I think what hinders us from being able to pay attention is that we don’t see ourselves as a child. Though God is our Father we don’t see ourselves as children. As adults we have to be all grow’d up to deal with life. We have continually been chastised with “grow up!”
I believe that in order for us to be successful in hearing/listening and applying what God is speaking to us, we must have a paradigm shift in how we see ourselves in relation to God as our Heavenly Father.
We are so conditioned, as adults, to work things out and be practical, logical and sensible.
But we are told that we must have “faith as a child”
And what does that look like?
Just like we did when we were younger and looked up at our mom/dad believing everything they said.
We have to seek God through prayer. And we have to be able to receive and do.
We must let go that “we know everything” and stop trying to decipher how and why…..and trust HIM.
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding” – Proverbs 3:5
Intentionally today, Listen carefully, and do as you’re told and leave the consequences up to God.
Intentionally, today…and everyday…… obediently trust and leave the consequences up to God
LIVE Intentional Today
BODY – Somehow, some way, intentionally be physically active
MIND – Continue to use empowering words – conversations, interactions
SPIRIT – Read the Word –allow it to transform your spirit, your mind
Goliath walked out toward David with his shield bearer ahead of him, sneering in contempt at this ruddy-faced boy.
David said to him, “you come to me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s army-the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you.” – 1 Samuel 17:41, 45-46a
Every day we have something or someone, that is too big for us to handle; that we want to avoid, want it to disappear, be postponed. Some wait for you every day as you get up, a continual intimidator.
It brings on anxiety and nervousness. It drains our energy and can lead us to being discouraged. It can ruin our day.
And if we were by ourselves vs. these Goliath’s of life we would shrink to obscurity; cultivate a defeated mentality. But, just as David knew, you should know as well, you are victorious; not because of you (in spite of you) but because of HIM.
You need a new perception of how you see the Goliath’s in your life.
David didn’t defeat Goliath. He was faith in action that God used to defeat Goliath.
Instead of seeing Goliath. Instead of seeing huge problems, see them as challenges.
Challenges are opportunities; Opportunities for God to shine through you.
Opportunity for God to boast through you.
Opportunities for you to be amazed by God’s working and grow more confident in He that is in you, is greater than he of this world. – 1 John 4:4
David didn’t boast in his own ability, but the ability of Sovereign God
We can’t avoid the Goliath’s. We can’t hope them away. But we can walk in the victory that Christ has already given us and be confident that God will lead you to slay the Goliath.
Be assured in this even as Goliath sneers at you, mocks you, laughs at you. Even as Goliath grows bigger and nastier looking. Just as David said we must combat it by speaking the truth boldly – It is a battle Christ has already won. Speak that truth and bring Goliath down to size.
Having a different perspective of the Goliath’s you have in your life today will enable you strive in victory today. It will free you to boldly confront it knowing that God Almighty wins all our battles- IF you surrender them to Him and speak the truth – that you are victorious! Go to your day confidently assured that your Goliath’s only have power over you if you let it.
YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHOOSE.
Confess it to God that it is too big for you, surrender it to Him, and wait expectantly for God to direct you in slaying it.
Surrender to the champion (Christ) and not to Goliath
Focus on the champion and not the Goliath
Confess the champion and not the Goliath
Intentionally, today…and everyday…… Walk in victory
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
– Galatians 2:20
When we leave our home. When we are in our home.
When we are with other people. When we are alone.
Do we TRULY LIVE what we TRULY have been changed to be?
I recognize His abiding presence in my life and participates in my life.
How do you respond to that?
I realize that He has a glorious purpose for my life
Am I laying aside distractions and staying focused in pursuing?
How do I show gratitude to God for all that has been given me?
Am I using all my gifts that He has blessed me with to the fullest? Does it bring Him honor?
Put aside the crap that keeps you less than you should be, CAN BE – WILL BE
One afternoon I went onto Surf Cam to check out the waves. At the pier there are jetty rocks that serve as a buffer between the beach and the road. A little kid was walking on these huge rocks. If you haven’t been to the beach much these are huge rocks that seemed to have fallen from the sky all tumbled on top of one another pushed together. It reminded me of when i was a kid walking jetties out. Waves crashing onto them. Had to be careful of the slick green algae.
If you are not careful you can slip and fall and do some damage!
The boy was navigating the rocks to get to, what I presume, his father. His father was already on the other side.
The boy focused on each step. Once he had sure footing he would look first. Find the next best step and take it.
Slowly but surely making progress.
From experience, I know that at times you really have to be deliberate in calculating where to place your foot were you would be sure you could stand to take the next one.
Progress is made in the Process.
Such is our life as the Father beckons us to follow Him through the rough terrain of life.
