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Relationship Goals
When I was a teen, someone told me, “You become like those you run with.” When I was a young adult, someone told me, “You show me who your friends are, and I’ll show you who you are.” Then several years later, someone told me, “If you want to soar with eagles, you can’t be scratching around in the dirt with turkeys.” All these reminders have been about the importance of choosing who you choose to hang out with. Either the group you’re with will hold you back or help you get to that next level.
As I’ve lived my life, I can honestly say that these messages are true. Close relationships are the greatest influencers of your success or failure. If you’re constantly failing and are stuck in a bad place, you need to walk away from the relationships that are holding you back. Your life will not change until you change your relationships. If you want your life to improve, associate with people who are ahead of you and are moving in the right direction. This works for spiritual and economic growth as well.
As Paul was grooming Timothy to be a leader, he gave him the same advice. 2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Strive for righteousness, faith, love, and peace, together with those who with a pure heart call out to the Lord for help” (GNT) Paul wanted Timothy to understand it’s difficult to grow on your own. You need other like minded people who are headed in the same direction to help you get there. Proverbs 27:17 tells us that as iron sharpens iron, one person sharpens another. You need people around you who will make you sharp.
When coaching or counseling people, I let them know that they need someone ahead of them that they can follow. They need someone beside them that can challenge them. They also need someone behind them that they can help get to the next level. Finding the right relationships is one of the most difficult tasks in life. That’s why it’s preached to you since you were young. It’s never to late to make the changes you need to make. If you’re ready to soar with eagles, spread your wings and leave the turkeys behind.
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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.
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Competing Voices
Several years ago I was an Uber driver. I would always start off near my home, but before long, I would end up in places I had never been. I would have to pay close attention to the map. There were times when a rider would be in the car giving me conflicting information with the map. That was always worrisome to me. Do I follow what the rider is telling me or choose to disregard their advice and go where the map is leading me? The map sees ahead and has information we don’t have, but the rider seems to know the area and gives me the tip. Every time that happened, I either had to tell them, “Thanks, but I need to follow the map,” or hear, “Rerouting” over and over in my ear until I would just turn down the volume. Each time it happened, I had to deal with whichever consequence.
Being a Christian is very similar I’ve found. There are two voices in my head constantly trying to give me directions on how to live, where to go and what to do. They’re in conflict with each other quite often. The Holy Spirit is much like the GPS. He knows the way better than anyone, He sees things that are ahead and is constantly trying to reroute me when I make a wrong turn. My flesh is the other voice telling me, “Turn here.” My heart tells me to follow my God given guide, but there always a strong pull to listen to the other voice. Each time I choose which voice to listen to, there’s a consequence. I give up something that my flesh would really enjoy and please God or do something that’s not right and feel shame. It’s a constant struggle for all of us as Christians.
Paul put it plainly in Galatians 5:16-17. He said, “Let me emphasize this: As you yield to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self-life. When your self-life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit you hinder him from living free within you!” (TPT) That’s the choice we have to constantly make. Who’s voice are you going to listen to? They’re at odds with one another, and we’re stuck in the middle. Each voice produces very different fruit in our lives as Paul goes on to describe in this chapter. The good news is that it’s easier to follow the voice of the Holy Spirit if we will decide ahead any situation that we will choose His voice. The more we make that choice, the more we be empowered to live the way God wants us to. The voice we listen to the most grows the loudest within us, so choose now which voice you’ll listen to today.
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The Secret Of Satisfaction
Growing up, my parents would let me have any shoe I wanted as long as it was less than $25. That was fine for a while, but then I arrived in junior high and Nike introduced the Air Jordan line up. My friends and neighbors got them, but I couldn’t. They were $100, which was considerably more than my $25 limit. I wanted them so badly that I began to put pictures of them in my binders, drew them in my books and had posters on my wall. I thought they were the coolest shoe ever. My parents were teaching me a couple of lessons. The first was to be thankful for what you have even if it’s not what you want. The second was that if you want something more than what you have, save up your money to get it. That created more value in those shoes than if they had been given to me.
In Philippians 4:11, Paul wrote, “For I have learned to be satisfied with what I have” (GNT). That’s a lesson we could all learn. He’s not saying that we shouldn’t ever want more than we have. It’s that we need to learn to be satisfied with what we do have. If we’re constantly looking for something else or wanting more, we will miss the lesson of contentment and fail to be appreciative of what God has given us. When we don’t appreciate something, we don’t value it. If we don’t value it, we take it for granted. God blesses us daily with good things that we look right past because we already want more than the daily bread He’s given us. Paul’s next verse said that whether he had a little or a lot, the secret to life was learning to be content and satisfied.
Ecclesiastes 6:9 put it this way, “It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.” What blessings have you been overlooking? What are some things you get, but are never enough? A lack of satisfaction or contentment can be an outward expression of an inward brokenness. Once you’ve identified the outward expression, trace it to its roots. Ask God to bring healing to that area and to help you learn to be content with the things you have, whether a little or a lot. Once that change happens in you, the lens that you look at life through will change, and your prayers will too. Start changing them today by thanking Him for the many things He’s already blessed you with instead of asking Him for all the things you don’t have.
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Getting Sharp
When I was younger and in a scouting program, I had to earn my Cut and Chop card to be able to carry a knife and use it. The card also gave me permission to use an axe, hatchet and other cutting tools, but I had to prove I knew how to use them and care for them. One of the requirements was to show how to properly hone your cutting tool’s edge, and another was to show how to sharpen it. You would need to hone your tool’s edge when it got misaligned or folded over because of all the wood you cut or whittled. You would need to sharpen it when the edge was gone and it needed a new one in order to cut the way it was supposed to. Honing used the existing cutting edge while sharpening and sharpening created a new edge.
