The Daniel Fast

The Rainbow Pen!

 

Taking Full Responsibility for Our Life

 

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 11:19-20)
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10).
A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit..... Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions.  (Matthew 7:17-20 NLT).

You're bigger than anything that can happen to you. You're more important than any of your problems. Be a channel of divine grace to other people. Therefore think of them as fellow strugglers seeking God's best for their own tough times, rather than enemies seeking to defeat you! Don't get caught up in how right you are. Rather be the one to break the cycle of recrimination and retaliation. Look at everything through the eyes of perfect love, perfect choice, like Christ Jesus. It's the filter for your words, attitudes, and actions. Treat other people in a certain way, kind and gentle. Great things are accomplished when you believe that what's inside of you is superior to your circumstances. What you've outside you counts less than what you've inside you.  Reality is something you rise above. 

You don't always have to be right or win every argument. Your openness and flexibility will impress people and may give you an opportunity to share your faith with them. You need to communicate love. The tone and tenor of your words to the people in your life are an expression of divine love. Love people as God has loves you. And know when to be tender in withholding judgment or condemnation. Jesus Christ has made us an awesome promise in Luke 21:13-15 for those times when we're misunderstood: "Don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you, for I will give you the right words and such wisdom..... It was first given to His followers as the assurance of His power when they'd be put on trial because of their faith in Him. The promise is equally applicable for our conversations or communicating our faith.  You can claim that the Lord will use misunderstandings for occasions for testimony. He'll help you handle misunderstandings in a way that shows others His grace at work in you. 

Let's take the Good News of freedom to all captives out of the 4 walls of the Church - to the marketplace, workplace, community, and family! Life is not all about the Church or in the Church, but all life is about the Kingdom of God. Every material need has a spiritual need and every problem has a spiritual solution. Be committed to meeting those spiritual needs through Christ who strengthens us and has promised us abundant life. In God’s eyes, perfection isn’t about performance. Your success is not so much about your doing as about your being. In fact, it isn’t about behavior at all. What God is looking for is a heart that is perfect toward Him. That means God is more pleased with someone who has a heart toward Him who may mess up than He is with someone doing all the right things for all the wrong reasons. Let us resolve to have our heart toward God as a priority in 2013. The condition of our heart is extremely important to God. When we've a right heart, we're humble before Him. We seek His ways. We get up each day with a desire to please Him. We submit every area of our life to Him, and we're willing to make adjustments and receive correction so we can grow and come up higher.

As you start this year 2013, make knowing God your number one priority. Yield yourself to Him and let Him shape your character. Serve Him with all your might and let your heart be perfect toward Him! Be full of God. When you're full of passion, you've the favor of God. Let the Holy Spirit help you see past what you've thought and believed. So you'll find yourself evaluating what the Holy Spirit tells you for agreement or disagreement. When you agree with something, you're fitting it into what you already think you know. You are fitting it into your consciousness or awareness! When you disagree with something, you're rejecting that which is outside of what you think you already know. Your heart isn't a good judge of what is right and what is not. Your heart is really the sum of what you've gotten comfortable with in the past. So you're not going to be very comfortable most of the time, as it is the Teacher's job to help you see past what you've thought and believed. That is what makes your heart of flesh or hard. The hard heart doesn't want anything new, even a good experience.

Study your present situation thoroughly. Go over in your imagination the various courses of actions possible to you. Visualize the consequences which can follow from each course. Pick out the course that gives you the most promise, and go ahead. Picture yourself in your mind's eye as already having achieved your goal. See yourself doing the things you'll be doing after you've reached your goal. You can begin acting successfully at any moment. See the things you want as already yours. You can see your future with a vision. And live your dreams. Cultivate appropriate habits and practice them daily and consistently. And you'll overcome your mountains. As you get over your mountain or obstacle, you'll come to see things in a whole different light. You'll begin to gain actual skills in creating the world you wish to live in. Stick with the Holy Spirit to help you do what's necessary to overcome your mountain. This is taking 100% responsibility for your life on Earth!