Category Archives: Living the Christian Life

Living the Christian life is a journey of suffering and joy. It’s a road on the way to Damascus. These stories include what it means to live as a fisher of men in modern day times.

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Consider That It Might Be God

When circumstances in your life start to shift, at least consider that it might be God.
 
considering God, listening to God, God's voice, trishakeehn.comWhen you are confused or curious about the way things are going and which direction to walk in, ask God if there’s something he’d like to say to you.
 
And be willing to trust Him.
 
Sometimes it’s the heart we’re bringing into the throne room that’s holding us back from hearing God’s voice. If you haven’t followed through on His nudges in the past, what’s inviting God to share the plans He has for your life?
 
Agree in advance that you will be faithful with the follow through. Then open your hands, open your heart, and be attentive to any small way he might use to communicate with you. Listen and keep your eyes open. What’s the downside?
 
It is these little acts of obedience that invite God’s power to fully flow in our lives.
And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. – Isaiah 30:21
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Crack the Confusion

3 Steps That Will Determine Every Decision

Are you struggling to make a decision? The battle over your time can keep your strengths and dreams locked up in procrastination, confusion, and forgetfulness. Life is based on making decisions, and not making them holds you hostage to compromise in your calling.

You can spend more time dreaming about tomorrow and rob the opportunities to walk out the steps today. Moses used his speech as an excuse. Jeremiah and Gideon used their age. There’s no shortage of excuses that can tie up the process.

Whether you are a parent, a spouse, a leader, or someone passionate about a cause, your choices need internal clarity and courage versus external social pressure.

Lord, grant me the boldness that I may speak forth (Acts 4:29).

The truth is that what you do today will determine whether you have success with tomorrow. And, some invitations that look like opportunities today can actually distract and derail you from the best use of time.

“Doing something good is not good enough”, says Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism – The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. This is not selective enough criteria for your time. So how do you start making strategic decisions that support the work of your life?

McKeown offers advice on how to make the decisions based on what’s essential to your life. He suggests starting with this question, ‘What is most important right now’? McKeown recommends three steps to benchmark a discerning ‘yes’:

  • Identify the three most important priorities in your life.
  • Use your priorities to decide what the criteria for saying ‘yes’ to an opportunity will be.
  • Set a plan for the next 90 days centered on this criteria and these priorities.

Fear can have you struggling to say ‘no’. You might be afraid this answer will shut down other opportunities, or result in a frayed relationship. You might be tempted to accept a request based on a ‘what if’ scenario you’ve dreamed up. Just say ‘no’.

I have boldness and access with confidence by faith in Christ (Eph. 3:12). I boldly say, “The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man will do to me” (Heb. 13:6).

You must eliminate every excuse that is hindering you from doing what you have been called to do. There is no rationalization worth stopping the success God has already set before you. God’s grace is sufficient.

I come boldly to the throne of grace, that I may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need (Heb. 4:16).

Successful people are doers of the Word (James 1:22). This means you can’t sit passively and expect a lucrative life. If you want to experience the full provision of God’s covenant operating in your time, then you must be proactive with your response to these decisions.

When you waver or avoid choices that need to be made, you open up a door to doubt. When we don’t have clarity, the enemy capitalizes on the uncertainty with more questions to cause confusion.

You can’t be slow to act when God is telling you to move. You are commanded in Romans 12:11 to be “fervent in spirit [and to] serve the Lord.”

When we feel like we’re going nowhere, this keeps our minds feeling defeated. And if we’re not careful, we can become tired and idle. So let’s make that plan centered around our priorities and start making bold decisions based on the Lord’s calling in our lives.

I will be strong and courageous; I will not be afraid, for the Lord is with me wherever I go (Josh. 1:9).

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This post, Crack the Confusion, by Trisha Keehn, appeared first on LiftUpYourDay.com

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Celebrate Today

The Gift of Joy is Yours

the gift of today, celebrate today, choose joy today, embrace life, live, live freely, trishakeehn.com, joy, peace
The greatest gift I have been given today is J O Y. It is where we get our strength.

Not every day is a walk in the garden of roses. Sometimes it’s more like patches of thorns. But even then, it is a day the Lord has made. I have a choice to be glad in it. I can choose to have a good attitude through it. I make the choice to extend good things to someone else, no matter what has happened.

