promise He will provide the means.
This blog is in conjunction with Episode two on the Pursing Biblical Boundaries Podcast posted with WE Podcast entitled Self-Control Leads to Contentment. Listen for the short version of this blog or just to add more meat to the blog.
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With God as Your Teacher…
A look through the large picture window in Leola’s living room tells her it is a gloomy rainy day with no hope of sunshine. It’s a cold gloomy day inside Leola’s heart too. She has been true to her words to read the Bible every day although it has done nothing to defrost her frozen in time heart. She had hoped for something different but her thoughts were getting worse. She sits staring at the drops of water outside hitting her window and rolling down to the ledge wishing she was one of those drops with no feelings and no expectations. She is feeling crushed by her feelings of hopelessness. There is no hope for tomorrow to be different and no hope for the future to get better. The Bible to this point has not told her what to do about the condemnation of sin she is under. If this is what understanding is Leola wants none of it!
She doesn’t know how to fix herself! She has never watched a Christian fix themselves before. Her lack of hope invades her mind constantly. The past three years of reading the Bible and going to church have done nothing to help her as a matter of fact she is beginning to believes Scripture and church are making it worse. She has read through the Bible once, gone to multiple Bible studies and hooked up with many Christians over the years but none have admitted to trials or conviction of sin. She knows of no one who is worse off than her! She now believes her public plastic face will be the only face she will wear. Her hidden grief is almost intolerable!
We go to church and we discuss our problems with people but do we truly understand it is God who is supposed to teach us His ways not man. Sometimes it is easier to turn to man. I am completely guilty of this concept. We either do one of two things as growing Christians – we go to people or we ask our own soul! It is very peculiar that we do those things because we have known they are not successful yet we continue. Man wants what he wants and he goes the way he wants to go and our soul knows no better. We have no escape outside of obedience to God yet we try to make a way. We rely on man and his miracle pills when we expect them to fix us.
We are God’s children and as such we must learn from the Spirit what to do and how to do it. He says to us “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you.” (Psalm 32:8) We can count on Elohim to instruct us and to counsel us. He has counselled us to be convicted of our sin and then He instructs us in the way we should go to escape the sin. This is not an easy task but we can do it! We must do it!
At the end of one of her mind numbing days, talking about her problems with any old person, she retires to her have-to-have-it couch with her promise to read the Scriptures. Tonight, she is going to let gravity choose her reading because this is the way she rolls. She doesn’t actually care about what she is about to read because her grief has made her apathetic. She opens the Bible and drops it on her lap but doesn’t begin to read. Leola sighs and stares. It is still raining out so she listens to the sound of it hitting her front window while consorting with it. If it isn’t raining, it is raining! Each rainy day is running into the next and her grief is beginning to overwhelm her to the point of giving up. Being in Heaven will be much better than being here.
She finally looks down to see what gravity has done for her. At this point in her walk she doesn’t realize that gravity was created by God for His glory and He will use it for His glory too. Psalm, why does gravity always bring her to the Psalms? She chose Psalm 32 for her reading. As she read the tears ran down her face like the rain on her window. This God she didn’t understand and didn’t really know had written about her grief over her sin long before she was even born. She read the Psalm three times stopping each time on verse 8 to soak it in. Her grief over her life did not stop that day but God revealed Himself to her as her teacher. She would submit to Him more and more each day being instructed how to change her life one minute at a time instead of expecting a miracle. With God as her Teacher she would learn her lessons well!
We are more than capable of overcoming sin if we allow Elohim to instruct us in the way we should go. Let the Spirit counsel you within your conviction then allow Him to instruct you in the way out of sin! With God as your Teacher you will learn each lesson well!
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A Pill isn’t a Miracle it’s a Pill!
