Focus Your Life - Oct 07

The next ten years can be the greatest of your life. They can become a Decade of Destiny, where your life is focused and, as a result, you're able to make an impact in all you do.

To get where you believe God wants you to go and be what you know God wants you to be, there are several steps you need to take that will get you focused --

First, determine your present position -- You've got to know where you are before you can know where you are going. To do that, ask yourself two questions:

Where am I now? Where are you spiritually, financially, emotionally, relationally, physically, and occupationally?

What would I like to change? In all of those areas you identified, what would you like to be different?

God promised Abraham that he would become the father of a great nation. But in Genesis 24, we find Abraham is now an old man and his son, Isaac, still doesn't have any children yet. Abraham assessed the situation and, as a result, he sent his servant, Eliezer, to find a wife for Isaac.

An important principle here is that it is never too late for you to make a change in your life, even though making the change may take longer than you think. This is why you can't procrastinate. You can either drift through the next ten years or you can have direction over the next ten years. God wants you to have direction.

I figured out where to get these daily devos so we will start these starting tomarrow
good day to y'all

soryr guys was sooo busy yesterday....

I really like this. The next few years for ALL OF US will probably the most important for most of us. It will determine what our future will hold. What schools we will go to, what careers we will pursue and it will also be the toughest times for us spiritually because going to University, you are independent so you may turn away form God. Im sure that each and every one of us has something that they'd like to change about themselves. Weather it be there knowledge, their personality, their appearance, or the way people see them, or the relationship with Christ. Whatever it may be, it is never to late to change. Of course for us, we have so much time ahead of us but that doesnt mean that we should worry about changing in the future. Whatever we want to change, we should try to change it NOW.

Before you can fully accept God, you have to know where you stand and you have to know yourself fully. We may sometimes hide our true natures or our "bad side" because we're embarrassed about it. But the only way to get rid of the embarrassment and the self consciousness is to just accept it.

Lets keep up with the devos guys

At any given moment, I feel that we need to have a vision towards our main goal. Also, passion should also help us reach that goal. If it doesn't, maybe it's not a goal that we should be considering. Having a step by step plan is a great approach, doing this will change this, which would help me reach this, etc. But we have to fix our eyes on that goal each and every day. Just like how we need to take up the cross daily, we have to remind ourselves what we're fighting for, and what we strive to achieve. I like to pray for strength and the will to study so I could live a God-honouring life, financially supporting my family, funding missions, etc. Even though I'm so nervous on how my marks are going to turn out, I know that God will ALWAYS have something in store for me, regardless of what I study and where I go for university.

This devo taught me a lesson that will prove to be very valuable, especially during the next 10 years of my life as it pointed out.  When there is structure in our life, we show God that we want Him to work in our lives and that we invite Him to help us become who He wants us to be and to do what He wants us to do.  In a way it is like showing God that we are ready for Him to lead and guide us as the next few years may be full of doubts and hard decisions, by acknowledging where we are and what we would like to improve, we surrender to God's will to work in changing and molding ourselves to who He wants us to become.  This devo was pretty short and this short response sums up my thoughts on it, but the lesson here is huge- Have direction in your life- Know where you've been, where you are are, and where you are going.  Trust in God for guidance.

Thinking about the future is kind of exciting yet at the same time somewhat intimidating and worrisome. I think we worry a lot of what we don't know, and that's somewhat exactly how some of us see the future. However, if we cultivate an idea of where we want to go in life for the near future or a certain time period we can begin to set long-term goals and hopefully form an ultimate destination. I don't think we were meant to wander around aimlessly in life, but rather set our eyes focused on a goal that we can work hard towards achieving.
I think to set future goals, plans, etc., we have to focus on what we have now, be thankful for the blessings and strengths we have, and focus on how we can improve (by improving upon our weaknesses, or something we want to be great at, not just moderate). We have to reflect on our past, learn from it and build upon those lessons we learnt to apply for, hopefully, success in the future.
Also, it's best to keep in mind that achievement of our goals come with hard work and sacrifice. We can't expect things to just be given to us on a silver plate. Nothing worth having ever comes easy, we have to work hard for it. This also makes it more worthwhile when a goal is accomplished because you KNOW you earned it.
Furthermore, I think it's also important to remember to set goals and NOT expectations. There's not a whole lot of guarantee in the future, so we can't expect outrageous things from it. We can't expect that particular things FOR SURE will HAPPEN. Especially because expectations can set our hopes to something where there's no assurance. Goals allow us to work hard towards it and gives us overall more satisfaction, reward, and a feeling of accomplishment out of it.
Lastly, we can try to control our lives through this way by setting a plan for the future and long-term goals, but we have to keep in mind that the person who's ultimately in control is God. We can set plans, but it will always still be all about surrendering to God: surrendering to The One who creates the future. Trust Him.


9 In their hearts humans plan their course,
   but the Lord establishes their steps.
Proverbs 16:9

I think I have quite a wanderlust-like perspective on life. I'm usually more the type to just go with the flow, except for some major aspects (ie. post-secondary, career(s), etc.).
So, my life in ten years is not exactly a clear picture (like Jeremy No's  ) but here goes anyway.

I believe that setting goals, actually focusing on our future with God and his plans in mind, is how we should be living our next ten years, to fulfill our life with God's plan for us. I've recently began thinking: what could God possibly want from me and my life, based on what I have, what I'm good at, and what I lack?

I've always thought about my future (as a kid) and planned what would happen to me at what time, and what I would be. I whirled my way through 50 different occupation wannabe phases (didn't know how to phrase that) and imagined and planned my way through. Now, it's always: who's really in control of my life? Who's really controlling my destiny? And the answer in this devo is saying: God is in control of everything. He writes the story, but a character can't be lifeless and not do anything, just waiting for things to happen. Instead, we must ready ourselves, focus on life with God in mind, and pray always.

Think about this:
Every moment, minute, second can hold many things. You could be studying, praying, or maybe doing nothing. There are so many things we can do, it's up to us for what really will do.
There are some habits that we can change. If you don't know specifically what you need to fix, reflect on what is dragging you down. But it's hard to change your habits, even when you know what you have to improve on.
Gradual change or a table-turining decision, you have to make that choice to move forward.
Stop procrastinating and take action.

It's never too late to change.
~Audrey|