Plump Tummies, Weight Loss & Spiritual Growth

Welcome to the new year!  I shared with you in my Christmas blog post that I thought I had gained five pounds. Unfortunately, it was more like ten! In January, I find most people, including myself, are looking forward with great anticipation, hope, and expectancy for the year ahead. They are making resolutions to better themselves in a plethora of different ways. For some people, these goals are spiritual, such as reading through the entire Bible within the year. For others, their goals are health related, such as eating better and finally getting into shape.

For me, looking down at my now plump tummy, I decided to get my butt in gear, get back into the gym, and lose some of this holiday weight. Though I have this resolution, I sincerely hate getting back into a workout routine. Everything seems ten times more difficult than when I stopped. However, knowing it will be worth it in the long run, I persevere. After two or three days I feel like I'm getting skinnier. Feeling more confident, I mention this to my wife. She quickly quips back, “You look the same to me!” In an instant, all my newly-gained confidence gushes out of me, and I am deflated!

The truth is, when you begin working out, especially after a long hiatus, the change does happen quickly, it just happens on the inside first. You can feel it. You know that something is happening. Unfortunately, those on the outside are not able to see what you feel.

This concept mirrors spiritual growth. You may have set a spiritual goal this year and are trying to push into it. Maybe you are finding it difficult to pray for a certain amount of time, or read the required number of chapters per day to get through the Bible in the year. You may be persisting and feeling a change on the inside, but perhaps there has been no expression of fruit on the outside. I encourage you to take heart and continue to persevere.

In the Bible, it says you will know a tree by its fruit (Matthew 12:33). It is no coincidence this analogy uses a tree. The majority of a tree’s growth happens internally, where no one can see it. Though the only time external signs of growth are visible is in spring, and the only time the fruit can be enjoyed is at harvest, most of the growth happens during the winter season. It is in the winter season that the internal growth takes place, and the roots grow deeper to make the tree stronger. Without this season, that fruit could never have been produced, nor supported.

So if you are pushing into God, believing for more, believing for signs, wonders, and miracles, do not give up! The fruit will come--it will just come in the right season. He is faithful. I believe 2017 will be an incredible year of not just breakthrough, but break forth!

Thank you for reading and God bless!

What is Your Capacity?

We have all done it—pouring coffee into the cup while talking on the phone or something, and then—shoot! The liquid overflows the cup’s capacity and we have a mess to clean up. This is exactly how our lives are lived as well. We are all vessels and we are being poured into on a daily basis. Whether intentionally or not, your cup—your spirit, is being poured into by someone or something. This is happening continually through such things as the company you keep, the things you read and what you select to watch. Good or bad, we get to choose.

Just like any other vessel, you have a capacity, and when the maximum capacity is reached, you begin to overflow. Whatever has been poured in is what comes out—garbage in, garbage out. Therefore, if you were pouring in negativity, gossip and drama, guess what is going to pour out when your capacity is reached? The opposite is also true. If you surround yourself with positive, faith-filled individuals, feed yourself with the Word of God, pray and speak encouraging words, when your capacity is reached, you will overflow with peace, love, joy and all the other fruits of the Spirit.

Whatever you are overflowing with will impact the people around you. A great way to measure your output is to ask yourself some questions. Are the people around you happy when you are there? Are you being invited back? Is there joy and laughter in your home?

Personally, I had to give a negative response to some of these areas and thus I had to change what I was doing on a daily basis. The great thing is, once you make that course correction, you can change what is being poured in and that will change what is being poured out! What are you pouring into yourself today?

Christmas, Lego and Shattered Lives

Well another Christmas Day has come and gone. I'm not sure about you, but I am sure I gained at least 5 pounds! This year, it was one of a couple of firsts for us. This was the first year that we had Christmas dinner at our home with all four of our children outside of the belly. This is because last year I had a great idea! Rather than staying home and freezing through the Christmas season, I decided we would all go to Florida and celebrate it in the sun and sand! Great idea right? Wow, was I wrong! That whole Christmas week in Florida all I heard was, “I miss being back at home!” “I miss the snow and our Christmas tree!” “It's all your fault that I missed my Christmas concert!” So much for being holly and jolly! There definitely was not any laughing as we go! I mean who knew it would not be fun to take a one year old to the amusement park?! Anyway, that is not the point of this blog; I just want to get it off my chest! I mean would you not love to be in Florida for Christmas? It seemed like a better idea then it turned out to be in reality.

