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If you are disappointed with the progress in the spiritual side of your life, could it be that you are short-changing yourself in setting/receiving goals in that area?

I came across a tweet of the following verse on Twitter a few months back and it has become very meaningful to me.  It is from the story of a blind man who heard that Jesus was walking through the road of his town.  He began calling out repeatedly to Jesus for mercy.  Jesus came to him and said, “What do you want Me to do for you?”  The blind man said, Lord, I want to see! (Lk.18:41) The man was instantly healed of blindness.

We have discussed before that Jesus is the visual representation to us of the heart of Father God.  A main purpose of Jesus’ life was to reveal to us God’s character, heart, nature.  I want to challenge you today to use the question that Jesus’ asked the blind man as a spring board for you to set new spiritual goals for your life.  Scripture does say that we need to ask to receive.  However, in this instance, Jesus asked the question.  Now visualize yourself with Jesus asking you this question about your life today, and put your name in the blank, “What do you want Me to do for you, _____?”  It is a great challenge!

Make use of the list I made for my own life to spur your spiritual imagination as to how you can answer Jesus’ question.

I took the Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Living without the buffer of a margin in your finances, schedule, and even energy level will cause you to live daily life in an unnecessary state of stress and exhaustion.

What is a margin? 

Dr. Don Colbert defines a margin as “a buffer between feelings of being overwhelmed and feeling at peace (1).”  According to Dr. Richard Swenson in The Overload Syndrome, “a margin is the difference between vitality and exhaustion (1).”  Either way you define a margin, the definition is something anyone would desire in his or her daily life.

What are the typical scenarios of living life without a buffer? 

Schedule-wise, an example is giving yourself only enough time to get ready to leave the house for an appointment so that any phone calls or other unexpected items which require your attention suddenly put you under the stress of possibly being late.  Or, another schedule example without a margin is only leaving with just enough time to arrive for an appointment providing you have a high percentage of green lights and no traffic jams.  

Financially, many people create continual stress and anxiety by Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Unless dealt with, struggles with guilt can hold you back from your goals, dreams, daily positive social interaction, and even physical and spiritual health.

Facing your guilt issues will bring about new avenues of freedom in your life that have long back lacking.  What guilt are you holding on to now?  Guilt does not fill any positive purpose. 

–Holding on to guilt will keep you from pursuing open opportunities to reach your goals and dreams.

Usually you will either fear more failure or feel that you do not deserve the good opportunities.

–Guilt over the past keeps you from positive social interaction. 

It is the same principle as the Law of Attraction.  If you feel that people like you, that you deserve good, and that good will come to you, it subconsciously causes you to interact with people in positive ways; then, due to Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Gratifying

Fear or anxiety left undealt with can quickly destroy one’s quality of life, causing lack of sleep, lowering of productivity on the job, stress in relationships, poor decision making, and countless physical ailments. 

This past Christmas, we gave out several copies of a book on the topic of overcoming fear to several co-workers. There were two different issues of the book, one dealing with the life fears of the average person, the other dealing with the additional fears particular to the family members of those in the military.  We received incredible feedback, to the extent that co-workers came looking for copies to give to family and friends.  The book had an unusual format, Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

I came across some great encouragement for those struggling with broken hearts, oppression, and bruised spirits.

In this field of work, I come across many people in emotional pain created by a wide variety of circumstances.  Each of us, at some point during life, go through periods when we feel oppressed, almost crushed by the weight of the circumstances.  In Scripture, Paul talked about his feelings in such circumstances,

We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, yet not destroyed. (2Cor.4:8)

Since we each face “crushing” circumstances at times, it would definitely be beneficial to be able to go through them as Paul did, not denying the gravity of the situation, but not allowing the situation to destroy him emotionally. Paul’s faith, or hope, kept him from losing heart in trying times.  Faith is defined in Scripture as not only believing God exists, but that He responds positively to those who seek Him. (Heb.11:6)

It is knowledge of the nature of God that gives one hope during times of brokenness or oppression.

It is the difference between knowing without a doubt that someone cares about you and what is taking place, especially Someone with greater abilities and resources, as opposed to feeling there is no one to care at all. Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

What area  in your life do you desire to see be completely revolutionized?  Your career?  Your family life?  Your health?  Your finances?

