Friends, I hope you find something in this that helps you today. I am not perfect, I am made perfect by what Jesus did for me. I am a work in progress, that as I draw near to God, He reveals the impurities and the things in my life that need His hand. And I adjust according to how He leads.
I love God. He's my best friend. I want what He wants. I hope you spend some time with Him today to find out what that means for you. It's so much more simple than you could ever imagine.
Pursuing God has to become a part of who you are.
Just as breathing comes naturally, when you start driving a car, you concentrate very hard, then later, it comes natural, almost automatic, and you relax.
Things that seem to require so much focus and effort at the beginning, after a time, become easy and natural.
The more time you spend with God, the more natural it becomes to take on His nature.
Example, I've often worked in fields that are male-dominated. At one point, I worked offshore on oil rigs. I had a mouth that could curse like a sailor. Finally at one point, I decided that just wasn't attractive coming out of a woman's mouth and I stopped. Then I realized, it requires more intelligence and effort (cussing is lazy) to come up with creative ways to express yourself. Then I drew near to God and I wanted to get as far from that type of expression as possible. God is so pure and good, how could I want to cuss out of the same mouth that gives him praise? He resides in me, how could I want such crass words to co-exist in the heart, soul and mind of the most awesome thing I've ever experienced?
Yet, once you put something in, it's there, embedded in your permanent memory. Whether it's cuss words embedded deep in your life vocabulary, whether it is viewing pornography or photos that are sexual or explicit in nature, whether it is movies that are explicit in nature, or just conversations with others... All of that is programming that goes into your permanent memory.
The key is to focus yourself so much on the things of God that His programming starts to overwrite some of the old programming so that His Ways come out of you by default. To where you come to crave Him and His Word and His ways... and the old ways fade.
You're not earning anything here, this is just for your quality of life.
Once you have accepted Christ, it's not what you "do" it is HIS sacrifice that saves you, NOT your own behavior.
I'd rather hear someone in the church foyer say, "That was a helluva sermon, Pastor! That kicked ass!" because I'd know that Jesus was in their heart and they are passionate about chasing after Him - from right where they are. Whereas you have some christians saying, "Praise Jesus, that was a good sermon." all the while having resentment or some other issue in their heart. You can't and shouldn't judge (at all) by outward appearance, only God knows what's going on in someone's heart. But if they've been saved for awhile, and God is loving them from the inside out, it is through that love that you begin to see God come out in their actions.
You don't change, He changes you from the inside out.
There are moments of weakness, like when I'm a clutz and trip and fall on my face, or while sitting in my parked car I spill my GREEN breakfast protein drink...I have found that 1 out of 5 times the first word out is a cuss word. For me, in my life and my world, It disheartens me to know that is still in me. And I know that the only way to distance myself from the programming of the past is to immerse myself in the programming of the present. The more I take in, the more I distance myself from the past and even overwrite the past.
Programming: Garbage In Garbage Out
And the key is to know that in the future, what you put in, is what you get out. If you find that you are listening to music, movies, talk shows, or people that are NOT edifying you spiritually, consider distancing yourself from those things. I'm not saying don't be around non-christians, you still have to be a Light and you have to be prayed up and be full of Him when in those situations... You do need to have sources of spiritual encouragement that pour into your life to fill you up because the world will drain you.
I realized the other day that I had become overwhelmed and stressed out at work.
I thought about why... I wasn't pressing in enough. I was compartmentalizing Jesus out of my workplace. I would acknowledge Him here and there... But it wasn't a focused effort to include Him.
A relationship with God is sort of like working out, you get out of it what you put into it.
If you are 100 or more lbs overweight, it's not enough to just go for a walk 3 days a week. Granted something is better than nothing, but if you want results, you have to be more committed and focused. You need to get to where you are doing some exercise everyday. And you need to work up to adding resistance (lifting weights) training to it. You have to keep stepping it up if you want to continue to see progress.
Your "God" Ammunition Store
When scripture is imprinted on your heart, the Holy Spirit can pull that store of God's Word out of you and bring it to mind in those tough situations when you grow tired or vulnerable and are losing strength... He will strengthen you. It's like an ammunition store from God to keep you alive...The more you store up in you, the more He has to pull from to keep you going in the tough times. But it's up to you to build up that store for Him to work from.
These things I have described don't "save" you, they give you quality of life that He wants you to have!
I have found that the core to walking closely with Him is pouring the Word into myself on a regular basis. By regular I mean, when I wake up, on my lunch (half) hour, when I get off work, and when I go to bed. I soak up a few verses, take a few moments to seek Him and surrender myself and my efforts to Him... (And when I don't do this - this pressing in - that's when I lose my strength & get overwhelmed). I listen to praise music whenever I can because I find that the music comes back to me throughout the day and I find that I'm singing the last song I heard as I'm walking down the hall at work...
Answer To Why I was Overwhelmed: I wasn't pressing in enough.
I was spending more time with God than before, I was reading the Word, I was listening to praise music, but I still had God sort of compartmentalized out of my work life. I would talk to Him about myself and helping me at work...but I wasn't praying about my workplace, the leadership there or the efforts going on around me that were frustrating me so much. I was taking it all on myself and getting overwhelmed and disillusioned.
It's not my fight, it's God's situation to handle.
I am to be flexible. To be at-the-ready for what He needs me to do.