I think that this is a great parallel to our lives. Sometimes you do not know what you have until it's gone. The old saying the grass is always greener on the other side or the sand and sun always seems better then the snow and cold proved true for us. Truth was what we missed most of all while we were in Florida wasn't the Christmas tree or the snow and cold, rather it was the people. All of our friends and family. Even though we were in a beautiful place with amazingly hot temperatures we were still cold in our hearts, because we were lonely. We were dearly missing the people closest to us. The things that we thought were going to be fantastic like the sun, sand and amusement parks did not make up for a lot of lost family time during this very special season. I have been thinking about people who have lost something or someone especially at this time of year. It is not easy to suffer loss at any time, but even more so during the holiday season. It can be devastating and life shattering. It can seem impossible to pick up the pieces after such a traumatic life event. I wrote in a previous blog that my brother had died on December 13 1996 and that was very difficult. I am sad to say that my cousin Tamara died this year on December 21. This extremely tragic and shocking news caused a flood of memories and emotions to pour into my mind. Thinking of all my family who have to deal with yet another loss. Especially my aunt and uncle whose lives undoubtedly were just shattered. 

It reminded me a lot of Lego, the other first for our family this year. For the first time we will not be purchasing a Lego set for any of our children. With a gasp I bet you are asking why not? Let's just say we bought several in the past and to be quite honest I am tired of picking up the pieces off the floor. Or even worse stepping on them and feeling that shooting pain in my foot. It was not always like this, I remember being in the toy store and the excitement of my son picking out a Lego set or us picking out one for him. The grandiose thoughts of how great this Lego set would be once complete. Whether it was a cargo plane, fireboat or police boat, it would be awesome! The truth was, it was awesome for about two weeks and then the once completed set began to fall apart. Inevitably there came a loud shriek of pain from dad, followed by me yelling my son’s name. Then he would come running and pick up pieces of Lego off the floor. The problem was the Lego set was now in shambles or completely shattered and scattered everywhere. Making it almost impossible to put back together. I believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me about this very thing this week saying that many peoples lives are just like a Lego set. We all begin with a dream of what our marriage, child or a job (you fill in the blank) was going to be like. It was going to be awesome! Somewhere along the way though, sometimes it's even hard to put your finger on when, the dream began to fall a part. At first piece by piece a fight here, disappointment there or another broken promise. Until eventually the original dream is in shambles. Or some traumatic event causes the dream to be shattered into a million pieces strewn across the floor. . I got a picture in my mind of a person wandering aimlessly around there home almost in a daze. There were many little Lego pieces strewn everywhere. Each piece represented what the dream for their life once was and now broken and shattered across the floor. From time to time they would step on pieces causing them to remember a shooting pain to their heart. So what do you do? If your life is in shambles or has been shattered into countless pieces? The answer is found in the Lego movie.

I watched this many times with my children. If you know the story, Lord business, who was the boy’s father always wanted everything to look perfect. To accomplish this he would glue the Lego pieces together to make it so. Emmett, The hero in the movie, thought he was an ordinary Lego guy. It turned out he was selected to be the special By a Mark that was placed upon him. Emmett thought he could not build anything, but it was up to him to save all the realms of the Lego world. How did he do it? Well with help from the force and from his master builder friends he became the Supreme Master Builder.

I believe that, that is a prophetic word for 2017 that God is looking to his people who may have lives that are in shambles or even shattered, to become master builders through the power of his Holy Spirit. In the Lego movie the master builders would take every and anything that would be lying around and use those pieces to make a new creation, an awesome creation! I believe that is what God is calling us to do right now to look around and begin to pick up the pieces of our lives or even others lives and use those things for good, by building a new creation! One in Christ! Romans 8:28 tells us that He will use all things to work together for our good. You may think that you are nothing special and that you have nothing to offer. I am here to tell you that you are special and with the Holy Spirit you will build great things this year! This year is a new year and it will be an amazing year for you and all of those around you! So I pray that you will begin to pick up the pieces and make 2017 the best year yet! Blessings in Jesus name!
 

Jeff Barnhardt