By Ellen Farquharson
Be Your True Self!
Shine: How to be bold on the inside
1) Who am I and where does my value come from?
2) What will really make me happy?
3) Am I more influenced by God's truths or the world's views?
4) What is true success?
5) How do I know the right path to take?
6) Two important questions.
7) What do we do with this great love God has give us?
8) Why was Jesus such a different kind of leader?
"Leadership is a combination of strategy and character. If you must be without one, be without the strategy." - Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf
1) Who am I and where does my true vale come from?
"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God." 1 John 3:1
My self worth is based on the fact that God loves me and calls me his child.
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up." James 4:10
Humbling ourselves means recognizing that our worth comes from God alone. To be humble involves working with his power according to his guidance, not with our own independent effort. Although we do not deserve God's favor, he reaches out to us in love and gives us worth and dignity, despite our shortcomings.
2) What will really make me happy?
"God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves to God. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Purify your hearts. Humble yourself before the Lord, and He will lift you up" James 4:6-10
Instead of aggressively going for 'more' of what we want, why not submit ourselves to God, and trust him to give us what we really need. There is nothing wrong with wanting a pleasurable life. God gives us good gifts to enjoy, but you will never be happy seeking pleasure at others expense or at the expense of obeying God.
Of course, God wants us to be happy. But, there is a great difference between happiness and joy. Happiness is temporary and usually is a result of favorable circumstances. Joy is deeper than that. It is a constant knowing that nomatter what is happening around us, we are loves by the Creator of the universe. He will never leave us, forget us, or forsake us. He delights in me. why? Because he created me. just as a mother loves her own child, her 'creation', God loves us with an everlasting love and draws us to Him with his cords of oving kindness. He desires a closer and closer relationship to Him each day. The more time He gets to spend with us, the more time He wants to spend with us. He think we're amazing, beautiful, talented, and perfect in his love. He doesn't see our flaws or buy into our fears. He lifts us with His everlastind love into a place of peace, comfort, and deep joy.
Pride makes people self-centered, leads us to conclude we deserve all we can see, touch or imagine. It creates greedy appetites for far more than we need. We can be released from our self-centered desires by humbling ourselves before God, realizing that all we really need is His approval. When the Holy Spirit fills us, we see that this world's seductive attractions are only cheap substitutes for what God has to offer.
Because of man's fallen nature, people have a tendency to envy which leads to discontentment. The antidote for that is a servant attitude and humble heart towards God and others.
3) Are you more influenced by God's truths or the world's views?
"The world and its desires pass away. But the man who does the will of God lives forever." 1 John 2:17
When our attachment to worldly, shallow desires is strong, it's hard to believe that what we want will one day pass away. Yet, knowing all that we touch will end can give us courage to live for God knowing that He and our relationship with Him will last forever.
4) What is true success?
"Earthly or unspiritual wisdom is vanity, selfish ambition, envy, boasting, denial of the truth. But, the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure, then peace loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." James 3:15- 18
True success and wisdom can be measured by the depth of a person's character. It is easy to be drawn into wrong desires by the pressure of society, work, and sometimes even well-meaning Christians. By listening to the advice: 'Assert yourself', 'Set high goals and standards and accept nothing less', You Deserve it!', 'Get happy,' we can be drawn into greed and destructive competitiveness. Seeking God's wisdom delivers us from the need to compare ourselves to others and to want what they have.
Just as you can you can identify a tree by its fruit, you can evaluate your wisdom by the way you act. True character is defined as what you do and think when no one is looking. Are you one to escalate the conflict, pass on the gossip, fan the fire or discord? Careful, winsome speech and wise, loving words are the seeds of peace. God loves peacemakers and those who edify and encourage others.
5) How do I know the right path to take?
"When the Sprit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will only speak what He hears from the Father... The Spirit will take what is mine and make it known to you. (Why?) Because the Father himself loves you ~ because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. I have told you these things so that you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But, take heart, I have overcome the world!" John 16: 13-15, 27, 33
The Holy Spirit is given to us as a gift from God when we accept that Christ came to die for our sins so that we can have intimate union with God forever. Our selfish desire separated us from God's purity, yet Jesus came to bridge that gap so that we can have constant and unhindered communication with our Creator. His Spirit will guide us to the right path for our lives?
6) Two important questions.
Good plans "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to help you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11
Broad Path
The Holy Spirit speaks to our hearts very quietly to reveal to us right from wrong, wisdom, truths, and convicts our heart when we have grieved God. God loves us no matter what we could ever do. And yet, because of His love, He wants us to live a good life that will deeply satisfy us and bring Him glory at the same time. We have to decide to trust that He has our ultimate good at heart. God has good plans for us, far better than we could design for ourselves. The first question for mankind is: "What do you believe? Will you ask the Holy Spirit to come in?" The second question is: "Will you take the time to listen to the Spirit's tender guidance or will you follow the loud voices of the world?" Or rephrase it this way: "will I take the broad path or the road less traveled." It's not what you are doing, it who you are following that makes all the difference.
Are you following the world or are you following the Spirit leading your heart into your destiny? Are you grasping and grabbing, as most do, out of a deeper belief in scarcity. If I don't do this, take this, promote myself this way, then I won't have what I need. That is thinking about survival, not success. Or, are you thinking, I know people might think I'm crazy, but I really feel led to do something very unconventional, out of the box, out of the norm. I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I just know everything will work out. #
Romans 8:28 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
Philippians 2:13 For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
Philippians 1:6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
7) What do we do with this great love God has give us?
"Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will."- Romans 12:2
13Jesus answered her, All who drink of this water will be thirsty again.
14But whoever takes a drink of the water that I will give him shall never, no never, be thirsty any more. But the water that I will give him shall become a spring of water welling up (flowing, bubbling) [continually] within him unto (into, for) eternal life.
8) Why was Jesus such a different kind of leader?
Matthew 20:25-28 (New Living Translation)
"But Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers in this world lord it over their people, and officials flaunt their authority over those under them. 26 But among you it will be different. Whoever wants to be a leader among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first among you must become your slave. 28 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many."
Matthew 19:29-30 (New Living Translation)
29 And everyone who has given up anything, for my sake, will receive a hundred times as much in return and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then.
The world talks about leadership in a very different way than Jesus. He was the first to say such staggering things about leadership. His ways seems contrary to popular belief then and now. How can being humble cause people to respect you? Wouldn't that seem like a form of weakness? How can people know how important, powerful, rich you are if you don't brag about it here and there, in the appropriate moments? They would never just guess that you are somebody.
And yet how did Jesus command with such unwavering authority the respect of so many? How can a man seem important when he washes his own followers feet?
Ellen Farquharson's Accolades
Ellen Farquharson is a renowned motivational speaker, business trainer, singer, and life coach. With 15 years of experience in life coaching, motivational speaking, and ministry, her true passion is inspiring others to become their very best. After living in Paris, she moved back to the United States to develop her own entrepreneurial business. She achieved a high level of success very quickly hitting the top position in her company, developing a million dollar business, and training women across the country. She is now releasing her first book and is looking forward to speaking on the subject throughout the world.
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