Don't Settle For Less Than Best

Part 1 Enrich The Quality of Your Life

I’ve never been very good at spring cleaning. I know some of you take advantage of this season and clean out the spaces behind closed doors, find the cobwebs with the attachment on your vacuum, and wash your windows till they sparkle.

I am bummed to say, that is not me. But, there is more than one way to get clean windows!   

This spring I hired a window cleaner. WOWZA! Is this what the outdoors looks like? This was a wakeup call to the big impact physical effort can make.

Has life felt stuffy, filled with dust, and possibly unfulfilling? Imagine how your life could change with a little spiritual effort.

It is time for a spiritual kick-your-butt-into-gear and take ownership of your life again!  

Move from Good to Best

Have you been willing to settle for less than God’s best for your life? 

Everything in our world naturally goes from good to bad. The bananas on the counter look great for a few days, but then are covered with black spots and if you don’t make banana bread soon, you will have to throw them away. 

What about the quality of your life? Physically, if you don’t care for yourself with healthy food and daily movement, the saying - what you don’t use, you lose – will really come true. In just a short amount of time you will not be able to get out of that semi-comfy chair without a lot of aches and pains.

What about the quality of your spiritual life?

The health of your spiritual life will never rise above your intentional commitment to prioritize it every day. You have a choice, just like in your physical health, to not slide from good to bad, but intentionally move from good to best.

Spiritual Health + Intentionality

Here are 3 tips to being intentional about your daily spiritual health.

1. Be Intentional with Your Choices

You make choices and decisions every day. Thousands of them! Some are minor and trivial like what to wear or what to pack in your lunch box. Others are major decisions that will make a huge impact on your life.

What choices are you making for your spiritual health? 

I truly believe that the best choice, the first choice, you can make for your health – body, soul, and spirit – is to spend time in God’s Word. It is not about following a plan, at a certain pace, or treating Bible reading like checking off the box of something on your to-do list. It is about being spiritually alive and bearing fruit in every season of life.

Make choices that lead you into abundant life in Christ. (Rooted Bible Reading Plan) 

The Godly shall flourish like palm trees and grow tall as the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted into the Lord’s own garden and under His personal care. Even in old age they will still produce fruit and be vital and green. This honors the Lord and exhibits His faithful care. He is my shelter. There is nothing but goodness in Him.

Psalm 92:12-15 TLB 

2. Be Intentional with Your Story

Your story is important because no one has a story exactly like yours. You have unique experiences, relationships, joys, pains, dreams, failures, successes. 

God wants to use your story – past, present, and future – for his glory.

Corrie ten Boom, a woman imprisoned in a concentration camp during WWII writes:

Today I know that memories are the key not to the past but to the future. I know that the experiences of our lives, when we let God use them, become the mysterious and perfect preparation for the work he will give us to do.

Have you allowed your past stories to stop you from moving into God’s best for your life?

Your positive and negative experiences shape you, and if you will allow God to use them, he will write a story of healing, grace, strength and power.  (Your Intentional Story)

3. Be Intentional in Following God’s Purpose for Your Life

YOU are a masterpiece and God has an adventuresome purpose for your life. 

For (you) are God’s masterpiece. He has created (you) anew in Christ Jesus, so (you) can do the good things he planned for (you) long ago.

Ephesians 2:10 NLT 

I encourage you to write your Mission Statement and understand how you are uniquely created, called, and equipped to advance the kingdom of God – right in the spaces God has called you to be.

Write Your Mission Statement Here