Constant Joy

It's funny how all my life I have been instructed to be focused. For many years, I have assumed I have been focused. I have been focused on completing certain goals, attaining certain degrees, excelling in certain jobs. However, I have recently come to realize that my focus has been on moving targets. What are moving targets? Moving targets are goals that continue to change or evolve. These goals must change and evolve because at times the previous goal is met or life just dictates the goal be changed. However, I understand these moving targets cause a wave of emotions within me. If a goal is reached, I am happy. If a goal is unmet, I am sad.
This cycle has caused a problem within my emotions. The issue is this rollercoaster of events create fluctuating emotions which cause me to have spurts of ups and downs. These fluctuating emotions cause me to live a life that is unstable, dictated by my emotions.
Yet, if I understand the word of God correctly, I am instructed to possess the joy of the Lord. How can I truly demonstrate the joy of the Lord if I am constantly at war with my emotions? How can I be joyous when life dictates I should be sad? Should I only be joyous when life is going well or circumstance are working as I desire? Absolutely not!
The Psalmist shares that in every situation, we can have joy. Psalms 28:7 advises me that God is my strength, and my heart is filled with joy because I know God helps me! Psalms 13:5 informs me that God's unfailing love is just cause for me to be joyous. Psalms 33:21 reminds me that I rejoice as I trust in God. There are so many reminders encouraging us to be joyous, yet so many times we are not.
Why?
I find the answer is in our focus. Yes! It is imperative for us all to have goals and to work to accomplish these goals. However, it is extremely important that we always be focused. Focused on what? Therein lies the real question.
If your focus is on moving targets, then your walk will always fluctuate. However, if you have one clear focus, a constant strength, a constant force, a constant friend, you will have a constant joy!
I encourage you today to check your focus. Your outlook determines your destination. If you are focused on the wrong object, you will end up in the wrong place. Ensure that your focus is God. If God is your focus, then you will find constant joy in all you do. You begin to understand that God is your refuge, your strength, your hope, your all in all. Once your focus is correct, you find life is a lot easier to bear, creating a more joyous adventure.
Come! Let's celebrate this life and remember that the God of peace and joy is our center! God is our focus!

Striving Towards Our Dreams

Paulo Coelho said "Follow your dreams, even if that includes going through some nightmares."

I find it interesting how people who are considered "of the world" know to practice a Biblical principle better than those who are supposed to be "of the church". Why is it that they are able to realize the importance of working through to a dream, while so many Christians just give up once it gets hard? Was life supposed to be easy? I want to know, who lied to us and told us that all the good things in this life are cheap or easy? Who told us we deserved it all and therefore we will earn things without working for them? When did we learn that dreams are accomplished by those who do not persevere nor work for what they dreamt?

I don't know about you, but I want to work towards my dreams, and not because they are my dreams, but because they are the dreams HE dreams for me. If God is the soul giver of my dreams, why would I think that working hard to accomplish these would not bring my dream to fruition? Why would I think that if God is the author of my dream, that in the face of a little or a lot of adversity I will not be able to accomplish my dream?

I recently began to look at the story of Joseph, a young man who had a dream. He didn't even really understand his dream, but he knew it was a significant dream. He understood it was a dream that came from God. He understood that he had dreamed a dream which would come to pass regardless of the opposition, as long as he worked diligently through life’s situations in order to accomplish it.

However, we form part of a generation that is accustomed to receiving instantaneous results. We form part of a generation that is used to receiving everything with minimal work. Technology has spoiled us to think that we can put forth minimal effort and still earn great rewards. Therefore, we don’t understand what it means to really work hard to earn rewards. We don’t understand the principle of sowing and reaping. We don’t understand what it means to hold our ground despite of the tidal waves which rise up against us and our dreams.

Nevertheless, it is time that we realize that opposition to our dreams will come. Obstacles will rise up. Life will test your dream. Life will test you. It will try to see if you are worthy of that dream. Still, it is important that regardless of what may rise up against our dream, we hold steadfast to that dream, not allowing our character to waver or become questionable in the pursuit of our dream. Not allowing our integrity to shift just to make the accomplishment of our dream easier. No! It is time for us to work hard at accomplishing our dreams, as we hold on to what we know to be truth, not allowing life to dissuade us.

