Life is a Steep Climb

Praying God’s Word
- Beth Moore

[From Chapter Titled: Overcoming Despair Resulting From Loss]

Life is a steep climb, and it does the heart good to have somebody “call back” and cheerily beckon us on up the high hill. We are all climbers together, and we must help one another. This mountain climbing is serious business, but glorious. It takes strength and steady step to find the summits. The outlook widens with the altitude. If anyone among us has found anything worthwhile, we ought to “call back.”

If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back – Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track; And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low, Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go.

Call back, and tell me that He went with you into the storm; Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn; That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill, He bore you up and held you where the very air was still.

Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face; They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race; But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim, And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him.

But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry, And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky – If you have gone a little way ahead, oh, friend, call back – Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.

Turn your cup right side up…

Praying God’s Word
Beth Moore

Perhaps one of the unforgivable sins is
to give up on ourselves and God. Hold
a cup under an opened faucet and it will
quickly fill. The process is slightly more
difficult if you hold your cup upside down.
So, turn your cup right side up.
- Tim Hansel

The Peace of Surrender

Unstoppable
Nick Vujicic

Take a deep breath. In…Out…Do you fell a sense of peace when you do that? We all long for that feeling of calm, don’t we?

Our lives on this earth are not about what we want. You and I were created and placed in the natural world because of what God wants for us. He sent His Son to die for our sins, and Jesus made the ultimate surrender to follow His Father’s plan to give us the gift of eternal life. The Bible tells us, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

That peace can be yours only when you put your faith into action, surrendering your fears and any need to control your life, as well as any need to know the outcome of your actions. Instead, you put it all in God’s hands, committing to follow His will. When you are searching for God’s will in your life, whether it’s trying to make decisions or looking for opportunities, you can’t always expect a sign from God. Those are rare and wonderful occasions. What I’ve come to look for in trying to figure out what God wants is a sense of peace.

If serenity remains in my heart as I pray and move forward with a decision to act on an opportunity, I feel like I’m following His will. If I lose that sense of peace at any point, I stop, pray some more, and reconsider. I believe if I’m headed the wrong way, God will change my heart and guide me.

You may have many friends and advisors. Maybe you base your decisions on the alignment of the stars or a gut feeling. Everyone has a process. Mine is surrender. God understands us to the core because He created us. He feels what we feel, but His vision reaches those places we cannot see. There are many people I look to for advice and wisdom, but there is no one in God’s league when it comes to guidance. I’m grateful to have opportunities, and often it seems like I’m walking down the corridor of a giant hotel with hundreds of doors waiting to be opened. It’s difficult to know which doors are right for me, but through surrender, patience, and trust, God guides me.

 

 

Effect of Thought on Circumstances

As a Man Thinketh
- James Allen

Men do not attract that which they want, but that which they are. Their whims, fancies, and ambitions are thwarted at every step, but their inmost thoughts and desires are fed with their own food, be it foul or clean. The “divinity that shapes our ends” is in ourselves; it is our very self. Man is manacled only by himself: thought and action are the jailers of Fate – they imprison  being base; they are also the angels of Freedom – they liberate  being noble. Not what he wishes and prays for does a man get, but what he justly earns. His wishes and prayers are only gratified and answered when they harmonize with his thoughts and actions.

Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

What is an Authentic Leader?

Finding Your True North
- Bill George

Let’s start by describing the authentic leader.

To be an authentic leader requires you to be genuine and to have a passion for your purpose; you must practice your values, lead with your heart, develop connected relationships, and have the self-discipline to get results. You must stay on course of your True North in the face of the most severe challenges, pressures, and seductions.

This means being true to yourself and to what you believe in, which will enable you to engender trust and develop genuine connections with others. Because people trust you, you will be able to motivate them to high levels of performance. Rather than letting the expectations of others guide you, you must be prepared to be your own person and go your own way. As you develop as an authentic leader, you will be more concerned about serving others than about your own success or recognition.

