ShineBrightly encourages Christians to reflect the light of Jesus in thier everyday life and to LIVE focused on our future eternal life with Jesus Christ.
Deuteronomy 3:22 Don’t be afraid of them, for the Lord your God fights for you.
Joshua 1:9 Haven’t I commanded you: be strong and courageous? Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Psalm 27:1 The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— whom should I dread?
Psalm 91:11 For he will give his angels orders concerning you, to protect you in all your ways.
Psalm 56:3-4 When I am afraid, I will trust in you.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?
Isaiah 41:10 Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will hold on to you with my righteous right hand.
Matthew 6:31-34 So don’t worry, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you. Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Mark 5:36 When Jesus overheardwhat was said, he told the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid. Only believe.”
Luke 12:7 Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted. Don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
John 14:1 Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me
John 14:27 “Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Don’t let your heart be troubled or fearful.
Romans 8:38-39 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Philippians 4:6-7 Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Fueling your mind with positive music is a tool you can use to overcome fear and fill your mind with truth. Add these songs to your playlist so you can be ready to fight fear when it interrupts your day.
Fear is a Liar – Zach Williams
I will fear no more – The Afters
The Breakup song – Francesca Battistelli
Things That I’m Afraid Of – Josh Wilson
No Longer Slaves – Jonathan and Melissa Helser We Will Not Be Shaken
Life can seem overwhelming, especially when you’re in the middle of something you can’t see your way out of. Our circumstances can blind us and even lead us into wrong direction when we try to fix it on our own. Waiting through a health issue, a job loss or a broken relationship can fill you with worry, anxiety or guilt.
Worry, anxiety and guilt can wreak havoc on more than your emotional state, they will get you stuck. When you’re trapped in your thoughts, it’s impossible to move forward to what God has for you.
So, what’s the answer?
We have to trust God and remember that He is bigger than our circumstances. I believe that when you’re watching for God while you’re waiting, He will show you things along the way to remind you that He’s still there and working a bigger plan.
You Can Trust Him
A few years back, my husband lost his job, immediately all the things we needed to be able to take care of flooded my mind. There’s the house payment, the car payment and my son’s braces! Somehow that one seemed to be the big extra, we were still making payments on those crazy braces. He better appreciate his straight teeth after what they cost! The next day, I called the orthodontist just to find out where we were in the process and discovered the braces were almost paid for. Only one more month’s payment. What a relief! It felt like a first step to surviving a reduced income. God is going to make a way through this.
A couple of weeks passed and the bill showed up mixed in with all the junk mail and another unusual envelope sitting on top of it. I opened the bill. Yes! It was exactly the amount they told me and it was marked FINAL PAYMENT. Hallelujah! Next, I opened the unusual envelope, inside I found a rebate check from contact lenses I had sent in months ago, before this job loss was even a thought in my mind. And you want to guess how much it was for? The EXACT same amount as the last payment on the braces. The envelopes came in the mail on the same day, with the check sitting on top of the bill. God was reminding me I could trust him. He literally had it covered!
God Has a Bigger Plan
In Genesis we learn the story of Joseph who was sold by his jealous brothers into slavery and became successful working for Potiphar, who was an officer of Pharaoh. After a manipulative situation with Potiphar’s wife, Joseph unjustly ended up in prison. (Find out more about that story HERE!) After overcoming his brother’s offense years before, he was now in another difficult circumstance that was brought on to him by someone else. Joseph continued to trust God and follow Him, even in prison. While there, he met Pharaoh’s cup bearer and was able to interpret a dream for him. Then after 2 more years of waiting in prison, this event led to Joseph’s release when he was called on to interpret dream for Pharaoh.
What seemed like two horrible circumstances, were events that God used to place Joseph EXACTLY where he needed to be. Joseph rose to second in command in the kingdom. When the famine that Joseph interpreted from Pharaoh’s dream became reality, Joseph was in position to save the lives of his father, Jacob and his brothers, despite them attempting to destroy him years before.
It wasn’t only Joseph’s brothers who were saved. Joseph’s righteousness was directly a part of our salvation story. Because Joseph was in prison, he met the cupbearer, who introduced him to Pharaoh, who gave Joseph the opportunity to save his brother Judah, who is in the direct lineage of Jesus, the lion of Judah.
