Michael Harris tossed and turned until he finally dozed off at around 2:07am, at least that was the time when he last remembered glancing at the digital clock on the night stand next to his bed.
Michael couldn't recall what it felt like to have a good, restful night's sleep.
His life was falling apart and he didn't know how to keep the pieces from unraveling.
His wife was restless and fed up from a lack of attention, and his children were practically grown, living lives that seemed to not only be independent, but far removed from his involvement.
Michael couldn't make up his mind as to whether he was sad about seeing his family slip through his fingers, or relieved.
He felt terribly guilty about his ambivalence, and had actually tried in his own way to reach out to his wife and children on occasion, but it wasn't enough.
They didn't want what Michael had to offer any more, and because of it he found himself stuck in a thick, sad pool of ineffectiveness.
From the outside looking in, a person could look at Michael's situation and of course have a great sense of empathy and compassion for his plight.
He had, after all, tried to make his family work.
One might say that he put forth a valiant effort, but was it? In the Faith Formula series, we've talked about the heart of a person.
The heart is the seat of a person's being.
It's how our souls receive certain information about what's important to us.
We talked about Matthew 6:21, which tells us that our hearts will follow our desires.
It doesn't matter if a desire has manifested and come into existence, or if that desire is still in thought form; the point is this: whatever it is that we have on our plates, we can be assured that to some degree it represents what is going on in our hearts.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) tells us "Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
" So we know from God's Word that it is incredibly important to monitor what is going on in our hearts.
And not just monitor it, but control what goes in and what comes out of it.
For some, this isn't an important aspect of their Christian walk, but it needs to be.
So often in His Word, God tells us to "WAKE UP!" and pay attention.
He's asking us to be mindful of the results we continue to receive in life.
Why? Why do you suppose that God wants us to be conscientious in this way? God wants us to be mindful of the results we receive in life so that we will begin to link our results to our decisions and actions; and so that we will also understand that we have the power through Christ to change things for the better.
Faith in God through Christ is a results getter! It's the greatest way to achieve joy and success in life! James 2:26 says that faith without works is dead.
It's almost like you and I are defendants on the witness stand, giving testimony that we believe in the promises of God.
We have to prove our faith to the jury and the whole court.
The only way to accomplish this is by demonstrating that we so strongly believe in God's power, that we are ACTING as though we have the thing we've prayed for even though it's not seen.
The ACTING is the evidence of our belief.
The ACTING translates to the action that activates faith.
Faith isn't going to do what faith does until there is action to back it up.
So when a person begins to back their faith with the right kind of actions, results are absolutely, positively, without question, guaranteed.
This is the truth of God's Word, and God's Word works with a mathematical precision.
When our eyes are open to the possibility of what we can achieve by living a kind, compassionate, loving, confident, abundant, generous walk of faith, we can begin to visualize the life we want and then go after it, trusting that God will lead and guide us every step of the way.
But we also have to be open to the possibility that if we don't like the results that we've received thus far, we are not in alignment with the faith of Jesus Christ.
If that's the case, the first thing we should say to ourselves is "I NEED DIFFERENT RESULTS; therefore, I must commit to different actions.
" Settling for just enough is not the way of a Christian.
It is not the way of a believer who is operating with a mind that is renewed to the awesome Word of God.
If you and I operate out of the just-enough, then this is all that we will have to give, and who wants that? Single woman, do you think that the man you hope to call "husband" will be attracted to your just-enough attitude and your just-enough reality? Do you think the man you hope to call "husband"...
the man who is rich in God's favor, rich in God's love, and rich in generosity of heart and spirit, should settle for just enough? The man you desire is looking for a treasure.
He's looking to match his pressed down and running over with your pressed down and running over; so that you both can operate out of God's overflow.
When you take an honest look at the vast, unlimited, and extraordinary abundance that God has made available to the man and woman of the Kingdom, and then you look at Michael's mind-and-heart-set, you get a glimpse of just how far off the mark Michael was.
God knows how bad and how quickly things can deteriorate in our lives, but we can't let the devil win by closing ourselves off to God's promises and wrapping ourselves in our own misery.
We have to look up and raise our sights to the infinite possibilities of God's goodness.
God wants us to embrace our new life, and stop holding on to that old way of doing things.
You remember-the old way of not being sure of your steps, of taking everything as it comes, without really being joyous and faith-filled with expectation.
The enemy wants us dragged down and sad-afraid to be hopeful, but that's not God's way.
God wants us to know that He has wrapped us up in a warm blanket of His love.
We are in Christ Jesus, and we will never be alone again.
Where we are today in Christ is leaps and bounds away from where we used to be.
The gap between our new way of life-our new way of thinking, living, giving, and loving-compared to our old way of living...
is humongous.
Michael believed in God and had accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior, but he had not renewed his mind.
He did not delight in the Lord, and he didn't cultivate a heart of repentance; he hadn't asked God for forgiveness for not being the man God had called him to be.
Michael had a closed heart.
He was too proud to say to his wife and children, "I'm sorry that I haven't been there for you guys.
Please be patient with me as the Lord helps me and shows me where I got off track.
I'll get better...
I promise that I will.
I'm asking for your forgiveness.
I want you all to know that I love you so very much, and I need you in my life.
" Do you see the hope-the faith in those words? It's surrendering by understanding that we can't do it ourselves.
The transformation that we all need so desperately comes from God.
It's His love that changes us from the inside out.
When we understand this, we can't help but demonstrate faith, because God's love cannot fail.
People absolutely have to respond to the positives of God's love; they have to.
Heavenly Father designed everything and every person in the universe to be changed for the better when they have an intimate encounter with His love.
We are the conduits! God's love is demonstrated through our actions...
through our thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors.
Sometimes, you don't have to even open your mouth, but just send good, Godly thoughts and feelings to a person or situation, and they will be impacted by your good and Godly intention.
Do yourself a favor, desire to be surrounded by the highest and best; decree it so.
Desire to BE the highest and best, and you will attract the highest and best people to yourself.
If you are not baptized and drenched in the covering of this mind-and-heart-set, you are living beneath your privilege.
You are not doing your part to attract a quality existence and quality people in your life.
Others can innately and intuitively sense when you are operating from a lower register of thoughts and attitudes.
They can feel when your heart is closed off to God's goodness, and those who are seeking to go higher don't want to be around that kind of energy.
The only people who do want to be around it is those who think and feel the same way.
Romans 8:22 says "Now if we are children, then we are heirs-heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ.
" Co-heirs means that we share in the same inheritance that God has given His only begotten son.
So God's expectation is that we will pay very close attention to the example of our big brother, Jesus Christ.
We can't keep reaching back for the old way of life when we had no idea about God's plan for us, but we must be fully invested in the new way-God's way.
Romans 12:1 tells us that God wants us to present ourselves as a living sacrifice.
When we look at sacrifice, some of us see it as a negative thing, but there is only goodness in God.
Yes, we need to make sacrifices, but they are ones that cause us to spend time praying and talking with God, and sacrificing negative thoughts by nailing them to the cross and leaving them there.
Spend quality time meditating on the goodness of God and sacrifice idleness, gossip, and negative conversation.
I dare you to crucify a single doubt.
Examine your life with honest scrutiny and declare that you will no longer be held back-that you will speak the positives of God's promises in this one particular area of your life.
REFUSE to doubt God for one single second.
Then, when you've seen the fruition of His promises come to pass in that one particular area of your life, move on to the next area.
Just keep on basking in the overwhelming awesomeness of His glory, speaking abundance and wholeness into every area of your life.