I won’t go into too much detail about the source of divine inspiration for this blog post, because I will be unpacking it in much greater depth next Monday on episode 4 of Trials & Triumph. However, as I’ve been sharing with you about how God has been revealing truths to me that all share a common theme: Attitude, or mindset.

What really blows me away is that, for over fifteen years, I’ve resigned myself to the notion that my spiritual mindset was more a fixed thing than a part of my life that I can, and should, invest in myself to grow and change. I have always had this thought that when I became a Christian (accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, having died for the sins of the world), that I crossed that spiritual threshold and should just simply try to live a better life and focus on God.

That’s okay, and there’s no shame in coming to the realization that your life has been of that attitude and understanding. But here’s where it gets interesting:

To use myself as an example, I thought I had to,…

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(let me rethink my choice of words)…

I thought it would be good of me to start watching my mouth or spend more time at church. Maybe I would offer to say the blessing before a meal every so often (and it not be “God is great, God is good,…)

As I gradually began to understand over those fifteen years what my relationship with God really meant, the fact that I made a diluted effort to pick and choose the things that I wanted to, or felt I should improve on in my life, gives me a clear answer as to why I have had so much stress, anxiety, failure, and setbacks in my life. Not because God made it that way, no! In fact, God has been calling my name for all these years, trying to get my attention, attempting to realign my steps towards His direction.

Remember a few weeks ago when I said that it suddenly seems that the world is not as noisy to me as it once and always was? It’s very hard to drown out every distraction, but when you realize that your focus and attention on God and the Holy Spirit is in its clearest state, through an attitude of prayer, those distractions become less obtrusive.

I definitely want for you, as well as myself, to begin this week by recognizing that we can grow into the person that God wants us to be, and it takes some work to learn how to reshape our minds, our attitudes, but also our actions.

It’s a tug-of-war to talk about praying and abiding in God while also trying to live a better life, one more aligned with the teachings of Scripture, which is why I am going to really dig deeper into this on the podcast next Monday. Until then, I hope you’ll join me in getting away from the noise and listening for what God is calling you to focus on in your heart.