The Pill
Leola Lurned is comfortably lounging on her have-to-have-it sofa gazing out the window into nothing but feeling fully aware nothing is where she is right now and nobody is who she is. A squirrel catches her eye jumping from branch to branch with an agility and freedom one only can wish for. A perfectly timed commotion is exploding on Television beckoning her attention. Loud chaotic music with a flashy background announces a dangerously handsome man onto the screen. He is lovingly unfolding a miracle happening in the lives of millions of women, he summons Leola to want it. A ‘miracle’ contained in a little white pill, taken three times a day, will give her energy like never before. She will climb to the mountain top and back down again without even breaking a sweat. Momentarily encouraged by this she looks down at the well-rounded stomach she has been developing for months and says, “Now that WOULD really be a miracle from God!” She places her order without another thought. Leola needs that pill to change her life!
She waits weeks expectantly for the miracle pills to arrive. She dreams about the mountain she will climb and how wonderful it will be to have the freedom she so desires. Finally, the miracles arrives. She is giddy at the prospect of beginning so she downs the first one as soon as the foil’s off the bottle. Days go by, following every direction to the letter, without improvement. She quotes in her mind the words of all the pill popping guru’s “It takes 30 days for them to work!” Those days are followed by weeks and then months with simply no change. She becomes withdrawn and anxious. Her resentment of being deceived again is leading her into a deeper depression than ever before. Her darkened bedroom is her comfort right now.
Have we become so complacent about miracles we would honestly believe a life changing miracle from God would come in pill form? The ‘Miracle Pill’ is designed by the devil to make you think it has the power to heal but in fact it is a placebo! There is NO shortcut to a mind well healed only the painful, long narrow road. We want to believe the miracle pill can take us down this road in a chauffeur driven Cadillac but it is the miracle of Scripture taking us down this road in a rusty old Pinto, low in gas and leaking oil (2 Timothy 3:16).
The ‘miracle pill’ is a pseudonym for “the easy way out!” Our life skills are NEVER developed easily yet we keep expecting they will. Life itself is not easy, let alone the skills to live a righteous life. We will have weight problems, muscle problems, people problems, illness, anxiety and a multitude of other issues. Life causes mind altering catastrophes resulting in mind altering consequences resulting in a mind altering experience. Pills cannot take this fact away. Our life skills will not improve until we do the work to improve them. There is no miracle pill just the power of Scripture!
Wide is the road leading to destruction but narrow is the road leading to life! (Matthew 7:13-14) If you consider all the books in the world today how many of them will lead you to a miraculous healing like the Scriptures contained in the Holy Bible! We can read all the self-help books and listen to all the guru’s but we will still not find healing as thorough as the healing from God through His Words. We can talk all day about the benefits of reading Scripture, but until you take the time to read them, the benefits will escape you. Stop asking humans questions and start asking God the questions! Stop guessing what God wants from you and start desiring the truth from God. The narrow road is narrow because it takes guts to walk it, day in and day out, but the reward is freedom. Isn’t freedom what we are truly looking for? Freedom from food, freedom from drugs, freedom from pain, freedom from emotional pain, freedom from anxiety or depression. Are we not willing to work for freedom? If you were kidnapped and locked in a small room would you not do everything you can to get free? You would think about it constantly and act on those thoughts every chance you had. Well, my lovely, you have been kidnapped by the devil and locked in that room, but you have given up trying to get out! You shake the door knob once a week without escape. You return to your comfortable seat in the corner with your knees curled up to your chest for another week brooding about the darkness until you can shake the doorknob again next week!
