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5 Tips for Living In The Present Moment

Urgency. Immediacy. Insistency. Life has a way of trying to choke out your ability to live fully in the present moment.

 

Kids always need something. Your boss always needs something. Even your past tries to haunt you playing scenes over and over again in your mind like Groundhog Day. 

 

But God doesn’t want you living a slave to urgencies nor does He want the past to rob you of the present. In fact, Jesus addressing this saying:

 

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:33-34

 

Jesus is urging you to not worry about tomorrow but to seek the kingdom. And finding the kingdom isn’t difficult. From the time after His temptation in the wilderness thereafter He preached where to find the kingdom. He said it was AT HAND! 

 

At hand, in the present moment there is perfect love. At hand we have an opportunity to bask in what IS. Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow yet exists but the present moment is ripe and bursting with God’s tangible manifest presence if we would just avail ourselves to experience it.

 

So just how do we lean into the present of His presence? Here are 5 practical tips for living in the present moment.

 

1. BREATHE – Friend are you oxygen deprived? Don’t feel bad, most people are. Be intentional about your breathing. Are you breathing shallowly? When you focus your attention on your breath, it forces you to slow down and draws attention to the present. As you inhale deeply, expanding your diaphragm, give thanks to God. Thank Him for the Pneuma (breath, wind of God) and ask Him to fill you afresh.

 

2. BODY AWARENESS – Right now bring awareness to your body. Are your facial muscles tight? Are your shoulders hunched? Is your jaw clenched? Drawing attention to your body brings you into the moment and extends to you an invitation to relax. As you draw awareness to your body and relax, thank God for creating you fearfully and wonderfully. Commit to using all your members as instruments of righteousness for helping to build His kingdom.

 

3. ENGAGE YOUR SENSES – God created you with a physical body that has senses so that you can engage with all of creation. Fully utilize your senses. Look and BEHOLD all the beauty before you: the blue sky streaked with cirrus clouds, buds on the tree, the wrinkles on the hand of your grandpa and even the crooked grin of a two year old. Listen to a bird’s mating call, the lap of the ocean and the hum of the air conditioning unit. Utilizing your senses is a powerful way to connect with what is happening now. Habakkuk 2:1 says I will stand on my watch to see what He will say. When our eyes are open we can hear from God. Did you catch that? Isn’t God amazing?!

 

4. BE A NOTICER – Jones, in the book The Noticer by Andy Andrews has the uncanny ability of seeing things others miss. When we lean into God, we can sharpen our discernment, catching things that we may have otherwise missed. Again when we are inundated with the cares of the world, we can miss many God moments. Let us pump the brakes and slow down enough to be a noticer.

 

5. GIVE THANKS – My, my my! Gratitude is a game changer. Your heart beating in your chest, running water, shelter, provision, creative genius, cognitive function, love, I can keep going and going. One of my children has been struggling lately with serious quarantine fatigue so I had them start a gratitude journal. It’s been going well so far and has been a way for this child to redirect the energy of harping on the past or trying to predict when life will return to some semblance of normal; and turn their attention to giving thanks for what is. 

 

I’ll leave you with these words from Brian Courtney Wilson in his song Already Here. I love how this song affirms where we find God. Be blessed as you embrace living in the present moment.

 

“We watch and we wait, Lord, anticipate the moment you choose to appear. We worship, we praise until there’s no debate. And we recognize you’re already here. YOU’RE ALREADY HERE!”

 

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired to Live Fully!

 

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Live In The Moment

Yesterday my family and I spent the day in a small, quaint town. While there we walked the streets, window-shopped, admired old brick buildings, and read on the town’s engagement in the Civil War. We stopped in a teashop, a local coffeehouse and walked the canal.

DSCN3762

 

 

The whole while my 11 year old talked and talked and talked. She went on and on about how she was going to enjoy this trip to this town. She went on about how she would see sights and visit shops. This narration was taking place right as we were DOING the very things she was mentioning. But she was so engrossed in her future planning of what we would do that she was missing THE opportunity to bask in the PRESENT moment of us DOING IT. I reminded her to LIVE in the moment.

 

But that’s where most people live in their minds. They’ve hitched a ride with Marty McFly and jumped into the DeLorean. Most have gone into the future and have stayed there. Or they’ve taken a trip to the past and have gotten comfortable there. All the while missing all that abounds in THIS PRESENT MOMENT.

 

Oh the JOY that is available to us here in this present moment. Neither future nor past are greater than NOW. Be present to live in the moment.

lotus

 

 

Now is reality. The past is a memory and the future an imagination, but the present is where LIFE happens.

 

While there are benefits to reflecting on the past in that it can fill us with warm memories and allow us to learn from our experiences, there is danger in living the bulk of our present existence in a time that doesn’t currently exist.

 

purple flower lily pad

 

 

Let him who would enjoy a good future waste none of his present. ~Roger Babson

 

While it is good to forecast into the future, to hope, anticipate, plan, dream, wonder and visualize, we need to ACT and action happens in the present.

 

After looking at the way things are on this earth, here’s what I’ve decided is the best way to live: Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life. And that’s about it. That’s the human lot. Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! God deals out joy in the present, the now. It’s useless to brood over how long we might live. Ecclesiastes 5:18-20

 

Life is too precious to take for granted. Every inhalation and exhalation is a reason to rejoice and give thanks. By engaging our senses and focusing our attention, we can train ourselves to be present live in the moment.

 

Do you remember being a young child, sitting at your desk in school? At the start of the day your teacher would begin to take roll. When your name was called, you affirmed that indeed you were there by saying “Here” or “Present”. Friends God is taking attendance and He wants to know if you are here. When your name is called, how will you respond? Will you be marked absent because your attention is consumed with the past or the future?

