“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”- 1 Peter 4:8
Category Archives: Spiritual Growth
Starting Today
Starting today, I need to release the past. Appreciate and live in the present with an awareness that God loves me and is with me. From this place of peace and security, anticipate with joy what lies ahead.
The pain of the past robs the present. The only thing you have is right now. Don’t let the anxiety of the future and the shame of the past rob the present. Live fully alive in the now, enjoying the relationships and life God has given you.
How Does God Validate You?
How does God validate you? With the love and sacrifice of His son. My head believes this but, does my heart and behavior reflect that?
Everything a man does is a search for validation
The question is not “if” a man is seeking validation. The question is “where is he seeking validation from?”
To validate something is to “give official sanction, confirmation, or approval to it.” What makes you feel like you have value and worth? We are designed to want validation, the feeling of significance. The problem is that we try to get validation from what we think we can control or mange. We avoid mystery and things we can’t control. We seek validation from people, work, friends, accomplishments or our spouse. They become the barometer of our feelings and worth. The treadmill of acceptance can wear us out. Always trying to please people or control situations. The solution is that we kill our heart or hyper control our world. We stop believing that we have value or significance in the world. This will kill your heart, “the wellspring of life” – Proverbs 4:23. Or we control the people in our world by killing them with kindness or managing everything by ourselves. This will flat wear you out.
The problem is we keep God at arms length and try appease Him with church attendance and trying to be nice. God’s love and acceptance is the key to value and significance. The journey of believing brings freedom and renewed energy. How does God validate you?
There is No Panic in Heaven
“There is no panic in Heaven! God has no problems, only plans.”
― Corrie ten Boom
Did you know that nothing catches God by surprise? There is no panic in Heaven, only plans. In Hebrews it says that Jesus is at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them” Hebrews 7:25. Christ’s care for His redeemed children will never be finished. In Heaven, there are no emergency sessions. Our King does not panic and fall off the Throne. He is prepared to deal with every situation that will come up. He has a plan. This is a truth I have to remind myself of often. God is not in a state of panic over my life or my loved one’s life. He is pursuing us with love and passion (Luke 15). He is involved (Romans 8:28). He is the ever present God (Psalms 46:1).
Love Never Ends
Love Never Ends
I need to hear this often – Love never fails….it never ends. This side of heaven it seems that it fails and ends. I have come to know that I know that God’s love never ends. My prayers is that I can learn to live in, and model that truth.
How about you?
We need to tell a bigger story.
“We need to tell a bigger story with our life than the story of ourselves. Your story is too small if it only tells your story.” – Leonard Sweet
We become so wrapped up in the smaller story or our pain and problems that we forgot the larger story or God’s love and provision. Stop and wonder about God’s unfailing love.
He will:
- Never leave you – Hebrews 13:5
- Never stop loving you – Romans 8:37-39
- Never give you more than you can handle – 1 Corinthians 10:13
- Always be with you – Isiah 58:11
Focus on His larger story of love when you feel lost. He will find you and guide you.
Attitude a Little Thing That Makes a Big Difference
The attitude we have affects everything…..yes everything. I can’t remember all the times as a kid someone commented about how my attitude needed to be adjusted – and they seemed to want to help. Thinking back I guess it needed to be adjusted in some way. Now that I am adult I am not sure if my attitude is better or if I have just gotten better and hiding it from others.
I wanted to share some of what I have learned about attitude. A positive healthy attitude is the first thing you need to develop to reach your greatest or highest potential in life.
I have written several posts about resilience. How Do You Handle The Roller Coaster? and Resilience. Look back over them to get a good definition of resilience. In case you don’t have time to look over the posts here is a good working definition of resilience. It is the ability to bounce back or recover from problems. Resilience is vital to our ability to learn grow and not repeat the past. Attitude and resilience go hand in hand. It is very difficult to bounce back and recover from problems if you attitude is negative.
Attitude Does Effect Health
Attitude affects everything. A positive mental or optimistic attitude will lower the risk of heart disease by 77%. Yeah right Mark that’s not possible. Here are two studies:
According to a study by the Mayo Clinic of over 1,100 people tracked for 30 years, optimists live longer than pessimists. And, in a separate study of 999 people, men and women ages 65 to 85, researchers in the Netherlands found that optimistic participants had lower rates of heart disease and were 77% less likely to die of cardiovascular diseases.