Tag: Christian

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How Prayers of Gratitude Change our Lives

If we are going to achieve the dreams that God has for us, a prayer life that is filled with gratitude is essential. I find nothing changes my gratitude than prayers of gratitude. I was reminded of this by my ducks that are outside our kitchen door. Yes, I wrote about turkeys and being anchored and now ducks that remind me of prayer. Farm nerd alert.

The ducks are hilarious waddling around, remove slugs, and provide us with eggs for baking. A win, win. There is a couple things about ducks that I didn’t know before I got them. One is they are all kinds of messy, but that’s nothing a little wood chips can’t fix. However, there is one thing that can be really tiring that can teach us all a few things.

I wake up before sunrise and my routine is to start coffee and have some set aside time to pray, read, and study with God. It’s one of my favorite parts of the day. Nevertheless that has been changed with the introduction of the ducks.

Isn’t it amazing when ducks fly way up in the sky and we can hear them quacking to each other? What a cool sight and sound when walking in nature they look like specs and are chatting away. It’s the sound of the fall and spring migration. When you put ducks twenty yards from your home it’s not such a majestic sound of the change of seasons. It sounds more like a mac truck.

Every time I move in the house these quackers go bonkers letting me know they are ready for their day’s meal. It is so noisy, I’m worried they will wake up my kids. So many mornings I wander out there in the dark to give them their meal just to shut them up. Their cuteness is keeping them off the dinner table for now.

What ticks me off is I have fed them every morning and evening. They have never went hungry or thirsty and yet won’t shut up about their “lack.”

Prayer life with gratitude matters

I can be like those ducks. I talk to God like He is going to forget to care for me and my dreams. My lack of trust shows in my lousy attitude. I have missed out on blessings in front of me because I’m too busy making sure God knows I need something. QUACK! How about you? Are you tempted to gripe and complain instead of being filled with gratitude and hope?

Prayer life that is filled with gratitude matters and not just because we are trying to avoid being roasted duck. And yes I’m thinking about cooking up the quack attack. We are not trying to annoy God less. He doesn’t view us like I view the quacken. The heart of prayers of gratitude is to see what God is doing and to open our eyes to opportunity. It is also to have vision to see others and a heart that is connected to God.

Prayers of Gratitude helps us see what God is already doing

When we come to our Father in Heaven with grumbly spirits, we are blind to the good things in our lives. Bringing our problems to God is a great thing; He wants to hear your heart. However, when all we do is complain to God, that is no longer a healthy conversation but a skewed perspective. I tend to see problems which is great for restoring, but it can lead me into a depressive mindset. Spending time in prayer telling God what I’m grateful for turns my grumble into praise. He has done so much in my life no matter how bad my circumstances have been. I’m sure the same thing is true for your life as well. Gratitude allows us to see what He is doing.

Prayers of Gratitude Opens us to opportunity

All too often we are closed off to the opportunities around us. When we grumble and complain we fixate on what we don’t have. Just like complaining and grumbling blinds us to what God is doing in our lives, it also causes us to not see where He may be leading us. When we focus on what we don’t have, we focus on scarcity instead of having a vision of abundance. Gratitude changes our gaze from what God hasn’t done (yet) to what He has done and with that perspective we will be able to see the abundant opportunity around us.

Helping others

When we have a grumbly heart we become very self-centered. Our thoughts become about nothing but our problems or in my ducks’ case, their food. Our dreams and visions are important, however, when it becomes an all consuming pout session, we miss the hurting people around us. Dreams that honor God give Him the glory and are about helping other people. Prayers of gratitude focus us on others and serving them. If you want to learn more about God honoring dreams, there is this book.

Connection with God

Prayer at it’s roots is connecting us in relationship to the Savior of the world. Gratitude connects our hearts to Him, instead of connecting to our problems. Similarly how gratitude focuses us on the people around us, gratitude also focuses on God and His goodness. Bringing our problems to God is important. When it’s all of the time though, it’s like treating God more like a genie in a bottle than our Heavenly Father. Thank God for what He is doing in your life, thank Him in advance for what He will do.

Go to God in prayer of gratitude and your circumstances will not change overnight, however, your perspective will change. Eyes of faith will be open; eyes to see what God has done and will do. When we have hearts overflowing with gratitude we focus on relationship with God and others instead of ourselves. In time, perspective change will change and our focus on relationships will change our lives.

How does prayer of gratitude change you?

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Dreams and Goals for a New Year

I had a Facebook memory pop up today from December 31, 2019. I was so excited about 2020 in that memory. The new year is awesome, not so much staying up until midnight though. This guy usually rings in the new year asleep. When a new year begins, I love dreaming about what we are going to do and accomplish as a family and for myself. I’m a goal and dream nerd and I want you to accomplish your dreams and goals too. Everything is possible, hope is palpable.

