Battle Plans

Battle Plans

I was asked a question today, about what the next course of action might be, after a disastrous turn of events. Interestingly my bible reading today was on Joshua 7.

In that piece Achan, a descendant from the tribe of Judah, stole booty from the battle. Jericho was accursed and all that was in it was considered accursed (under a curse by God). God distinctly told the people in this instance not to take the cursed items (clothing, gold and silver), but Achan didn’t listen and he stole what God had specifically said not to.

Judah means praise. The tribe of Judah always went first into battle. In other words; ‘praise’ went first. When we’re in praise, we’re not in fear. That Achan was a descendent from the tribe of Judah is important, for Achan means troublesome. There’s a troublemaker in the tribe of praise. Trouble has to be weeded out.

Judah is the blessed tribe of God, but Achan was ‘trouble’ within that tribe and brought trouble to the tribe, leading to the death of some of the kinsmen. This was the only battle the Israelites lost under Joshua’s leadership. Other battles were lost in Moses’ time, lost also due to disobedience. Moses himself couldn’t enter the promised land due to an anger issue.

When we head into battle, we’re to stay out of fear (always easier said than done). We’re to stay in praise, and not partake anything of which we shouldn’t during the battle. That might be watching the wrong tv shows, reading the wrong books, mixing with the wrong company. Our eye, ear and mouth gates must be as pure as can be. When we stand with God, we have to be all in. We can’t be half hearted.

Under God, we aren’t meant to lose any battles, for His promises are true and He promises us victory in battle. Battles are not won due to our being perfect, because none of us are perfect. To a point, there’s an element of grace, but grace only works when faith stands beside it and we can only be in full faith, when praise goes ahead of us. The first thing Jesus did, was hold the bread up and give thanks to God, before feeding thousands of people. Praise first.

In a losing battle, there’s always something to learn. In a losing battle it’s difficult to remain positive. In future battles it’s difficult to believe God will be there for us next time, since we believe He failed us this time. Faith is a formidable shield, when set in full formation and we have to keep a robust and reliable faith into the future, in spite of the failures of the past. 

Now is the time to look at what we can do to move forward. We replicate the battle in our minds, not to rehash what went wrong, but to plan our course for the next battle, because there will be a next battle; this is how we grow in strength and in faith, for we never start at the top.

Looking at this past battle, what could we change next time, what did we learn that we can do differently/better? Where, if at all, did we go wrong and how do we get it right in the future?

We all learn in increments, a little at a time. When we start something new, we’re never starting from a position of excellence. We build up to it. This is what the battle strategies are; to improve upon, so next time we’ll be better prepared, sharper, more ready and more able.

Joshua sent two spies into the land (Joshua 2), before he went into battle. Spies are also a battle strategy, to prepare us for what’s coming. There’s a verse in the bible (Ecclesiastes 8:4) which says; where the word of the king is, there is power, for who can say ‘what are you doing?’ This verse goes on to say, for he does not know what will happen; so who can say when it will occur?

We cannot predict every battle we’re ever going to face. We do know though, there will be more than one battle and having strategies in place will help us next time. Spies are looking for weak points. This is the reason behind mulling over where we went wrong and what we can improve upon.

Moses sent twelve spies and ten brought fear to the people. Joshua and Caleb were the only two with a good report and it was those two which made all the difference. It doesn’t have to be hard. Remember to keep it simple.

Here are a few of the strategies you might like to choose from (personally, I use all, all of the time), in order to help you win the battle; praise, worship, protection of eye, ear and mouth gates, prayer, thanksgiving, spending time with God, in God’s word, meditating on God’s word day and night, do not doubt His word, memorise biblical verses, to put out the fiery darts of the devil, go up to the mountain (or prayer closet) daily, to aid in forming that all important relationship with God. Pursue Holiness! Decree and declare what you want to see happen in your life, give out love, forgiveness, repentance, tithe, even going to church itself. Patience, obedience (if God says ‘do it,’ then do it), don’t let the sun go down on your anger – they’re all important strategies.

