The Importance of Relationships

 

 

 

The Importance of Relationships

by Olga Hermans

The other day I heard somebody say, “The more I get to know some people, the better I like my dog.” It shook me for a minute, but then I thought…in some cases that might be true. Last weekend I was in a large crowd of people and really met the most interesting people from all walks of life. I love that!

But I must say, some people are sometimes just a little obnoxious if you know what I mean. God must have a sense of humor because He puts us all together in one place and wants us to realize that we need each other. He wants us to know the power of relationships; He works through people like you and me to get us where we need to be. So, let’s have a look at the importance of relationships the way God meant it to be.

In the first chapters of Genesis, you can read that God created and then you always can read: “and God saw that it was good”. But then when He created man, He said something different. He looks at man and says, “It is not good…” Genesis 2:18

He didn’t say that man wasn’t good, but that the situation he was in wasn’t good. That is a profound statement that God made, because He says here that He created man to need more than just a relationship with God. He created us to need each other. It wasn’t that God was lacking or not able to be all we needed, but that He designed us to need each other.

God did not create Eve immediately after He said: “…I will make him a helper” Genesis 2:18 But God didn’t forget what He was doing, He knew what Adam needed, but Adam didn’t. So, God brought the animals in front of Adam to make him aware of his need. As Adam began to name them, he began to realize that all the animals had others like them but he had no one to like himself.

God was able to alert to his need as well as to establish the fact in Adam’s mind that nothing on this planet could meet that need except another person. If Eve would have shown up before Adam knew he needed her, he might have marked off the garden as his and not let Eve in.

“So, God caused a deep sleep to fall upon man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh at that place.” Notice that God did not go back to the dust of the earth to create Eve. He took what He needed out of Adam’s side without replacing what He took, and then He finished Eve.

When Adam awoke, a part of him was missing. Part of his spiritual, emotional, and physiological makeup was gone and he sensed it. He was now even more incomplete and alone! When God finally brought Eve to him, Adam called her wo-man!

Sometimes, people think that needing others, or having to depend upon others, is a sign of weakness. Our society teaches us that independence equals strength, when just the opposite is true. It takes great strength to get along with others. You need to have a lot of inward flexibility and plain common sense to stay in relationships; trust God to help you and negotiate the differences. All it takes is a well developed attitude of selfishness to run out and do your own thing. There is a lot of that going on these days.

God created us with a need for others. The need for meaningful relationships was not a result of man’s fall into sin. Our desire for relationships was the plan and will of God. We were designed to need each other before the fall! In fact, we fulfill God’s created order when we recognize that need.

I am not saying that we should smother our relationships; people have been abused or abandoned by others and often carry the pain of old relationships into new ones. They often try to get people in new relationships to make-up for all the evil that has been done to them previously. The true meaning for relationships is not a devouring, damaging, suffocating thing. It is a mutual supportive expression.

People who have been hurt need to learn how to forgive those who have offended them in the past so that they not poison their future relationships with the pain of past ones.

God created us as wonderful beings, as the crown of His creation. He created us with a will and with an intellect. He created us with the power to choose because He didn’t want to force us to serve Him. God wanted us to have the free choice whether or not to walk with Him. But how is God going to let us know how He feels about us? Do you remember how God reached out to Adam and how He communicated His love for Adam? How was God to tell Adam His plans, dreams and purposes for him?

How was God able to tell Adam how much He loved him? How could Adam understand love? That’s why God gave man the ability to love and to need others. Though relationships are NOT God’s primary way of revealing Himself; we need to take it serious. When our relationships are perverted, they will hinder us in our life in everything that we do and desire to accomplish.

How well are your relationships doing? Tell us in the comment section what stood out to you in this post.

You can get my eBook: The Power of Relationships by clicking here

 

 

Seven Easy Types of Prayer

 

 

 

Seven Easy Types of Prayer

by Olga Hermans

There are seven types of prayer in the Bible, which we should be exercising on a regular basis. They are simple and can be prayed anywhere at any time; especially when they come from a believing heart. You see, most people use the same kind of prayer for all their issues in life.

I”d like to tell you that that is a huge mistake. Many prayers are not working because people are using the wrong rules and laws. How many sports do you know? Let’s say you know seven different sports; what you also know is that these seven sports have different rules to follow. It would be very confusing to play a soccer game with baseball rules, isn’t it?

The reason people are confused and have problems with their prayers being answered is that they have their rules all mixed up. One mistake that most people make is that they think they should finish every prayer with the words, “If it is Your will.” They claim that is how Jesus prayed.

Let’s have a look at all the different prayers and make is a little easier!

1. The Prayer of Agreement
Agreement is the most important thing you need when you pray, because our prayer multiplies when we are in agreement with those around us. 1Peter 3:7. We actually always need to be in agreement all the time, not just when we face a crisis. God honors the prayers of those who pay the price to live in unity. Pray the prayer of agreement especially when you feel the need for a little extra prayer power.