Genesis 37, 39 – 50 envelopes the story of Joseph. It is a story of hope. It is a story of joy. It is a story of success. Why? Because, in spite of all of life's test and opposition, Joseph did not allow his character to waver. He knew he had been called to greatness. He knew he was destined for so much more than what he had. But he did not complain like most of us. He did not allow himself to mope around in his pit and cry about how unfair it was to be in his situation. He did not waver! Instead, he embraces every situation in which he finds himself and he makes the best of that situation.

When I see him in the pit crying out for his brothers, he realizes the people closest to him have betrayed him. He understands that he shared his dream with the wrong people. How many times have we shared our dreams with people just to see those people turn on us because of our dreams? How many times have we confided in others who only strive to show us how stupid or impossible our dream is? How many times do we trust those closest to us and they stab us in the back because they “hate” on our dream? How many times do we allow our dream to fail because of others?

When life tests our determination, when it throws obstacles in our path, it is not the time to give up. It is the time to keep pressing forward. It is a time to realize that in spite of the nightmare, in spite of the hazards, in spite of the “nay-sayers”, we will move forward and accomplish all that we have been destined to accomplish. You may have destiny, but it is not predetermined that you will reach your destiny. Your hard work and dedication are what make it happen.

Decide today to make your dreams become a reality. Do not allow life to rob you of your dreams. Do not let people influence you to give up your dreams. Do not allow yourself to give up during a time when you should press harder to accomplish your dreams!

Make your dreams a reality. Embrace the conflict and press on. Allow yourself to be malleable in order to be able to forge through every situation. However, in your flexibility, do not give up your integrity or the principles which will bring you success!

I hope you decide to live out your dreams.

The Battle Between the Old and New Me

Why is it so easy to fall back into old patterns and behaviors? If the 2 Corinthians 5:17 declares that I am a new/fresh creature, why is it so easy for me to live in the ways of the old, but so difficult for me to live in this new life, this newness to which I have been reborn? Why can I still find myself so easily reverting back to old ways of life? Have I truly had a rebirthing experience? Have I really allowed myself to be transformed?

Though I have come to accept Jesus Christ as my savior, why is it so easy for me to crucify him again by my actions? If I truly love God, why is it so difficult for me to obey his commands?

I think this is a condition from which many “Christians” today suffer. We spend so little time invested in our new way of life that it is difficult to live out in the new life. Therefore, it is easier to do things as I have always done them. See, in order to live out a new life, doing things a different way, there has to be a process of relearning. I have to be willing to be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) which doesn’t fight to run off the sacrificial pyre when it gets too hot or too uncomfortable.

I believe there is a two part answer to my question. Why is it so easy to fall back into old pattern of behavior? First, because we have not transformed our minds as we are told to do in Romans 12: 2. We are trying to live a new life with old patterns of thought. What does it take to renew your mind? It takes a complete reprogramming which begins with a daily commitment to read the Word of God and to pray or talk with God on a daily basis. How else do I reprogram my mind if not by learning first hand from the One who is reprogramming me? I need to allow the Holy Spirit to do a work in me of complete transformation, so that I am able to live my life with new thoughts following after Godly patterns. Second, I must do as Epehesians 4:24 commands; I must put on my new self. I have to daily wake up and decide to take up the new person that I have been transformed into.

I am sure the problem lies in not beginning the day correctly. Many of us think to talk to God at the end of the day, when the printer doesn’t work, when the street lights aren’t changing fast enough, or when we check our bank account. However, few of us remember to start off our day talking with God, dialoguing with Him, having a two way conversation, so that I am equipped with the new me before I walk out of my bedroom door. Oh! That we would all decide to effectively walk in the new creature that God has transformed us into on the day of our conversion! That we would all decide to live according to his principles, obeying his commands, loving God and each other!