We have a God who cares about us. He doesn’t want us to live stuck. He’s inviting us to trust Him in the little things and the big things. When we can’t see the way, we can know He is working a plan created specifically for us. Pray that God will take your worry, anxiety and guilt so you can move forward into what he has for you. Then watch while you’re waiting, He will show the way and you just may see some reminders of how He is taking care of you.
There is so much in this world that fights for our attention. Putting God first is something we say we want to do, but in how often does it really happen. The truth is sin is anything that is serving ourselves over God. We tend to define sin into categories, ranking them into the “big” ones and often making excuses or justifying the “little” ones.
When we put ourselves first, when we make up our own rules, it’s like saying we think we know better than God. We’re ignoring what He tells us is true and following what we think is best.
Overcoming the desire to serve ourselves isn’t easy, but it is what God asks of us.
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.
Matthew 16:24-25
Thankfully, God gives us some examples of how He can help us overcome temptation.
Be Ready
Know when temptation is coming.
Temptation often follows a spiritual high. When you are in a place where you’re feeling good about your faith, this is often a time that Satan chooses to tempt you and try to bring you down. You may have experienced coming home from a spiritual retreat or mission trip, feeling fired up and ready to serve, only to get hit by trials or hardships that threaten to derail your ambition.
Even Jesus’ temptation followed this example. In Mark 1, we learn that Jesus was baptized by John, the heaven’s opened and the Holy Spirit descended. The voice of God came from heaven saying “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well-pleased.” Talk about a spiritual high. All three persons of the trinity physically in one place announcing the blessing of God on this event. Then Mark tells us that “immediately” Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Know how to handle the temptation.
Jesus was ready to handle the temptation by using scripture and knowing the truth. He knew that Satan had nothing to give Him that He did not already have. With each temptation, he quoted the truth of scripture to overcome the deceptive reasonings of the devil.
Joseph is another example of a man who was ready for temptation. (Genesis 39) Potiphar’s wife had a plan for Joseph to fall and he knew it. When he ignored her sexual advances, she only became more aggressive. Joseph had determined “in advance” to do the right thing, no matter the cost. When she approached him again, he had already decided that he was going to get away from the situation and he ran, leaving his clothes in her hands during his escape. She shifted the blame on him and used the opportunity to take him down, leaving Joseph is prison. God ultimately redeemed the situation in a way that would never seem possible. This decision to follow God no matter what ultimately had a connection that affects us all. (Read more about that HERE!)
Don’t get TOO close.
Be careful about the situations you allow yourself to be in. Temptation is much easier to resist if you’re too far away to fall in.
Find the Way Out
When we are tempted God doesn’t leave us alone.
I Corinthians 10:13 tells us
No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity. But God is faithful; he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to bear it.
God promises to give you a way out when you are tempted. Look for it. Pray for his help. You always have the opportunity to choose the right way. Even if you’ve fallen for it a thousand times, God can give you the strength overcome. When we do what is right, God uses our intentional obedience to do amazing things.
Fear. It seems a certain amount of it is healthy. It keeps us from getting too close the edge of a cliff, reminds us to buckle our seat belt in the car and knows how to be careful when hanging out around a campfire.
But a lot of what keeps us up at night isn’t as much about staying safe in risky situations, but about the things in life that could make our life harder. Will disaster or disease invade my comfortable existence? Will I have what I need or what I want in life? Will I be left alone? Will I be accepted?
Fear is something we can’t escape, but God does give us a remedy. FAITH. Here are a few concepts to keep in mind when fear comes obnoxiously crashing into your day.
FAITH is knowing who we are.
Knowing that we are a child of the one true God, created with an eternal purpose that begins right here on Earth helps you overcome fear. It starts now, where you are. You don’t have to wait until you know more, become healthier or grow more spiritually. Focus on what God has planned for you. Talk to God and read His word to find things He wants you to do. When we follow Him, we can trust God with whatever comes our way.
FAITH is knowing who God is.
God is everywhere. He knows everything and He has all the power. He also wants what is best for your life, so whatever comes your way is for a purpose. Trust that He is working something we may not understand.
FAITH is remembering God’s faithfulness.
Sometimes purpose is hard to see when we are in the middle of something difficult, but when we can look back on what God has done for us in the past and remember the ways He had brought us through, it gives us confidence to go on.
God’s Hall of FAITH
Hebrews chapter 11 is often known as the “Hall of Faith”. It is a list of people from the Bible who overcame fear, trusted God and followed His plan, even when it didn’t make sense. Noah gave the world a new start by building an ark when it had never rained. Sarah became the mother of countless generations in her old age. Moses was rescued from the Egyptians when God held back the water of the Red Sea and they walked through on dry land. We can look to these stories of faithfulness and countless others in God’s Word to remember how big God is.