Keep praise to the forefront and thanksgiving to the rear. Jesus was able to take two loaves and one fish, breaking the bread He then blessed it, after which He fed the 5,000. Blessing is a more reverential form of praise. Only one of the ten lepers returned to give thanks and he was the only one made completely whole. If you want to see the supernatural happen in your life, the keys to achieving it are in the written word of God.

You may have lost this battle, but you haven’t lost the war. My suggestion now, is to keep putting one foot ahead of the other. Keep going. Whether you choose to move, or to stay, you’ll feel a peace in the right decision. And that decision doesn’t have to be made today. Give it some time for the dust to settle. God’s not in a hurry. God’s never in a hurry. It will all unfold in due season.

God loves every one of us, more than we know. He sees our heart. He sees our efforts. He wants us all in, never luke-warm. He sent His Son to die in our place. Jesus lay down His life for us, the least we can do is stand up for Him.

 

Sunflower; a Symbol of God’s Love.

Sunflower; a Symbol of God’s Love.

Before heading off to my daughter’s (a twelve hour drive away), I had listened to a you tube clip about watching for the harvest to come in. Quickly, I jotted down a few notes. The clip stated we need to go to church with a harvest mentality. (If what we think about is what we bring about, then yes, we need a harvest mentality.)

I learned a new bible verse a week or so ago; where the word of the King is, there is power (Ecc 8:4). It goes on to say; And a wise man’s heart discerns both time and judgement.

This you tube clip mentioned that we’re going to start moving in time. I don’t know how that will look, but I’m excited. The fact that I had memorised a verse, which lined up with a you tube clip only a short time later, tells me God is speaking, for there is no such thing as a coincidence with God.

Driving to Lizzie’s within a few days of the above, I noticed a tree. It was a dead tree, but the branches and top of the trunk, appeared to look as though they were worshiping the Lord; trunk leaning back, dead arms raised to the heavens and that brought a song to mind; the leaves on the trees will clap their hands.

This got me to thinking how all the plants look skyward, as if worshipping the sun (or looking unto the heavenlies and worshipping what’s above). My thoughts drifted to how we too, should be looking to the heavenlies, while worshipping the Son.

My mind wandered to the sunflower. It always looks to be smiling up at the heavenlies. I love sunflowers. They remind me of sunshine and of God's love, with their beaming happy faces. Sunflowers draw their energy from the sun, to thrive and to grow. We too must fix our eyes on the Son, drawing our strength and joy from Him.

When I got to Lizzie’s, she had a belated birthday present waiting for me and set up in the spare room. A beautiful string of sunflowers, intertwined with twinkling lights. I love the colour yellow. It reminds me of the Father’s smiling face. Sunflowers are one of my favourite flowers for that reason.

I marvelled at how I was thinking of sunflowers, of worship and then received a gift of sunflowers, with lights. For we are meant to be the light of this world, worshipping the Son.

A couple of days later, I walked to church and the talk given that morning was about sunflowers and light. Just amazing! Did you know; a sunflower has between 1,000 and 1,500 seeds? We too should be spreading seed, just as the sunflower does.

I learnt another thing about this beautifully bright flower; sunflowers turn to look at other sunflowers when the day is dark and dismal. It's a good lesson for all of us. If you're feeling dark and dismal, if you're not feeling the Lord's presence, get yourself to church. When we can’t feel the Son's presence in our life, hang out at church and catch the Glory the congregation radiate, for that will surely lift us out of our despair.

Leaving church after the servce, I walked home again. Due to the brightness of midday, the phone screen was a tad dark and I randomly chose a clip, because I couldn’t see what I was looking at. And what was that clip about? Sunflowers and light. How awesome is God! I could have picked any old thing, but no, sunflowers and light it was.

I do believe God’s trying to tell me something; maybe He has more to say on this topic, maybe not. Perhaps it’s as simple as this; be the light, worship the Lord and spread the seed of Truth, namely Jesus. Perhaps it's that simple!

