“Photo from Tompax11”
Your Life is the Product of your Lifestyle
John Mark Comer said:
“Your life is a product of your lifestyle. By life I mean your experience of the human condition, and by lifestyle I mean the rhythms and routines that make up your day-to-day existence. The way you organize your time. Spend your money.” (The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry)
Imagine not including friends into your time? Better yet imagine a life without anyone else, but you.
For many this is a reality going into 2020 that ought not be so and for whatever reason, valid or invalid, it is. Guess what? I am NOT here to shame guilt or blame. I’m here to encourage you to enter THIS YEAR shaking the dirt off your shoes from THE LAST YEAR.
You have value to me as my reader and you have value to the Father as His creation.
WHATEVER bad attitudes, thought patterns, and perspectives you may have brought with you, drop them at the door steps of 2020.
This is a chance to start fresh and yet every single day is. Do not underestimate the value of a new day.
Lean on GOD, fully trusting HIS ability to go before you.
God told Moses to take off his shoes, for “THIS IS HOLY GROUND.”
One preacher pointed out that it was not just to show Moses what he’d need to leave behind him before God went before him, but also to show Moses that what he was about to step into, Moses could not do so lightly. The plan God had for Moses would require Moses to not just go into it the same way he did with everything else in his life. Moses had a conflict problem and an anger problem. The Lord, fully able to help, said leave it there, dead and distant in the past where it belongs, basically!!!
Friends are Damage Control
By damage control I mean they prevent us from damaging us.
If we’re honest, a lot of the damage done to us is done by us.
The friend you ought to keep around is the one who will call you out on the disrespect you show yourself. Bad eating habits. Negative self-talk. Not setting goals. Not having vision. Not focusing long enough to see anything important in order to have vision in the first place! Yes, you become like those you hang out with most, so choose wisely, and please, choose friends who are edgy enough and love you enough to actually correct you.
We all need a kick in the nuts once in awhile from those we love. A reality slap.
We ignorantly disrespect ourselves when we refuse to take life-giving correction.
We beat the crap out of ourselves with negative self-talk and at the same time somehow think this is the way to help us “get our stuff together.” We are terrible at pumping ourselves up!
News flash. It’s. Not. Working.
And was never meant to, for we were always meant to live beside others. To grow with them, beside them and from their help, love and example.
And no, I am in no way advocating for “positive self-talk” alone.
There is no secret to the life that God wants for you. It is just Jesus. Adopting His lifestyle. Becoming yoked to Him and letting Him carry the weight you weren’t supposed to.
There are popular, best-selling books set to spiritualize something that is very simple: Positive self-talk. Steven Bancarz, an ex-new-ager has done extensive research and has made many excellent videos, sharing his findings and explaining why this is so.
But going into 2020, do not be deceived.
“I believe in positive thinking as a response to God, not as a replacement for Him.”
-Levi Lusko
Levi said it well.
One pastor, David Wilkerson, has said that it is often in our human depravity that we equate prospering to God’s blessing. God WANTS to bless His children because “every good and perfect gift comes from the Father.” HOWEVER, in the BIBLE and IN LIFE, often the greatest pitfalls of men and women of character have come immediately after their greatest times of prosperity.
The devil exploits weaknesses that we don’t deal with during times of “prosperity” because we naturally think all is well, God is blessing us, so “must be fine.” No, His blessing is often an opportunity for us to turn back to Him in humility, as Pastor David Wilkerson has said in a sermon entitled “Beware of a satanic set-up.”
So let us board the plane of 2020 while leaving behind the baggage we weren’t meant to carry in the first place.
Whether you’re in the valley or on the mountain top, you need God as much as the first day you cried out to Him. And we needed Him even before realizing it.
He is our breath and our life.
Alex Oram
12.31.19
James1Seventeen 