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!

What About Faithfulness?

 

 

What About Faithfulness?

by Olga Hermans


Somebody said: “Being faithful in the smallest things is the way to gain, maintain, and demonstrate the strength needed to accomplish something great.” Joyce Meyer said it this way: “Faithfulness is not doing something right once but doing something right over and over and over and over.” And Mother Teresa said: “I am not called to be successful; I am called to be faithful”.

What do you say? Webster defines faithful as maintaining an allegiance to someone or something; to be constant; loyal; having or showing a strong sense of duty or responsibility; conscientious. Being faithful is a good thing; it implies having an undeviating allegiance to a person, cause or institution.

What do you think the opposite of faithfulness is? It would imply failure in devotion to someone or something, being dishonest, disloyal; unreliable and undependable. God is faithful and He keeps His Word. He is constant and unchanging.

God is always faithful to keep His covenant with us, even when we are not faithful; God remains faithful to His Word. Numb.23:19.
It is so sad that in our society many people lack faithfulness and integrity and do not keep their word. This creates distrust, disappointment and hurt in others. It also causes others not to believe in them or become involved with them on many levels because they don’t want to experience pain and hurt again.

Have you ever heard the saying? Hurting people hurt people. This should motivate us enough to become faithful. How many times, myself included, have we been faithful only when it’s convenient or comfortable and not keeping promises when it is hard and reap a harvest of pain and hurt later on.

There are times when God will prove your faithfulness. He does that by placing you in seemingly unimportant positions, all the while observing your faithfulness in the little things. God will not promote a person who is unfaithful (irresponsible) in the little things. Faithful people feel responsible for the things they do and the people they serve.

They do not quit because they are tired, offended, or because there is inconvenience. They go on to complete the task they’ve been given. People who are undependable or irresponsible will not be given leadership positions. A leader must be responsible and faithful. Proverbs 25:19. People who are not dependable or faithful can be a pain to those who work or live with them.

You know Daniel in the Bible right? He was promoted to the level of being a first prime minister under King Darius. Dan.6:1-4. He had already proven faithful through the reign of two previous kings. Darius, however, had promoted him because he valued Daniel’s wisdom and character above all the other men around him.

This caused jealousy in others who wanted his position. They began to look for ways to trap him but could not find any character flaws. Daniel 6:4. Daniel was faithful to God and to his king. I truly believe that when you are faithful to God, you will be faithful to those who are in authority over you.

You know what happened to Daniel; his enemies had to find something to betray him and although Daniel ended up in the lions’ den because of doing what was right, God protected him by shutting the lion’s mouths.

Faithfulness does not always mean circumstances will be favorable, but as you are willing to walk out your commitment to God and your assignment, God will deliver you and promote you. We must learn how to stand steadfast and immovable in what we know is the right thing to do.

Here are some helpful hints for being faithful:

1. Keep your word.
2. Do all you can do to the best of your ability in the assignment you are in.
3. Do what you are assigned to do, whether others see you or not. God sees you.
4. Go the extra mile if it is necessary in order to complete an assigned task.
5. Maintain a sense of responsibility, realizing that others may be dependent on the part you do. Remove the attitude that someone else will do it from your thinking.
6. Stay put when others jump out at the first difficulty. Learn to stay until you’ve spent time and heard direction from God before considering a move.
7. Keep a good attitude and avoid listening to negative people.
8. Submit to authority and learn to follow. Then God can promote you more quickly to a leadership position.
9. Don’t look for changes to always happen in others around you. Instead, learn to look inside yourself and allow God to change you even more into His character.

There are also rewards for faithful people and they are good!!

1. “A faithful man shall abound with blessings….” Pro 28:20
2. “….The Lord preserves the faithful….” Psa 31:23
3. “… You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little; I will put you in charge of much….” Mat 25:21
4. “… He counted me faithful and trustworthy, appointing me to [this stewardship of] the ministry. 1Tim. 1:12
5. “… Be loyally faithful unto death [even if you must die for it], and I will give you the crown of life”. Rev 2:10

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

Mercy Is The Missing Piece

 

 

 

 

Mercy Is The Missing Piece

by Olga Hermans

 

I don’t think I am wrong when I say that most of us desire to receive more from the Lord than we have in the past. Maybe you are thinking that because you have made so many mistakes and you have done so many wrong things that blessings will never come to you as it does to other people.

