Category Archives: Motivation

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing — that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

Our dreams and ambitions hinge on motivation. These stories inspire that motivation to help boost your goals.

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The Potential For Greater Power In You

Are you sitting behind a desk pushing papers and answering calls all day wondering if this is even making an eternal difference? Perhaps your 9 to 5 is tripping over toddlers as you try to tidy up the house and run errands. Or maybe your days are spent studying and filling out job applications. No matter where you find yourself at work today, Jesus reminds us of the magnitude of power believers hold in their hands, their words, and footsteps.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:12-13 ESV)

In John 14, Jesus says He is going to be with the Father so that we can not only do the works Jesus did on earth but greater works even.

greater powerToday, you hold incredible power in whatever it is Jesus has called you to.

Whether it’s parenting, sitting behind a computer, or being a neighbor and friend, you have magnificent power behind all that you do! You can walk with your head a little higher, your feet secure, and use your words to encourage others knowing there is great power at play.

Do you find yourself downplaying the kind of power you hold in Jesus because of your profession, your age, or your location?

Pray, Jesus, I see You on the throne advocating for me. I can’t diminish what You’ve called me to do when Your word tells me You are doing an even greater work through me. I trust You to guide my time and talents for the glory of Your name. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

What would your problems look like if you answered them with this promise?

First published on Beloved Women

© 2020 by Trisha Keehn. All rights reserved.

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Keep Your Eye On The End

the end is better

How many times have we set a goal with high expectations of the finish only to find ourselves drifting from the routine a few days later? We might believe we can fight the frustration and stick with it this time, until the beginning of change battles with our comfortable routine.

“Better is the end of a thing than its beginning, and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 7:8 ESV)

the end is betterHere in Ecclesiastes, we have this great reminder that it’s not the beginning that determines how well we did. It’s the purifying process of perseverance during this difficult season in life that is producing the Lord’s perfect way in us.

Life will bring many new beginnings and many more unpredictable obstacles. If we stay stuck on the stumbles, we’ll never discover the better part of our goals, our relationships, or our jobs. When we choose to show up, stand up, and start with the end in sight again, our resilience begins to refine what we can do in other areas of our lives.

Our disappointments can’t keep us down if we’re willing to stretch for the patience and perseverance to finish.

And if our struggles seem like too much, we can look to the cross for encouragement. Our God who planted the beginning of grace preserves it until the end.

Are you struggling with a goal that you’re tempted to give up on? In this season of your life, what fruits of the spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) can you see being produced through the purifying process of perseverance?

If you find yourself discouraged by your present circumstances, here’s a prayer to help transform your thoughts. Jesus, thinking of Your example of perseverance to go to the cross to finish what our Father began helps me stay focused on my finish. Holy Spirit, when I’m tempted to give up remind me how much better the end will be when I choose to stay committed for the glory of Your name, God. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

First published on Beloved Women.

© 2020 by Trisha Keehn. All rights reserved.

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What are you waiting for?

“And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.” Matthew 27:59-60 ESV

You might be tangled up in a transition right now frustrated because it looks like nothing is happening. Maybe you’ve been praying but you still don’t have that job or a spouse. The stress is still there, the anguish lingers, the disappointment cuts deeper. You might wonder if God even cares.

The foundation of our faith is developed in the waiting room of life.foundation of faith

After Jesus’ crucifixion, Joseph laid his lifeless body in the tomb and walked away. Jesus was gone and nothing appeared to change on that second day.

Behind the stone that stood between Jesus and his discouraged disciples was a miracle in the works.

Behind the scenes in the not-quite-yet season of your life is where a miracle is taking place too.

It’s in the transition time where God is developing your gifts, growing your perseverance, and purifying your motives. He is transforming the inside to prepare you for what’s about to happen on the outside.

It’s tempting in the transition to think there isn’t much that is taking place. Look for the blessings. What is reaping the benefit of your transition time? In your desperation are you more real with the Lord? Are you more present with your family? In the brokenness, are you more honest with friends?

