“Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you” (Romans 12:1-2 MSG).

God wants to bring the best out of you and I want to make this statement…so do I. I want to take you on a journey of unlimited possibilities, to bring the best out of you. I believe this begins with you knowing God. Secondly, I believe the journey to bring the best out of you involves settling your yesterdays once and for all. I want you to find freedom and to discover your purpose so you can make a difference in this world. To do this, you need well-formed maturity. 

You don’t have to do the impossible. You just have to do the difficult and God will do the impossible!  If this is to be a year of unlimited possibilities, then you’re going to have to make a decision and create a habit of living a God-first life. Difficult yes, but then watch what God does!

Discover Your Purpose. Life will go better when you keep yourself in alignment with your purpose on this planet. Your life will never make sense and you’ll always have problems in other areas until you align your life around your purpose. Ps 139 says it beautifully, “You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.”

We try, don’t we? However, each one of us has added a chapter to our book. And, if you’re like me, probably a few chapters! These are not chapters God wrote for us. Don’t lose hope.When we look to God for alignment, he has this unique ability to make the last chapter fit …no matter how many chapters you may have added in. 

Live by design and not by default. Define it and design it. There is constant competition for our time and attention. Don’t allow other people or situations to decide your life for you. Today you are one day closer to the end of your life than you were yesterday.I’m your friend. I’m not an expert on the subject but I will tell you this, I personally believe we are living in the last days, maybe the last of the last days.There is no room for us to live a casual, no good, who cares kind of life.Today matters.This is the day that the Lord has made. Rejoice! Yesterday‘s over and tomorrow’s not here. Get today in alignment.You’ll really never change your life until you change the things that you do every day, the habits. 

1.  Decide what is important.

A lot of our lives are being defined by what’s important, or urgent. There are a lot of things that we need to do, but they can’t dominate our lives.What are the most important things? “Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ” (Philippians 3:7-8 NLT). The only way you’ll ever know if life is really better when you put God first is to go all in and make a decision that you're going to put him first. If you’ve never tried this life, you have missed out on the best.

1. Give calendar time to important things.

It is amazing how many people have values, but they don’t show up on their calendar. If you value it, you give it time and resources. Take time to fill your calendar with those things that are important. Ask for God to teach you in the ways of wisdom.

1.     Make time for renewal. You have got to refresh yourself. You’ve got to have a day where you slow yourself down. I promise you you will get more done in six days by giving one day to God and resting your spirit, soul, and body. 

1.     Make time for relationships. The most important decisions of your life after your decision to serve God is going to be the people that you choose to spend your life with. More on this later! 

1.   Make time for reward. Do something that will bring you heavenly rewards. Someday, you’re going to stand before God and part of my job is to make sure that you’re prepared for that final exam. He won’t have to ask if you belong to Christ. He will know the answer to that question. He will ask how much you leveraged the life that he gave you? It’s really important that you are living your life on purpose and making a difference.

3.   Eliminate the nonessentials.

A lot of us have nonessentials in our life and the secret is to eliminate as many of those things in our life that honestly just don’t belong. Eliminate those things that do not make your life better. Like Hebrew 12 says,let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us” (Hebrews 12:1 NLT). Make a decision to eliminate these things if you want what you want at the end.  

4.   Regularly take inventory.

Where is your life out of alignment? Pray this prayer from Psalm 39, ““Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered— how fleeting my life is. You have made my life no longer than the width of my hand. My entire lifetime is just a moment to you; at best, each of us is but a breath” (Psalms 39:4-5 NLT).

Take a moment and get your life back on track. Make sure your life is what it is supposed to be about. Ask the Holy Spirit to point out areas that need to line up. Ask him to show you if you are really ready to meet God. Acknowledge that you need God and that you want to serve him with your whole heart and your whole mind. Ask him to forgive you and to change you. 

If you decide to do what’s needed, prepare for unlimited possibilities. God is amazing and he will do what he has promised. 

Today, I want to talk to you about trusting the process. Do you have kids? Things change rapidly with kids. Sometimes it feels like you are in a place where nothing will ever change. You have a two year old that throws a fit about everything. But give it two weeks. Things will change. Maybe you have an eight year old who is so enjoyably pleasant and cooperative. But…give it two weeks! Things WILL change. Life can be crazy. Sometimes we fight the process. We kick against the goads I’ve heard it said. But we need to trust the process. 

