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[00:00:00] Denisha: Too often, we make huge plans and major resolutions [00:00:05] only to get burned out when we can't keep them. But what if taking [00:00:10] small, consistent, manageable action steps would lead to the big [00:00:15] changes that you desire in your life over time? In today's episode, we will discuss [00:00:20] three things you can do today to achieve the change that you want to see in your [00:00:25] life.
Your future self starts today. Welcome to [00:00:30] living the reclaim life podcast. I'm Denisha. We're glad you're here for conversations [00:00:35] that revive hope, inspire healing, and encourage you to live a vibrant life [00:00:40] with Christ. So grab a cup of coffee as we chat with today's guest. [00:00:45] I don't know about you, but I am an all or [00:00:50] nothing person.
There are some places in my life where that is a good [00:00:55] thing, but as a whole, it does not serve me well. Here's what [00:01:00] that looks like for me. A new year hits, right? We make resolutions [00:01:05] and I go all in. If one of my resolutions is that I'm going to work [00:01:10] out, then my goal to work out is seven days a week. If I'm going to pray [00:01:15] more, then I'm going to set aside an hour every single day to pray.
If I'm going [00:01:20] to organize my house, then I'm going to set aside two weekends and spend every day of [00:01:25] sunlight diving into every nook and cranny of my house. Now, is that [00:01:30] realistic? No, trust me, it is not. I'll bet [00:01:35] you can already feel defeat as I say those things, because most of the [00:01:40] time when my mindset is like all or nothing, I fail before I [00:01:45] even begin.
Here's what that cycle of failing looks like. For me, [00:01:50] I go to the gym on that first day, right? I'm feeling good. Day one is in the books. [00:01:55] I could never do 75 hard. You guys, I would constantly be starting over [00:02:00] because that first day at the gym at 11 o'clock at night, I can almost [00:02:05] promise that a teenager in my house will want to talk until midnight.
So [00:02:10] then guess who doesn't want to get up in the morning to go to the gym for day two? [00:02:15] So it's the second day and I already don't return day three comes around. And while I [00:02:20] already messed up yesterday, so I guess I can just skip it again. Maybe I'll get to work a [00:02:25] little bit early and that cycle, you guys have defeat just [00:02:30] continues for that hour of prayer time for the, for those weekends set aside to clean my [00:02:35] house.
This is a cycle that I have seen over and over in my life when I desire [00:02:40] to make a big change in a particular area. Now, when I first make [00:02:45] these plans, right at the beginning of the year, whenever it is, I really love it because [00:02:50] I always have this sense of optimism and faith and hope that this year [00:02:55] there are some things in my life that are going to be actually different.
[00:03:00] And I don't know what those things are for you. Maybe some of you want to get in better [00:03:05] shape or maybe be more spiritually focused. Maybe it's spending more [00:03:10] time with your kids. Maybe for some of you, you want to get better with your money [00:03:15] or quit some kind of habit. I don't know what it is for you, but I pray [00:03:20] that God would give you the power to achieve those goals this year because there's something about [00:03:25] starting a new year that just brings us hope that things can be different.
So where [00:03:30] are you right now? We are a month into the new year, and I wonder [00:03:35] if you're still living in that hope that you had on January 1st, or if [00:03:40] some sort of defeat has already started to set in. [00:03:45] Oftentimes, I look at the lives of others, and some [00:03:50]people seem to have it together in some area of their life more than I do.[00:03:55]
And I don't know about you, but sometimes it intimidates me. I may look at their life and [00:04:00]think, Oh, there's so much better at working out than I am, or there's so much better at this area than I [00:04:05] am. And I don't know what big things I need to do to get the results [00:04:10] that they have. I have no idea all of the big changes I would need to make [00:04:15] to be like them.
Well, today, friends, I want to suggest. What if [00:04:20] it's not about huge changes to change your life? What if it's not about [00:04:25] sprints to the finish line? What if it's the small things that no one [00:04:30] sees that results in the big things that everyone wants? Here's an [00:04:35] example of that compound interest. Now hang with me for a second.
