Archive for August, 2009
How to Meditate on God to Learn Optimism
One of the ways we can develop greater health and greater success is to develop some of these habits below. These habits have secular origins, but I believe that they demonstrate the truth in Scripture.
One of the lessons in our e-book discusses the process of recalling all God has done. It comes from Psalm 77:11-13 and I believe exercising in this does several things. Some of these insights come from reading a decidedly secular book called “Learned Optimism.”
Again, because the origin comes from a psychologist shows that the outcome is true with empirical evidence, even if their attribution of the practice is not from a Christian world view.
Recall positive outcomes from the past
“Surely I will remember Your wonders of old” instructs us to try to see the past that shapes us with wonder of God’s hand. This creates resiliency for our current circumstances.
See the negatives as temporary
“You pulled your people out of the worst kind of trouble” puts into perspective that even the worse situations we may be facing are temporary. When we allow that mindset, we become more resilient in the world and trusting in God. In fact, it strengthens the faith we need today to see his faithfulness of yesterday.
Freedom from helplessness
“I cannot stop thinking about your might works” gives us the ability to act and confidence that we are not alone and helpless. Helplessness (often learned helplessness) leads to disempowering states like depression. But when we follow these words and meditate in what God has done, we begin to see everything else in a different optic.
These three aspects come from living a life that recalls all that God has done. They’ve shown that people who take the types of actions which can be derived from this mindset are more successful and live longer.
How often do people meditate on God’s “wonderful deeds of long ago”? Why not start today, and make it part of your program as we guide many people to do in “Hundredfold Now!”
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Stop Procrastinating — Ecclesiastes 11 4
Procrastination from setting off to do God’s work and make the changes necessary in your life is draining. It denies you from experiencing the “hundredfold” that God has in mind when you pursue Him above all else.
So the very first thing to stop procrastinating on is to pursue Jesus and first seek the kingdom of God. For many people, that means moving beyond the comfort zone of Sunday sermons and grace before meals and ask the really hard questions of what it means to leave behind everything for Jesus, because it doesn’t make sell everything to Goodwill and roam the earth (unless you’ve been specifically called to that!)
Let’s take a look at one verse that gets it:
Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.
How does the saying go? Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans. Oh, plans are important, but what’s the difference between the making of a plan and an excuse?
If you want to know how to stop procrastinating, one of the things is to look at what this verse is saying. It’s saying that if you’re just watching and observing, or in another translation, just worrying, then you want experience the harvest.
That’s why I love putting multiple translations into the “Hundredfold Now!” e-book, because you get a true sense and wisdom of the scripture.
Worry and the desire for perfection could be what is stopping you from taking the first step in your plans. Of course, you have to have good, Godly plans in place, but before any of that, are you procrastinating from planting the seeds in the soil of your own heart to truly grow in Christ and seek first the Kingdom of God?
We don’t need to be perfect people to do that. We don’t need to worry about the other matters. These are two typical forms of procrastination — worry of failure, things we cannot control like the weather, and the desire for perfect weather, which can be perfect conditions which also will never come.
As it says in another translation, “Get on with your life” and move into the chaos.
What action steps could you be taking now to first move past worry and to stop seeking the perfect condition?
Hundredfolding LIVE! Grow your vision and your dreams…
Listen to this awesome, sincere pastor who knows and loves God and how we apply some of our Hundredfold principles from our 40-day program.
If you want to hear how someone honestly presents how to grow your faith by experiencing the hundredfold now when you seek, first and foremost, the Kingdom of God, then please listen to this excerpt from a real-live coaching session:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
How to be motivated at work — Colossians 3
There’s a story about three bricklayers.
As you read it, which one describes you.
The first one is asked, “What are you doing” and he replies, “Laying brick.”
The second one is ask, “What are you doing” and he replies, “Making $9.30 an hour.”
The third is asked the same question and he replies, “I’m building the world’s greatest cathedral!”
If you want to experience advancement and security about your work and hundredfold everything about it, start with this: think you work is important.
Here’s specifically what I mean from Scripture — Colossians 3:23-24:
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
In Day 23 we spend some time in how to execute to this. But an important element of this still resonates with our work on renewing your mind.
Here’s what you can do:
With the way you do the work, how would you work at it if your boss were God?
Okay, how would you behave if you knew, even with a crummy real boss, Jesus was watching you?
How would you change your attitude if the job you had was part of God’s plan and you were serving an important role, even though you haven’t been told what it is?
The power of right-thinking your motivation on the job in accordance with Scripture will do a couple of things for you:
- It will make you more motivated
- You will stand out from others
- The “pain” of the work will subside — maybe you’ll look forward to it
- New, hundredfolding opportunities will come to mind
When you work at the job as if it is important, even if it is beneath you, the right job can be entrusted with you!
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Get a free 7-day course on how to “Hundredfold Now!”
Now discover your strengths
Many people think that the best way to improve themselves and achieve excellence is to work on their weaknesses. And, yes, there is an aspect of completing God’s workmanship in us which involves that, but I think too many people look at the weaknesses, rather than their strength.
In our section on “Heart,” one of the areas that we focus on is, in fact, discovering and than building upon your strengths.
There are a couple of things that are important to understand in this area, so let’s take a look at the verse in Romans 12:4-8:
Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.
In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.
The two key ideas which I try to elaborate on in our complete 40-day program are:
1) God has given you the ability to do certain things well
You may not be aware of it. Or you are aware of them, but aren’t really using them. Which brings us to the second point.
2) He wants us to focus and use them in the service of others
Look at the verse actions for each gift. “If it is giving, give generously.” “If you are a teacher, teach well.” In other words, fully into your strengths, rather than expending energy on your weaknesses.