Father, I trust you with the details in this transition of my life. I trust you at Your Word – You are taking me from glory to glory. Help me to surrender to Your hand and not be tempted to move too swiftly out of the spiritual growing pains. And thank you for your grace that covers me here in the stillness of life.

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Keep Your Focus on the Finish

God is faithful

‘Nothing, not even a mighty mountain, will stand in Zerubbabel’s way; it will become a level plain before him! And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place, the people will shout: ‘May God bless it! May God bless it!’”’ Zechariah 4:7 NLT

Is the waiting period between here and where our dreams are living taking too long? Do you feel overwhelmed by the desire to do something but underwhelmed by the opportunities opening up? 

God’s timing will align with your tenacity when the pieces are perfectly in place for your advancement. Let go of all that is limiting you – thoughts of failure and defeat – and keep your focus on the finish, Friend.

Your patience might be tested in the process as you witness the world moving on while you remain planted in the same town, punching the same time clock, plateauing short of the target. It can be difficult to stay motivated when our days feel like more of the same. We might have a mountain of unfinished goals but it feels met by a whole lot of silence from God.

Take your eyes off of the undone and keep your focus on the finish.jesus, power

In the Bible, when Zerubbabel wanted to rebuild the temple, he got as far as the foundation, the very beginning of a dream, before he was forced to stop. Several years went by with no work before a prophet told Zerubbabel to “set the final stone.” The last stone here represented the completed project. This final piece of the vision stood as encouragement and assurance that the temple would be finished as the Lord had promised.

Though it’s tempting to get discouraged when we see a lack of progress, God hasn’t forgotten His promises.

We cannot know the reasons God has kept us from stepping forward, but we can hold tight to the truth in His Word that reminds us He hasn’t forgotten about us. He has our best in mind.

When our same old surroundings convince us we’re just running in place, we’ve got to choose to believe beyond what we can see and trust God’s timing is taking us somewhere.

Here’s how you can be content and confident with where God has you today: Focus on the finished work of King Jesus, our Savior sitting securely on the Throne of victory.

All worries about tomorrow have to bow to a King who has already been there and is reigning over that. Every difficulty that threatens to stand in your way today will only work out God’s purposes for your good tomorrow.

Let this vision of our Sovereign God replace any thoughts of helplessness and defeat. Our Creator God will let nothing go to waste.

Doesn’t that just make you feel grateful we have a God who doesn’t miss a moment? We can live in peace knowing He is in complete control. Your calling in life is being refined and worked out in your present-day circumstances. Let this truth be your confident assurance that not all is lost. Your dreams are not dead. They are still on the throne.

Keep your focus on the finish.

“… Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!” Hebrews 12:1-3 MSG

When we keep the finish in front of us, we can be encouraged that with God’s strength and His grace, our Creator will complete the work He first began in us.

Your finish edifies God. Our Author wants to see the dreams He planted in you come to fruition. God plans on making his will happen. 

You have the power to keep going because Jesus has the power to both start and finish whatever it is you might face.

Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” With no vision of the future, you’ll get stuck in a cycle of frustration, defeat, and hopelessness. Friend, we need to envision the end and keep coming back to it when we’re tempted to feel helpless.

What does the finish look like for you? Is it a vision of what you still have to do or a view of what has already been done?

While you wait on God’s perfect timing for a promotion or any sign of progress, find something symbolic that reminds you of the finished work of Christ. It might be a word or specific verse in scripture that keeps you focused on Jesus. Perhaps it’s a picture that reminds you of just how big and sovereign our Creator God is. It could be an object, like a globe, that triggers your memory of our calling to go and make disciples of all nations. To spur on your faith, find that final stone, a symbol of His finished work in your life, and keep it in front of you, Friend.

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Are you desperate for a dream?

dead things to life, God raises dead things, dreams, dead dreams, dream on, lean on God, your dreams are not dead

Do you have dreams that seem dead? Is there something you were believing for, but this extended season of silence has you believing they are gone? It might be that you think your dream is too big? Perhaps circumstances have destroyed the possibilities?

We have a God of resurrection power.

His ways are not our ways. Redemption of a dream may not look the way you expected. What you thought was dead may be lying dormant or through another door that you’re denying. With one word, Jesus can bring dead dreams back to life.

