Spirituality Guide

I hope today when you woke this morning you practiced finding peace. I mean, did you wake up and have enough “quiet time” to yourself? Or, did you have to dive into a closet or find peace on the way to work in your car? Trust, I know. Been there, done that!

But, finding peace doesn’t HAVE to be so elusive. It takes quite a bit of practice to skillfully find places and times where you can find a few moments of undisturbed peace, and talk and communion with God. Haven’t you ever wanted to talk with someone and have their undivided attention? Did you think it rude that they were distracted, or worse, talking to someone else as they were supposed to be talking to you. Usually, you just say, I’ll talk to you later. I see you’re busy right now.

We often have to share our quiet time with God. There are the kids screaming and shouting, or the phone ringing, or the boss beeping in, or our PDA’s, cellphones, palm pilots, or our……..you get the idea.

Stealing away a few, few moments of total quiet time can be a challenge, but is do-able. Try to be creative, but do be diligent. It’s not very much. Just a few minutes of quiet time to let God know that we love Him, we’re thinking about Him, we want Him around today, etc. Just a few minutes.

Can you spare…..a few?

Sometimes, the only way to find peace is to find that still, small voice of God speaking to you in a chaotic, noisy world. I often find my peace early in the mornings before my kids wake up. Like now. Right now, there is only me, the birds outside singing and that still small voice speaking softly to my spirit. When we’re still, God is able to speak to us, uninterrupted and without competition. When we are still, we discover things that we perhaps did not know about ourselves before. When we are still.

When we pray and ask God for direction in our lives, we’re asking Him to give us His mind, His thoughts, His actions. We’re essentially asking for quite a bit. In order to receive what His best is for us, we have to learn to listen, to be still. He wants to flood our lives with a joy and peace, that’s unimaginable. He wants us to overflow with His abundant gifts.

Take the time today to listen to His still small voice. If you weren’t able to catch that down time this morning, don’t worry. The day has just begun. Maybe later this afternoon, maybe even this evening. Just do it. Listen. Be still and hear His peace.

Have you ever hear the phrase, “eat, drink and be merry; for tomorrow we die”? I’m sure most of you have. It simply refers to making the most out of the available time and resources that you have. Don’t wait until everything is “just right” to enjoy yourself.
Actually, things will never be “just right”, which is why the emphasis is on doing things today.

Just think….

What if you waited until you lost 15 pounds before you go to the beach?

Why wait until after you finish graduate school before you can get involved in your child’s PTO?

Should you wait before selling your car? Why? Just to get more from it?

If we wait, that’s good. Depending on what it is. However, sometimes waiting has no value, and we ending up wasting. If there is no reason for you to forgo happiness and satisfaction, now, why not do it?

Scriptures tell us that no man knows the day or the hour when Jesus will return. We don’t how long we have to prepare ourselves for His arrival. Getting ready and being ready are two totally different things. Daily, we should be ready. Everyday, we should get ready.

Seize any and all opportunities that are available to you now to bring you joy and happiness. Allow all things good to come into your life. You will see that waiting has no purpose, especially if it’s ready and available to you…now.

Go ahead. It’s o.k. Enjoy yourself.

No one knows what it will be like tomorrow.

Did you wake up balanced this morning? Or, were you too much on this side or too much on this side? What am I talking about? I’m talking about having a life full of balance. Meaning, you don’t do too much of this thing or too much of that thing, but you do a nice job of a little of everything.

I found out this weekend just how far out of balance I really am. My life balance ends where I don’t get enough recreation. No, no, not just leisure time or down time but not enough recreation time. We just do not take the time out to rejuvenate ourselves. God wants us to be totally in balance so that we are able to fully function and be successful in everything.

Being out of balance will cause you to become irritable, moody and even angry. Since this is the Memorial Day weekend, take some time out today and just rest. I know it may be a foreign idea to some (like me), but just try it.

All you have to lose is imbalance, right?

There is so much war, so much crime, hungry children, abundant pain, disease and death. All of this from a God who said that He would never leave us nor forsake us. A God who is an all-loving, all-merciful God who has the whole world in His hands. Why and how could He allow there to be so much suffering to those that says He loves.

God has given us many things, material and immaterial. He has given us the ability to reason, think, manipulate and deny. He has given us the skills to negotiate, argue, seek and comply. We have the characteristics to attract, repel, uplift and forgo. However, of all the things that God has given us, one remains constant. God has given each of us the ability to make choices, to make decisions. He has given us the ability to choose.

The ability to choose is one of the most profound freedoms that God has given us. The choices we make reflect how we think and who we are as a people. He doesn’t force Himself or His way of thinking on us. We do this all by ourselves. We’re not robots and God has not created us as such. We have unlimited freedom to make any choice that we want. However, this freedom does not come without consequence. Whenever this freedom is exercised, be prepared to have consequences accompanied with choices that are made. But, let mankind not blame God for the choices that WE make.

