Mark DeJesus's Blog, page 115

Five Assignments Against the Life of Your Heart

If you want to experience transformation, you cannot ignore the life of the heart. Its the core of who you are. It’s the treasured seat of your life–the deep places of your inner man. Out of it flows everything that matters to you. God looks at it. Your motives are there. Why you really do what you do flows from the heart.

Today’s culture can easily fall into a place where we ignore the life of the heart. I can sit down with people and ask them, “How’s your job? How’s work? How is ministry going?” and I can get quick answers. Ask someone, “How is your heart doing?” and I often get dead stares or verbal ramblings that don’t answer the question.

Today’s culture can easily fall into a place where we ignore the life of the heart.
Click To Tweet

Proverbs tell us to keep our heart, guard our heart and watch over our heart.

Why? Because the heart is place that processes life; especially life in relationships. Your relationship with God, yourself and others affects the heart and flows through the heart.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

What is the enemy seeking to steal, kill and destroy? The life of the heart that Jesus came to bring. This life is experience through connecting to love relationship … with God … with yourself … and with others.

Your heart was made for healthy relationship. God made you to come alive in healthy relationship. Yet you must know the enemy has a desire to shut down the life of your heart and keep it from having a healthy existence.

I want to give you five assignments the enemy has against your heart that you need to be aware of.

1. To infect your brokenness and prevent healing.

The thief comes in to any area of our life where brokenness resides. You can hide it all you want, but satan’s army know where your unhealed areas are. His goal is to assault those areas and keep you from ever being healed.

I watch believers process through problems, difficulties and blocks; yet they do not recognize their own broken issues that are affecting the situation. When we don’t realize our brokenness, we blame our situations on others, including God. We point the finger around, instead of taking responsibility for our own life.

When we are filled with garbage, that is all we know. We don’t even know what health looks like anymore. The only way freedom can come is to first recognize broken areas that the Father needs to heal. Without that, we wander in the wilderness, and our brokenness remains intact–infecting ourselves and those around us.

2. To keep you busy enough so that you neglect the life of your heart.

“I don’t have any time!” is the cry of this generation. Yet you have all the time you make for what you value. And one of satan’s greatest tactics against modern civilization, is to keep us so busy, we have no time to deal with the issues of the heart.

We will make time for what we value.
Click To Tweet

So our times gets thrown into things that don’t add value to the heart. Our entertainment avenues distract us from dealing. So we just learn to “check out” and “numb out” to life, instead of facing and dealing with what we need to do to move forward in our healing. If we are not careful, we will actually become the Walking Dead that so many love to watch on TV today.

With so much information being processed today, we have to be careful that our speed of life does not cause us to ignore heart issues. The heart can only be tended to at a slow pace. It has to simmer in a crock pot. Stillness, margin and intentional times of restoration are so key for the life of your heart. But your business can keep you from even seeing the value of that.

We have to be careful that our speed of life does not cause us to ignore heart issues.
Click To Tweet

3. To train you to seek quick fixes.

When Jesus was confronted by certain seeking people, they would ask questions to get quick answers from Him. They wanted the two quick points or the bottom line. Their hearts just wanted an easy answer. Jesus knew this and got right to the heart. This is why He would say things like, “Sell everything you have. Let the dead bury the dead. Eat my flesh. Drink my blood.” These statements would leave the “quick fix” inquirers scratching their heads. But to the hungry heart, they press in for more.

Jesus spoke of the frustration in dealing with people as he echoed the words of Isaiah:

And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’ Matthew 13:14–15 NKJV

To those who do not process a healthy heart life, God is talking, but they don’t hear him. God is moving, but they don’t see them. God is communicating, but they don’t get it. This is because the answer is we need heart healing! But we can’t because our hearts have grown dull.

4. To slowly wear you out with discouragement, hopelessness and despair.

In Daniel 7, the Bible speaks of the enemy coming to persecute the saints. That word persecute actually speaks of a wearing down or wearing away at.

Now more than ever, satan’s desire is to release discouragement and hopelessness like never before. It doesn’t collapse us overnight, but it can slowly over time wear away our faith, til one day we don’t have a desire to exercise our faith anymore.

People today hate pain. We don’t want anything that makes us uncomfortable, so we avoid pain and move to pleasure as quickly as possible.