Let’s talk about that today, because you might have to wake up to the mercy of God in a brand-new way. Lam 3:22-23 says: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.

One way to receive more from God is by getting a deeper revelation of the mercy of God. To receive something from God, we must have faith. We all know that! We must believe that God has the ability to do what we ask for; we must believe that He is willing to do it. We have confidence in Him that He is a good God and that He is all that we read about in the Bible.

We must know that He is always the same. So there is not a day that He is moody or that He wants to bully us or not act according to His word, right? He is what He says He is and He is a God of His Word; what He says is always yes and amen to us.

This tells us that it comes down to us; we are the ones who have problems believing and maybe even a more difficult time to receive. If you doubt His willingness, you won’t be able to receive from Him. Or if you think He is angry, critical, or judgmental, you won’t be confident that He desires to bless you abundantly.

Even though you know that He has provided for all your needs, because everybody says that and you have heard this message preached over and over again. But the fact is that the blessings are still not coming your way.

You keep thinking why this is and why are others more blessed than I am? You need to realize how amazingly merciful and kind He is; then it is easy to reach out and receive from Him. It is easy when we realize how much He loves us, how much He cares for us and how much He wants to bless us despite of us. 

Always remember He is a good God and His mercies are new every morning. EVERY MORNING, His mercies are new and are there for us to receive. Psalm 103 makes it very clear to us that every miracle that was ever done, was done because of His mercy and love. God is merciful in all His acts and all His ways.

My pastor has been preaching about the acts and the ways of God for some time now; the acts of God refer to all the supernatural miracles that God has done for His people: things like the deliverance out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the cloud by day and the fire by night and the many great victories He gave the Israelites when they entered the promised land.

The ways of God are the reasons He did those things. Psalm 103:8 tells us that those reasons are very simple. He did them because He “….is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy…”

God has a father’s heart, and He pities His children, so the Lord pities those who fear” Psalm 103:13 I like that because that lets us know that God covers us with His tender love and concern for all our needs the same as our parents. We should see Him this way, wanting to give us everything He has to give.

I want everything that He has for me, what about you? I don’t want to let anything go to waste; Jesus died on the cross for all our needs, so that makes us responsible to receive everything.

Aren’t you glad that God isn’t standing behind a door with a big stick ready to whack us for something we did wrong? NO!! He is bending over us with great joy and love and excitement because we are His children.

He is putting His arms around you and me and is filled with mercy and compassion, always wanting to forgive us. He desires to help us and pour out His blessings over us. Why? Because that is who He is; that is His very nature.

Many people don’t understand that about God. Religion has given them the impression that He actually enjoys punishing the wicked and disobedient, but the Bible doesn’t say that. Ez.33:11 “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked for death is strange to His nature.”

You have to start believing that God delights in extending His mercy to you. The entire ministry of Jesus was all about Him giving mercy to people around Him; He demonstrated His mercy everywhere He went. Jesus talked to every person who came to Him and He always told them that He was willing to heal them or to forgive them. He always let them know how much He loved them.

He is continually moved with compassion toward people. He is always willing and desiring to have mercy on you and me. I believe that we should read through the Bible f or the only purpose to see for ourselves with a fresh eye all the merciful acts and ways of the Lord. That would give us such a great revelation of God’s mercy.

I am convinced that a greater revelation of divine mercy will open a door for the blessings of God into our lives. Start meditating on the mercy of the Lord and let the Holy Spirit reveal it to you in a greater measure; your life will be forever transformed.

