Some how we have learned that to navigate through the map of life and often feelings are what we make our choices or decisions. We may catch ourselves asking the question “does it feel right” however most of the great philosophers and spiritual leaders would recommend making choices by other means to fully appreciate life.

Jesus himself has some great pointers marked out in the New Testament on successful living from His perspective, for example “do to others whatever you would like them do to you”, “it is more rewarding to give than to receive”. The Bible asks us to become followers of the ways of Jesus – when we consciously walk this way I believe we are living out of a renewed mind according to Romans 12:2 which has to be good.

Over the next few weeks I am going to explore some streams that flow form the river of Jesus that we can invest in and look at how they can impact our lifestyle. I am sure that we will find virtue and value whilst navigating the map of our lives. I think the few words below sum up a sort after feeling that many of us crave “success” and will lift us to a place of fulfilment when practiced.

Gratefulness

Kindness

Gracefulness

Peacefulness

Forgiving

Gentleness

Prayerfulness   

Joyfulness

Giving

 At Christmas time we reflect on God coming to find us. One of the consequences of Him visiting humanity is that He brought a peace encounter and the peace that can be found spiritually, physically and emotionally.

 Peace comes to us in three places potentially

1.From Outside

God came to find us. His vision was and is to restore His creation through the life giving sacrifice of one man, Jesus Christ His son. He is only person who has lived without sin as part of His life Hebrews10: 1-18 and yet was tempted in every way Hebrews 4:15. As we opt into the opportunity given us by Jesus Christ we surrender our life past, present and future into Gods hand embracing His hand of peace to us from the outside to the in.

2.On the Inside

When we make peace with God we have access to peace for our hearts and minds. Jesus explained to His followers that He was leaving them a gift of peace in

John 14:27“Peace that I give to you and it’s a peace that the world doesn’t understand “.

Elsewhere in scripture we are advised to “let the peace of God rule your heart “ implying that we have that ability as Jesus promised His followers Colossians 3:15. This is a great gift to make the most of especially when we live in a busy, stressful and demanding context.

3.Towards Others

Once we accept the gift of peace of Jesus we are able to put this incredible ability to work. We ourselves become peacemakers, resolving conflict is one of the greatest needs in the world today and we have the ability to break through and bring peace to people. This is the requirement of every follower of Jesus. It is not just believing in Him but living as He did that makes the difference to others in the world. 

Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Finally

This Christmas let us find restored hope in a saviour who was born to die to give everlasting life. And let us find reassurance from the God who is devoted to live His children us

Let us share this amazing news to those with out peace in their lives. 

“As we draw close to God He will draw close to you” James 4:8

We have a saying in our culture “ sticks and stones can break my bones but words can never hurt”. I am not sure where or why this saying came from but it is not true. Words can have the power to build someone up or destroy them, Proverbs 18:21 “The tongue can bring life or death; those who love to talk will reap the consequences”.

Not sure if you are aware but the biggest battle we may ever face is in the mind. We have all had some difficult experiences and knocks in life but how the mind interprets those events may determine the pathway we take in life.

We have been thinking through false belief systems in a recover group that we run. It was interesting that whilst I was preparing the session I stood back and objectively looked at what I really believed about myself and I was shocked. I had not realized that I was walking through life making decisions based on false beliefs. Now I have become aware of what they are for me I am working on living through the truth, the mind requires daily attention as the false beliefs often become automatic actions.

God has some great points to make on the mind in Scripture. Part of walking in the truth is getting to know what is possible through friendship with God and what He says about us. Through reading the two verses below God explains that He can help us change the way we think in other words as we begin to believe what He says about us more than any experience we have had or unhelpful words that people may have said to us then our thinking and attitudes will be more helpful for us as we walk through life.

Romans 12:2 “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect”. NLT

Ephesians 4:23 “Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes”. NLT

So change is possible according to God but we must become more aware of why we live the way we do, make the choices we make knowing that what we believe about ourselves impacts and shapes our life story.

Life can be like wearing a bunch of labels that we either place on ourselves or other people place on us. Particularly in western culture we are obsessed with finding out who we are and how we tick to help us navigate life. Once we have discovered the answer to the question we stick a label on so we can be identifiable.

However the label can make us rigid in our thinking and the difficulty with living through the label is that we shut down on the opportunity to hear what God has to say about us, we have already made that decision through another process. The fallout of that can be when God comes to us with a fresh experience or opportunity to broaden our horizon, we can’t make it fit with the label we are already wearing and we end up saying – NO, and miss out.

Labels are also created by our own choice, for example if we have been hurt at some point in time. We can use them at our convenience to avoid pain or rejection. Then we walk the path of self – preservation with a disability of not being able to trust self, others or God. As those labels come from an unhealthy decision base therefore they will not be healthy for us in the long run.