One of the dangers I see today is that people are being tempted to pull the switch in their heart to the “off” position, in order to keep them from experiencing or feeling any more pain. The problem is, they not only turn themselves off from pain, they turn themselves off from the enjoyment of life as well. They become numb–walking through life by only going through the motions, never connecting to the full life Jesus brought.

5. To ruin your relationships so your heart gets cut off from the life of God.

This is the playground of satan’s war agains the saints–to get us messed up in our relationships with each other.

One common mistake I see today is that people value a relationship with God very highly, but value healthy relationships with their brothers and sisters very low. We don’t realize that our relationships are actually laboratories for our growth and develop in God. We grow in our relationship with an invisible God by learning to deal with visible people in healthy ways.

We cannot run to God and avoid people. The thief wants you to. If he can corner you into isolation, then he can flood you with all kinds of deluded thinking and insanity based torment.

We cannot run to God and avoid people.
Click To Tweet

Jesus warned in Matthew 24 that in the last days, the love of many would grow cold. They would betray each other, hate one another and will be offended easily. Many Christians are making strong statements about the end times, pointing to all the things wrong with others. Meanwhile, our love for each other is growing cold. Our love to work through issues with the family of God starts to wane. This is a great sign of deception moving into the church.

We have to move our relationships to the next level of health if we want to grow with God in a deeper dimension and have a healthy impact in this world.

Take your stand against the devices of the enemy against your heart. Do not be deceived any longer.

Question: Which of the five points hits home for you? Comment below in our comment section.

The post Five Assignments Against the Life of Your Heart appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

Four Things Your Thoughts Do

It is time we take inventory of our thought life and understand the nuclear power found in a steady, stable and fruitful thought life. Unfortunately, most people live in such a way where they listen to whatever thoughts come up. They simply react to whatever thoughts come their way, rather than establishing by choice what they will think on.

Unfortunately, most people live in such a way where they listen to whatever thoughts come up.
Click To Tweet

We have to move from just a defensive posture with our thoughts to an offense. We have to choose what we think on, because our health and life depend on it.

We have to move from just a defensive posture with our thoughts to an offense.
Click To Tweet

The majority of thoughts that come down the pike are negative and destructive. This means that most people spend the majority of their time feeding, fighting off or justifying toxic thoughts within.

What do you spend most of your time doing with negative thoughts?

– Feeding: we allow those thoughts to fester and therefore, empower them.

– Fighting Off: we have a position of attack to overcome hindering thoughts.

– Justifying: we defend our toxic thinking and often live in denial of dangerous thoughts.

To recover the atmosphere of thinking within, we need to get to “why” watching over and nurturing a healthy thought life is so important. Here are four important reasons to remember.

1. Our thoughts feed our health.

Sometimes we make living in health very complicated. But really it comes down to our thought life. The book of 3 John gives us a prayer for your health:

I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. 3 John 1:2 NKJV

God’s will and desire for you is that you would not only prosper, but be in health, as the soul propers. Here we see that health is tied to our thinking. Our overall ability to keep disease from overwhelming our physiology has a lot to do with our investement of thoughts over the years.

The thoughts about how we see God, ourselves, others and our environments are the critical areas. If we fall into toxic thinking there often, we can soon see a compromising of our health. This is because our body is a responder to thoughts that are going on within us.

2. Our thoughts feed our identity.

For as he thinks within himself, so he is . . . Proverbs 23:7 NASB

The compilation of your thoughts will form who you are. Your identity is the compilation of all the thoughts, beliefs and perspectives you have come into agreement with, that now form who you become. This is why how we think on a daily basis is so incredibly important. Every time we think, we make an investment into who we are becoming.

Every time we think, we make an investment into who we are becoming.
Click To Tweet

3. Our thoughts feed our words.

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart . . . Matthew 15:18 NKJV

The more you think on something, the more it will come out in your words. Those words become your rudder, driving the direction your life will head into. You can often tell what is going on in the heart of someone by taking a scan over the words that are often spoken.

4. Our thoughts feed into our destiny.

If you want to have a better life with greater health and victory, you cannot see this happen without changing how you think. You may not be able to change every circumstance around you, but by changing your thoughts, you give yourself permission to not be overcome by your surroundings.

You cannot expect your life to change without changing how you think.
Click To Tweet

Many people want a better life or improved circumstances, but they don’t want to make the daily investment into their thought life. Just as daily investment into a bank account over the years pays dividends, your daily thought investment pays dividends into your destiny.

Question: Are you seeing your thought life as a daily investment into your life? 

