Dear Lord, open my heart and mind to your unselfish ways. You served others over your own needs. You continually loved in the face of hatred. May my motives be rooted in your love for me. For I cannot give out what I have not experienced within. Help me to put to death all of the faces of greed in my life. Make me aware of the tricky spots that greed hides behind when it comes to my behavior. I find myself it a place of generosity when it is convenient and fits in with my to-do list. Move me to generosity with my time, assumptions and behavior. I want to make you recognizable in this world. Have your way with me in spite of myself.
Edge God In Podcast Week 28: Want Less Anxiety? Stop Being Greedy.
In the previous lesson, Podcast 26 we explored a lighter version of you. Continuing with the theme of a lighter you moving forward, we take a good look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5 as these 5 verses in the Holy Scripture offer us a powerful opportunity to reflect on behaviors that need some pruning from our lives in order to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.
Dear Lord, draw me out of my self imposed cocoon of fear, self doubts and worry into the radical experience of your love, forgiveness and restoration. Set me free to remember who I am, why I am hear and the purpose for which my heart beats. Just as the caterpillar has the DNA of the butterfly, and it was created to fly. I have your DNA as I am created in your image to be the hands and feet of Christ. Come close to me today sweet Savior and resurrect within me my identity in you to move mountains and walk on top of the tumultuous waters.
Podcast 24: A 3 Step Prison Break Part 2
Enjoy part 2 as we continue to explore the lives of 5 key players in the new testament and how they experienced a 3 Step Prison Break from the bondage that held them back from experiencing the power of God within as a result of encountering Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Edge God InPodcast 24: A 3 Step Prison Break Part 1
Dear Lord, too often we experience identity theft that results in behavior and emotions that do not make you recognizable in this world. Forgive us for following the shiny objects that end up imprisoning us in the vicious cycle of asserting our will over your will, our thoughts over the Holy Scriptures and our emotions over the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control. Break us free Lord from the sin that so easily entangles us and the yoke of slavery that restricts us in our small cocoon of fear, doubt and worry. We want to fly with you to the places you have prepared for us to go. Override our EGO, just as you did for Peter, Paul, Zacchaeus and Thomas and set us free from the prison of self: I, me, my.
Edge God In Podcast Week 23: A 3 Step Prison Break
In Podcast 22: Jesus was interruptible…Are You? You learned the power of being interruptible in your thought life as well as your actions as you reflected on the Gospel of Luke and the numerous times Jesus was interrupted to accomplish God’s work and ministry on earth, in today’s Podcast: 3 Step Prison Break you will explore a 3 – Step Experience and Process of Breaking out of behavior that compromises the person God is calling your to be. Jesus was the ultimate ERR Doctor as you will see as we reflect on the lives of 5 people who were imprisoned by their life style and/or doubt: Peter, Mary, Zacchaeus, Thomas and Paul and the FREEDOM they gained as a result of an Encounter (E) with Jesus which led to Repentance (R) and a Resurrection (R) of purpose and identity, they experienced a break out of the cocoon of worldly restrictions and embraced the One who died to give them the ability to soar.
My ability to respond in a conscious Godly manner in the face of negative emotions is in direct proportion to my awareness around the truth that I am not another person’s emotional expressions. As I anchor my identity and beliefs in God, I am able to offer responses that validate, empathize and encourage the sender of the emotions. When I forget that I am safe and connected the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords I am vulnerable to defensive behavior which pushes people away and blocks healthy solutions. “1-Uping”, “You Should” and “At least” language will prevent a healthy flow of meaning between me and the sender of the emotions. Dear God, who will save me from my insecurities and self-doubt and fear? Thanks, be to God through Jesus Christ my Lord, I can give space for the Holy Spirit to anchor me in Christ’s confident, consistent loving kindness which will overflow into my emotional intelligence within relationships I encounter on my earth school journey.
Edge God In Podcast 17: Relationship Management EQ
Self-management: Requires high noticing around what spins you and the ability to adjust.
How? Allow the Holy Spirit to guide the flesh vs. the flesh to guide the Spirit.
Romans: 8:5: Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh. Those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit.
Flesh: Romans 5:5: And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
If you live in the flesh you are concerned about the things in the flesh. What are things of the flesh? Anything that distracts you from communion with God: status; fame; popularity; money; opinions of others; greed; malice; self glorification and gratification; jealousy; fits of rage; coveting. Basically like a spoiled child the flesh is never satisfied, it is always craving more. The flesh will also question God and feel victimized: Why me?
Colossians 3:5-10: “ 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”
What is your vice? Have high noticing and then the ability to manage the fleshly flare-ups.
Colossians 3:12: Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. The Spirit of God dwells in you. When you are in the Spirit you are pleasing to God: heartfelt compassion, putting up with others.
Romans 8:12: We are not debtors to the flesh.
High Noticing is essential for self-management. The fruit of the Spirit self-control and it is an essential ingredient for effective self-management.
Holy Spirit, grant me wisdom. Show me who you have created me to be in this world. Help me to see myself as God sees me rather than how I judge myself. I give you permission to remove everything within me that is not of God, that does not glorify Him or make Him recognizable in my life: my judgments…towards self and others…my conclusions about life that are based in story verses reality, including assuming and mind reading. I am nothing without you Lord, and with you I am everything and feel complete, significant and valued. Refresh me Lord so that I remain in you. Have your way with me in spite of myself.
Edge God In Podcast 14: Leadership: Self-Awareness EQ
