1. Spend time with Daddy. Talk. Listen. Go through the day with an awareness that He is with you. Make a point to surrender the day and your will to Him, and if at some point you realize you've tried to wrestle the day back under your will and control, give it back. This is the first priority, because the power to do any of the other things on the list, to love God and love others, to stay free and be of service, all stem from this. We look beyond ourselves to Daddy's love for us, seeking to know Him more and more, to get closer and go deeper into relationship with Him. That makes both the best and the worst days better. It gives us what we need to have peace and endurance and hope and love in every situation and circumstance. It gives us what the thing or things that used to control us promised and either failed to deliver or charged far too much for. The life worth living with the ability to say no to the sirens call of destruction is found first and foremost in surrender of our lives, will and day to the care of Daddy.
2. Be grateful. Going through the day with care to be grateful and with a thankful heart helps us to keep our eyes on Daddy. It keeps us attentive to the Spirit. Gratitude teaches us to be content and to trust the provision and care of Daddy. We may not get everything that we want. We may not even get everything we think we need at the moment we think we need it. But all we get and go through will take us to better relationship with Daddy, make us more like Jesus, enable us to help someone else and transform us into a reflection of the Spirit of love and grace for His glory. Therefore, there is always something to be grateful for. Because no matter what is going on in and around us, we never have a moment where we are not loved by God. Being grateful keeps us from falling back into self, and there is no better shield against bitterness, resentment and misery than a heart that is thankful for relationship with Daddy and for who He is and what He's done.
3. Practice love, compassion, kindness and forgiveness. Be a faithful friend, encouraging, comforting and building up your brothers and sisters. Love your enemies and pray for those who hurt and try to take advantage. Care for the outcast, the rejected and the dejected. Embrace the despised, and care for the stranger. In other words, love everyone you come in contact with today, the friend and foe, the family and stranger, the deserving and undeserving. Love the people Daddy loves, the way Jesus loves them, by the power and love of the Spirit within.
4. Be helpful. Do something to make someone else's day better, to lighten their load without expecting anything in return. Do it joyfully, without fanfare or hoping for praise. Practice random acts of anonymous service whenever possible. Make it your goal to be of such service today that everyone who encounters you has a better day because of you, even if they don't acknowledge, realize or know that you had anything to do with it.
5. Let go of the things you can't control. Remember that Daddy is in charge and not you. Stop trying to control and force life into submission to your will.
6. Invest wisely. No, I'm not talking about money. There is one resource we all have that can never be replenished. Nothing is more precious than time. We all have the same 24 hours each day. Make the most of them. Be productive when it's time to work. Enjoy the down time when it's time to relax. Laugh when you can, cry when you need to, and love with all you are.
7. Put down the stick. The one that you use to beat yourself up with. Treat yourself as though you are precious and valuable, because that is how Daddy sees you and what He has declared you to be. Don't treat yourself as worthless. You are beautifully and wonderfully made and loved. Treat yourself as such.
8. Be in the now. Stay out of the past, except to use it as a tool to show what God has done in your life and can do for others. Stop trying to manipulate and anticipate the future. Be responsible but don't live in dread of what may come. Do what God has placed before you this day and let tomorrow come at its own pace. This moment is the life we've been given and there is more to do in it than we can do without His grace as it is, even in moments of rest. Especially in moments of rest. Don't ruin the rest Daddy wants to give you worrying about tomorrow.
9. Stay eternally minded. Don't freak out over things that won't matter a year from now, especially those that don't matter in the eternal grand scheme of things. On the flip side, don't ignore the eternal. With that in mind, don't ever treat anyone as less important than your job, than your money, your possessions or anything else that will rust, burn, decay or pass away.
10. Remember who you are. You are a child of God, loved by Him, with all the rights of the heir of the King to live free, Live like it.
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