Recently I was doing a study on Ephesians 3:20, one of my favorite verses,

“Now to God Who, by consequence of the action of His power that is at work within you, is able to carry out His purpose and do superabundantly, far over and above all that you dares ask or think, infinitely beyond your highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams. (Amp)

The main phrase in the Greek is more accurately translated “superabundantly above the greatest abundance.”  Let your mind try to fully fathom that concept.  Whatever your need, whatever your desire Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Do your worries cause you to react or do you overcome fear by being creatively proactive?

You can choose to respond to fearful situations in ways other than panic, being withdrawn, or some other solely, defensive protective mode. You have the option of choosing not to react to your fear, letting it manipulate you, but to think creatively, outside of the box, and discover responses that will actually enhance your life.

A recent study of the economy illustrates that most people react to fear instead of being creatively proactive.

The present economic situation in the US has affected all kinds of businesses, large and small. One of the categories of institutions largely affected is charitable organizations. Statistician George Barna of the Barna Group recently posted 3 articles with the results of his year long study of how the economy affected churches and other non-profit organizations, as well as how the churches responded to the fearful economic situation.

What stood out to me was Barna’s comments that most churches responded, in my terminology, by reacting to the economy, rather than seeing opportunities to respond creatively and actually enhance their situation and the lives of the people in their communities. Many churches adjusted budgets, cut spending, and cut staff. While it is the right thing to do to re-evaluate the budget and eliminate unnecessary spending, Barna notes, “For the most part, church leaders seem to have been in a hunker-down mode, attempting to get through the tough economy…”, a protective fear response. Similar to most people in fearful situations Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

We wish to thank all of our readership for allowing us the privilege of sharing life with you in 2009, assisting in your wellness, healing, and health!

Here is a list of the Top Read Articles by you, our readership, in 2009, arranged by the categories they are posted in. Just click the title to go to the post of your choice!

If you want to browse further in the 3 main post categories, use the Article Archives link at the top right.

If you desire to browse more by specific topic, click on the word links in the Tag Cloud Quick Search a little ways down in the right column.

Readers’ Questions

Resentment and Anger Management

Abusive Relationships: Situations-Symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome

Handling Controlling Behavior by Realizing Your Compliant Personality

Recognizing Controlling People

Does Love Have to Be Earned (Withdraw of Love-Topic)

Why Doesn’t God Heal Me?

Rejection to Self Esteem Building

Personal Reflections

Live Worry Free

Healing Through Overcoming Family Past (Withdraw of Love-Topic)

Kindness: Have You Considered Committing a Random Act?

Allowing the New Year to be New

Recognizing Real Love Part 1 of 2

Practical Ideas for Overcoming Fear

Physical Reflections

Substituting Honey and Maple Syrup for White Sugar

Arthritis Treatment

Is a Lack of B12 the Source of Your Health Issues?

Water Filter for Drinking Water

Breast Cancer and Your Wardrobe Choices

Six Body Detox Ideas for a Safe, Easy Body Cleanse

Cancer Causes: Reducing the Risks from Plastics

Reading Level: Gratifying

Do you feel that you effectively handle the loss of a loved one?

During a time of loss and grieving, what you choose to focus on will determine how effectively you transition to life without that person. I once read of a study on people who lived to be over 100. The only common factor discovered in that particular study was their ability to go on after tragedy and still find life worth living. Since stress and negative thoughts are physically damaging as well as emotionally, it is easy to see how this would be true. There is no doubt that times of loss involve grieving over the separation. There are a variety of psychological stages one goes through during grief. However, the choice of your focus drastically affects the effectiveness of your transition.

Choosing to focus on the aspects of that person which brought joy to your life is important to your well-being.

Instead of focusing on the traumatic circumstances which took place in the physical realm that caused you to lose that person, choose to live out your life rejoicing in the positive input that person had into your life. Meditate on the various joys that person brought to you. Rejoice that your life was fuller because of those joys. Rejoice that you are a better person because of those experiences.

The next step in effectively transitioning through a time of loss is realizing the source of those joys you experienced.