The enemy can change up the circumstances, but joy in the Lord is lasting. Defeat only comes when I hand over my joy to fickle situations. I choose to rise above everything that comes against me and keep my focus on the Lord’s unwavering goodness. Today, I have the gift of J O Y.

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We Still Hope

Lord, I thank you for the gift of today. I choose to focus on what’s right and not dwell on what’s wrong.

God, I know that you are bigger than anything that I’m facing and that you have me in the palm of your hand.

I believe that every chain trying to hold me down is being broken right now in the name of Jesus. Every stronghold trying to stop me is being loosened in the name of Jesus.against all odds, we still hope, against all logic, hope, trishakeehn.com

Lord, You said what was meant for my harm, You turn and use for my advantage. So I shake off the burdens and declare that I have victory in Jesus. I put my shoulders back and hold my head up high.

I thank you Lord for all you’ve done in the past and I boldly confess that my greatest victories are still out in front of me. I let go of the old and take the limits off of You, Jesus.

I live from a place of peace and rest knowing You, my God, are for me… who can be against me?

This is my declaration, Jesus. I speak of your strength and joy rising up from the inside as I place my trust and confidence in You, Almighty God.

So breathe in my direction, Jesus. Comfort me in the disappointments and loss. Give me beauty for ashes. Restore my health. Rebuild my relationships and make me brand new. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Make this your declaration if you too need to let the devil hear it loud and very clear: Against all odds… Against all logic… we still have H O P E!

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The Hope In Your Hardship

God is here, God is closer than your bones, a new song will be on your lips, it is a new day, His light has surely comeEven with tears streaming down your cheeks, lift up your eyes and see that Heaven is closer than you know. Beloved, open your ears to a new song. His love can’t be undone. And though this won’t take away the wreckage you’re sorting through. The pain will still sting. There may be consequences you have yet to face. But you’re not stuck here.

Let these words wipe away a few tears; He’s closer right now than your skin and bones. He’s breathing deep into the broken parts and resurrecting a new life. Know that He will never leave you and His love won’t let you go. He is here.

Open your mouth and let your voice carry a new song. It is a new day. His light has surely come.

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The God of a Con-Artist

God is not just the God of good people. He is a God over all the failures and mess ups in humanity and He’s asking you to be something you think you cannot be and He wants you to do something you think you cannot do.

In Exodus 3, Moses was tending sheep when an angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. Moses looked up and saw the bush burning, yet the brush was not consumed.

God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And Moses said, “Here I am.” God instructed Moses to take off his sandals on the holy ground. And then God shared this, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”

Wait, Wait, Wait… the God of Jacob?

Abraham was a friend of God. Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness.

Isaac was the promised miracle child. Isaac was a holy birth to a dead womb and the consequences of his father’s faith. Isaac was the culmination of Abraham’s faith.

But Jacob? Jacob’s name means trickster. Jacob was a con-artist and the black sheep of the family. Jacob was a disgrace to the holy dynasty.

It is shocking that God would be the God of Jacob. It is the anti-thesis of religion and an embarrassment to the church. Jacob was a mess. Jacob had a chaotic past and lived some questionable situations. Jacob didn’t always tell the truth. He was a result of a long line of con-artists.

Why would God associate himself with the character of Jacob? Maybe because there is a little Jacob in all of us.

In this place in the bible, God was trying to convince Moses that he could be used. Moses had murdered a man in Egypt and had been living as an outlaw for 40 years. Moses was stuck on his stutter. Moses didn’t think he could be used by God to speak to kings because he couldn’t talk right.

God is not just the God of those who live righteous all the days of their life and are virgins on their wedding day. He’s not just the God of the people who don’t smoke or get drunk.

There may be something you think disqualifies you from being used by God, but God is reminding you that He is the God of the Jacob too. He is the God of anyone who has made mistakes, been to jail, had an abortion, gone through bankruptcy, went through divorce, or was addicted to drugs and drinking. God is a God of rejected people, not just the pure and prestigious.

God called you and equipped you. God is going to use you with your deficiencies, your vulnerabilities and those insecurities. If you’ve been wounded, hurt, ostracized, and rejected, none of this will keep you from being used by God. You don’t need to try to fit in with people. God can use you right where you’re at. This is the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.

