Gratitude Archive

As I travel through this 40 day journey I am amazed at the basic information I should know in life that I don’t know. I guess if I had been raised attending church regularly I would know these things. I don’t fault my parents for not taking me to church. I fault myself for not learning about church until I was in my late twenties.

Today I will complete one full week of my journey and each day I spend reading and listening to Rick Warren on his audio presentation I feel my eyes open. My mind is absorbing every detail like a sponge and daily that imaginary light bulb goes off above my head light in the cartoons.

Many people look within themselves to find their purpose trying to discover on the inside what they should be doing with their life.  Others take the self-help approach by studying techniques to find their purpose only to end up creating a purpose.  There are those that take a philosophical approach which leads them to speculate about their purpose by overthinking.

There is only one method of finding the purpose for your life and that is through God.  The book says you need to turn to your Creator for the answer as to why He designed you and for what purpose.  It also says you have to read your owner’s manual which is the Bible.  The Bible tells you how to live a righteous life and walk on a straight path.  The simplicity of this blew me away.  Reading one book and talking to God would find my purpose.  Could it truly be that simple?

I also am learning how much I matter to God.  I don’t think many of us really recognize how much God loves us.  We know He loves us but do we truly recognize His love?  He loves us so much that He cares about every detail of our lives not just our good moments.  He cares about every moment.  He planned every one of my days before I was born, not just a few or random days but every day and He did it long ago.  Also He made me to last forever.  I will live this life and then move on to my eternal life.  I realized my purpose is to work for God’s purposes here on earth and the only way to fulfill His purposes is to get to know Him.

In order to find your purpose you must also find your personal peace.  In the Bible there is a reference to “Jehovah Shalom” which means “I am the God of Peace”.   You must set your mind to understand that God wants us to live with personal peace.  There will be ups and downs but you can remain at peace during these times if you remember a few things.

Remember this, you will have circumstances in your life that are uncontrollable, people who are unchangeable as well as unexplained problems.  The sooner we understand that we have no control over these three things the sooner we will find peace.  Allow yourself to let go of control and trust only in God to guide and correct these three times.  I know this is a biggie to let go of control and you will never totally be free of trying to control things but peace comes immediately when you hand everything over to God.  You only control yourself and God controls you if you let Him.

The easiest ways to give up control is to be obedient to God and you can do this by doing simply by reading the Serenity Prayer-the FULL Serenity Prayer.  Most of us think it is a few lines of prayer but it is not.  It has been shortened over the years.  Here is the full prayer to pray.

God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.

Amen.        

When I read the original prayer I feel so complete and more understanding as I giving up control.  I hope you do too.  Read it several times slowly to hear each word not only in your mind, but in your heart.

I have also learned that hope is essential to life and God is the source of hope.  Remember this short message, “You need hope to cope and God is hope.”  The way to get hope is to remember this; God is ALWAYS with me.  He never leaves my side. His presence is constantly watching over me and guiding me along the best path.  This bible verse is short, to the point and a great one to put on your bathroom mirror to never forgot how near God is to us.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my loving eye on you.” Psalm 32:8

Another important point is that God is doing good things in my life and His purpose is working in me.  I try to sit silently and get to know God more deeply to see these good things in every situation, even the bad ones.  Sometimes we get too busy or are multitasking so we can’t tune into God and know these good things.  Slow down. Relax and sit still.

We are living in a broken and damaged world today.  Our views of the world tend to be negative and depressing.  Our media outlets have become slighted, cynical and driven by sensationalism  with their stories instead of stories peppered with  happiness and kindness.  We are influenced daily by these views and they tear our lives down and pull us away from God.  Ideas have consequences so our ideas need to be pure and Bible based.  Jesus said in the Bible, “you have heard it said, but I tell you this-”  This means your are hearing things from others but Jesus has instructed us on what is true. 

There are several ways to form your views and in the US these tend to be the ways we develop our views by using one of the following ideologies.

The first is by materialism ideas such as “The one that has the most toys wins.”  Some think that if you have a lot of money (or credit to buy things) and buy lots of “stuff” that shows your success.  They think that having more gets you farther in life.  Not true.

Another thought is, “I have to think of ME first.” which is individualism.  Worrying only about how the outcome of every situation will effect you causes for a very shallow life.  It also causes much anxiety and worry because you will always be focused on you and what will happen to you.  If you need a good example of individualism, here is quick clip you can watch.

