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Seeking repentance is an ongoing part of the Christian walk. The bible explains that our unforgiveness and unrepentant state, prevents our prayers from being heard.   Jesus calls for repentance as an essential response to the coming of God's kingdom — not just sorrow for sin, but a radical reorientation of life. Seeking forgiveness and repenting from that sin by changing our mind on how we thought about something is a posture of understanding how wretched we really are and seeing that need for an ongoing repentant change of heart and change of mind.    To change your mind about what you did is true repentance. We can seek forgiveness. We can apologize for hurting one another.   We live in such a fast paced world. We were never created to take on the amount of information we have running through our hearts and minds on a minute by minute basis. All of that information creates additional chaos.

Our stories are the training ground God uses for His glory.  He uses what broke us to birth empathy in us   Your story is so meaningful because it comes through places you though you wouldn’t ever recover from.    Romans 8:28 calls for in all things God works for the good of those who love Him.    We don’t go through these trials just to move on. We go through them to move others.    The devil would love nothing more than our pain to make us bitter, but God wants to use our stories to make us better equipped.   When you share your story, you will go back and look at the moment that broke you. You will see how it redirected your prayers, refined your standards and revived your dependency on God alone.   This is the moment when we share our stories and our heartbreak becomes holy ground.    Any pain in our story, isn’t the end of our story. Its the activation of it.

This is an area of discipleship I believe we are called and commanded to do. Its the one area that God says, test me in this. Let me show you that when you fully trust me, I am worthy of your trust. Not in a do this and God does that. Its a posture. Its a position of surrender before the Lord to seek Him and what He desires you to do, not because of what I am saying, but ask Him Lord is this an area I need to trust you with? Show me what you want me to know. Show me what you want me to see and do in response to this. This may or may not be an overnight discovery for you. But its still something to consider, discover and seek God over what, when and how He wants to live out more and more sacrificial lives for His glory.

This rest is necessary. We have so many habits and addictions waiting to devour us and we need to have rest physically and digitally from what can potentially overtake us. There are even so many opportunities for us to sin with the access that we have digitally.    Opportunity to covet. Opportunity to lust. Opportunity to put trust in man or self. Opportunity to fear. Opportunity to feel insecure. The list is long and its never what it was meant to be.    What did God intend this life to be about? Its always been about HIm. The glorification of our savior. To know HIM. To love HIM. To serve HIM. To point other people to him.   We need clarity and sobriety of our minds to do all these things well and what gives us clarity is to have more space for that clearer mind to happen. chrome://external-file/7%20Rhythms%20of%20a%20Disciple.pdf.pdf

If you want your words to carry power, you have to stop speaking like a beggar and start praying like a BELIEVER.I think so often, we talk TO God and not WITH God. So often we forget that its a two way relationship. A two way conversation and that just as much as God desires to hear from us, He also desires that we hear from Him. Stop praying uncertain prayers about things God has already promised like healing, provision, and peace. Know His will and declare it. 1 John 5:14 says “this is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.     2.We don’t need to pray “God be with me..”  You don’t need to ask God to be with you, He promised He already is. Instead thank him for his present and walk in it. Hebrews 13:5 says I will never leave you or forsake you.  Declare God is with you now and always. I walk with His presence,  not apart from it.

Is this God's plan for your life? A book you read over and over again? A book you study every single day?   A book He wrote for you.  A book that transcends time. A book that will speak to whatever you are going through at any given time that will give you wisdom and discerment on how to raise your kids, to take that job or not take that job. To buy a home or not buy a home. Should you forgive and how to forgive. So much more. Its all there!  Its revelevant. Its true and its for you and its for me.   Let's take a shallow dive into the waters of what it looks like and why we are to study the word of God!    YouVersion bible app Apple https://www.bible.com/app  Android https://www.bible.com/app  The Bible Recap https://www.thebiblerecap.com The Bible Project https://bibleproject.com

When I think back on my deepest formed relationships in life and how they were developed it is abundantly clear that those relationships developed by investing time in one another.   We can spend time with people and then we can invest time with people.    When we invest in a deeply connected manner we yield a return on our investment.  When we spend time, I see it as the more superficial experiences where we exchange pleasant sterile formalities that lack the true depth of deep relationship building.   Today I want us to consider what it looks like to deepen our relationship with our creator, God. What does that look like?