So how practically does that work?
I think one way is to take tests, such as they Myers Briggs personality test. That can start to give you a sense of who you are. The Strength Finders tests is also one specifically designed to identify what your strengths are.
The other is to be aware of areas that you experience joy. “If you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.” I don’t think it just applies to those who are kind — is there something you find yourself totally lost in? Then it’s a sign that it’s a strength.
Really, even though we cover it only in one day, Day 15 of the 40 Day Program, you could probably spend a lifetime honing your strengths.
But I think beginning now and making it a priority is key. Because every minute and hour spent in your strengths builds you up.
Remember: “each member belongs to all the others” — your strengths belongs to you, and vice-versa. That creates a powerful dynamic in God’s abundant economy.
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Why renewing your mind can save your life
As an expansion of Day 3 from our “40 Days” program, I’ve been reading a book which has some good things, albeit at times a little cheesy. “The Magic of Thinking Big” caught my attention because I believe the biggest thought we can contain comes right out of our Day 3 Lesson, and that is God and what God thinks is our best.
In this book, he quotes from a meeting he had with the head of a psychological consulting firm. He said that many people could be lifted from pain and malady if they did this:
“Simply this: destroy their negative thoughts before those thoughts become mental monsters.”
Mental monsters are as much as conforming to the world as anything else.
The example of someone using a secular exercise was to take a woman who was depressed and borderline mentally disturbed was lifted up by listing three things to be happy about.
No medication. Just pulling pleasant thoughts and focusing on those for three months changed her around.
If such proof of the power of the mind works in the secular world, why can’t we just take those steps and understand what God has in mind for us?
Where does it say we should be creating our own mental monsters of unhappiness and suffering when they are creations of our own thoughts?
I look back and think the lesson and exercises in Day 3 are a powerful foundation in what God really wants us to think.
There are other ways in which the “renewal of your mind” can impact your life, longevity, and even your impact in the world.
3 Reasons Every Church Should Wrestle with Abundance (#2)
Reason #2: Because Living Abundantly in a Scarce World Stretches Our Faith
The parable of the loaves and fishes is in all four gospels, and it illustrates what a profound difference there is between our scarcity-mentality and God’s abundance mentality.
Jesus illustrates what it is to think and live abundantly, to take what is at hand and, in partnership with God meets our needs.
But it tests our faith.
The disciples were reasonable men who saw that the feeding of 5000 was a huge undertaking. Huge!
What they had at hand was so little. Some fish and some loaves.
But Jesus wants us to turn to Him, to give to Him what we see as little, as tiny, as miniscule, and let Him to translate that into abundance. God meets our needs, but so many people operate with so little faith.
To question God’s abundance even though He is literally overflowing, maybe even wasteful in just how abundant He created the world, is to show a weakness in our faith. Human nature says that there isn’t enough and that God cannot provide.
Growing in our faith in God’s abundance will grow our faith in all aspects. Don’t we often succumb to doing things our own way when there’s a scarcity mentality towards whatever area in our life? Finance, love, respect, freedom? Scarcity in all those areas leads us into sin unless we turn to God for our source of abundance.
So when a church avoids tackling the issues of abundance, they do their congregation a disservice of challenging them in their walk and in their faith.
Conversely, imagine what a church can do when they live totally abundantly and totally free?
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Sample from CD: Essence of growth
Here is a sample from the CD — comments are welcome!
This is going to be included in the future along with the down-loadable e-book.
I am really excited to be working on this because I believe having a combination of sight and sound can really make a difference in your life.
So go ahead and take a quick listen and tell me what you think.
Want to purchase the e-book? Just go to www.HundredfoldNow.com/BuyNow and you can have it instantly!
Thanks for listening. This is the introduction where I lay out some of the foundations on how to grow in God’s word to experience transformation in your own life!
It’s also before we changed everything to a more “understandable” title “Hundredfold Now!” instead of “The King Within.” So you’ll hear that old reference but the info is still valuable for what it is.
Of course, now we have an updated CD that comes as a bonus with the e-book “Hundredfold Now! God’s topsy-turvy, inside-out, upside-down keys to abundant life.”
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
3 Reasons Why Every Church Should Wrestle with Abundant Living (#1)
What do I mean by wrestling with “abundant living”? I mean in their messages and interactions reach down and have an open, active dialogue with their members on what abundant living means.
It means understanding in small discussions, polls, open forums how do people define abundance in their lives, what they do or don’t do to strive for it, and what does the Bible say?
Is this a conversation about money? Yes, in large part it is, but not in its entirety. It is about the whole package and examines Jesus’ words that he comes so that we may have life and have it abundantly (or richly).
So here are three reasons why, starting with today’s post for reason #1:
Reason #1: Because people are having this dialogue whether the church engages them or not
Okay, maybe you could say the subject of abundance is a secular discussion and not worthy of the church to get involved.
But the rest of the world is engaging in it, and it is taking up the bulk of the conversation. It could be as crass as advertisements or it could be loose conversations at work or self-help books.
“Abundance” in the secular world looks like the ful attainment in career, material wealth, relationships, learning, exploration — the living of a “full life.” And the world has its own set of enticing definitions.
So what does the Bible say about both how to attain abundant living and what is the actual definition?
It says quite a bit, I think. Sure, the word “abundant” or “abundance” itself it not used that much, but as a document which looks at human fears of scarcity and desires for prosperity, it has much to say. And much of it is counter-cultural.
That’s why it’s so important.
I take my primitive stab at the conversation through a work-in-progress by speaking into the format and language of abundance with my seven-day course. You can sign up for free by clicking on:
www.theKingWithin.com/wordpress/7days
Next post: the second reason why Churches should wrestle with abundance