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/discriminating-gentlemen/2861312

 

 

There is another thought process called hedonism.  This is when you have the idea to do only what feels good for you.   This is a very bad idea path since it usually has bad consequences and takes in many of the deadly sins like lust, greed, etc.  When you follow this thought process you usually shirk responsibilities, party, you’re out of control and put your own needs ahead of any Bible processes.  You can read about the bad effects of hedonism in the Bible.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.   Galatians 5:19-21

I also need to mention the idea of pragmatism.  Pragmatism is when you practice the “whatever works for you” approach.  This is anyone who claim that a proposition is true if it works satisfactorily.  Meaning if it has worked in the past then go with it, why change what isn’t broken as your guide to decisions and views?  This idea keeps people stagnant and in the same place.  When you only do what you know, you are limiting yourself to one place in your thinking.

Next lets look at the idea of those that think God doesn’t exist or matter.  This is called naturalism or atheism.  These people who think the world was created spontaneously with no Divine intervention.  Amazing how all the perfect things in the world can just randomly appear and work for the good of all without Supreme help.  That’s a head scratcher to me.  Even great cosmologist and physicists like Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein had to concede that there had to be a creator to make all this happen. They only said said it briefly but I am including it in this blog.  Although they did not have the true understanding of God because of their immersion in science and probability they did say this:

I want to know how God created this world.-Albert Einstein

If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason—for then we would know the mind of God. -Stephen Hawking

Lastly the idea of humanism blows me away.  Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasized by common human needs, and seeking solely rational ways of solving human problems.  There is no room or regard to God in this idea. It is all human based on human needs and thoughts. I am human and in no way do I think I have the answers.

Lets now  visit the one and only ideology we should use to form our views and that is theism.

Theism is the belief in one God as the transcendent creator and ruler of the universe.  This is the correct method of ideology.  Believing in God and knowing God is and as our Creator is what we are to know and trust when forming our views in this world.  Not only will theism cause us peace, joy and happiness but it also shuts out any enemies that may prey on us since they know we have the Almighty and Powerful Father watching over us.

Before I end this blog I want to reinforce what the Bible tells us on how to form our views and practices.

But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3:15

I am so grateful you are coming along on this journey with me.  This book and walk is taking me places I have never been and placing God so deeply in my heart every day.  I pray that you gain knowledge from this blog as I have learned a great deal this past week.

May God bless you and give you peace in your heart.-LoLo

 

 

 

It’s funny how God places things in your life to open your eyes and make you sit up and take notice.  A book was published in 2002 called “The Purpose Driven Life” by Pastor Rick Warren.  A book that was so successful over 54 million copies were sold.  I totally missed this book until this week.  It took me 17 years to hear about this treasure.

Earlier this week I was preparing for our monthly inspiration meeting when I saw a video in my church sermon archives teaching about your life’s purpose.  I watched the ten minute video with our senior pastor speaking on our purpose in life.  He mentioned a book that Rick Warren had written several years back that focused just on this topic.

I immediately went to Amazon to get more information on this book.  Let me preface this a little by saying for the last three weeks I have been looking for a spiritual book on growth to read.  Every time I searched for recommendations I came up empty.  None of the book titles I searched touched me as a book my soul craved for or needed.  That is until I looked at this book.

The first words I read were “It all starts with God.  It’s not about you.”  These nine little words had me hook, line and sinker.  I feel these two statements and preach them often.  I had to look further into this book.  I had to see why God put this book in my path now and not seventeen years ago.

The first thing I loved about this book was it had very short chapters.  I have a very short attention span with difficult reading comprehension so short chapters are music to my ears.  I also noticed there were daily videos and outlines to follow.  Okay so I could read a short chapter then move to an teaching video focused only on that chapter and email myself an outline to remind me of the daily teaching.  I swear God knew how many reinforcements I needed to comprehend and He provided them all to me.

The message does take 40-60 minutes to listen to but I have been enthralled in the words and the time flies by.  Rick Warren is a great storyteller that uses simple words and many bible translations to help make learning easy.

The outlines are outstanding for me because again they are short sentences and supported by beautiful bible verses that apply to that day’s learning.  These have a box that you can enter your email address and have them delivered to your inbox or push print and have them print for you. Here is an example.

As I move through this book I will be blogging about the journey.  I will be telling you how the book impacts my life and relationship with God towards finding my purpose and path. I am committing time each day for 40 days to work on me. As Rick Warren states, “This process takes about 48 hours in total. That is 2 days of your life in hours to learn how to live a purposeful life.” That is a very small commitment when you think on average a person living to age 75 roughly lives 657,000 hours. 48 hours is a tiny amount of that time to live a better life.

