Five Words That Will Change Your Life

Have you ever really paid attention to your vocabulary?

Does it match your faith life?

Or is your faith life a bit stalled and you wonder how to jumpstart it?

Your vocabulary is the key to it all and understanding these five simple words can drastically change your life.

Word One: Disordered

Our world gets a bit crazier every day. More things take up our time and energy and consequently leave us less time for God. Our dreams, desires and longings get caught up in the ways that we experience the world. So, instead of dreaming God’s dreams for our lives, we live with and pursue disordered dreams and desires. We keep ourselves on Satan’s treadmill where our disordered existence exhausts us and steals our joy.

“Lord, remove the disordered desires from my mind and heart so that I may experience your peace and dream your dreams for my life. Do not allow the illusions of the evil one to infiltrate my heart or mind where I unwittingly allow them to undermine or replace your plans for me and my life.”

Word Two: Mightily

It is easy to feel defeat as we move through life but this isn’t supposed to be our existence at all. We are meant to mightily move through life because the battle has already been won for us through Christ! When we feel discouraged, we ought to call upon the conquest we have in Jesus’ shed blood.

 “Lord, help me see that in all my circumstances, I am able to call upon you and mightily move through them. Let me find the strength I need to boldly and confidently call upon your promises. You have made sure that I am never alone and in that awareness let me humbly but mightily live.”

Words Three and Four: Natural and Supernatural

Living in the natural means that we experience our world with our physical senses. Oftentimes, those senses are not real indicators of real truths. We might not see angels but they are there. We may not hear God’s voice but He speaks to us nonetheless. The more attention we pay to the natural, the less assurance we tend to have of the supernatural. Today is the day to turn that around.

“Holy Spirit, thank you for my physical senses but do not let them be the only way that I experience life. Open up the eyes of my heart so that I may supernaturally experience life and always remember that while I am on the earth, I am not off the earth. Mine is life meant to live in the spirit. Let that begin today!”

Word Five: Victory

The evil one is more than happy when believers get stuck this side of the Cross. He delights when believers focus on the Crucifixion at the expense of the Resurrection. It is critically important that believers experience the Cross and Crucifixion as part of the journey and not the destination. Victory belongs to the believer. Victory takes the believer beyond the Cross to the Throne. Victory takes the believer beyond the Crucifixion to the Resurrection.

“Father, through your Son I have victory. Do not allow the difficult experiences of my life to overwhelm and define me. Please stay with me as I persevere to my final destiny given to me freely through your Son. In Jesus’ name, victory is mine!”

(picture Dreamstime Madeleine Mattson)

Being a Fool for Christ

The rich man asked Jesus what was necessary to enjoy eternal life. Apparently the man had been a devout follower of the laws but still questioned what that final “piece” needed to be for his own salvation. I think it is interesting that the guy knew, in his heart, that more was still being asked of him. Unfortunately, the answer saddened the man, for Christ told him that he had to sell all his possessions—and the guy had a lot of stuff!

We don’t know, based upon the reading of the text, if the man did or did not do as Christ instructed. We read that he walked away sad but that doesn’t necessarily translate into disobedience.

I am often sad when I have to “do the right thing” but it doesn’t stop me from doing it.

So let’s give this rich guy the benefit of the doubt and say that he forlornly sold his possessions but then followed Christ. We know, of course, that his sadness would have been fleeting, right? After all, he was now in a position to enjoy eternal rewards with Jesus.

However, in this scenario we are then left with a bigger picture: what did all this rich guy’s friends and family say while he was liquidating?

“Are you crazy? Think how long and hard you worked for all this!”

“Why are you acting so irrational? There must be some other solutions!”

“You are being a fool!”

That, by my estimation, may very well be what Jesus was asking of the rich man—and what He asks of each of us: to be a fool. Which on the face of it sounds ridiculous; but when we contemplate what it means to be a fool for Christ, we can understand the depth of what we have to give up—or how we must be perceived—to be a “fool for Christ.” And then we see that being a fool for Christ takes us to the very heart of humility and selflessness where our ego simply cannot exist. We know in our hearts it is that “something more”—just as the rich man knew that there was something more being asked of him.

Being a fool for Christ often translates into doing things that make us look foolish—that even make us feel stupid or embarrassed. If we have become comfortable in our positions, aren’t risking anything for the Kingdom, and are surrounded by like-minded people, we can’t possibly be fools for Christ. It is when our egos take a hit, when our actions are questioned, that we become the real fools.

Being a fool for Christ means feeling embarrassed at your own passions because you are sharing them where they aren’t understood or even welcome. It puts your ego on the line and exposes you to ridicule and even mockery. Being a fool for Christ means people are saying about you, to you, or even behind your back, “What are you thinking? Who are you kidding? What are doing?”

You see, those questions have no sound, reasonable answers outside of the request Jesus makes of us to be in obedience. I can’t explain why I would write and publish Catholic books when I could be lucratively employed in the secular world—except that Christ has called me to it.

There are no rational answers to those questions, just as there were no sane answers the rich man could have given to his incredulous friends and family.

He was just being a fool for Christ.

Cheryl Dickow

www.BezalelBooks.com