Tag: vision

Get Back Up

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“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
    But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭24:16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What trips you up?

Is it overthinking, overeating, over-controlling, overworking, oversleeping, over-it-all-so-I-am-quitting everything?

It really isn’t what trips you up that is dangerous, it is what keeps you down when you fall.

You fell.

You are human.

Get up.

You are loved.

God is not done with you.

You have a purpose.

God has a vision for your life.

Get up and take one step toward it today.

Be Intentional

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“Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down, not cut them out.”

Colossians‬ ‭4‬:‭5-6‬ MSG

Every conversation you have today is an opportunity to love.

The words you use are powerful.

Use them with intention and vision.

Use them to invite feedback.

Have conversations that inspire hope and are reminders of gratitude.

Today, you have permission to:

  • reach out to someone you haven’t talked to for a long time,
  • extend grace to someone who is bugging you,
  • do the ordinary thing that will help someone feel loved,
  • activate wisdom in every conversation and, 
  • be intentionally uplifting with your words.

Be obedient to the little nudges from the Holy Spirit, especially the ones that push you outside your comfort zone.

God has put you where you are for a reason.

Be brave and seize every opportunity Jesus brings you today. 

It may make more of a difference in someone’s life than you can possibly imagine.

Your Unique Purpose

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You have been made on purpose for a purpose.

God broke the mold when He created you.

There is no one else on earth exactly like you.

You are made to do something as unique as you are.

Others may have similar gifts but there is a call that only you can fill.

Comparing yourself to others will sabotage it and envy will outright destroy it.

To truly fulfill your purpose you are going to have to accept that you are never going to fit in.

God didn’t create you to fit in and doesn’t expect you to. In fact, He is calling you to stand up and stand out. Be different. Be unique. Be you.

“By an act of faith, he lived in the country promised him, lived as a stranger camping in tents. Isaac and Jacob did the same, living under the same promise.” Hebrews 11:9 MSG

God didn’t call Abraham to go to the new country and blend in, he called Abraham to live like a stranger in a strange land. He is calling you to do the same.

Embrace your unique calling and quit trying to fit in.

If you don’t know where to start, begin by asking yourself these two questions:

  1. Who are you?
  2. What breaks your heart?

Where Your Faith Rests

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

Galatians 2:20 NIV

Your life as a Jesus follower is not about what you are capable of doing, it’s about what Jesus is capable of doing through you.

Your body is His to use, your mind is His to fill, your heart is His to heal.

His mission is your mission, His vision is your vision, His power is your power.

This life is no longer yours, it is His life lived through you.

I have learned that Jesus will take all the life you are “able” to give Him and live through it.

My friend, surrender all you can today, then all you can tomorrow.

Jesus will receive it with joyous love.

He will embrace it with strong arms of grace.

He will take you to places of faith you couldn’t have even imagined the first moment that you surrendered your life and chose to live by faith in the Son of God.

You have more life now than you did then.

Today is a good day to surrender all the life you have to Jesus… again.

Unless you have never done this, in that case, today is the perfect day to surrender your whole life to Jesus for the first time.

Are you living by faith in the Son of God or faith in yourself?

What do you have to surrender?

How does the Son of God want to live through you today?

Chosen and Crafted

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“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians  2:10 NIV

My friend, you have been chosen by God and your life is being crafted into a masterpiece.

No matter what stage of preparation you are at (and no matter how many times you go back into the workshop), God knows what He is preparing you for.

Trust His vision and His heart.

You are His.

Should-Haves and What Ifs

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“So don’t you see that we don’t owe this old do-it-yourself life one red cent. There is nothing in it, nothing at all. The best thing to is to give it a decent burial and get on with your new life. God’s Spirit beckons.” 

Romans 8:12-15 (MSG)

What “should haves” are holding you back from being fully present in the beautiful life Jesus has for you?

