The Best Way to Make the Most of Simplify Your Life Week

It's Simplify Your Life Week - the perfect time to eliminate the emotional just that weighs you down and keeps you from living the life God wants for you. #Simplify #EmotionalHealth #BestLife #Faith #CountingMyBlessings #WWGGG #BlessingBloggers

The first week in August is Simplify Your Life Week.

Simplify Your Life Week is observed during [the first week of] August each year. This holiday encourages those who need to refocus their lives and declutter – that doesn’t just mean objects. The idea is to eliminate anything that causes stress or anxiety. Most of us have a tendency to clutter up our lives, both physically and psychologically.
National Day Calendar

Eliminate anything that causes stress and anxiety! Doesn’t that sound wonderful? In fact, you could make a case that, as Rev would say, it sounds downright Biblical.

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7

Are you an emotional hoarder? Do you have internal junk in your life that you need to eliminate? Do you have attitudes that need to go so you can enjoy the peace and joy you want?

I know I’m taking a closer look at my attitudes to see if there are any I need to toss.

Because Simplify Your Life Week might just be the perfect time for us to toss the attitudes that are weighing our hearts down and prayerfully ask God to replace them with things that give us peace and joy!

The Best Way to Make the Most of Simplify Your Life Week

Below you will find some negative attitudes that repeatedly try to creep into my life . . . things I want to toss for good.

But first, I want to ask God to help me identify all the attitudes He wants me to get rid of so I might better trust His will and follow His plans. I would love for you to pray with me and then maybe you’d like to join me and simplify your life by tossing a few of these things as well.

Father, I want to honor You with all I think, do, and say. I want to trust and obey Your will for me. Lord, I know that too often my bad attitude can get in the way of living the life You want for me. Please help me to honestly identify the attitudes that are preventing me from loving You and others the way you want. Please fill me with Your Spirit to lead me to the truth and give me the courage to step out in faith and reject any attitude that keeps me outside of Your will. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Pride

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.
Pride leads to conflict; those who take advice are wise.
Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall.
Proverbs 11:2, Proverbs 13:!0, Proverbs 16:18

The pride that needs to go is not feeling good about our accomplishments . . . it is an attitude of conceit and a sense of superiority that looks down on others.

Jesus added pride to a list of things He called an evil that comes out of a person’s heart. (Mark 7:20–23)

So, let’s toss the pride that keeps us from loving God and loving others well. Pride that hurts our relationships.

Because getting rid of pride helps us stop comparing ourselves to others but looks at who we are as children of God. It is accepting that we fall short of God’s perfect will and need His forgiveness, help, and direction.

Guilt and Shame

If we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

For His unfailing love toward those who fear Him is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth. He has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west.

So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 John 1:9, Psalm 103:11–12, Romans 8:1

The Father does not want His children to live with ongoing feelings of guilt and shame. If you and I continue to feel guilt over a confessed sin that is not coming from God. It is coming from the enemy of our souls. The one who tempts us to sin and then forever reminds us of our failures and wants us to believe that living out the consequences means we haven’t been forgiven.

But he is a liar! God calls you and me forgiven.

When Paul wrote, “there is no condemnation” he was telling us that through our faith in Jesus’ and His loving sacrifice we are declared “NOT GUILTY.”

And that is the freedom the Lord wants for us. So, you and I can trust that through repentance and surrendered faith . . . it’s time to toss our feelings of guilt.

Anger

People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness.

Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
Proverbs 14:29, Ephesians 4:31–32

Anger in itself is not wrong as it is an appropriate attitude toward sin and injustice. I’ll admit that I have things that can easily push my hot buttons and elicit a less than “righteous” response because of my own poor attitudes.

That makes this the perfect week to prayerfully ask God to help me know when anger is appropriate and guide me as to the way He wants me to act on it. This is the perfect time to ask for God’s help to get rid of angry outbursts and practice using my words with patience and respect to communicate my feelings in a god-pleasing way.

Whew, this is a challenge that will need God to help me remember, “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)

Fear

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears.
You have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, “Abba, Father.”
1 Timothy 1:7, Psalm 34:4, Romans 8:15

I spent too many years of my life living afraid. So, whenever I’m doing an attitude checkup, I always examine my feelings of fear.