This week was one of high stress for our family as I almost lost my father to 3 severe intestinal bugs that he contracted while visiting the sick in hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes the week before Thanksgiving. Visiting the sick and elderly has always been a major focus of my father’s life. I was reminded of an experience Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Leisurely

Do you have a clear perspective of daily being grateful for the life you are now living—in spite of any unreached goals—and for what you already possess?  Or do you become easily disgruntled due to comparing your life and possessions with those of others’?

The other day I read an illustrated lesson for children on thankfulness in which the teacher had hidden various amounts of candy under the students’ chairs in the classroom. As the children came in and sat down, they settled in for the day’s lesson, content in their present circumstances, having nothing extra beyond that with which they entered the room. After the teacher announced that there was candy hidden under each chair, the students immediately became discontent upon discovering that the amounts of candy were not the same. The main points the teacher drew out for the students’ from that experience were:

1. Each student was content when he or she came in the classroom, having only the things that were already in their possession. They could have easily continued to be content by being grateful solely for what they already had.

2. When the students’ compared the varying amounts of candy they had received, they were immediately discontent; yet, each of them now possessed more than when they came in the room. Each of them could have felt appreciation for the fact that they had received a gift and had more than they did a few moments before.

When you start the comparison game between your life and the lives of others Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Gratifying

Each of us desires a long, abundant life with our loved ones. Yet, do your daily decisions work for or against that desire?

These past 2 months have been one of those seasons of life that come to all of us. Tomorrow is a funeral for a friend that died suddenly and unexpectedly. Another friend has been in ICU for weeks. The first person had lived a life that was very abusive to his physical health for years, having just made a change in the recent past. The other friend has lived the more typical unhealthy life of too many sodas and mostly processed foods. She has had many health issues that have drastically affected her family and friends for the whole past year and has now been in ICU for a good part of 2 months. She almost died a couple of weeks ago and still has life-threatening issues going on. Both should have had a good 20 to 30 more years of living an abundant life, loving life and loving family, but the choice of poor daily health habits stole the precious gift of long abundant life not only from them, but from their friends and families.

We need to be reminded of how essential the little daily choices regarding health-food, sleep, exercise-are truly the ultimate decision for a long life.

Every day that you get up, you make seemingly insignificant choices regarding what you eat, whether or not you skip exercise, how you deal with stress, if you get enough sleep. These decisions come so frequently that one usually makes them almost without thinking. Each little decision not to do what is beneficial to your physical health is, in actuality, a decision of whether or not to embrace a long abundant life, with time to live life, enjoying and loving your family and friends, and giving them the gift of that time to love you and enjoy your presence on this earth. Isn’t that what each of us want? Yet it seems so easy to choose otherwise. There is a quote worth remembering, Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Gratifying

The course of people’s lives are forever changed by both the heritage we receive and impart.

The focus of the past several weeks has been split between normal life responsibilities and the planning of a reception for my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. This week was particularly full with the finalization of all the food, decorations, and communications. The event was a great success in many ways. There were the initial, typical visible ways, such as the food and decorations which everyone enjoyed. However, the aspect of lasting impression from the event on my brother, spouse, and myself were the responses of people, expressing their love for the impact my parents had on their lives.

Some people, though elderly and feeble, traveled long distances to be there. Others were involved in leadership of major community events, yet slipped away for a little while because they, too, did not feel it was an option to miss the opportunity to say, “Thank You,” and honor my parents for the way their lives have been forever changed by knowing them. My parents have expended the energy of their lives befriending, comforting, encouraging and carrying others through the good and bad events of life and it showed through people’s amazing responses.

The event was a rare opportunity to catch a glimpse into the heritage we have received and the lasting cords of positive impact that have been woven into the communities in which my parents have lived.

The first person to arrive was an elderly widow. She had hand written and framed a letter expressing her love to my parents for the kindness shown to her and her late husband. My dad had visited him repeatedly at their home while the man was dying of cancer. The lady has ceaselessly recalled my dad singing to her husband to bring him comfort in those final days. Another person had a letter enclosed in a gift, expressing how my parents had laughed and cried with them during the ups and downs of her life. Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Gratifying

Though most everyone is aware of the old expression, acting on it truly empowers your life.

