WHAT TO DO WHEN IT'S NOT FUN ANYMORE

Have you ever found yourself in your normal routine and you’re doing something you used to really like but you realize you don’t like it anymore? It happened to me a couple weeks ago. What do we do?

Step one is to admit we don’t like it. As the psychiatrist might ask: “How does it make you feel?” We’re not going to make rash decisions based on feelings but we’re not going to deny them either. Feelings are just that, feelings. They aren’t good or bad. The devil didn’t invent emotions. God gave them to us. Like a barometer, they’re good for monitoring our atmospheric pressure.

We need to openly admit that something has changed in the activity or something has changed in us to make us feel unhappy with what we’re doing. If we’re going to move ahead with a healthy attitude, there’s no more room for pretending that everything is okay. Step one: How does the activity make us feel?

Step two is to take a good look at the activity and answer a few simple questions. Often we float through activities without giving them much thought. I was involved in a weight loss program for the past three years. I reached my goal weight, kept it off and developed good eating habits. There came a point when I felt like I wasn’t really learning anything new and the flavor of the weekly meetings soured.

My friend Miki kept asking, “Why are you still going? You don’t need to.” I’d give her some lame answer and just kept on going. (It’s funny how sometimes other people see us better than we see ourselves.) Well, I finally took a closer look myself.

In Quantum physics (for you science buffs) there’s something that relates to what I’m talking about. Atoms consist of electrons orbiting around a nucleus. The electrons exist in a wave state, like a cloud, whirling about the nucleus. That is, until someone looks at it. When the scientist observes it, suddenly the electron appears as a dot or particle and no longer a wave. It can be like that with our lives—things, activities, people and ideas all whirling about us. They don’t take distinct form until we actually observe them.

In step two, once we stop to take a good look at the disagreeable activity, we ask a few simple questions.  “Why do I feel this way now, when I didn’t before?” “Has the activity changed?” “Have I changed?” Once we answer these questions we’re ready to move on to Step three.

In step three we ask ourselves, “Even though I’m unhappy with this activity now, is it moving me toward my goals?” If it’s not, then it’s time to pray about dropping it. With the weight loss program, I’d already reached my goals. When I prayed about it, it was okay to drop it right away. 

With other things the Holy Spirit may direct us to wait or take baby steps toward leaving the activity behind. Praying for the Lord’s guidance will be essential. We want to be praying for the manifestations of the Spirit according to First Corinthians 12, especially word of knowledge and word of wisdom.  If we’re in doubt whether we should keep doing the activity or let it go, then we need to go on to the next and final step four.

Step four is the last step. We ask the question, “Are the benefits of this activity worth the pain to stay with it?” Jesus said, “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?” (Luke 14:28 & 31). On a piece of paper or the computer we make a list of the benefits, then a list of the detriments to staying with this activity. We prayerfully take the time to weigh the worth.

We’re half way through 2014. It’s a good time to examine our goals and the activities we’re doing in light of those goals. We ask ourselves, “What are my major goals: in relationships, in work, in exercise and health, in religious and spiritual matters, in finances, in entertainment and relaxation, in hobbies and special interests?” 

Then we take each category and observe the activities around each. We make those activities stop swirling like a cloud and instead become clear like the electron dots of an atom. If there are activities we’re unhappy with, we carefully go through the four steps.  

Step One: How does the activity make me feel? Step Two: What has changed? Step Three: Is the activity putting me closer to my goal and if not, how do I drop it? Step Four: Is this activity worth the cost?

NOTE: You may want to do this exercise one goal category at a time (bite-sized pieces). That’s what I’m doing, taking one more hefty goal and then the entertainment one, having some fun with it.

Love, Carolyn

PS: This coming Thursday through Monday get your FREE download of WINGS SAMPLE BOOK A. For this sample book I’ve chosen chapters specifically about the POWER OF WORDS to direct our lives. These chapters are true life stories about the tremendous and varied BENEFITS OF CHOOSING WORDS WISELY. There are pertinent questions that go with each story to further help the reader look at his or her life and see HOW to apply the keys for more satisfying and victorious living.

GOD DOESN'T LIKE IT WHEN HIS PEOPLE DON'T GET PAID

I hate it when I see people getting cheated out of their money. I’ve seen it three different times here in Vegas in the last month and that’s way too much. It’s serious business with God. He despises the idea of us not getting what we’re owed. He’s waiting for us to ask Him to rise up to His full power to avenge us. It’s not automatic.