Trust is being able to have a sense of security and confidence when dealing with someone. For instance, I trust the team I work with. We’ve built trust together. We’ve supported each other and helped each other; we’ve prayed for each other and celebrated together. We’ve learned together and we are growing together.Trust is built by having the ability to predict that someone will act in a specific way and be dependable. When you have walked through life together, you learn what to expect from those you are walking through life with. 

As a young father, I have seen my two year old take a flying leap off his changing table, fully confident I will catch him. However, my eight year old has more experience. She is not as trusting. She wants to fly with all abandon like her little brother, but she will ask me to get closer and closer until she can touch my shoulder and then gently shifts her weight into my arms. Do you believe God is aware enough and strong enough to catch you when you leap? Maybe you hesitate to jump. It takes guts. Are you an entrepreneur? I admire you! Do you believe God will catch you? Maybe you will jump when you can feel God’s hand on you, when you feel God is closer.God will catch you, every time. 

There is a story in Judges 6 about a man named Gideon who began to trust God and then became trustworthy of God. It is a story of Gideon vs the vast army of the Ammonites. Gideon was desperate. The Israelites were on a downward spiral of sin. They would turn their backs on God, begin to sin and would lose the blessings and covering of God. Then they would repent, begin walking again with God, get comfortable in His protection, and then get lax and begin sinning again. In this passage, we find Gideon in this pit, desperate and poverty stricken. An angel shows up and calls him a mighty warrior. He tells Gideon that the Lord is with him! Gideon wasn’t sure he could trust this word because his people were in such dire need. Gideon had to learn to trust the process and do things God’s way. 

You know in your own heart if you trust God. There was a battle in Gideon’s life in addition to the battle with the armies of the Ammonites. Gideon had a battle within. He had to learn to trust God. He tested God but then, God tested him. Gideon amassed an army of 32,000 but God told him to send 22,000 home. God tested Gideon again until Gideon was left with 300. 

Have you ever had a fight, been right, but oh sooooo wrong in the “process”?When we do things on our own, we’re not under the protection of the process.I always have to ask myself two questions when I'm in a fight. Is this worth it? And who will I be at the end of this fight?Gideon’s army won the battle because they did it God’s way. If they had done it in their own strength, they likely would have died, we would not be telling this story, and God would have gotten none of the glory. 

When you trust the process, God’s power moves. God will take you step by step.The first step is to take the first step. A good friend of mine says, “Just start.” As we step out, God’sword is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Psalm 119:105).Ask the Lord. He will speak to you. His word is alive and active, working on your behalf. The Word, for those who will work the Word. He will direct you. Confirm things through God and His Word. Trust the process. You know where you are supposed to go. Go to God first. 

A process is a series of actions or changes and if you want your tomorrow to look different from your today, you are going to have to do something today to make your tomorrow different.Take a step in the process. It’s not easy but it’s fruitful. Enjoy the process and endure the process. Romans 5:3-5 describes how it will go, “We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”

I believe many people in the church are here to learn, work on themselves and move past the hurdles that once stopped them from accomplishing all that God has for them. But if you quit the process, you won’t see the end results.Don’t run when things get hard, press in for your future, press in for your breakthrough. Who do you want to be on the other side? God will create you into something new if you trust the process. God is working, speaking and moving. Let His Word work in you. 

Have you ever known someone who transformed themselves physically, began working out and bulked up so they looked like a different person? They have trusted the process. It’s not easy. And it won’t impact everyone the same way. But people who follow the process will get stronger and see their body be able to do things it has not been able to do before. The goal is to be a better version of yourself. The same goes for spiritual growth and strength. As you commit to discipline, to the Word and to relationships with others who can challenge you in your faith, you will become a better version of your spiritual self. In fact, we can use this process of growth and discipline in all we do - marriage, work, parenting, etc.  

Gideon would have lost the battle even with 32,000 men. But God said to trust the process. He said to do it His way. Blow the horn. Crack the pots. Watch the flame, the fire of God. The enemy was so distraught that they killed themselves. Start with worship each day. Incorporate prayer & praise. Read, study and meditate on God’s Word. Get in the Presence of God. Life needs God. It’s never going to be easy. But choose to grow in an upward spiral. Take steps toward God. 

You may not be where you want to be, but if you look back, you’re not the same person that you once were. Take a deep breath and smile, God’s not done with you! It was a process for you to read this today. Maybe someone showed you this blog or told you about Motor City Church. Maybe they prayed for you. Trust the process. Are you stuck? Pray for breakthrough and vision.Dreams are Free!Get full of God. Trust the process.