Like the old expression of whether a glass is half full or half empty, how you daily perceive your life, as either half full or half empty, will determine whether you empower yourself to succeed and be happy or drain the very life force (energy-wise) from your day-to-day existence.

Grasping the urgency of this concept can be a key factor to restoration.

I have been recently talking with a friend who has not yet grasped the urgency of this concept in bringing restoration to his life.  He was in a very abusive family relationship. The controlling, self-motivated spouse lived a destructive lifestyle that deeply affected every member of that family. Eventually, even the children as they became adults began to adopt many of her user/abuser behavior traits. Eventually, my friend’s life came completely crashing down around him with the loss of his physical and emotional health, self worth, career, and financial stability. He has been out of the household for about 8 months, though career issues and financial problems caused by the relationship aren’t remedied by a geographic change. The effects from the amount of time – 20 years – in such a abusive relationship are not easily or quickly corrected. Yet, day after day, my friend beats himself down in his thoughts by focusing on what has not yet been restored, i.e. a healthy family setting, new career, and freedom from debt.

By focusing on the “half full” in his journey to restoration, my friend could be living in a state of joy that would bring energy, creativity, vision, motivation, and awareness of good opportunities to his daily life.

Those of us around him can rejoice in the tremendous healings that have visibly taken place: his physical health is doing well, his personality and sense of humor have returned, he has free time/personal time, he is now surrounded by people who deeply love and support him instead of drain him and abuse him. These aspects alone would bring great consolation to many people who are in situations needing improvement. It could to him, too, if he would only allow it.

The decision to focus on what is not yet resolved will drain the life force from anyone’s day, making difficult any type of effectiveness and clarity of perception. In addition, staying focused on the problem causes you to only see the problem, not the solutions.

Look at these examples of life benefits from focusing on the “half full.”

The decision to focus on the “half full” part of my friend’s life would: Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Gratifying

Is your life focus right now on the main problem area of your life?

What is that controlling area? A job, finances, marriage, other personal relationships, health? Though we must give attention to the problem area if it is going to improve, it is healthier and more effective to be focused on completeness or wholeness than give the totality of your attention to a problem.

Since the beginning of creation, God’s desire for mankind is to be complete.

At the beginning of creation, all was in perfection and harmony. Everything mankind needed was readily available. Yes, man’s rebellion brought devastation, but God still desires for your life to return to a state of wholeness or completeness, and so should you.

Look at this greeting out of Scripture:

1Sam. 25:6 And say this, “May all be well for you: peace be to you and your house and all you have.”

We are to speak the desire for all to be well in others’ lives; certainly, we should speak and desire it over our own lives.

Let’s take a more in depth look with this quote:

Jer.33:9 They will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide.

God speaks here of people being in awe, both mentally and physically at the prosperity and peace He provides for His people. Sounds simple, but, as I’ve mentioned before, much is lost in the translation to English. Look at the depth and expanse of completeness in life (or wholeness — whichever term is easier for you to envision) that is intended to be ours: Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »

Reading Level: Impassioned

A main key in attaining the highest level of spirituality or spiritual life is eliminating religious peripherals to focus on a deeper understanding of God’s person.

Those of us who are spiritually minded desire to go past all the peripherals and live at a depth of spiritual experience that few people ever attain, a level of spirituality that is fulfilling and brings wholeness.

To attain the highest level of spirituality, first become aware of what things are religious peripherals that may be keeping your focus from the depth you really desire.

Let me clarify before explaining this point that I am not minimizing the value of various religious ceremonies, traditions, rites, or liturgy in anyone’s religion. Depending on one’s personality, they can hold great value emotionally as well as aid in spiritual focus and sense of community. What is important here is to have a full realization that religious ceremonies or rites are not “in themselves” the focus of one’s spiritual experience. They are aids or tools. The actual focus is to know God’s person, to daily experience a progression of more deeply and intimately understanding the aspects of His personality. Just as we are spirits in physical bodies, with the spirit being the person that everyone else gets to know, so God is Spirit; your spiritual focus is to Immerse Yourself in the Full Healing Contemplation Here »