This does not mean you have to be perfect. Far from it. Like all of us, you can have your weaknesses and be subject to the full range of human frailties and mistakes, and still be an authentic leader. Yet by acknowledging your shortcomings and admitting your errors, you will connect with the people and empower them.

PURPOSE

To find your purpose, you must first understand yourself and your passions. In turn, your passions show the way to the purpose of your leadership.

VALUES

As a leader, you are defined by your values, which are the deeply held beliefs that guide your actions. Your values are personal: they cannot be determined by anyone except you. To lead by your values is to give expression to your most deeply held beliefs through your leadership. The test of your values is not what you say, but how you behave under pressure. If you are not true to the values you profess, people will quickly lose confidence in your leadership.

HEART

As an authentic leader, you must lead with your heart as well as your head. This means having passion for your work, compassion for the people you serve, empathy for the people with whom you work, and the courage to make difficult decisions.

CONNECTED RELATIONSHIPS

To lead with connected relationships is to develop long-lasting and enduring connections with other people in all types of relationships  Connected relationships enable you to build trust and commitment through the openness and depth of your relationships, and to engender commitment from people.

SELF DISCIPLINE

Competing successfully takes a consistently high level of self-discipline on your part in order to produce results. Such discipline enables you to set high standards for yourself and to hold others accountable for their performance. When you fall short – and you will – it is equally important to admit your mistakes and initiate immediate corrective action.

The Greatest Servant Who Ever Lived

Cure For the Common Life
- Max Lucado

Let’s “put on the apron of humility  to serve one another” (1 Pet. 5:5 TEV) Jesus entered the world to serve. We can enter our jobs, our homes, our churches. Servanthood requires no unique skill or seminary degree. Regardless of our strengths, training, or church tenure, you can…

Love the overlooked. Jesus sits in your classroom, wearing the thick glasses, outdated clothing, and a sad face. You’ve seen him. He’s Jesus.

Jesus works in your office. Pregnant again, she shows up to work late and tired. No one knows the father.  According to water-cooler rumors, even she doesn’t know the father. You’ve seen her. She’s Jesus.

When you talk to the lonely student, befriend the weary mom, you love Jesus. He dresses in the garb of the overlooked and ignored. “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me-you did it in me” (Matt. 25:40 MSG.)

You can do that. Even if your sweet spot has nothing to do with encouraging others, the cure for the common life involves loving the overlooked. You can also… Wave a white flag. We fight so much. “Where do you think all these appalling wars and quarrels come from?” asks the brother of Jesus. “Do you think they just happen? Think again. They come about because you want your own way, and fight for it deep inside yourselves” (James 4:1 MSG).

Every day do something you don’t want to do. Pick up someone else’s trash. Surrender your parking place. Call the long-winded relative. Carry the cooler. Doesn’t have to be a big thing. Helen Keller once told the Tennessee legislature that when she was young, she had longed to do great things and could not, so she decided to do small things in a great way. Don’t be too big to do something small. “Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time of effort” (1 Cor. 15:58 MSG).

…When you and I crest Mount Zion and hear the applause of saints, we’ll realize this: hands pushed us up the mountain too. The pierced hands of Jesus Christ, the greatest servant who ever lived.

God Bless America

In God We Still Trust
- Dr. Richard G. Lee

Born in a poor Russian Jewish ghetto, Irving Berlin immigrated to America with his parents when he was five, settling in New York’s Lower East Side. He became one of the most prolific American songwriters in history. “God Bless America” is an American patriotic song he originally wrote in 1918 and revised in 1938, as war and the Nazis were threatening Europe. It takes the form of a prayer for God’s blessing and peace for the nation. Singer Kate Smith introduced the revised “God Bless America” during her radio broadcast on Armistice Day 1938, and the song was an immediate sensation. It is considered an unofficial national anthem of the United States.

While the storm clouds gather far across
the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that’s
free.
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn
prayer.

God bless America, land that I love
Stand beside her and guide her
Through the night with the light from
above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
to the ocean white with foam
God bless America, my home sweet
home.