Expand Your Capacity to Be With God
God wants to be with you in increasingly deep and meaningful ways.
You can Be With Him more tangibly and significantly. It starts with you wanting to be with Him ... or at least wanting to want to be with Him.
If you look for the Lord (Psalm 105:4), you will find Him. "You will find Him when you seek Him with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29:13).
A few tools or springboards to the process of Being With God are ...
* Scripture ... 2 Timothy 3:16
* Prayer ... beyond petitioning, beyond intercession, into communion
* Stillness and Silence ... simply being with Him without demand
* Waiting Upon the Lord ... deepening and growing in faith, as we hope in Him
Do you Want to Want to Be With God?
Which one of the above disciplines is being highlighted within you right now?
What might be a good plan/step to exercise the particular discipline which God may be using to invite you deeper into His presence.
~ Coach Tonm
Who Do You Think You Are?
Often the expression, "Who do you think you are?" is thrown at us as a challenge or taunt. You may have heard it on the playground, or in the classroom. Possibly your parents spoke it to you as a way to get you to stand down - to get a handle on yourself - and to fall inline
The enemy of your souls will also taunt you with this kind of expression whenever you are growing, taking positive action or moving into his space. He taunted Adam and Eve with such thoughts ... and he used them against Jesus too.
It is hugely important for you to get a clear sense of who you are - your design and your identity. Who you are - or at least your sense of it - will become the foundation for most of the major decisions and steps of your life.
Take time to Get Clear - it will save you a great deal of time along the way.
~ Coach Tom
What's Your Prayer, What's Your Plan, What's Your Play?
- Learn to Discern - what God wants you to pray and live into.
- Prioritize Your Options - priorities help you make decisions.
- Schedule what you want to do and compartmentalize so you don't get distracted. Once have had decided what you want/need to do - make plans and do it. At that point keep your eyes on the small picture ... doing what you need to do.
~ Coach Tom
Core Challenges Require Core Responses
We often experience Core Challenges until we develop the Right Responses.
The challenges - or tests - may be repeated again and again until we are finally able to address and/or overcome them.
Now is the time to choose your Key Intentional Responses to the challenges that you have left hanging.
~ Coach Tom
It's Time for Slow Motion
Every Season has its own purpose - and appropriate actions.
James Clear, in his book, Atomic Habits refers to two kinds of purpose.
Motion: is a time that refers to learning, gathering information or contacts, organizing, preparing and planning.
Action: is a time that refers to behaviors that produce outcomes or results.
Often people get the purposes of what they are doing confused. Sometimes they think they are getting things done when they are only in motion. And sometimes people try to take on action without necessary preparation.
As you consider this season, I encourage you that this is a time for motion. Do what you can to deepen, clarify and prepare for the next season of your life that will unfold soon enough.
~ Coach Tom
Three Wisdom Centers - Source Real Growth
Wisdom is important.
It is the application of knowledge/understanding that comes from our Head, Heart and/or Gut.
Here is a short (and a little shaky) video that speaks of relating to God, self and others through awareness of your Three Centers.
Let's all continue to grow in wisdom not just in age!
~ Coach Tom
You Can "Blow It Up" Right Where You Are
I walked into a friend’s office and I was surprised to see a large handwritten calendar on his wall that he used to scratch out each day as it passed. He was using it (publicly I might add) to count down the days till he left his job. He was using the calendar as one might if they were a castaway on a desert island, waiting to be delivered from their isolation, or as a prisoner counting out the days left on her sentence.
Maybe you aren’t as blatantly crossing off your days, but you may feel like your weeks are somewhat purposeless, meaningless or boring. You may feel like you are passing your time more than living your life.
Today, I want to help you to lift your eyes … right where you are … to see your life from a totally different, life-changing vantage point. Are you ready for a life-upgrade?
Recognize that you have been placed in your exact location.
This may seem strange to you, but God has placed you in your spot, you...
Do You Want to Be Affirmed and Rewarded?
Do You Want to Be Affirmed and Rewarded?
There is a lot to be gained by understanding who you are and investing your life wisely. There’s also a great deal at stake if you misunderstand, self-protect and do nothing.
The Good News:
You can have impact, be affirmed and rewarded in this life … and even the one to come. …
You’ve been Designed:
You’ve been created on Purpose with a Purpose. “We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10).
- You are His work of art to accomplish things He puts in place for you.
David sang out to God in Psalm 139:13-16
“You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful; I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in the secret...
Your Life Story
Are you busy living your life, or are you aware of your storyline? Your life is an adventure – a novel to be read, a screenplay to be enacted. It is peppered with hopes, fears, destinies and barriers. It is an emotional and gripping tale.
This world is “fallen.” It is beautiful, and there is so much good within it. Yet, it is marred deeply by sin. The world is full of suffering, it touches every person and every corner of creation. We fall and we suffer ... it is part of every life, everyone’s story.
Psalm 107 is a great – “slow read.” We see again and again that when people were suffering, “They cried to the Lord in their trouble, and He saved them from their distress.” (Psalm 107:6, 13, 19, 28)
When we cry out to God - from that desperate place, He hears us - and we “know” it. Real prayers are desperate prayers. They are the prayers that...
Choices - Choose Well, It matters!
Life is a matter of choices. Every day, we make a series of decisions. Some are trivial, such as what sox to wear, while others determine success or failure in our lives. Scripture clearly reveals that we are who we are, and we are where we are because of the various choices we have made. We make choices - and then our choices make us! What you consistently choose will mark your life.
I once read of “the Law of Focus.” It states that “What we focus on, we make room for.” If you focus on making an “A” in a class, you will make room for the necessary study. If you focus on dating a certain person, you will make room in your schedule to get near him/her. The focus of our lives starts to determine the kind of input we receive, and that input begins to create a kind of thought-atmosphere in our minds. Our repetitive thoughts then determine our choices, and those choices determine our destiny.
Thus, our...
