Starting Your Best Life Now: A Guide for New Adventures and Stages on Your Journey (4 page)
Read Starting Your Best Life Now: A Guide for New Adventures and Stages on Your Journey Online
Authors: Joel Osteen
Tags: #Christian
Today can be a turning point in your life.
A crippled man had spent every day for thirty-eight years lying by the pool of Bethesda, hoping for a miracle (John 5). He had a deep-seated, lingering disorder similar to what many people have today. Their maladies may not be physical; they may be emotional, but they are deep-seated, lingering disorders nonetheless. They may stem from unforgiveness or holding on to past resentments, and they affect their personality, their relationships, and their self-image.
When Jesus saw the man lying there, He asked a simple, straightforward question: “Do you want to be made well?” The man’s response was interesting. He began listing all of his excuses. “I’m all alone. I don’t have anyone to help me.” Is it any wonder that he had not been healed?
Jesus looked at him and said, in effect, “If you are serious about getting well, get up off the ground, take up your bed, and be on your way.” When the man did what Jesus told him to do, he was miraculously healed!
IS JESUS ASKING YOU THE SAME QUESTION?
If you’re serious about being well, you can’t lie around feeling sorry for yourself. Don’t waste another minute trying to figure out why certain evil things have happened to you or your loved ones. You may never know the answer. But don’t use that as an excuse to wallow in self-pity. Leave it alone, get up, and move on with your life. Trust God and accept the fact that there will be some unanswered questions. Just because you don’t know the answer doesn’t mean that one does not exist.
Each of us should have what I call an “I Don’t Understand It” file. When something comes up for which you have no reasonable answer, instead of dwelling on the “why,” simply place it in this file and don’t become bitter. Trust God, get up, walk out of any emotional bondage in which you have been living, and step into the great future He has for you.
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“Let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1
NASB
).
If you will stay in an attitude of faith and victory, God has promised that He will turn those emotional wounds around. He’ll use them to your advantage, and you will come out better than you would have had they not happened to you.
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HEN YOU GO THROUGH SITUATIONS YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND, DON’T BECOME BITTER.
Forgiveness is a choice, but it is not an option.
The former middleweight boxing champion James “Lights Out” Toney was known to fight like a man possessed. One day, a reporter asked him why he fought with such tremendous aggression and passion. Toney replied, “It’s because my dad abandoned me and my brothers and sisters when I was child, to be raised by my mother all by herself. And now I picture my dad’s face on my opponent’s. And I have so much hatred toward him, I just explode.”
Toney let a root of bitterness get a deep hold of him, and it was poisoning his life. He was having success on the outside, but the bitterness spoiled every victory.
ARE YOU GETTING TO THE ROOTS?
Many people attempt to bury the hurt and pain in their hearts or their subconscious minds. They don’t realize that their bad attitudes and behaviors flow from a poisoned heart. The Bible says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life” (Proverbs 4:23
KJV
).
If you want to live your best life now, you must be quick to forgive. You need to forgive so you can be free and happy. When we forgive, we’re not doing it just for the other person, we’re doing it for our own good. When we hold on to unforgiveness and live with grudges, we are simply shutting other people out of our lives. We become isolated, alone, warped, and imprisoned by our own bitterness.
Do you realize that those walls also prevent God’s blessings from pouring into your life? Those walls can stop the flow of God’s favor and keep your prayers from being answered. They’ll keep your dreams from coming to pass. You must forgive the people who hurt you so you can get out of prison. Get that bitterness out of your life. That’s the only way you’re going to truly be free.
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14–15).
You may experience genuine physical and emotional healing as you search your heart and are willing to forgive. You may see God’s favor in a fresh, new way. You’ll be amazed at what can happen when you release all that poison.
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NCE THE BITTER ROOT IS GONE, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO BREAK FREE FROM YOUR PAST.
Don’t let your setbacks become your identity.
My dad married at a very early age, and although he went into the relationship with the best of intentions, unfortunately, the marriage failed. Daddy was heartbroken and devastated. He didn’t think he’d ever preach again, much less have a family. He felt that God’s blessings had lifted from his life. Dealing with his divorce was the darkest hour of his life.
But years later, Daddy told me how he had to shake himself out of his doldrums. He had to quit mourning over what he had lost and start receiving God’s love. He accepted God’s forgiveness and mercy, and little by little, God not only restored his ministry, He increased it as well as giving my dad a new family, too.
TURN YOUR SCARS INTO STARS
Moving forward into the great future God has for you involves learning how to overcome the disappointments in your life. When you are lied to by a boss, betrayed by a friend, walked out on by a loved one, it’s natural to feel remorse or sorrow. Nobody expects you to be an impenetrable rock. These kinds of losses leave indelible scars, causing you to want to hold on to your grief. It is easy to want to seek revenge.
But you must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. Often, defeating disappointments and letting go of the past are the flip side of the same coin, especially when you are disappointed in yourself. When you do something wrong, don’t beat yourself up about it. Admit it, seek forgiveness, and move on. Be quick to let go of your mistakes and failures, hurts, pains, and sins.
And remember that God has promised that if you will put your trust in Him to bring about the justice in your life, He will pay you back for all the unfair things that have happened to you (Isaiah 61:7–9). That means you don’t have to go around trying to pay everybody back. God is your vindicator. Let Him fight your battles for you. Turn matters over to Him and let Him handle them His way (romans 12:19).
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“The Lord is wonderfully good to those who wait for him, to those who seek for him” (Lamentations 3:25
TLB
).