In Scripture we see where God places some people in our life to hone us and others to sharpen us. When Peter refused to eat with the Gentiles in front of the Jews, Paul had to correct him (Galatians 2). This was a case of a person who was misaligned and God used another to set him straight. When David was running from Saul, he would get tired and worn out living in caves and in the wilderness. Jonathan, David’s best friend, would encourage him and care for him. He was sharpening David using words and his friendship to give David the edge back in order to keep him going. We need both of these types of people in our lives, and we must give them permission to do and say what needs to be done. Being homed and sharpening can be painful at times, but when it’s done in love, it’s easier to receive.
Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens [and influences] another [through discussion]” (AMP). Who has God placed in your life in these roles? Have you discussed it with them? It’s important to know who it is and to give them permission to speak openly with you if you’re going to be used to your full potential. Many times we’ve become dull or misaligned and don’t even know it. You need someone who can have an honest discussion with you, without you getting defensive about it. Sharpening is a slow, repetitive process, but is vital to our growth. Think back over your life and see who God has used repeatedly to encourage you, sharpen you and correct you. You probably already have someone in this capacity and didn’t even know it. If you can’t think of anyone in that role, think of who you trust enough to be in that role and ask them to be the iron that sharpens you.
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Happy Father’s Day
My son wanted to join me in making a devotional. We thought Father’s Day would be perfect for it.
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Dropping Stones
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Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.
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Life In The Desert
In the mid 1990’s, I moved to Cairo, Egypt. As the plane landed, I looked out the window. I was shocked to see that there wasn’t any grass on the medians between the runway. On the drive to my new home, I was overwhelmed by the sea of tan dirt all around me. The Sahara Desert was my first culture shock having lived in a lush green area of East Texas my whole life. However, over time, I grew used to living in the desert and the lack of green vegetation. Then, early the year after I moved there, I decided to take a bus to Israel. We drove for hours through the desert until we came to the border. As I got out to walk across, I saw the strangest thing ever. All along the border there was a line of grass and flowers in the middle of this desert and it extended into Israel. It was an incredible sight to see life growing in the middle of a barren land.
The reason deserts lack life is because they lack water. Over 90% of Egyptians live along the Nile river because that’s the only way they can sustain life. Sure, there are people who live in the desert, but life is better and more easily sustained where there is water. Even along the Nile, I hadn’t seen what I saw at the border that day. Things were thriving at the border. It reminded me that God is able to do the impossible. He can grow life in the middle of nowhere and in the harshest environments. He is able to take our roughest, driest patches in life and spring up new life. He is able to take what looks like an end and create a new beginning. The desert we’re temporarily living in has the potential for life.
In Isaiah 43:18-19 God says, “Do not remember the former things, Or ponder the things of the past. Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing, Now it will spring forth; Will you not be aware of it? I will even put a road in the wilderness, Rivers in the desert” (AMP). I believe God is still speaking to us through these verses. The desert you’ve been in is about to burst forth with life. It starts with us forgetting the things of the past that led us into the desert. We need to focus our attention on what God is doing right now in this dry season. He’s creating a pathway forward for you and bringing a river of life to your situation. What has been a barren time for you is about to be teeming with life. God does not abandon us in the desert and He’s able to make a way where there seems to be no way. Trust in Him, don’t lean on your own understanding, acknowledge what He’s doing and He will direct your path through this time (Proverbs 3:5-6).
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It’s Time To Praise
I remember being in children’s church as a kid. The boys sat on one side and the girls on the other. One of my favorite songs to sing was “Praise Ye The Lord”. We sang it in the rounds, and they made it a competition which made me sing my heart out. The girls would sing, “Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah,” then the boy side would belt out, “Praise ye the Lord!” The girls would sing out, “Hallelujah,” only louder this time. We would respond with, “Praise ye the Lord,” trying to be louder than them. They responded, we responded and then we all were yelling at this point together, “Praise ye the Lord!” Each time the children’s church pastors would pick a winner who sang the loudest, but looking back I can see we both won as we learned to praise the Lord.
Praising the Lord is one of the recurring themes throughout the Bible. In the Old Testament, I think of when Israel would go to battle they would have a group of people who would sing praises go out in front of the army knowing their praise would honor God and bring victory. I also think of King Saul who was tormented by evil spirits. He would bring young David in to play praise songs, and he would get relief. In the New Testament, Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison for preaching the Gospel. In the darkest part of that prison in the darkest time of the night, they began to sing praises to God. In a moment, the ground shook and their chains fell off. Their praise brought freedom to them and salvation to another.
Genesis 2:7 tells us that in the Garden of Eden, God breathed the breathe of life into man and he came alive. Psalm 150:6 says, “Let everything that has breath and every breath of life praise the Lord! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)” (AMP) As people, we’ve been given the breath by God in order to praise Him. We aren’t just supposed to praise Him on Sunday mornings though. When we’re in the thick of a difficult time where we can’t see the way out, it’s time to praise. When we’re on the edge of a breakthrough, it’s time to praise. When we need healing, it’s time to praise. When life is going great, it’s time to praise. Psalm 34:1 tells us to bless the Lord at all times and to let His praise be continually in our mouths. So right now is a great time for you to praise the Lord. No matter what you’re facing, it’s time to praise the Lord.
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