Be the Seed

As I read John 12:24, I wondered about the kernel of wheat about which Jesus speaks. You see, He mentions that the kernel of wheat must fall to the ground and die in order to produce a harvest. This prompted me to do some research. As I studied seeds, I could not find where it described the process of a seed including death. In fact, it mainly concentrated on a seed being dormant. Of course, dormancy and death are two completely different ideas! Therefore, I knew that there was something I was missing.
I continued on my search and continued to find that seeds usually will go through a dormancy stage if the weather conditions are not favorable to their growth.
In fact, a seed can remain dormant for thousands of years! Incredible! This means that a seed, intended to produce an apple tree can remain asleep without any type of production for thousands of  years, just because the conditions around it are not to its liking! How much like us is that?? If we don't have the right type of job, the right relationship, the right house, the right car, etc, we remain "stuck" or asleep waiting for something better to come along instead of moving forward and producing the harvest to which God has called us.
This prompted me to look at my own life. Am I living life like the apple seed which will not produce if the conditions are not right?
Yet, if this process of dormancy happens to the average seed, how can Jesus ask us to be a seed, if He knows this will mean some of us will not produce harvest?
Easy! See, he doesn't call us to be an ordinary seed; he calls us to be a kernel of wheat. A kernel of wheat is different from the average seed. Not all seeds function like a kernel of wheat. A kernel of wheat doesn't experience a stage of dormancy because it dies. Since the seed dies, it doesn't matter if the weather conditions around it are just perfect or not; it is not affected by its surroundings. Therefore, the kernel of wheat is able to produce its fruit regardless of the conditions that surround it. I am convinced that this step of death is part of the reason why a kernel of wheat can produce wheat in so many different areas. I believe this is why wheat is produced every month of the year in different parts of the world.
There are many different types of wheat, all usable for different products because a kernel of wheat still produces its crop regardless of the conditions around it. It still produces a usable harvest.
Oh! To be like the kernel of wheat that regardless of the opposition it still manages to reach its destiny and moves forward to produce a usable harvest!
That is my challenge this year. Be the seed! Don't allow the circumstances in life to be a factor. Instead, plant yourself, die, and produce the great harvest God has destined!

Dream

How long has it been since I had a dream? Wow! I remember a time when I held so many dreams in my hands. In fact, I remember dreaming, waking up excited, sharing my dream, and then beginning to plan with God's help in order to make that dream become a reality. Yet, life happened.
Ever notice that when you have a dream, opposition for that dream comes from a multitude of places? From where does most of your opposition derive?
Well, the first battle in maintaining a dream alive begins in your mind. The devil has a mine-field set up in your mind, when you give him a footstool in your day to day living. The devil and his cohorts begin throwing thoughts in your mind against your dream. Not only do we face opposition from the devil and his cohorts, we also encounter opposition from our well-meaning friends and family, and from life itself.
However, you have to hold-fast to what God has spoken; hold-fast to your dream!
Hebrews 10:23 tells us to hold-fast to the hope we confess, for the one who made the promise is trustworthy. Hold fast is to hold unwaveringly; it literally means to sit on your dream and don't let it escape. Don't let it out of your hands regardless. Understand that opposition is going to come. Understand that you will face many voices from different places. Understand that it may not be an easy road to travel. However, if God gave you the dream, then hold on to the hope because He will make it happen.
Do not give play to the enemy in your mind! Do not allow well-meaning friends and family to drown out the loud thunderous excitement of your dream! Do not allow life's situations to determine the completion of your dream!
Yes, there was a time in my life when I had many dreams. I was pregnant with hope because of those dreams; yet, life came in with the swiftness of a tornado and destroyed the possibilities of such dreams ever coming to fruition in my life.
Nevertheless, it is ultimately my choice if I am going to allow life's circumstances to alter what I know God has spoken over my life. If there is one thing I have come to understand, it is that while there is breath in my life, there is hope of those dreams coming to pass. I must hold on with every fiber of my being to the words which God has spoken to me and understand that if HE said HE will do it!