Don’t live in regret or remorse or sorrow. They will only interfere with your faith. Faith must always be a present-tense reality, not a distant memory. God can turn your situation around and make it all up to you, plus much more!
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OU CAN’T UNSCRAMBLE EGGS, SO WHY TRY?
FIND STRENGTH
Through Adversity
God has a divine purpose
for every challenge
that comes into our lives.
Trials test our character
and help shape our faith.
Keep on getting up in your heart, mind, and will.
I talked to a man the other day who had recently lost his job. He had been making a good salary working in a prestigious position, but then suddenly he was let go. I thought he would be upset and distraught. But when he came to see me, he had a big smile on his face and said, “Joel, I just lost my job, but I can’t wait to see what God has in store for me next!”
He had been knocked down by circumstances outside his control, but he was still standing up on the inside.
HOW DETERMINED ARE YOU?
Living your best life now is downright difficult sometimes. Many people give up far too easily when things don’t go their way or they face adversity. Instead of persevering, they get down and discouraged, which is understandable, especially when they’ve struggled with a problem for a long time.
But we have to be more determined than that. Our circumstances in life may occasionally knock us down, but we must not stay down. Even if you can’t see up on the outside, get up on the inside. Have that victor’s attitude and mentality.
To live your best life now, you must act on your will, not simply your emotions. Sometimes that means you have to take steps of faith even when you are hurting, grieving, or still reeling from an attack of the enemy. It will take courage; it will definitely take determination, but you can do it if you decide to do so.
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will still be standing firm” (Ephesians 6:13
NLT
).
Don’t allow yourself to wave the white flag of surrender. Set your face like a flint and say, “God, I may not understand this, but I know You are still in control. And You said all things would work together for my good. You said You would take this evil and turn it around and use it to my advantage. So, Father, I thank You that You are going to bring me through this!” No matter what you may face in life, if you know how to get up on the inside, adversities cannot keep you down.
D
EVELOP A VICTOR’S MENTALITY AND WATCH WHAT GOD BEGINS TO DO.
Take the pressure off your life by believing that God is at work.
Shelby was an attractive woman in her mid-thirties who genuinely desired to be married. She prayed and prayed but had never even had a serious relationship with a man. She was tempted to be discouraged, assuming she might spend her life as a single woman.
But one day she had a flat tire and pulled her car over to the side of the road. A few seconds later, another car pulled over and out stepped a handsome young man. He not only changed her tire, but he invited her out to dinner. Today they are married and wonderfully happy.
Now, think about the timing involved in their meeting. It all came down to the split second in both of their lives. This was no coincidence.
IS GOD LIKE AN ATM MACHINE TO YOU?
It is our nature to want everything to be right now. When we pray for our dreams to come to pass or for an adversity to pass, we want answers immediately. But we have to understand, God has an appointed time to answer our prayers. And no matter how badly we want it sooner, it’s not going to change His appointed time.
When we misunderstand God’s timing, we live upset and frustrated, wondering when God is going to do something. But when you understand God’s timing, you can relax, knowing that God is in control of your life and at the “appointed time” He is going to make it happen. It may be next week, next year, or ten years from now. But whenever it is, you can rest assured it will be in God’s timing.
God is not like an ATM machine, where you punch in the right prayer codes and receive what you requested within twenty-four hours. No, we all have to wait and learn to trust God. The key is, are we going to wait with a good attitude and expectancy, knowing God is at work whether we can see anything happening or not?
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“For the vision is yet for an appointed time; but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry” (Habakkuk 2:3
NKJV
).
We need to know that behind the scenes, God is putting all the pieces together. And one day, at the appointed time, you will see the culmination of everything that God has been doing.
G
OD OFTEN WORKS THE MOST WHEN WE SEE IT AND FEEL IT THE LEAST.
Contentment starts in your attitude.
David had a big dream for his life. He had a desire to make a difference, but as a young man he spent many years as a shepherd, caring for his father’s sheep. I’m sure there were plenty of times when he must have thought,
God, what am I doing here? There’s no future in this place. When are You going to change this situation?
But David understood God’s timing. He knew that if he would be faithful in obscurity, God would promote him at the right time. He knew God would bring his dreams to pass in due season.
You know the story. God brought David out of those fields, he defeated Goliath, and eventually he was made king of Israel.
ARE YOU TRYING TO FORCEDOORS OPEN?
Perhaps you have a big dream in your heart—a dream to have a a better marriage, a dream to own your own business, a dream to help hurting people—but like David, you don’t really see any human way your dream could happen.
We don’t always understand God’s methods. His ways don’t always make sense to us, but we have to realize that God sees the big picture. God isn’t limited to natural, human ways of doing things. Consider this possibility: You may be ready for what God has for you, but someone in your life, who is going to be involved, is not ready yet. God has to do a work in them or another situation before your prayer can be answered according to God’s will for your life. All the pieces have to come together for it to be God’s perfect time.
But never fear; God is getting everything lined up in your life. You may not feel it; you may not see it. Your situation may look just as it did for the past ten years, but then one day, in a split second of time, God will bring it all together. When it is God’s timing, all the forces of darkness can’t stop Him. When it’s your due season, God will bring it to pass.
Quiet your heart and receive God’s Word:
“But I trust in you, O Lord; I say, ‘You are my God.’ My times are in your hands” (Psalm 31:14–15).
Don’t grow impatient and try to force doors to open. Don’t try to make things happen in your own strength. The answer will come, and it will be right on time. He will bring your dreams to pass. Rest in Him!
L
ET GOD DO IT
H
IS WAY.