2. The Prayer of Petition
This is a prayer that we all use randomly, but there is something you need to know about it. When we petition God, we ask for something for ourselves. When we pray for others, we are interceding. I think we all know that most of us are too interested in ourselves and that’s why we pray this type of prayer. There is nothing wrong with us praying for ourselves, but our prayer life should be well-balanced.

3. The prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving
It is a wonderful thing to praise God for what we believe He is going to do after we have communicated with Him about our needs and the needs of others. We should praise the Lord continually and with that, I mean all day. We should thank Him in good times and especially in hard times. This is good for our character, because when we praise Him during the tough times, we take our eyes away from our problems and stay focused on Him, who is the answer!

4. The Prayer of Intercession
To intercede means to stand in the gap for another person. Ez.22:30. If people have a need, we can intercede for them and expect to see them comforted and encouraged while they are going though certain situations. We then can expect a suitable breakthrough for them concerning their need being met. We need each other! It is a wonderful thing to pray for others and see God come through in their life without them even knowing that you prayed for them.

5. The Prayer of Commitment
When we are tempted to worry or to take control of some situation in life, we should pray the prayer of commitment. God is ready to get involved in our situations when we commit them to Him. You can commit your children to the Lord, or your marriage, your personal relationships and especially those things that you like to worry about. 1Peter 5:7. Only God really knows what needs to be done, and He is the only one Who is qualified to do it.

6. The Prayer of Consecration
This is the type of prayer where we give ourselves to God. In this type of prayer, we dedicate our lives and all that we are to Him. I remember the time we went from Tulsa OK back to The Netherlands; we had no idea whatsoever what was going to happen, so we consecrated ourselves to God because that was the only thing we could do. We more or less told the Lord: here we are, do as you please. Consecration is a powerful thing, but it must be sincere.

7. Believe God hears you
When we pray, we need to come to God as a believer and not as a beggar. Hebr.4:16 tells us that we can come boldly into His throne room; not as a homeless person, but as a son or a daughter and be bold about it. Believe that He hears you and have confidence in that very fact. He loves us and desires for us to receive the Blessing that He had promised Abraham to give to us.

When you pray, believe that He is working on the situation you prayed about. Don’t keep praying the same prayer over and over again, but instead thank Him for what He is about to do and for Who He is. Do things that build your confidence and your relationship with Him.

Let me help you to grow your spiritual life with my own book on prayer. Maybe you think you know enough after these two articles, but my book goes into a depth on prayer that I can assure you that you will not regret.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 

 

Five Keys on How To Pray

 

 

Five Keys on How To Pray

by Olga Hermans

 

 

This coming weekend we have a powerful summit in our church and one of the things that we do is: PRAY! We pray ourselves at home and we pray corporately in the church; we always have a very powerful time. Our pastors are very passionate about us as a congregation being in unity as we pray and I totally agree with them.

If there is one thing that we need to do if we want to succeed in our own life or in some kind of endeavor by ourselves or as a group is: pray! You probably have heard it said that every failure is in essence a prayer failure or not?

If we don’t pray; nothing significant will happen and things will stay the same. So, if you are serious about your own life and are passionate about what you want to achieve in your own life; you need to pray. I like to focus on one aspect of prayer that I think might help you today and that is how you can be confident when you pray.

It doesn’t do us any good to pray if we don’t have confidence when we pray; when there is no faith in our heart. I think many people are dissatisfied with their prayer life and one of the reasons is that they lack confidence in themselves and in their prayers. Many of us have questions about their prayerlife and feel frustrated about it and feel that they are missing something.

We need to realize that the Holy Spirit will always help us in prayer Rom.8:26 and that Jesus intercedes along with you. Hebr.7:25.

Here are Five Keys on How To Pray

1. Simply, believe when you pray. Matth.6:7
We all need to develop confidence; we need to be confident that God hears us even when we pray a simple prayer like: “God help me.” He hears us and He will answer. We always can depend on God to be faithful to do what we have asked Him to do, as long as what we are asking is in accordance with His will. He is our Helper. Hebr.13:6.
Simple believing prayer comes straight from the heart of the one praying and goes straight to the heart of God and that is what we want isn’t it?

2. We are a house of prayer. Isaiah 56:7
In the Old Testament, the temple of God was the house of God; the place where people went to pray. But we live under the New Testament and are in the New Covenant with God where we are God’s house. We are the building that is still under construction, His tabernacle, His dwelling place, which makes us a house of prayer. 1Cor.3:9 and 1Cor.3:16

3. There is a time for secret prayer. Matthew 6:5-6
Although some prayers are public prayers or group prayers, most of our prayerlife is done in secret and should be that way. We don’t have to let everybody know how much we pray and everything that we pray about. We can our friends know that we are praying about a certain country or so of course, but we never should make a display of our prayers to impress people.

