01.30.09
Unexpected Opportunities Coming Your Way
My favorite scripture is Romans 4:17 “…and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” My second favorite scripture is “…and suddenly!”
How many times in the Word do we read about “and suddenly” situations? In Exodus 2 we read about Moses’ birth and how his sister Miriam had hidden in the reeds along the Nile River to watch over the basket containing her 3 month old baby brother who should be killed according to the orders of Pharaoh! As Pharaoh’s daughter sees the crying baby in the basket and knows this child needs a mother to nurse him, Miriam sees an opportunity – there was an “and suddenly” about to take place in the life of baby Moses and his family! Miriam saw an opportunity to approach the Pharaoh’s daughter and offer to find a Hebrew woman to nurse the child – she would go and fetch his own mother to be reunited with her tiny son!
Special opportunities may come our way unexpectedly. We must not let the fear of what might happen cause us to miss an opportunity God has planned for us. We need to be alert and fully prepared for the opportunities God has for us and be ready to take full advantage of them. How do we prepare ourselves for something we do not know is coming?
By spending time each day with our Father and getting to know Him and His voice. We read His Word and seek His face. We spend time praying – not our: help me, bless me, do for me prayers – but our: Father I seek your will, I declare your Word over my life and my situations, and I stand on your promises which are full truth! As we take the time to do this, we will grow into the women God wants us to be and we will be ready when he does an “and suddenly” in our lives.
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01.29.09
Do You Know Your Purpose?
The purpose of a butterfly is to pollinate. Do you know your purpose? Do you live it each day?
We are within the last few days of a new year. About this time most New Year’s Resolutions have fallen away, however this can be the first day of the rest of your life! Even if you have fallen off the wagon so to speak you can pick up and start again. Take some time right now and think about how far you have come this past year… and how you expect this year to end…you have 11 months left to change your life into the life you most desire. The difference between where you are NOW and where you want to BE may not be all that far apart—if you simply extend your reach.
Why not start right now – today? Think about the rest of your day. What’s one thing you can do right now so you can get more done later? Have you made a list of what you want to accomplish before the end of the year is over? Have you thought about what you want to happen for you in this year? Today and right now is a good time to start! Remember you have a purpose in life. Are you fulfilling that purpose and living life to the fullest?
Proverbs 23:7 says “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Norman Vincent Peal said it well when he said, “we tend to get what we expect.” That is so true, what you are thinking on continuously will come to pass in your life. You WILL get what you expect! So expect good to come your way at ALL times!!!
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01.28.09
Cling Free Relationships
“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother.” Genesis 2:24
God said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” God said that to Adam and Eve, the first two people on earth, who had neither father nor mother to leave, nor children, yet, to leave them.
Have your children left home? If so, you’ve discovered that you don’t adjust overnight to your sense of loss. After all, you’ve invested yourself, your time, your labor, your love, your faith and your hopes in them. They’re your most precious possessions, your pride and joy; now they’re leaving and taking a big chunk of you with them. The empty nest can be both shocking and depressing. But it’s been Life 101, ever since Eden. That’s why God laid it out for Adam and Eve so early in the parenting game. Knowing that one of the hardest parts of parenting is letting go, God was saying, “Letting go takes time. Start preparing yourself now, before you have children.”
Our kids are born leaving! From their first steps, they’re on an outbound orbit, returning periodically to tank up on reassurance (or funds) and leaving again to become their “own person,” couple or family as God intended. So begin early, “letting out the line,” gradually increasing their freedom as they can handle responsibility. God gives us two principles for a healthy marriage in Genesis 2:24: leaving and cleaving. Your child must leave you in order to cleave to the partner God is giving them. So invest in their happiness by having your own life and letting them have theirs. Making it easier for them makes it easier on you!
Reprinted from Jentezen Franklin’s Blog
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01.27.09
In Everything Give Thanks
Since 2007 on the G.I.R.L.S. ~ (Girls Inspiring Real Life Success) Daily Blog I have declared Mondays as Grateful Mondays. Being grateful is what we are to do as children of God. I do realize over the past 2 weeks I have not used Mondays for this purpose. Today however we are going to declare this “Thankful Tuesday!”
So many times over the past couple of years women have asked me “how can I be thankful when this or that is going on in my life?”