If this is something God wants for your life, then there is NO WAY He designed it for you to do on your own.

dead things to life, God raises dead things, dreams, dead dreams, dream on, lean on God, your dreams are not deadGod plants dreams that are beyond your reach of doing on your own.

He whispers audacious, crazy, and unimaginable ideas to your timid heart in hope that the impossibility of the idea would drive your dependence on Him.

The things that have you afraid are designed to buckle your knees. Feelings of fear might have your thoughts caught in a knotted up net of your own limitations. You are not created to carry the burden. God knows you can’t do this on your own.

Your weakness reveals the need for God’s strength.

The purpose of a ‘walking on water’ dream is to draw you out of the boat and into deeper waters with Him. Do you trust Jesus when he says, ‘do not be afraid’?

He hears your desperation.

Bring your unbearable requests to the One who gave them to you. Trust is a beautiful thing when grace is there to catch you when you fall.

Through the hesitancy when you want to grip tighter to the things you can see, God is speaking into your pain and asking you to open your hand, release your heart, and trust Him with all that you can’t. Trust He has possibilities for your problems and backdoors out of your brokenness.

God has something significant He wants to do in you, through you. And in His power, the Almighty will be the one accomplishing it, not you.

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Hope Gives Way To Strength

Sometimes crazy gets the breakthrough.

When you’ve been waiting and believing and trusting for a miracle, some days can just drain you. You might wake up thinking, ‘This is going to be the day’! The evening comes and you return with nothing more than the weight of requests unanswered and an exhausted spirit.hope, strength, trishakeehn.com

I want you to know that it’s okay to still get loud about these miracles. Your worship can turn the tide of the battle in your favor.

This kind of praise confuses the enemy because you haven’t received your miracle yet but here you are praising and shouting and lifting up the name of the only one who can turn your situation around.

The enemy wants to mute your praise because the currency of the miraculous is in your mouth. How loud would you get if your miracle was on the other side of your praises?

Get desperate about your requests when doubt creeps in. When you are so low that you feel you can’t get any lower and there’s no reason for you to believe that God is going to do anything about it…

Lift your voice. Hope will rise on the inside.

Hope when it doesn’t make sense. Hope in the midst of fear. Hope when the situation gets worse because hope gives way to strength. The Lord didn’t bring you this far to leave you. There’s a miracle with your name on it.

It’s time to get loud for your ‘all of a sudden…’ Your miracle is right behind you.

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Say Yes To Your Own Ideas

say yes, your ideas, trishakeehn.comThose who have never run a race in their lives are happy to give you all the reasons why you can’t win yours. Start a new habit of saying yes to your own ideas. Count all the ways you can and will achieve these dreams and then add one more because there will always be that voice rattling off why you can’t or won’t.

You may have never crossed a finish line, yet. Here’s the key to silencing the voice whispering defeat over your plans… simply start. Break the heartstrings your old nature and say yes. Even if your soul throbs with the lonely, gushing groans of Gethsemane.

So what is your passion? Where do your desires find rest? What are the names of those stars that illuminate your blackest of nights? When you close your eyes, what wakes the spirit and quenches your thirsty soul? What is your undoing? Then say yes to that.

Take one step today. And take one more tomorrow. Ask yourself, “Am I content to leave it at that?” And, if not, address “Where do I go from here?”

The scars will testify that you at least tried. Your ideas matter.

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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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The One Thing That Lasts Forever

Bill Hybels quote, trishakeehn.com, see where God takes you, push the throttle, challenge to live, life wide open to GodWhat are you going to do with your life that will last forever? How will you outlive your earthly accomplishments? Here’s what I know: people are the only thing that makes it to the next life.

This is your one and only life. What are you going to do with it?

Some need to give up the chase for more money, more accomplishments, and more thrill-seeking tales. Others need to make the choice to just let go of control and self doubt. How much clearance does God really have to call the shots in your life?

Bill Hybels says, “I challenge you to push the throttle as far as you can push it, and live your life wide open to God. See where He takes you. I have a feeling you’ll never regret it.”

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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