Commitment...

I don't know about you but sometimes I feel like I am lacking commitment in many areas of my life. I have grand ambitions and dreams and I know that God is going to take me higher than I have ever been before but sometimes I just get tired of pushing myself and pressing forward. My commitment lacks passion becuase I have pushed myself so hard for such extended periods of time that I just want to stop and relax. What do people do when they are lacking commitment and drive to keep pushing onward towards their goals? What is it that makes a man relentless and tireless when their body is telling them to quit or to take a break? I can only tell you from my own experience what causes me to slow down and what makes me have a spirit of lazyness. I feel most run down when I stop doing what I know I need to do which is staying in the Word of God. When I stop having my quiet time and stop reading God's word on a daily basis is when I feel most tired and also when I am tempted the most in every aspect of my life. Getting God's word on the inside of you inspires you to keep pushing forward and it gives you the spark of passion that you need to keep up your commitments whether they be to someone else or to yourself. Just from my own personal experience I can tell you that if you stop feeding on the Word of God and ingesting the truth and passion that comes from the pages of the bible you will Lack commitment to whatever you are trying to accomplish becuase it is God who sustains us and gives us the Power, Determination and Discipline needed to keep pressing on when we feel like we can't take another step. The days that I don't feel very powerful are the days or weeks that I have been depriving myself of the Word of God. Lately I have been so tired in the mornings that I can't make myself get out of bed for anything and I have been sleeping as late as I possibly can to get every last minute of sleep before I have to get up and get ready for work. I used to get up at 5AM every day and spend an hour and a half reading my bible and other Christian books; filling myself with the Word of God and preparing myself for the day that is ahead of me. It was something that motivated me and gave me passion to work as hard as I could and truly be a blessing to someone that day. I have also committed myself to working out 4 times a week and getting up 2 days a week and working out before I go to work and I just haven't been able to motivate myself to do that either for various reasons. As I look back over the last 2 weeks I can see that my level of committment has gone down and I can directly corelate it to my daily walk with God. My favorite bible verse that establishes this principal is Isaiah 40:31 which says, "But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint." This verse is the principal and promise on which we should govern our lives and our daily activities. I only wish that I would have remembered this over the past 2 weeks and many times before that because I have lost sight of what my committments are and where I draw my strength from. I need to trust in the Lord and he will renew my strength. He will give me Power and Discipline to push forward when I feel like sleeping in and strength when I feel like I can't go any farther. To soar on wings like eagles is a magical picture of the true power of God and the power of resting in Him and relying on Him to renew our strength and committment when we feel like giving up. Eagles can soar at amazing heights, up to 10,000 feet in the air and because of their enormous wing span they can ride the wind without having to use any energy which greatly increases their territory they can cover to hunt. Eagles are at the top of the food chain and one of the most beautiful and elegant birds on this earth, yet they are also one of the most powerful and agressive birds as well. To soar on wings like eagles gives us the power to save our energy for the real fight that we are going through, we get to conserve our energy and rest in God's mighty power that He gives us to sustain us when we feel weak. It's an amazing picture of the awesome power of God and the necessity to be connected to His power through the daily reading of His Word.
Committment is something that is hard for us naturally. It's easy to say you are going to do something in the heat of the moment and for awhile you stick to it because it's something that you are determined to do. But after awhile the emotion of that moments wears off and you have to re-evaluate the choice you made and decide again in your mind that you are going to reapply yourself to do whatever it takes to achieve your goal that you set in the past. Everyone gets tired and everyone lacks in committment and discipline every once and awhile, it's just part of life. The real test is to see if you can stick it out and achieve the goals that you set for yourself in the face of adversity and if you can muster up the discipline and strength to do the hard things when you don't feel like doing it anymore. Discipline is the WORD of the new year for me. I am going to explore every meaning of the word discipline and figure out what it means to me and I'm going to take that meaning to a new level. I have to be disciplined in every area of my life because that's what God has called me to be. I want to strive for Excellence in every area of my life because it's my destiny. It's part of the Glory of God that Jesus has given me through His death on the cross and resurection from the grave. So if you are lacking committment and discipline like I am I invite you to take the challenge with me. Figure out what discipline and committment mean to you and what you need to apply yourself more to this new year. Once you figure out what you need to do find the passion within yourself to see it through to the end and rely on God to give you the strength needed to make it happen. Like my pastor always says; it's our job to BELIEVE, it's God's job to do the IMPOSSIBLE!!! I have learned that it's not by my strength that I am able to achieve my goals but my strength comes from staying in the Word of God. When I spend time with God daily in prayer and in the bible I find the strength to stay on course and I am in a position to win. I am committing myself today and from this day forward to spend time daily in the Word of God; I hope you will join me in this challenge, it will change your life. God's blessings for you today and have a Merry Christmas!!! Take time to read the Christmas Story in Luke with your family. I'm going to do that tonight and it's going to become a tradition in the Hayes household to make sure to remember the Reason for the Season of Christmas which is the birth of Jesus our savior. I love you JESUS!!!!

