Blessed or Stressed?

Recently I have been asking the Lord to help me open my mind, to take down any barriers or wrong mindsets that I may have. He has been doing a lot of that over the last year and a half and I have just felt some sort of block that I haven't seemed to be able to put my finger on. A good friend of mine recommended a book to me the other day by Robert G. Allen called "Creating Wealth" that I began reading last night and I couldn't put it down. I saw how many wrong mindsets I have had about money, the "American dream," the way to get there and how backwards our culture is about it. There are a select few who actually achieve that dream, who have a completely different mindset, not just about money but about life in general. What makes them so different for us? Why do some people seem to really excel in life and finances while others slave away day in and day out of a job they hate, missing precious and valuable time with their friends and family, thinking that the harder they work, the closer they will get to their dream? I am realizing many things: the goal is not to work harder, but to work smarter, to let the Holy Spirit lead and guide us into all truth, every decision we make, and that we will not just do something because it's what we think we need to do to survive and get by. We need to find a way to tap into the unlimited resources God has already made available to us through His son! God is not "El Cheapo", He IS "El Shaddai," the God of more than enough!  He does not lack anything in any way. Everything he does in in an abundance, surplus, overflows, and running over!!

Deut. 28:1-8 says "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.  The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven. The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you."

If we are God's children, all these things are not only available to us, but they are ours for the taking, bought and paid for by Jesus, and for us not to live this way is actually an insult to what Jesus paid with his own life for us to have! When we follow the Lord and his leading, he has promised to provide ALL of our needs according to HIS riches in Glory by Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19), so we need not worry or try and figure out how it's all going to work out. God's word is true...period! He can not lie! If he says he's going to take care of you and supply everything you need, then trust him and let him do that! He is capable to handling it all and never intended for us to carry that heavy load and burden.

Nehemiah 9: 24-25 says "So the people went in and possessed the land; You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, that they might do with them as they wished.And they took strong cities and a rich land, and possessed houses full of all goods, cisterns already dug, vineyards, olive groves, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were filled and grew fat, And delighted themselves in Your great goodness."

Not only will God provide, but he has already prepared the way before you. I love this verse because it talks about how even before they got there, God had provided them with houses that they did not build, wells they did not dig, olive trees they did not grow, etc!! God will cause other people to put in the work before hand so you can receive the blessings he has for you without all the blood, sweat and tears!!!

I am in no way against working. In fact the Lord tells us if we don't work, we won't eat, that He blesses the work of our hands, and that he gives us the power and ability to get wealth. What I am saying is that we need to make sure we are doing and moving towards the Lord's calling and not allowing ourselves to be stuck, thinking we can do it all ourselves and work ourselves to death to get ahead. God wants us to work, yes, BUT he also needs us to let go of trying to figure it all out, working ourselves into the ground and just let him take care of us by following his leading. God is not glorified when we are just merely surving instead of thriving, sick, depressed, in strife, and our whole world is falling apart. Sure we all want the blessings of God, but how many of us are really willing to let go of the control, wrong mindsets, surrender our plans and completely trust the Lord? Or take him at his word? I want to be a doer of the word and not merely a hearer! It is my desire to follow the Lord wherever he leads, even if it doesn't make sense, and I know by doing so he WILL bless me and my family and that his word will never return void!