I love Paul’s words in Romans 8 reminding us that our perfect loving Heavenly Father does not want us to suffer from fear! So much that He gives us His Holy Spirit to help us and told us 366 times in His Word not to be afraid.

The good news is that we don’t have to toss our fear and live with strength on our own. We can surrender our fears to God in prayer and trust Him to give us everything we need to live with bold faith. We can proclaim with David, “I prayed to the Lord, and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4

Comparisons

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct.
Romans 12:2, Matthew 7:1–2, Galatians 6:4–5

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have the complete freedom to be the beautiful person God created you to be . . . without comparing yourself to anyone.

Advertisers want us to compare ourselves to airbrushed photos of models . . . to convince us to buy product X, Y, or Z. Friends expect us to dress and act in peer-approved styles and behaviors to conform and be part of their group. Leaders feed us well-planned talking points to conform us into like-minded thinkers. I probably could go on and on.

But God calls each of us uniquely and wonderfully complex (Psalm 139:14). Created with specific gifts and abilities (Romans 12:6), for this time and place (Esther 4:14), to accomplish good works He has prepared for us (Ephesians 2:10). Why in the world would we want to settle for being like someone else.

This quote really grabbed my heart…

“Comparison is not only the thief of joy, it is is a direct offense to our Creator God. When we try and measure ourselves next to the woman beside us, we are essentially declaring that God got something wrong in His unique design of our personal characteristics.“
Lauren Pinkston at Healthy Christian Home by Mary

God created you for your life and He created me for mine. We were each uniquely made to live for His glory through the highs, lows, and in-betweens that He knew we would face through all the days He has planned for us. (Psalm 139:16)

So, I’m making every effort to toss the temptation to compare who I am, what I can do, what I have, or anything else to someone else.

Are you ready to join me?

Because Jesus said there are just a few specific things we need to live the life He wants for us.

One…

Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”
Mark 12:29–31

And Two…

Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Matthew 6:33

That’s my list of things to eliminate during Simplify Your Life Week. What would be on your list?

Thank you so much for joining me today.

And a thank you to BibleGateway.com for sources.

Take a moment to subscribe to Counting My Blessings and join more than 7500 of us as we read the New Testament together. We will share short posts every Monday through Friday that you can read each day or save for the weekend. Let’s study God’s Word together!

Subscribe to Blog via Email

You can also…

Leave your prayer requests…

and stop to pray one or two of the requests listed.

I’m so excited to tell you about my new book!

No matter what a busy week may throw your way, God is with you in every moment. Take a breath and find peace in Him with the 52-Week Devotional Journal for Women, a weekly devotional full of Scripture passages, unique insights, and journal prompts. Strengthen and deepen your relationship with God as you focus on faith over the course of the year.
Get your copy here!

Check out our new Facebook Page/Group – #WWGGG – What Would Give God Glory. We’d love for you to join the movement!

And always remember – I LOVE hearing from you! So, please take a minute to say ‘hi’ by leaving a comment.

If this article blessed or helped you today — would you share it with someone? Send it to a friend, family member, coworker, or share it through the links below…

I’m asking God to bless you today!

Taking a Look at the Problem of Pride in the Church

5 / 27 / 167 / 7 / 16

If you’re one of those people who expects more genuine humility within the walls of the church than anywhere else on the planet, I’m sorry to say, you’d be wrong.

Jesus had some pretty direct things to say about being humble. So, I’m quite confident this is not a new problem.

“God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth.” Matthew 5:5

“So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.” Matthew 18:24

“Whoever makes himself great will be made humble. Whoever makes himself humble will be made great.” Matthew 23:12 and Luke 14:11

Even the apostles who walked with Jesus had humility issues.

In Matthew 20, James and John wanted places of honor in Jesus kingdom. And in Luke 9:46 the disciples actually had an argument over which of them was the greatest.

We shouldn’t be surprised, should we?

Who is the best musician? Who gets to teach? Who gets to make important decisions? Who has the most influence over the pastor and leaders? Who bakes the best brownies? (Okay maybe not that one, but you get the idea.)

I’ve even seen the people who consider themselves to be the largest contributors believe they should have more influence over the happenings at the church. Or what about those who spend the most time there? Aren’t they more important?

