Sunday, April 05, 2015
Which Self will You Serve?
Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power. ~ Clint Eastwood
Scripture:
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (New International Version)
As I often have the opportunity to talk to people who are successful in their chosen career or profession, I like to ask the question, what makes you good at what you do? More times than not their answers might surprise you. What I have discovered about many of those success stories is the willingness to constantly learn and improve upon their craft. They commit themselves to the task at hand which often also includes doing some tasks that they’d rather not do. However, even though they may not be happy to do so, they realize it is a necessary part of the process.
In my pursuit of being a writer I find one of the biggest obstacles I have to overcome is, me. You see, to put my thoughts down on paper and create a story actually takes a lot of self-discipline. I actually have to make a consorted effort to work at my craft. Trust me, if there was some way to just stick a tape-recorder inside my brain to capture the story, I would.
I am the first to admit that I am a procrastinator and can often find a myriad of others things to do when it’s time to write. However, what I have also discovered along the way is that if I want to be successful and be taken seriously in my pursuit of a writing career, I must establish some sort of self-discipline. And so it is with our Christian walk.
The world around us beckons to us to partake of a myriad of distracting things rather than developing into the disciples that God has called us all to be. We would rather partake of all the carnal pleasures that the world has to offer instead of committing ourselves to the task at hand and that is to make the effort to become more Christ-like.
Remember, self-discipline refers to the training that one gives one's self to accomplish our goals even though we would really rather be doing something else
Be blessed and be a blessing
Prayer:
Father God, so often we would rather choose the easy way out rather than commit to the task at hand, which includes serving You. So often our lives become so self-serving that we can no longer see Your vision for our lives. We tend to forget that it takes commitment and dedication to achieve our purpose and when we fail to do the right thing, we fail not only ourselves, but we also fail You. We oftentimes misuse free will as an excuse to not answer Your call. Forgive us Lord for failing You and for shortchanging ourselves. We sometimes forget that the world does not revolve around us and our needs. We fail to see that we have been ordained for a greater purpose and that purpose is You and Your Kingdom. Help me Lord, to learn to focus on You more and the world around me less. Help me Lord to all things in divine and proper order. But most of all Lord, help me to see the fallacies of my behavior and to recognize when my actions are not pleasing to You. I thank You Lord for divine revelations and for fresh grace and mercy. Thank You Father God for another chance to get in right. But thank You most of all for Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in His name we pray. Amen.
Scripture:
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (New International Version)
As I often have the opportunity to talk to people who are successful in their chosen career or profession, I like to ask the question, what makes you good at what you do? More times than not their answers might surprise you. What I have discovered about many of those success stories is the willingness to constantly learn and improve upon their craft. They commit themselves to the task at hand which often also includes doing some tasks that they’d rather not do. However, even though they may not be happy to do so, they realize it is a necessary part of the process.
In my pursuit of being a writer I find one of the biggest obstacles I have to overcome is, me. You see, to put my thoughts down on paper and create a story actually takes a lot of self-discipline. I actually have to make a consorted effort to work at my craft. Trust me, if there was some way to just stick a tape-recorder inside my brain to capture the story, I would.
I am the first to admit that I am a procrastinator and can often find a myriad of others things to do when it’s time to write. However, what I have also discovered along the way is that if I want to be successful and be taken seriously in my pursuit of a writing career, I must establish some sort of self-discipline. And so it is with our Christian walk.
The world around us beckons to us to partake of a myriad of distracting things rather than developing into the disciples that God has called us all to be. We would rather partake of all the carnal pleasures that the world has to offer instead of committing ourselves to the task at hand and that is to make the effort to become more Christ-like.
Remember, self-discipline refers to the training that one gives one's self to accomplish our goals even though we would really rather be doing something else
Be blessed and be a blessing
Prayer:
Father God, so often we would rather choose the easy way out rather than commit to the task at hand, which includes serving You. So often our lives become so self-serving that we can no longer see Your vision for our lives. We tend to forget that it takes commitment and dedication to achieve our purpose and when we fail to do the right thing, we fail not only ourselves, but we also fail You. We oftentimes misuse free will as an excuse to not answer Your call. Forgive us Lord for failing You and for shortchanging ourselves. We sometimes forget that the world does not revolve around us and our needs. We fail to see that we have been ordained for a greater purpose and that purpose is You and Your Kingdom. Help me Lord, to learn to focus on You more and the world around me less. Help me Lord to all things in divine and proper order. But most of all Lord, help me to see the fallacies of my behavior and to recognize when my actions are not pleasing to You. I thank You Lord for divine revelations and for fresh grace and mercy. Thank You Father God for another chance to get in right. But thank You most of all for Your Son, Jesus Christ. It is in His name we pray. Amen.