If God is the CEO...

My thoughts on the way to work this morning while I was driving and talking to God turned towards the thought of what Jesus said when he was 12 years old when he stayed behind at the temple to confront the teachers while his parents left to go home with the rest of his family. His parents were worried sick about him because they couldn't find him for 3 days and finally they went back to the temple and found him there talking with the teachers of the law. When they asked him why he had done this to them, caused them so much pain and grief by abandoning them and making them worry about him and where he was Jesus simply said,"Why did you seek me, didn't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" Just the thought that we are son's and daughter's of God, and brothers and sisters of Jesus is an amazing thought that our little brains really can't fully comprehend kinda like eternity and living forever in heaven with the angels. It's just a little over my head. But to think of Kingdom business, working for God and doing things His way and living your life for Him is a little easier to understand with our human brains. If you think of this world like a business and God as the CEO then we are walking around wherever we are as the Bosses Sons and Daughters; what a great feeling. If you are the bosses kid then you have every advantage there is and nothing is impossible for you, you are an heir to inherit the family business and you have the privilege that goes along with being the CEO's child. Just knowing that the God of the Universe is your father and you are His beloved child is something that I know I need to think about more often because if I think in terms of being the bosses kid then I will have more confidence in every step I take and in every move I make because I know that I am blessed and if God is on my side I can't FAIL. If you think of God as your father, your loving Father then you will realize that if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing then you have every advantage in the whole world at your disposal; all you have to do is ask and believe that He will provide everything you need because He want's you to succeed and He delights in our faith in Him as our Father. That is His role in our life, our Father.
God is my CEO and I am his son; nobody can stop this train from heading straight to the TOP. Anything is Possible with God on my side and I am going to start believing that in every situation that I come across and every moment in my life. God's blessings on your life today. Thank God for everything He does for you today. He made the sun come up this morning just for you...

The Promised Land...

I've been struggling with something lately that I want to get off my chest. Since I started my new job I have been struggling with a spirit of insecurity about my ability to do my job well and that I can and will be the best at what God has given me to do. I have been feeling weak and insecure for some reason and I am fighting against this spirit everyday when I get to the office. It is getting better for me, I am believing in myself and my ability more and more everyday and believing that God put me here in this place and in this position for a reason but it's still hard. I know I am in a war for the battle of my mind and that this spirit that I am dealing with isn't from God but just another attempt from the devil to distract me and make me miss the promise of God for my life. I am reading and studying how to overcome the storms of life, I am learning how to be better at my job by studying and constantly educating myself and I am listening to motivational messages from my pastor on the way to and from work everyday to get myself in the right mindset to be the best I can be. I know I am on the right path it's just hard fighting this battle everyday and I know that everyone is fighting some kind of battle so I'm not alone.
Some of the things I am learning about and putting into practice I would like to share with you and reinforce them in my own mind as well. I have had the revelation from God that He has put me in this job, at this point in my life and at this time in history for a purpose and His purpose for my life is for me to be the BEST and to achieve great things. I have put my story up against the children of Israel after Moses led them out of Egypt and before they were about to enter the promised land. God told them to go spy out the land and bring back a report to all the congregation and tell them what they found out. God already knew what was there but He wanted them to see for themselves and trust that God would provide the way for them to receive the land that He had already promised to give them. They saw that the land was filled with giants and they lived in great cities; they were afraid and they brought back a bad report. Out of the 12 spies, the leaders of the 12 tribes, only 2 men said that they were able to overcome the obstacle and believed that since God had already told them that He would give them this land they believed that God would provide the way to overcome the giants and their fortified cities. This is how I feel sometimes. I see the huge mountain ahead of me, the trials, the number of other sales people and companies out there, the people who have been doing this longer than I have and who are better naturally at it than I am. I see all of this and the huge mountain ahead of me and I can easily get discouraged and I actually started to about a week ago when God reveled this to me and it opened my eyes to the Truth that God wants us to know. GOD brought me to this place just like He brought the Israelites to the promised land; He gave me this job out of His own good pleasure and I have to believe that He didn't give me this job for me to fail. There's a reason why I am here and He wants me to succeed and be the best. He wants me to bring His Supernatural Power to this place and change not only my business but my industry. He wants me to trust Him and His Power that is within me to be the best; I just have to believe and put in the work and effort that is needed. He will show me the way and if I do my part and work as hard as I can unto the Lord I will prosper. That is what God wants for every one of us in everything we do. He wants us to Trust Him and have Faith that He has given us His Supernatural Power to do what He has called us to do in our lives. We are all special in His sight and He has plans to use us for great and mighty things if we will just believe in Him and also believe in ourselves. That is where a lot of us fall short, we don't believe that we are the BEST at what we do. We might believe that we are good or that we know what we're doing but God wants us to be the best at what we do and He wants us to succeed. With God on our side whom shall we fear? If God is for us Who can be against us? With God all things are Possible and we need to put that in our hearts and believe that with every fiber in our bodies because it's the TRUTH from GOD Himself that He wants us to believe.
I have been struggling with this spirit of insecurity and it is still in the back of my mind but I am going to keep telling myself and believing that I am the best at what I do and I have every hope that God is going to provide for me what He has promised and that is a hope for a future and an expected end. Things are going to be great, in fact things are already great in my future because I am believing that now and seeing it happen in the future. I am hearing what God is saying and He is saying that I am His son and He wants me to be the best so that's what I'm going to believe and that's what I am going to think from now on. Put the spirit of insecurity on the shelf and never pick it up again because you have a Heavenly Father that wants the BEST for His children, He wants to see you succeed and He will make a way for you to achieve your goals if you will just believe the promise that He has given you. The wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. Just don't forget to say thank you when God gives it to you. God's blessings on your life today.