It’s a problem.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Let’s Take a Look at the Problem of Pride in the Church

I want to introduce you to a couple who showed us, Jesus.

Tilden and Loretta were members of our small congregation.

Tilden greeted everyone with a big ol’ bear hug and the words, “Do you how much Jesus loves you?” Then he and his dear wife, Loretta would show you.

You see, Tilden and Loretta served. There was no job too small.

Whether it was setting up or taking down chairs, washing dishes, visiting someone who was sick, sharing a meal, or anything else . . . Tilden and Loretta had it covered.

They weren’t looking for big assignments that came with pats on the back and lots of recognition; they did the small tasks that most people ran from. They took the lowest place.

When Jesus noticed that all who had come to the dinner were trying to sit in the seats of honor near the head of the table, he gave them this advice:

Don’t sit in the seat of honor. What if someone who is more distinguished than you has also been invited?The host will come and say, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then you will be embarrassed.

“Instead, take the lowest place at the foot of the table. Luke 20:7–10

The best part . . . I not only remember them humbly doing; more than anything, I remember their joy. They just bubbled with the joy that comes from knowing and loving Jesus. Their contagious joy rubbed off on everyone around them.

Humble servants. I don’t remember many people who gave more of their time serving at our church than these two, and yet I never saw them leverage it for their own advantage or status.

I believe one their secrets was a short prayer Tilden taught me. A promise he prayed each morning.

Yes! I have surrendered this day to God. I will follow where He guides and I will do His will as He reveals it to me. Amen.

I wish I had a picture of these two giants of faith to share with you. But maybe it’s okay. Maybe there is a face you can put with my memories. Maybe you know precious God-given blessings like Tilden and Loretta.

One last thought…

If you’ve ever been put off, hurt, or offended by our failure to show you humble love at our churches please forgive us. We are deeply sorry.

You see, we’re forgiven and loved by Jesus just like you, but we are still so very far from following Him perfectly. We don’t even follow Him the way we’d like to follow Him let alone the way He commanded. We need His grace and yours every day.

We want to do better and with His help, we will. We’ll begin by trusting that Jesus’ way of humility really is best for the family who loves Him and hopes to share His love with the world.

We hope you’ll give us another chance to show you the humble love of Jesus.

Now it’s time for…

Faith ‘n Friends Blog Hop

I’m so glad you’re here!

This is a place to share faith, make friends, and have fun.

I’d love to connect with you on social media!

Deb Wolf
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

** If you are interested in hosting Faith ‘n Friends Blog Hop
with me, email me at – deb@debwolf.com

I’m excited to share the following posts with you this week.

Have You Placed God in the Friend-Zone?

by Dianne Thornton
@ Sweeter than Honey

and

When Every Day is Redemption Day

by Christine Duncan
@Precepts and Life Preservers

Thank you, Dianne and Christine, for joining the Blog Hop!

No More Rules Blog Hop

Add 1-2 of your favorite faith/life posts.
Then just make friends and have fun.

I would really appreciate it if you would
Grab the Button or link back to CMB.

[inlinkz_linkup id=635336 mode=1]

I always enjoy hearing from you! Please take a minute to say ‘hi’ and share your thoughts below.

Don’t forget to leave your prayer requests…

and pray for others who have left requests.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Want to be Content and Satisfied? Stop Chasing “the Best”

5 / 13 / 167 / 7 / 16

Do you want to be content? Satisfied? Are you tired of chasing promises only to be left wanting?

Everywhere you turn you hear:

You deserve the best . . . you’re worth it!

You deserve happiness and having the best will make you happy!

Never settle for less than you deserve. Demand the best, accept nothing less!

Really what is “best” anyway? Who decides?

Advertisers?
Parents?
Teachers?
Friends?
Researchers?

Want to know a simple truth”

[Tweet “This week’s “best” will be replaced with next week’s new and improved.”]

But we’re tempted by that word “best” aren’t we?

We wander aisles and websites searching for new and better. We crave labels. We run after status. And next week we’ll shake off last week’s contentment and charge on.

Aren’t you tired? Don’t you want simple contentment?

The answer:

Stop tying your self-worth to your stuff. Give up your pride!

