Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets

Our decisions determine the direction and quality of our life. While no one plans to complicate their life with bad decisions, far too many people have no plan to make good decisions,

Our hearts are deceitful. They can be Dan. It’s why we’re so convincing. We don’t merely lie to ou; we deceive others.

There is away to keep our deceitful hearts in check though.

Here are 3 Ways:

1. Admit It.

The sooner we embrace this uncomfortable disquieting fact about ourselves, the quicker we’ll be able to develop and maintain a healthy suspicion. The more open we’ll be to information and advice that conflicts with where our heart is taking us. The more cautious we will be when the salesman inside us starts selling us. The easier it will be to recognize what we are tempted to justify may be just a lie we’re telling ourselves.

2. Ask It.

Ask the question. Am I being honest with myself, really?

We need to have a heart-to-heart with ourselves. Have it in the mirror. Look yourself in the eye. Seriously, stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself out loud – and yes your name. “Kathy, are you being honest with yourself, really? And then, tell yourself the truth even… even…if you don’t plan to act on it.

We owe it to ourselves to know, even if know points us in a direction we don’t intend to go. It won’t hurt to know. We need to be honest with ourselves… really.

3. Be Curious.

When we push through our discomfort and get curious about why we’re feeling what we’re feeling – why we are determined to do what we are hell-bent on doing- we get to the truth.

But most people don’t do that.

Don’t be most people.

Be curious. Curiosity will keep you focused on the frontiers of your ignorance. That’s where we learn. That’s where we gain insight. It’s where we catch sight of our prejudice and our narrow-mindedness.

When it’s uncomfortable… and it will get uncomfortable. When it gets uncomfortable and you are tempted to turn away, to turn back to what you’ve always known, know this… that if fear talking. That is insecurity talking. You’ll learn little from either. So turn back around and be curious. If you do, you will learn something. If nothing else, you will learn something about yourself.

What are the questions we need to ask ourselves to improve our chances of making decisions we will no longer regret?

1. Am I being honest with myself, really?

Who is the hardest person in the world for us to lead? Ourselves right? The person in the mirror. There are times we have made decisions, knowing that the decision we were making was not only wrong, but actually lacking in truth. We have overrode that check with our spirit with thoughts like, “I deserve this.” Or “This just feels like a good decision.” Only to later on be faced with the predictable result that we should have listened to that “still small voice” within us that told us in advance, “You will regret this later if you do this now!”

2. What story do I want to tell?

The decisions that we make today will be the stories we will have to tell tomorrow. Good decisions today means that we have good stories to tell tomorrow. Poor decisions today mean that we will have stories that we will not want to tell tomorrow.

You may recall the story in the Bible where Joseph’s brothers made a decision to sell Joseph to slave traders and then told their dad, Jacob, that Joseph had been killed by wild animals. That was the story- actually the lie that they had to maintain thereafter. I am guessing when they made that decision to sell Joseph they had no understanding that their decision would be the story – the lie that they would have to continue to tell year after year after year.

3. Is there a tension that needs my attention?

Are there times that the decision you are about to make seems good and reason paper? All the “T’s” have been crossed and all of the “I’s” dotted – but you just have that feeling in your gut that something just doesn’t feel right? Or maybe it’s your partner or colleague who has that feeling. This can be a good time to just put the decision on hold. A few more days or even weeks, will likely bring more clarity.

4. What is the wise thing to do?

Maybe when you were growing up you remember asking someone what you should do, and they answered “What is the wise thing to do?” Often we ask “What is right or wrong?” We are often wanting to know how to close “wrong “ we can get and still be on the “right’ side or even how much over the line can we go and still be okay? In other words, how close to the edge of the cliff with a 2000 foot drop can we walk and not fall off? But when we ask, “What is the wise thing to do?’ We know the wise thing is not to even get close to the edge of the cliff.

5. What does love require of me?

Jesus has a command, “As I have loved you, love one another,” in the Bible. It is easy for us to live those who love us back. But the scriptures say that while we were yet sinners, Jesus loved us. Jesus loved us to much that He even died for us and not just any death – but a death by crucifixion. Will your decisions serve others?

These questions are not only great questions to ask ourselves- but they are great questions for parents to ask their children.

Question # 1, The Integrity question:

Am I being honest with myself, really?

Decision # 1, I will not lie to my even if the truth makes me feel bad about myself.

Question # 2. The Legacy question:

What story do I want to tell?

Decision # 2, I will tell a story I’m proud to tell own decision at a time.

Question # 3: The Conscience Question:

Is there a tension that needs my attention?

Decision # 3, I will explore rather than ignore my conscience.

Question # 4: The Maturity question:

What is the wise thing to do?

Decision # 4, I will take the past, present, and future into consideration.

Question # 5, The Relationship question:

What does love require of me?