Recommended Resource:

 

 

The post Four Things Your Thoughts Do appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

#081: Do You Talk Too Much or Not At All? [Podcast]

In today’s episode we want to ask the question, “Do you talk too much or not at all?” Relationships are all about communication, but if we’re talking too much, the other person has no place to connect or gain heart connection. But what about if you don’t talk much at all? People are missing out on the value that you can bring.

Things We Discuss on this Show:

How important conversation is in relationships.
Introvert/extrovert labels. Are they helpful or hindering?
Which side of the spectrum do you find yourself on?
What are some examples of those who talk too much? Those who talk too little?
What are ways to help people heal more effectively in this area.

Take your relationships to the next level! Listen in.

Recommended Resource:

Listen by Using the Player Below or with the Following Platforms

 

 

The post #081: Do You Talk Too Much or Not At All? [Podcast] appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

4 Harmful Mother Traits

Mother wounds and mother isssue can often be difficult to identify. Why? Because many times we can see where our father wounds lie, but we don’t always consider the effect that mothering wounds have had on our lives.

Our relationship with our earthly mother affects our lens for nurture. How well we have received from mom will set our foundation for nurture in life.

Many have experienced a lack of nurture from their earthly mothers, mainly because they were going through their own inner battles that would not allow them to give love and nurture us freely. As a result, there are a number of dysfunctional attributes that arise that kept mothers from being whole. Each of these traits can overlap.

1. The Emotionally Unstable Mother

This mother had major emotional issues that left her incapable of being able to be a consistent emotional presence. She may have even struggled with mental disorders like bipolar, depression, paranoid schizophrenia or suicidal tendencies. With these mental battles, she carried deep self-hatred and a low sense of self-worth, so she struggled to give out love, because she had none for herself. With deep mental illness and emotional instability comes a major self-focus and self-loathing, which draws the family’s attention on her issues and her needs. Meanwhile, the children in the home starve from lack of affection and nurture. You needed her, but she was unavailable because of her brokeness.

2. The Enabling Mother

This one can be a tough one to deal with, because an enabling mother was once a victim. The problem is she continued to live as a victim; doing everything she could to keep peace, at any cost. Her fear of conflict and inability to feel safe drove her to keep many important issues under the rug. She made excuses and tolerated her husbands poor behavior, and her children watched as she did not make a stand for them and for health in the home.

With this kind of mother, the skeletons were always kept in the closet–issues were never dealt with and the dysfunction continued. The father’s addictions, abuse and anger were allowed to continue.

The children watched the lack of self-love their mother carried. She did this under the guise of peace, yet it was a false peace. The Bible speaks of being peace-makers, but she lived as a peace keeper, letting life and people run her right over. This can be hard for the child to deal with later on, because there is usually a deep sense of compassion for her woundedness. It is important not to deny that, but her inability to take responsibility for her own health affected the children greatly.

3. The Controlling Mother

These mothers usually had passive husbands who did not take proper leadership of the home. The husband was not emotionally connected to the everyday workings of the home and he did not initiate spiritual leadership over the home. As a result, mom took the reigns. She became the driving force of decisions and she took the lead in the key areas of the home, from paying bills, to where to go to church and what the children should be doing. Usually this kind of mom is exhausted, because she has taken the burden of the home on her own shoulders, which she was never meant to do–especially alone.

Her control is rooted in fear; especially fear that no one is doing the job or no one could do it as well as she could. The problem is that she became a dominating presence that caused a great deal of perfectionism and performance pressure on the children. They became evaluated more on what they did and the pressure to perform was high.

This type of mother struggles to release her children to God, feeling that everything is on her to see the children succeed. This also creates a major problem in the children’s development. When a child lives in a home with a passive father and dominating mother, confusion enters the home, inhibiting them from understanding the proper roles of males and females. They may struggle with learning disabilities and because of the pressure in the home, mental illness will seek to chase them down the road.

4. The “Unworthy” Mother

Every mother struggles to an extent with an understanding of her identity and value, but the unworthy mother gets overtaken by these battles. She has a deep sense that what she does as a mother is never good enough. She never feels value as a mother.

The lack of healthy fathering and possibly healthy mothering over her life left her hanging as to what a mother should be. She struggled with deep guilt over her battles and any mistakes she made, leading her to extremes in behavior. She either spiraled into deep failure mentalities, feeling she was a terrible mother, or she protected herself in pride, never wanting to admit she made mistakes.

