New Year’s Day was always a stressful day for me. My New Year’s Resolutions were always things I felt I needed to change in my life, but really didn’t want to change, or I harbored negative feelings about the change. So I suffered through the allotted time, a week or two, and then went back to my old ways. Until the next year, when I made the same vows.
Every year, I drifted along without any goals, dreams, or accomplishments. I was stressed and depressed. And I wasted many years of my life wallowing in my misery.
Until one day, when I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my life: My life is not just about me.
One of our biggest problems is our carnal mind. It is self-absorbed, self-seeking, and greedy. When we only focus on ourselves, and how our circumstances or situations benefit us or make us feel, then we are not in God’s will. We are living according to our ways.
So often we allow instant satisfaction to derail our long term goals. We eat the food that is bad for us because it tastes good and satisfies our craving right them, but sabotages our health. We snooze instead of exercising, and feel sluggish all day. We spend our money for the joy of the moment and forgo our dreams. We skip church, don't read our Bible, and neglect to pray because we are so busy living our life that we forget what life is really all about.
If we know these things are bad for our overall health and wellbeing, then why do we do them? Because we have the wrong mind-set, and spend too much time embracing our negative voice. So often we do what is easy, not what is right. We need to always remember, the devil wants to defeat us.
In order to become spiritually minded, we must welcome God into our lives. And not just on Sunday morning or when other people are watching our actions. We must embrace Him in all things, in all times, and allow Him to be the very center of our lives—every day.
Once we begin this spiritual journey with the Lord, He will mold us into the vessel He wants us to be.
The process is often painful. The Bible tells us when we increase our wisdom, we increase our suffering. Most people give up, back up on the Lord, and quit at the first sign of trouble. Some get mad at Him, and turn away from Him instead of seeking Him. And these are the people who develop a victim mind-set. Their situation is always worse than anyone else’s. The devil convinces them their situation is hopeless, and they take his lies to heart. (Sometimes, I do.)
But, if we turn to God, He will comfort us, strengthen us, and help us overcome every hardship. And teach us how to live an inspired life for Him.
Regardless of what happens to us, we will never suffer as Jesus suffered for us. And He didn’t open His mouth. He never uttered a complaint. He died for us, so that we may life forever. And the little trials that we go through are not worthy to be compared to the joy of living with Him in Heaven—for eternity.
When the devil tries to magnify our suffering, and make it worse than what it really is, we need to glorify our Lord. When the enemy tries to draw us away from God, we need to turn to Him. We need to remember always that we are more than conquerors through our Lord. And nothing can separate us from the Love of God.
Every day we have to purposely choose the good and seek Him. We need to pray daily and ask Him to give us the right perspective, actions that reveal Him to others, good habits that bring us closer to Him, and a spiritual mind-set.
We have the freedom to choose how we will handle our trials. God allows us decide if we want to embrace Him and His ways, or turn away from Him and try to find our own way. Our trials will either A.) strengthen us and increase our wisdom, or B.) weaken us and bring us unnecessary misery.
If we want our new year to be our best year ever, we need to be intentional about our hopes, goals, and dreams and make sure God is the very center of our life. We need to be honest with ourselves and seek after our heart’s desires. When we decide to live an inspired life and become intentional about accomplishing our goals, great things will happen.
Spend today praying, meditating, and listening to your heart. Get out a notepad and write down things about your life you would like to change. Without excuses or limiting beliefs dream, plan, and take charge of your life. What do you want? If you designed your life, what would it look like? Push fear aside and decide right now that 2016 is going to be your best year ever. And don’t allow anyone or anything to stop you.
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| Photo from Unsplash |
Dream. Inspire. Live.
Happy New Year,
Candida