This is your time to step up, and take back what the enemy stole from you. Take back your joy, your peace, your spirit, and your confidence. Your eyes have not seen nor have your ears heard how the Lord is going to use you. God is getting ready to take you into another dimension of your destination.

If you have a story stocked with years of mistakes, mishaps, setbacks, rejection, and pain, I want you to know the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is your God too. You are a recipient of God’s mercy and saving grace. Things in your life may have been delayed, but I want you to know that you haven’t been denied!

This post, The God of Jacob by Trisha Keehn, appeared first on LiftUpYourDay.com

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Slowing Down Saves Time

What I’m learning is how to live for longer stretches in the sweet seasons. Some hard choices have cleared a path for this space, like the bittersweet disconnect with a temptation to get twisted up in the minute by minute updates.

quiet place, rest, solitude, nevadaIt’s easy for me to get busy with my desires, someone else’s needs and the rest of the world’s suggestions. The fallout of that is a stressed out mind and a painfully stretched heart. My relationships work better when there’s carved out space to listen and laugh unbridled for hours.

We can save everyone some time by slowing down. When we live out of this sanctuary in our soul, we are more careful with conversations. We pause in places that a hurried life rushes past. We yield when there are question marks.

Mostly though, it’s the inner dialogue that consumes me the most. The endless chatter of my own thoughts. Which is why I must pump the brakes from time to time.

You can’t lead the world around you if you can’t harness your own soul. The core of your life incorporates your mind, your capacity to think, your emotions, your capacity to feel and even your capacity to choose. This is what makes our life so unique. The soul is the distinctness God gave us.

We work hard to take care of the framework on our house; the parts people can see. What are we doing for the gears that keep the lights on?

And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? (Matthew 16:26)

Often we equate slowing down as missing out. But truthfully, when we merge into a slower lane, there is margin to savor the simple moments, like the sun throwing back the clouds at dawn and the crackle of a good campfire. This is grace. Grace with ourselves and grace with all those around us.

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Even When…

Jesus is still there

In the story of those two men heading to Emmaus (Luke 24), Jesus walks up behind them on that dusty road and asks what the two are discussing.

“Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?” one of them says.

“What things?” Jesus asks. 

The men didn’t recognize this guest and go on to tell him about Jesus of Nazareth; his teaching and the powerful miracles he performed, the crucifixion three days ago and the wild stories about an empty tomb, though no one has seen Jesus.

Even when you walk away to wherever Emmaus is for you, a nightclub, the bar, another city, or in the middle of ‘nowhere’, Jesus isn’t far from you. He will meet you on that dusty road in the midst of your troubled heart and ask questions to help you sort out what doesn’t make sense.

We might look for Jesus in a moment of tragedy, an existential experience or at the crossroads in life but often don’t recognize His presence in the midst of our struggles. So you take a walk along a dusty road or have dinner with friends. Maybe you go back to work. When Jesus showed up after His resurrection, it was in these very common places for people.

where will this road lead you, dusty roads in life, our escape in life, Jesus asks us the tough questions, trishakeehn.com, will this satisfy youWe spend most of our lives escaping. We throw our hands up at our jobs, hurtful friends, and even our families. We run or keep it stuffed inside.

Eventually there will be questions. Jesus will ask you about where this road is leading and whether it’s enough to keep you satisfied. 

Consider it all joy when you go through trials of many kinds. (James 1:4)

Disappointment and defeat are the tools God uses to show you the way. Your difficulties are designed to produce perseverance and build up your faith.

Often we let the trials tear us down, though God means them for our good. Your trials grow you by developing character. We need to have enough courage to live in the struggles.

We’re not going to get to our destination any quicker by worrying, complaining or being frustrated.

When you place your joy in the source of your strength, Jesus, and not in the circumstance. you will survive and even thrive in the struggle. Even in the pain, these conflicts will be counted as your joy for what it is increasing in you, not decreasing.

Don’t let the defeat tear you down. God created you to go from strength to strength in these situations, not a mindset of struggle to struggle. 

Lastly, pay attention to your life, to the people, to the things that happen to you. This is how to experience Jesus. Don’t force it by reading into situations too much. Maybe just lean in with your ears when your thoughts want to speak. Or linger a little longer in a place of rest when reminders of the undone pull at your attention.

Here in the hard parts of life, beautiful and terrible things will happen. It’s easier to escape it, but don’t be afraid. Jesus is right there in your midst.