I didn’t know until looking it up today (why I’ve never looked this up before, I don’t know), but upon looking it up I found the biblical meaning of sunflower in Christianity, is it's viewed as a symbol of God’s love, of true faith and loyalty, as well as adoration. It’s a metaphor for abiding in the calm delight of the Lord. (No wonder it's a favourite flower of mine.)

In my notes for this short work, I had penned a little entry, to look up the blessing of Levi and I found out about the ‘service of blessing.’ Deuteronomy 10:8; At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi, to bear the ark of the covenant for the Lord, to stand before the Lord and minister to Him and to bless His name, to this day.

This does tie in to a point, with the writings here. When we are the light, when we worship the Lord and spread the seed of Truth, we are a blessing, not only to God, to also to His people.

 

Praise!

Praise!

Pastor Tim spoke on miracles recently. A couple of our beautiful church members, came out the front and spoke of recent miracles in their lives. I too have had a miracle, just this week. 

My 2-year-old granddaughter managed to get her fingers stuck in a cupboard, really stuck. My daughter, Olivia, had to use some considerable force to pry open the door.

Now I know young children’s fingers are pliable, however this was different. When Heidi was free from the cupboard, the tip of her first finger was pointing backwards. Definitely not an ordinary look. Do you know, I don’t remember praying in this moment! Heidi was screaming and Olivia was comforting her. Heidi’s sister, Kristelle, was also crying, because she absolutely hates to see her baby sister hurt and I was comforting Kristelle.

As all men are when disaster strikes, Corey was at work when this happened. We can’t complain about this either, because someone has to pay the bills, while mothers are at home with the children. And so, we dealt with it, as women do, with lots of hugs and reassurance (and some angst on the part of little Heidi’s mother).

I remember saying to Kristelle; “It’s ok, Heidi’s fine.” I felt the Lord say Kristelle isn’t believing you. So, I rephrased the sentence and said; “Well she isn’t fine, but she will be.” And although I hadn’t prayed at that exact moment, the very moment I said this, I looked across to see Heidi’s finger had straightened out and it was perfectly fine. There was no bruising, no swelling, only a little bit of a graze over her two middle fingers. Even though I hadn’t prayed, God still moved on my behalf.

God is our miracle worker in our time of desperate need. But how do we get to this point, particularly if we haven’t prayed in the moment? I have a theory and I’m pretty sure it’s a good theory. Well, I hope it is. I believe one way we see miracles is through praise.

Gen 49:8-12 talks about praise, or more to the point; Judah. Did you know Judah means praise? Judah is placed ahead of all his brothers, when Israel blessed the children, in his final days on earth. Whenever Judah goes with the other tribes, Judah is always the first tribe to move. Judah has the first parcel of land allotted to them, as it is divided among the tribes after Joshua’s death. Othniel, the first judge of Israel, comes from the tribe of Judah. 

All this is intended to teach us a lesson, to set us an example; let praise go first! Praise the Lord first, praise the Lord always. When we offer our sacrifice of praise, we’re offering the fruit of our lips, always giving thanks to His precious name.

Caleb, one of the twelve spies who were sent into the promised land, came from the tribe of Judah. As we know, David came from the line of Judah and his kingly line continued all the way through to Jesus and Jesus passed it on to us.

In this passage, Judah is called a lion’s whelp. A whelp is one of immaturity and little power and isn’t that every one of us, at least until we mature in Christ? And, just as a lion’s whelp will grow to be formidable and mighty, so too will we grow to be mighty in the Lord.

As cats do, they follow their own course without regard to those around them. A young lion is curious, just as Jesus was curious, staying behind in the temple, asking questions. As a lion matures, they begin to hunt their own prey, resting, satisfied after their meal. 

The tribe of Judah eventually matures, prospering in all they do. Jesus also matured, defeating His enemies; whether spiritual, physical or mental, easily overcoming by standing on the word of God. And then He too rested, once His work on the cross was complete.

