If you have ever felt lost, different, or set apart from others then here is where you’ll find that you are not alone. I too, have found myself in a life that wasn’t what I thought it would be at this stage of my life. I found myself going through the motions of what I felt was expected of me. I had comfort in familiarity but had lost my passion. I realized one day while writing in my journal, a truth. It was so completely apparent to me that a veil had been divinely lifted from my eyes and I had to share what was revealed to me.
- I will show you that there is light and darkness in all of us
- I will show you that you have amazing gifts at your disposal
- I will show you that your past does not define you
- I will show you that all you have to do to live your dream life, is chose it
Sound amazing right! Below I tell you how all of these things can be yours.
You get to chose who you are
When you look within yourself, you’ll find positive, true, and beautiful things. You’ll also find negative, unsure, and fearful thoughts that can often consume us. I’m going to show you that you have complete control over the results you get in your life based on which of these things you allow to grow.
This may sound complicated but I’m going to explain to you how this is possible.
For starters, we must acknowledge that we all have the power to control our outcomes in life based on our thought process. God gives this gift to us as free will.
Most people associate the idea of free will with external choices in life like the choice to have waffles or eggs, or to accept a job in a new city or keep the one we have. While all that is one hundred percent true, I want you to focus that same ability to chose, on what you experience on the internal side.
Free will means that God allows you to make the decisions that shape your life. The biggest example in the Bible is that God does not force you to love Him, He lets you chose to come to Him. The same is true in our relationship with ourselves. We get to chose what thoughts we allow in and this part is SO IMPORTANT because those thoughts directly influence our lives.
This may seem foreign at first because we incorrectly believe that thoughts just float in and out of our minds which is only partially true. As you practice changing your thoughts, it WILL get easier. Below, I’ll show you how this is all connected.
There is a very simple formula for understanding the way the human mind works. It’s a true chemical reaction in our brains. Our thoughts create our emotions, our emotions drive our choices, and from choices we get our current life situation.
For this example, I’ll use someone being rude to you at the store. The employee is short, irritated, and unfriendly while you’re checking out. You immediately think that this is a nasty person (thought) and you’re angry at the way you were treated (emotion). Later that day you are still complaining about the terrible service you received at the store maybe even telling others not to shop there or imagine writing a bad review about them in your head (choices). You end up having a bad day (current life situation).
Your thoughts about that interaction (nasty person) made you feel angry and the anger made you think on it all day and the result was, you had a bad day.
Have you ever had a negative experience like this in your life? I know I sure have! And I have reacted exactly like this. I let myself stew on the mistreatment of me and the ‘wrongness’ of them. The results weren’t awesome.
So to recap;
- thoughts create feelings (emotions)
- feelings create actions (choices)
- actions create results (current life situation)
So if we change the way we think from the beginning, then the whole process changes.
Same scenario but this time, instead of thinking that the person is a nasty human being, we change that thought and instead tell ourselves, “they must be having a bad day.” We allow ourselves to be in their shoes; perhaps that person just found out they’re being evicted, their mother is dying of cancer, or their son has special needs and it was a particularly difficult morning at home before they came to work. Maybe all they needed was a smile from you to change it.
Do you feel differently now? Because you chose to think differently about the situation, your feelings of anger now turn to compassion. You can then reroute the rest of your day by deciding to smile at those you encounter, perhaps turning it into the best day because of all the surprise return smiles you received!
You changed your thought and you got a different result. This is such a simple way to completely and radically change your life into something you dream about. Your thoughts have a direct relationship with your current life situation.
So, what if you say, their behavior has no excuse? Well, then why would you allow them that kind of control over your day? Why allow a person that doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things affect you at all? That very way thinking is what you need to change and it WILL completely change your life if you learn to control it.
You have to continually reroute your thoughts in order to see these results but they are cumulative if you’re consistent and you will get better and stronger at it with time. It’s pretty amazing and such an easy concept to adopt into your everyday with practice.
It is exactly the free will choice that God gives us. To feed the beauty of life or aggravate the darkness. And the power to do so lies in you! All you have to do is be intentional with what thoughts you let in.
Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
Philippians 4:8
Experiences of your past can be difficult
Now, I’m not naive. I know that we didn’t all come from the same background or the same upbringing. What I want you to understand is that if you want to create a future where your thoughts can be harnessed to think of the good, you must let go of your past.
I don’t mean to forget what you’ve been through. That is impossible. But, you can chose to hold those experiences close to you and let your past dictate your future OR you can envision your future and let it influence your present.
I know there are many people who have had traumatic experiences in their lives. Some of you have known abuse in varying forms and degrees. Some of you hold learned prejudices against others based on what was taught to you. The list experiences in our past can be overwhelming. Those things from our past can create a basic human instinct or drive to protect ourselves.
This can manifest as trust issues. You may push away from relationships because of a past where you were hurt by someone close to you. They can manifest trauma responses like overworking or under performing in our jobs. Both of these can come at the expense of meaningful connections to others.
We tend to yoke ourselves to this past and create an identity from it. I am because I was, becomes the meat we serve at our table. That thought process is a lie, meant to hold you down from reaching your full potential. Yes, those things are a part of us, but they are not all of us.
The beauty of the past is this is NOT where your story ends! We can’t undo the past but the past does not define who you are! God gives us another tremendous gift; Jesus. He takes us, full of shame, guilt, envy, self pity, completely imperfect and through Him, we are given new life.
When you accept Jesus into your life, you are burying the old you and rising up brand new and unblemished.