While 2020 put a beat down on a lot of my plans, how did it affect yours?

One of my favorite quotes, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Mike Tyson said that and I’m pretty sure he is the one that gave us all a right cross to the chin. As I talk to people and examine my own heart, I don’t like what that punch to the face has done to my dreaming heart. I feel and see an insidious invader enter 2020.

Passiveness

I believe we are struggling with a disillusionment hangover and its turned us into a bunch of passive disheartened zombies. Why plan for 2021? Look what happened this last year. From virus to forced shutdowns, its been a year. We can get so drawn to what has been taken away or knocked upside the head, that we wait to plan goals and dream, and most of all HOPE.

Zechariah 9:12 says, “Return to your fortress, you prisoners of hope; even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.” Prisoners of hope! How can we be prisoners of hope instead of prisoners of despair?

God is bigger

A lack of hope is when I get my eyes off of the greatness of God and put my eyes on my problems and all the scary unknowns out there. I’m sure you had a lot of hard things this last year and I also know that God was not surprised by this year. I don’t know a lot of why things happened to us, but I do know the greatness and vastness of the Creator. He holds the world in the palm of His hands and sits with us in the moment. When I reach my final destination in Heaven, I’m excited to get a lot of my questions answered. In the meantime, I will choose to remind myself that He has this, He has me, and He has you in the palm of His hands no matter what it looks like.

What can I control?

I like to talk about and think about a lot of what I have no control over. It’s easier to make excuses that way. When I sit in passiveness excuses are comforting, however, I don’t want that for me and I don’t want that for you. I want us to be prisoners of hope, not prisoners of excuses. When we fixate on what we can control, we see even in 2020 most of our goals and dreams could have still been accomplished. I don’t say this to shame you or I, but to remind us that we can do more than we think. The coronavirus didn’t make me gain ten pounds, my stress eating of chips and salsa did that. What can you control? Plan and dream around those things.

Goals and Dreams Need an Eternal Perspective

We get drawn to passiveness when we look at the world or spend our days watching the news. We could be informed on world events in five minutes, yet some of us sit watching the news getting all worked up for an hour or more. Likewise, some get sucked into news on Facebook and Twitter. It gets our minds off of the eternal and onto this fallen world. God has things for you and I to do and we need to get in the business of doing them. This only happens when I remember that God has good works for me to do. It is then that I seek Him and His kingdom. Heaven is where our hope comes from, not current events.

Dreams and Goals Happen with Hope Filled Friends

I have days of struggle and I know that you do too. We need to surround ourselves with friends that remind us of Jesus and that He has things for us to do. We don’t need more friends that complain all day about a plethora of things. If you don’t have friends that remind you to have goals and dreams, maybe this could be one of your goals this year. Surround yourself with other prisoners of hope that raise your mood and expectations about what God will do.

Dare to dream today! If you want help reaching your goals and dreams, I did write a book about it which you can get here. Look to where our hope comes from, focus on what you can control, and move with hope and faith like a child. This year can be your best year yet. I believe God has great things in front of you. I believe the question is, do you? This year be chained and imprisoned to hope.

What helps you live in hope?

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How to Gain Silence and Solitude in a Busy World

I can be like an A.D.D. supercharged squirrel trying not to get hit by an oncoming car. I’m on the go and I like it that way. I kind of bounce in between boredom and an overwhelmed panic attack state. Filling up my schedule so that the yellow line heading towards overheating red is just right. I have a sinking suspicion if you live in the western world you are there too; a society of people constantly moving in a noisy world. We have no time for silence and solitude.

 I’m typing this blog post on a computer with my smart phone next to me. Oh yeah, and a Youtube worship music video on the TV. Writing on this blog is quiet down time for me and this is the amount of action I have in quietness. I’m not alone in my scurry. What is going on around you as you read this? More than we realize we have squeezed out stillness and presence with “multi-tasking” (which is scientifically impossible).

I have been studying a lot about Jesus heading to places of silence and solitude often. I have been adding more and more of these moments of oasis in a digital hypersonic world and it’s changing my inner life and my relationships.

You Benefit From Silence and Solitude

There is an inner and an outer benefit to having moments of silence and solitude and our souls long for it. When we remove stillness, we become inwardly hurried and outwardly impatient. We can struggle to hear God’s voice and in turn sit passively. We can lose our personal call and blend into the culture around us.

Quiet time is difficult to obtain even if our hearts want it because we fill our lives to the brim. I have found that I need to fight for it and you will need to fight for it as well. Here are 4 tips that you can experiment with to help you gain some moments of silence and solitude.