My point in all this; Praise! We must give praise at all times. And keep searching, finding those hidden treasures buried within the word of God. Proverbs 25:2 states; It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter.

Revelation 1:5 says; And hath made us kings and priests unto God – so we are kings, from the kingly line. We must be searching for the deeper, hidden meaning of God’s word, while continually giving praise. And then we shall have good success.

Jesus cast out a demon and the disciples asked why He could do it, when they couldn’t. Jesus said this kind only comes out only through prayer and fasting, and yet in that moment, Jesus had neither prayed nor fasted.

Jesus was successful because He did spend time in prayer and fasting, going up to the mountain every morning, to commune with God. Giving His time to God and when He needed it, God gave back to Him, to meet His need.

One passage tells us - But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in that law doth he meditate, day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that bringeth forth fruit in its season; His leaf also shall not wither; And whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. (Psalm 2;1-3)

We can’t be a part-time Christian and expect to be successful. Although it's not by our works that we see breakthrough, God is hoping we will have a relationship with Him. We should want to meditate day and night, to spend time with God every moment we can. When you focus continually on the Lord, when you give Him your time, your talents and your praise, then you will have good success.

Partaking in the elements, taking the symbols of body and blood, is another way of acknowledging God and all He has done for us. When we do as we aught, God sees it from heaven.

The word isn’t just a book to rush through. It’s not there just to tick a box on our daily to-do list. God's word is there to tell us what God expects and when we act on what we’ve read; then we shall have, not only good success, but great success.

And I believe, even though I didn't pray in the moment, God anticipated my prayer. As soon as I rephrased my sentence to; "Heidi will be fine," God acted on my behalf. 

Just as Jesus neither prayed nor fasted, but cast out a demon, so too was Heidi healed even though I had neither prayed nor fasted.

That is the power of God, moving in the miraculous. When we do our bit, God does His.

 

100 Trillion Connectors.

I’ve got a little science for you today, because I know how much we all love science. I will say though; and you’ll be pleased to know - initially this piece was five pages long and I narrowed it down to one and a half. After all, who wants to hear five pages of science?

I hope I haven’t mentioned this before. I do a lot of writing and sometimes things overlap. Having said that; the mind is an amazing piece of work. It can recall all sorts, from the trivial, to the extremely important.

Take a rainbow for instance. A little bit of trivia for you. A double rainbow’s colours read back to front. The stronger rainbow has all the colours you’d expect. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. The weaker, second rainbow alongside the first, is a reversal of those colours.

Now most of you have just learned something new and next time you see a double rainbow you’ll check as to whether I’m right. My point being, we can all learn, even into old age.

There are 118 known elements, in the periodic table. Most of them are easy to remember; hydrogen is h, oxygen is o, magnesium, ma. Because ma is already used, manganese is a little different and shifts to the next letter along. Magnesium is ma, manganese is mn.

There’s a handful of elements which don’t follow the rules; sodium is na, potassium, k, iron, fe, silver, ag. There are others which fall into this category, but most of the periodic table is easy to recall.

And then there’s Pi. Do you remember pi from school? Pi is the circumference of a circle, divided by its diameter and that number is infinite. No matter what the size of the circle, the answer is always the same; Pi equals 3.14159265 ‘et al’ (or, and others).

I memorised the first hundred digits of pi, while I was away travelling. I’d given my testimony to my daughter’s church in Qld and told the congregation I can recall a 100-digit number, frontwards and backwards (this in relation to having the mind of Christ).

I got back to my daughter’s after church and thought; gee it’s been a while. I hope I can still do it. 

Lizzie suggested the challenge - to memorise the first 100 digits of the infinite number in pi. I worked on it, on and off throughout the rest of the morning and I managed to do it, surprisingly quickly.

My granddaughter will test me on this, as she always tests me. Kristelle tells I’m the ‘cleverest person she knows,’ which causes me to chuckle inside. She’s 11 and only knows people around her age.

