Tips for Living the God Life
The calling to a God life challenges us to take a step up from what we can see and to live in a place ruled by believing – in the promises, in the unique design of you, and in God’s love for you. It also requires you to take a step back and stop believing all the world is feeding you.
Planting seeds in faith and trusting God through faith guides us one step at a time, one little bit a time, one line upon line and precept upon precept moment at a time to the place in purpose He has special just for you.
#QuoteoftheDay
Digging up your seeds
only hinders their growth.
– Kathryn Lang
The world teaches us to chase the good life. This path is the only path that will get you there.
Go to school.
Study hard.
Get a degree.
Get a job in your degree field.
Work at that job until you retire or die.
Then, and only then, are you allowed to live the good life. Follow these steps. Stay in line. Work harder if you have to. Because the work is what counts. With the right amount of work, in the right world-designed path, you, too, can live the good life.
The good life pattern doesn’t pan out anywhere I’ve seen in Scripture. I’ve yet to find a single story through all the different readings of the Bible that show an example of someone living the good life.
But there are a LOT of examples that show people living a God life.
I encounter stories every time I read the Word about people choosing to live their lives in pursuit of the promises of God for their lives. And those paths are unexpected and unprecedented in their routes.
Love God.
Through God’s Love, love others.
Know God’s plan for YOU.
Listen.
Obey.
God directs us to a place of completion in Him where nothing is missing and nothing is broken. This prosperity path comes to us when we are about the Father’s business. It comes to us in a unique way specific to our Maker design and on target for or place in His purpose.
Despite the repeated reminder of the Truth and the Truth of the world’s truth, I find myself stumbling into the convenience of the world’s good life path. The voices around me tell me the good life is possible but, “the God life is unattainable while on the earth.” (that’s an actual quote from a ministerial leader I encountered once).
From Works or From Faith
My dad told a story about my mom.
She had him till her a garden between the house and the sidewalk where we first moved to town.
I remember that little garden. It was about three feet wide and twenty feet long. It was the perfect starter garden.
My mom planted her seeds and waited a couple of minutes before digging them up to see how they were doing. “Maybe I should soak them in water first or not plant them so deep.”
Okay, it wasn’t a few minutes, but it was only a couple of days. She wanted to do something to make the garden grow but she had to trust that the seed would do what it was supposed to do.
Digging up your seeds only hinders their growth. They need to do what they need to do.
When we are leaning on the world’s good life, we are trusting our works. We have to do more to be more to do more to be more.
When we are all in with the God life, we are planting seeds and having faith that those seeds will grow into the harvest that provides are prosperity.
Breaking Out Into the God Life
The world provides specific steps for living the good life. If you aren’t there yet then it’s because you haven’t put in enough work.
The God life grows up from relationship. You invest in knowing God, growing in God, depending on God, and following God’s direction in complete obedience.
SPOILER ALERT: Partial obedience is still disobedience.
Maybe we get stuck in the world’s good life pattern because it is set and finite. As long as you work as hard as you have to work, you’ll get that good life.
The God life follows no discernable pattern because the path never repeats. We each enter into a relationship with God where we are and He begins to mold us into His extraordinary purpose one little bit at a time.
If we are going to live in the place where nothing is missing and nothing is broken, we have to break out of the good life and launch into the God life.
DUMB Down the Good Life Pattern
“That’s just dumb.” My friend didn’t mean to be harsh, but when I explained what I was doing, they were the only words she could find. “Sometimes I don’t understand you at all.”
Ha! Join the club!
I had read a story about Jon Bon Jovi starting a restaurant where you paid what you wanted to pay. Those who could pay more, did. Those who couldn’t, paid less (or not at all). Everyone ate and the restaurant remained open.
It reminded me of the story in Acts about the church giving in ways so that everyone had what they needed when they needed it. Some gave all. Some gave a lot. Some gave without expectation of receiving. It sparked an idea.
“What if I give people an invoice for my work with a note saying, ‘pay what you can when you can,’ and then trust that they will?”
That was the idea that had my friend so flustered. The world’s way in the good life pattern requires invoices be paid in full.
What if we DUMB down the good life pattern so we can elevate up to the God life?
Daring
Instead of being cautious and hesitant, let’s take daring and impossible steps – always in line with God’s direction and with peace flooding our hearts.
Unimaginable
Instead of the ordinary and expected, let’s seed some unimaginable impossibilities. When we look beyond the restrictions and walls of the good life pattern, we discover that nothing is impossible in Him and through Him.
Motivated in Love
Instead of keeping our eye on the profit margin and the bottom line, let’s get to the point of faith where we are motivated in Love.
Bold
Instead of hesitating to take a chance or to try something different, let’s rush forward in unique focus and design – always rooted back in relationship with God.
It doesn’t seem so dumb once you DUMB it down.
Living the good life takes works upon works. Living the God life requires fearless faith. Only one direction will lead you to the place in His purpose designed specifically for you. Tips for Living the God Life
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What steps will you take to choose the God life today?
Share some thoughts on how you can step into your God life.
