#1. That once you have a house, or once you have a certain car, or once you can buy those shoes you've been wanting, or once your house looks Pinterest ready... then you'll be happy and satisfied. Then you'll be a "success" in life. Until then, you feel a little jealous when you see someone that has "achieved" all these things, and think that they are better then you. Or maybe you have these things and think you're a little better then those that don't.
"And He said to them, "Take heed and beware of covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses." Luke 12:15
"Do not overwork to be rich" Proverbs 23:4
"The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction" Proverbs 19:23
#2. That you're never gonna get tied down to one woman. You want to be free to live your life. You're not going to get trapped by the ol' ball and chain.
“He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord.” - Proverbs 18:22
"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. " - Proverbs 31
"Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh." - Genesis 2:24
#3 That you must get clean first and be darn near perfect before someone should attend church or read the Bible.
"Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus heard this and said to them, those who are
well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" -
Mark 13:17
Church and reading the Bible should be about celebrating and humbling yourself to how great
God is. It's not about you.
#4. Thinking that you need to talk a certain way or dress a certain way or do certain things, to prove you're black enough or white enough to fit in.
#5. Thirty is old, so live it up now. Partying is your main priority...instead of achieving excellence in learning as much as you can from teachers and developing your spiritual gifts.
#6. That you're going to miss out... so you spend money on something just because it's on sale. You feel like it's such a good deal. You don't want to miss out, what if it will never be this price again.
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etc.
Now, now... don't start feeling bad, guilty, ashamed - wishing if only you could go back and do things over again. Yes... we fell for the Devils lies. But don't fall into another trap of being stuck in the past. Learn from this. Record this down in your journal as, "Bliss from Growth" and give thanks for your growing maturity.
It's easy to believe a lie and be led astray. This is what the White Witch was offering Caspian in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. When Caspian was at his weakest - drained, tired, faith weakened - this is when she enticed hi m with the lie... she said, "One drop of blood and I can help you solve all your troubles. " Just one little compromise and he would have power and prestige... the struggle would be over. This is even more enticing when our guard is down from either being too tired, too weary, too drunk, too angry or too envious. But luckily, in the movie Peter has friends' whose faith is strong and his friends came to his rescue and reminded him to not listen to the Witch because she offers false satisfaction. We all have believed a lie. We are in this together. That's why we must encourage one another to stay the path. Stay vigilant and humble.
That's why I gave you tools in the first two posts to pull out only the good things from your past and keep you forward thinking and on the right path from here on out.
Have you ever tried to put a big piece of furniture together without reading the direction? You're going good in the beginning, everything looks like it's falling into place and that you'll be done sooner then you expected... and then you run into a snag because the piece you now need... turns out you used it already. What you thought was right previously, turned out to be wrong. So now because you're stuck... you turn to the instructions and realize you're going to need to pull everything apart and star over. If you had just taken the time initially to read and follow the instructions from the creator of the thing in the beginning instead of trying to do it all on your own, it would have been easier and taken less time and stress. This reminds me of life. We think we know best and that it will be easier and more fun if we do life on our own and then wonder why it ends up more stressful. Because we didn't consult the instruction manual for life.
"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." Philippians 4: 8
How to Find the Path to Your Destiny is available on Amazon and at www.ECEFit.com