Decision # 5, I will decide with the interest of others in mind.

Satan Has PMS

Satan has Pre-Millennium Stress. Satan knows his time is short and coming to an end. He’s working overtime.

Be sober minded, be alert. Your adversary the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for anyone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

He’ll panic and become much more desperate during the tribulation period.

Therefore rejoice, you heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you with great fury, because he knows his is short.

Revelation 12:12

Is has started, that’s why the world is in such chaos. Things will become much worse as time goes on.

Do You Like The Person You Are Becoming?

A Greek philosopher is credited as saying, “Change is the only constant in life.”

Change happens all around us, all the time. The weather changes, leadership changes, cultural changes, our job change, our families change, and we change.

Sometimes quickly, but often slowly, we change.

Our worldview changes, or attitude change, our goals strange, our habits change, or hobbies change, our fears change, our relationships change, even our bodies change.

With that in mind. I have a question for you today:

Do you like the person you are becoming?

We ask a lot of questions of ourselves and each other. But one of the most self reflective and most helpful questions we could ever ask ourselves focused less on what we are doing, and more of who we are becoming.

Because if something is changing, there are only three possibilities:

  • It is getting better.
  • It is getting worse.
  • Or the change is neutral.

The same is true of you and true of me. We are changing. And we either becoming more like the people we want to be or less.

Sometimes it is helpful to stop and evaluate and see which direction we are headed.

I want to have a friend who is very excited about the changes taking place in her life. It won’t change your informant or external circumstances necessarily, they were deeper, heart changes about the way she saw the world and the way she began interacting with people. He was excited to tell me about the things she had been learning and who she was becoming.

During our conversation, she asked me about some accomplishments that she had seen in my life. She asked how I felt about them. He was anxious to see how my view on my life had changed over the last two years.

I responded to her question, “I’m excited about the work I’m doing. But I don’t think I always like the person I’m becoming. In fact, if I’m being honest, I think I’m a little less patient than I was 10 years ago. And maybe even less kind sometimes. “

I don’t think she was expecting that answer, but her question gave me an opportunity key to articulate some rumbling in my heart that I have been feeling for a while. Not all change is good, And I can see some changes in my life moving me away from the person I want to be.

Either we are becoming more like in person we want to be, or we are becoming less like the person we want to be, or the changes in our life on neutral in this regard.

But if we’re moving further and further away from the person we want to be, it is why you should notice that as soon as possible so the course of correction can be easier, more efficient, and more effective.

Of course, it isn’t always an easy question to answer. In most cases, it’s not a simple yes or no. Remember our trajectory and be proud of some of the changes, but regret others.

We may be excelling at our work but becoming more demanding along the way.

We may be getting ahead financially we’re spending less time at home than we used to.

We may be losing weight but becoming more prideful or focus on outward appearances because of it.

We may be excited about specific accomplishments, but worried about the ways we are coping with the stress of them.

In each scenario, we should ask ourselves, do I have to be giving up positive progress in one area of my life just to succeed in another? When you get down to the heart of the matter, do you like the person you’re becoming?

If you’re not happy with the person you are becoming, here are some thoughts to help you take course:

1. You can always change.

Nobody can take away your right to change. No employer, no spouse, no toxic relationship. Positive change is always possible. You are the only person who gets to decide who you’re going to be home.

2. Don’t change your goals, change your habits.

Often the goals pursue, when they are new, bring out these unexpected changes that move us away from who we want to be. If that is the case, and you can pinpoint the pursuit drawing you away, you have two options: Either remove it or alter how do you chase it.

Maybe you are striving to start a new business but in the beginning you notice it is taking more time away from your family than you imagined- and you can see that is not who you want to become. Maybe the answer is to stop pursuing a new business venture. Or maybe there’s a different approach that you need to adopt in chasing it.

3. We love to see people trying to change for the better.

Our world loves to see people making positive changes. Oh, some get jealous and envious, and might try to keep you down. But for the most part, we are a society that cures for the underdog. Take comfort in that and know how many will see your changes and cheer you on to succeed.

4, It’s never too late to change.

The best time to change for the positive may have been yesterday or ten years ago, But the second best time is right now. If you’re still living you’ve got time to change. And why you can’t change the past, you can redeem it. And no matter how much time you have left, you can set an example for others.

5. People are remembered most for who they were, not by what they accomplished.

If the accomplishments you are pursuing a resulting in negative changes in your life, remind yourself that who you are is more important. The people who know you best will always remember your character and values more than your personal accomplishments.

May we all be changing for the better.

Warning Dreams

Have you ever had a dream that jolted you out of your sleep? Or came true? Warning dreams can be a clear sign not to go in a certain direction to avoid a hazard, or even someone speaking out a warning to you.

