Traps

Commitment Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Traps , ,

Psalm 89:8

O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?

One of God’s attributes that I admire most is His faithfulness to humanity. He is totally committed to bring forth the family He desires.

He created a Universe and took one ball of rock in one small solar system to build humanity’s habitat. He crafted and engineered all the details with practical function and beautiful form to what we call Earth. He created various life forms small and large each operating independently but also interdependently. And to top it all off, He capped His creation with Man and Woman – made after His image.

He has a vision and a plan which He started eons of time ago and slowly moving the pieces toward His ultimate goal. We witnessed how He introduced Himself to Abraham, and then his son and grandson. As the family grew into a tribe, He continued to move among them leading each generation until they became a nation.

When Adam & Eve rebelled against God, mankind’s Sin didn’t make God flinch. He could have immediately destroyed everything and started over again. But He didn’t. Instead He promised a Messiah to restore humanity back on the track He has always planned for them.

When Jesus appeared on earth, He continued God’s plan in fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture and making humanity more aware of who God IS and His plan for mankind. Not only did Jesus restore the relationship divide between God and humanity, but He also demonstrated what God is like in His actions, words, and teachings.

Today, two thousand years later, God continues to fulfil His commitment made at the beginning of creation. He continues to direct history toward the culmination of a new age when heaven and earth will be merged together into a new world order.   

Life without commitment is a purposeless one. God demonstrates throughout history He is totally committed for our success. Every time the nation Israel messed up, He was there to brush off the pain and restore the people. Every time you and I mess up, He is there to quickly respond at our request. In fact, He has already forgiven us before we even ask Him. He is totally committed toward raising children to become mature, seasoned adults in the world tomorrow.

How committed are we in our families, marriages, and relationships? Or do we shy away to make commitments because of the work involved or the risk of failure?

If you want to live a purposeful and meaningful life, then you need to make commitments. Rarely does anything good happen without commitment. A life without commitment is an irresponsible and cowardly act built on fear and immaturity. Without commitment, wars are loss, relationships are destroyed, businesses fail, nations disappear, dreams lie empty, innovation is a fantasy, and lasting failure becomes your friend.

Jesus is our role model. He made the commitment. He left heaven for earth, lived a vicarious life for you and I, fulfilled Scripture, raised a Church, and returned to heaven actively engaged intervening for humanity working toward the culmination of all things.

Remember, commitment is not the trap. The trap is the failure of living life without commitment. So what commitment are you afraid to make?

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Faith Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Traps , ,

Matthew 17:20

He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”

Sometimes the simplest of concepts are difficult to grasp.

Take for example, Jesus’ statement above. He associates faith with the smallest known seed of his time. He didn’t associate faith with the seed fully grown into a mustard plant; nor did He compare faith with the seed when watered and roots are developed or leaves bloom. Instead He focused on the seed itself.

Most often, those of us in the Western world emphasize faith as a mental exercise of what we know. We hear the phrase, “grow one’s faith” and think if we spent more time reading the Word or listening to tape sermons our faith will grow. Yet, when our prayers are not answered (we think), or God is not blessing us (our opinion), we fall into the trap of thinking our faith isn’t large enough to generate the results we desire in life.

To grow one’s faith isn’t necessary a mental exercise of enlarging our “faith muscle”. Instead to grow one’s faith is more of taking what little we already know and acting on it.

The Hebrew word most often translated faith is “Emunah” (Strong’s #530). It is an action-oriented word meaning “support”. Unlike Western thinking which places the emphasis on having faith in God, the Hebrew word places the action on the one who “supports God.”  It is not knowing that God will act or can act, but rather I will do what I can to support God.

So, if you want to grow your faith, it takes more than just reading the Bible and listening to Christian music and sermon messages. It’s about taking what you already know and living it out in your daily life.

The early Church didn’t have the tools (smart phones with Bible plans, YouTube with video sermon topics, Google and blogs of Biblical knowledge) at their disposal as we have today. Instead, they took the gospel message and found ways to express God’s Way through their everyday work, speech, and relationships.