4. Be humble when you pray. Luke 18:10-14
Prayer needs to come from a humble heart. Jesus taught us that by telling us about the Pharisees; He didn’t like that at all is it? They made a show about their prayer life and there was nothing secret about it at all. God hasn’t given us a bunch of complicated, hard-to-follow guidelines. Prayer can be simple, unless complicated people make it complicated.

5. Prayer needs to be fervent. James 5:16
If you desire for your prayers to be effective and they should be; they need to be fervent. When most of us hear the word fervent; we think we need to work our prayers up and need to show some strong emotion before we pray; otherwise our prayers will not be effective. I myself have been there, until somebody taught me otherwise. The Msg. Bible says it like this: …The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.

This shows that our prayers must come from a sincere heart and not just our head. Sometimes we try to sound so devout and well-designed that we get lost. We don’t even know what we are trying to pray about. If we could ever get delivered from trying to impress God or people, we would be so much better off.

One thing is for sure that sometimes we have to change things in our lives to make room for prayer; we simply have to come to that understanding. We have to eliminate things that are less important and know that when we want to discover the life we were born to live and want to get passionate about it, we need to pray

I like to end today with a quote from Martin Luther: “I have so much business I cannot get it done without spending three hours a day in prayer.” I am not telling you to pray three hours a day, because I don’t do that either. The point is that we depend on our time with God how successful we are in our life. Prayer is not something that is optional; if we want to accomplish something in life, we must pray.

Let me help you with my book on prayer; you will not regret it. It is very simply written and if you have questions about what I wrote about, I am always here for you. Dig into these 100 pages filled with wisdom to create a powerful prayerlife!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 

 

You Can Do It

 

 

You Can Do It

by Olga Hermans

Hi everybody! I am in a group on Facebook which is called “You Can Do It”; it is a Social Media group with Kim Garst. She called it this way, because many of us still think that there are so many things that we can’t do. BUT!!! The truth is that we can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens us, which means that we are anointed to do ALL things that come our way.

I love the way the Message Bible brings it across to us “Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am”. Php 4:13. You need to know that you can do whatever you need to do in life through Christ, which is the anointing on your life. In other words, when you like to discover the life you were born to live, you can handle whatever life hands to you.

People have taken this verse so much out of context that they don’t think about the real meaning any more. It does not mean that I can do anything I want to do, or that I can do anything someone else does. It means that I am able to do whatever God assigns to you and me, because I am gifted that way.

I wonder, do you believe you can do whatever you need to do in life? Or are there certain things that trigger dread, fear, or cause you to say, I could never do that!” when you think about them? Are you facing a serious unexpected illness or maybe a sudden death of a loved one, or maybe you need to go on a strict diet because your life depends on it like my friend Carl? Or maybe you are getting a second job because of a foreclosure or moving to a different country because of your husband’s job. What about if your husband would leave the country because of the army?

Most people have some kind of circumstance that they think is totally impossible for them; something that they aren’t sure of they can handle. But the fact of the matter is, while you might not welcome certain situations in your life or they seem too difficult and too out of reach for you; you need to know that you can do it!! You can do whatever you need to do in life.

God guarantees us the strength for everything we need to do because He Himself empowers us to do it. Let me give you a little secret here; we cannot do anything we want to do because we are strong enough, smart enough, or hard working enough. That’s not it. In fact, it leaves no room at all for our human effort or striving of any kind. The secret to being able to do what we need to do is realizing that we cannot do it alone.

For some reason, we often fail to use our faith to believe and act on that truth. Instead, we think we have to do it all and, forgetting that the power of Christ (the anointing) works through us, we are defeated before we even begin.

So many people say things like, “This is too hard. I just can’t do this. It’s too much for me.” Nothing is too difficult for you if God is leading you to do it. Stir up that passion that is on the inside of you, come out of your comfort zone and make steps to do it. You’ll see that everything will get easier and easier with every step that you take.

For example, I know that God wants me to take care of my body. I need to eat well and I need to do some exercise as well. I am a T-Tapper, but there are days that I don’t want to T-Tapp, I don’t feel like it and I know that my body doesn’t want to do it. So, I need to stir myself up and become as passionate as possible to do those exercises. Everybody who knows Teresa Tapp knows that she ALWAYS says: “YES, YOU CAN!”  whatever it is for you, keep telling yourself “You can do it though Christ who infuses you with strength”. Ampl.

Our attitude towards unpleasant things is a vital part for going through them successfully. God always uses things for our spiritual growth. Another example, He may use a grumpy person to help us become more patient. God did not cause the person to be grumpy, but neither does He remove them from our life when we would ask Him to do that. Instead, He uses them to change us.