I’ve had three warning dreams in my lifetime, and two have come to pass. Some dreams warning may be something you give to another as well – as a way to help them in some way. When you have a dream about a warning, when you have a dream about a warning is present as well as what is being warned against. Focusing not only on the warning, but also the thing to be avoided you will get a full idea of what the interpretation of the dream is.

An example of a warning dream: My niece moved to the town I was living about 6 years ago. She came with a man, that she said she married, about a month later she told me she was pregnant and was not married to him. I helped find them a place to live and a few months down the line the started getting into knock down drag out fights, the police were called on numerous occasions. My dream was a warning that his abuse toward her would get worse after the baby was born. When she went into labor he wouldn’t get her to the hospital and forced her to have that baby at home, she hemorrhages and the ambulance had to be called, she nearly died. In my dream he would end of leaving her and the baby and moving out of state. That’s exactly what happened.

Detailed Dream Meaning

To dream of warning signs means that you have to be cautious ad careful in your life. Warning signs must be taken seriously. To dream that you have a vision of warning signs means that your dream is about to turn into a nightmare and there can be a real concern for you or someone else close to you in the waking world. To receive a warning in your dream indicates that something in your waking life is in need of your attention. The dream may serve to make you stop and rethink the consequences of your action or decision. To dream that you are warning someone suggests that you need to recognize the dangers or negatives of the situation. You need to bring this to the surface.

When you have a dream of warning signs regarding health, this is a sign of impending possible health issues in your own life. Sometimes the dream can relate to a simple worry that you need to just get checked out. However if you have a dream of a serious health issue and you can’t attribute it to a worry or stress in your waking world then you should take this concern seriously. Understand that your psychic mind knows what is going on with your body and when you have a dream like this; it is often a warning sign that your mind sees something wrong with the physical something wrong with your physical body.

If you are the one that warns someone else in a dream and this helps them, like if you dream someone is going to die whether an accident or a health issue then this is a sign of coming to someone’s aid or rescue. I learned the hard way; I had a warning dream that a friend would die and I thought it was just a bad dream and she ended up dying only a year later. If I had warned her, she may have still been alive today. I swore to myself that not matter how crazy a warning dream is, always tell the person about the warning dream.

When you ignore a warning dream, consider how you have been going about something wrong or repeatedly headed in the wrong direction in the warning dream. This can be an area in which you have been trying hard but continue to feel like you are failing. Sometimes things are not meant to be and this can be a sign to stop pushing something or try to go about it another way to complete your goal.

My most recent dream was about my son, it jolted me right out of my sleep in tears. I called him and told him to be careful and watch his surroundings. He is going for job training over 3000 miles away.

If you have warning dreams that have come true in the past I urge you to take them seriously. Especially if you find not peace about it in the waking world.

The Bible gives many accounts of God revealing things through dreams and visions.

Know where you stand. When you have a relationship withGod, you’re better able to interpret what He’s saying to you.

Who Is God’s Remnant?

A remnant is defined as a small group of people. It is sometimes defined as something left over. At other times it’s defined as a leftover piece of fabric remaining after the rest have been used up or sold.

Throughout the course of the history of mankind, God has always left a remnant.

From the beginning, Israel has been God’s elect nation. A nation who God foreknew and a nation that God selected to be His people and He selected to be their God. In the days of the Prophet Elijah, God let it be known that He had left a remnant. According to 1 Kings:19, Elijah thought the nation of Israel had totally departed from God. But God informed Elijah that He had left for Himself 7,000 people who would serve and honor Him. Those 7,000 were God’s remnant.

During the days of the Prophet Isaiah, God gave Isaiah a vision of Israel. The vision was told by Isaiah in Isaiah 1:1-9. Isaiah said the nation had become “a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that were corrupters: they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.” Isaiah went onto say in verse 9, “ Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a small remnant, we should have been as Sodom and we should have been like Gomorrah.”

The New Testament tells us in Romans 11:5, “Even so then, at this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

Today the church serves as God’s chosen people. And like the children of Israel, the church has become a sinful nation, comprised of believers laden with iniquity. They are a seed of evildoers, with chicken who are more corrupt. They have forsaken the Lord and have provoked the Holy One unto anger. They have gone backwards. But despite of the state of the church and their children. God has once again left a small remnant. A remnant that is far from perfect, but a remnant that trusts God.

God’s remnant are those who understand they are saved by grace and not by works. Theo do not abide by the false teachings that you have to be living something, (works) in order to go to heaven. They simply do their best to live for God because they already know they are going to heaven.

God’s remnant are those who serve the God of their church and not the church of their God.

God’s remnant are those who acknowledge God in all their ways, even when their ways sometimes do not please God. They are the ones who always confess their sins to God while believing He is always faithful and just to forgive them of their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness.