Focus on what is good, true and lovely.
Finally brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is anything praiseworthy—dwell on these things.
Philippians 4:8
So much of what we fear, we’ve built up in our own minds. We’ve told ourselves lies about ourselves and others. When lies creep in, fight them with scripture. We know that the words of the Bible are truth.
God is bigger than the Boogie Man
There’s an old Veggie Tales song that comes to mind whenever I hear the line “God is bigger.” It says…
God is Bigger than the Boogie Man. He’s bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV. God is bigger than the Boogie man and He’s watching over you and me.
It’s just a simple kid’s song, but it reminds me about what to focus on. God is watching over me. If God is for me, who can be against me?
And about those “monsters on TV” Sometimes those scary shows and movies can be fun, but there is something to be said about what we let into our minds. I’m not just talking about horror films and scary stories. Even the news can bring ideas into our head that we would not have otherwise known to fear. Crime shows and murder mysteries capture our attention, then come back to haunt us when we’re walking to our car at night. Like anything else, what we put in our mind is what we focus on, so the more often we can put in what is good, true and lovely, the more often our mind will be conquering fear.
They say that 90% of the things you worry about never happen. I’m not sure that’s a scientific statistic, but it’s a good concept to consider. The time we spend worrying would be much better spent moving forward, being thankful, or helping others. And when one of those things we would have worried abut does happen, we can be confident that God will be there to see us through it.
ACTION PLAN
Make a list of verses and Christian songs to get in your head next time fear attacks!
In the busyness of everyday, most often survival is the goal. If I could survive comfortably without too much struggle or stress, even better!
Getting through the day, my personal requests of God are often focused on what is right in front of me. How am I going to fix a broken appliance? How am I going to navigate a difficult situation or relationship? How am I supposed to find time to do something restful or fun?
Thrown in front of us on social media ads or TV commercials are offers of exercise, vitamins, time management plans and get rich quick schemes that appear to be the solution. We’re searching for a little something to make life easier or maybe even forget our problems all together.
When we take our struggles to God in prayer, we often ask that he remove the situation, take away the pain or provide us the money. We can only see as far as our immediate need and our comfort in the process is typically our priority.
But God is so much bigger than our expectations.
In Acts 3, there’s a story about a man who couldn’t walk.
From the time he was born, his legs had never worked. He had always been dependent on another person to take care of what he needed. His job was to sit at the gate of the Temple and ask people to give him money for survival. He couldn’t even get there himself. The scripture tells us that someone had to “place” him there. They probably had discussions every day about the best time to get there and which was the best spot. He was a regular, the people who passed by knew him.
Then one day, two of Jesus’ disciples walked by. The man opened his mouth to request the same thing he asked hundreds of people day after day for years, hoping he would go home with enough to be able to eat dinner tonight.
Peter and John stopped and made sure he was paying attention by saying “Look at us”. I am sure the man was expecting they were going to give him a coin. Then he hears, “I don’t have silver or gold”. Hmmm.. he thinks.. Ok, well, maybe they’ve got some bread or a meal? Peter continues “but what I do have I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Get up and walk!”
Peter reached for his hand and “at once” the man’s feet and ankles became strong. Legs that had not worked for his entire life were able to walk into the Temple and even leap!
The man had sat there day after day all of his life looking for a temporary fix. But God knew what he really needed, doing so much more for him than he could ever expected. He provided a way for him to live! Now, he could work and even have some fun. Getting places on his own? Talk about a time saver!
So often, we request a temporary fix from God, when He has the power and the resources to give us what we really need. He wants us to experience living to our full potential of his plan for us. Like this man who couldn’t walk, our journey is not always easy or comfortable, but God uses the struggles to help us grow. They give us the perspective to understand so when God does give us what we need, we are ready to use that gift in the way He planned.
The man who was well known by the people who passed by everyday saw him walking and were amazed. When God works in our life, he gives us a story to tell. The people around us are able to see how God has worked in us and hear what He has done.
What is weighing you down today? Have you only been asking for a quick fix or a temporary comfort? Ask God to give you strength for the journey. Ask him to use your current situation to prepare you for what is next and to bring you what He knows you need.