Remember, God is always after our heart, our motives for why we want certain things, and the reason why we do certain things. Actually, most of our trials in life are the result of someone else’s failure and ignorance or sin and, of course we pray for God to change them. Our prayers open the door for God to work in that particular situation, but God will never go against the free will of people to answer a prayer.

I like to encourage you today to fill up your heart with faith-filled reasons that you can do what you need to do. Stop looking at all your weaknesses because you can do it in the anointing that has been given to you.

Always remember that apart from Jesus you can do nothing. John 15:5, but in Him you can do it. Phil.4:13

Which “I cannot do that” belief in your life do you need to exchange for an “I can”? That is what The Choice Driven Life is all about!!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 

How To Be A Good Steward

 

 

How To Be A Good Steward

by Olga Hermans

 

 

There is something about it to make the most of every moment that is given to us and every opportunity that is brought before us. If we really seek to discover the life we were born to live and ignite it with passion, then we need to do that or else so much time is wasted.

We need to be able to make good choices if we want to be a good steward of our own heart which will lead us in the right direction. Wise choices will watch over you. Pro 2:11; did you know that? If we desire to receive the fullness of the blessings of God so that we can be a greater blessing to others, we must make a commitment to invest the time and energy it takes to develop ourselves.

Maybe you say: “I want to do that, but how do I do that?” I am not talking about developing your talents and your gifts, although that is a good thing to do. But when you really desire to develop yourself, you need to put forth the effort to increase yourself on the inside so you can be on the outside all that God has called you to be.

Maybe this is a completely new concept for you and maybe not, but I like to encourage you to give it some thought. Expanding your inner capacity is very, very important. Let me give you an illustration.

Imagine you had a nice big (40 ounce) pitcher of water and you wanted to pour it all into an eight-ounce glass. That wouldn’t work, would it? You can go ahead and try it anyway, but we all know what would happen, right? Most of the water would spill out and go to waste.

To pour the full amount of the pitcher, you need to get a bigger glass. You need to increase the size of the receiving object. The same is true in the realm of the spirit. For God to transfer to us and through us all the wisdom, power and blessing that belongs to us through Jesus, He needs us to be bigger receivers. He needs us to expand our heart.

To do that, we must make a serious commitment to our own spiritual growth and development. We must become, above all, good stewards of our hearts.

We can learn a lot from Joshua in the Old Testament; he once stood with the wilderness behind him and the Promised Land in front of him and heard the Lord say, “Arise…go over…you and all this people, into the land which I am giving to them.” Joshua 1:2

Just like Joshua, we are standing on the edge of the Promised Land. All God’s promises are “yes and amen”; they are our inheritance because of what Jesus has done for us. It would be a good choice for us to do the same what Joshua did, because he took the instructions that God had given him quite seriously.

One thing that I admire so much on Joshua and that worked for him was that when he was under pressure; he didn’t spend less time with the Lord, but more. This is something we all need to learn. If we want to win our battles, we must come to the realization that we can only win them with the Word.

Joshua knew that he depended completely on God, that he couldn’t go to battle in his own strength. He knew that he needed the power of God in his life. He knew, he had to learn how to think like God, talk like God and act like God. He knew that the only place to find the wisdom that he so desperately needed was in the Word of God.

So, if we want to inherit our Promised Land, we need to press into the King of the Kingdom and those other things will be given to us. We need to spend time in His presence and get serious, very serious about the Word of God.

As wise stewards of our hearts, we must watch out not to slip into a state of complacency where God’s Word is concerned. We must be very aware of the fact that mediating on the Word day and night is what prepares us to prosper and increase.

God’s Word is to our spirits what food is to our bodies. It strengthens and nourishes us and it causes us to grow. If we feed our physical body junk food by eating cakes and starbucks coffee or McDonalds instead of vegetables, fruits and other nutritious foods, we will get weaker and weaker. Our bodies will start to fail us. That is an undeniable fact and we all know it.

But here is another undeniable fact that we sometimes overlook. If we feed our spirits on facebook or Twitter updates, magazines, news broadcast, and other superficial stuff more than we read the Word of God, the same thing will happen. Our inner man will start to waste away. Even if we have been spiritually strong in the past, we will become spiritual weaklings, unable to lay hold of the inheritance that God has promised us.

Have you ever wondered how Christians can attend church for 35 years and yet never changed? It is because of non-productive patterns in their lives. They only ate junk food and their bible reading was very irregular, rare and disconnected from God.

You don’t want to stay stagnant do you? You don’t want to be dissatisfied and miss out on the good things that God wants to give to you. Don’t make that mistake; you need to get enlarged on the inside. You need to get strong in the Lord and in the power of His might to overcome every obstacle that comes your way.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!