Your identity is not your past because through your renewing relationship with God, your past is washed away. You get to decide who and what you become. The choice is yours. God made you in His image. You are mighty!
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Psalms 139:14
Your thoughts create your future self
It’s important to let your mind wander to the possibilities of what your life can be and what things you want for your future. Allow that future self to instruct and direct you on the path that brings you closest to your highest spiritual level.
You see, God wants the best for you. He allows us the opportunity to elicit change in our lives. He doesn’t create us and then make us do all the things in exactly the right way. How boring would that be? No, He allows us to stumble so we can learn to do better. He allows us to hurt, so we understand love.
He has allowed whatever past you have, so that you are the person you are today, reading this message. He knew, before you were even born, that you’d end up right here. He knew that you’d have a pull in your heart to search for something greater than yourself.
He WANTS to fulfill your desires. He wants to pour blessings out upon you. He’s waiting for you to rise up to accept the power inside you to make those dreams of yours come true.
Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalm 37:4
I 100% believe our passion is tied to our purpose. It is the individual gifts God gives to us that pull at our hearts to be unleashed. An they are all unique. Only you can know what those gifts are. I believe God wishes to reward us in our pursuit of those gifts and His will.
Imagine, for a moment that you are exactly where you’ve always dreamed to be. Maybe you’re married with a beautiful home. You can have that. Maybe you’re on a beach somewhere watching the waves roll in. You can have that too. Look at your life in the scenario you imagine. What do you do for a living? What do you eat? What do you drive?
Now take all that you imagine in that future place you see yourself in and that future you, and talk to yourself. What would you say to you? What advice would you give yourself to reach those goals?
Each and every thought you have from here on out, you need to run through the lens of that future you. What you think, you become. That is why God reminds us,
2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Romans 12:2
It’s a God thing
So you have a past, but it doesn’t define you. You have a choice to harness your thoughts and create a future you dream about. But where does this power to let go of your past, control your thoughts, and materialize a future of your dreams come from?
Well, in the simplest terms, it’s the energy inside you. That is a scientific truth, that energy can neither be created or destroyed and is all around us. It’s a theological truth that God is omnipotent, which means everywhere.
God is an unending energy that surrounds us completely. He is beyond the magnitude of the known universe, He created an infinite universe as He is infinite. It’s a lot for our finite minds to grasp. We often push away what we don’t understand.
Scientists look at the universe through a telescope and they theorize how it came to be from nothing. I believe that what we see is just more evidence of God.
3When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; 4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. 6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
Psalm 8:3-6
So if God is everywhere and in everything, then He is, by reason, the energy we feel. He is the good vibrations people seek. He is the positive outlook. He is the beauty of creation.
Some people believe that life on this world is just a cosmic accident. Unfortunately that line of thinking means is that there is no reason to live. There is no purpose, no plan, and no real or lasting thing to believe in. It means love isn’t real. Everything within me rages against that thought. It has no truth to me because I know better.
Instead, I have chosen to accept Jesus into my heart and thusly, God lives inside me.
Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1 Corinthians 3:16
And THIS powerful and beautiful truth is why you will succeed. Because when you accept God, His Son Jesus Christ, who died for you while you were at your worst, you get the gift of the Holy Spirit. That gift lives in you. So therefore, the power of God IS IN YOU!
Applying the power to your life
When you look to your future self and you find what’s missing in your life currently you start to figure out how to bridge the gap you see by making goals and praying about it. You accept the universe to turn it’s love on you, and yes, the universe is God and He’s powerful! You can make these life changes if you chose to harness that power.
The negative thoughts that run through our minds, affecting our feelings, giving us less than desirable results – those are Satan’s lie’s – and we are able to take our power back from him! God gives us the strength to do so and He gives us the tools to do it. We shouldn’t see a problem, pray about it but then continue to let the problem run rampant. No, we pray for His power so we are equip to make the right choices to fix our problems.
I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:13
He is always giving you an opportunity to chose. You pray for patience He gives you opportunities to be patient. You pray for love, He gives you opportunities to love. When you want something and you change the way you think about it to include seeing the world through God’s eyes, you create something beautiful.
Life will continue to just “happen” to you, until you decide you’re going to wake up and LIVE it. Be an active participant in the story of your life. Make those positive thought choices and witness the results of a better self. Your choice to accept Jesus into your heart WILL result in the positive and beautiful change you seek.
We don’t have to look outside of ourselves for answers, we just need to look in. We find the good and we let Him lead in our lives. Are you searching for truth? Are you searching for justice? Beauty, love, happiness? You can find all of those things in your universe within, it’s where He lives, and He desires to bless you.
19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19
You reap what you sow
I too was lost, but now I’m found. I have struggled with my own demon’s over the years. I coveted my neighbors. I gained and lost tremendously. I found hope in humility. My faith was tested and strengthened.
Then I discovered that my thoughts had created my feelings about certain things, which in turn drove my actions and decisions I’d made. The situation I found myself in was a direct result of those thoughts.
The cascade is real and powerful. Using this method above, I have focused in on my passion. Allowing prayer to guide me along the way, I am working from my future self, creating goals and I’ve seen the most incredible results in my life.
I can say now that I’m living my dream life. I am married to a handsome, talented man who loves me like crazy. I have two little boys who have the sweetest hearts and who I enjoy being with. We live in the country in a beautiful area of Georgia where I am in the process of building a program that can help reach others like you who need to hear that God is real and He wants you to know Him. He wants to bless you. Aren’t you ready to live your dreams?