The Escape
In Leola’s deepest depressed state she hears a voice as clear as day, “Put your trust in Me!” Her mind went straight to the Bible on the table in her living room. She slowly extracts herself from her comfortable bed with legs weak from inactivity to reach for Him! Sermons have taught her how important Scripture is to a Christian but she had no evidence of it working in her life. Her Bible has become a piece of furniture to dust. Her walk with God had been relegated to a weekly sermon having little effect on her. She sat on her have-to-have-it sofa and let gravity open the Bible. Gravity reading the Bible has been her typical ten minutes of Bible reading in the past, why change now. Psalm 119 opened and she began reading the power given to people by the Words of God. The miracle of Scripture appeared to her on that very page. More than murdering the man with the pills she wanted to be free from the devils oppressive words to her. She wanted out of the locked room and she knew it was going to take more than a pill. Her hard won realization ‘a pill is not a miracle it’s a pill’ began her journey toward freedom. Shaking the doorknob once a week was not going to be enough, she needs to shake it every day no matter how hard it gets because freedom is at the end of the long narrow road! Her vow to herself to shake the knob every day for the rest of her life ultimately led her to encounter the miracle of those Words every single one of those days!
The miracles from God, to assure our freedom, cannot be found in a pill. Man makes pills, God makes miracles using His Words!
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If God is in CHARGE, why do we Worry? Life should be filled with Wonder!
How often have we gone on for days about a particular topic to ultimately give up the worry because we have come to the conclusion that we have no control? We even allow the unpleasant thing to invade the other areas in our life we thought were just fine. Even the unsaved do that? One of the advantages we have over the world is we have our Jesus to turn too. Think about when we couldn’t do that. What did you do? Did you worry for hours? Did you cry about how unfair life is? Have you said, “Why me?” So tell me, why not you? Why not me! As I write this I am in the middle of an emotional crisis myself. The same one that has plagued me for 40 years. Same old, same old!
How can I be so ignorant of the power of God? How can we read the powerful Words of God and walked away from them with such ambiguity over who is actually in charge? What a hypocrite I am! I know in my heart most of the time that our God is in charge, but then when something comes along to overwhelms me with disappointment, I conveniently forget there is a plan and, unfortunately for me, even my broken heart is part of the plan. Even with this information in mind we need to learn to come around from worry about our issue to the wonders of God’s power quicker. James 1:2-4 has two truths for us that will help us get to wonder quicker: stop fighting the test and expect perfection.
EVERY TRIAL IS A TEST!
If you have a trial right now you are in a test because every trial is a test. Let us not delude ourselves thinking there is no rhyme or reason behind what is happening. If you can show me one place in the Scriptures that God has lost control I will admit that He is not in control. He has put trials in our lives that we would become more faithful. Have you seen a child who wanted something? They do everything within their power to get what they want including violence. We are not children but adults, mature in our thinking. Believing that Jesus is who He says He is makes us faithful but what about during trials? What about when you aren’t getting your way? What about when we are disappointed? How is our faith then? If we know that Jesus got us through the last trial or the last ten trials before what makes us think He will not do it this time. When we believe He will do what He said He will do we gain patience to wait for the other side of the trial. The patience we gain from our continued faith is how we will get through each and every test we are put through. If we bury, deep in your soul, every trial is a test of our faith that we NEED to pass one day we will get to this premise almost instantly and go from worry to wonder much quicker.
THE MIRACLE OF PERFECTION
Each test of our faith that we pass produces patience which in turn perfects us and completes us making us lack for nothing for the good works we were predestined to do. As I write this sentence I cringe over my immaturity and milk drinking ways. Perfection does not happen overnight but I want it too. To tell you the truth I am tired of waiting. That tiredness has brought me to this place of disappointment. Things I enjoy or expected have been taken away again leaving me disappointed again. This is not the first time this happened it is probably the one hundredth time it has happened. I am blinded by the loss and cannot see the miracle but I have seen miracles in my past that have left me in awe therefore I have to look past the disappointment to the miracle of perfection so I can allow this trial to create more patience in me that I will become perfect again. This is not an easy task since I feel like everyone around me is advancing and seeing progress while I feel like I am standing still or even going backwards. Every time I go through a trial I feel like it is a miracle that I come out the other side at the very least the same person I went in as. I know it is a miracle when I come out the other side and haven’t given up. Right now I feel like there is no other side because it has been a long 15 years but I know the patience miracle is coming because it always does. Then perfection is right around the corner.