Jesus said in the book of John 10:10 “I have come that you may have life in abundance” He explains “their is another one who is trying to destroy your life” (make it difficult). Jesus offers us something unique, a chance for change and yet in John 5:40 Jesus points out that “even though abundant life is on offer we refuse to go to Him”. The label again dominates our life with phrases like, this is my background, the genes are in my family history, I was born this way so this is how it is, someone told me I am like this, I am this type of personality, and so on.

But when we let God come to us He begins to bring health and wholeness into our lives. The labels we once wore are no longer appropriate to wear as a badge of identity as our identity is shaped by what God says about us John 10 directs our thinking to the fact that “Jesus is the shepherd our lives”. If we draw near to Him the process of dropping the labels begins.

A few months back I wrote about the power of consistency and positive outcomes from that lifestyle. After being so ill at the beginning of the year I felt that this year has been about investing in strengthening myself up.

As part of this time I have invested in getting a personal trainer to help me get properly fit especially now I am in my 40’s the words “what we do now will affect the next few decades” ring in my ears especially as I am totally committed to serving Jesus long term not as a gap stop filler. Well this week after 15 sessions I have noticed it is starting to payout; the results are becoming evident!

This has got me thinking about the payout in terms of practising spiritual disciplines or as I call them following Jesus. Day one we are excited as we have understood the new life that Jesus brings when we follow him, we may stay on that mountain top for a few weeks, months then bang back down to earth as they say and we are in the process of what the Scriptures call “working out your faith”. In other words we have to begin to not only believe Jesus but now live as He did – following in His footsteps.

I have been following Jesus for 35 years with a 7year blip in the middle and I think it’s beginning to payout (the results are becoming evident), I think differently, try to live differently, understand and operate in spiritual concepts and actions more now than I did a few years ago. Obviously we don’t follow Jesus to gain reward He is our reward but we do change shape in our character, actions and attitudes.

2 Corinthians 3:18: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

Often on the journey of faith we may want to give up, it becomes hard like in physical training but if in the hard times we can dig deep and push through the pain of perseverance then payout day comes and you realise your not the person you used to be, you look different, act different you have become a little more Christ like “you have been changed into the image of Christ” so keep going the payout day will come!

Each one of us has a passion that is placed inside us given to us by God. Passion looks like something that really rocks your boat and excites you. The best place for us to live from is by sitting in the seat of your passion and letting that steer and direct your life.

We seem to be well able to do this from a negative perspective often worked out through negative behaviour but struggle to allow ourselves to flow in our unique positive passion. Some passions from a Christian perspective maybe prayer, scripture,intimacy with God, development, helping the poor, serving community, mission, preaching, healing and so on, reflected by the many outreach initiative of churches and organisations.

We can sometimes get so involved in others visions or passions that we can neglect our own God given passion and get distracted from investing in it. I can easily stand in the gap where I see a need and decided if no one else is doing it then I can – as Gods heart is about mercy and justice, working to turning the tide amongst the exploited poor in the world.

My own personal passion is too see a revival of people coming to Christ  and watching the presence of God transforming people through his power. Not in a spooky way but in a character transforming way. I have sometimes not always been able to express this but often I will read books on revivalists and love to hang out with people operating in revival this helps me keep that passion or vision alive for the day when the opportunity comes from God to walk in the passion.

So few questions to think through:-

Are you living from the seat of your passion?
What is your unique passion?
How will you keep it alive and in the front of your mind?

The Bible reveals that we should that we should “let the peace of God rule our hearts”. When we follow the passion inside us even if that has a high cost to us then peace will be present as we will be walking in what was always intended to be.

Jesus lived as a passionate man, He loved us and was passionate to drink from the cup of the cross (a high personal cost for him) He knew what was to come, that we would be free to live and follow Him and help others come and meet Him.

Lets dig deep to seek out the passion which we were born for.

Some years ago I learned about managing energy levels over time management and how it leads to a more peaceful lifestyle from an article and research undertaken by Harvard business school.

 For me I have for the last 30 years lived a crash and burn lifestyle throwing myself into everything I do 100 miles an hour. However there comes a day when we get revelation that long term living that way can hurt our body not to mention hard work to live with, best you ask my husband!

One of the great skills that Jesus Christ had amongst others was that he was a philosophical thinker/ practitioner and could communicate to all types of people. An area of life He spoke about was work life balance. Documented in the Bible we find Him living what He spoke about.

He stated that we could speak directly (pray) to God and call Him father Matthew 6: 5-13 5“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

“‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12Forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.’

After a long day of working healing the sick, discussing kingdom concepts with people, having dinner with people he would remove Himself to a private place to be with the father for reflection. The first thing in the morning he would again be in a hidden place speaking and hearing from the father of all things.