So here I am God. You now get this compartment too. One I didn't even realize I had closed off to you.
Be blessed!
I love God. He's my best friend. I want what He wants. I hope you spend some time with Him today to find out what that means for you. It's so much more simple than you could ever imagine.
Pursuing God has to become a part of who you are.
Just as breathing comes naturally, when you start driving a car, you concentrate very hard, then later, it comes natural, almost automatic, and you relax.
Things that seem to require so much focus and effort at the beginning, after a time, become easy and natural.
The more time you spend with God, the more natural it becomes to take on His nature.
Example, I've often worked in fields that are male-dominated. At one point, I worked offshore on oil rigs. I had a mouth that could curse like a sailor. Finally at one point, I decided that just wasn't attractive coming out of a woman's mouth and I stopped. Then I realized, it requires more intelligence and effort (cussing is lazy) to come up with creative ways to express yourself. Then I drew near to God and I wanted to get as far from that type of expression as possible. God is so pure and good, how could I want to cuss out of the same mouth that gives him praise? He resides in me, how could I want such crass words to co-exist in the heart, soul and mind of the most awesome thing I've ever experienced?
Yet, once you put something in, it's there, embedded in your permanent memory. Whether it's cuss words embedded deep in your life vocabulary, whether it is viewing pornography or photos that are sexual or explicit in nature, whether it is movies that are explicit in nature, or just conversations with others... All of that is programming that goes into your permanent memory.
The key is to focus yourself so much on the things of God that His programming starts to overwrite some of the old programming so that His Ways come out of you by default. To where you come to crave Him and His Word and His ways... and the old ways fade.
You're not earning anything here, this is just for your quality of life.
Once you have accepted Christ, it's not what you "do" it is HIS sacrifice that saves you, NOT your own behavior.
I'd rather hear someone in the church foyer say, "That was a helluva sermon, Pastor! That kicked ass!" because I'd know that Jesus was in their heart and they are passionate about chasing after Him - from right where they are. Whereas you have some christians saying, "Praise Jesus, that was a good sermon." all the while having resentment or some other issue in their heart. You can't and shouldn't judge (at all) by outward appearance, only God knows what's going on in someone's heart. But if they've been saved for awhile, and God is loving them from the inside out, it is through that love that you begin to see God come out in their actions.
You don't change, He changes you from the inside out.
There are moments of weakness, like when I'm a clutz and trip and fall on my face, or while sitting in my parked car I spill my GREEN breakfast protein drink...I have found that 1 out of 5 times the first word out is a cuss word. For me, in my life and my world, It disheartens me to know that is still in me. And I know that the only way to distance myself from the programming of the past is to immerse myself in the programming of the present. The more I take in, the more I distance myself from the past and even overwrite the past.
Programming: Garbage In Garbage Out
And the key is to know that in the future, what you put in, is what you get out. If you find that you are listening to music, movies, talk shows, or people that are NOT edifying you spiritually, consider distancing yourself from those things. I'm not saying don't be around non-christians, you still have to be a Light and you have to be prayed up and be full of Him when in those situations... You do need to have sources of spiritual encouragement that pour into your life to fill you up because the world will drain you.
I realized the other day that I had become overwhelmed and stressed out at work.
I thought about why... I wasn't pressing in enough. I was compartmentalizing Jesus out of my workplace. I would acknowledge Him here and there... But it wasn't a focused effort to include Him.
A relationship with God is sort of like working out, you get out of it what you put into it.
If you are 100 or more lbs overweight, it's not enough to just go for a walk 3 days a week. Granted something is better than nothing, but if you want results, you have to be more committed and focused. You need to get to where you are doing some exercise everyday. And you need to work up to adding resistance (lifting weights) training to it. You have to keep stepping it up if you want to continue to see progress.
Your "God" Ammunition Store
When scripture is imprinted on your heart, the Holy Spirit can pull that store of God's Word out of you and bring it to mind in those tough situations when you grow tired or vulnerable and are losing strength... He will strengthen you. It's like an ammunition store from God to keep you alive...The more you store up in you, the more He has to pull from to keep you going in the tough times. But it's up to you to build up that store for Him to work from.
These things I have described don't "save" you, they give you quality of life that He wants you to have!
I have found that the core to walking closely with Him is pouring the Word into myself on a regular basis. By regular I mean, when I wake up, on my lunch (half) hour, when I get off work, and when I go to bed. I soak up a few verses, take a few moments to seek Him and surrender myself and my efforts to Him... (And when I don't do this - this pressing in - that's when I lose my strength & get overwhelmed). I listen to praise music whenever I can because I find that the music comes back to me throughout the day and I find that I'm singing the last song I heard as I'm walking down the hall at work...
Answer To Why I was Overwhelmed: I wasn't pressing in enough.
I was spending more time with God than before, I was reading the Word, I was listening to praise music, but I still had God sort of compartmentalized out of my work life. I would talk to Him about myself and helping me at work...but I wasn't praying about my workplace, the leadership there or the efforts going on around me that were frustrating me so much. I was taking it all on myself and getting overwhelmed and disillusioned.
It's not my fight, it's God's situation to handle.
I am to be flexible. To be at-the-ready for what He needs me to do.
So here I am God. You now get this compartment too. One I didn't even realize I had closed off to you.
Be blessed!
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