How To Make Time For Yourself

 

How To Make Time For Yourself

by Olga Hermans

Nowadays you can meet people almost every day that will tell you how busy they are and have no time for other things and under how much stress they are. I remember there was a time that we could ask people, “How are you doing?”. The answer was almost always, “Fine.” Now, almost everybody answers that same question with: “Busy,” “Tired,” or “Stressed.” Have you experienced that? I have found myself telling people that I am busy and felt kind of cool with that answer and then I thought: I am not busy; I just think I am busy. I really need to make more time for myself and for other interesting things.

I told you that I made a choice to take time to exercise which I am starting to enjoy more and more. But I really know people who genuinely believe that being busy is a sign of success. They like to push themselves to the point of exhaustion and try to cram more and more activities into an already tight schedule.

It almost feels like a disease that is spreading all over the place, but then there are also people who are waking up and like to take more time for the more important things in life. We need to become aware that we don’t need to spend every hour of the day doing “something” that we perceive as productive. It really can become unhealthy.

When we want to discover the life we were born to live, we need to try to enjoy the minutes that we live. My father was like that; he was so busy with building his business that he thought he didn’t have any time to spend with us, his family. When he got close to 60, he started to make some different choices and started to plan his life a little different, but then it was too late. He died from a heavy heart attack and collapsed right on the spot. That was such a sad moment for all of us; we never knew him as our dad, we only knew him as the busy man behind his desk.

There is something that is called “margin” by Dr. Richard Swenson. This is a concept that is necessary in whatever you do; if you are a mom, you need it. If you are a businessperson, you need it. Everybody needs it. He gave this example to explain it:  if a person is flying from New York to Los Angeles with a change of planes in Dallas, would that person leave himself only five minutes to make the connection between two flights? I hope not!

No travel agent would ever allow such a connection. If the person did attempt a five-minute change, there would be a high probability that the person would miss the second leg of the flight. He would likely be very impatient, anxious, and frustrated for the first half of the trip, wondering if he was going to miss the second flight and eager to be the first off the plane in Dallas. The point is, such a traveler has not left sufficient “margin” for an enjoyable journey.

You got the picture right? Every time when I am in the car and my son is the driver, I think he is tailgating. I think there should be that margin of safety when we drive. He is not really that bad, but I rather am safer than he. If a person is tailgating a driver at sixty miles an hour in rush hour traffic, there is little margin for error! I really believe that it is a wise choice having sufficient “margin” in every area of life.

Nowhere in the Bible does it mention that Jesus was in a hurry; he always took the time to minister to everybody! He actually spoke against a “hurried” mindset. You remember while Jesus was visiting in the home of Martha and Mary, Martha was busy preparing and serving food to Jesus and those who were traveling with him. He was teaching. Martha became so frustrated that she was having to do all the kitchen work by herself that she said to Jesus, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to come and help me.”

Jesus replied, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:38-41. Many people think that way, “If I don’t do it, it just won’t get done.”
When we become too busy we lose our joy. People irritate us. We become frustrated, anxious and critical. We complain too much. We need to become a better manager of our time and sometimes make tough choices, but we need to practice keeping a healthy “margin” in our lives.

Here are 7 ways to reduce stress by organizing your time:

  1. Buy a calendar and put the non-negotiable dates on there like birthdays, anniversaries, and the major events that you need to attend.
  2. Organize your desk at work and at home; the place where you pay all your bills and so forth; you don’t need to be looking for things that need to be done a few times a week.
  3. Organize your kitchen. You don’t need to be searching for items when you need to prepare a meal.
  4. Don’t pick up the nuisance phone calls; you know the ones that just want to sell something to you; unplug the phone during certain hours.
  5. Make a to-do list each evening before you go to bed. This way you don’t need to continue to mull things over in your mind all night.
  6. There are so many things that you can do, but the most important thing that you need to do is spend time in the presence of the Lord; throw all your cares over to Him and just relax and enjoy your time with Him. Listen to Him and when He tells you to do something; do it!
  7. There are things that can help you relax when you go through some stressful times, which we all do. Stress-away is one of the best things to use; you can reduce stress at any time, and anywhere with the convenience and portability of an essential oil roll-on. You just need to shake it well and apply it generously to wrists, neck, arms, or anywhere you love experiencing essential oils.

The question that you might need to ask yourself is this: “Have I allowed enough margin so I have enough time for what I am doing?”

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 

 

What Do You Think About Exercise

 

 

What Do You Think About Exercise?

by Olga Hermans

What do you think about when you hear the word “exercise”? Is it something that you like or is it something that you groan about? I’ll be honest with you: I groan! So let’s not pretend that exercise is always fun or convenient. That certainly hasn’t been my experience. I never enjoyed exercising but lately I felt I needed to do something and I’d like to introduce you to it.

Some people walk on a treadmill; that is not for me and I don’t like going to the gym either. I found myself saying all the time that I didn’t have time, but the truth is that I can make time if I really want to.

