What I Learned by Asking Advice

So you're at a point in your life and you don't know where to go next or which choice you should choose.  What do you do?

Proverbs 11:14

"Without good direction, people lose their way;
the more wise counsel you follow, the better your chances."

A little over a month ago I had a quiet time regarding this verse.  After much thought I decided it would be a good idea to get advice for my future from my pocket of wise friends and family.  What I learned was some great "life" advice that applies to anyone entering a new season.  After much messaging, texting and breaking bread with these "elders" of my life, this is what I learned:

• From a much older and wiser friend to a younger one-"Travel before a family comes along is the way to go, I'd say."  
• From a wise and godly cousin- "Where your great joy meets the world's great need is where you should be." 
• Find out what you want, what brings you true joy and ask yourself if you can get by
  (financially) doing just that...if yes, do it.
• It's okay to make wrong choices.
• It's okay if the world things you are crazy for following a dream.
• Another wise old cousin- "You can make money doing what your passionate about.  It may not be easy or a lot of money, but it's possible."
• Do whatever you want but keep in mind you have to be on your own insurance by age 26.

And my two favorite which I have heard most often and most repetitively from all sorts of faces:

1. Do what you want to do.
2. When you find it, you'll know it

Those two make me laugh because they are so simple and true, yet it's one of those things that happens when you aren't searching for it.  

I guess that leads to the advice I would give someone like myself:

Don't worry about it so much, God will work it out for you when he's ready. 

Easier said than done of course.  But that's where the Bible's steadfast truth comes in.  The following chapters are always comforting in times of uncertainty for me:

Philippians 4

Jeremiah 29

1 Peter 4

Psalm 3

And of course, if you're still stressed out, you can always put on some good ol' Otis Redding: 

That song always reminds me that it's okay to just chill sometimes.  

"I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watchin the tide roll away, ooh
I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay
Wastin' time."

So smile, relax, have some fun and trust that everything is really a lot more okay than you think it is.  With the big man in charge it can't be too bad in the end, right?  And...don't forget to thank him instead of complaining!

Guarding Your Mind

As you may already know, this blog points a lot of attention to Proverbs 4:23, "Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  This verse tells us that our heart is the most sacred of all places we hold inside ourselves.

From this treasured spot flow our thoughts and desires, which then lead to our words and actions.  Our words and actions are what make up our character.  They have the ability to glorify God or commit sin (Mark 7:15, James 3:8-10.)

Matthew 12:34 says, "For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks."  and Romans 12:2 tells us to "be transformed by the renewing of our minds" so we can test and approve God's will, and 2 Corinthians 10:5 says we are to "take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ."  These are strong powerful truths that can help us break the bonds Satan has been wrapping around us with his web of lies.

We need to realize that not all of our thoughts come from us.  Many of them come from our sinful nature, a.k.a. Satan.  Paul talks about such spiritual warfare in Romans 7.  Though we are set free in Christ, we often times still struggle with the temptations of the flesh.  Because Satan is the father of lies, he begins tempting us with a lie  (John 8:44.)

These lies are first brought to us through a thought in our head that comes from Satan.  When you catch yourself thinking something that doesn't exactly glorify your maker, it is your choice what to do at that point.

• Option A) You can feed off of this lie and run with it.  Let your imagination carry you wherever it wishes.  Fantasize about that man, dwell on the anger that relative caused you, or build up your frustration so you can let it all out.  Though this is the option we naturally and most commonly take, it rarely ever ends well.
• Option B) You can stop this web of lies immediately by calling out Satan and reminding him that you are a child of God who has been set free from all these childish games (Romans 6:6, Galatians 3:26, 1 Corinthians 13:11.)

As I explained in Preparing for War pt. 2, God gives us all the tools we need to fight against Satan, in Ephesians 6.  Not only that, but Philippians 4:6-7 tells us that if we would only pray to God about anything and everything, our MINDS would be guarded by the peace of God.  Yes, our minds, this means that we can learn to control our actions and words by protecting our minds from believing lies Satan throws at us.  This idea is reinforced by 1 Thessalonians 5:17, Matthew 26:41, and Ephesians 6:18.

