Learning to Live Beyond Just Alive
Learning to live beyond alive is all about finding your way to the right side of the common. In John 10:10, Jesus tells His followers that he has come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
The left side of that comma is being alive. The right side of the comma is the exceeding abundantly life lived in the overflowing blessings.
It seems like a simple choice. And yet too often, we allow the world (and just as often the man in the mirror) to talk us into barely surviving instead of walking out the thriving path of purpose and calling.
The more you lean into
the spirit of power and love and self-control,
the more you flip fear on its ear.
– Kathryn Lang
Learning to Live Abundantly
In the story of Elijah told in 1 Kings 17, God tells Elijah to go to the bend in the river, and “the ravens will bring you meat and bread.” As long as Elijah was obedient to the directions of God, then he lived in the blessings God promised.
- Know the promises
- Be obedient in the direction to those promises.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, we just work really hard to make it that way.
Psalm 37:4 reminds us to delight ourselves in the Lord, and when we do, then God will give us the desires of our hearts.
It starts with a focus in God and on God so that through God, we live abundantly.
Do You Believe in the Promises?
In the Scripture, a man comes to Jesus hoping for healing for his son. The disciples already failed in their attempts to heal the boy. Jesus was the man’s last hope. Jesus told him that all he had to do was believe.
“I believe. Lord, help my unbelief.”
How often do I find myself there? I believe, with all of my heart, soul, and mind, but I’m struggling. The world is attacking. Circumstances are not ideal. The storm shakes the house and threatens to tear you away from the foundation.
Lord, help my struggle moments. Help me to stay focused in Your promises. Show me and remind me that You go before me, and You come behind me.
Every morning I get up, and I remind God about His promises – not because He has forgotten, but because I need to firmly establish those Truths in my heart and my mind so that when the struggles arise, I don’t lose my grip on the promises.
Learning to Live
In 1 Timothy 1:7, we are told that God has given us a spirit of power and love and self-control, not a spirit of fear. If I am going to learn to live, but not just be alive, then I have to choose to walk in that spirit of power and to squash the spirit of fear.
When you shift your focus to the promises from the doubt, then you reframe your fears into your possibilities.
- Admit your fear to yourself or to someone else.
- Dig out the roots to discover what grew the fear.
- Plot a plan through or around your fears.
- Remember Whose you are because your purpose is more than any limitations the world can devise.
- Do what you are designed to do despite the fear. Lord, help my unbelief.
The more you lean into the spirit of power and love and self-control, the more you flip fear on its ear.
Are you living? Or are you just alive?
Where you focus will determine how you walk.
Don’t forget your FREE Scripture Challenge download to help you choose living over just being alive:
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