Now to him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us— to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Looking for a gift for mom that mom will enjoy for years to come? These beautiful journals encourage mom to be creative, have fun and inspire her to grow in her faith.
Does your mom love to play games? This journal and scorekeeping book, combines playing games with remembering the fun times together with friends and family. Each scoresheet has room for tallying the points while playing your favorite game. There is also room to record what game you’re playing, what day it is, where you are, who is playing with you and whatever else you would like to include. Once the pages begin to fill, you will be able to look back and see the memories created while playing games! Everyone will be competing for the chance to sign their name in the winner’s circle! In the back, there are rules to a few games and space to write in rules to some of your favorite games.
Is mom always praying for others or want to grow her prayer life? This journal provides 52 weeks of journaling pages guide you in ways to pray and inspire you to grow your faith through recording your requests and seeing how God answers. The beautifully designed pages are flexible enough to use them in the way that works best for you while giving you prompts and encouragment to bring new perspectives to the way you talk with God. A spacious structure gives you places for lists, journaling, and a weekly focus. You will also find inspiration to trust God with your needs and your worries by praising Him for who He is and being thankful for what He has done. Find deeper trust in our all powerful God as you build an intentional prayer life that will make a difference in the way you live every day.
Is mom always on Pinterest? Does she like to make things or always doodling? Give her a way to exercise her creativity! The Zentangle Sketchbook is full of geometric grids and patterns that are empty and ready to be filled with your doodles or zentangle designs. There are abstract and realistic designs that have plenty of open space for you to make them your own creation. Doodling allows you to exercise your creativity and helps you to focus and relax. The Zentangle Sketchbook gets the drawing started for you by providing the framework, so you can get straight to the fun part! Whether this is your first time trying zentangle or you are an expert, you will find these designs inspire you to new patterns and techniques.
For the Bible Studying Mom
Sermon Note Journals
Does mom spend her time learning more about God? These beautiful Sermon Note Journals provide 52 weeks of pages to keep a years worth of notes from church in one place. When you write or draw as you listen, you are more likely to understand more and remember it longer. You can look through your notes to the important points you want to find out more about or work to apply to your life. These journals are a great size to carry along with your Bible to church and come in 5 design styles.
Although it seems like it should be easy, prayer can feel confusing. Sometimes we don’t know what to say or feel like we’re not saying the “right” words. When you find yourself looking for direction when talking to God, try using the Bible to guide your prayers.
Why should you use scripture to guide your prayer?
1. We know God’s Word is true and is God’s will. When we pray scripture, we can know that what we are asking for is pursing the right direction. Scripture teaches us more about God. As we pray scripture, we learn His ways and become more like Him.
This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked of him.
1 John 5:14-15
2. Praying scripture helps us be more thorough in our prayers. We tend to pray the same things over and over and go back to the ideas that are familiar to us. When we pray using scripture, it expands our thinking to include new concepts that might not come naturally to us. This grows our faith and teaches us to learn God’s ways and what is important to Him.
How do you pray scripture?
While You Read
Reading your Bible and praying don’t have to be separate experiences. In fact, they shouldn’t be! While you are reading God’s word, talk to Him about it. If you’re confused about what a verse means, ask Him to help you understand it. You have 24/7 access to the author! Think about the concepts or the stories you are reading and pray that God would show you how they can be used in your life.
The Holy Spirit
1 John 2:27 tells us that the Holy Spirit will teach us. Even if we never had access to preachers, teachers or Bible study resources, the Holy Spirit helps us understand scripture, AND there’s more… If you believe in God, the Holy Spirit lives in you and knows you. He can help you to use that scripture and apply it to your specific situation. This is one way God’s word is described as “alive and active”. It means something different to us depending on what is happening in our life. The words of the Bible written 2000 years ago are still relevant to us today.
Prayer activates this understanding, so before you begin reading God’s word, ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand the words you are reading and know what they mean to you today.
Use Prayers from the Bible
The Bible is full of prayers already written for you. The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) gives us a structure of how to pray. Paul often wrote prayers for the people in the churches when he wrote his letters. The Psalms of David are full of prayers. Jesus even prayed for those who believe in Him. We can also use these prayers to talk to God. Here are a few prayers from the Bible to get you started.
