May 12, 2021
Pain and growing older like all challenges can make us better if we shift our focus. Turning 40 was my wake-up call with a load of new challenges. Be encouraged to overcome your current challenges!
In this podcast you will learn:
- How to react when challenges sneak up on us
- Why we should never give up
- Why we need to shift our focus
Many people jokingly say that their 40’s, 50’s or 60’s are “over the hill.” We hold our expectations for each decade of life and often we are not satisfied where we're at. When we were 7, we wanted to be 16, when we were 16, we wanted to be 18, then 21, then 30, then suddenly whoa, you’re not so sure about 40. You want it to stop. But it doesn’t.
I have to say 40 snuck up on me as life often does. I thought I was taking care of myself but then soon after turning 40 all hell broke loose. I still don’t have all the answers, but I do know that I had to clean my side of the table. When we don’t have the answers, we can rest assure that God does, and His answers are the best. Thankfully, I trust in God who cares about me.
What has snuck up on you? What is currently challenging you into believing that you’ll get through it. What is taking your peace? This sneaky thing is no surprise to God. The very thing that has snuck up on you is the very thing that will grow you. If you allow it to.
As Steven Furtick says: “when you understand the nature of the battle you can understand the nature of the strategy.”
We must understand what we’re up against. Then we can more readily understand God’s strategy. Then we are encouraged to not give up.
In my deepest pain, I could have given up. Instead, I chose to react with faith and prayer and then I started doing my research. I started to take my health seriously and this meant to seriously start doing things that would not damage my body. Sometimes we must dig deeper if we are serious. You don’t want to miss out on this upcoming podcast. The devil is serious about his pursuit of you. He would like you to believe that this is it. You might as well give up. Well, give up for what? If he wants you to give up there must be something worth having.
Through this journey of physical pain, I have learned to not put my trust in doctors. There is sometimes a need for them but most often there are things that we can do to secure our own health.
None of us are getting any younger but as they say, age is only a number, and we truly are what we eat. Just like we are who we choose to surround ourselves with. The Bible says to set our minds on the things above. In this way, we are prepared for life no matter what life throws at us.
I don’t want the alternative. In my past, I’ve been at a place where I put my trust in alcohol, and people and guess what? These things and these people failed me.
Before I turned 40, I may not have been drinking but I was taking my health for granted. I was making excuses to eat the cookie or the ice cream because I had a rough day or “you only live once” instead our attitude should be “I get to live this life therefore I will honor God with my body.”
Turning 40 itself is not the challenge. The challenge is how I react.
I can enjoy a cupcake or even 2 but I must do it with balance, and not make food or anything else an idol.
When we don’t have the answers as I did with my health issues we dig deeper in faith. Doctors and people do not always have the answers for us but regardless we know that God always has our best interest in mind, and this is what counts.
We need to shift our focus
We do not allow our age or our problems to define us. We do not allow social norms to define us. We allow God to define us. And no matter what tries to derail us we can be at peace because we know that the best is yet to come.
How is the best yet to come when we are aging. We are losing our youth
Psalm 103:5 says that God “satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.”
I’ve heard many people say that they actually felt better in their
later years than in their 20’s. The opposite holds true as well.
The older they get the more they age, and the worse their body
feels. Oh, these aches and pains they say.
So, what’s the secret to those that say they feel better than ever? It’s really no secret at all. They have stopped making excuses and started acting. They face their challenges.
The action doesn’t have to be perfect. In fact, it’s often messy.
So, 40 you may have tried to wreck my life but you are just another challenge that will make me better. I remember that any kind of wreckage is temporary. That there is always a miracle in the pain if I allow there to be one. How do I allow there to be a lesson? I chose faith over fear and I take action, even though I don’t feel good.
I believe and not doubt like Jesus walking on water in Matthew 14:25-31.
Pain and growing older have made me better. My awareness has once again come to life.
What are you becoming more aware of in your challenge? What is your wake-up call? If we are not aware that we are growing older, but our Faith is growing stronger then we want to give up.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2
That’s it legends. I have indeed changed this podcast to Legendary Faith. Because I want to inspire you to live the faith-filler meaningful life that God has already planned for you. It’s time to own it.