by Alisha | Apr 14, 2014 | Uncategorized
Living to please Him. It’s what I want my life to consist of. And I’m sure it’s what you want for your life too.
Anyone who has walked with the Lord for any length of time knows what a truly wonderful God He is. He is perfect Love. He is incredibly generous in His giving. He’s unbelievably gracious and merciful in every way. He is simply amazing!
He has told us in His Word that He will give us the desires of our heart – whatever we ask – if we will seek Him and delight in Him.
“Take delight in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.” ~ Psalm 37:4 (NIV)
And…
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” ~ 1 John 5:14-15 (NIV)
He has bestowed marvelous blessings upon us: salvation, healing, provision, wisdom, direction, and anything else we need in life. All we have to do is receive these blessings from Him.
But in the midst of all the wonderful things He gives us each day, let’s not forget to give back to Him. Let’s find out what pleases Him and seek to pursue those things.
In Colossians 1:10 (AMP) the Apostle Paul prays, That you may walk (live and conduct yourselves) in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him and desiring to please Him in all things…
This should be the biggest desire of our heart to be fully pleasing to the Lord and to desire to please Him in all that we do.
And in Ephesians 5:10 (AMP) we are told: “Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord [let your lives be constant proofs of what is most acceptable to Him].”
So how do we know which things are pleasing to the Lord?
The most important way to find out what pleases the Lord is to consistently spend time in fellowship with Him. We do this by reading and studying the Bible and coming into His presence through prayer and worship on a regular basis.
Living in continual fellowship with the Lord changes us. We become more and more like Him. We learn to hear His voice more clearly. We begin to sense the things that are important to Him.
Time in His presence separates us to Him. It brings our will into agreement with His will. It aligns our thoughts and ways with His thoughts and ways. We grow to love Him and desire to please Him more and more each day.
In fact, the Bible tells us about a man who lived in continual fellowship with God. His name was Enoch:
Genesis 5:24 (AMP) says, And Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God…
And do you know what else the Bible says about Him?
Hebrews 11:5 tells us, By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
How did Enoch please God? By walking in continual fellowship with Him. He had a genuine, living, thriving relationship with Almighty God.
We only have a few verses that even mention Enoch, yet we can see that because of his love and hunger for the Lord, he pleased Him so much that he was allowed to step on over into His very presence.
What an incredible testimony!
So, we understand that the first step in living to please the Lord is to live in unbroken fellowship with Him. Staying connected to Him is vital to pleasing Him.
Over the next few weeks, we will look at other attributes that please the Lord. Let’s make it our greatest ambition in life to live to please Him!
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by Alisha | Jan 22, 2014 | Uncategorized
Do you want to see the dream of your heart fulfilled?
Proverbs 13:12, 19 (NLT) says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but when dreams come true, there is life and joy…It is pleasant to see dreams come true.”
Turning your dream into reality is really up to you!
If you want to experience the life and joy that comes from living out the dream in your heart, then I encourage you to join me over at Managing Your Blessings. There I am sharing 4 important steps to seeing your dream fulfilled.
(Click on image below to read post.)
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by Alisha | Jan 6, 2014 | Uncategorized
What is the dream in your heart? What is the desire that burns within you? What does your soul long for? If God would do anything for you, what would it be?
It is important to identify that one thing, because many times the dream, the desire, the fire that burns within your heart will be a clear indicator of God’s will for your life.
Philippians 2:13 (AMP) says, … for it is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you [energizing and creating in you the power and desire], both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight.
The Lord is creating in you the desire to do His will.
And Psalm 37:4 (NKJ) says, Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.
So many people read this verse and see only part of its meaning – the part where if they will delight in the Lord, then He will fulfill the desires of their heart. And I believe this is completely true.
However, I also believe that if we spend much time in His Word and in His presence (through prayer) and truly learn to delight in Him, that He will place desires within our hearts. In other words, the desires that are in our heart have been given to us by the Lord.
These desires are things that are part of His plan and purpose for our lives. We may think that these things that are so dear to us are only our natural desires, but all along the Lord has been planting seeds of desire within our heart. And if we’ll nurture and water those seeds, they will come to fruition in our lives and place us right in the center of His perfect will.
(For further reading on this topic, check out Discovering Your God-Given Purpose.)
This is why it is so vital to live a life that is true to yourself. Don’t be in bondage to be who others expect you to be or to do what others expect you to do.
Have the courage to follow your heart and follow your dreams! They are important to God. And many times those dreams and desires have been given to you by Him to enable you to fulfill His plan for your life and to fulfill your joy!
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by Alisha | Jan 1, 2014 | Uncategorized
Psalm 65:11 (NKJ) says, “You crown the year with Your goodness, and Your paths drip with abundance.” And Psalm 23:5 (NLT) says, “My cup overflows with blessings.”
I pray that 2014 will be a year filled with the goodness and abundance of God! May you experience an overflow of His blessings in every area of your life!
by Alisha | Oct 25, 2013 | Uncategorized
John Ruskin wrote, “Make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts…bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts, which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away from you. Houses built without hands for your souls to live in.”
Cultivating the soul is about finding what speaks to you – to the innermost parts of your being – and making a conscious effort to pursue those things and drink them in on a regular basis. It’s about exploring the fathomless depths within you and giving expression to who you are.
I have only touched on a few things that can help you cultivate your soul, but we must not forget other areas: such as visiting art galleries, museums, taking in plays based on literary works, enjoying a ballet, etc. Or what about traveling to far away places and learning of other cultures? The possibilities go on and on.
The most important thing to remember is not to allow those desires or nudges to get lost or suffocated in the constraints of the every day. Yes, you must make time to grow your spirit and exercise your body – both of these things are vital. But don’t forget that you are a three-part being: spririt, soul, and body. So in all the things that you do on a daily basis, you must not neglect your soul.
If you do, you will carry a deep sense of unfulfillment and dissatisfaction throughout your life.
Find out what your passions are. Reawaken those buried dreams for your life. Listen to those inner longings of your soul.
Cultivating your soul and living a fulfilling and pleasurable life (even if they are the simplest of pleasures) is how you build your “nest of pleasant thoughts” and “satisfied memories” that the cares of life cannot disturb or take away from you.
Take time to nurture and tend to your soul so that later on in life, you will have built a house of beautiful experiences and precious memories for your soul to live in!
This post is excerpted from my book, A Life That Flourishes. Click on image below to purchase.
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