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Shownotes: 4 Barriers to Living from God’s Center
What is God’s center? Episode 000: “It is that place of deep connection with God, deep intimacy.” Check it out for a fuller description.
#1 Barriers to Living from God’s Center—Time
Time. Where do you find the time to have quality time with God? That’s the question I hear, and you know what? The answer is in our hands.
- First, settle in your heart whom you ultimately serve—God or people?
- If you settle that ultimately we serve God, you must have time for God to know the how, what, when, where and who of serving?
- If you have surrendered our lives to God in Christ Jesus, then God is the One whom you ultimately serve and everything is given over to God. You live and move at God’s behest. You start with God.
“‘But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon’” (Luke 4:25–26). - Elijah helped whom he was sent to help and did not run out of time because he moved at God’s behest. Instead spending time on his solutions he followed God’s specific step-by-step direction which took him to the widow of Sidon. See 1 Kings 17
- One of the things that impinges on our time, that makes us feel we do not have enough time to live from God’s center is our assumption that keeps us trying to reach everybody and do everything indiscriminately. Instead first ask, “God, what do you want me to do? Where do you want me to go?”
Time and God. Start with God to know what to do with your time to live from God’s center and remove one of the barriers to living from God’s center.
#2 Barriers to Living from God’s Center—Desire
As you consider another of the barriers to living from God’s center, when you think of it, what is your reaction?
- What is your desire for God like? At what level is it? If it’s high, to live from God’s center is a no-brainer.
- Psalm 73:25–26: “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” These words are a great meter against which to measure your desire for God. God above . . . everything and everyone.
- To live from God’s is inextricably tied up with God. Thus, desire, or rather, a limited desire for God becomes a barrier to living from God’s center.
Desiring God and shifting into God’s center means letting go and allowing God to re-order our priorities.
#3 Barriers to Living from God’s Center—Priorities
- Unless we allow God to set our priorities, here are some traps we easily fall into.
- All your priorities are about you and you only first tackle the things that give you satisfaction and easily end up not doing that which God intends you to do.
- Your priorities are driven by what is important without checking with God about what is needful.
- All your priorities are about other people and the need to be needed. Thus, you are driven the tyranny of the seeming urgent, often as determined by others without stepping back to really examine what is going on and hear from God.
- There is a lot to be done. What about if you empowered others to do the needful things? Even when you have done this, you still have to prioritize.
- Here’s a tip: put the practice of living from God’s center as your priority. In other words, prioritize being with God, in God’s center.
- That will lead to God-aligned order leading to less stress, less manipulation by others, removing you out of the center and putting God firmly there.
#4 Barriers to Living from God’s Center—Wrong Scripts
In the Living from God’s Center Program, we talk some about scripts.
- There is the world’s script and there is God’s script.
- You have a special call on our lives once we have decided to follow Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:9 – But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
- This means that our script is already set and it is God-centered. You are called by God. You are to be before God, interceding for others, living for God, doing what pleases God, talking about the wonderful things God has done.
- There is something that is at the heart of God’s script and that is love—loving God with everything we have and loving others as ourselves.
God’s script starts and ends with God, the alpha and omega. God is directing as God’s love fills you. - God’s love directs you to look outward and seek the best for those with whom you come into contact.
- The world’s script is about people pleasing and competitiveness. You are only good when you are better than . . . This is one of the barriers to living from God’s center.
- It is a script written on the papers of stress with the ink of burnout. It causes illness. It is a dead script because it is not written with the living fire of a loving God.
Following the world’s script will take you away from God’s center. However, when you live from God’s center God will empower you to live from God’s script with peace and joy.
Practical tip:
Take a look at your schedule for the next week, possibly the next month. How does your allocation of time and priorities reflect, or not, your desire for God and living from God’s center? Prayerfully ask God what adjustment you can make to get it in line with the desire for God and living from God’s center. Write these adjustments down and give yourself a time frame in which to make them.
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Photo credit of brenkee/Pixabay.Com
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Bible Version
Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Music: “A True Friend” by Josh Molen
Podcast Guest Resources
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Claire Annelise Smith, Phd, is a spiritual mentor and coach who empowers successful leaders to navigate life transitions with confidence, hope, and love. She helps clients maintain a strong connection with God, achieve personal and professional growth, and develop greater inner peace and resilience. Dr. Claire’s diverse background and transformative coaching methodology set her apart as an expert guide for those seeking clarity, purpose, and improved relationships.
Dr. Claire is also the founder of Strategic Lifestyle Connection, the platform through which she delivers her coaching, publications, and programs to empower successful leaders in transition.