The Peter principal...

Peter was one of the 12 disciples of Jesus and was a part of Jesus' inner circle of friends that He shared everything with. Peter was completely obedient to Jesus even though he was only a fisherman and didn't always Get It when Jesus was trying to explain things to the disciples. He loved Jesus and said that he would die for him even if every other man left his side. He had the guts to step out of the boat and come to Jesus on the water and God revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ and the Son of God. Peter was special to Jesus and He told Peter that because of his strong faith and conviction God had appointed him an apostle and told him that He would build His church through his testimony. Peter's original name was Simon but Jesus changed it to Peter which means Rock and He said that he would build His church upon this Rock.
I give you this background because something has been on my heart today and I wanted to share it with you. Peter was the one whom Jesus said that He would build his church through and Peter told Jesus that he would die for him and that no matter what happened Peter would never leave Jesus' side. Yet this same man, the one who told Jesus that he would die for him, denied the Christ 3 times like Jesus said he would on the night of Jesus' capture and must have felt the unbearable pain and suffering of failure and disgrace that night like nobody in the world has felt before. I was thinking about this on the way to work this morning. How easy it is for us to hang our heads and feel sorry for ourselves when we screw up or when we do something we know we shouldn't have done. When we let our families down and our friends down we feel ashamed and even if they forgive us we have a hard time forgiving ourselves and we let the burden stay on our backs for much longer than God wants us to. I got to thinking about poor Peter. How do you deny knowing Jesus even though Jesus forgave him and told him that he was going to do it in the first place? How do you get over that feeling of shame, disgrace and overall self-loathing that comes with denying Jesus 3 times on the most important day in all of history? Yet Peter went onto be one of the greatest apostles of all and did wind up dying for Jesus on a cross upside down because he didn't feel worthy to die the same way as his King. What must have gone through Peter's mind those days following Jesus' death and resurrection? Can you imagine the pain and suffering that he must have put himself through during those days? The guilt and shame of abandoning your best friend and savior must have been almost unbearable. I can understand Peter's thought process and the feelings he must have been having, the thoughts that must have been going through his mind all of those days. I know that when I have done things in the past I didn't want to talk to God because I was so ashamed much less go to Church and worship Him or Praise Him. I didn't feel like a son of God should feel because of the guilt in my heart and soul. But the funny thing is that God has already seen everything you and I will do in our lives and He has forgiven us before it even happens. God Loves us and He doesn't want to see us live in unforgivness of ourselves because it will eat us up. We have to realize that we are forgiven and move on in repentance, learning a lesson from it all so we don't do it again in the future. Peter must have had an awful couple of weeks, reflecting on the things he said and the way he spoke about his best friend and teacher but when Jesus appeared to the women and to the other disciples He told them to tell Peter specifically that He was alive. Before Jesus was arrested He told Peter that the devil asked to sift him like wheat but for Peter not to lose his faith. This is how I feel right now and the promise that I am keeping in my heart from now on. I am going to do everything I can to keep from sinning but if I do I will always come back to God and ask forgiveness, repent and receive the forgiveness that God has promised me as a child of His. He is our loving Father and He has forgiven us of all of our sins past, present and future. When Peter saw Jesus sitting on the shore while he was fishing in his boat Peter jumped out of the boat and swam as fast as he could to see his friend. It must have been the best time of his life because he got to see the love in his friends eyes and feel the forgiveness in his smile. From that moment on Peter was a great and mighty Warrior for God and as far as I know he never lost heart again because he knew that he was forgiven. We should feel the same way. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you today. God's blessings to you.