God’s remnant are those who know they are righteous simply because at conversion the righteousness of Christ was put on then. They have learned to accept Christ’s righteousness instead of trying to establish their own religious self-righteousness through church rituals and programs. They have also learned to put their trust in Christ instead of putting their trust in the church practices and activities.

God’s remnant are those who are blessed beyond measure despite their failures and weaknesses. They are blessed because they are pleasing toGod because of their faith. The Bible says over and over, that without faith it is impossible to please God.

God’s remnant are those who stand on God’s word and not the word of man, politicians, the media and hirelings. The believe God’s Word is true today, yesterday and forever. Political correctness is nor part of their character.

God still had a remnant today. Are you part of God’s Remnant?

Four Truths About God’s Provision

When you put your faith in Christ, Gd commissions Himself to protect, provide, and to care for you (Philippians 4:19). God always provides for His children, though often it is not in the way we expect or hope.

The challenge is for us to see His provision and care, even when it is different that we expect. Because God Is God, His ways are higher than our ways (Isaiah 55:9). But He graciously gives us insight into what He is doing in the Scriptures.

God is always doing 10,000 things in your life, but you may be aware of only two or three of them. Over and over again, Jesus’s disciples missed what He was doing right in front of them. They missed the point of the miracles. They missed the lessons. Which should give us hope for our own lack of clarity today.

Every now and again, I catch a glimpse of all the things God is doing in my life. And I am in awe of these things. I have never gone without and I have faith because God has never let me down.

Here are four important encouragements about how God provides and cares for you.

1. God May Provide Differently Than We Expect.The Israelites escaped captivity in Egypt only to face the challenges of the desert. One of the biggest challenges for such a large group of people was enough food to eat. Over and over again God provided supernaturally for His people. If God could provide for many thousands of Israelites in the middle of a desert, He can surely provide for you and your families needs. One of the testimonies in Scripture is “I have been young, and now I’m old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or His children begging for bread” (Psalm 37:25).

But, in the Bible we read that even with God’s provisions the Israelites still complained and grumbled in the desert. They longed for the food they left behind in Egypt. God was literally providing bread from heaven- enough for each day – but the wanted His provision in a different way. They wanted it their own way.

This lesson has spoken to me over and over again. Ask God to provide for you in whatever way deems fit. Don’t grumble against God’s supernatural, unexpected ways. Just trust Him.

Maybe you are at a job and doing work different than what you expected or hoped for. Don’t always wish for something different. My Father used to tell me, no matter what work you do, do it as if God is your boss. Do the best work you can do and you will be blessed. Always be thankful. This doesn’t mean you can’t move towards the job of your dreams, but it might inspire the faith to stop complaining about the way God has provided for you in the current moment, and invest yourself fully to wherever you are.

2. God Provides More Of Himself. Our greatest need is for more of God, and this is something He gladly gives us.

Which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Matthew 7:9-11

Scripture tells us to make the pursuit of God the primary function of our lives. Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

What is the deepest root of your joy? What God gives to you? or what God is for you? God graciously guides us into a greater realization that our ultimate need is for more of His word, more of His ways – more of Him.

3. God’s Ultimate Provision Has Already Been Given In The Gospel. If your like me you ask God for many things, but the greatest thing we could ever receive from Him He has already given. And many as blind to it. What God has given us in the gospel is light-years ahead of every other provision and care we would ever seek from Him. When we trust in Christ, we have decisively secured for us every ultimate good thing from Him. It’s just a matter of time.

James 1:17 reminds us, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with who there is no variation or shadow due to change.” Every truly good thing in our lives comes straight for the Father. The ultimate good He provided us, through who much of the other good things to come to us, is Jesus. Jewish the ultimate treasure.

4. God provides Finally In Eternity. Hebrews 11 gives us two different perspectives on God’s provision and care for us. Some, by faith, came through this life victorious, while others lost their lives. Both are commended for their mighty faith.

God does not always provide and care for us in ways we might expect in this life. The Bible does not promise this. Peter, James, John, and Paul gave their lives for the gospel. They viewed the gospel as a treasure not to be lost at any cost. They suffered gladly because they had so in the gospel that had for more worth.

This life is fleeting. This life is fragile. This life is but a vapor’s breath. The next life, the age to come, is where all God’s provision for us will ultimately make sense and come together as a whole.

We may not receive healing in this life, but we will receive perfect healing in eternity. We may not see answers to our greatest prayers in this life, but we will receive fully in eternity. We long for our world to stop raging and be at peace, but ultimate peace will only come in eternity.

Our hearts ache under the pressures of this life, but it is only because we were made for another world. We are travelers -aliens if you will on this earth. “But we are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).

I get asked by many, why I don’t do this or that? Everyone else is doing it. I tell them “I am not everybody else.” I would rather follow God and have His provisions then follow what everyone else is doing and have no provision. I love being a child of God.