David – A Prayer of Thanksgiving – Psalm 30
Paul – Prayers of Power and Strength – Ephesians 1:15-20; Ephesians 3:14-21
Paul – Prayer to Know God’s Will – Colossians 1:9-14
Hannah’s Prayer – 1 Samuel 2:1-10
Jesus’ Prayer for Believers – John 17:20-23
Choose a Verse to Pray
If you are looking for direction in a specific situation, if there is an area that you need to grow spiritually or if there is something that God is teaching you, you can choose a verse to focus on. Spend a day, a week, a month or more using that verse to dwell on and pray about as you go through your day.
The Bible is also full of verses that tell us the promises God has for us. Praying the promises of God gives you confidence in who you are in Christ, what he has planned for your life and His power to complete it. Here are a few verses of promises from God.
The Lord is the one who will go before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or abandon you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8
Don’t worry about anything, but in everything, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7
Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.
James 1:5
Using a Journal Can Lead to Deeper Prayer
It doesn’t have be fancy, a simple spiral notebook will do. It doesn’t have to be long or eloquent. Write down the verse you’re praying. If you would like, journal or list a few things you learn while praying or answers God has given. Using more of your senses by writing helps you to understand more deeply, to remember what you’ve prayed and to see patterns God is working to teach you. Looking back through your prayers, reminds you of God’s faithfulness. Praising God and thanking Him for what He’s done changes your perspective and transforms your life!
Remember that methods of praying and ideas are meant to be helpful, but don’t get caught up the logistics. Above all, JUST PRAY! Hopefully you often find quality quiet time to talk to God, but if you’re waiting for that to happen to pray, it won’t! Pray where you are, when you think about it, when you feel worried, challenged, confused, thankful or in awe. Just talk to God about everything that is going on. Bring Him into your every day and every moment.
One of the best things about the art of Zentangle is that it doesn’t take very many tools to start creating. All you really need is something to draw with and something to draw on. Here’s a list of my favorite Zentangle tools that can help bring your doodles to the next level.
Pens
My favorite pen for practicing is the Sharpie felt tip pen. It is affordable, so you can doodle all you want without feeling like you’re going to have to keep buying expensive pens. The line it makes is a light/medium weight and can still do some details. It also works pretty well for filling in shapes without too much time or energy.
If you’re looking to fine tune your designs, micron pens are great. They come in all sizes so you can add clean lines and edges to your designs. The numbers on the side of the pen clue you in on the thickness of the tip. Smaller numbers are very thin and increase in thickness with higher numbers. You will need more pens to get the job done, but they offer more variety, smoother lines and the ability to create fine detail.
Last, but certainly not least is the Paper mate Flair in Medium. This pen is GREAT for practice. It has a thicker line than the sharpie pen which covers ups shaky hand movements for a beginner. It also flows nicely allowing you to practice your pen strokes and develop smoother motion to your drawing. This is not the pen for fine detail work, but it is very affordable and comes in a variety of colors.
Clear Ruler
A clear ruler is a must have. Zentangle is usually drawn inside of contained shapes. A ruler or straight edge allows you draw to clean boxes and shapes to contain your art. It is also helpful in drawing patterns with a clean line style. With a clear ruler, you are able to see through to the doodles underneath to help you connect lines and see distances better. Another great addition is a circular ruler. This helps you measure angles or draw curves. I recommend a lightweight 6″ ruler like the one pictured below, because it is very lightweight and easy to bring along with your sketchbook.
Shape Templates
To add some more variety to your designs, you can try shape templates. They come in all variety of shapes, sizes, curves and angles. You can buy just one or buy them in sets. Mix it up by using partial shapes in your design or combining multiple shapes together. These templates are typically clear and have straight edges, so they can also be used in place of a clear ruler if needed.
Zentangle Tiles
Zentangle tiles are a thick cardstock paper that are pre-cut into 4×4 squares for you to create more finished design artwork.
The Zentangle Sketchbook
The Zentangle Sketchbook is pages of grids, shapes, and designs that are created for you to practice your zentanlge doodles and designs. Whether you are serious about perfecting your drawing skills or just looking for a way to increase your creativity and discover new ideas, this book is a great creativity starter. The designs on each page are open to allow you to create your own design without having to spend time creating pages of shapes and designs to fill. Having the framework already in place, lets you get straight to the fun.
Your Imagaination
This is the MOST important tool in your kit. Remember not to get too caught up in the templates, rulers, straight lines and measurements. These are great tools that can support your imagination, make sure to spend some time drawing free hand. This allows you to try things you would not have thought of otherwise. Have fun, take chances and make some messes. You’ll discover new ideas and grow your skill!
