Change Is A Community Effort
January 24, 2011
Over the course of the past few weeks, you have been reflecting on the person you feel God wants you to become in 2011. Unfortunately, sometimes you are so close to a situation that you get tunnel vision and begin to second-guess your perspective. Chances are good you have created a list of potential words, but you find yourself wondering how to make a final decision on the direction you will take. Our recommendation is to invite someone else to join you on your journey by seeking out his or her wisdom. Even though you must rely on the Holy Spirit for direction, God also uses people to bring perspective to your life that you are unable (or unwilling) to see at times.
Who is the person you trust the most? Do they care deeply about the well being of your character? Hopefully, this individual possesses the ability to see the potential in you and is willing to do whatever it takes to encourage your growth and transformation. In essence, they care more about your character than your friendship. True change takes a community effort. Each one of us needs a few people to tell us the truth about our heart, point out our weaknesses, and check for our blind spots.
- Share with this person the words you are considering for the My One Word project. As you are sharing your thoughts, pay close attention to their response and the words that are met with affirmation and confirmation. Do they affirm that your word is an area that demands your attention? Do they confirm that a certain word seems to be a place where God is working in your life?
FOR THOSE THAT HAVE ALREADY PICKED THEIR WORD FOR 2011
The reason you chose the word that you did is because this godly characteristic does not come naturally to you. This is where the implementation of disciplines comes into play. The point of disciplines is to do something you can do in order to do something you cant do. You establish disciplines until they are dissolved into your character. While many of us shy away from discipline, there are many benefits to the struggle we experience as the depth of our character is tested and trained. Disciplines put you in a place where God can transform your heart. As you are starting your one word journey, take some time to reflect on what disciplines you need to set up in order to pursue your word more deeply.
- Read 1 Timothy 4:7-9. What disciplines will you incorporate in response to living out your one word?
Many of you have been down this path of change before and, for whatever reason, something got the better of you. It caused you to wave the white flag in surrender and retreat back to your old ways. This time you want things to be different. Start now by identifying the bumps in the road you will inevitably encounter. Wed love to hear your response to the following question: What do you see as the biggest roadblock that you will face when it comes to living out your one word?
The biggest roadblock that I will face when it comes to living out my one word is doubt. My word is Concordance. I have always doubted that my name is written in the Lambs book of life, always known that I wasn’t worthy or capable of producing good works to please God. But when I meditate on the word God gave me, I see that He has made an agreement with me because of His love and grace. I will never be worthy, but He will always be God.
My word is ‘Discipline’. I know that I am very disciplined in that which I WANT to do or those things that I already EXCEL at. The problem lies when I should be doing other things that I’m not so excited about or fear failing in….I find it difficult to have the discipline to follow through with the charge to do those things. My biggest roadblock however will be my schedule….as it stays overloaded I will continue to give priority to the things in my comfort zone and let slide the others.
My word is “teach”. I want to teach my daughter (and son when he’s older) about what Jesus did for us and about God. I need to “teach” myself daily discipline and read to both of them from their Bibles, I need to “teach” myself to study… So my biggest road block is going to be learning the daily self discipline that I want to accomplish.
My word is “Gentle”. Growing up, I was always the true Christian my heart wanted to be. Now that I am in my early 20’s, I fear that I have lost that important quality. My biggest roadblock, will be getting caught in the moment. When something unplanned or bad may happen, I fear that I was react in an harsh and unkind way. It is my biggest flaw as a person, but I hope that when something happens that I do not like, the word will pop into my head and I will be able to react in a gentle way.
My word is Dwell. I feel the Holy Spirit is directing me to Dwell more with him. The dictionary defines dwell as “to live as a permanent resident”. My prayer for this year is to is to overcome by biggest roadblock of busyness and to dwell (to make his word) my permanent residence!
My word is “IDENTITY”. I take life as it comes and deal with things as they come up. I find that I’m not disciplined in “setting” time aside for the Word. Before I realize it, the day is over, my head is on the pillow for the night and I really didn’t take time to research my word for the day. How can I find identity if I don’t take time to identify? Discipline is tough!!! Help me Lord to follow though with what it is you’re doing in my life. I need you…don’t give up on me!!!
My word last year was “focus” but it didn’t work. I have so many things to focus on that I didn’t focus on anything. As I was searching for my word this year I was thinking about “persevere” as in “don’t give up” because right now that’s what I want to do is give up!! I found a chart in my Starting Point Bible titled “why we don’t give up” and on the side of the chart it says that “Paul constantly reminds us that we must have a purpose and a plan because times will be difficult and Satan will attack”. So, my word for this year is “PLAN”. The biggest road block is going to be that I have so much time on my hands.
My word is “Focus” There are always new things I want to accomplish each year and with each year I get distracted from the goals I had and end up in the same place every year with no real growth or improvement. I pray that I will find myself in a pool of God’s grace this year and that He can help me focus on what is important and let the rest go.
I believe my word is going to be “salvation”. It came to me awhile swimming laps the other day. Not sure it is a word I would pick but the message was strong when I received it.
The roadblock I will face (once I really accept my word) when it comes to living out my one word salvation is keeping the Faith and continue to know that everything that God does, he does for a reason.
My word is “cheerful”. I think I am naturally cheerful, actually, but I’ve had a difficult few years and have let other’s problems deplete me of my energy and quench my fire so I’m working at setting boundaries, taking care of my own feelings, and stop trying to fix everybody. My biggest obstacles are my own need to please and take care of people (rather than let them learn from consequences), and the habits I’ve allowed to develop in my interactions with others. It has been tough resetting those things to be more functional and healthy – I’m getting resistance from those “others” who have gotten comfortable with my responses to them.
