I know I’ve said this before, but God meets you where you are. So if you don’t feel like things are working, you just have to keep ploughing on, keep plugging away. He will do a work in you, if you want it. God doesn’t meet your needs; He meets your faith. Yes, He will give you the desires of your heart, but only if you first seek wisdom and understanding. If you’re hit and miss with your prayer life and your bible study, don’t expect too much from God. While you serve God and those He’s put before you, He will then provide for your table.
If it were true that God meets your needs, there’d be no poor people in church, no unhealthy people, no broken relationships, no overweight people, no alcoholics, drug addicts or gamblers, no-one addicted to pornography, or anything.
Church is the place we start from. We all come to church as broken people, but as we read God’s word and do His will, life for the believer changes. As we grow, through our bible study and at church, we are no longer broken, but mended. To have your needs met and to have access to the desires of your heart, you must help others, for what you give out you get back in return. And if you’re not seeing that return, know this: your time will come, because God’s word does not return void.
Satan the great deceiver, twists God’s word and when we don’t see the result’s we’re after, we give up, thinking His word doesn’t apply to us. It’s kind of like; that’s all well and good for you, but it doesn’t work for me. And that’s what Satan wants you to believe, because it stops you in your tracks, it stops you from moving forward in life, from overcoming your obstacles and moving your mountains.
If you feel you’re like a leaf, that’s blown away, that you’re tossed to and fro; you can feel like it’s never going to work - whatever IT is in your life. God loves you. He knows your struggles and He is willing to meet your needs. All you have to do, is have faith and learn to co-labour with Him. When you do your bit, He’ll do his.
You have the mind of Christ (except you don’t believe it), so there’s no need for brain fog, lack of focus, or poor memory. All of this is fixed with discipline, something which I expect you don’t believe you have, because I know you’ll have tried to concentrate and that little satanic voice in your head will have defeated you every time, telling you how you can’t do it.
Everything you are struggling with comes back to discipline and even discipline itself takes practice. If you look at weight loss (and I use this example because I understand it well), you may feel defeated before you start, because for those of you who’ve tried, you’ve tried and failed so many times you don’t believe it’s possible any more. I know, because I’ve been there (and overcome).
When you look at weight loss, you look at the 20 kilos you’d like to lose and you feel defeated, because it seems too big to overcome. It’s the same with lack of focus. You think you have to have it all now, but if you break it down, it becomes more manageable. Focus, weight loss, discipline, they all take practice and you’re thinking; “Haven’t I practiced enough by now?” Obviously not. Otherwise you’d have overcome the battle. Perhaps you’re not going about it the right way, not persevering, until you see the end result you desire.
Perhaps you want to stop smoking, or drinking. How about you stop for the next hour, and then 2 hours and build up from there. Instead of wanting it all right here and right now, pick your biggest issue and worked with that. One issue at a time. Don’t try to win in every area, it’s too great a battle.
Let’s say you want to lose weight. How about, instead of looking at the whole, you tell yourself, you can lose 1 kilo this month. You know how to lose weight, because I’ll bet you’ve lost weight before. 1 kilo isn’t even hard, in 30 days. Let’s say you do that every month, for 24 months. How good would that be?
The question is, how to do it? You can try for a hard day of exercise while fasting (make sure you check with your doctor, before attempting weight loss this way), or you can try to cut out your biggest caloric intake, until you lose that kilo and then go back to enjoying whatever food you like. That doesn’t mean you can overindulge the nest day. You do need to be sensible. Consistency is what will shift weight over time. Find what works and do it, even if it’s only 1 week out of the month. Once you’ve lost that kilo, you can stop until next month.
For me, I have 1 protein shake before breakfast, followed by exercise (30 – 40 mins). Sometimes I really don’t feel like a walk, or a bike ride and I trick myself into thinking: Just 5 minutes. Once I’m up and going, generally I keep going. If I’ve overindulged on calories, I have 2 shakes the next day and exercise twice that day and that brings me back to a good place. It’s worked for me. It might just work for you.
Now let’s break another area down: Focus. What if I suggest you focus for 1 minute today, 2 minutes tomorrow? Do you believe that’s doable? Don’t worry if you can’t manage even that much. I didn’t start out with great focus either. But I practiced and disciplined myself until I got it. Build upon your minutes each day, or week, until you are strong in that area. You can do this with any area in life. Take your weakest area and turn it into your strongest, starting small and building.
With focus, all you need to do, is keep a pen and paper handy. Whenever you lose concentration, write down what you’re thinking about and then get back to your focus. You can deal later, with what you’ve written down. We all learn in increments, one small step at a time. It’s the same as weight lifting. We don’t start lifting 50 kilo’s first up, we start small and build.
Satan has convinced you; you can’t do it. You’ve never been able to do it, what makes you think you can now? He puts all this negativity into your mind and this is why we need to take our thoughts captive. Every negative thought needs to be brought under our control - and you’ll know these negative thoughts and where they come from, because your own little voice will say “I’m so hopeless.” Satan’s little voice will say “You’re so hopeless.” Jesus will say “You got this; you can do it.” Any time you hear those negative voices, throw them aside and concentrate on the one voice, the one which says; “You got this!”
At the moment, you’ve been feeding from the wrong manna and probably feel you don’t even hear Jesus, above the clamour in your mind. All it takes is discipline and perseverance. Perseverance - a don’t quit attitude and Satan can do nothing with you.
With both focus and memory, if it helps, you can write down what you’re learning and re-read it throughout the day, to reinforce what you’ve learnt. It’s all about increments. You don’t have to do it all in one day, just slow and steady and you’ll get there.
Anyway, I hope this helps. Don’t expect not to have battles. If you mess up, just pick up again the next moment, or the next day. It’s about discipline and consistency. Do, more that you don’t and you’ll get there.
About the author:
Alexandra Grose – An investigative photojournalist and author for over twenty years. Writing is her passion and her dream and helping others achieve their dreams, through her written work, is Alexandra's greatest aspiration.
#Integrity; truthfulness, honesty and reliability, in all things.
I believe one should....be truthful in everything you say and do. Keep all relationships open and honest. Be reliable, punctual and organised and if you say you'll do it - do it.
If you want to soar like an eagle, make an effort, not an excuse.
Books:
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Blog:
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©2023
This work is based on the belief of the writer. All she asks, is that you study and form your own opinion, as to the validity of her beliefs. You can’t assume you’re right on any given topic, you have to prove it.
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