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You Take Control By Your Choice

 

You Take Control By Your Choice

by Olga Hermans

Some people think that self-control is not important, but I’d like to prove you otherwise. One of the things you need to know is that you area  spirit being; when you are Christian your spirit is the most important part of you. You probably know that you are a three-part being, right? Spirit, soul and body. 1Thess.5:23 You are a spirit, you have a soul and you live in a body. The part that everybody sees is the body. However, the real you is your spirit man.

If you do not build up your spirit, then your soul and body will dominate your life. You soul and body will then convince you to do what feels good at the moment or what looks easiest and most convenient. The soul and body will also convince you that no one will ever know, or what difference will it make to do a little of whatever you want to do.

Some people never learn to walk in self-control because they don’t take time to build up their spirit man. They learn to shove aside the still, small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to them and instead follow their emotions or their own desires and reasoning.

Sometimes they may even put a religious coat on it and say that they felt God lead them to do what they did, when in fact, if they closely examined what they did, they would know that it goes against the principles of the Word of God.

When you desire to walk in the Spirit, you have to exercise self-control. You and I will have to learn to say “no” to that which pulls on our flesh and emotions to sin.

As Christians, we are to take control of what we see, hear and read, and whom we allow to influence our lives. We are responsible for our emotions, impulses and desires. For example, circumstances may press your emotions to respond negatively, but through the fruit of self-control, you choose to respond differently.

You choose to walk in peace while others may want to argue. You choose to forgive and show mercy when others offend, disappoint, or fail you. You choose to keep the joy of the Lord when you feel unhappy. You choose not to speak when your emotions are wanting your mouth to speak. All of these are example of self-control in operation.

Some may say, “Well, I believe you should vent your emotions.” There have been so many people today who have vented their emotions that we have destruction everywhere – destroyed marriages, destroyed family relationships, murders, and broken hearts, depressed and abused personalities, etc. Some people have vented their emotions and later regretted ever saying or doing what they said and did but cannot change it now.

Get control by submitting to God’s Word in your life personally. There are those who have learned that freedom is not doing whatever you feel at the moment. Freedom is in choosing to walk in love toward God and others. The love walk requires self-control. Gal.5:13

Jesus said in Luke 17:1 that offenses would come. He also said in John 16:33 to rejoice in the midst of tribulation. Walking in peace demands self-control! I remember somebody say once, “I have no problem walking with God. It’s just all the other Christians I have problems with!” That sounds funny, but that’s really the way some people feel.

When we become a part of the family of God, we must learn to live together as a family. God can use other brothers and sisters in the Lord to develop fruit in our lives if we allow Him to. We may not always appreciate the part they are playing in our spiritual growth, but we will realize it is a way God works the rough edges off of us.

Here are a few guidelines for helping you to strengthen the fruit of self-control in your life:

1. Take time to daily read the Word of God. Psalm 119:9-11. Hide God’s Word in your heart, so you will not sin against Him and will be able to live in His Blessings.
2. Take time daily in prayer. Matth.26:41. We need to “watch and pray” over our own lives. Watch for the attacks of the enemy in your life and then pray immediately.
3. Guard your heart with all diligence. Proverbs 4:23 We need to examine our attitudes and our thoughts on a regular basis and make adjustments as needed.
4. Be sensitive in your spirit to hear God. Hebr.3:7. When we hear from God we can choose to respond with humility and trust or
harden our hearts and ignore Him.

5. Be righteousness conscious. Remember, having an attitude of righteousness in Jesus makes you want to stay right with Him. 2Cor.5:21
6. Be quick to repent if you sin, and reckon yourself dead to sin and alive unto God. Gal.2:20.
7. Cast down wrong thoughts. Phil.4:8. Do you ever think about what you are thinking about? If you are not careful, your thought life can lead you into problems. It is important to think before you act.
8. Keep humble before God. James 4:6. We have our own ideas about what we can accomplish, but often we think more highly of
ourselves than we ought. We need humble attitudes, knowing that apart from God, we can do nothing.