I'm [00:04:40] teaching my kids right now about investing and it's a little overwhelming for them because they're just [00:04:45] starting out and they're not even really making enough to save. But then we found this [00:04:50] article on Dave Ramsey's website that was super encouraging and it was about two guys. [00:04:55] Jack turned 21. And he decided to start investing 200 a month [00:05:00]for nine years.
And at 30, he totally stopped investing, never put in [00:05:05] another penny. But his friend Blake started when Jack stopped. [00:05:10] He was investing 200 a month every month, starting at 30 all the way to [00:05:15] 68. So at 68, who do you think had more money in their [00:05:20] account, Jack or Blake? Well, at the end of nine years, Jack had [00:05:25] invested 21, 600, never invested another dime and it's [00:05:30] 68 ended up with 2.
35 million. Jack's [00:05:35] friend, Blake, invested 91, 200 over the course of [00:05:40] 38 years and at age 68. He had built up 1. 3 [00:05:45] million, but he never caught up with Jack. Now you might be thinking, wait, but [00:05:50] both of them were consistently doing something. But the difference is Jack [00:05:55] started today. And that is what compound growth is.
[00:06:00] That's compound interest, right? It's the same things in the action steps that we take in our lives [00:06:05] today. It's the small things that no one sees that results in the big [00:06:10] things that everyone wants. Now, we may not be teenagers anymore, [00:06:15] and although we can encourage our kids to be like Jack and start their action steps, whether [00:06:20] it's investing, whether it's being healthy, whether it's spiritual disciplines, we can encourage [00:06:25] our kids to do that.
But what does it mean for us in our lives? [00:06:30] Well, maybe for you, maybe you want to read your Bible more. Well, [00:06:35] did you know that if you read your Bible for only 15 minutes a day, that you can read through the [00:06:40] whole Bible in a year? And there's several plans online to do that. There's even [00:06:45] Bibles you can buy that break it up into 365 reading times.[00:06:50]
We don't need an hour a day. We need 15 minutes and you can do [00:06:55] that. Maybe it's getting in shape instead of jumping all or nothing [00:07:00] in like I tend to do. What if you just committed to moving more three days a [00:07:05] week? And if you take a day or a week off, give yourself the [00:07:10] grace to begin again. Because it's a small things that no one sees that [00:07:15] results in the big things that everyone wants.
One of my goals is to finish [00:07:20] writing a book. And now remember, I am all or nothing. I constantly have [00:07:25] to check that in my life. I have thought for years that I had to go away to a [00:07:30] condo on a beach or a mountain cabin for inspiration for two weeks and crank out a [00:07:35] book. And because while I've never had two weeks to do that or a [00:07:40] condo on the beach or a cabin in the mountains, I have been putting it off for years because I [00:07:45] have this perfect way that I think it has to happen.
Well, as I began [00:07:50] learning from people who have published numerous books, I learned that the most successful [00:07:55] authors aren't doing writing marathons in some perfectly decorated place somewhere. [00:08:00] They are simply consistent. They get up in the morning, and they write for an hour or [00:08:05] two, and that's it. They're consistent.
One hour every morning, [00:08:10] times the amount of days a week, and before they know it, they have a book. So where do you want to [00:08:15] be six months from now? How about a year from now, five years from now? [00:08:20] It's the small action steps you take today that will lead to your future [00:08:25] self tomorrow. Now, you might be thinking, Denisha, I have [00:08:30] tried to change on my own.
I have tried to do big things and they haven't worked. [00:08:35] Well, I want to suggest to us that sometimes we often try to do things in [00:08:40] our own strength. I want to take a look at Zechariah chapter four, [00:08:45] and as we look at this to kind of set up what's going on before we read [00:08:50] this passage in Zechariah chapter four, during the time it was written, the [00:08:55] temple was destroyed and God's people were in captivity.
So it was kind of a low point in [00:09:00] history. We don't have a house for God and we're not even in the place that we're supposed to be. And so [00:09:05] people were very depressed. In the year 537 BC, [00:09:10] Zerubbabel led a remnant of people back to Israel, and then there was some [00:09:15]hope. We're back in the land we're supposed to live.