The purest form of courage is to rescue other people. We all need rescuing from time to time and its important that we see ourselves as usable by God for the benefit of his kingdom and for his glory.   What does the bible say about this topic?    Spiritual Gifts test https://spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test

So many of us go around in life in our day to day activities with surface level questions, answers and conversations. I have learned that we can validate each other in our humanity when we are honest with ourselves,  Honest with God (who knows it all anyway) and with others.   Most people have a narrative and that narrative says we are the only one. And that simply is not true. When we think and feel like we are the only one, we tend to isolate,  to think less of ourselves, we are inclined to shrink back in feeling small and insignificant.   So much of our lives are spent in comparison to others through a lens of social media outlets that leave us feeling less than. And this narrative simply is not true.   The truth is, we matter!

There is a narrative we are told and sold about what our lives are supposed to look like and then there is what God’s word says. I don’t know about you, but I recommend actively pursuing more of what matters - specifically what it looks like to be making disciples. This is a topic that once you gain that clarity, you can and should operate your days with more peace and confidence.   Spiritual Gifts Test   https://spiritualgiftstest.com/spiritual-gifts-test  You & Me book https://a.co/d/buE6uTn

God often gives us the dream first to help prepare us with hope for the future.  The dreams are what sustained Joseph during extremely difficult circumstances.    And your God-given dreams will sustain you too, no matter what your future holds. How do we stay devoted to our dreams, our family, and our faith when we are in the midst of our holding cell, like the one Joseph experienced?   First, when we doubt God, we must be honest about our feelings and questions. Being honest lets us move toward our relationship with God. Hiding our doubts and questions will keep us stuck and powerless. We will not reach our dreams by accident. We will not end up with a stronger faith after times of trial by default. This is an active stance—a battle.   Second, identify and deal with thoughts that are contrary to what we know to be true about God and His plan for our life. While Joseph was in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he continued to believe God was in control. When the cupbearer talked about his dream to Joseph, Joseph replied, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Gen. 40:8).  Abandoned by his family, alone in a foreign country, and wrongfully sentenced to prison, Joseph certainly had an excuse to wonder if God was present.   God has every right to remedy our situation or to let our worst fear come to be. Even if He doesn’t answer the way we want, God is still good and on His throne. Our responsibility is with our faith and actions.

Have you ever wondered if there is more to this life?    Have you ever considered that you were created for influence and to multiply?   Do you consider yourself a person of infuence?   What would it look like if you got abundantly clear on what you were put on this earth to do? Let's work through what this could look like for you!

My top 5 list of MUST do's for faith based business decision making, strategies and for ideal success!    You make decisions with your business and they should absolutely be in full alignment with your Christian walk.

We are created to be fruit bearers. We are created for influence. We are created to multiply our efforts. So what does the activity look like with those outcomes?   Let me also tell you that in this process, never trust your feelings. They are not worthy of your trust.   You need to trust the ONE who guided you to this path and stay on the path with the steps that it takes to remain on the path.   I promise you, that you will gain traction and you will encounter people who will find you and what you are offering that lines up with where they are at and they will value the connection. You most likely will need to continue to broaden your influence and what I mean by that is you have to grow your connections with people.

You are good. But can you be great?!    I am not referring to a life of being content with what you have. Contentment is a mindset.   I believe, as people whose lives are rooted in faith, we walk a fine line between desiring more for this life and having a spirit of contentment. What I will be sharing with you is a perspective around what God is capable of doing through you. When we look at our lives as holy and belonging to HIM, we have a higher understanding that we are His vessels and we need to always be in communication with Him for what He desires we do with our lives for more impact.   We are also called to be living sacrifices. We should be willing to do hard things. Our job is not to arrive safely at the end. Our job is to run this race like it's the one chance we get to run and in the end, God is at the finish line. My desire for you is that you see yourself as a person on-mission to consider yourself LESS and to consider more how God can be glorified in your workplace and with the monetary resources He can generate through you for His kingdom.   Over 20 years ago God opened up space for one of my life’s challenges - a 10 year battle with autoimmunity to be a place that stung, a place that hurt, a place that would render me not present physically, emotionally and sometimes spiritually. I prayed for healing for what seemed like a selfish prayer. And God heard me. But he didn’t just hear me, he prepared me to walk in new freedom both physically, emotionally and spiritually but also to lead others.