She either apologized for everything in her life or never apologized for anything. Deep down there was a lack of love and self-worth that tormented her, not allowing her to be at peace with herself. She carried an unloving spirit that did not allow her to see her value as a woman, a sister or a mother.

The post 4 Harmful Mother Traits appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

Why We Hate Being Unproductive

 

I got nothing done today! Ever said that?

Did it bother you deeply? Why is that?

Why is this such an important issue for us to feel productive? Of course its great to have that feeling that you accomplished something. It feeds into our sense of purpose. But the modern world loves productivity, to the point that it drives our very lives and sense of well being.

That sense of achievement gives us a rush—that euphoric feeling that says, “I am not just taking up space.” I have meaning by what I do!

But is that what gives us an identity? Don’t get me wrong, I love clicking check on a to do list every day. But we have become somewhat robotic in our driving search to accomplish. The moment one thing is done, we move to thinking about and plowing into the next thing. Yet at the end of the day, that momentary rush of accomplishment fades and we are left again unsatisfied. So what do we do … we go back to doing.

We are not human doers. We are human beings. But you couldn’t tell by watching modern living. 

But do you know who you are apart from all the roles you play? Do you have a sense of worth apart from your job, your parenting or ministry? Being productive is great, but I believe it has become an obsessive disease, where we are actually overcompensating for a lack of identity and self worth; immersing ourselves in projects, a position or activity. Meanwhile, who we are is eroding on the inside under a plastic identity.

So how do we begin to become more grounded in a world that thrives off of busyness and productive measurements? How do we maintain our sense of worth and value apart from all those things? The following questions are a good start to move us into greater identity security.

Do you make time to be still and be … you?

Every day, we ought to have time set aside, where our identity in Christ, apart from any of our work, is reinforced. I like to sit down and speak affirmations over myself. Things like, “Who I am is NOT what I do. Who I AM, IS, what I do.” I change the emphasis to focus my heart on what matters. We need set aside time, even 15–20 minutes a day, where we are able to affirm who we are in God without all our responsibilities and chores. If not, we become slaves all day to the cry of things–because our identities are wrapped up in them.

Do we make time for nothingness … where you just acknowledge you are a human BEING and not a human doer?

Are your priorities based on relationship health?

In our list of things to do in the day, do they override relationship? Why not put in your to do list priorities that involve building of relationship? Set aside time to connect with friends, people you are helping and those who can mentor you. These all help in the flow of groundedness and stabilizing of our identity.

Are your priorities based on what God wants you to do today?

In our productivity, have we added so many things on top of the priorities God has for us? I would venture to say that God has one, maybe two things on His agenda for you each day, and they are probably not task oriented… they are usually relationally oriented.

In your alone time, find out what priorities God is about and focus your heart on that throughout the day. Those are the things that will bring the most fruit anyway.

More importantly, what is the one area God would have you grow in as you face this day?

We all have many areas to grow in, but I often find that God works in themes over our life. Just like a chapter in a book has a theme or arch of story, the same of often true in our lives. We can only handle growing in specific themes in our life anyway. Most people try to grow in 10 different ways at once and they crash in all of them.

God in His relational goodness is often working on a singular theme in your life. If you get lost in performance and productivity, you won’t catch the quality of what He is wanting to do in your life.

The question is, what is the theme of what He is wanting to do in your life?

Stick with that . . .

The post Why We Hate Being Unproductive appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

#080: How to Communicate Your Heart in Relationships [Podcast]

In today’s episode we want to talk about “How to Communicate Your Heart Effectively.” In today’s fast-past world, too many times, our core relationships live in the shallow end, never communicating heart to heart. No one seems to know how to share their feelings or connect in a meaningful way. How can we move towards more effective sharing of our hearts?

We want to see how this impacts all our relationships. Our friendships . . . how can we have more effective heart to heart in friendships? What about our marriages? What about with our kids? How can we train our kids to share and connect with their hearts in how they speak? That’s what we want to target in our conversation today.

Some of the things we address on today’s show:

What keeps us from heart to heart interactions.
What hinders our friendships, marriages and families from having fruitful sharing?
How can we begin to have heart to heart connection in our families, friends and with our kids?

Listen by Using the Player Below or with the Following Platforms

 

The post #080: How to Communicate Your Heart in Relationships [Podcast] appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

Why Do We Avoid Our Father?

Masses of believers have accepted Christ but are avoiding the Father. Why do we keep avoiding Father God, especially when we are His kids?