And then 18 years [00:09:20] later, God spoke to King Zerubbabel and said, I'm going to give you the [00:09:25] power to rebuild the temple. So let's read [00:09:30] verse six of Zechariah four and let's let it speak to us and where we are in our [00:09:35] lives. This is what the Lord said to Zerubbabel. It's not by force, [00:09:40] not by strength, but by my spirit, says the Lord of heaven's armies.[00:09:45]
And so here's the thing. You can try and change and you can try in [00:09:50] your own power. You can make improvements by your own power, but if you'll [00:09:55] tap into a power that is greater than what you possess, if you tap into the power of the Holy [00:10:00] Spirit, his spirit is made perfect in your weakness and not by our [00:10:05] effort, not by our might, not by our power, but by his spirit, he [00:10:10] can transform you.
You know, we can try our best all day long to make [00:10:15] all of the changes that we want to see in our lives. But when we tap into the spirit of God, there is [00:10:20] strength beyond what we can muster up on our own. You know, some of us have [00:10:25] tried for years to change something, to improve something, to complete something, and we [00:10:30] can't seem to do it.
But what if in 2024, you say it will [00:10:35] not be by my might, nor by my power, but by his spirit? [00:10:40] Sometimes we have to start small. Verse 10 [00:10:45] says, and I hope this encourages us, do not despise these small beginnings for the Lord [00:10:50] rejoices to see the work begin. Friends, we've got to start [00:10:55] somewhere and God rejoices to see you be faithful in the small things.[00:11:00]
One of the challenges is so often we look at people and we see their highlight [00:11:05] reels and we know our behind the scenes and we compare it to theirs [00:11:10] and we can get intimidated. We can even look at people in the Bible and [00:11:15] think, Oh, look at David. You know, David was a man after God's own heart. He took down [00:11:20] Goliath.
I want to take down my giant. But we forget that he was [00:11:25] faithful for years in the fields, tending sheep. And whenever a wild animal would [00:11:30] come up, he would run off the animal or he would kill the animal. So what was happening during those [00:11:35] years? He was learning to be faithful with the small things so that God could [00:11:40] trust him with the big things.
We look at Daniel in the [00:11:45] Bible and we're like, Oh, he has such great faith. I mean, he's standing in a lion's den [00:11:50] and his faith is unwavering. I want to stand like that. Well, we [00:11:55] forget that three times a day, year after year. Do you know what Daniel did? [00:12:00] He stopped whatever he was doing, knelt down three times a day and sought [00:12:05] the Lord in prayer.
What kind of faith do you think you would have if you [00:12:10] devoted three specific times a day every day to seeking after God? [00:12:15] It's the things that no one sees that results in the things that everyone wants. [00:12:20] I want to leave us with three things that we can focus on in our lives today to help us [00:12:25] achieve the results that we want tomorrow.
Our thoughts, our [00:12:30] words, and our actions. Let's start with our thoughts. Our [00:12:35]thoughts matter so much because our thoughts influence our words, which [00:12:40] influence our actions, which influence our habits, which in the end end up determining [00:12:45] who we become in shaping our life. So let's start with our [00:12:50] thoughts.
Solomon said this in Proverbs 23, as a person thinks in [00:12:55] his heart, so is he. Your life will always move in the [00:13:00] direction of your strongest thoughts. In other words, if you think you can't, [00:13:05] you probably won't. If you think life is going to be bad, it will probably be [00:13:10]bad. If you think you don't have anything to offer, you probably won't make a difference.[00:13:15]
But on the other hand, if you think you can, you probably will. [00:13:20] If you believe that there are opportunities out there, you will see those opportunities. If you [00:13:25] believe that God is for you and with you, you will sense his power in his presence because our [00:13:30] thoughts matter. As a person thinks in his heart, so he becomes.