Wake up Early to Gain Silence and Solitude

With a young family it is hard for me to get alone time unless I get up early. Setting an alarm to gain even an extra five minutes is a great way to ensure that I start my day alone with God. My wife craves that time too. She often wakes up a little bit after me, after I have had some quiet time with God and about the same time a few of our kids are awake, so I ensure they stay occupied while she gets her time with Him too. If you are married, helping each other by someone waking up a little early is a way to help get quiet time.

Set an alarm to Gain Silence and Solitude

I have three alarms set on my phone throughout the day. They are set as a reminder for me to stop, breathe, and commune with Jesus. I have one set at 8:00 am when I start work, one at 12:00 pm for lunch, and one to end the day at 5:00 pm. These alarms are placed at transition points to help me stop and consider God and seek His voice. It also helps me to leave work at work and home at home. Set an alarm and get in the practice of stopping everything even for just a minute.

Try an app

An app can help you stop and listen to God. Giving structure to our silence can be very helpful. I enjoy the Pause App because of this. While playing soothing music, it guides me through verses, questions to ask God, and really helps me stay focused instead of allowing my mind to wander. A plus to this app is it has alarm settings as well. Try an app to help you stop and listen more often.

Set a habit

Habits will win over hustle and bustle if you set them up. The quickest way to form a habit is to form it around something that already is a habit. For example, I make coffee every morning. If I stop and have silence right then I can form the habit quicker and that’s just what I have done. It is the other reason I form these pauses around set changes like going somewhere or coming home. It set an anchor to that point. Only in forming a habit to our silence and solitude can we have consistency.

Start with a consistent small change and try it out. If you don’t have success try a new experiment. Find what works for you, just don’t give up. These are counter cultural that will help you in your relationship with God and others. Don’t squirrel through life, rather have a steady rhythm of refill with God in silence and solitude and then do the work He is calling you to.

For more tips here is a short video.

What helps you to have moments of stillness with God?

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How to go from Stress to Peace

“Breathe. Calm down and unclench your jaw,” I talk to myself trying to slow my racing heart and tightness of my entire being. I feel like I may be trying to solve the whole world’s problems by grinding and pressing my molars together as hard as I can. A great way to unwind after a long day. So far it hasn’t done much other than the gift of a giant headache. I don’t know about you but more often than I would like to admit, I’m winning the game of high blood pressure more than peace. I wish high blood pressure was rewarded. Alas I only get a bunch of vitamins and fish oil.

This year has been a fun time to lead. Yes, sarcasm is highly intended with that statement. Every decision is unpopular. Every person is triggered, and I don’t know about you but I need one day without a new “gift” to drop this year. No corona, no murder hornets, no elections, no bubonic plague found in squirrels. I’m quite done with 2020 surprises and I’m sure you are too.

If you are struggling with peace during this time, try these 3 things.

Examine the Fruit

A lack of peace is fruit. Just like peace is fruit (Gal 5:22-23), meaning it’s a byproduct of following and relying on God or not. Often when we lose our peace we focus on our circumstances around us. For example my rant against 2020 surprises above. However, if peace is a byproduct of surrender to the Spirit of God in us then it has little to do with the rona, hornets, and even the plague. Instead of looking at what is going on around us we should examine what we are believing that is causing our responses. Take some time and pray about what you are believing that is causing you stress.

Give God Control and Gain Peace

I have really good ideas about the way things should go. In fact they are so good that I want God to follow my lead. Pretty ridiculous when I write it down, however, it’s kind of true. I like to try and control a lot of things that are beyond my control and put off doing the things that I can control.

I have found that I’m not alone in trying to control the world. Stop by any social media for two seconds and it’s filled with right people tearing down the wrong group. We do a poor imitation of an all knowing all seeing God. When I lose my peace I notice that a lot of time I’m playing a part I was never meant to play. Though possibly well meaning are you trying to play a part you aren’t designed to play? Most often the answer for me is yes. There is very little that I actually control and acknowledging it helps me to have peace because God’s got a lot more than I do, so I can breathe easy when my hands are off the wheel.

Presence

I don’t like the present very often. I kind of live with a third of my mind on the past, a third on the future, and a third on the present. It is a terrible cocktail. I can’t figure out my future, but man I want to know. I can’t redo the past. Maybe it can explain why I am the way I am though. Visiting the past to get healing is great. Casting a vision of the future is awesome. However, when we stay in either of those places we lose the beauty God wants to do in the now. When you lose your peace ask yourself what time period am I thinking about? Usually for me it’s not now. If you are wandering off of the moment, take some time and look at the beauty God has made around you. Slow down and soak in this very moment.

Looking at the root, controlling what you can control, and living in the present with God is a recipe for peace. It’s easy to slip in any of these areas. Be kind to yourself as you learn to trust God more with the parts of your life that don’t make sense. I often pray, “Lord I believe, help me to believe.”

What returns peace to your soul?