Embrace the Within no. 53

O Israel, keep hoping, keep trusting,

and keep waiting on the Lord,

for He is tenderhearted, kind, and forgiving.

He has a thousand ways to set you free!

He himself will redeem you;

He will ransom you from the cruel slavery of your sins!

Psalms 130:7-8 TPT

There are probably more than a thousand ways that folks are set free every day. We just have to put in the work to get ourselves free. God did all the heavy lifting. God laid the foundation for our salvation. God paved the road to get us to eternity. God sacrificed to show us the right path. All we have to do is follow the framework provided.

Freedom always sounds easy when you take it out of context. Freedom is easy to talk about. Freedom is easy to visualize. Freedom is easy to romanticize. Freedom is easy to rally around. Freedom is easy until you have to act. Then all the easiness falls away and the hard work begins.

We so easily forget what it takes to be free just like the man looking at his reflection, “But be you doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a mirror: For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and immediately forgets what manner of man he was” (Jacob 1:22-23 NMV). And we can see that forgetfulness all around us when it comes to freedom. We forget to be a doer of freedom and not just a speaker of freedom.

Are we merely talking about freedom or are we a mirror of freedom? I think we sometimes get caught up in the rhetoric and the self righteousness of knowing the path and thinking that is quite enough. Simply having that special knowledge makes us feel superior. BUT what we really should be doing is the doing and not the talking. We really should be living the example.

And that is how I strive daily. My quotidian task is to work on my own freedom. And that work is work. I can’t outsource that work. I can’t send the work to a foreign country. I can’t ask my neighbor to build my freedom. I can’t rely on my pastor to get me free. I can’t ask my boss to give me some extra freedom in my paycheck. I have got to put in the work. I have to be a doer of freedom and not a listener or a speaker only.

And when I do the work, I can be assured that YHWH has already done what He needs because, as the 130th psalm sings, “He has a thousand ways to set you free!/He himself will redeem you;/He will ransom you from the cruel slavery of your sins!”

YHWH is waiting to break the chains. BUT we have to make the choice. We have to take the personal responsibility and the self ownership of our own freedom. YHWH is offering everything we need to get there in a thousand ways.

Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows

Embrace the Within no. 52

“On Christ, the solid rock, I stand: all other ground is sinking sand.”

• Edward Mote

And just like that it’s Monday again and back to the routine. I spent a long conversation yesterday about the importance of a daily routine and a plan to set yourself up for success. And I wanted to take some time today to emphasize the importance of setting the tone for your day when you get up and going every morning. So, I want to talk about why being intentional about the way you start day, start a task, or approach starting anything is important.

Our brains are very programmable and hackable. I am sure you have seen at least one life hack or unlearning and reprogramming your brain post. And that is because our brain, despite thousands of years of social and civil change, is basically the same brain that protected us out in the wilderness. The brain makes us social creatures in need of protection from the group because the group was the way we survived. Human young have no way of protecting themselves. They are vulnerable and need the protection of their family, their tribe. Our brains, despite all this technology around us and all these creature comforts, has not changed from the time of tribes wandering in the wild. We like to think we have changed. We like to believe we have evolved. We like to aspire to some lofty pinnacle BUT we are still just the “quintessence of dust”. So, setting ourselves up for success is as simple as convincing this primitive brain that we are successful. And one way to do that is by having a routine that makes us feel successful.

Have a routine that you can complete successfully. I think a lot of folks want to magically be transformed overnight and set unrealistic expectations and then fail at those expectations. And that makes them unsuccessful and back to the cycle of failure. So, make your routine something you can achieve. Find manageable goals that can help you feel like you have done something, accomplished something. Make those activities aimed at an end besides just doing something. Your activity should be directed at changing or growing some part of your health. It needs to focus on a part of your body, mind, and/or spirit. Work from those basics and build.

When you start your day on a foundation of success, the change in this perspective permeates the rest of your day. So, I cannot emphasize the importance of setting yourself up for success daily. Life is difficult enough without setting ourselves up for failure.

Shalom to your home. Bless your being. The reign of YHWH is now. Be a blessing to YHWH and others.

#ThinkBetter #BeBetter #NoGodsNoMasters #MyNepheshMyChoice #ChristsLifeMatters #EmbracetheWithin #NotMyWayYHWH #GodKnows