Pride is:

a feeling that you respect yourself and deserve to be respected by other people
a feeling that you are more important or better than other people
a feeling of happiness that you get when you or someone you know does something good, difficult, etc.

What do you think?

Based on those definitions pride isn’t generically bad.

You should respect yourself and expect others to treat you respectfully. (You should respect them, too.) And you should be happy when you do something well.

But…

You should not feel you are more important or better than other people.

The Bible says:

Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Proverbs 11:2 (NLT)

Don’t love the world’s ways. Don’t love the world’s goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from Him. 1 John 2:15:16 (MSG)

And C.S. Lewis said:

“As long as you are proud you cannot know God. A proud man is always looking down on things and people; and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you.”

“Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man… It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition is gone, pride is gone.”

Wow, that’s counter-cultural isn’t it? Wealth. Fame. Popularity. Prestige. That’s where it’s at.

But have you ever stopped and really listened to people who “have it all?” Often they seem to have everything but contentment and satisfaction.

Are you ready for better than “best?” Try humility.

Humility is:

the quality or state of not thinking you are better than other people

I like that definition. It’s simple. It makes relationships more important than stuff.

Humility chooses its contentment and satisfaction in God. Humility knows and uses His the gifts, talents, and abilities He gives for His glory. Humility wants to do well, to do its best, but always and only for God’s glory.

The Bible says:

Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. Galatians 6:4

That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original. Galatians 5:26

C.S. Lewis said:

If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud.

Your real, new self (which is Christ’s and also yours, and yours just because it is His) will not come as long as you are looking for it. It will come when you are looking for Him.

Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him and with Him everything else thrown in.

Choose God’s Best and Find Contentment and Satisfaction

Choose to praise God for who He is.
Choose to avoid the comparison trap.
Choose to stop chasing promises and want what you have.
Choose to do your best and use what you have for God’s glory.
Choose to make your relationships a priority.
Choose to count your blessings.
Choose to trust God’s plans and purposes.
Choose to celebrate today.
Choose to talk with God about every need.
Choose to bless others with what you have.

Choose contentment and satisfaction!

Be you! Do your best. Be humble. Find contentment in your relationship to God through Jesus and enjoy His blessings.

Satisfy us each morning with your unfailing love, so we may sing for joy to the end of our lives. Psalm 90:14

“God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” ~St. Augustine

Now it’s time for…

Faith ‘n Friends Blog Hop

I’m so glad you’re here!

This is a place to share faith, make friends, and have fun.

I’d love to connect with you on social media!

Deb Wolf
Facebook / Twitter / Pinterest

I’m excited to share two posts with you this week.

Prayer for the Nation

by Pam DePoyan
@ Writing… Apple of Gold

Thank you, Pam, for joining the Blog Hop!

No More Rules Blog Hop

Add 1-2 of your favorite faith/life posts.
Then just make friends and have fun.

We would appreciate it if you would
Grab the Button or link back to the hosts.

[inlinkz_linkup id=632707 mode=1]

I always enjoy hearing from you! Please take a minute to say ‘hi’ and share your thoughts below.

Don’t forget to leave your prayer requests…

Subscribe to Blog via Email

What is Humility and Why You Need to Know

5 / 2 / 167 / 7 / 16

Let me begin by saying I’m a little nervous about this month’s topic.

Why?

Because every month of doing The Faith Project I’ve not only had opportunities to learn and grow, I’ve had plenty of occasions to practice . . . to live out the discussion.

Let me explain…

I once heard a pastor preach on spiritual warfare say that he’d just come through one of his hardest weeks ever while preparing that message. If we’re going to talk about a subject or ask God to help us grow in a specific area He often has us learn by living it.

It’s part of wrestling with God’s truth.

You can talk about patience, but if you’ve never had to wait you probably don’t get it.

You can share passages from the Bible that give hope, but they will always mean more to someone who has desperately needed hope.

It’s the same with peace, compassion, and forgiveness.

So, I’ll admit it, I’m just a little nervous about starting a month long look at humility.

I don’t think of myself as having a pride problem, but the truth is everyone has a pride problem. The question isn’t if, the question is where we fall on the pride scale.