I admit, we don’t hear much in the Bible exercise or about the workout of Noah or what Moses did to stay in shape. Does that mean that people back then didn’t get much exercise? Quite the opposite! Everything they did in life involved exercise. Before vehicles, electricity, and machines, everything in the world ran by human power or animal power. If you wanted to get somewhere, you walked.

If you needed to bring something with you, you carried it. You did laundry by hand, chopped your own firewood, and milled your own grain. This physically active lifestyle may have been one of the reasons for the incredible longevity of these people in those ancient days.

We all know that Jesus walked a lot. He walked from Galilee to Jerusalem, a distance of about 120 miles! Over the course of His ministry, He must have walked thousands of miles. In the days that Jesus lived they didn’t think much of walking ten miles or more. And because they did that all their lives, they had the well-developed bodies to accomplish such long walks with ease.

But weight loss is just the tip of the iceberg. Yes, regular exercise will help you lose weight and look your best, but there are so many health benefits from regular exercise that go beyond the value of looks. Getting in shape for show is like buying a new refrigerator because you like the color. That’s a good reason, but you may come to love the great new features, super-efficiency, and extra-long-warranty even more.

And you get all that through exercise. Other than not smoking, nothing can improve your health more. It truly is a magic bullet. Just a few conditions you can help prevent though exercise are heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, asthma, depression, and gastrointestinal ills. You get fewer colds, feel less stress, and you’ll look great.

Ok, it’s time that I reveal to you which exercise I chose last January. The year before I was in a conference where I met Charlotte Siems, who is a T-Tapper and lost 112 pounds; she went from size 22 to size 6. I met her personally and she triggered in me to go and explore T-Tapping.

So, what is T-Tapping exactly?

“T-Tapp is the ideal anti-aging workout.”says Dr.Nicholas Perricone, MD. 

T-Tapp is a low impact workout that uses comprehensive, compound muscle movements to rebuild the body from the inside out, rather than weights and a lot of equipment. Did I hear you say; “I like that”?

This exercise is developed by Teresa Tapp and is named after her. The exercises use whole body isometric movement to build core strength, flexibility, balance and long, lean muscle tone. T-Tapp supports the lymph system, hormonal balance, and builds neurokinetic flow, important for optimum body function in all areas of life!

The isometric movements of T-Tapp build muscle density, not muscle bulk, and work to build the muscles along the spinal column. This is very important as we age and tend to become less active. Tests have also shown that certain T-Tapp movements can lower blood glucose levels dramatically.

I give my word on this workout! What I really do love about this is that less is more, which means that you get the best results when you are being moderate rather than obsessive with your exercise, building alignment and strength without lots of inflammation and without burning out.

Plus the great thing also is that there are no props or equipment needed except for a good pair of training shoes and a dvd player on your computer; that’s all.

Click Here if you are interested to know more about T-Tapp

You can watch the video for a great introduction on T-Tapp!

 

Life is Not Fair

Life is Not Fair

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever felt like that? I sure have. Now I know better, but I remember the times that I felt that way and almost couldn’t see any answers coming towards me. This thought can drop you into a pit in no time. We think that when we really are created equal then why am I going through all of this? You never know what people are going trough; some people are really good at covering up their issues. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have any.

How often do we question the fairness of things? I am certain that it is too often to count. God is eternally just, but there are times I’ve questioned His immediate perspective of fairness. Because He is God all knowing, omnipotent, omnipresent, I mentally know that from an eternal perspective His wisdom, justice, and sense of right and truth are above questions.

When I read my Bible, I am in awe of His perfect wisdom. I never questioned the big picture knowing that God was a good God. My question was more like why do people at an age of 60 still have their parents and I lost them when I was 20. Or why do some couples have to fight the good fight of faith for having a baby while others mistreat their children or even abort them?

These are the questions that are not mentioned in the Bible. It seems that some of us start out with more than others, as if they have a head start before I had even begun. I always felt that God could have been fairer. I remember the times that I tried to judge between fair and unfair, just to find out that I needed to change my perspective over to God’s.

There is a parable in the Bible where Jesus describes His kingdom perspective: Matt.25:14-30. The distribution of the talents was not equal; I am pretty sure that most of us have thought that this wasn’t fair. But Jesus had called his servants together to give them different amounts of money to handle, according to their abilities.

We have to find out that we do not have the same talents and abilities. We cannot all do the same things, but we can all be what God has called us individually to be. I cannot be what you are, and you cannot be what I am, but we can each be all that God wants us to be. We all need to discover the life we were born to live and do that with passion. I believe that passion will drive us to that place where we discover our talents and our gifts.

You can read this parable for yourself and see what happened; the first man went immediately and put to work the talents that were entrusted to him. The man entrusted with two talents put his to work also, and gained two more. But the man given only one talent “went off, dug a hole….and hid his master’s money”. Matth.25:14-18.

