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The Eight Priority Areas in a Human Life .
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| Are we running our lives? Or is our life (and its demands) running us? Take a life inventory below, then decide if you're comfortable with your current energy allocation. |
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We're here on this planet for less than a hundred years. Then we spend the next several hundred billion years in a completely different place. And everything we do down here today impacts the quality of our life "up" there. Here's Bruce Wilkinson's illustration. On the line below, the DOT represents our life on Earth (including the next eighteen hours.) The LINE represents the billions of years of eternity future (Heaven, if we're following Christ.) What we do in the dot determines what we will experience on the line. Now ... how would you rank your current walk of faith, (using whatever criteria you deem appropriate) and what would it take to move it further to the right? |
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Did you hear about the man at the hospital, on his deathbed, surrounded by his best friends, declaring his regrets that he hadn't worked longer hours? We haven't either. How about the fellow who regretted not earning more? No. The biggest regret most people have at the exit of this life and the doorway to the next is that they spent too little time with those they loved -- or could have loved -- in this life. What will it take to move your current family life closer to a 10? |
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Men and women of God through history have been men and women who were givers, not takers. They were not self-centered, but other-centered. Most of us also have a desire to give (or give back) to our community (be it our church, our small group, our town, the homeless, the hungry, the lonely, the hurting, etc.) but time and circumstances seem to get in the way. God has always been about contribution to others (just look at His relationship with us.) If we are to reflect Him, we will be men and women who live for others. To what degree are you currently living for others and giving back to a dying world? Do you sense a call to be more involved in your community or communities? Rank yourself one to ten. |
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School is not just about learning. School is about teaching us to learn and giving us the desire to learn by exposing us to the benefits of mental maturity. "If I'm the same person a year from today that I am today, I'll have wasted a year of my life," it is said. The more we develop mentally in a healthy way, the more we grow into the image of God He has created us to be. How do you feel about the mental capacity God has given you and how you are stewarding it / investing it / making it available for His use? |
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If our body is (voluntarily) unhealthy, not only do we "give God a black eye," but we prevent His temple from being able to house the experiences He has for us. He who disciplines the body [within reason] leaves himself open to the greatest number of options for fullness of life that depends thereon. To what degree is your physical investment (or lack) preventing you from experiencing everything God has for you? |
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Few of us can thrive as "islands." Many of our greatest joys in this life come in the context of friends and friendships. Barbeques, cups of coffee, adventures in a social context, ... these warm the hearts of most of us. And during the tough times? Invaluable is the friend who will shoulder some of the emotional burden. "A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." Prov. 17:17. How do you feel about the social part of your life? |
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We spend 12 to 18 hours of each workday either preparing for or participating in our career. How valuable to choose the right one and successfully make the most of those tens of thousands of hours! To what degree are you making the most of the career time God has given you? |
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We'll not see u-haul trailers in funeral processions, nor trailer hitches on hearses. That confirms that we're not taking anything with us when we leave this world for the next. (In fact, it's easy to get excluded from the destination we want in the next world by over-concentrating here.) But there is value in being responsible and effective in managing those finances that God entrusts us with. If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently? If you could give one piece of financial advice to your children, what would it be? Though we can never do anything about the past, it's never too late for today. Rank your current financial stewardship. |
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Please ... don't let this fall into the domain of a mere "mental exercise." Millions of "Christians," convinced that they're "in" (as if salvation were some kind of "fire insurance policy to make sure I get into Heaven,") may travel the millions of miles through the Universe immediately following the Trumpet blast, only to find themselves falling eighteen inches short of Heaven ... the eighteen inches between their heads ("even the DEVILS believe, and shudder" - Jas 2:19) and their hearts - the seat of the will, of actions. Please make sure your faith doesn't stay above your shoulders. It may not be the "faith" you think it is. Pick one area above. Now make a commitment to do something, if you sense God is calling you to. Make a decision ... an act of your will ... to act as a result of this exercise. Ask, with us, "How can I become more the man or woman God has for me to become as a result of this past 45 seconds?" God is less interested in well-filled heads, or in mere agreement, we'd propose, than in changed lives. Even the devils believe ... and shudder (Jas. 2:19). What's missing for them, (and too often for us), is action. An act of the will (usually visible to others) that results from new thinking (in the head) ... that seeps eighteen inches down into the heart ... which controls the will -- the control center for our actions. Now there's a step towards a changed life. Pick an area. DO something about it. Please leave this page more the man or woman of God than you were when you entered it. And have an amazing day in our Lord ...
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