I have learned so much already on Day 1.  The first thing I learned was that God wanted me to connect to Him.  He wants me to center my life around Him and become comfortable putting Him first in my life.  This of course is something I have done.  I do turn to God with all my concerns and problems trusting only in His answers.  I also thank Him for all my blessings. I know this is very difficult for many people so just reading the first chapter will help you.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart …and soul and mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.” Mt. 22:37-38 

I know this is the first commandment and we constantly need to be reminded to put God first.  Basic but critical.

Next God wants me to connect to other believers.  The bible says we are to congregate with other believers.   Church attendance is of high importance. It is a place we can all come together to worship, be encouraged, and learn from God’s words for spiritual growth.  This means actually go to church and walking among other faithful people regularly.

“Let us not give up the habit of meeting together… instead let us encourage one another.”Heb. 10:25 

Next God wants me to cultivate my spirituality.  I need to learn and understand God’s words so I can teach others and lift them up when they need lifted.  This means reading the bible daily to constantly gain knowledge and understanding. To hear and feel the stories in the bible is imperative to growth.

“Let us go on… and become mature in our understanding, as strong Christians ought to be.”Heb. 6:1 

God gave me this beautiful life to give back.  We all have special talents that God designed for us to use here on this earth for good.  I am a good problem solver and have a compassionate heart.  This leads me to give others assistance with their problem but I recognize that God is beginning to show me His designed talent for me may be different.  I am quietly waiting and listening for Him to show me fully what I am to do in service for His purpose.  I feel He will reveal that talent to me soon.

“God has given each of you some special abilities; be sure to use them to help each other.”1 Peter 4:10

The last thing I learned on day one is that God wants me to communicate His love to others.  This is our mission.  We need to reach out to others to show them the peace they can receive by accepting God’s love for us.  I have felt this peace and continue to feel it daily.  A heart at peace leads to a life at peace.  Peace can only come from God. This peace can only come from knowing God sent His only son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for us for forgiveness of our sins.

“Through Christ, God has made peace between us and Himself, and He gave us the work of telling everyone about the peace we can have with Him… So we have been sent to speak for Christ!”2 Cor. 5:18, 20

If you feel in this New Year you need refreshing or to come back to God or need to feel God’s love more deeply I encourage you to read this book.  Rediscover your faith, strengthen your faith or just come to know God more deeply with this 40 day journey.  I have been touched by just reading and absorbing one day of this book.  I am looking for God’s help in locating the purpose He designed and put within me for His purposes.  I am remembering those first words.  It all starts with God.  It is not about me.

I pray you grow in God daily and feel peace in your heart with God’s love for you. This picture below is so touching and I feel the hug depicted in the picture. I hope you do too.

My love and gratitude for you, LoLo

 

Our podcast that relates to this blog

http://gratefulgratitude.libsyn.com/finding-your-purpose

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We now live in a world that everyone is #blessed.  We throw that hashtag around like confetti.  Someone gets a new car they are #blessed.  Another gets a holiday bonus they are #blessed.  Or maybe a lottery ticket pays off and you are #blessed.  I must admit I myself have thrown this hashtag around too often.  That is until I was recently asked to speak on this topic at our monthly inspiration meeting.  The more I researched blessings, the more clearly I could see the difference.

I would like to talk about two types of blessings, undeserved blessings and spiritual blessings.  The two types of blessings I feel are most prevalent in our lives.  As well as the most misunderstood.

Undeserved blessings are things that come to you in a materialistic form.  Things that boost you in earthy goods.  Some undeserved blessings would be basically what everyone is hash tagging as #blessed.  New cars, a bigger home, weight loss or transformation of appearance, finding a $100 bill on the sidewalk, landing that new boyfriend or girlfriend you had been hoping for.  Anything that comes to you unexpectedly for your good.

If you notice, these blessings are very superficial and don’t add to your spiritual well being.  They are earthly gifts that are given through God’s grace.  They are bonuses to make your life happier while you are here on earth.  They give you instant gratification and satisfaction at the time they present themselves to you.

Now don’t get me wrong, these gifts are exciting and may make a difference in our day but they are short lived and frivolous.  They appear at just the right time to appear as a blessing but we need to recognize them as a gift from God through His grace because He loves us.  Simply they are things humans recognize for their ego.

You may ask me why does everyone get these undeserved blessings?  Why do the mean and corrupt receive good things too?  The answer is simple and makes my previous paragraph more clear. God gives His grace to everyone through undeserved blessings.  He loves each and everyone of us and offers us gifts everyday just because of His love.  They are undeserved since we still sin and don’t always do God’s will as we promise Him we will.