Right now we can see a problem in their attitude, because this servant didn’t even try to increase what had been entrusted to him. He was offended when he saw what the others had received. He decided in his heart not to do anything with what was given to him. The only thing he wanted to do was to keep it the same, but he didn’t plan on bringing more value to his talent.

It took some time before the master came back. Often only the course of time will reveal the true nature or character of a person. This servant had plenty of time to change his attitude, but he didn’t. His attitude revealed a deep-seeded heart-condition.

God knows our heart and He knew the heart of this servant; God has a lot of patience. He always waits for the harvest of the heart. You can read how excited the first and second servants were. Jesus called then “good and faithful”. He even blessed them with greater authority; He knew that they trusted Him and therefore He can trust them with more. Those who trust can be trusted.

The last servant with the one talent Matth.25:24-25 comes last and he is not excited about the return of the master at all. He didn’t realize that the master was weighing his heart. He had entrusted him with something good, but in the hands of a bitter, fearful and wicked servant the good talent lays dormant. It’s not how many talents you possess; it’s what you do with those talents.

This is a sad story, because that servant could be you or I; this servant was cast outside of the blessings, privileges and provisions of his master and had to live among the fearful and tormented. Matth. 25:28-30.

God is interested in our hearts; He weighs it by what He places in our hands. He measures us by what we have and not by what we lack. You and I vary in our talents and abilities. God does not compare us one to another. He deals with us as individuals and gives us at least one talent.

God entrusts us with a measure of faith. Rom.12:3. He gives it to us because we cannot please God without faith. Hebr.11:6. We always have to act in faith in whatever we do. Let’s not doubt His goodness, because when we think like this, it causes us to hold back portions of our heart and keep control over our lives.

Our faith is meant to be used. Its purpose is not to accumulate things but to receive and grow in the knowledge of God. It is given to us that we may experience Him as a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

God wants us to seek and grasp His heart. So, to discover the life you were born to live you need not to hide your talent. Don’t be afraid to step out or afraid that you might fail, afraid of criticism, afraid of people’s opinions or afraid of being misunderstood. Take the talent and use it for His glory.

Let me encourage you to use your talents to the greatest possible extent and to do your very best in every area of your life. Then you will hear the Master say, “Well done!”

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 

Get A Grip on Your Thought Life

Get A Grip on Your Thought Life

by Olga Hermans

 

Our thought life can cause us to have certain attitudes without even realizing it. They have an effect on our relationships and they even determine how productive we will be during the day; they have a huge impact on the overall quality of our lives.

What does that tell us? It tells us that we need to come to grips with our thought life. Let’s say, you desire to start your business or maybe you desire to improve your health and you start to think about it and talk about it with your best friends; the moment will come that you will begin to take steps towards it.

Or maybe life is putting you in a place that you least expected and doors swing open for you; doors that you had never expected to be opened for you. But there is that thought that comes up that whenever God asks me to do something new, it is usually something I don’t think I can do and the battle in my mind begins.

I know God always has bigger plans for us than we have for ourselves and I know that He will always back me up and will always be there for me.  It doesn’t matter how much time has passed or what kind of mistakes you have made, the vision God has given you is still in you and it is time to pursue it. If you are willing to pursue your dreams, nothing can keep them from coming to pass!

Success in every aspect of life begins with a thought; so does failure. If you think you cannot do or accomplish something, chances are you will not be able to. That is how much influence your thoughts have over you.

James Allen said: “All that man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts.” The way we think is far more powerful than we often realize and our thoughts impact every aspect of our existence, either positively or negatively.

It feels so real to us what we think, even if it is not true at all. If we think it is true, we respond and act as though it is. Our thoughts are so important that we definitely need to get a grip on them and take charge over them. You and I are the managers of our life and we need to take responsibility; it all starts in our thought life.

We need to make quality choices when we want to discover the life we were born to live, because our thoughts affect our relationships, our self-image, our finances, our health and our productivity in whatever we are doing.

Proverbs 23:7 makes it very clear to us that there is a connection between our thoughts and the rest of our lives. We become what we think. It is very crucial for us to think properly. Thoughts are powerful; they have creative ability. If our thoughts are going to affect what we become (and they will), then we need to get a grip on them and thinking the right thoughts should be a high priority in our lives.

It is so sad that many people believe things that simply are not true. I think we all know people that think they have no worth and value because people have treated them in a way that made them feel worthless and devalued.

I had a sister who fought these thoughts and died two years ago of anorexia; she always compared herself to our older sister and battled to even want to live. Anorexia is a form of slow suicide. It was very, very sad. The Bible makes it very clear that we are valuable to God.

When we have negative thoughts, we end up with negative results. But positive thoughts open the door for God to work in our lives. If we think we are unable to do certain things, we will never do that particular thing even though God’s Word says that we can do anything God asks us to do because of His ability in us. Phil.4:13. Our thoughts are that powerful.

