Make-a-change Monday~Post it!

6 February, 2012 by 7 Comments
New Year’s Day 2008~
This is it. This year is going to be the year. 
I’m going to read my Bible more and pray more.
 I want to be a better person. Closer to God. 
New Year’s Day 2009~ 
This is it. This year is going to be the year. 
I’m going to read my Bible more and pray more.
 I want to be a better person. Closer to God. 
New Year’s Day 2010~
This is it. This year is going to be the year. 
I’m going to read my Bible more and pray more.
 I want to be a better person. Closer to God. 
Are you getting the picture? Have you made similar promises to yourself and to God only to fall asleep while you’re praying on January 3rd? And sleeping too late to get up and get your Bible read before getting the kids up for school? 
I did this year after year after year. 
But then, on September 25, 2010, God revealed himself to me in a very real, miraculous way. He reached his loving arms down, gently scooped me up, and saved me from my pit of seizures, addiction, and depression. I now knew and loved Him in a way I never had before. I was smitten. 
From that moment on, I knew I could never live without Him. But I also knew that Satan would do everything he could to make me forget to pray. He would do everything he could to make me the estranged daughter of my Heavenly father. So I put the almighty post-it note to use. Not just the yellow ones, either. NEON colors. 
I placed them on:
•   My bathroom mirror
•   The dash of my car
•   My washer and dryer
•   Above the kitchen sink
•   On the refrigerator 
                         
…And simply wrote “God” on them. 
So, every time I put on makeup, drove my car, did laundry, washed dishes, or ate, I remembered to have a conversation with God. It’s been shown that if you do something for 15 days in a row, it becomes a habit. Once I did this for a few weeks, I no longer needed the post-it notes.
Now, with the post-it note in mind, go back and read the prescription verse for today. “Tie them on your finger, wear them on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house.” Who knew post-it notes were Biblical? 
So this week’s “make a change” is to improve your spiritual walk and your relationship with God—get to know your father as you never have before. And believe me, this one will change every single facet of your life. It has mine. 
From my heart,

Celeste
P.s. Don’t forget to keep doing last week’s change—keep drinking your water!
Filed Under: Beating Depression, Living in Faith, Living with Purpose, Make-a-change Mondays, Making Changes, Simplify Your Life, The Power of Prayer, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Get ready for 2012!

31 December, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Today’s prescription verse is the first verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of John.


In the beginning was the word…


As we think about beginning a new year, we always contemplate resolutions for the upcoming year. A friend of mine shared this blog with me by Tami Heim from www.stickyjesus.com. Writing these verses on your heart (or on sticky notes as I like to do) will ensure a great beginning to 2012, so I wanted to share them with you. 


Review – Understand where you’ve been. List what you’ve learned and how it impacts where you feel called to go. Accept that God’s sovereign and that everything experienced in 2011 had a purpose that points to the future. Jeremiah 29:11~ “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”


Reflect – Think deeply about the defining moments from the past year. Wait on God to show you the before and after affect on your thinking, being, and doing. Let yourself be grateful for each of them and the way they altered the direction of your life. Psalm 37:7 ~ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.
Assess – Take a truthful inventory of your heart. Ask God to show you the pleasing and not so pleasing parts. Reconcile the misses and determine to go forward with the power of the Holy Spirit as your guide. Hebrews 12:10-11 ~ They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Evaluate – Map the key decisions you made this past year and list the outcomes realized because of them. Accept responsibility for them and own the ability to redirect them as Wisdom leads you. Ezekiel 36:25-27 ~ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
Resolve – Take a stand for what you want to continue to do and what you want to change. Exercise the power of your word and put into practice how you will daily honor it. Proverbs 16:3 ~ Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established.
Study – Seek God’s Word, experts, or the counsel of wise leaders regarding the areas where you know you need to grow. Examine all the alternatives before putting plans into place. Investigate before you navigate. Ephesians 4:21-24 ~ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man who grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man who was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
Plan – Create an outline for the year. Identify benchmarks and timelines for key goals or accomplishments. Then surrender all of it to God for His shaping and perfecting. Proverbs 19:21 ~ There are many plans in a man’s heart, Nevertheless the Lord’s counsel—that will stand.
Organize – Bring order where it’s needed. Clean up and clear out the unnecessary things in your life. Simplify where possible and eliminate the clutter that’s prone to distract you. I Corinthians 5:7 ~ Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
Collaborate – Look to those you trust to hold you accountable. Ask them to collaborate with the intentions of your heart.  Look to support as well as be supported. Hebrews 10: 24-25 ~ And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Activate – Define what beginning looks like as specifically as you can. Lean in and position for forward motion. Set the alarm for “GO” and be ready when it rings. Trust God to get you where He wants you to be. Ecclesiastes 3:11 ~ He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Let Jesus be your resolution this year. With him as your foundation, all of the other resolutions will be easy. 


I can do all things through Christ…


From my heart,


Celeste
Filed Under: Living with Purpose, Your Relationship with God Tagged With: , , ,