Tag Archives: #spirituality

Spirituality

Performance Review

Everyone is accountable to someone. Even the president of a company has to answer to his or her Board of Directors. You can’t escape the responsibilities of life or work.

Who does God answer to? The shortest answer is no one. He’s in control of everything. So let’s examine how He has performed.

God tells the truth. Always. Check the box for honesty. God gets us out of the stupid messes we create. Adaptability? Check. God is with us during our worst times. He’s a compassionate God. He cares. God celebrates our victories. He’s not a selfish God. And God gave us a guidebook for how we should lead our lives. All we have to do is read it and apply it.

As human beings, we can fall into the trap of praying for something, but we don’t get the answer we want so we get frustrated. Or we don’t get an answer at all. Those are the times we give God a less than stellar review. And it is in these moments where trust and faith intersect. No matter what you are going through, always believe. He will come through. The supernatural realm works with a set of rules and circumstances that we cannot fully understand. Don’t give up.

From my observation, God gets a 100 on His Performance Review. Every single reporting period…

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Spirituality

Clairvoyant

A clairvoyant is someone who claims to be able to predict future events. While there have been some people who have been successful at this, occasionally, their long term track record is suspect.

Charlatans have taken advantage of people ever since the beginning of time as we know it. I’m not talking about the prophets. They never missed the mark. I mean the palm readers and the people who hold seances. These types are using people.

If you want to know your future, here’s some bad news. You won’t. Think back ten years ago. Did your life change in ways you couldn’t have predicted? Of course it did. If our future was revealed to us by a supernatural force, we wouldn’t understand it.

God holds our futures in His hands. Let’s leave it to Him who already has everything figured out. God doesn’t need our help, nor does He share His plans with the clairvoyants…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Undeserved

Have you ever taken the time to consider the love of God?

We know God is love, and His Spirit is all around us all the time. But God gives good things to believers and nonbelievers alike, and He gives to the people who curse and blame Him. He doesn’t discriminate.

As humans, it’s hard to get our heads around this kind of goodness. When others mistreat us or cuss us out, our natural inclination is to strike back. And sometimes we do. One thing I learned about the character of God is, He can take a punch. In years past I hit Him pretty hard or ignored Him altogether. God never sought revenge.

How do we show that we love God? We can’t see Him. He doesn’t need anything from us. I believe Jesus told us how when he said, “what you do for the least among you, you do for me.”

Please take a moment every day to acknowledge God’s love for all of us. Do it even if you’re mad at Him…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Don’t Tell Me!

No one likes to be bossed around or told what to do. Our rebellious nature kicks in and we resist.

Let’s take a moment to consider the disciples of Jesus. They witnessed countless miracles including bringing the dead back to life, calming a storm and curing a leper. The front row seat they occupied must have been mind blowing! Yet, they took it upon themselves to tell Jesus what to do. In one instance, Peter told Jesus to stop talking about being killed and rising on the third day. Jesus told him to “get behind me, Satan!” Jesus wasn’t making casual conversation.

We like to tell God what to do, too. We ask Him for selfish, material things, or for someone to like us back. Yet, God takes it all in. He never laughs at us or punishes us for being ridiculous. Nope. He just keeps on supplying our needs.

Instead of telling God what we want, why don’t we try trusting Him to give us good things? God gives us what He knows we need, which might not be what we want.

Trust Him. He is good…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Practical Atheism

We just finished celebrating Christmas which, along with Easter, is the largest day of attendance in church. A sense of obligation brings some people in, but we are failing at keeping them.

It’s estimated that anywhere from 4% to 30% of people in the United States don’t believe in God. Surveys can show wide and varied differences, and these are no different. The truth is, only God knows who believes in Him. But there’s more!

How we act is a representation of our belief or disbelief. Worry is practical atheism. We worry because we want to be in control and not allow some unseen god to take the reins. We might be looking through the wrong lens. Having faith in an invisible spirit is real faith. We know God is in control so we don’t have to be.

Judgment, treating others as less than equal, and laying guilt trips on people is in opposition of how our Creator acts. By doing so, aren’t we holding God’s character in contempt?

Going to church won’t make you a believer. If you go for the wrong reason, it might make you resentful. Go because you want to. Nothing else is necessary.

And remember, God looks at the heart of mankind. He knows everything, and that’s a good thing…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Guidance

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Recently I was reading this and it spoke to me in a whole new way.

Many times in this blog I have stated that the Bible is the best, most comprehensive self help book ever. It tells us how to live our lives without a bunch of rah rah. And there it is: “submit to him and he will make your paths straight.” It’s the submission part that trips us up. We don’t like being submissive.

God is in control of everything. When we submit to his ways rather than our own selfish desires, we have peace and contentment. Living in his will is often the road less traveled, and I admit it’s difficult. There are a lot of things to tempt us onto the superhighway to hell! And Satan knows exactly what appeals to each of us. He’s had a long time to observe human behavior.

Following God’s word won’t turn you into a religious nut. You won’t stop showering and start dressing weird . The change is inside. You feel it.

I encourage you to give it a try. The only thing you will lose is some chaos from your life…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Spirits

We know that God is Spirit. Are you aware that there are evil spirits all around us? Alcohol is called spirits. I believe this is because it weakens us. People do things they wouldn’t normally do while drinking.

There is a spiritual battle going on in the unseen world. Just because we can’t see it doesn’t make it less real. An impulse you get that might harm others or yourself originates in the darkness. God cannot cause us to sin. His nature is perfect. Evil causes us to sin and suffer.

Let’s face it, sin is fun. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t be tempted to do it. Sinful behavior is only good in the short term. Righteous behavior allows us to be free of worry and guilt. We face the choice of good versus evil every day.

I encourage you to read and absorb God’s Word. Make it part of you. In this world we cannot avoid sin. Yet, God gives us a way to fight through it. Guaranteed…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

Prophets

Ever since the beginning of recorded time we have had people who claim to be prophets. Some were real (Samuel, Elijah and others), while the rest are just trying to scam you out of your money. The “Psychic Hotline” is a beaming example.

The frauds are taking advantage of people’s need for hope. Palm readers can’t tell you your future any better than I can. There is one, sure fire way to weed out the fakes: someone who truly gets their gift from God will be right 100% of the time. God cannot lie so He wouldn’t pass along wrong or misleading information to a real prophet.

Find peace in your life by knowing that God has you in his sights all the time. Nothing goes unnoticed. He knows your future down to every minute detail.

Place all your hope in the One who is on your side, and always will be…

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#spirituality

The Peacemaker

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived. He redeemed and restored people. Everyone, including the hated tax collectors, prostitutes and adulterers came to him for the forgiveness of their sins.

Jesus healed people, too. Lepers, the blind, even dead people received healing. Jesus gave the people hope when they had little or none.

Jesus was a peacemaker, yet sometimes he raised some hell. He cleaned up the Temple (His Father’s House) and called out the hypocritical religious leaders. Jesus was a true rebel, a badass who lived his life fearlessly and with purpose.

I encourage you to get to know him. He will change your life…

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#inspiration, #spirituality

You Missed It

This morning I received an email with the words “you missed it” in the subject line. The email was from a site that was trying to sell me something. Delete.

The fear of missing out phenomenon is real. It evolved from our being constantly bombarded with information and data. Our brains can go into overdrive which might result in us missing something really important.

I encourage you to take time away from your electronics. Spend time in nature. Go hiking. Meet someone for coffee or Happy Hour and have a conversation. Volunteer for an organization that reflects what is in your heart.

You will be better off for your time away. And you won’t have missed a thing…

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