[00:13:35] Your life will always move in the direction of your strongest thoughts. [00:13:40] So what do you think about? What would you like to think about to change the [00:13:45] direction of your life? The next thing is our words. [00:13:50] Our words have power, but often we forget that I know I [00:13:55] do. I often find myself speaking more about the news from TV than I [00:14:00] do speaking the good news of Jesus.
But our words have power. Genesis [00:14:05] tells us that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, [00:14:10] and the word became flesh. Whenever God created the world, he did it [00:14:15] with a spoken word and our words are incredibly powerful. In [00:14:20] fact, Solomon drops more wisdom for us as we learn this about our words [00:14:25] from Proverbs 18 21.
The tongue has the power of life and [00:14:30] death. In other words, the words that we speak can be life giving words [00:14:35] or the words we speak can be life taking words. If you want to change the [00:14:40] life you have. We need to change the words we speak [00:14:45] because small things in the words we speak can make a big difference in the life [00:14:50] that we live.
And the third thing I want to leave you with today [00:14:55] is our actions. To change our actions takes discipline. [00:15:00] Ooh, we don't like that word, do we? This is where I tend to go overboard in my [00:15:05] all or nothing goal setting. I love this definition of discipline. It's [00:15:10] choosing between what you want now and what you want most.
Hmm. [00:15:15] Let's think about that for a second. Discipline is choosing between [00:15:20] what you want now and what you want most. Going back once [00:15:25] again to the wisdom of Solomon, Proverbs 25, 28 says like [00:15:30] a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self control. [00:15:35] I want self control. I do. I do. I want to choose what I want [00:15:40] most versus what I want now.
I want to choose being healthy over eating an entire [00:15:45] row of Oreos. I want self control, but if I'm honest, I can relate [00:15:50] more to what Paul says in Romans 7, 15. He says, I do not understand what I [00:15:55] do. For what I want to do, I do not do. But what I hate, I do. [00:16:00] I can relate to that. I can wrestle and [00:16:05] try and fail and go through that cycle that we talked about earlier of, I'm going to [00:16:10] go do this, but now I didn't go.
So I guess I just don't have to go again. I can wrestle and try and [00:16:15] fail, but Paul lands the solution to that cycle in verse 25, [00:16:20] he says, thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ, our Lord. [00:16:25] I want to propose to you. What if we weren't self disciplined? [00:16:30]What if we were spirit disciplined? Going back to [00:16:35] Zerubbabel, It will not be by my might, nor by my power, but by his [00:16:40] spirit, says the Lord.
God says, I'm going to give you my power to rebuild this [00:16:45] temple. So what thoughts, words, and actions do [00:16:50] you need to remove or add to your life right now that will help [00:16:55]lead you toward what you ultimately want most? There is so much power [00:17:00] in a focused life. When you focus on small action steps, it's amazing what you can [00:17:05] do.
Your future self can start today. [00:17:10] Thank you for joining us for today's episode. We hope that that encouraged you [00:17:15] today. I want to invite you back in two weeks to meet Brianna Barrier Weatherby, as [00:17:20] she shares wisdom from her and Roger Barrier's new book, Look Like Jesus, A Guide [00:17:25] to Spiritual Growth. On the same topic of what can we do today to [00:17:30]become who we want to be tomorrow, we're We are going to talk about spiritual growth and the ultimate [00:17:35] joy of knowing Jesus intimately.
Be sure to check in same time, [00:17:40] same place in two weeks. Thanks for listening. I pray you found [00:17:45] hope in today's conversation and maybe even feel a little less alone in your [00:17:50] story. Stay connected with us on Facebook and Instagram at reclaimed [00:17:55] story. Want to learn more about living a reclaimed life and how you can be a part of our [00:18:00] growing community of reclaimers?
Check out our website at reclaimedstory. com. [00:18:05] All of those links and more will be in the show notes. And if you enjoyed this [00:18:10] inspirational podcast, be sure to subscribe, rate, and review. Not only will [00:18:15] you be the first one to know when new content comes out, but it is also a huge help in [00:18:20] helping us reach more people to live the reclaimed life.