My favorite quote on humility is:

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.” ~Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life

On a scale of 1 to 10 – If 1 is proud (completely self-focused) and 10 is humble (completely God and others focused) where would you fall.

Proud 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Humble

If you’re like me, you didn’t give yourself a 1 but you didn’t come close to a 10 either.

Are you beginning to understand why I’m a little nervous? I have a feeling I’m about to get some lessons in humility.

Why is it so hard to be humble?

#1 – Pride is generally considered a good thing . . . it’s important to “feel good about yourself” and take care of yourself. If you don’t, no one else will.

#2 – Humility is thought to be passive . . . and weak. Someone who lets other people walk all over them.

Who wants that?

The problem is most people think of pride and humility horizontally—comparing people to people.

But… What is humility?

Humility has to begin vertically.

Humility must begin with God.

And another problem is…

The temptation to make God too small. Making Him who we think He is or who we want Him to be not stopping and allowing ourselves to be overwhelmed with awe by who He really is.

Think about it for a minute – He is:

God of the universe.
Creator of everything. Genesis 1:1
Rescuer of nations. Exodus 13
Splitter of seas. Exodus 14
God of gods and Lord of lords. Deuteronomy 10:17
Eternal God. Psalm 90:1–2
Truth. Proverbs 30:5, John 14:6

He is also – Trinity. Healer. Savior. Life. Love. Just. Righteous. Sovereign. Spirit. Deliverer. Holy. All-knowing. Present everywhere. All-powerful. Faithful. Unchanging. Good. Gracious. All in all. AND so much more.

Admit it, you read all those words but you didn’t stop to fully absorb what they mean. That’s okay. You couldn’t. You can’t. It’s just not possible.

“If God were small enough to be understood, He wouldn’t be big enough to be God.” ~Elizabeth Elliot

What is humility? It's not about you, it's about your relationships. And it begins with your relationship to God.

In Pride, Humility, & God written for the C. S. Lewis Institute, John Stott wrote:

Pride is the stubborn refusal to let God be God. It is the attempt to dethrone God and enthrone self. Sin is self-deification.

Humility is acknowledging the truth about ourselves, that as creatures we depend on our Creator’s power and as sinners on our Savior’s grace.

Like freedom, love, wisdom, and prayer, humility is about relationship.

Relationship with God

I want to know God more . . . not about Him but Him. I want to sit at His feet with awe and wonder. I want to pay closer attention to what He is doing around me. I want to spend less time thinking about me and more time thinking about Him.

I want to love Him more. I want to praise Him with all my heart.

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty—
the one who always was, who is, and who is still to come.”

Whenever the living beings give glory and honor and thanks to the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever), the twenty-four elders fall down and worship the one sitting on the throne (the one who lives forever and ever). And they lay their crowns before the throne and say,

“You are worthy, O Lord our God,
to receive glory and honor and power.
For You created all things,
and they exist because You created what You pleased.”
Revelations 4:8–11

Relationship with People

I want to learn more about what it means to live humbly with people and still be a strong, courageous, follower of Jesus. I want to find a better balance between caring for others and caring for me. I want to see what true humility looks like in a society where it is often discouraged.

I want to love God more by loving His people well.

God has chosen you and made you His holy people. He loves you. So you should always clothe yourselves with mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Colossians 3:12

I hope you’ll join me. This month is sure to be both challenging and a blessing.

I always enjoy hearing from you! Please take a minute to say ‘hi’ and share your thoughts below.

Would you do me a favor — if this article blessed or helped you today — would you share it with someone else? Maybe a friend, coworker, or family member…

Don’t forget to leave your prayer requests…

Subscribe to Blog via Email

The Blessing of I’m Sorry

9 / 18 / 129 / 24 / 12

When Rev and I were first married, I would take every little thing that happened to hurt my fragile feelings for whatever reason and hold it tight. Then I would let these little slights pile up one on top of the other. Until . . . I would melt in a puddle of tears and tell Rev everything he had done since the last melt-down. Not my most attractive moments.

He would take it all in and say, “I’m sorry. I don’t want to hurt your feelings. If you would tell me right away that something upsets you, I’ll know and do my best to stop doing it.”

That’s how we do it.

If we’re upset we say so, we talk about it, apologize, forgive, and because we love each other we try very hard not to do it again.