Reset Your "People" Filter

When you are around people, mentally hit a reset button on how and who you perceive them as.
People are constantly changing and learning.
Even if they are living in the past, you should be there to pull them into the brighter and boundless future that the present has to offer.
We have a new day every 24 hours because we need a marker that comes often. We need a fresh indicator that presents us with a choice to either pick up the same old bat and swing at the ball that was thrown years ago, or pick up the glove and catch opportunities that are being thrown to us (whether by God or other people) and play the game with others who are learning from each other and are having fun playing towards a unified goal of progression in life.
I say all of this ultimately to remind myself that if I don't live in the past and therefore don't criticize my present self for past mistakes or actions, I must treat others with the same respect that I extend to myself.
Thus, I can't treat others as if they are the same person they were a month ago, or a year ago, or even yesterday for that matter.
People may repeat trivial mistakes, but they are a different person each time they make it.
Treat people like the success they will achieve and the wonderful person they will become and you will help them become that person.

Removing Dross

Proverbs 25:4 Remove the dross from the silver, and out comes material for the silversmith.

Before God can use us, he has to take time and remove things so that we can be effectively used.

If we have pride and think that we are better than others, how is God going to be able to use us to love others?
He can't, we would be showing them a cheap and artificial love that accomplishes nothing.

He must first humble us, which won't feel great at the time, and then he can work through us.

Dross (n) : waste products or impurities formed on the surface of molten material during smelting; worthless material, rubbish

We are constantly changing as people, therefore we are always forming some form of dross on the surface of our being, its inevitable.
If you sin, you have dross.
We all sin, therefore we all have dross.

And the wonderful thing is, we have a God who is exceedingly patient, loving, and encouraging.
Not only is he excited to remove the impurities in our lives, he is equally as excited to do it again. 
He loves us so much that even though we constantly fail him, he stands there waiting for us to walk back over and say, "God, can you help me clean up again?" And he'll do it 10/10 times.

Becoming a Rare Find

Proverbs 24: 3-4 By wisdom a house is built, and through understanding it is established; 4 through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

The house is symbolic of the life of an individual. By wisdom, our life is built on a reliable structure and through understanding it is made firm and secure. And then through wisdom we trust in God and obey him and we are filled with rare and beautiful treasures.

Rare (adj) : unusual, special
Unusual (adj) : not usual, common or ordinary
Ordinary (adj) : commonly encountered; usual; regular; normal

If you feel ordinary, get wisdom, with wisdom comes rare and beautiful treasures within your heart. God will make you unique and rare, the self consciousness you have will wane as a product of this.

Because when we find complete value, hope, and security in Christ we don't care about what people think or say about us.      

Love and Faithfulness

The verse that I'm memorizing recently is Proverbs 3:3 which says, "Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."

My NIV study bible provided a cross reference to this verse and explained in Proverbs 3:22, "they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck"

<< love and faithfulness are not a burden, when I first read this, I imagined binding something heavy around your neck to signify love and faithfulness, but God wants us to wear it as an adornment. Love and faithfulness are things that only make the wearer more beautiful and attractive to be around >>

Love (n) : an intense affectionate concern for another person

Faithfulness (adj) : true to one's word, vows, promises

We are called to love everyone, regardless of what they can offer in return. We are called to have an intense affectionate concern toward every single person that we encounter.

In Matthew 22: 37-40 Jesus says, "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 and the second is like it: 'love your neighbor as yourself.' 40 all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Are your actions edifying God through your love and faithfulness?

God is Not Keeping Score

God doesn't have a small pocketbook that he pulls out and writes in every time you sin. 

He isn't keeping record of how much of a screw up you think you are.

If God was keeping score, we would have absolutely zero chance of ever being even with God.

Just like your sins don't matter to Him, your bad qualities aren't on a list either.

God doesn't have an ever growing list of things that you aren't good at, who you treat poorly or the grubby thoughts that you think.

Of course he is aware of your bad character traits, constant sin struggles, and flaws, but the only thing he is interested in is taking those traits away and replacing them with his presence and his qualities.

God wants so desperately for you to be the best version of yourself. And the only way for that to happen is to surrender your will constantly and detach from Earthly desires that cripple progression towards God's vision for your life.

<< Surrender (v) - to give up possession of; yield to another compulsion // to give up or abandon >>

<< Compulsion (n) - A compelling or being compelled by a force>>

<< Yield (v) - to surrender


We are not called to surrender to God when it's convenient for us 

Do you think it was convenient for Mary to be pregnant out of wedlock in her culture?

Accomplishment is a Sum.

The quickest way to lose ambition is to allow yourself to commit to accomplishing your goals tomorrow.

If you want to actually get something done, you need to do it now.