He hasn’t failed US. We simply have failed to choose…correctly.

The Need For God

There is a basic need that exists in all mankind. There is a need that transcends even the most basic ones of food, water shelter and security. There is a need that exists where without it, all human faculties would be challenged to test survival in its absence. This is a need that everyone, everywhere has. The need is universal and everlasting.

We all need God.

From the beginning of civilization to modern day, man has always prided himself in being self-sufficient. He thinks that he doesn’t need anything. He is independent, he is intelligent, wise, strong and able to accomplish anything he sets out to do.

Even when Adam found himself in the Garden of Eden without covering, he merely offered God excuses. He didn’t ask for help. He didn’t ask for direction. He didn’t ask for solutions. He didn’t think he needed God. Why? Because he thought he had all of the answers.

Unfortunately, many think they have all of the answers and God is not needed or is necessary in their lives. But, we do need God. We all do. We all need God in our lives to direct us, guide and protect us. We all need God to intervene and show us what to do.

Without God, our lives would be directionless, obscure and chaotic. We wouldn’t know what to do and what choices to make. God is an all-wise, all-knowing entity and so it goes that He knows the beginning to the end. Since I don’t know the beginning or the ending, I need God to show me and guide me.

Since He’s been God for so long, I think I’ll trust what He’s doing and lean not to my own understanding.

Won’t you join me?

Joy.

An unbelievable emotion that everyone should experience at least once in their lives. Have you ever been so full of joy, that you felt you would burst? A feeling of euphoria accompanied by a dose of surrealness is enough to make a person feel detached from their bodies. Joy. Unspeakable joy.

Joy is more than emotion. It’s a state of being. Complete this sentence out loud:

I get joy when I think about _______________________.

Whatever your answer was, I guarantee that this is the way you feel about life in general. Your attitude towards this emotion is what makes you who you are and what gives you a zest for life. It is simply not the way you feel today based on today’s circumstances. Joy is what you feel day after day after day. It’s who you are. It’s what you are. It’s what makes you.

Joy. What’s at your center?

Do you have someone to go to whenever you’re in trouble? What about when you’re faced with challenges and don’t quite know what to do?

It’s often our human nature that takes over and causes us to try and solve our own problems. However, what we fail to realize is that once we put our hands in it, we really make more of a mess. Our human-ness will not allow us to operate in the spiritual. Since spiritual and earthly cannot cohesively operate, our challenges are magnified into chaos. Therefore, for us to be champions and warriors, we need to operate spirituality with the heavens opening up and blessing us. We need spirituality. We need a go-to.

We need a go-to God.

When Christ ascended, he left the Holy Comforter with us that helps to lead, guide and direct us in all things. Whenever we are in need or in trouble, we have an out through our go-to. We should take advantage of this resource and call on God at all times, and not just in the time of need.

We don’t have to concern ourselves with how we are going to solve life’s issues if we have a go-to God. He is there for us to lean on and depend on. The scriptures implore to not give thought for tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself. If the sparrow doesn’t fret about his next meal, why should you as a child of God worry and perplex over the complexities of life?

Enlist your go-to God. He’s waiting for you.

Do You Protect God?

My husband and I have three absolutely wonderful children. I do everything I can for them and there’s nothing that I wouldn’t give them or do for them. I stay active in their school, take them to their extra-curricular activities and celebrate even the smallest challenges in their little lives. As a parent, I am a fierce protector of them, always on guard for any sign of danger or improprieties. If anyone or anything endangers them, I immediately come to their rescue to protect them and cover them, even without prompting. They’re my kids.

If anyone or anything threatens to hurt God, do you protect Him? You probably wonder, what in the world could hurt God? He doesn’t need protection because He’s God, right? I suspect God is hurt by a lot of things that perhaps we take for granted. Like for instance, when His name is taken in vein, do we immediately rise up and protect His Name? Or, do we sit idly by and allow harm and injustice to pierce His heart? What about when the all-wise scientists declare that there is indisputable evidence that there is no God. They announce through their research that the universe was just “formed”. Do you stand up and declare that according to scripture, that God existed before the universe was even formed?

Although God IS all-knowing, all-wise and all-encompassing, we must do our part to protect His holiness, to protect His righteous name. We cannot sit idly by and allow the forces of hell to reign attack on Him at every whim and every chance they’re given.

To protect God, we must simply just speak up. Whenever we see injustices, speak up. Whenever we witness something that is amiss, talk up. Don’t allow any and everything to happen to our God. Let’s protect Him just as much as He protects us. He takes the very best care of us whenever we’re in trouble or whenever there are wrongs made against us.

Let’s do the same for Him.