There’s a 90’s country song that often runs through my head that confesses:
“I’m in a hurry to get things done.
Oh, I rush and rush until life’s no fun.
All I really gotta do is live and die,
But I’m in a hurry and don’t know why.”
These lyrics sum up many days spent jumping from one thing to the next. Sometimes at the end of day, we wonder if we really got anything done or if the efforts spent were worth the time.
There’s always a battle between the things we have to do, the things we should do, wondering what we could do and occasionally fitting in something we want to do! Too few options make us feel useless. Too many options overwhelm us and lead to not pursuing any of them well.
All of this “rush and rush” leaves us feeling ambitiously exhausted yet too guilty to stop and rest. We desire fun or fulfillment from our activities but can’t imagine how to squeeze it into our schedule.
So how do we make practical decisions on where to devote the hours in our day? I believe changing our mindset will transform our thinking in way that will transform our schedule. Here’s a good place to start.
Seek First the Kingdom of God
At first, this is going to seem like “one more thing” to fit into the schedule, but it is the thing that will clarify your day and purpose!
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be provided for you.”
Matthew 6:33
Start your day by talking to God. Read His word. (That’s how He talks to You!)
Get out your “To-Do List” and invite God to be part of your day from the start. Pray that He will give you the power, peace, confidence and wisdom to accomplish what you have planned for the day, the grace and flexibility to handle the unexpected and the wisdom and discernment to change the “To-Do List” if necessary.
Whatever you do, do it for God’s Glory.
We tend to separate our “everyday” life from our “Christian” life. We try to fit in church, Bible study, prayer and worship in between the other “real world” things we do. We check them off our list and move on to other things. When we become a Christian, our life is transformed. We don’t add Christian things to our life, it is now our way of life.
“So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
We pray as we go about the tasks of our day. We turn to the Bible for truth in our decisions and to guide our direction. We worship God by acknowledging His power to help us in everything we do. We praise and thank Him for knowing what is best for us and leading us in the right direction.
I work in ministry, so much of my day is spent on things that have an eternal purpose. It’s easy to look for direction from God and ask Him to bless those things. But when I’m folding laundry, paying bills or working on a creative project that’s not specifically about God, I don’t always think about God blessing that time.
Sometimes I even feel these activities are taking me away from something that has more eternal purpose. That simply isn’t true. God knows we must spend time living and He wants to be a part of ALL of our life. Making sure that our activities are not hurting our relationship with God or our testimony is important. But God desires to join us in our daily tasks and endeavors and even surprises us with joyful moments when we least expect us.
Go in confidence.
We can’t do it all. Knowing God is working in our every day life, giving us His discernment in what to do and His power to accomplish it brings freedom! Worry, fear and confusion weigh us down. They steal our time and our peace. This freedom allows us to know we’re in God’s will and move forward in confidence. When it’s time to work, give it all you’ve got. When it’s time to rest, don’t feel guilty – recharge. When it’s time to play, have fun. Enjoy where you are and what you’re doing because you know God has given it to you.
“Commit your activities to the Lord, and your plans will be established”
Proverbs 16:3
You are still going to find yourself “in a hurry to get things done”, but hopefully you’ll find rest between the “rush and rush” because life was meant to include fun! Most importantly when you do find yourself “in a hurry” you’ll know why. God has a purpose for your time that transforms your perspective.
Practical Tips for Time
Spread out your work. It’s better to accomplish a little bit every day than to get overwhelmed or give up.
Rotate things you want to add to your schedule. If you’ve got an hour of free time every afternoon, try a different thing every day like exercise, learning a new task or taking a nap!
Make a list. Physical. Digital. Whatever works, but something real. Putting a task in a list frees your mind to accomplish other things.
Just get started. How many times have you put off a task for hours, days, weeks or years?! Only to discover it wasn’t as hard as you thought or really only took a few minutes to accomplish. The amount of time it took up just being on your list was way more consuming than getting it done. If it takes longer than you thought, at least you’ve began and that makes it much easier to keep going.
Focus. Give your attention to the task you’re on. Rely on that list or schedule to tell you what’s next and enjoy the moment you’re in. Don’t waste it on what you should-of, could-of, would-of be doing!
Evaluate. Near the end of the day, quickly evaluate your time. Don’t beat yourself up or worry too much about tomorrow. Celebrate what you got done and adjust what needs to be changed the next day.
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