Don’t give up and I promise I won’t either
Lord, help us to see the wonder of your miracles! The miracle of perfection is coming if we don’t give up. The promise of good is coming if we don’t give up (Romans 8:28). There are many stories in the Scriptures of Elohim fulfilling His promises to people. I know sometimes that just doesn’t help because we want to stay disappointed but we will never see miracles in our disappointment. During the good times I prepared myself by knowing the Word of God and practicing the promises in the Scriptures. I don’t have anything I thought I would have but I still have Elohim who gives and takes according to His manifold grace. There is no power within me to change what is happening but there is power within me to accept it and move on. As I look around me I see the miracle of advancement in others’ lives that I love so I will ask for another miracle to get me through this test while waiting patiently for it’s perfect work to be completed so I lack nothing! Pray with me, and for me, while we welcome the test to our faith and expect the miracle of patience to perfect us!
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Our Mind Sustains Change like a Rock Retains Water!
You’re sitting in your favourite chair staring at the television with your lot coursing through your mind. Not one of the 1500 channels you flip through sooths it. You search out the recline button and press until the chair that used to calm you can recline no more. You would rather just lie down and pass out but your thoughts of imminent disaster won’t allow it. Days have rolled into months, months have disappeared into years and years have swung into decades without any relief. Your Finances are suppressing you, your marriage is oppressing you, your job is stifling you and you need a deep breath of relief but none comes. Breathing is getting more difficult to do because you know you can do something different but you just keep falling back into the same old habits you are responsible for taking your breath away in the first place. You are running out of the courage to live just one more day. Fear not! Jesus has overcome this world for you! He is for you but you must begin to focus on Him and what He can do! Let Him breathe for you as you get the courage to change your mind.
Our mind sustains change like a rock retains water. We have hard habits of saying, doing and acting in a certain way and we get stuck. We fight for what we want but what we want is not good for us! Only Jesus knows what is good for us. We continue to do what is not functional. Only Gods will is functional. There are three ways we can begin to change our mind and find courage right now that will make a difference.
- Bend a knee
- Search the Scriptures
- Act on them
Bend a Knee
If you are reading this blog you are seeking Jesus and a way to improve your life skills. We cannot improve our life skills without Jesus. You are created to do good works for Him and until we admit we have been ruining our life it can never be fixed. Ruin might be a strong word but dead is an even stronger word used in Scripture. Without Jesus your life is dead therefore ruined. On your knees rather than lounging is the place to be. When we lay out dead in our distresses there are no options for us. We continue down the same path as if it is our lot in life. It is NOT! Jesus has a new way for us although bending our knees alone will not change our mindset. The change comes from the understanding of our powerlessness and the Power we call Jesus! He alone has the Power we need to sustain courage. His only requirement is we hear Him. It is difficult to hear what Jesus says sometimes because we are not focused on Him but on what is going on in our own mind. Bending a knee is a powerful statement of faith helping us focus on Jesus rather than ourselves. The power we give up on our knees opens our ears to hear Him giving us instruction to do the right thing (Hebrews 4:12). What is that right thing and how will you know it is right?
Search the Scriptures!
When you have been given instruction you begin searching the Scriptures. We will always know the right thing if it lines up with the Scriptures. We are told to test EVERY spirit. Jesus has Written Himself and who He is on every page in every Word. What is right to do is on those pages and what we need to know is on those pages. Jesus allows us to search the Scriptures to find Him and until we do our search we will not know what is right. I know there are 2000+ pages, 30,102 Scriptures and 770,430 Words in the NKJV but let me ask you, “How much time have you spent on television, Facebook, Twitter or other time wasting shenanigans?” How have they helped you efficiently solve your problems? How was your mindset when you finished? Our mindset toward life changes when we search the Scriptures rather than the internet. Searching for powerful Scriptures alone will not change our mindset but understanding the Words of Jesus are what changes our mindset. For instance, a search on our topic of time revealed Ephesians 5:15-17; Psalm 39:4-5; Psalm 90:12 read together gives us solid instruction of how we should regard what little time we have and how significant every single day is marching toward the Day of Lord. There are good software’s available to compile Scriptures on specific topics therefore we have no excuse for the lack of knowledge of our Saviour and His plan for us. Searching the Scriptures is not enough, we have to act on what we know to do!
