OUR ONE GOAL

1 John 2:28-29
And now, little children, abide in Him, that when He appears, we may have confidence and not be ashamed before Him at His coming. If you know that He is righteous. You know that everyone

who practices righteousness

is born of Him.

It is said that a successful person sets goals. This is true. Very few people have success because they accidentally ran into it one day. To be successful you have to live a life of purpose, or more accurately put, live life on purpose!

I should first clarify the meaning of success since it is what trips most people up. Success isn't the pinnacle of your pursuit, but success is flourishing. And to flourish is to live and do well, sustaining continuous steady and strong growth.

So to live well and flourish you have to have goals. And as a believer we busy ourselves with so many goals in the pursuit of a successful Christian walk. We work hard at serving, hard at developing our gifts and even harder for opportunities to use them. We even work hard at worshipping, giving, learning the Word and being where we need to be. We get our system down and our talk down and we feel we are on the way to success. But truly the scripture in John 2:28 gives us the one goal we should strive for is to abide in Him.

It is the essential goal of a believer and really sometimes it gets lost in all the "hub-bub" of our Christian world. We have to grasp the fact that when we abide in Him, then we will do the one thing that really counts, we will live a life just like your Heavenly Father created us to live...a life of righteousness. It is clear that John was trying to let us know what pleases God is a life of righteousness.

I said it in my last blog, that God is not impressed with all the other things we put so much emphasis upon. He is really impressed by our pursuit of Him, His righteousness and a pure heart. In fact, it is a mark of who is truly His child and of Him.

So, in all your endeavors, go after God. In this moment in the Church many people are confused with the mark of success, or what is true and what is false concerning the things in the church and things concerning the church. And when that happens, it becomes a fabulous time to return to the basics and check the foundations of your house. Abide in Him.

Col 1:16-18 declares this deep and profound yet simplistic basis of truth, and for all those who are confused or cynical or perplexed at the Church or the things of God or even being a Christian, then you need to come back to only this...

"For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth,

visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

All things were created through Him and for Him.

And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,

the firstborn from the dead,

that in all things He may have the preeminence. "

Take your attention off everything and everybody else, and put it upon whom has preeminence in all things and then abide in Him. I think many people will stand before the Lord when He comes ashamed because they worked hard for and were distracted by so many other things, and missed their opportunity to spend their lives developing a life that was abiding in Him. And He will probably say, "what were you doing all this time?"

GO TO THE BACK OF THE LINE!

I love investing myself in women. I love watching women who were loaded with hurts, insecurities and intimidation, be set free and discover who they are in Christ and their purpose in God. It's awesome to see the transformation as their minds are renewed and they begin to pursue their destinies and God promotes them. I love to speak into their lives, building faith, stirring up their gifts and coaching them as they grow and develop and move forward.

But every once in a while, someone comes along whom I pour into, who tries to push their way through to promotion and they forget what God is truly after in His people. They think God, as well as the entire Body of Christ, is impressed with their giftings and destiny. They see other people around them as nothing but a hindrance to their promotion. They live to impress, and live to be recognized and live to get ahead in the line of seasons and growth. Their pride is demanding, their arrogance is rebellious as they push their way through the line. They mask their pride and arrogance with spirituality that nauseates me, as well as God Himself, so much so that God set a law of life, much like gravity, that causes a person who raises themselves up with pride to come down.

Proverbs 29:23
A man's pride will bring him low,

But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

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You see, the only thing that impresses God, is not our gifting and position, it's our HUMILITY. He designed it so we wouldn't have to butt in line for promotion or recognition. Humility is our pass to the front of the line.

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Psalm 147:6

The Lord lifts up the Humble

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Does anyone know what humility really means? It means to cast low and to debase. In other words, like Paul said, " He must increase but I must decrease." A person of humility is glad just to be IN LINE, much less get to front. "You don't need to recognize that I'm in line." " You don't have to pay me for standing here." "In fact, would you like to go ahead of me?"

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The world doesn't tolerate fakes, why should the church? BE REAL, get a spirit of humility and then let's talk. The truth is, if you are pushing your way to the front...you don't even belong in the line yet. And if you have butted in line...welcome to kindergarten..."GO TO THE BACK OF THE LINE!"

RESILIENT!!

You, who have shown me great and severe troubles,

Shall revive me again, and bring me up again from

the depths of the earth.

You shall increase my greatness,

And comfort me on every side.

Ps 71:20-21

What do you need today in your journey of life? What quality and virtue must you have as a vital part of your character? If you really want to know, then I have the WORD for you today - RESILIENT!

If you want to reach your destiny, if you want to fulfill your purpose, then above the increase of knowledge and the abundance of zeal, you have to be resilient! Because it is a woman who is resilient who will stake it, make it and take it!

This Psalm represents the realities of life, the realities of destiny, and the realities of success, because the truth is that destiny is not glamorous and it is certainly not a joy ride. Life with all of it's dynamics is a bumpy road. The Word tells us the rain falls on the just and the unjust and no one can escape the hardships and the trials of life. Even Jesus told us to expect trouble. But we are also admonished that the one who endures until the end will be saved and that if we don't grow weary in all of it we will be rewarded. In other words, you are going to go through junk - and a lot of junk is ugly and hard - and the key is to BOUNCE BACK every time. I said the key is to - BOUNCE BACK - every time!

You may be reading this and you are right where this Psalm describes - in great and severe troubles. You may feel as knocked down as low as you can go - even to the depths of the earth! I could be your guide through these depths, I've been there too, we all have at one time or another! This scripture is written by someone who obviously had been in this predicament repetitively because he describes the situation with the word "again". The good news is, in order to say "again" - you had to get out of it the first time which lends to the notion you will get out of it "again'! That is resilience!

The definition of resilience is the ability to recover and

return after being bent, compressed and stretched!

I think of many women I have known personally and from afar who were women of resilience. One would be, of all people, Tammy Faye Baker Messner, who recently passed away after a long battle with cancer. With no doubt that woman faced a lot of great and severe troubles, hitting the bottom, but in every instance, with all of her oddities she will be remembered for her incredible resilience! Even two days before she fell asleep and died, she went on national television for an interview at 65 pounds laughing and with a positive confession, a song, a praise, her joy and her faith in God! WOW!

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It truly makes me stop and ask myself - in the face of death - will I have the resilience to laugh, praise God and be joyful? In the face of my petty problems which are truly temporal, can I do at least that?

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So - look at yourself in the reflection of your computer and point your finger at yourself and say - BE RESILIENT! BOUNCE BACK! BE REVIVED AGAIN!

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I don't even have time to talk about the fact that when you truly embrace a resilience, GOD will comfort you on every side and increase your greatness - ....don't make me preach!