We must all change our thinking before our lives will change. Rom.12:2 God has good plans for us, but we will not experience them if we cling to our old ways of thinking. Our minds must go through a process of renewal in order to experience God’s plan for us.

It is impossible to change our lives unless and until we change our thoughts. Your mind can be a junkyard or a treasure chest, and you alone have the ability to choose what it will be. You can make it one or the other by deciding whether you will think thoughts that are negative, cheap and dirty or thoughts that are uplifting and positive.

You need to get a grip on your thoughts if you sincerely want to be different from how you are now or if you want some aspect of your life to be different. There is no other way to ignite your life with passion and steer it in the right direction.

You alone are in charge of your mind; I believe that with God’s help you will break away from the chains of bondage; you can change your mind, and as you do, you can change your life. God does not control us. He guides us in what is right. Don’t poison your life with wrong thought patterns, but instead take action and you will experience a great improvement in every area of your life. Will you do it; will you make the choice to get a grip on your thought life? Please let me know by leaving a comment; thanks for doing so!

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!

 


God Promises To Keep His promises

 

 

 

God Promises To Keep His Promises

by Olga Hermans

Have you ever heard someone say that promises are made to be broken? Have you ever experienced that people broke a promise to you? Maybe right now you feel like your life is broken because somebody broke a promise to you. If you’ve had any of these experiences, it may be difficult for you to believe that God will keep His promises. However, God has never broken a promise and He never will!

Have you ever felt that God might keep His promises to others but He would never do it for you? Or that He might keep His promises some times but not other times for some mysterious reason? Whatever your experience has been, or whatever you may think, I want to tell you that God’s Word is the most certain thing in the world.

There are thousands of promises in the Word of God, and He declares strongly that He will fulfill each and every one of them. I like to say it this way: God promises to keep His promises. Every promise in the Bible is a gift to us wrapped in love. I can assure you that He hasn’t changed His mind about any of His gifts. James 1:17

Although God has the ability and the desire to bring every promise to come to pass in our lives, we each must individually appropriate the promises by faith. It is always faith that moves God into action on our behalf. It is a fact that when we mix faith with the promise, we receive what we ask for. Rom.10:17

You can see every promise as if you would set a goal and each promise holds the potential to come into existence; isn’t that awesome? That way you can use God’s Word as a “road map” for your life; and when you take hold of the promises in the Word, the Holy Spirit supplies the energy to travel that road without failure.

Do you know anybody that did this? Our great example for this is Abraham. He followed the book of God’s Word as a map. He had been busy following his own map when one day the Lord spoke to him and gave him a different direction. That was the moment that Abraham yielded to the Lord and planned every day of his life in accordance with the promises which the Lord had given to him.

Abraham lived in a land of idol worshipers and didn’t know the true and living God, but when God spoke to him, Abraham obeyed and changed the direction of his life. Didn’t you do that when God spoke to you, when the Holy Spirit wooed you to into the direction of God? Sure, you did; that is how you got saved.

I remember as if it were yesterday when the Lord tapped me on my shoulder to leave Amsterdam. I was living in the world, more at night than during the day. I don’t have to tell you what I was doing, because everybody knows that Amsterdam is famous for all the wrong things. But here I was, 21 years of age, my parents had died within 2 years from each other and I decided to go and live my life in Amsterdam.

My life was going down the drain quite fast. I had a friend; (my husband’s sister), who had a younger brother. I always had liked him because of his morals and values, he always stood out to me for that reason but he was 2 years younger than I. But this one particular night, I was sitting at my desk and I had the impression to leave Amsterdam and go to Canada, where he was living at the time. That is what I did, and within 2 weeks I was in Canada. Although that was a whole story in itself (a beautiful love story), I just want to point out right now that I thank God that I obeyed this inclination and decided to change my life and from then on God was able to direct my steps.

Just like Abraham who stepped into the unknown, I stepped into the unknown. Leaving Amsterdam behind me for a much better way of living, I loved the prairie at that moment. People thought I had lost my mind. How could it be that a person leaves the wild lifestyle from Amsterdam to work on a tractor on the prairies of Alberta? Only God can do that!

Let’s get back to Abraham; he was no more perfect than you and I are; he made mistakes, but he always got back on course. That is what we should do.

Do you have unfulfilled dreams? Haven’t you discovered the life you were born to live yet? Are there plans you won’t make because you can’t see how they could ever come true? Your life is all about making the right choices and decisions. Look at Abraham and Sarah; they left a comfortable environment to follow God.

What God has done for anyone else, He will do for you. God created you and He has a plan for your life and He wants you to discover it and ignite it with passion. He has a plan that will bring blessing and satisfaction. God’s way is always the best way, and God has expressed that way in His Word and His promises.

You can subscribe to The Daily Choice which is a SPIRITUAL Devotion that helps you to make the right choices in your life!