1 Thessalonians 5:18 declares to us, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” We are to give thanks and glory to God even before our answers come into manifestation. Remember this scripture does not say we are to thank him for everything we are thanking him in everything. Yes it does seem crazy when you are faced with loosing your home to thank God for that, however I have learned in my life when God allows something to be removed no matter how hard it is for me, He knows what is best. Now I am not saying it is His will for us to loose our homes, you must seek God fully in whatever your situation is, but today I am going to be a little transparent with you.
In November 2007 my husband and I owned a business that was generating over one million dollars. And literally in the blink of an eye that company was stolen from us from some very greedy people. When my husband called me to pray because our company was about to be taken, I opened my mouth to rebuke the Devil when suddenly I stopped. I knew this was not the work of the enemy, but it was God allowing this to happen in our lives. I called my husband back to tell him that God was allowing (not causing) this, and his reply was “I don’t see how this can be God.” (Remember God did not cause what happened to Job, God allowed it)Not only did greed take our business but it also took the work and income of many people we had working for us- and we were at the beginning of the holiday seasons. Greed also took away what we thought were great friendships.
BUT GOD taught us to give thanks IN what we were going through! We lost our business, we were faced again with the task of rebuilding, and we lost friends who were very important to us. BUT GOD showed us as we gave thanks IN this, that He was in control. He did not allow us to be down and out; He helped us to rise up. Was every day a cake walk – NO! For almost a year, weekly I would lie on my floor and sob for Jesus to heal where I hurt so badly, not over the loss of the money, but the loss of the friendships, BUT He was faithful. Now here we are over one year later and because we choose to give thanks IN everything and walk through the refining fires of God – He is blessing us and giving us wisdom to rebuild our company, we have even had someone GIVE us another company – not sell but GIVE, and He has blessed us with so many more friends and shown us in times of fire who true friends really are and how to be a true friend. He showed us where He removed things out of our lives to get us where He wants to take us, just like God told Abraham to get up and leave his family and all he had then He blessed Abraham!
I am so thankful that IN everything we CAN give thanks. What are you facing today that you must give thanks IN, not FOR, but IN. As you cry out to God He is faithful to hear you, perform on your behalf, and heal you where you need healing. Stand on His word today and give thanks IN everything!
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01.26.09
What Kind of Friend Should We Be?
Do you recall the story of David and his friend Jonathan? I love how 1 Samuel 23:16 tells us Jonathan strengthened David in God! Jonathan’s father was King Saul who was aggressively trying to KILL Jonathan’s friend – David. Yet, Jonathan stepped in and encouraged his friend and helped him to be delivered from his enraged father. Jonathan did not take his friendship he had established with David lightly; he was taking a huge risk by helping his father’s archenemy. However, Jonathan went to his friend David to strengthen him in God because the two friends shared a fervent love for their Heavenly Father. Jonathan encouraged David to continue to walk with the Lord and to trust that he would one day be King. Jonathan was the king’s son, so he should have been next in line to be king; however Jonathan was content to take second place beside David because he knew it was God’s will.
All throughout the Bible we see account after account of friendships being told; friendships are a part of God’s plan for our lives. It is our duty to make sure we seek to be a friend to others. Jesus was always reaching out to others. He wants us to be loyal, respectful, sensitive, an encourager, nurturing, and even pray for our friends. We all long to love and be loved, that is how our Heavenly Father created us.
I want to share with you the Ten Commandments of Friendship:
1. Speak to People. There is nothing as nice as a cheerful word or greeting.
2. Smile at People. It takes 72 muscles to frown, but only 14 to smile!
3. Call People by Name. The sweetest music to anyone’s ear is the sound of his or her own name.
4. Be Friendly and Helpful. If you would have friends, be friendly.
5. Be Cordial. Speak and act as if everything you do were a real pleasure.
6. Be Genuinely Interested in People. You can like everyone if you try.
7. Be Generous with Praise, Cautious with Criticism. Praise will win out when it comes to gaining friends.
8. Be Considerate of the Feelings of Others. It will be appreciated.
9. Be Thoughtful of the Opinions of Others. People love their opinions as they do their own children, calling them ugly won’t get you anything but anger.
10. Be Alert to Give Service. What counts most in life is what we do for others!
~ Author Unknown
“A real friend is one who helps us to think our best thoughts, do our noblest deeds, and be our finest selves.” ~ Albert M. Wells Jr.
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01.23.09
What You Think On
In the book; The Science of Getting Rich, Wallace says, “You have the natural and inherent power to think what you want to think, but it requires more effort to do so than to think the thoughts that are suggested by appearances.”
