Birthday Meditation

Birthday Meditation 12/30

As I sat there in the quiet of the morning I felt refreshed by the time I was spending with myself and God. It is so easy to get whisked away by the adult experience with its responsibilities, challenges, wins and expectations that by the time you grab the reins to spend time with yourself you hardly recognize you!

I have found that the older I get the more serious and focused my personal deliberations  have become. I have over the years become more concerned with my God designed purpose, with growth and maturity, with being a good steward of the blessings I have received, with looking through God's lens when I am faced with challenges (or at the very least trying hard to), with learning what I can from everything and everyone, with being a better me not just for myself but for the people in my life so that these conscious activities might, together, cause me to live life more abundantly.

Yes! I am determined to work on me!
I am not going after 'stuff' (position, power, possession, wealth etc), I am focusing my energies on self-development believing that as I mature and as I am refined I will undoubtedly attract the other things I desire because I will be more prepared to receive of them. Many of us spend so much time chasing things and if and when we get them they are short-lived in our hands/lives because we were never equipped to maintain them.

Here are some of my commitments:

(A) To be gentle with myself...I am still growing
Words of Caution
That is no excuse to be a mess or to act crazy
This gives me perspective so that I can learn from mistakes rather than wallow in self-pity 
My Creator already knows everything about me and still He loves me; reason to get up and keep going; God has confidence in me!

(B) To break-free from the microwave mentality I sometimes have. I need to simply wait...some things take time and they do for a reason.
It is sad that sometimes we act as though what we want will be best served only if I receive it now and when we don't get it we want to act like we don't want it anymore smh lol
Words of Caution
Being patient is easier when I truly trust in God
My timing isn't perfect because I do not have the complete picture of my life as a frame of reference
God's timing is perfect

(C) To commit to going through the process through which God is taking me to prepare me for the work ahead.
 
Words of Caution
Lack of preparation positions me for failure
If I am not a good steward over little I will never be given a lot no matter how ready I think I am for it

(D) To be better in all the roles I am required to play in life; to become a better christian, wife, parent, 
family member, friend, employee, woman etc. 

(E) To let go of hurt, loss, pain and disappointment
This is a heavy one for me, so heavy I can hardly write about it.
Ok, God is still working on me here as I continue to deal with the loss of a very close  relative (almost 7 years). 
I don't know if you are struggling in this general area, but I will share with you what God has told me..."LIVE! You did not die!"
The disappointment, the end of your marriage/relationship etc should not mean the end of your world. There is nothing too hard for God. He says, "Let me heal those opens wounds. I am all you need to live through this and past it...LIVE"
The fact that you are alive means there are other opportunities in your future. Don't feel guilty, you loved hard, you worked hard at your career and the business you never thought would fail and yes you believed they would have had your back because you always had theirs but they didn't...OK OK...STOP! There is better in store for you do not be afraid, don't talk yourself out of your 2nd, 3rd, 4th... chance. "LIVE!"

I don't know what introspection you will do or have done but at the very least you should not just be doing it only on the cusp of the new year but even on your birthday (smile). Truly we should do it more frequently that is if our hearts can handle so many life audits for fear of what we might find (cracking myself up...clears throat...being serious again)

I thank God for another birthday! I show Him my gratitude by maturing and making progress on my journey of life by cooperating with God at work in me so that although I am not perfect I am still better than the person I was the year before.

In every single moment of your life:
Be Bold.
Be the Authentic You.
Walk in God-given Authority.
Live IN Purpose

Blessings for the year ahead! 

Like. Share. Comment. Subscribe.

Until next time:)
EJ

Have you Considered your Purpose?

Have you Considered your Purpose?

All night I have been thinking about purpose. What is purpose to you? To me the most basic way to define purpose is as the very thing that gives meaning to life or that which we were created to do! While many of us may share this perspective on purpose the lines of demarcation become established when we consider what our purpose is and even how our purpose will be accomplished.

Do you already know your purpose? Many might answer with a resounding, "Yes!", while others will admit that they are still seeking it out.  Maybe you have come to define your purpose through your career or through your family or through even your hopes and desires. This seems only logical right since popular literature usually advises that to find purpose we ought to look within ourselves. I want to add a dimension to your deliberations on purpose and that is the God sphere. 

We often ignore this area because quite often it may be in direct conflict with the things that we may desire or the things that make us 'happy'.  Maybe your preoccupation with your career or traveling the world makes you happy but is truly a distraction from what God is calling you to do and to be at this very point in your life. Purpose has its challenges and if we want to realize our God given purpose we actually have to turn our eyes away from ourselves and place them squarely on God. Yes I must concede that some of your dreams and aspirations may be directly connected to your purpose but there are also instances where they are not. 

Photo by Dreamstime

 

Purpose is profound and may even seem a bit complex! I know by now you are asking, "How will I know my purpose?" To believe you are created by God is to believe that there is purpose in you; that there is some higher calling on your life that was framed outside of you and is therefore not always to be found by looking just within you. When you want to know your purpose you need to ask God, your Creator to reveal to you the reason you were made. 