Anyway, the more numbers I rattled off, the wider Kristelle’s eyes went. As I reached the end of the 100 digits, I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head. My granddaughter was so impressed, she decided she wanted to learn it. She now knows what pi is and has the first 15 numbers down pat; not too bad for an 11-year-old.

Why do I tell you all of this? We’re under the false assumption that as we age, our mind deteriorates, but it’s not true. Barring illness or injury, our mind is kind of like a muscle and like any muscle, the more we exercise it, the stronger it gets, even into old age.

The brain has roughly, give or take a few billion, 86 billion neurons, 100 trillion connectors and 85 billion non neuronal cells, or glial cells. That’s a lot of activity in a cavity the size of a dessert bowl and you’ll never convince me this came about by happenchance. There has to be a creator behind it all.

1 Corinthians 2:16 tells us; “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

Because we have the mind of Christ, the solution to our problem lies within each of us. Of course we need to remember, Jesus doesn’t live in reaction to the problem, but in response to the Father. And that’s where we should be also; not motivated by the problem, for the problem is caused by the devil, but motivated by the solution only Jesus can bring.

Coming back to rainbows; the second rainbow is the inferior rainbow. It’s the weaker of the two, just as satan is the inferior prince of this world. We need to remember who we are and not fall for the inferior, that part of us which allows satan to rule and reign in our life.

In life we have the inferior and the interior. Our interior should be following the word of God, putting into practice what we read in His word, so that we don’t live from the inferior. Our desire is to live as Christ lived, with full power and authority, living a superior life; a life encompassing all of the supernatural and more besides. For Christ said we shall do greater than Him and I know, that’s what I want to see in my life.

There’s a solution for every problem and if we meditate on God’s word, that solution will come to the fore. As long as you focus on the problem and not the solution, the problem remains.

Many western scholars have failed in life, for although they had knowledge, they didn’t have wisdom, the ability to apply that knowledge to its best and full purpose. We need wisdom. We need to ask for wisdom. The bible tells us to seek wisdom and righteousness and that’s what we should be doing with our time.

We have the mind of Christ and I praise the Lord that I do have the mind of Christ. He asks not that we be perfect, as He is perfect, but that we do as He does. He directs us to seek wisdom. What else does He ask us to do? He asks that we partake of the body and blood, often as we may, in remembrance of Him. So, go ahead and take communion in reverential fear today, as you acknowledge Him as the One True God.

Confident Public Speaking

Confident public speaking – moving your mountain.

Public speaking is said to be one of the top 5 biggest fears in people’s life, but it is one we can manage. First, we need to bring our anxiety under control. We do this by making the audience comfortable, otherwise the audience won’t receive the message we’re giving.

We feel uncomfortable and awkward when we listen to someone who’s nervous. We can also disengage, so we need to eliminate that uncomfortable awkwardness, if we wish to be a great speaker.

You need to be relaxed too. As soon as the anxiety presents itself and this usually happens just before we speak, we perspire. We might shake, or tell ourselves we’re nervous. The mountain has arisen and now we need to oust it.

Pay mindful attention when you feel nervous. Talk to the nerves, talk to yourself, that nervous part of you. Tell yourself it’s ok and you’ll find it won’t spiral out of control. Take a deep breath and admit to yourself you’re anxious.

Also, reframe how you see the talk/performance. Practice it in your mind. See yourself doing well.

There’s a right way and a wrong way and sometimes we make a mistake when we try to perform. Practice in front of a mirror and you should be able to iron out any kinks in your performance. Go over your speech, until you are comfortable and fluent.

There is no one way when it comes to speaking - it’s only a conversation after all.

You might like to start with questions. That causes the conversation go two ways. It gets the audience involved and helps you feel it’s a conversation rather than a speech.

Write questions you might expect you’re going to need to answer in your talk. What do you think your audience wants to know? Put yourself in their shoes.

Use conversational language. Don’t use flowery, overpowering, long-winded words. Keep your talk to every day language.

Don’t use distancing language, language with words a beginner won’t understand. You might know your topic well, but the people around you might be new to the topic, so keep your talk basic, unless you know your audience is past that basic stage.