 

As I sat on the bench with my family looking out onto the water, I listened to my children’s laughter, I felt the sun radiating on my skin, I admired the colors of the flowers and smiled in amazement at God’s creativity. I gave thanks for all the beauty, majesty and splendor abounding in THAT MOMENT.

 

pink flower lily pad

 

 

This moment is all I have

 

 This moment is divinely appointed

 

 This moment is especially blessed

 

 This is the NOW moment

 

 BE PRESENT

 

Live in the moment

 

 God is here!

 

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired To Live Fully!
Happy to connect with these friends sharing the good news #WordsWithWinter, Purposeful Faith, #LifeGivingLinkup, Dance With Jesus, Grace & Truth

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The Battlefield of The Mind

“Do you really think you’ll EVER be able to do that?”

 

“Do you really think that will be successful?”

 

“You ALWAYS keep messing up!”

 

“You’re not qualified.”

 

“Hmm, maybe you should scale that idea back. It won’t work anyway.”

 

The battlefield of the mind

 

It’s Wellness Wednesday here at Inspired Life and most Wednesdays I share something related to physical wellness, but my friends today it is heavy on my heart to talk about the war we wage in the MIND. Total wellness requires nurturing the spirit, body and the mind. We cannot achieve optimal wellness without embracing mental wellness. To neglect one area is to neglect the others so let’s put on our armor and commence to wage war.

 

The battlefield is indeed in the mind.

 

I tend to think of myself as someone who does what the scripture says:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things. Phil 4:8

 

But somewhere, somehow, the enemy wormed his way into my mind with some of the lies stated above. I realize when feel hard pressed on every side, I’ve prone to believe these lies and accept them as truth. And that fool has been kind of slick with it too, he knows he cannot attack me with ridiculous, outlandish lies so he’s planted these little ones which I’ve come to accept.

 

 

As a young child, week after week I expected my father to rescue me from a home and community filled with drug abuse, violence, and poverty but that didn’t happen. Elementary school and middle school I expected my mother to show up at my graduations but that didn’t happen. These and many other disappointments caused me to “expect nothing”. That was really a defense mechanism to shield myself from further hurt. I came to see that I was projecting that same small thinking on God, “expect little to nothing so you won’t be hurt or disappointed”.

 

But God says:

I am able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you can ask or think.

My plans are to give you a future and a hope.

You will not be put to shame.

 

When God has wired you to be a cautious person then couple that with uncontrollable life circumstances thrust on you during childhood, one can become overly cautious as a means of self-preservation. And that has continued but the enemy uses it against me and distorts it. And I’ve come to accept his lie that I have to tread cautiously, calculate every move, wear a life vest, diving suit, and scuba gear for a swim on the shore.

 

But God says:

Blessed is the man that trusts in me.

Trust in the name of the Lord.

I will never leave nor forsake you.

Be strong and of good courage for I am with you where ever you go.

Believe in me.

Come to me.

 

Again in my small expectation thinking, I’m afraid to ask for much. And the much I’m talking about is NOT, “God give me a fly ride and new clothes”. I’m talking about basic needs like food and shelter and an opportunity to grow in ministry for His namesake. But that part of me that’s afraid of disappointment, of the potential of it NOT happening is afraid to ask because if what I ask for doesn’t come to pass, then what will I believe about MY GOD?

 

 

But God says:

I am able to make all grace abound toward you so that you have all sufficiency for every good work.

Your expectation is from Me not from people.

If you obey and heed my commands you will prosper and have good success.

Give and it will be given to you pressed down, shaken together, running over.

 

I had accepted these lies, but no more! I do not desire to be double minded for the doubled minded person is unstable. I find stability in Christ. He is the stable, strong rock and fortress around which I erect my thoughts. And I urge you friends to take your thoughts captive to obey Christ. By the power of the Spirit at work in you, take back your mind.

 

It is so critical to manage our thought life because what we think is what we become.

 

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

 

So how do we nourish a healthy thought life? How do we renew our minds?

 

Helmet

Put on the mind of Christ. Put on the helmet of salvation; deflecting any blows to the confidence we have in Christ.

 

Confession

Confess the truth of what God says about you, your family, or any situation you may encounter. Meditate on the things mentioned in Philippians 4:8

 

Give Thanks

God’s grace abounds towards me and towards you. Every second we are presented with an abundance of gifts from Him. He is constantly showing me how much He loves me and for that I give thanks. From the beauty of the sunrise to the squinty-eyed grin of my two year old, I am presented with gift after gift. The onus is on me to recognize the gift, accept the gift, be grateful for the gift and treasure the gift.

 

Embrace the Now Moment

Continuously redirect your attention to all that is real and truthful in THIS MOMENT. Take your eyes off what could have, should have, might have happened and focus on what is. At present my lungs expand and contract as I breathe in the breath of life, my children are safely nestled in their beds, my belly is full, I have the peace of God, His love fills my heart, I am safe, I am warm.

 

This quote has been attributed to several different people. I’m not sure who truly ought to get the credit, but it’s a good one,

 

“Sow a thought, and you reap an act;

Sow an act, and you reap a habit;

Sow a habit, and you reap a character;

Sow a character, and you reap a destiny.”

 

Your destiny hinges on the every thought you are thinking right now. Surrender your thought life to Him. Give room for His thoughts to become your thoughts. By the power of the spirit at work in you, you are more than a conqueror. You are the victor on the battlefield of the mind.

 

You have the mind of Christ!

 

As always, it is my prayer that you’ve been Inspired To Live Fully!

 

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Happy to connect with friends at Purposeful Faith Dance With Jesus Equipping Godly Women Life Giving Linkup

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