The challenge is that we can get so caught up by the pressures and demands that we wake up and go as fast as we can.
Do we take time to navigate? It is as if we run the jetty as fast as we can instead of as successfully as we can. Success takes focus and strategy.
I know at times I can easily be deceived in thinking that I can get to the other side of the jetty of life by trying to go faster. So each day you get up sprint and fall and get nicked up.
Each day trying harder.
Harder instead of smarter?
Is there parts in your life that those to words need to be reversed? (Talk to God about it)
Does the crashing waves all around get you too harried and hurried? (Talk to God about it)
And in contrast does fear immobilize you? Are you stuck on one rock and are too discouraged, too tired, too uncertain, to take another step? (Talk to God about it)
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.
Proverbs 3:6
Intentionally, today…and everyday…… focus on God and navigate the jetty that is life
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. –Philippians 3:15
It was described to me as if I were in a 100 gallon drum and the outside of it was being banged on. No matter what the object or velocity it was banging my ears.
I could do nothing but absorb it.
I was going through a very difficult time and felt that there was no way out. Could see no way out. It was if I was stuck in a drum getting beat on. Real or imagined. That was my perspective.
The man I was listening to said:
A change of pace
A change of place
Equals
A change of perspective
I needed to get out from where I was and put myself in a different setting. Be somewhere else away from all the busyness of life. Do something different than I always did. Doing that would allow my mind to get out of the drum. It would give the opportunity for tension and anxiety to dissipate. It would be a catalyst to open up and see possibilities that were not in plain sight before.
I listened to his advice. It worked. I was not hopelessly invalid to get out of the drum. And to realize there was alternative.
How about you? Are you stuck? Can’t figure anyway around it? Rationalized that you have to settle?
I want to encourage you to find
A change of pace
A change of place
Equals
A change of perspective
Intentionally, today…and everyday……Get a fresh perspective and get out of the drum
Jesus said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is useless for you to fight against My will.” – Acts 26:14
Growing up on the Jersey Shore my earliest memories is being 4 years old at White Sands Beach Club (place just like in the movie Flamingo Kid w/ Matt Dillon) in West End. One of those early memories is getting caught in a wave on the shore at high tide where it just picked me up and slammed me to the bottom. I remember fighting to get up to the surface and getting thrashed again until my dad grabbed me and pulled me out.
Fast forward a few years and I was a surf rat at about 9 years old. When wiping out the wave would drive you down, just as it did when I was 4, however what I learned since then was to relax, go limp, and it would just bring me back to the surface.
It was learning, instead of fighting the wave and sinking, to getting in sync with the wave and effortlessly coming up to the surface.
We can either fight with God on how we are going to live our lives and sink or we can allow God to have His way, be in sync, and swim with His current.
The natural inclination, due to fear and anxiety when taken under a wave, is to fight and struggle to get you to the surface. But, that makes it worse. Don’t we do the same thing when we don’t feel God’s ways are getting us what we think we want/need? Our natural inclination kicks in and we bypass the high road and work the short cut. But the short cut has thorns and barbed wire. We get hurt and frustrated. All the while God tells us to stop fighting and get in sync with how He is operating in your life.
Are there areas in your life that you thrashing against God’s way to do it your own way? Maybe it is your attitude. Could it be habit you fight to keep that God wants you to surrender? Maybe someone in your life?
Are you out of sync? Are you sinking?
Surrender. Tells God you give up doing it your way and you surrender.
Is it always easy? No.
Is it always easy to discern if you are doing what He wants or doesn’t want? No.
But, we can if we ask God to reveal to us anything that isn’t according to His will.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. – Proverbs 3:5
Getting in sync is operating in the spirit instead of in the flesh.
If there are areas in your life that you know you aren’t in sync with God’s morals, commands and values consider going limp and surrender.
Intentionally, today…and everyday…… choose – sync instead of sink
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. -1 John 4:1
Who do you follow? Instagram, Twitter, Tik Tock, TV and radio?
Authors, television, political and celebrity personalities. Why?
We usually only listen to those who we agree with and we easily allow to mold our thinking.
Our thinking molds our words, actions and decisions.
It is in our good to emulate certain characteristics.
What we must be careful is when we allow certain people to become our mirror. We must be mindful not to allow anyone to become our “god”.
People, all people, are flawed. Every one of us is “tainted”. Yes, they can have great wisdom and thoughts but they can’t be the end all.
When you study the Bible- the full context- you truly get the character of God and His purpose for you, made in His image.
God never changes in leading- question becomes- am I going to follow?
It can get tough because God’s way is harder. Mostly is not worldly popular. We are susceptible to our “tainted” thoughts, feelings and trends. Hey it “feels” ok. Or if it doesn’t. Lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5. Seek God and ask for Spiritual discernment
When we allow others, trends, and feelings dictate our thinking then we try to fit God into our beliefs. We then rationalize and justify trends and feelings. We make room for what we want and leave no room for What God has already decreed.