We have to first know what the will of God is and what the Bible says about the situation, to be able to call down what’s rightfully ours. James 5:4 says, “Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” In other words the money (hire) is crying out to get to the workers where it belongs and the people are crying out to get their money.

The Lord of Sabaoth (Greek for Lord of Hosts) hears and rises up from His throne ready to take action for us. Whenever the Bible talks about the Lord of Sabaoth or the Lord of Hosts it’s God in His anger and wrath against the evils done to His people. It’s not a pretty thing when the Lord of Hosts is smoking furious!

Psalm 18 gives us the picture of what happens. David cried out in his distress and it says the earth shook and trembled and even the foundations were shaken because God was so angry. “There went smoke out of his nostrils and the fire out of His mouth.” Usually we see God sitting on His throne, but not in this case: “He bent the heavens and came down with thunder and hail and fire” (vss. 9&13).

Romans 9:29 tells us it was the Lord of Sabaoth, the Lord of Hosts, who was behind the annihilation of Sodom and Gomorrah. If it wasn’t for God’s mercy no one would have been left alive. Psalm 46:7 says the Lord of Hosts “uttered his voice, the earth melted.” Psalm 24:8 tells us the Lord of Hosts is strong and mighty in battle.

We don’t even want our worst enemies to get the consequences of the Lord of Hosts when He’s teed off. When people consciously do wrong or are disobedient to God’s will, they’re walking on a dangerous mine field and will definitely get explosive results.

In the Old Testament Law people were supposed to be paid on the day they worked. Leviticus 19:13 says, “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him: the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning.”

Deuternonomy 24:15 says, “At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it; for he is poor and setteth his heart upon it: lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.”
And Jeremiah says, “Woe unto him that useth his neighbour’s service without wages, and giveth him not for his work” (Jer 22:13).

These days we usually don’t get paid on the day we work, but whatever the agreement is, whether weekly, bi-weekly or otherwise, it needs to be adhered to. If not, we have a perfect right to get the Lord of Hosts involved. How do we activate this? It’s not automatic. God has His part, but we have our part too.

My friend, Kathy, was promised her money on Wednesday or Thursday last week. She didn’t get it. On Friday I told her about the Lord of Sabaoth and she immediately said, “Lord of Sabaoth come down and get Johnson to pay me.” Within the hour she got her money, but not all of it, not what she was promised. According to the Word of God, it’s not looking good for Johnson right now. He better pay her.

When something like this happens we have to exercise our faith to get our money. Faith in what? Faith in the scriptures, that the Lord of Hosts will go after our money and get it to us. If you don’t know these scriptures that I’ve included here, then take them down and start saying them out loud until you believe and trust them.

Psalm 84:12 says, “O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.” We have to trust in the Lord of Hosts, that He will do what He says He will do. Then we lock onto our money like a stealth missile and we pull it in. We follow any other instructions the Holy Spirit gives us as far as affirmative action we may need to take. I’ve been in this position a number of times and each time the action I had to take was uncomfortable but I did it anyway and every time it worked out and I got my money.

When we pray and claim these scriptures, the Lord of Hosts will put so much pressure on the person, they will probably want to pay us as fast as possible to get the pressure off.

We keep the pressure on with faith latched onto our money like a pit bull. We do any corresponding Holy Spirit-inspired action. We can also pray for and loose angels on our behalf to facilitate what the scriptures promise—in this case, our rightful pay. We don’t let up.

But if our clients or bosses stay stubborn and stupid, the consequences will come. Isaiah 1 (vss. 24, 28 &29) says if they don’t do what’s right they’re going to be consumed. Where they were strong like an oak tree, they’ll start to fade and lose things and life. They’ll be like a garden without water. My sunflowers would die in two days if I didn’t water them daily.

Believe me, clients and bosses would rather pay than suffer the consequences of holding out on the Lord of Sabaoth!

I hope you will take this message to heart. Together we can stop this horrible new trend with the Word of God, one paycheck at a time.

Love, Carolyn

PS: FREE DOWNLOAD this coming Thursday - Part 3 of WINGS: A JOURNEY IN FAITH. Each chapter is a stand-alone story of spiritual victory for our daily challenges.