My biggest obstacle to my word “strength” is believing. In Jer 29:11, God tells us (in no uncertain terms) that He knows the plans that He has for us. When I go through times of turmoil and struggle, I find it very difficult to reconcile to myself that God not only knows what I am going through, has planned it, and best of all wants me to prosper from it! I have to daily, moment by moment even, remember that God gives me the strength to press into Him, and that no matter how bad things seem, His glory is in it.
The biggest road block for my word, “leadership”, is that I really don’t want to be a leader. So, it’s my own mindset. I volunteer with women recovering from addictions. I am there to be an example of a strong christian woman. It is time to move past being a friend and risk saying things that are hard to hear. I know without a doubt that God is stretching me. It is exciting, but slightly unbelievable to me that I am rising to the challenge!
You asked what will be the biggest roadblock for our word. For me it is fear. My word is relationship. As far as relationship with God, we all know that as we draw close to God He forces us to change. I don’t like change, sometimes it hurts. When it comes to relationship with others we all know how messy those are. There is a part of me that is a scared little girl, afraid of rejection. But I know the reward is great.
My word is Live. My greatest obstacle right now is withdrawal from a medication that leaves me in huge mood swings and losing the desire to live. My second is my marriage– it’s not life giving, it’s life draining. No one to “have my back” or just to hold me when the above withdrawal is overwhelming my thoughts and faith.
The biggest roadblock for my word – proactive – is myself. It’s so easy to procrastinate, and so socially acceptable. It’s harder to get in motion than it is to stay in motion. I can think of a dozen reasons to put something off or wait to get started. But the best reason to get moving is that the sooner I get it done, the more refreshing the relaxation afterward!
my biggest roadblock to my one word is myself. My word this year is “positive”. Since I have never been positive then it will be a challenge. In fact it already has. But God is greater than my negativity. Of that I am positve!
My One Word is Peace. The biggest roadblock that I am going to encounter in trying to find the Peace I desire is ultimately, myself and my predisposition to always allow worry and anxiety to consume me. I have lacked Peace in my heart for as long as I can remember. I am so used to (trained almost) worry and anxiety consuming my life and my heart that it is going to take a lot of determination and practice to find a better way to deal with negativity. Once I can get myself trained to handle situations differently, Peace will come…but until then, my biggest roadblock is me.
The word I picked for myself was champion. There are two goals this year that require a champion one is to loose seventy pounds, two, to pass the Black Belt testing in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. I asked Jesus if this is the word he wanted for me and the word SURRENDER was the answer. To be a champion in anything I totally SURRENDER to the Greatest Champion of all time JESUS!
My word for 2011 is SURRENDER. Thank you LORD!
The biggest obstacle I foresee for living out my word ACCOUNTABLE is how easy it can be to blame situations and others for my actions.
I think my biggest roadblock is procrastination. I procrastinate at starting everything because I don’t like to fail, so if I don’t start it I won’t have a chance to fail. My One Word is Patience and I don’t think I will be able to procrastinate with this word because I will have situations every day that will challenge me.
My word is “victory”. I had a short list of words and looked each one up in the dictionary. Victory spoke to me because of the many defeats I have faced in life. This year I want to give my best and be my best for God, my family, and my community. My biggest roadblock is my pride.
My word is “listen”. God has impressed on me that I need to LISTEN to Him and other people, not just TALK!
My word is “PRAY” and my biggest roadblock will be busyness/not making enough time for concentrated prayer. I know when the best time for me to pray is, and it’s not first thing in the morning or late at night. It’s during the day–but that’s also when I get the busiest and most productive. I have to stick to my priority and make sure I schedule and FOLLOW the time I have scheduled for prayer. I pray to God all day but I need the alone time of concentrated prayer because it’s what I’ve been lacking for a while.
I would have to say my one word is “humble”. I need to humble myself more. We can grow more as Christians if we humble ourselves more and listen to God, instead of being all in the moment. Sit back, relax, and listen to Him guide us where we should be in our lives, where Hewants to go and what He asks us to do.Humble ourselves like a little child and listen to Him as a child does their parent.
My word is dilgence. When I am about to waver in any situation, work, diet, family, relationships, exercise, prayer, self doubt, attitude, etc. all Ineed to do is think of my word and It will bring forth some clarity and help me to improve my effort. Slow but sure!
My word for the year is “Anew”. My biggest roadblock is letting other peoples problems becoming higher in priority than my own. I hope to learn to make decisions to do what I know God wants me to do, instead of letting situations take control.
Fear is always my inhibitor. With my word for the “Courageous,” I will need to fight fear on a daily basis to achieve all that I want to do for the Lord and myself this year.
Comfortable is what my life has become. Which I must say is good thing, normally. However, “Change” elicits all kinds of fear and anxiety in my mind; I am adopting the statement “I refuse to remain unchanged” from a popular Christian song. The thought of being in the same place for the rest of my life caused even more fear. I am taking a stand to move out of my comfort zone and into God’s will and guidance for me. The Change has already begun and I’m ready to face the new challenge. God is awesome!
PASSION is my word. The biggest obstacles I face are being distracted by other “good” things and giving up because it’s not natural or easy or I fear what other people think. I can only do this with God’s supernatural power!