Let's say you want to be a child psychologist, of course you can't just wake up one day and decide to start pursuing a career in this subject, but you can do small things in the now to get yourself one step closer.

Write down all the steps it will take to accomplish what you wish to accomplish and meditate on them daily and your brain will automatically focus on doing things that will benefit the walk toward that goal.

This whole idea revolves around the "it takes thousands of steps to get to the top of the mountain" idea.

If you don't take all those seemingly small and minuscule steps, you will never get where you want to be.

You see, it's not necessarily the steps singularly that get you to the top of the mountain, it's all of the steps combined that actually get you somewhere.

Anything worth accomplishing will require a multitude of intentional strides.

Nothing that gives you great pleasure to accomplish can be done with one ginormous step.


Here's a link to a tool to get your dreams on paper :

http://recoveringlazyholic.com/lists/dreams_list.gif

God Doesn't Hate You

This might be a shocking and perplexing concept, but, God doesn't hate you.

He didn't let your parents get a divorce to torture you or to make you feel anguish because he likes to watch you squirm.

He didn't allow that tumor to grow in your body to display how powerful and full of wrath he is.
He didn't plant the feeling that you were made in the wrong body and gender to see how amusing it would be.
He simply allows these things to be done to us by the god of the earth (Satan; 2 Corinthians 4:4) and gives us the opportunity to run to him for solstice and healing.

He lets us go through struggle and deprivation to show us how much we need him and how the only thing we can control about situations is how we respond to them and how we can reach out to him for comfort and reliance.

We must be broken before God can use us to our maximum potential.

God isn't a child with a magnifying glass aiming a sun beam at Earth, watching us burn.

He is just, his love is limitless and his movements in our life are always for our betterment.
It takes pain to know peace, and discomfort to know blessing.

How can one minister to another with full understanding if they have not gone through similar trials them-self?
We go through struggles so God can pull us out of them and then use us to pull others out of them and into freedom.

Ask God

God wants to give us what we ask for.

Even sometimes when we ask for things that don't correspond with his will and we are adamant enough, he will grant us those things. Of course he knows that some things will end badly, and of course he knows that we will learn from it, and it kills him.

He doesn't just want us to claim a portion of what he has for us, He wants us to receive all of it!
This includes, but is certainly not limited to, healing, good finances, a healthy family, good relationships, and a sound mind.

We are the children of God and we are allowed to run after the Father and ask him for our needs.
Because we have been crucified with Christ (Romans 6) and have been set free from sin, we are allowed to run into the throne room and jump into God's lap and ask him for healing and counsel and love and comfort and an array of other amazing things.

Luke 11 : 9- 10 "So I say to you : Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks will receive; he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." - Jesus 

Jesus uses the word "everyone" because that is legitimately what he means. God doesn't want a small, selective group of his kids to go to live at home with him, He wants all of his kids!

God doesn't choose favorites. 

He literally has the most kids to choose from, he can see their hearts and intentions and knows everything about them. It would be so simple to choose an elite group of people that he really adores, but he chooses not to because it doesn't matter to him. He genuinely does not have a scale to measure how much he loves us individually.
He could never love us less, and He could never loves us more, and that really says something.
He doesn't care about the bad things we've done that has labeled us as unworthy by human standards.

He wants to have a relationship with the drug addict.

He loves the heart of the prostitute and wants her to see him as her father.

He adores the homosexual that has no idea why he was made this way.

He delights in the murderer because he sees past the aggression and rage.

He cherishes the man that has cheated on his wife with countless women.

God doesn't care about what we have done that makes us hate ourselves.
All he cares about is a relationship with us and a bond that allows us to repair our lives and cleanse the hurt that the devil has inflicted us with.

We just need to believe in what Jesus has blessed us with and relax in the overwhelming grace of the Father.
It's not going to be painless because he loves us enough to accept us for who we are, but he also loves us enough to not let us stay that way, and that takes sacrifice.
Ultimately, every improvement that God imposes on our lives moves us closer to a life that is more enjoyable, more comforted, and more adventurous.

And that's exciting.

The World Hates the Disciples

As Christ followers, we are called to be disciples of Christ. 

<< Disciple (n) - a pupil or follower of a teacher >>

We are called to study, observe, and apply Jesus' ways into our lives.

This is not the path to Earthly acceptance. 

By following the call, we are freely abandoning the yearn to belong on Earth : to have a feeling of true connection to the planet. We accept the fact that Earth is temporary and eternity it the opposite. 

John 15:18-19 "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged in this world, it would love you as its own" - Jesus 

<< Belong (v) - to have a proper or suitable place >>

Get this : We are not called to have a proper or suitable place on Earth 

Fitting in seems so desirable, but it's not our purpose. 

<< Purpose (n) - the object for which something exists or is done.