One must consider, perhaps the topic is important to you. If it’s important to you, it will also be important to others. When you feel the topic is important, your likely to be more confident in giving it, as you know it will help someone else who might be struggling in your area of expertise.

If you’re teaching, remember to keep the steps simple; first this step, second this step and so on. It keeps the flow moving. Giving steps, or numbers, aides the audience to remember. It is less jumbled in their mind, if they can follow the steps.

If you can, bring yourself into the present instead of the future. This way, you’ll be calmer. Don’t worry about what the future of your talk is, concentrate on the here and now.

If you’re still nervous, before you go on stage, perhaps try some light exercise, right before you speak. This will take your mind off your nerves. Nothing so strenuous, as to make you come on stage in a sweaty heap, just a few star jumps, squats or push ups, if you’re able.

Count backwards from one hundred (by 6’s). This makes you think of something else and it also warms up your voice. You could even try a tongue twister. In this moment you’re not worried about being in front of people.

Greet the anxiety, reframe any area of tension, become present in the moment and then off you go. Simple.

As I’ve gone through life, I’ve taken my worst subjects and turned them into my strengths. Public speaking is one of those. I started out in complete fear, shaking, and with high anxiety. Now, although still not perfect, I know I’ve come a long way and these are the methods I’ve used to help me get there. I hope they help you too.

None of us are perfect. We all look back, after the speech is said and done and wish we’d have added this or said that. None of us get it right every time and if you mess up, your audience will forgive you. A sentence out of order, a misquote in the middle. It’s not the end of the world. Just say; ‘excuse me,’ and keep going.

You might like to look at speech giving as a fun challenge, rather than an insurmountable obstacle. Changing your perspective helps realign you’re your outlook, towards a more positive end result. Besides a fun challenge is much more interesting, don’t you think, than an insurmountable obstacle?

Discipline

    

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:

alexandragrose@amazon.com

Photographs:

http://www.instagram.com/alex_photographer_author

Blog:

https://alexandragrose.blogspot.com/?m=1

©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.

Overcoming Impulses

 

Job 10:17 states; changes and war are ever with me.

John 10:10 states; The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy.

Kill and war go hand in hand and one way to aid in overcoming, is to have a disciplined mind, for war isn’t just on the killing field, but war rages in our own minds too.

Scrambled thinking, lack of focus, depression, worry, anxiety. All of this can be overcome, by following God’s word and acting on what you’ve read.

Without a disciplined mind, our thoughts wander all over the place and we lack direction, strategies and staying power. When your impulses are in control, rather than your intention, it’s easy to become distracted.

When your mind is tuned to God’s word and His ways, you’re more easily able to set your intention and work towards it. God’s word is the secret to self-control.

If you truly want to change your life, you need to change your thinking. You cannot come at a new lifestyle without a new thought pattern. Our minds tend to remain stuck in repeated thought paradigms and often those templates are negative.

The power a thought has over you, is the power you give it. What you think about, you bring about and your most dominant thought will control your life. When you throw those negative thoughts to the wind, rather than indulging them, you’ll find yourself in a happier space.

Some of those thoughts are tremendously deep rooted and hard to stifle, especially if you’ve held them long term. At first you may want to have written reminders placed throughout your home and place of employment, until the changed thought pattern becomes automatic.

Replace negative words with positive affirmations. Read your bible daily and believe what God tells you, for God’s word is truth and if you stick with it long enough, you will see a change in your life, in your health, in your behaviour, in your relationships and in your finances.

You have to not only read the word, but you need to do what it tells you, if you want to see change.

The bible tells you to think on what’s pure and lovely. It tells you to put a few dollars away each week, for future generations. It tells you to pray, to take hold of your thoughts, to forgive, to love, to be a light for others and much, much more besides.

So, take the word of God seriously. Read His word daily. Let the peace of God take you on a journey and transcend your understanding, making crooked paths straight. Believe The Word - do what that word is telling you to do and watch your life change.