The next time you catch a negative thought entering your mind, try praying a prayer that goes something like this,

Father, I know without a doubt that this thought is not from you.  It is negative and sinful and know it is a lie.  Your word says if I pray to you, you will protect my mind from such things.  Please God, take this thought out of my head and help me focus on your Word instead.  Renew my mind so that I may test and approve your will.  In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

THEN, take out your verse of the week and recite it to yourself.  Quoting scripture is always a good way to reinforce the holy thoughts bouncing around in your brain.  Even Jesus used this tactic (Matthew 4.)

Music:Christian

So now we have Christian music. Christian music to me is anything that declares itself to be just that. I love Hawk Nelson, but their lyrics rarely ever mention God or Jesus, they simply lack cuss words or derogatory terms. A majority of their songs are about dating relationships however. Because I struggle with having thoughts that cause me to doubt God and my contentment in that area, I don’t feel like these songs are the best choice for me to listen to.

K-love, Air1, and The House FM stay on my radio 93% of the time. If not these then I have my “Worship” station on Pandora (an online create-your-own radio station.) www.pandora.com This is a great way to monitor what you listen to. The system actually lets you pick one genre, artist, or song, and plays only songs that are similar to that particular request. For instance the song I picked was “Hosanna” by Hillsong (I think that’s the right artist?)

Anyhow, I believe we should support Christian music for 2 reasons. The first is because Philippians 4:8 says, “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.” To me that means putting as much positive, God-honoring stuff in your body as possible, and leaving anything that is not noble, true, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, or praiseworthy out of sight and out of mind.

Now I have to be completely honest with you, I do occaisionally listen to country music and certain rap songs when I am out with friends or something. Obviously this isn’t an easy thing to do, but when God changed me 4 years ago, music is something he convicted my heart very hard about. He showed me how music was just the beginning of what led me down the path of destruction.

As I changed my music habits, I began to see God working in me a lot more evidently. I remember one day shortly after I decided to give my life to God, I went into my room and threw away all of my CD’s (I obviously had zero Christian CD’s.) I hate to think of how much money I had invested in burning songs, buying rap CD’s, everything. I used to know every lyric to every rap song—the popular ones, the too-dirty for radio ones, even the underground market. Giving all this time, money, and interest up was very hard for me. In fact about a year later I had to go through my CD’s again and throw away a couple more that had awful lyrics on them. This is an ongoing battle. However our struggle is not against the flesh and blood; the stuff of this world like rap—but against the rulers and authorities of evil! (Ephesians 6:12) That means this is a spiritual battle against satan himself! He uses simple things like a song to pull us farther from God and closer to him. Don’t be so ignorant as to ignore this warning! Stand up and fight Christian! (Ephesians 6:10-19) God blesses us for obedience! I’ve seen it happen over and over again. Ephesians 2:10, Philippians 2:12-13.

The second reason I agree with supporting Christian music is because the media is overwhelmed with unchristian things. We need to do our part to fight the evil by supporting the good, this absolutely ticks the devil off! Also the bible talks often about the importance of supporting your Christian neighbor, loving them as yourself, and staying strong with them.

Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vein conceit, but in everything consider others better than yourselves. Therefore, each of you should look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Here is an awesome website with suggestions for Christian music. For example, if you like country/rock music you might try Third Day. http://www.jesusfreakhideout.com/artists/default.asp

Also, here are some of the awesome artists that played at a great Christian concert called Winter Jam in Oklahoma City last weekend! Check ‘em out and see what you think!

(Forgive me if the genres are wrong, I’m not sure how to differentiate between most of them honestly. Lol)

Heavy metal/rock- http://redmusiconline.com/ I like the song “Your not alone”

If you like Emenem: KJ-52 dude!! http://www.kj52.com/home/home.html Check out the song “Swagged Out”

Or Rap: Lecrae!

Francessca Battestelli: http://www.francescamusic.com/

And again, this guy’s blog has a lot of posts about Christian music: http://christianrock123.blogspot.com/2010/07/secular-christian-rock.html#comment-form

So if you struggle with keeping your thoughts focused on pure things, or if God has been gently tugging at your heart to change the music you listen to, check out some of the stuff we have talked about this week. You can listen to some secular music, but make sure your focus is on God, you can listen to secular-Christian music and focus on the lyrics and using them to witness to people. You can also listen to mostly Christian music and be very blessed for it, or you can go a step forward and listen to mostly Worship music (which we will get into tomorrow.) Think about this and pray about it. Then respond to what God has told you.

Feel free to share your stories under the comment areas. Love you all and God bless!