Act on it!
There is no possibility of an improved life if we do not participate in the improvement. How often have you said your life is not going well then continued down the same path as yesterday? How frustrating is that? We see other folks living better lives while deliberately ignoring the work they’ve done. We have set our mind on our ingrained excuses rather than doing the work to fix the problems. Our mindset must change from the worldly things to the Spiritual things or we will never have the life Jesus longs to give us. Acting on the Scriptures alone will not change our mindset unless we understand what Jesus wants us to do. We need to take courage and start acting out the Words of God! Start with the simple apparent things such as not lying. We lie to ourselves when we say there is nothing we can do about our situation. There is plenty we can do even if it is just acceptance for now. We are responsible to improve our situation so let’s get going and make the changes needed. The best way to get started is to document, document, and document! Find a good notebook or even a day timer and begin each day with a simple goal. If money is your issue, buy one less coffee. If lying is your issue, tell one less lie. One less means change and before you know it your mind will be changed. Everyone knows how hard it is to do this but the rewards of being an overcomer are beyond earthly measure (Revelation 1, 2, 3). We can take action even though our mind is not ready and our mind will eventually catch up. Try it today and set your mind to doing it for at least 7 days. Don’t give up!
The day will come!
Bending a knee alone will not change our mindset. The change comes from the understanding of our powerlessness and the Power we call Jesus! Searching for powerful Scriptures alone will not change our mindset but understanding the Words of Jesus is what changes us. Acting on the Scriptures alone will not change our mindset unless we understand what Jesus wants us to do. Jesus is not going to change your mind for you but before you know it you will be in the middle of Gods goodness. It is that goodness that bring us to the courage behind change. This may be the only thing we have control over so be diligent about making it happen. The day will come when your continued courage will result in a change of mind because you have stayed it on Jesus.
I have come to you on my knees preaching the Good News of Jesus and Him crucified that you would put your faith in the power of God (1 Corinthians 2:1-5) to gain the courage you need to make the change of mind needed. I have been where you are and I did exactly this to escape myself. If I wrote down all the things Jesus has done for me since I began this process I suppose the world could not contain the books and it won’t be able to contain your books either.
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Becoming an Overcomer is Easier than you think!
Revelation Chapter 1, 2 and 3 call us to be overcomers. Have you read it? Take some time now and read it before reading on. They are hefty chapters to read but describe what our walk, as Christian’s, should look like. For a glimpse of your reward in full colour for eternity, should you choose to be an overcomer, read chapter 21 and 22 as well.
I have been a happy person most of my life because I make the choice to be happy. That absolutely, doesn’t mean I don’t get sad or angry or depressed because I do. I go through a process that is very helpful to me to overcome the bad thoughts, the bad habits and the bad actions I will take that I KNOW I am going to regret later! Jesus was an overcomer and we are too! It is easier than you think but it does take practice and perseverance!
Practice Recognizing Your Mental Status
One of the things I struggled with most of the time was failing to recognize, in a timely manner, my negative mental status before I did something stupid. With practice I was able to recognized it and change the way I was feeling/thinking! Mind you, it took some time to be able to do it but I persevered and am pretty quick at it now. I have gone from days/weeks to minutes! Memorizing 2 Timothy 1:7 really helps, For God did not give me a spirit of fear but of power and of love and a sound mind. [Modifications mine] Power and love and a sound mind are ours to have because we have the Spirit living in us.