In fact sometimes He would send people away or hide from them by crossing a lake. I can really relate to his thinking in that instance “I need to rest and gather myself” after all He was fully human – not superman!

The question I am left with is what will help us create energy when we need? Jesus has said we can still speak to him and give all our stress and anxiety to him as He cares for us.

Matthew 11:28“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”.

So maybe some private time would help us each day in the midst of this crazy reach anyone, anywhere, anytime world.

What I have discovered is that I am an introvert who has been trying to function as an extrovert hence space and solitude is what I need to restore peace. As I write this I am sat in a cafe, with a book, coffee having solitude (not speaking to anyone) to prepare myself for the day ahead, gathering my thoughts, enjoying watching the world, recapturing my creative energy.

I am not locked away in a room praying or banging my head against the wall to trying hear God speaking. I am being doing something normal but enjoying Gods presence right here.

It has taken me years to of practice to implement this and not feel guilty for being like everyone else; able to keep going and doing more! So I encourage you to think through who God created you to be and enjoy that and manage your energy levels rather than your time.

Have you ever noticed how our buttons can be pressed over silly little things revealing a weakness of the heart?

Probably if we work or live in community we will be more exposed to this. Normally I am really good at taking rubbish that people often fling my way and deal with it by ignoring them. However last week was this was not the case and on reflection I have to say I have learned something new about forgiveness.

I received an unhelpful text that at first glance I laughed at. As I thought about the wording more and more I began to feel anxious as I realised that the person was sticking an accusation on me.

So then I couldn’t get it out of my head and thought this time I am going to have to confront and challenge this to get to the bottom of the real issue behind the accusation. So I called the person explained how I felt (for once) and realised that it was all about
miss communication. Afterwards I should have felt less anxious but no I still spent the entire day letting it eat away at me and found it so hard to forgive. The wound had gone deep. I couldn’t let it go in my mind I had no peace.

I was so desperate to get rid of the inner pain I felt led to chat to Jesus eventually. I prayed and said if I had done anything wrong to forgive me also asked Him to help my mind and heart be peaceful and let it go – I suppose you could say I gave it over to Him and asked Jesus to take the horrible feeling away.

Peace came and I realised a strange thing – I had chosen to forgive: His grace (ability) on the situation brought clarity to my mind and heart and I felt free and happier on the inside.
Unfortunately I am one of those people who show their emotions on the outside – my husband said its been written all over your face today but now you look better.

So here is my thought really on forgiveness. Most books etc say that forgiveness is not a feeling but a choice of the will. However I think it’s both with a process to go through. The choice I made was to speak to Jesus when I couldn’t handle it any more (note to self – do that sooner) and then the feeling of relief comes and mind stops thinking about the person in a negative way.

So I am grateful that I have learned how to forgive. Jesus did say in Matthew 6:14-15 “forgive others so we can forgiven” and the how to is in Matthew11: 28-30 put your heavy weights and problems on Jesus and a divine swap happens you get His weight which is light and He takes yours.

This is the benefit of living through the Cross of Jesus Christ and getting a grip on living out our faith.

Life is to be lived in seasons. I have had seasons in my life of different experiences study, work, rest, illness, fitness, travel, Churches, writing, family, counties I have lived in, friendships, singleness, marriage one thing is for certain nothing stays the same and nor should it!

But how come then we find ourselves doing the same old thing year in and out becoming rigid about how life should be and what we should be doing “living by the rules” and “controlling our environment” springs to mind. There are three great questions we could ask of ourselves.

1.What are the rules that I am living by?

2.Who made these rules?

3.Why do we insist on the right way of doing things (as far as we are concerned)?

I will let you ponder those….

Don’t get me wrong some boundaries are good and without laws any society would not be able to function. But I mean the rules that you live by on the inside that maybe limiting your life.

Maybe some of the rules have been made by ourselves or whatever, whoever has been socially influential in our lives has set down some rules that we find ourselves living by. However we are not sure quite why we still feel obliged to do the same thing but often for the sake of tradition we continue.

This can be a soul-destroying experience and an unfulfilling way to live, possibly we feel that are not allowed to do things differently fearing the consequences. The Bible calls this “ the fear of people”

Controlling our environment often comes from fear of the unknown. We may fear death, isolation, poverty, wealth and so on. We have been fed a lie that says we can’t trust anyone but ourselves, so we must control as much of our world as possible and those who connect into our world – so they don’t get hurt, again this is a hard place to live in.

So maybe it’s time to lay some rules down and forget controlling your life. As someone once said “let go and let God”. Lets start living in seasons embracing the good of change. 

If your struggling with the fear of people simply think through the scriptures below and allow God to bring direction for our thinking: –

Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.

Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths 

Ecclesiastes 3: 1 There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under the heavens