Hello friends and thank you for visiting again. I am so thrilled you are a part of my life and we are participating in this series on change together. We are coming down the home stretch in winding up our series on change, as there is only one more episode after this one. As we go through this series together, I hope you are becoming more in tune to the concept of how transformational change and a new mindset can happen in your life. I think there is always an area we can be working on and it is exciting to gather ways to help us find more stability and direction in our lives.
To recap thus far, as you go through this series, you will see the importance of finding your Spiritual Who, Spiritual Why, Spiritual What, and Spiritual What Not, as we have come this far. I am still in the process of gathering mine as well. Part 5 shows us how we now need to decide on our Spiritual How. I know this might seem time consuming and hard to come up with, so I have added 3 resources of scriptures to look at, to see what resonates with you, as you choose to stand on Gods word to help you. Seeking the Lord and spending time in prayer and in His word, is essential in getting guidance and direction on our journey. This will help us find scripture to stand on, to help see the bigger picture and find the answers to why we want change to be a lifelong transformation that sticks in our lives and helps us to achieve our goals.
Spiritual Who: Decide who you want to be in Christ
Spiritual Why: Decide why you want to change (spiritually)
Spiritual What: What good habits do we want to start bringing into our lives?
Spiritual What Not: What habits do we want to break in our lives?
Spiritual How: How should we think about the power of God for a spiritual mindset?
For example: If you want to loose weight, a spiritual why could be taken from the scripture that reads, "... our body is the temple of the Lord." If He gave me this body, why would I want to abuse it? It is not just something surfacey like, I want to look better in a bathing suit. Hey, I think the looking better in a bathing suit reason is all good and fine and would be a dream for many of us, but winter time will roll around and you won't find it quite as important when the season changes ;-) It's never worked for me lol. We need a deeper Why!
I am reminded of what my husband is going through with first being in a fiberglass hard cast for almost three weeks, since our eye opening car accident. He has now gotten the hard cast taken off and is now in a removable soft cast that is more like a splint with Velcro. A removable cast has the option of being taken on and off whenever you feel like it. This is the reason a hard fiberglass cast is put on first when you have a brake, so it is very difficult to remove it until the physician thinks it is time to progress to the next step in healing. Once you have had the cast on long enough, it gives the bone its highest level of stability and protection to allow proper time to heal and progress into how it is meant to be. If you continue to do what you are supposed to do long enough, it will become a part of who you are and routine, so you won't be as irritated by the brace anymore. It's just like a cast, when it finally comes time to remove it, you will feel a sense of freedom leading to a much better condition. You will have put in the hard work, for it to get better. It is your ultimate reward ;)
It is the same with implementing change in our lives. If we try and change without finding what our Godly mission statement is on these questions mentioned above, it will be very difficult to have something more stable to keep us in line, like a cast provides for an injury.
A spiritual cast in our lives helps remind us to have boundaries and know what our 5 Cue's are which are our triggers. I went over in my previous post on 6-19-23
In part 5 of Pastor Craig's sermon, he references Olympic athletes. They didn't get where they are by Trying, they got where they are by Training. He reminds us of this:
Trying is an attempt to change with minimal commitment.
Training is a wholehearted commitment to achieve a specific result.
When I think about the above definitions of Trying vs Training, it reminds me of the difference between someone who is a good athlete and someone who is a great athlete. Great athletes achieve their status because they are determined to be the best. To achieve greatness, you must put in the hard work as seen below.
(This is a picture of my friend Chris and Chito's daughter. She progressed to this level by wholehearted commitment. Wow, so impressive!)
We must have a game plan. We must mirror how a great athlete achieves Professional or Olympic status in our spiritual life. Pastor Craig reminds us that superior athletes have coaches, trainers, mentors, and much commitment to achieve their goal. If we want successful change in our lives we must be fully committed like an Olympic athlete is to achieving greatness.
1 Timothy 4:7-8 says:
...train yourself to be godly. 8 “Physical training is good, but training for godliness is much better, promising benefits in this life and in the life to come.”
Permanent change is more apt to take root and healing can be reached if we approach our spiritual walk like an Olympic athlete approaches their training. Determination and effort to change most of the time is not enough. I believe we need the power of God to help change us from the inside out. We need Him to be our healing Cast of stability and help in life.
As I mentioned earlier, I will add a few links below, so you can easily access, scriptures for us to stand on to find our Spiritual Who, Spiritual Why, Spiritual What, Spiritual What Not, and Spiritual How.
You can read through these scriptures and hopefully find a few that you can reflect on frequently in your life to help you stay on track. As I do the same, I will put the ones that speak to my heart, to help me find my transformational mission statement, in places I will come across, where I can easily see them or come across them. This will help keep us on track when we need inspiration to keep us going on this transformation journey of change. Posting it on your wall where you can see it frequently would also help to be a good reminder on wavering days. We need to get a spiritual reason for change to take root, so it can become a permanent part of who we are. Here are some links to access scriptures to help you.
Today can be your day, if you pray and call upon Jesus for help as you start the process of change. Submit your request for change to him. Submission is key to this process.
Watching the series on change will help you find the answers to what is your Spiritual Who, Spiritual Why, Spiritual What, Spiritual What Not and Spiritual How.
Today I am posting the next sermon in The Power of Change called:
(Part 6) You In Five years:
If you are beginning the series, I will post Part 1 through 5 here. Just click on the links below. Each serman is approximately 35 minutes and well worth watching. It could be your best and most helpful 35 you do today.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
As you begin your week, set yourself up for success. It's not about just trying because trying focuses on putting some effort into being better, instead of putting your effort into whole hearted training to achieve a specific result. Practice leads to success and progression. It is always hard to start something new, but Pastor Craig mentions that when you are in training, you are getting better than what you already are. You will learn more about this in Part 5: You Don't Win By Trying, when you watch the link posted above. (Taken from Part 5)
(You do have to start by changing your mindset and making a commitment to put in the hard work, as seen by a new student riding English below on our sweet Teddy. Everyone has to start somewhere. Teddy just started the Horse Therapy Program himself, just 4 months ago)
As I was reading my devotional today this scripture stood out to me:
1 Samuel 15:22
But Samuel replied,“What is more pleasing to the Lord: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to his voice? Listen! Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better than offering the fat of rams.
Thank you again for spending your valuable time with me. I keep all of you in my thoughts and prayers. You mean so much to me and I am so excited to walk this road together. I would love to hear about where you are on your journey and what you are experiencing in your life as you choose to step out in faith and out of your comfort zone into healthy freedom. Keep your eye on the prize and where you want to be in your life. You will get there, as you put one step in front of the other!
I invite you to explore more on my website www.intoyourgrowth.com
The "About" section will help you to learn more about my inspiration for writing this BLOG. As you choose to spend some of your valuable time on this site, I would like to invite you to click on "BLOG" to see all of my posts, as only a few are shown on the front page. If you view this on your cell, you can click on the brown square menu button at the top of the HOMEPAGE or you can use the arrows below under the most recent posts, to find more.
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You are one step closer to your goal. Keep up the great work, it will all pay off!
Be well and God bless you all,
Jen
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