9. Submit to God and to His Word, and resist the devil. We must remember that the devil is not going to just sit back and allow us to take new ground without putting up a fight, but James 4:7 says that he will flee if we submit to God and resist the enemy.
10. Set you affections upon the Lord. If you want to live the resurrection life that Jesus provides, then seek that new, powerful life by setting your mind and keeping it set on things above, not on things on the earth.

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

You Are Unbeatable

 

 

 

You Are Unbeatable

by Olga Hermans

Did you know that you were designed to be unbeatable? You were created to be more than a conqueror and yes, again, UNBEATABLE! 

But, words like: winners, victory, determination, champions, legends, perseverance…are definitely words that come up, right?

All those answers are great, but the thing is that we all go through times in our lives where we feel inadequate and unqualified. Have you ever felt that way?

Sometimes you go through a week where things are really rough, you go to your job, the boss calls you into his office and tells you that you are no longer needed. Feelings of insignificance will come to you and that you are not good enough, that you do not really have what it takes. You might even feel that you have lost your reason and your purpose.

We all have had moments like this, where we feel like a defeated spirit. Things didn’t turn out the way we hoped they would. Things that we hoped would happen didn’t happen. Maybe one of your children started doing things that you had never thought would happen. Maybe things with your marriage, or a diagnosis that the doctor gave.

In those moments we have to ask ourselves if we still believe that God has a plan for us. Even when we are released from our job and the bills are stacking up and everything looks like it defeated us. Is there still something on the inside of us that is willing to believe and willing to hold on?

God has a plan for us and satan has a plan for us too, right? John 10:10 says: A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

Which plan do you like best? I like the real and blessed life and I know you do too, otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading this post. Satan has a plan for us to stay depressed, to feel inadequate, and to feel insignificant and that we really don’t have any gifts, talents or purpose.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I see people who seem to have all the gifts and talents and I feel like God gave that person ALL the talents that exist. If we are not careful we can get in this mode and think “well, everybody has a gift and a talent, except for me. My talent is just to breathe! Everybody else can build a business, dance, or play hockey, they are good with numbers and statistics, but here I am just talented with breathing.

That is the lie of the devil!! The evil one wants you think that you don’t have a gift. That you don’t have a purpose and that there is no reason to live and that you were made by accident and that you are insignificant. Because the devil believes that if we believe that lie that we will never fulfill the purpose that God created us to fulfill.

And that lie keeps us from making a difference in our marriage and in our family’s life. The truth is that God has a plan for us, that we would live, and live our lives to the fullest.  He created us to live victorious and make a difference in the lives of others. He created you and me to be unbeatable.

Even if you would believe this right now, you still have to recognize this in your life and that you have to do something to make things happen in your life. You have to prove to yourself that you believe this. Not by comparing yourself with others but by competing with yourself, and then, there is no limit! Take the lid off your life and let the true you come out of the box. You might be surprised at all the talents and gifts that were there for such a long time, they were just dormant on the inside of you.

You might be doing things out of routine and tradition, but there is no life in it and you know it. You have to get up my friend and dust yourself off. This is a new day with a new beginning. We don’t want to do things any longer just because they are a good thing to do. We do them because we believe they are good things and that they will bring results in our lives.

We need to come to the understanding that what we believe and what we are saying will actually come to pass. Your words will bury you or they will resurrect you. They will take you over the top or they will put you under.

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LOVE Never Gives Up


 

LOVE Never Gives Up

 by Olga Hermans

It’s on my heart to dig into the fruit for the Spirit with you. So, are you ready to know more? As we examine the fruit of the Spirit, we see that the first fruit mentioned is what the law and scriptures are based upon and that is: LOVE! All the fruit of the Spirit are contained in love. Like an orange with many segments, love has segments such as patience, humility, faithfulness, etc.

If we walk in love, we’ll walk in all the other eight fruits of the Spirit. The word “love” is excessively overused in our society, expressing an attitude about anything from people to foods to clothes to pets and other things.

Love that is based upon a choice that we have to make is not easy for our feelings. Jesus chose to love us in spite of how people treated Him, and He loved before we loved Him in return. We do have the ability to love by choice in spite of how we feel because Rom.5:5 tells us that you have the love of God once you receive Jesus as Lord and Savior. He is love.

