Category Archives: tips for purpose driven life

Edge God In Podcast 40: Do You Deserve God’s Mercy? Step into Nineveh’s Shoes

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Dear Lord,

Too often I sit on the Mercy seat and cast stones at myself and others. How can I give out what I have not experienced within my own relationship with you? Help me to feel your Mercy and Love more today than yesterday. Increase my desire to offer the kind of mercy you offered to the 120,000 people in Nineveh. Ignite within my heart the ability to rejoice in my brother’s and sister’s experience of your love and mercy more today than yesterday. Too often I am Jonah, angry and resentful that you are showing mercy to someone I don’t feel deserves it. “Let He who is without sin cast the first stone.”  Jesus, John 8:7.

Scripture Readings to Explore:

Jonah Chapters 1-4 (Focus on Chapter 4)

2 Peter 3:9

Edge God In Podcast 11: How to Tame the Tongue

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Dear Lord I have the ability to set the entire course of my life on fire simply by a careless word fueled by a negative thought, conclusion or assumption about myself or another person. Forgive me Lord for allowing my tongue to direct the course of my life. Just like a small rudder on a boat, my tongue can run my entire ship into ruin. Override my negative thinking and words and remind my mind that in you I have the ability to speak LIFE into my inner dialogue and the lives of those entrusted to my care. Teach me how to tame my tongue so that every word that spills out of my mouth flows from your mind and heart. Help me to not let my tongue be the boss of me, I want to resurrect your power within me so that you become the boss of my thoughts and words. Fill my mind with all that is good, right, beautiful, excellent and praise worthy and make my words flow from this sanctuary of beauty.

Click Here to Download the PDF Edge God In Bible Study for this Podcast: EdgeGodIn Podcast 11 How to Tame Your Tongue

Edge God In Podcast 32: W.O.W. Your Mind in Christ

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Edge God In Podcast 32: W.O.W. Your Mind in Christ 

The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Romans 8:6-11

Click Here to Download the PDF Edge God In Bible Study for this Podcast: EdgeGodIn Podcast 32 WOW Your Mind In Christ

 

Edge God In Podcast 26: 3 Excuses that Edge God Out

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Edge God In Podcast 26: 3 Excuses That Edge God Out

Dear Lord, I give you permission to slow me down. Too often I am unwilling to edge you into my busy life, as if being busy makes me more important or purposeful. Teach me how to hear your invitation to draw near to you today. Override my agenda, to-do lists and pursuit to be enough and fill them with your presence Lord. Forgive me for every declined invitation I have sent back to you. Forgive me for putting things above my relationship with you and the people I love. I know your word does not return to you void but accomplishes the purpose for which it’s sent. If I am too busy you will use someone else to accomplish your will on earth. Wake me up to remember what I have learned during the storms in my life. Lord, where else do I need to go, for in you and with you I lack nothing. No more excuses, I choose you. Move me to draw closer to you today than yesterday.

Click Here to Download the PDF Edge God In Bible Study for this Podcast: EdgeGodIn Week 25-3 Excuses that Edge God Out

Fast From 1 Thing for Brain Strength

 

Are You Shrinking Your Brain?

 

How much of your verbal communication in a 24 hour

period of time contains an element of complaining?

10%? 25% 50% 75% 90%?

 

Take a moment to go into your internal castle, close your eyes and

give this self inventory question a moment to marinate. For any positive

shift to occur it is essential to shine the light of

our awareness on the state of behavior we wish to prune

out of our life.

 

Next question: Are you a conscious communicator? Someone

who pauses before responding and edits and adjusts words

to align with the person you are committed to being.

OR

Have you fallen asleep at the gate of your most powerful

modality to create a positive or negative space around you

on this journey of life: Your Tongue.

 

Science proves that your brain actually shrinks in the midst of

complaining, either from your own mouth or people around you.

Victory over undesirable circumstances lies in your ability

to occupy the space you feel honors the person you are committed

to being. Do you edify yourself and those around you or do

you cut down yourself and those around you? The choice is

yours and makes all the difference in the outcomes you experience.

 

This week I invite you to take a complaining fast, I’m going to join

you in this practice. As you feel a negative conclusion or statement

bubbling up into your mouth, put your hand over your mouth

and step away from the situation if necessary to catch yourself.

As quickly as possible flip the negative thought into a positive one.

 

For example: “I am so exhausted and fed up with my work load.”

Flip It: “I love how much effort I put behind what I do in life, my

body is telling me it’s time to take a break and restore so I can

continue to show up the way I want to show up, and I am going to honor that.”

 

“When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example, although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course one’s life on fire…” James 3:3-6

Nolite Timere: Fear Not!

Because of His Love,

Lauren

How to Kick In God’s Power…

Are you worn out at Peter was after fishing all night without anything to show for it? Reflect on Luke 5:5 and 2 Peter 2:19. Has your “doing” in life creating an interior prison linking your worth to your achievements? Ask the Lord: where would you have me go today? Who would you have me speak to? What do you want me to spend my time doing with the gifts and talents you have given to me? When Peter stepped away from the enslavement of his own efforts into the Lord’s guidance: “Go out into deep waters and cast your nets” it was then that he came to the end of himself which is when God kicks in. Let Go and Let God Move You into His Will Today.

Let God and Lean Into God. When you get to the end of yourself it is then that God’s mighty power and will begins.