Let’s protect God.

The third step in your quest to attain a deeper level of faith is

Perseverance.

Perseverance is the ability to press beyond that which seems impossible and achieve success. We persevere even when the situation looks bleak and dismal. In this life, our desire to attain the intangible rests in our mindsets the will to persevere.

God wants us to win. He expects us to win. Simply because we have the ability to win, why? Because He gave it to us. Everything that we need to become winners, to persevere, to accomplish the unlikely is all wrapped up in our faith.

You can do it if you just persevere.

Thanks for tuning back in today. Let’s proceed….

The next step in building your faith is:

2. Begin to act on your faith. Taking the first step in acting on your faith is crucial. Once you have identified what your goal is and have applied a determined faith to it, now you must begin to act on it. How do you do that?

For example, let’s say your goal is to increase your prayer life. Now it doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a morning or a night-time prayer-er. You may even be a noon-time prayer. The key here is to just do it. For simplicity’s sake, let’s say you are a morning prayer-er. We all know that mornings are the hardest time to get up to do anything that’s focused (this includes exercising…and blogging too!).

If your goal is to pray every morning at 5:00 a.m., when the alarm sounds, you….must…..get….up. No matter what the circumstances may be, it’s imperative to focus on what you have to do.

It is a refreshing feeling to be able to meet your goal and to make the very first step in doing that. There is an undeniable feeling of accomplishment when you do. Faith build upon faith. God will help increase our faith if we just lean on Him.

Have a blessed day!

Yesterday, we touched on the how-to’s of achieving faith in order to reach goals. Let’s look at what it takes to reach that place where you can enjoy the feeling of accomplishments:

1. Faith requires a made up, determined mind for you to say, “I can do this”. You have to know, without anyone telling you, that you can achieve your goal, you can meet your goal and you can do it no matter what the challenges are. To make up your mind is simply doing it. Don’t turn around three times and chant while clicking your heels. All of that is just fluff. Making up your mind is just making up your mind. Period.

Be ready for this to happen when you have made up your mind. Every naysayer, every negative feeling or emotion will try to flood your mind and cause you to want to give up. I’m sure you’ve done it. When you finally decide to establish a prayer life, sleep comes hard and heavy right when the alarm goes off. AAAGGGGHHH!! That can be daunting and frustrating. But, once you make up your mind, you simply sacrifice both physical and mental and do what needs to be done. This is causing you to establish a building block for your faith to rest on. This will cause you to have determination and focus to work on your goals.

Try establishing that one principle before we go further. Give it a shot first thing in the a.m. Let me know how it goes…

Reaching for the stars. What a great idea.

Whenever we set goals for ourselves, whether they are short-term or long-term, we are reaching for something that is possibly a challenge, but is attainable. We reach for these goals with the finish in mind. The finish of reaching the stars.

I have set many goals for myself, many times over and over again. I’m sure many of you have done the same thing. Goal-setting and goal-reaching is very challenging, yet very attainable. It only requires one thing.

That thing is faith.

Faith in God, faith in yourself, faith in the Word of God will help us reach goals and go beyond the natural when we apply our faith to the situation. Have you ever reached for something only to find that it keeps escaping you? Have you ever become frustrated yet find that other people seem to reach their goals…effortlessly?

There is no trick, there is no hidden message, no mystery, just plain faith. Remember the scripture that talks about having “mustard-seed” faith? That’s powerfully-small faith! Faith that moves mountains, fixes situations and straightens crooked places. Just good old faith. When you have it you know it. And when you don’t have it, you know that too.

The “how-to’s” in getting faith are all realtive; everyone has a different way to do it. And you know, there is no ‘one-way-only’. Everyone is different and everyone has a different relationship with the Father. But there is one thing that is universal. The faith that causes dynamic things to happen and things to get done can only be gotten one way.

Tune in tommorrow to find out how…

Our spirituality is tied directly to our emotions, perception, and total outlook on life. When we think right, we feel right. When we feel right, we treat others right. And, when we treat others right, God is pleased. Although, yes, being spiritual is more than just a feeling, we must learn how to tap into our spiritual-ness in order to allow God to speak to our hearts. Think about it: when do you ever feel like praying? Or, when do you ever really feel like sacrificing….anything? If we only went with how we feel, very little would get down. But, by the same token you have to feel something in order to do it. You have to feel like talking to God in order to talk to Him. You have to feel like changing for God in order to change.

When you are ready to diagnose your spiritual feelings, take inventory. Do you have any unresolved issues? Any unforgiveness? Any unfinished business? Before your spirituality can increase, go back and fix these situations. Nothing will flow for you until those resolutions are made. Searc your hearts diligently and firmly resolve to make the wrongs become right and turn things around. You will be AMAZED at how your life will flow seamlessley!