What Wattles is saying here is that when you think according to what you see around you – the current appearance of things … what you see as your result right now … it’s easy to KEEP thinking that way. I mean, how in the world do you expect to get yourself out of this current result – you don’t know HOW it’s going to change, so how can you THINK of it actually happening?
It’s true – thinking your way out of your CURRENT result does take work. In fact, Wallace Wattles says the same when he writes, “To think TRUTH regardless of appearance is laborious and requires the expenditure of more power than any other work a person has to perform.” But the key is – it CAN be done.
As a child you were probably programmed in much the same way as I was.
Although this “programming” started when we were babies, receiving report cards in elementary school is a great example, that’s pretty universal to all of us. We were trained to look at the grades on our report card, rather than focus on the image of the grade we desired. We learned to let our results control our thinking instead of the other way around
Think about your debt and that’s what you attract – MORE debt. Worry about your health and disease and that’s the way you attract – MORE ill health.
See, because our thinking only and always controls our results … we need to be completely focused on – and be thinking about – DIFFERENT results than what we currently HAVE!
It’s time to escape the current reality trap and to create your future anew.
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01.22.09
Your Vision Comes From Your Purpose
I have been reading the book “The Principles and Power of Vision; Keys to Achieving Personal and Corporate Destiny” by Dr. Myles Munroe and he states “vision is a conception that is inspired by God in the heart of a human.” According to the Webster’s Dictionary vision means “the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be.” Since we are at the beginning of a new year and the beginning of a new presidency the world seems to have “vision” at the forefront of their minds. But what is vision according to the Word of God?
God gave each of us the gift of vision so we do not have to live by what we can see, hear, taste, feel or smell. However, as excited as we are at the beginning of something new; whether it be a year, project, or new start, we eventually come to the point where we loose sight of the thing we are hoping for. We loose sight of the vision. Life happens, obstacles stand in our way, naysayers are constantly whispering in our ear, and we start to doubt our vision will ever come to pass. We have to be able to stand back and know what our vision is – so it can push us forward. God has already placed His purpose for you in your heart; He has a plan and a purpose for your life and your vision comes from your purpose! Our responsibility is to pray and ask God what our purpose is and then sit down and write out the vision for where God is leading us; then it is God’s responsibility to bring it to pass. We must remember God will not give us a vision without providing the way for it; but He is not going to do it for us without some things in place on our part! We must have the faith and act; we must have the discipline to preserve to the end!
Hebrews 10: 35-36 says, “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” I love that; “you need to persevere!” God is telling us right there what we must do with the vision He has given us! I want to share with you what Dr. Monroe wrote in his book; which are great reminders of what we need to do concerning our vision and staying connected to it:
1. Obstacles will come against you and your vision. You must be persistent if you are going to achieve the vision God has given you.
2. Faithfulness means being true to what you have decided to accomplish and letting nothing stop you.
3. Steadfastness means to stand fast or stand steady in the face of resistance.
4. Courage is the ability to stand up in the face of fear.
5. Fear is a positive thing when it gives birth to courage.
6. Even though there will be times of stress, disappointment, and pressure, your vision will come to pass.
7. Every resistance to your vision comes to make you wiser, not weaker. Every opposition comes to strengthen you, not to stop you.
8. Destiny demands diligence.
9. Many people lose because they quit when life says “no” the first time but persistent people win. They never take no for an answer when it comes to their vision.
10. There is not enough darkness in the world to extinguish the light God has put within you.
11. Perseverance means bear up under pressure.
12. Character is formed by pressure. The purpose of pressure is to get rid of what is not of God and to leave what is pure gold.
13. There is no stopping a person who understands that pressure is good for him because pressure is one of the keys to perseverance.
14. It is not those who are swift, but those who endure to the end who succeed.
15. Vision always demands a cost.
16. Every true vision will be tested for authenticity.
Remember God is the author of your vision so you must spend the time with Him so He can guide you and lead you to where He wants you to be! You can do this! Your vision will come to pass if you are willing!
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01.21.09
Every Tomorrow Has Two Handles
“Every tomorrow has two handles. We can take hold of it with the handle of anxiety or the handle of faith.” ~ Henry Ward Beecher
I love this saying because we can create our future; we can have a future filled with anxiety or we can have faith to stand and believe our future is what we want it to be. Hebrews 11:1 so wonderfully proclaims to us, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” (As a little freebie thrown in today notice that it says “now faith” – that means faith for right now! What do you need faith for right now?)