So I have explained undeserved blessings now I would like to explain the most beautiful type of blessing.  Spiritual or Holy blessings.  The blessings that prove to us that God is always with us.  The miraculous blessings.  The blessings that if you don’t know God the way He wants you to know Him makes you see Him clearly.

We all know that God loves us unconditionally but it is the spiritual blessings that show our heavenly Father’s true love for us.  Spiritual blessings are blessings that cannot be bought or felt with our hands.  They can only be felt in our hearts in the form of His true love.

Spiritual blessings are a healing of someone with a terminal disease.  One day the diagnosis comes that your family member has six months to live and at the next doctor’s appointment there is no sign of the disease.  Your family member has been healed. God blessed your family with a spiritual blessing.  The doctors couldn’t cure the disease but somehow it is gone.  That my friend is God’s true love through a spiritual blessing.

Maybe you have not spoken to a family member in ten years.  The fight has gone on so long that both people aren’t really sure why they are still fighting.  They just know the other is to blame and they want nothing to do with each other.  Then you find yourself in a store at the holidays selecting presents for another family member when you feel someone unexpectedly bump into you.  You look up to see it is the person you have been ignoring for all those years.

As you stand and look at each other you feel a healing in your hearts and it becomes clear you need to reconcile.  You can’t explain how all the hatred you have for this person suddenly left you but it did.  I can, it is God’s healing and it is a spiritual blessing.

Have you ever been driving down the road and all of the sudden you are in a situation of an unavoidable car accident and your steering wheel somehow swerves to the right and you avoid the accident?  What about just opening you eyes in the morning to live another day?  Recognize again, these are not things you can buy only God can bless you with these things.

Just like Jesus healed the blind to be able to see again or raised Lazarus from the dead a spiritual blessing cannot be explained in humanly terms.  It is faith that brings these spiritual blessings to us.

You can’t buy or coerce spiritual healing.  It can’t be controlled or demanded.  It is only through God’s true love for you that He gives you this spiritual blessings.  He heals and returns love to those through His love and mercy.  He asks nothing in return except for your love and trust in Him.

I recognize in my own life when a serious crisis has hit my family when I practice my faith more fully more spiritual blessings come my way.  I recently had a family member get devastating  news about their health.  It was a diagnosis that was not even on anyone’s radar but the phone call came.  It was stage four cancer.  We had extremely little cancer in our family and this news threw all of us into an immediate depression and feelings of despair.

I of course cried, felt lifeless recognizing that this was a bad situation.  A few days after praying my heart out and asking God to heal the family member I said, “Father I trust in You and all my faith is in You.  I know you have a solution and a plan for everything that happens in my life.  I know you are holding my family member in Your hands and everything will be fine according to Your grace and mercy.”  Once I sincerely said this prayer I felt at peace and comforted.

My family member asked for a copy of the biopsy to take to MD Anderson.  They showed me the histopath (biopsy) report because of my medical background.  As I read the report I felt myself lifted up.  The report said level four cancer, not stage four cancer.  This is a difference between the brightest light and the darkest dark.  Level four means that changing cancer cells are present that can be aggressive and further assessment is needed .  Stage four means the cancer has metastasized to other places on the body with a poor prognosis.

I know God gave us a spiritual healing and I am confident that as my family member is now at MD Anderson for evaluation that God is watching over them as well as the doctors.  I see  what He has done for my family.  I feel the peace because of God being in control.  I also feel that the error the doctor said over the phone allowed me to become closer to my family member as I sometimes found it difficult to relate to them.  To me, a healing of sorts and a reconciliation is a double spiritual blessing.  I am truly #blessed.

I ask you to think every time you say the word blessed, use it for spiritual blessings and not undeserved blessings.  Please consider when you get that earthy blessing you can touch with your hands and not your heart to use different hashtags than blessed.  Hashtags like #grateful, #thankful or #honored. For example; I am #grateful I received a holiday bonus.  I am #thankful I received the holiday bonus.  I am #honored I received a holiday bonus.

Reserve #blessed when you can say God healed me, God redeemed me or maybe I am renewed.  I am so grateful for each and every one of you that take the times to read my words.  Please know I pray for each and everyone of you to receive God’s true blessing of spiritual healing when you need it.

My love and gratitude, LoLo

Our podcast related to this blog

http://gratefulgratitude.libsyn.com/using-the-bible-to-eliminate-bad-habits