I had done this in my own life. Especially during and right after college. I wanted to live how I wanted to live and surrounded myself around persons that bolstered my beliefs. And I praise God that He would not stop pursuing me. The blinders were taken off and I came to the sobering reality that God will not compromise because He knows the spiritual impact it will have on our lives.
So, those who you listen to, watch and read for your “substantial” perspective- how do they hold up against the Truth? The Word of God? The character of God. (That includes the Pope, Billy Graham, your pastor, anybody outside of God Himself!)
One way you know that you are being honest is that when you are mindful of what and why’s of your life, there is absolutely areas that do not line up with God’s way for you.
If they all were then you would be perfect and you would already be in Heaven with God!
If what you believed was not true would you want to know?
Intentionally, today…and everyday……Align with the Author of all life
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
-Galatians 5:22-23
Think back to all the adults, coaches, teachers, friends, peers, acquaintances, etc, you had. Who sticks out and why? What was it about them? In what way did they have an indelible impact on your life? What were the characteristics?
Do those same qualities apply to you?
Which do you feel you exemplify and why?
Which ones do you struggle with? Why do you think you do?
A mistake we make is that we say we are a certain way and that is just the way it goes. The fruit of the spirit is within each of us that calls Jesus as Savior and Lord. He dwells within and each of us has the 9 listed above in the scripture. We possess it all.
The first step to living it out is knowing this truth. We possess each of these.
The next is being honest with ourselves about which ones we have a hard time living out.
And finally, is giving it to God. Talk to God about these 9 qualities that He has deposited in you. Asking Him to give you discernment, wisdom and clarity to open your eyes, mind and spirit to see what is hindering you and what you are to do.
The wholeness that we are to live is in the completion of the Fruit of the Spirit living out in our lives. It is the abundant life that Jesus tells us in John 10:10 He has come to give us.
Intentionally, today…and everyday……live out the qualities of God that lives within you
Listen to me; listen, and pay close attention. Isaiah 28:23
Son! Stop walking away! Stand here – look and listen to me! Let me coach you!
At our team football camp this past summer. – This loud statement came from a defensive back coach to his safety who just got beat for a touchdown. The young man walked dejected with his head down toward the sideline as his coach was trying to give him instruction.
When we need constructive criticism and instruction is the time we usually don’t want to hear it.
This young man had a choice to make. The decision was his and his alone. Would he put aside his feelings and emotions and allow life to be taught to him?
Do you?
Do you shut those out who can give you sound instruction?
Is it because of pride?
Is it because you can get so mad and frustrated with others, with yourself, you don’t have the temperament to do so?
Are you untrusting?
Do you think it is a waste of time?
Jesus dealt with religious leaders, many who believed they knew it all and didn’t need help. What we would call know-it-alls.
We should be just the opposite.
We should seek instruction.
Seek correction. Where we can get better. Better to best.
Seek Truth.
We get older and we can allow ourselves to get stagnant and settle.
Each of us should seek replenishment mentally, physically and spiritually. We should go seeking intentionally to be coached.
“My child, pay close attention to what I say,
Listen carefully to my words.” – Proverbs 4:20
Intentionally, today…and everyday…… Get coached up and….prosper
For individual of group coaching contact me at https://www.mtreppel.com/
LIVE Intentional Today
BODY – Somehow, some way, intentionally be physically active
MIND – Continue to use empowering words – conversations, interactions
SPIRIT – Read the Word –allow it to transform your spirit, your mind
No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way.
-Hebrews 12:11
I can’t stand that I always have energy!
What is up with this?! I always get a good night sleep!
I hate that I never get indigestion!
-Said no one ever!
Well, except once in a radio Ad for Texas Superfoods.
Clever commercial that makes the point of how connected the choices of what we eat with how our body reacts to it.
Think about how more of quality days we could have if we ate the most pure foods every day without eating anything processed or carrying a lot of chemicals and other junk.
The connection of the two is unmistakable.
The connection of the mind, body and spirit too is unmistakable.
It is important to realize each is dependent on the other. They are interdependent with one another. Each one relies on the other’s independent discipline to be healthy and strong. As we also rely on one another to be strong for each other.
Where have you compromised having something or someone in your life that has led to you having, figuratively or literally, sleepless nights, lack of energy and indigestion?
What are you feeding your mind? Your body? Your spirit?
Discipline is key. And God had given you a disciplined spirit that you are to cultivate. (2 Timothy 1:7, 1 Timothy 4:7)
Small disciplines exercised daily creates a lifestyle of excellence.
True Life Abundant 