One of My Favorites - Thankful Heart Exercise

The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!

Deuteronomy 30:6 NLT

In engineering, acronyms are used for everything - more so than even IT people. Some of the acronyms make sense because the thing to which they refer would take 5 minutes to say. Some of them are silly or misleading. For instance, 'lb'. To most people, that refers to pounds, but in my office, it means, 'lay barge.' Fortunately, I used to be quite good at solving acronyms. In fact, I find them to be a lot of fun, and on occasion, try to create them - mostly for a laugh.

I think I've mentioned before the one created as a result of learning the rules of driving for the state of Missouri. In most of the country, a stop sign is literal. It means stop. In Missouri, it's an acronym for S.low T.o O.bvious P.ause. BIG difference. While in engineering, STOP is an acronym for Safety Training Observation Program. It's all about what you're used to and where you are…AND remembering where you’re supposed to be and what you’re supposed to be doing. 

That’s T.H.E. thing.

Sometimes in life, we get into a situation that becomes a habit. Sometimes, they're not good habits. And in the course of it, we get lazy and we gain weight or become unhealthy. Sometimes, a season in life seems to last so long that we get tunnel vision and can't see life or God from any other angle. So we stay there because that is what we have allowed ourselves to become used to. We say, 'Well, this is where I am.' Sometimes we even go so far as to say, 'This is where God has me.' because we only look inward instead of up and around. We lose sight of the Truth.

So what is T.H.E. thing to do that can change it? What if you really can't change the circumstances of where you are? What if it really IS where God has you for the time being? And what if you really don't like it? What can change? What is T.H.E. thing YOU can do to make a change?

Psalm 107:8, Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works to the children of men! We can thank God for something - for anything. Sometimes when I mention that to a person, their response will be, 'What for? What do I have in my life to thank God for? I have nothing. I am nothing.' Hmmm, how about that He lets you live and breathe and doesn't strike you dead for whining? Or thank Him because He's changed MY heart so that I don't have the inclination to smack you for whining? Just kidding...

This isn't a new concept. We've talked about this before. Finding one thing to be thankful for – You want to be heart-whole? You want heart health? Develop that muscle to be strong! Make T.H.E. Thing To-Do List.  T.H.E. stands for T.hankful H.eart E.xercise. I think it’s self-explanatory. Try it for one week. Make it T.H.E. Thing to do.

Prayer:

Father,
           Forgive us when we don’t recognize Your faithfulness and goodness to us. We do know that You are God and every good and perfect gift comes from You, even when they’re not packaged quite as we would like. Thank You, Father, for loving us enough to give us what we need. Give us grateful hearts to recognize Your love. In Jesus’ Name we pray. Amen

Going the Distance

Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gymnasium are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever.
1st Timothy 4:7-8 The Message

How's it going with those New Year resolutions? How many new gym members do you know who did not go 3 or 4 times this week, but are lucky to have made it once or twice? Just to clarify - thinking about going is not the same as going...

Trainers tell those who regularly go to the gym to wait till two weeks into January so they'll have a better chance of getting a machine when they want it. And if they wait until the end of the month, there will be no wait.

If you are one who is on a regular exercise program, you know the only immediate effect you have after the first day at the gym is pain...and the second day...and the third day...and any time you up the ante on your routine. However, if you remain faithful and are disciplined, you progress, training and developing the necessary muscles to get the job done.

If you go to the gym and hear about all the things the machines can help you do, but you just stand there without getting to know the equipment and actually using it, you don't reap the benefits. It's the time well-spent in the gym that equips us to lift that weight or go the distance.

Our spiritual walk is exactly the same. We will have ample opportunity to exercise our faith, but will we? Or do we quit because the only immediate effect we got was pain? And if we quit then any time a crisis comes, instead of being prepped and ready, we feel the pain again.

If we go to the church and only hear about our Savior, but don't get to know Him or we don’t utilize the equipment (the Word of God, for instance), we're not going to reap the benefits of being a Christian. However, if we remain faithful and are disciplined, we progress, and we train and develop the necessary faith to get the job done. It's the time well-spent in the Word that equips us to lift that weight AND go the distance.

After all, Jesus went the distance for you.

Prayer:

Father,
Birth in us a new desire for You and Your Word. Help us to keep our priorities in the proper order. In Jesus' Name we pray. Amen.

* Getting Into Shape

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him.
Romans 8:29 The Message Bible

Can you believe it's February already? January is over and so are most of the commitments to the resolutions we might have made at the beginning of the year. You know - eating healthfully, getting into shape. I tell people I am in shape. It's true - round is a shape...

In all honesty, I am making better choices when it comes to what I put in my body, but more important to me (and to God) is what I put in my heart. What do I need to do to shape my life along the same lines as the life of Christ? Just as in physical exercise, when we become disciplined in it, we will see results. How genuinely and consistently do I exercise the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Am I seeing results? Are those around me benefiting from the results?

Is God being glorified by the results? 

If we're not getting the results we want or need, we have to go back to the plan - God's plan. He has given us His Son as the Way, the Truth and the Life. Jesus is the original and intended shape of our lives. We need to daily commit to getting into shape.

Prayer:

Father,
         Help us to reach past the desires of our flesh to the prize that is set before us in You. We want to attain the shape You have fashioned for us in Christ. Give us the courage to correct our choices by the conviction of Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' Name we pray.  Amen