The more you choose to love, the more it becomes a natural impulse in your life. The fruit of the Spirit are like muscles in our bodies that have to be developed and grow. We choose to walk in each fruit and each time we do, that spiritual muscle is exercised and grows a little stronger. Love is the most important emotion that we should cultivate and all the other emotions will line up so to speak.

LOVE is patient! If you are around people, you will either develop patience or cause them to close themselves off from those who get on their nerves or rub them wrong way. We choose continually if we will let His fruit grow or die in our lives.

Everybody has times when they need the mercy and help of someone else. What we sow towards others we will reap. If you want people to be patient and understanding with you, then be patient and understanding with others.

If you become a critical, strife-filled person, no one will want to be around you. We as Christians must make an effort to walk in patience and love.

LOVE is kind. Kindness is a quality that has almost been neglected in our generation because of the popular self-seeking attitudes which exist in society. Fast-paced living has subtly caused people to barely have time for themselves, much less for others. Some people feel that if they take time to be kind for others, something will be neglected that can benefit themselves.

As you exercise your spiritual muscles of godliness, add brotherly kindness to it. 2Peter 1:7

LOVE is not envious. The God-kind of love is excited over the blessings of others. Envy and strife open the door to the devil to bring all kinds of evil against the one who has envy or strife. It isn’t worth it to hold envy and strife in your heart.

Job 5:2 says envy can actually kill a person who allows it in his or her life. Keep a healthy, positive attitude towards others.

LOVE doesn’t behave unbecomingly. In our society today, most people with wrong behavior want to blame someone or something for it. Usually it is blamed on the fact that they were from a dysfunctional family, or they had difficult circumstances. So they continue wrong behavior and attitude problems, feeling justified.

God doesn’t let us use Him to excuse our lack of conscience. Growth demands that we accept responsibility for our actions and attitudes and bring them into submission to Jesus. Always try to be mannerly and gracious with whomever you’re with. Remember to consider the feelings of others. As you listen within your spirit, God will be your guide in every situation.

LOVE doesn’t insist upon having its own way. Do you seek to do what will benefit you or what will benefit others? Jesus sought to do God’s will even if it hurt, and He didn’t insist on His own way. Love seeks the will of God, not self-will.
It is by self denial and giving to others that we keep an open channel for the divine flow of God’s love to love through us.

LOVE is not touchy, resentful or easily provoked. God has provided a way for you to stay in His love walk even when people seem to rub you the wrong way. God’s way to remain in love is similar to the old cliché: “Just let things roll off of you like water rolls off a duck’s back.” Think on this when people say things that would normally hurt or offend you.

It is much more important to walk in the freedom and peace of God than to carry “a chip on your shoulders.” If you allow yourself to be easily angered, then others are controlling your life. Get control over your emotions and you’ll get control over your life.

LOVE doesn’t keep a list of wrongs. Do not keep a list of wrongdoings, whether it be in a marriage relationship or in a friendship relationship. The God-kind of love forgives and forgets offenses. There should no secretly kept, running list to pull out and use as ammunition against another person.

Instant forgiveness will close the door to Satan and his schemes in your life. You cannot afford to keep a list of wrongs. Let go of them, and let God help you to walk in peace with others as far as it lies within you. Romans 12:18

LOVE does not rejoice at injustice, is not happy when evil befalls another, does not rejoice over misfortunes of others. When a person has been caught in a fault, rather than tell them, “I told you so,” or feel disgusted with them, go to them if possible and talk with them. Love confronts when wrong has been done, but it also gives help to overcome.

The LOVE of God NEVER gives up on people. Jesus never gave up on the disciples, no matter how often they failed. God’s love never comes to an end. If you feel you are at the end of your rope in your faith for someone, don’t give up. God’s love will cause you to triumph in your stand. The love of God is the foundation for faith, because faith works by love. God’s love is the source of living.

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