Because of His Love,

Lauren <><

Self-Awareness in Authentic Leadership

nothing has the power to define you unless you give it away

Edge God In Bible Study: April 18th: Leadership: Self-Awareness EQ

Self-Awareness => Self-Management

Social Awareness => Relationship Management

Focus for the study is on the first essential component of emotional intelligence: self-awareness. We cannot give out effectively what we have not given attention to within ourselves. Our ability to effectively manage our relationships with those around us is in direct proportion to our ability to manage our own perceptions and emotions. What does God say?

3 Questions to reflect upon when considering self-awareness:

  • Who Am I?
  • Why am I here?
  • What will it matter?

Who Am I? Scripture:

  • John 1:12: “To those who believe in His name are given the right to become the children of God.
  • Romans 8:15-16: I have received a Spirit of sonship…Abba Father, this spirit testifies that I am a child of the living God.
  • 1 Peter 2:9: I am part of a royal priesthood, a Holy Nation, a people belonging to God.

Why am I here? Scripture:

  • 2 Corinthians 5:20-21: To make God recognizable in this world. I am Christ’s ambassador as if God were making His appeal through me. For our sake He made Him to be sin who did not sin that I might become the righteousness (the excellence) of God.
  • 1 Peter 2:9: As a part of God’s child and a Holy Nation I am here to declare the praises of Him who called me our of darkness into light.
  • Galatians 2:20: I have been put to death with Christ on the cross so it’s no longer I who live but Christ who lives within me this life I live by faith alone in Him who died for me. I am here to live by faith and allow Jesus to live within and through me.

What will it matter? …when I prayed on this one I got: “why will it matter? It will matter in all of eternity for the sake of salvation of souls, your choice to live for me will end in life.”

What will it matter – What will it Matter?

It will matter because in order to truly have self-awareness and self-management you need to understand and ask yourself “How do I recognize my own emotions and how are they affecting my thoughts and behavior? “

You can know this by understanding your Strengths, Weaknesses and Self Confidence.

1) The scripture tells us how to recognize our emotions and know if they are affecting our thoughts and behaviors.

John 8:31-32 AMP, Jesus says: “ If you abide in My word … you are truly My disciples. And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free”

Prov. 3:5-6 NKJV “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your way acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths”

2) We must know and understand our Strengths, Weaknesses, and have self-confidence to know what and why it matters to God.

  • Strengths come from God: Philippians 4:13 King James Version (KJV) I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
  • Weakness are taken care of by God: 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (ESV) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
  • Self Confidence is given to us through the scriptures:
    • Philippians 4:13: ESV: I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
    • 2 Timothy 1:7: ESV: For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
    • Hebrews 10:35-36 ESV: Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

3) We must remember the saying “What would Jesus do?” to manage our emotions, thoughts and behaviors.
Because of His Love <><

Lauren & Estella

A Prayer at The Break of Dawn

 

linger
Dear God, thank you for the gift of a new day of life to explore growing in the ways of loving and being loved…You, myself and those around me.

 

Once again I release my grip on my need to know why things happen as they do along with my need to know how things will turn out. You are in control and that is enough for me. I give you full permission to have your way with me in spite of myself, for I have learned on this short journey of life that as I have surrendered all to you, I am never left empty handed.

 

Continue to release the shadows that distract me from living out the purpose for which I was created: to love and beloved. Protect me from the need to own, control, possess, analyze, interpret, conclude; from attachments, assumptions, expectations and all sense of entitlement along with the antics of comparison, jealousy and envy… for nothing thrives in a state of war. The only thing I am entitled to know is that you love me completely just as I am and that you will never leave me or forsake me, because of this all things are possible for me. Move me this day to step away from the 3 fuels of discontent and inner turmoil: popularity; position and possessions. For what will I gain if I gain the whole world yet forfeit my soul?

 

Grant me a spirit of joy and laughter that I may light up from the inside out and may all those who come into this light feel refreshed and inspired. Use my life and my death for the sake of salvation of souls. Use this gift of teaching you have blessed me with to guide people back to themselves as connected to you, so that they may experience their fullest potential of being on earth. You have revealed to me through my own dark night of the soul experience that you do your greatest work in the eye of the storm, through this knowledge resurrect within me a courage that far outweighs the momentary distractions of fear, doubt and worry. For you have brought about a greater good in spite of the darkness than had my personal trials never occurred.

 

Move me to lean into the mystical experience captured within one of your most masterful creations: the beautiful fragrant rose that emerges in the midst of the thorns. You have me, and I have you…I tremble with eager expectation as to the beauty we will create together as I step into another gift of life today.

 

Because of His Love,

Lauren <><

God or Man? Flip Your Authority

 

“You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.” 1 John 4:4

 

Too often we give more authority to circumstance than we do to

our God given ability to overcome, learn from and move 

through perceived challenges in life. This week remember

that GREATER IS THE ONE who lives in YOU than 

the one or thing in the world.

 

Your experience of rising and 

falling depending upon how the world judges you is in 

direct proportion to the power YOU give to the outside

circumstance to define your worth, value and capability. 

If God is for you…who or what can be against you? Flip

your authority today: Give more authority to the strength of God

within you than you give to the opinions of people around you and

or specific outcomes. Failure is just a label we place on an

undesirable outcome.  Think about this for a moment, if

you truly believe that God has plans to prosper you and not to

harm you, to give you hope and a future then whatever pops

up before you can be flipped into positive forward momentum.

What if you take a moment this week before any potential threat

to your sense of safety and ability to overcome and you remember

this simple thought: God has overcome all that I feel has overcome

(or potentially overcome) me in my life…He sees all and is more

than capable of doing more than I can ever ask or imagine for

my ultimate good in this world, I am safe and connected to the

One that is greater than circumstance.

 

Because of His Love,

Lauren <><