When my mental status is not good I would do my very best to recognize it as quick as possible and begin saying, “I do not have the spirit of fear in me but power and love and a sound mind.” There are other verses you can memorize such as Philippians 4:8; Proverbs 4:23; Proverbs 3:5 but 2 Timothy for me was fast and powerful. Recently, I have begun praying (Focus on Doing My Best Blog) over everything I do and I cannot tell you how much that has changed my mental status as well.
The only way we can change our thinking is to change our thinking! I know that sounds simply said but it is the biggest truth you will ever have to recognize. I know right now you are saying, “I cannot control what is in my head.” The Father says you can and, from experience, with full confidence I can say it too! Replace the negative thoughts filling your head and you will change the thoughts filling your head. Philippians 4:8 will be your train of thought if you make it so.
Practice Your Plan Prepared in Advance
Once I got mediocre at recognizing my down turn in thinking I discovered the need for rules of engagement during negative mental status days. I knew it was going to take some time for me to recognize it and change it so I needed a plan to avoid the regrettable things I would do. During the good times of thinking I knew that I would come upon one of those times when my thinking would spiral down so I devised a set of rules to save me. Engagement rule one was the most important rule for me: avoid any major decisions. Number two was no purchases above $25. Another rule was to avoid social outings if possible. I persevered at these rules and made new ones when warranted because I absolutely abhorred hurting people with my words or actions. It was during the implementation of these rules that I started writing life skills workshops (About me) to help me overcome.
I had nothing better to do in these times than to cry out to God. When you implement ways to assist in overcoming God starts talking. He revealed so many mysteries to me. Jeremiah 33:3 came to life to me (Read about that) and it will for you too. I cannot tell you enough – go to Elohim in prayer about this and He will help you recognize quicker and reveal to you what you need to do to overcome the negative and avoid the undesirable behaviours.
Practice Seeing the Insignificant Until it Becomes Significant!
The insignificant is the significant in this case. I was starting small to celebrate every single time I did something against what my self-serving soul wanted me to do. Every single time I made an advance in the direction of a sound mind I celebrated. I could see change almost every single day. I argued less, hollered less, spent less money, gossiped less and I cannot be sure but I think I hated people less too. I made a habit of seeing every insignificant step I made so I could document my progress. I needed to see my progress because I knew I would give up if I didn’t.
Each of us has to see our progress, as insignificant as it is, to remain encouraged about where we are headed. Job had heard of God, like we have heard of others who succeed at this, but Job went through all manner of negative mental statuses before God allowed him to ‘see’ Him. When Job was at the most receptive point in his struggle, God allowed him to see how deep His love is for Him and the world. When we persevere at seeing the insignificant, we can celebrate each one of them until we see the significance of God all around us. I cannot tell you how truly amazing that actually is, but as an overcomer, you can find that out for yourself.
You Can Do It Too!
Each day I dealt with my negative mental status, it became clear to me that using Scripture and God’s testimony was a major game changer. I tried in the past to use pithy sayings and quotes from people I admired but nothing changed my thinking faster and more permanently than the Words of God and the testimony of God. David said it perfectly in Psalm 27:13 I would have lost heart, unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. This fact has given way to the person I am today and what I want to accomplish in His will. I am convinced you can use Scripture as well to mould your mind into the sound mind that God created in you. With practice and perseverance recognizing your negative thinking, using rules to control it and celebrating each success you too will be an overcomer and go beyond Heaven.
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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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Cry out to Him and See!
There is nothing like a death in the family to make us evaluate (or me anyway) the things we are doing. We watch as people walk through the room and how they react. We react with curiosity about how they have impacted the lives of those they knew. We evaluate how they have impacted our life. The only real way we can know what they have done for others is to listen to stories and listen intently to how people felt about that person. This is a skill that we must learn to utilize as we get older because we learn much about ourselves and about others. We can know someone all of our life and still not know the impact that person has had on others outside of our own relationship with them.