I want to help you write your future by looking into a Time Machine per say, one that will crystallize your goals into tangible, actionable plans.
Creating The Future…
I want you to look closely at your goals that you have set for this year. (If you have not set your goals for 2009 then stop now and do it!) I believe that 2009 is going to be GREAT! So I want you to BLAST into it, not have it take you by surprise, start now with what you want to happen this year! I want to help you live what’s most important all 344 days we have left!
Your 2009 Goals
Look at your list carefully. Remember it contains opportunities for you to LIVE your dreams. On that sheet of paper is a snapshot of your future. All you need to do is take the first step and write them down if you have not already done so.
This, of course, is where it gets tricky!
Your Mission… Vision… Values and Goals.
The future is a canvas that has yet to be painted. Next year at this time, you will look at this list and as you cross off things you have accomplished it will be the history of your life… what happened… where you went… big and little accomplishments… failures… heartbreaks… disappointments… and big successes.
The future will happen and day-by-day it will silently move into the past.
There are 6 key Factors that are critical to creating your future
Here are statements that are critical to you. You must be able to answer each of these questions in order for you to be creating the future you want:
You have a written list of the most important, heartfelt values that you want to experience in your life.
You have a personal mission statement that promises how you will “live what you value” as your code of conduct for everything you do.
You can describe each of your visions in clear and colorful detail.
You make daily decisions based upon your values, vision and mission.
You have at least ONE clearly defined goal for EVERY major interest and role in your life.
You set your goals so they are directly aligned with your life’s mission.
Today we are 22 days into the New Year. We may have not yet written down our goals and vision for this year or you may have done this but “fallen off the wagon” so to speak. No matter where you are on this day, start like it is January 1st all over again. It is not too late, and if you have stumbled then get up and get going again. You can do this; your future can be what you create it to be.
I encourage you to start today, why not right now. You can never get these moments back so go forward.
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01.20.09
Like An Eagle
Isaiah 40:31 tells us “Yet those who wait for the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”
I want to be like the eagles and mount up and fly high over the pressured days of this world. I want to run and not get tired and walk and not be weary. However, if the Word of God is true (and it absolutely IS!) then I can stand on this promise from God. I can declare over my life; I can soar, I can run, and I can walk. I can face these pressures and gain the strength from my Father in Heaven to overcome.
I love eagles for who they are…..
They have a wingspan of up to seven feet!
They fly higher than almost any other bird, up to 10,000 feet!
They glide easily at up to 2400 feet altitude!
They move up to 150 miles an hour!
They can carry objects equal to its body weight!
So as women of God, as we wait on the Lord we are entitled to walk just as Isaiah 40:31 says we can. In spite of our busy lives and what is going on in our life, if we wait on the Lord; we wait for Him to direct us, we wait for Him to instruct us, and then we will be able to soar like the eagle over the pressure of this world! This promise tells us we gain new strength. So as our daily lives seem to bring pressure and sap energy from us we can gain new strength!
So how do we wait for the Lord? I have found God wants me to rise up and the first thing I do is run to Him, to reach Him and praise Him and seek Him first thing in the morning. Above all He is the source I run to; He is the one I seek concerning my life. David sought the Lord early in the morning and wrote about it in Psalm 63:1 and Psalm 5:3, Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he met with the Lord in Genesis 19:27, and even the Lord Jesus rose early in the morning to commune with His Heavenly Father in Mark 1:35. If I am to model my life after Jesus’ then I too must seek my father early in the morning. As we seek Him God will give us the resources we need to accomplish the task at hand. He will give us the will power and know how if we wait upon Him, and as we wait for Him he will gives us wings to soar!
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01.19.09
Rules For Daily Life
Begin the day with God
Kneel down to Him in prayer;
Lift up they heart to His abode,
And seek His love to share.
Open the book of God
And read a portion there;
That it may hallow all thy thoughts,
And sweeten all thy care.
Go through the day with God
Whate’er they work may be;
Where’er thou art – at home, abroad,
He still is near to thee.
Converse in mind with God
They spirit heavenward raise:
Acknowledge every good bestowed,
And offer grateful praise.
Conclude the day with God
Thy sins to Him confess;
Trust in the Lord’s atoning blood,
And plead His righteousness.
Lie down at night with God
Who gives His servants sleep;
And when thou tread’st the vale of death,
He will thee guard and keep.
From “Life Management for Busy Women” by Elizabeth George
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