Shifting Gears

First off... this is NOT a use God/the Bible to get what you want out of life thing. But there will be mention of God and the Bible in this thought.

I fully believe that we have so much more potential than we are willing/able to believe... maybe it goes hand in hand with the fact that we only use a small fraction of the potential of our brain power. But very few people ever come close to reaching their full potential. Most people get stuck in the everyday rat race, living from pay day to pay day... getting through each day just so that they can face the next one.

Everyone gets stuck in a rut. We get comfortable doing things the same way over and over. There's always a reason/excuse not to change how we do things. Which is bad, but isn't. Tradition/routine is good, but it can also trap us. ESPECIALLY when it's a bad/negative routine or habit.

Sometimes in life stuff happens... and it knocks us down. They say that which doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, I only partially agree with that statement. I believe there is fine print that has gotten lost. Sometimes you don't get stronger, sometimes it takes you down a notch and it takes long to recover, sometimes people never recover.

Luckily when you know Jesus... like as in have a relationship with Him and not just know ABOUT Him you can handle things differently. This is where the shifting gears needs to take place. I've been retrenched, been in a bike accident, crashed my car, had stuff stolen, been single for longer than what I believed I should have been, been lonely, been desperate, felt unworthy, felt unloved, felt inferior. I've got my issues.

But God has been revealing something to me, and I've been starting to take note. It's TOUGH because my default is negativity. I like to complain and find reasons why things can't work.

The thing God is revealing to me is something along the lines of the following:
When an obstacle presents itself to you you look at it. You notice it and you have a choice. You can fixate on the obstacle which will cause you to start taking in the details of it, expanding on it and then the obstacle grows and becomes seeming insurmountable. This is how I react by default (I am trying to change it). Or you can choose to try and find a way around it.

The Bible says that the power of life and death is in the tongue Proverbs 18:21. And that the overflow of the heart comes out of the mouth (Luke 6).

So what I propose is not blindly fly into situations screaming "I can do this...", but a gradual shift of mind/heart gears. A shift of bringing more "life" than "death" into a situation. We need to start believing (if Jesus is you Lord and Saviour) that God has His hand on your life and is with you in EVERY situation, promising to never leave nor forsake you. With that belief and spending time with God your heart will change. How you view situations will change. How you speak about situations will change... and strangely... the outcomes of the situations will also change.

My heart aches when I see situations where people could be so much more, but they are trapped by themselves. This is not ALWAYS the case, but I honestly believe we can achieve more if we just stand on Jesus, believe, trust and go for it.