Some people will stop reading at this point because they feel they do not want to be bothered by something that may disrupt their plans for their lives or the direction their lives have taken up to this point. Still there are others who might feel a little overwhelmed and even disappointed that they must seek an 'outside' Source to have their purpose revealed. Then there are still some who will recognize the authorship of God in their lives and who will recognize that to truly actualize as God's creation is to, through the help of our Creator, do exactly what we were born to do. Which one are you? How you view your purpose will impact whether you live out your God crafted role or not. If we truly believe that which we often confess with our mouths; that God's plan for us is to only prosper us and not to harm us then we will find that we can rest in His plan knowing that His divine purpose of our lives is what is the best of everything for our us. 

As 2012 draws to a close it isn't too late to ask God to not simply reveal our purpose but to set us back on track (if we had gone off course) or to put us on the track to our divine purpose; a purpose that is bigger and greater than the limitations of our human capabilities and objectives. 

I don't know about you but just the thought that God designed me with a purpose in mind for my life, that He chose my parents so I could look the way He wanted me to look, that He has been transforming my missteps and even disobedience as learning experiences so that I can bounce back from them instead of condemning me, makes me want to be who He wants me to be! (side note) While saying that I can only think about things that must be sacrificed, forgotten, changed etc. if I am going to be who God has called me to be.  Purpose requires obedience, discipline, faith and sacrifice. What cost have you had to pay to honor God's purpose for your life?

Look at these passages:

Ephesians 2:10

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God created in advance for us to do"

Romans 8:28 

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" 

Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm, plans to give you hope and a future" 

Like. Share. Comment. Subscribe.

Until next time,

EJ

His Love Makes Me Better

Singing : “He loves me

Oh how, He loves me

Oh how He loves me

Oh how he loves”

Do you really understand God’s love for you? Before just saying, “yes” because you think you are supposed to, really take a moment to think about this question. Many of us cannot properly conceive of God’s love for us because we have been hurt so much by people who supposedly love us. Comprehending God’s love is made even more difficult because of our own limitations and wavering as it relates to loving someone and loving them unconditionally. Consider 1 Corinthians 13:5. How many of us truly keep no record of the wrongs done to us by those we say we love?

Our concept and experience of God’s love is further complicated due to the fact that we actually try to earn God’s love. We try to earn something that God has already freely given to us. It is one thing to do stuff to show our love for someone or for God; however we enter a completely different sphere when we do things to convince someone to love us.

Are you willing to admit that you are most certain that God loves you only when you are doing things that you think will please Him? Now don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with doing the things you know will please God because you want Him to be happy with you, but it a whole different thing altogether to recognize that God loves you even when some of your behaviors and thoughts  DO NOT make Him happy. I have to admit that I am humbled, grateful, sobered up by a love that persists even in the face of my mistakes and sins!  

Now before you go feeling as though you have the 'carte blanche' to simply do whatever you want because of God’s unconditional love please recognize that love like this is supposed to make you want to please Him the one who shows you this love even more…His love ought to make you be better and do better; it ought to cause you to make an extra effort to act right and to think right or to put yourself in a position where God can help you to be more than you could ever be on your own.

Photo by Jesus Freak

Listen it doesn't matter what you are going through or what you have done, God is not punishing you…He loves you and is a thousand steps ahead of you telling you that if you only just trust Him you will see that every hurt, pain, disappointment, joy, success, misstep, and sin, God himself has behind the scenes worked it all out for your good. This is not to impress you with His power; He is not trying to throw you a bone because your life has been ‘bad’, He does all He has and all He will, because He loves you. With your imperfection, frailty, flaws, strengths, desires, dreams etc. He loves you. God loves me. God loves you. It may seem scary and unimaginable or God’s love may finally make you feel safe and secure, either way we need to embrace God’s love if we are to really live and to have life more abundantly.

Ok, so I started reading ‘The Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren. It seems quite the popular book and before I got the chance to read the first page people were already announcing how great of a read it ought to be because they had already read it and liked it. Wait; wait, I should ask, “Have you already read it?  

Warren said something in chapter 2 that reminded me how grateful I am for God’s unwavering, matchless love. He said, “God created you so He could love you!” (I just want to jump and dance around because that was a word for me…God knew exactly what I am dealing with and He used Rick (hehe) to remind me of who I am in Him). WooHoo!! God was not lonely, He was not lacking anything. Because God is love He chose to, in love, form you and I (some special things) to nurture and to love. Just imagine if we could truly accept God’s love and to let His love influence our daily lives and living. To consider that the one who created me loves me when I am good and when I am bad is such a sobering thought because it truly makes me know that I am special…that there is purpose in me!   

Listen I watched a news piece on ‘The Bicycle Man’ Moses Mathis, who has repaired donated bicycles for 20 years and has been giving them to children at Christmas. The 75 year old Mathis had all of 1,100 bicycles for children this year! Many of us take our hats off to a person like this. The truth is the love he shows to these children is only a glimpse into the all encompassing love of God. Here is a link to the news piece just in case you are interested: The Bicycle Man

Accepting God’s love helps us live an empowered, shackle-free, righteous, fulfilling life as His love transforms us and our circumstances and makes our experience the best.

Take a moment and meditate on this, “I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you were born”

Isaiah 44:2

Like. Comment. Share. Subscribe

Until next time:)

EJ