To grow one’s faith is about becoming more like Jesus in everyday life. It’s asking God how can we support His Kingdom work right now from where we are currently residing. It’s about walking and communicating with your heavenly Father on a continuous basis.

When you act upon His vision and purpose of life in your tiny corner of the world, you will find yourself growing in faith. The fruit of your actions will exhibit the depth of your faith.

Head knowledge is valuable, but not enough. Heart knowledge is more meaningful, but still not enough. Yet when both are combined with action, supporting God’s vision and purpose for life, faith comes alive and grows.  

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved

Enslavement Trap

Dr. Mike 2020, Traps ,

2 Peter 2:19

…For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved.

What shackles you?

Latest stat that I saw this weekend shows that 78% of smart phone users are drawn to pickup their device the very first thing when they wake up in the morning. This past year phone users surpassed TV as the medium of choice to connect with social media. In my early days of youth, our household was limited to one hour of television watching per day. The rest of the time we invested in exercising, reading, and socializing in person. Today’s smart phone users daily spend over three hours of their time connected with social media.

What shackles you?

About 45%-55% of us take time out each year to celebrate Valentine’s Day and Halloween. The candy and flower industries love these days. And then we wonder why approximately 75% of Americans are addicted to sugar.

What shackles you?

Addiction to pornography, prostitution, drugs, alcohol, sugar, gambling, sports, work, family, social media, are all symptoms of enslavement to one’s passions. There is a deep longing within us for satisfaction. King Solomon writes about the well of eternity within all of us. We want more of life but don’t know where to go for it. Instead of going to the Source of life, we dabble in physical sensations.

We long too belong, and social media gives us a small taste. So, we connect. Before long, we are ensnared into a time stealer taking us away from real connections with caring people.

What shackles you?

We desire intimacy but have difficulty communicating and relating with those who are most important in our lives. Therefore, the temptation plunges us into pornography and prostitution to quickly satisfy our desires. Before long, we are trapped into more and more without ever reaching the satisfaction we seek.

What shackles you?

We need to prove our self-worth and therefore join the competitive world of sports and business. We climb, sacrifice, and manipulate our way to the top of our field, only to find the itch still remains within us. We therefore chase after more and more thinking the itch will go away. But no, after accomplishing all we desire the emptiness is still there and the battle scars of broken families, busted relationships, and failing health makes one wonder was it worth it.

What shackles you?

Jesus Christ made the claim he came for all mankind. Not only to fulfill a religious promise, but to draw all humanity to him. He paid the ultimate price for you and me. So much so He received from His Father and God the title King of Kings. With that title, He also received all the land, resources, and people as His subjects. Yet God did more, He adopted humanity into His family. He chose you to belong with Him.

Our challenge is to surrender our passion and desires for Him. When we do, He replaces our misguided emotions with His attributes. His Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control begins to work within us.

When we acknowledge He owns us, we find fulfillment and satisfaction for life not in the physical commodities of everyday living, but in the relationship of knowing Him and sharing life with each other. He becomes the center of all our desires and passion. The end result is real freedom with the wisdom, truth, and teachings He leads us through. 

Whatever temporarily situation you find yourself currently battling, you don’t have to remain there. Acknowledge who truly owns you and ask Him to restore you back into His graces. Breakaway from the traps that surround you and let Him lead you to people who want to see you succeed in life rather than those who seek out to entrap you into their snares.

Jesus owns you and wants you to succeed. But you have to do it His way.

Rooting For You in Christ!

Dr. Mike

Encourager & Founder of
Vocational Leadership 360
Author of e-Books:

 *  Dancing With God: Life-Giving Theology Explained
 *  Great Business Emulates a Good God
 *  Be Radical…Follow Christ!
 *  Simply The Messenger
 *  Unequally Married

Encourage a Friend…Share Today’s Message!

Copyright 2013-2020 Abbaco LLC | All Rights Reserved