This begs me to ask of myself, “How have I had an impact on those in my life?” Have I created an atmosphere of love or contention? Have I taught my loved ones that I am determined or lazy? BUT the biggest question is, “Have I shown (not told) them that I love Jesus?” Will that be the first thing people say or will they have to find out from the pastor during my service. I have no other desire for you to know anything other than my love for Jesus and how I work that out in my life. What I want you to see is I love Jesus, I love my family, I love my friends and anyone whom I can touch through my teaching of Jesus Christ and my writings about how we can learn from Him.I want you to see my passion for the Word when I teach you what Jesus has been teaching me. I want you to see my determined devotion to Him while I help you learn what I have learned. I want you to see my steadfastness in doing what Jesus has asked me to do. In this you will find out that I have dedicated my life to knowing Jesus by studying His word so I can be of use to the women in the area in which Jesus has placed me. I cry out to God daily for them and I ask Him to position me to be of the most use to them.
How can we go forward when we feel like we are not doing enough? Jeremiah 33:3 says “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’” Cry out to Jesus and ask Him daily what He has planned for you. He will reveal in you just as He will reveal in me just exactly what He wants us to learn and how He wants us to use that knowledge. Then we must do it!
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
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Excited to Learn? YEAH!
Knowledge is one thing but understanding is a whole new ball game. I love it when I begin to understand something whether related to the Word of God or at my job or even just reading a book that is hard to understand. I ponder stuff all the time and ask why a lot. Jesus is so patient with my questions and my lack of knowledge that it just blows me away when He teaches me something new. I do not deserve to know this much or to understand anything He is teaching me because I am so dim witted sometimes. How many times does He have to teach us something before we learn it? Well, let’s see what the Word has to say about that.
I want to start with Proverbs 6:6 when Solomon calls someone a sluggard. Lazy people cannot learn so he says to them go to the ant, O sluggard, observe her ways and be wise. He wants us not to be lazy and learn fully what we need to learn. Wisdom does not come in one day so the fact that he refers to us becoming wise tells me that he knows we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Psalm 106:35 tells us that they mingled with the nations and learned their practices. That is us Christians. We mingle with the world and learn their ways in time and act like them but we need to mingle with God and learn His ways so we can become knowledgeable about the things of God. To do this we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
The Bible was written for us to learn from and Paul needed to tell us just that in Romans 15:4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. The length of time it takes us to learn is shown here in the term perseverance. Why would we need perseverance if our learning were going to be quick? Again, we will have to take our time learning and be taught often.
Proverbs 1:7 says that the beginning of knowledge comes from fearing the Lord. Fearing the Lord is not based on what you don’t know it is based on what you do know. We cannot gain a fear of the Lord until we know the Lord. He has buried many secrets in His Word that He expects us to uncover. It takes learning to uncover those secrets. Only fools despise wisdom and instruction – be not a fool and fear the Lord. Take time learning and be taught often.
Read books but always come back to the Word! These are just a few verses that tell us about learning. Jesus taught us the whole time He was on the earth so that we would have a mentor; someone to teach us the ways to walk. Jesus said take His yoke upon us and learn from Him for He is gentle and lowly in heart and we will find rest for our souls (Matthew 11:29). Our learning begins and ends with Scripture. We can be taught the Bible from others but the truth can only be found in one place – the Holy Bible. It tells us that we need no other teacher (1 John 2:27) than Jesus and that God will send no one else to tell us the truth (Hebrews 1:1-3) because Jesus has told the truth to us, recorded and distributed it to us that we may learn. When the mystery of the truth is revealed to us it is an exciting thing to comprehend because it has taken us time to learn and we were taught often!
Be persistent this week to spend time in the word with the FULL understanding that it will take time to learn and we will need to be taught many times before we understand. God will reveal His mysteries to us if we persist.
