Watch your habits

Proverbs 16:17 KJV — The highway of the upright is to depart from evil: he that keepeth his way preserveth his soul.

Watch over the way you do things. Your habits.

Your habits are roads that lead to predictable outcomes. There are road signs that point out your destination. The Word helps you read the road signs.

Watch your habits and preserve your soul: mind +will+emotions

Being who God says you are

Proverbs 15:9 KJV — The way of the wicked is an abomination unto the LORD: but he loveth him that followeth after righteousness.

God loves you being who He says you are: righteous.

You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

You are forgiven.

You are the Head only and not the tail.

You are loved with an everlasting love.

By Jesus’ stripes you were healed.

Like the delight of a father who sees his child trying to copy him, God the Father loves seeing you imitate in your body what He has placed in your Spirit.

Be who God says you are. He loves it.

Leverage the strength of the ox

Proverbs 14:4 KJV — Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

Leverage the strength of the ox.

You don’t have to be strong enough to pull the plough.

You can just be wise enough to know who and what else can.

Sometimes the strength of your resources is only seen after you identify and accept the areas of your weakness.

When you’re full

Deuteronomy 8:10 KJV — When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.

When you’re hungry, praise the Lord.

When you take a mouthful, praise the Lord.

When you take another mouthful, and one after that, praise the Lord.

That way, when you’re full, you’ll just keep doing what you did when you were hungry.

Praise the Lord.

Earnest heed

Hebrews 2:1 KJV — Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

This isn’t just your normal level of heed.

It’s more earnest heed.

Perissoterōs.

The Bible isn’t being redundant in using this phrase. This is what is required.

More earnest heed to the things which you have heard from the Word.

More earnest heed.

That’s what you need to give.

Evil heart or unbelief

Hebrews 3:12 KJV — Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

We’re living in a time where bad is called good, and good is called bad. This is just how the Bible described it in Isaiah.

And in this time, unbelief has been branded and positioned as being thoughtful or the mark of diligence.

It isn’t.

Belief is not independent of thought. And this is not an advocacy for so-called “blind faith”.

This Scripture is dealing with your response to something which you know to be true, but choose not to believe.

Belief is not the reflexive response to experiencing truth. Belief is not automatic.

So when you choose not to believe in your heart that which you know to be true, that’s what you need to guard against.

Unbelief isn’t neutral or praiseworthy. It’s the antithesis of your faith and confidence in your relationship with Jesus.

God wants you rich

Proverbs 10:4 KJV — He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.

God gives you the power to get wealth. God’s blessing makes rich. And the hand of the diligent – a quality commended by God in Proverbs – makes rich.

And most of all, Jesus became poor so that you through His poverty might be made rich.

God wants the riches He’s deposited into your spirit to be translated into currency you can use in the physical realm.

Don’t leave home without it

Mark 1:22 KJV — And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

Put on the whole armour of God.

That’s the command from Scripture in Ephesians 6.

And this armour identifies you as a solider, one who is under authority.

When you put on the whole armour of God , you’re putting on the whole authority of God.

Don’t go out into the day without your awareness of and submission to God’s authority over your life.

You get to exercise the authority that you’re submitted to.

The invitation

Mark 1:17 KJV — And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Come.

It’s an invitation.

Come as you are.

All you have to do is accept the invitation, and allow Jesus to make you into what He created you to be.

He’ll do the work if you’ll just come.

Building takes time

Proverbs 14:1 KJV — Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.

God took 6 days to create, to build, the heavens and the earth.

Noah spent a century working on the Ark project: building it and then spending decades waiting for the rain.

Leah and Rachel (and their servants) built the house of Israel across 12 pregnancies.

Nehemiah rebuilt the walla of Jerusalem in fifty two days.

Solomon spent seven years building the temple and thirteen years building his own house.

Building takes time.