Message (? for ? you ?) - Check-up - Basics / Balance / Belief

 As a daily assessment these are the things that I try to address daily, weekly at the very least, just to keep a check & balance on my Spiritual Walk & Life. The stuff is pretty basic, but sometimes, thats where we go "off track", right off with the most basic of concepts.

 *Is your Faith selective or fully rounded? ~For me I noticed that my Faith in Gods medical works within my life was solid, yet I wasn't turning my career & finance over to Him as readily as my health concerns. I'm still working on this one, it's getting better, but still aways to go.

 *What are the TRUE Motives behind your non-basic actions & deeds? ~Non-basic means anything out of the norm, especially if your doing something in God in Christs name. Are your motives & intent pure & Godly. Are you doing to sacrifically serve, or self serve? Is it for Gods glory or your own? This isn't saying that you shouldn't do the good deed if the motive isn't all pure, don't deny others the blessing they need, just look inside yourself, what motivates it? If it's not genuine, talk to God about it.

 *Hows your judgement or "take" on others, if flawed, where is that derived from? I've struggled with this one quite a bit. I remember a survey awhile back about stereotyping & prejudging, It seemed every participant had issues with that. If were all equal in Gods eyes, we should equal in each others eyes too, also with this, if you have kids, getting this right in your life could have a long term impact & affect.

 *Sacrifice- How are you at sacrificing, giving up of your self, your stuff and, what is the reason or prompt behind it? Once again, I'm not saying if you don't find your motives to be all pure not to still sacrifice, it's just a good place to "look within" and see where God still has work to do.

 *Honesty - whew this one is tough in todays world, I believe most people are of the notion that honesty is the best policy, it's just not the most popular, comfortable, convienient or often used policy. The "line" on "little white lies" has moved a lot over the years, God knows our very heart though. We may fool some, but we won't fool God. This one is tough morally as we often "fib" to protect anothers feelings or reputation. I'm finding that often there is another way to answer without the dishonesty. It takes time though.

 *Representation - Hmm, how well do we represent what were professing? And, back to a combination of "all of the above" is our representation real, genuine, Godly and honest? Only you can answer that question for yourself. Hopefully we each try our best, sure we'll have slip-ups and glitches but is our heart seeking in the right direction, AND in the right place? Which brings me to the final thought.

 *Devotion, Study & Prayer ~ I know, it's the simplest of basics, yet all to often we don't do it, and these are the things that bring all the others in line. Often, many people I know, have started a great one of the three above, or a combination of any or all of them, only to fall back into prior habits just like broken New Years resolutions. We are creatures of habit(s), change often isn't comfortable, and we all have pretty full plates these days. However like the title of the book "To Busy Not To Pray", thats so true, if you have that much going on in your life, you need even moreso to be in tune with God in every possible way, every possible day.

 *For me, Study, Devotional, & Prayer I've really been working at, I feel like I've gotten the devotions & study down fairly well, I'm really kind of "locked in" to it having it's "place" in my daily routine. Prayer is a bit more of a struggle so much is goin on that most of the time, if I bow my head in a quiet relaxed setting, I'll fall asleep nearly everytime, so I continue to work at it. Hope you were able to get something out of this writing, even if it was just knowing that your not alone in your struggles.

Sincerely,

In Christ

Jimm Bacon