You are currently browsing the daily archive for January 8, 2012.
Here are some random changes you can make to help make 2012 a better year:
1. Believe the best about people. Make trust your default, not suspicion.
2. Be on time. Great leaders are rarely late.
3. Under promise and over deliver. Our tendency is to do the opposite.
4. Stop blaming people. Just stop. Your will start taking responsibility for yourself as a result.
5. Pray for your enemies. You will forgive them…and they will not be your enemies for long.
6. Review the week ahead on Sunday night for ten minutes. Monday won’t seem nearly as intimidating
So how does this work in real life?
We often face situations that make worry or doubt. Maybe job insecurity. Maybe having to make big decisions about study courses or flatting. Maybe health worries or financial pressures. Its at those times we have to remember that we are children of God and trust our heavenly Father and live counter culture – we need to hold onto the promises of God. And in those times our true colours are often revealed. Its like when the pressure is on all the weaknesses of our personality and self are exposed and revealed…
Some simple actions and behaviours to do – to behave your way into transformation:
Pray.
Find someone to pray with you and for you. Text a friend.
Be thankful – thank God for this situation and for what He IS doing and WILL do
Try not to grumble and complain and worry and get into a spiral of doubt – replace those feelings with faith and hope and if need be find a verse or a promise to COUNTER each grumble/complain/worry – so that you are fixing your eyes upon God and His reality. This doesn’t mean we turn fake, or that we paste on a happy I’m fine face, but that we don’t allow the feelings to detract from the reality that God is God and He is at work. Life is hard but God is real and love us. He is great and good.
Our pastor put it really nicely last year (was a very memorable in a good way message) when he preached from 1 peter 4:7+
1. STOP – this puts your mind in charge. It says to your body and your emotions – ‘quiet down’
2. BREATHE – amazing how when we start to get anxious our breathing can go weird! It settles our body and our emotions
3. REMIND YOURSELF OF THE PROMISE OF GOD – I’m listening to Jesus because He’s always right.
4. OPEN YOURSELF TO THE SPIRIT OF GOD – OK God, now what?
It takes practice and intention to replace a lifetime of mind habit with the truth.
"…the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments…" Paul Tripp
this morning our pastor shared about breaking a habit and shared an analogy i just had to pinch. back in the 1960’s when space ships blasted off into space they had to use an immense amount of energy to break the gravitational pull of the earth (that’s what the great big thrusters are for). then when in space, free from the gravitational pull, they release the thrusters and just have a smaller space ship that is powered by short small energy bursts. now i’m not doing the analogy justice but the main point is that sometimes it takes a huge amount of energy to break free from the gravitational pull of a habit, but once free from that habit, it takes a smaller amount of energy to maintain the freedom.
THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us… Hebrews 12:1 AMP
we ARE overcomers and by the grace of God and the work of the Holy Spirit change is possible. We ARE children of God, being transformed and renewed.
Lets be people that live surrendered to God, living to please Him and make Him known.
You see, the character of a life is not set in two or three dramatic moments, but in 10,000 little moments. The character that was formed in those little moments is what shapes how you respond to the big moments of life.
What leads to significant personal change?
- 10,000 moments of personal insight and conviction
- 10,000 moments of humble submission
- 10,000 moments of foolishness exposed and wisdom gained
- 10,000 moments of sin confessed and sin forsaken
- 10,000 moments of courageous faith
- 10,000 choice points of obedience
- 10,000 times of forsaking the kingdom of self and running toward the kingdom of God
- 10,000 moments where we abandon worship of the creation and give ourselves to worship of the Creator.
And what makes all of this possible? Relentless, transforming, little-moment grace. You see, Jesus is Emmanuel not just because he came to earth, but because he makes you the place where he dwells. This means he is present and active in all the mundane moments of your daily life. And what is he doing? In these small moments he is delivering every redemptive promise he has made to you. In these unremarkable moments, he is working to rescue you from you and transform you into his likeness. By sovereign grace he places you in daily little moments that are designed to take you beyond your character, wisdom and grace so that you will seek the help and hope that can only be found in him. In a lifelong process of change, he is undoing you and rebuilding you again—exactly what each one of us needs! Paul Tripp
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