When God sends you a vision of your future, it is to get you moving in the right direction. When He lays a burden on your heart it is to pull you towards His purpose for you. He will not lift the call but He will refine it. He will not lift the burden to be His change agent in the world but He will redefine it constantly.

And God will never ask you to “do-it-yourself”, His visions always come with a “you-can-only-accomplish-this-with-God” clause.

We can all easily slip into a habit of tending the graves of “what ifs” and “should have dones” but that only hinders us from living in the power of the resurrection life of Jesus.

Life in Christ is meant to be a moment by moment adventure with God.

Give your “should haves” a decent burial and get on with it.

What regret have you been grave tending?

What Trips You Up?

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“The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
    But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭24:16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

What trips you up?

How do you fall?

Is it overthinking, overeating, over-controlling, overworking, oversleeping, over-it-all-so-I-am-quitting everything?

It really isn’t what trips you up that is dangerous, it is what keeps you down when you fall.

You fell.

You are human.

Get up.

You are loved.

God is not done with you.

You have a purpose.

God has a vision for your life.

Get up and take one step toward it today.

Your Promised Land

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Frida

Your promised land is right before you.

It is where you are, transformed by God’s transforming love:

It is your heart and mind transformed by God’s love.

It is your relationships transformed by God’s love.

It is your workplace transformed by God’s love.

It is your parenting transformed by God’s love.

It is you – transformed by God’s love and God using you to transform your surroundings.

“I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15 NIV

Close your eyes, open the eyes of your heart and ask God to give you His vision for your life.

See with eyes of faith.

Taste the bounty you will cultivate.

Feel the joy of habitation.

Be filled to the brim with the love of God and then let it overflow to everyone around you.

Live By Faith

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I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 NIV

What does it mean to live by faith? It means making decisions on how to live based on where God has called you to go, not where you have been before.

It’s faith because you haven’t seen it yet but Jesus has.

It’s faith because you are living in something different than you ever have before: you are living by faith in the Son of God instead of living by faith in yourself.

Your life as a Jesus follower is not about what you are capable of doing, it’s about what Jesus is capable of doing through you.

Your body is His to use, your mind is His to fill, your heart is His to heal.

His mission is your mission, His vision is your vision, His power is your power.

This life is no longer yours, it is His life lived through you.

I have learned that Jesus will take all the life you are “able” to give Him and live through it.

Then as you follow Him, trust Him, grow in Him, you discover that there is more of your “life” that you need to surrender to Him so He can fully live through it and so on.

My friend, surrender all you can today, then all you can tomorrow.

Jesus will receive it with joyous love.

He will embrace it with strong arms of grace.

He will take you to places of faith you couldn’t have even imagined the first moment that you surrendered your life and chose to live by faith in the Son of God.

You have more life now than you did then.

Today is a good day to surrender all the life you have to Jesus… again.

Unless you have never done this, in that case, today is the perfect day to surrender your whole life Jesus for the first time.

Are you living by faith in the Son of God or faith in yourself?

What do you have to surrender?

How does the Son of God want to live through you today?

 

 

 

 

Image-bearer

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Look at what you have in your hands.

Look at the vision in your heart.

Gaze intently, not at your own reflection, but at the One you have been created to reflect.

God’s original plan was that you be His image-bearer.

The representation of His loving hands, compassionate heart, and powerful words in the world.

You are made to be a vessel that brings heaven to earth, interrupts the downward spiral of anxiety with the upward flow of faith, and intervenes in lost lives to help them find the way home.

This was the original plan sideswiped by sin, waylaid by fear, tempted to deny by the whisperer of destructive lies.

You are created to be an image-bearer.  Jesus died for you to restore you to it.

With Christ, you are restored, redeemed, repurposed, and recreated in His love to walk free in God’s original plan for your life.

“He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”  Ephesians 2:10 NLT

Look closer at what you have in your hands.

Look deeper at the vision in your heart.

The world needs to see Jesus uniquely expressed through you today.