God says you have received adoption to be a child of God.

You received the Spirit of Adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” 
Romans 8:15

How do we know we have truly received this adoption? The next part of the verse gives us the litmus test to show if we really carry this understanding. Knowing about something of God is worthless unless it starts to manifest in our life.

The proof that shows we have received the spirit of adoption is that we are able to cry out loud Abba, Father.

Abba is an intimate expression in relating to God, and He gave us the privilege of using it to speak to Him. Abba is a deeper word here than just father. In the language of this passage, father here is the formal word, but Abba is a more intimate expression.

Abba means Daddy.

It is the first name a child says to their paternal figure. A baby does not cry out “father” as part of his or her first words; it is almost always “Daddy!” Just as this is an important title to use for a baby, it is eternally significant for us to know how to cry out to our Heavenly Daddy.

Abba is an intimate expression in relating to God, and He gave us the privilege of using it to speak to Him. Yet even though God’s Word tells us to call God Daddy, there is a real problem with people being comfortable with this expression. I encounter people all the time that get uneasy with the concept of God and Daddy. I used to be in this boat. It felt sacrilegious to call God, Dad. Something in my gut had a hard time with it, so I justified it away for years. Yet the Scriptures tell teach us to call Him this.

But for so many, this doesn’t flow freely through them. The Spirit of adoption has not had a deep work in their life and they are uncomfortable with what adoption brings because they did not receive a proper foundation from their earthy dad.

It is very challenging for many, even Christians, to relate to Father God or Daddy. It is the reason so many have very fruitless walks with God. They may know Jesus and it is possible that they have even accepted Jesus Christ for salvation, but they never took the deeper step of drawing near to the Father. This level of intimacy is too hard because of the roots of rejection, fear and condemnation that keep them from that freedom.

I have noticed that most Christians can relate to Jesus fairly easy, but that is really the first step; Jesus actually came to show us the Father so we could relationally know Daddy. So why do masses of Christians call out to Jesus, while still avoiding the Father in their prayers, petitions and spiritual journey?

Everything Jesus did pointed back to the Father. All prayer is commanded to be given to the Father. Power from the Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father. Yet we avoid Him every day in our dialogue.

99% of Christians I interact with start off their prayers like this . . .

“Dear Jesus, I ask you to . . .”

“Lord, would you heal . . . ”

“I need you Jesus to . . . ”

“I ask you Jesus to . . .”

Even though prayer from the Scriptures is taught, “our Father.”

Every Scripture of prayer and intimacy points to the Father . . . in Jesus name.

In fact, Jesus spoke of His ascension and said:

And in that day you will ask Me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. John 16:23

Jesus said we should ask Him nothing! Why? Because He wants you to go to the Father in His name as an adopted child of God who is loved by your Father. Jesus also said, “I will not pray the Father for you.”

This is one of the most violated verses in the Bible. Jesus was saying that as far as petition goes, we are need to ask Jesus for nothing. Instead, we need to go to the Father, through the name of Jesus. In other words, the fulfillment of what Jesus came to do involves us as believers having intimacy with the Father.

So why do we ask for Jesus to do things in our lives when He told us to ask Him nothing? The reason is because we are still uncomfortable with approaching the Father. Our own father issues block our understanding of Father God, never mind calling God Daddy.

Our own father issues block our understanding of Father God. It seems inappropriate or sacrilegious to call God Daddy and approach Him with that much freedom. Some are so bound that it seems way too casual.

I know for years as a worship leader, I would never sing the songs that used the word Daddy, in reference to God. I failed to admit my uncomfortability came out of brokenness as I hid behind religious rhetoric; believing it was borderline blasphemous to call God that. God had to heal that in me.

The reality is that our hearts are broken in our Father lens. We have been subtly bought over with lies coming from rejection that keep us from the incredible spiritual strength that comes by knowing our Daddy.

The moment I made the shift to go the higher level and address my Father, everything shifted. As I began to exercise confidence to my Abba, my Dad, my Papa . . . . everything in my spiritual walk shifted.

Could it be that your spiritual walk is stagnant because you are asking Jesus to do something you need to go to the Father about? Something to think about . . .

The post Why Do We Avoid Our Father? appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

Why You Should Write More

In today’s fast paced culture and quick texts, sometimes the art of writing out well thought out musings or typing them onto a computer screen, get lost. Too many are overwhelmed with writing or feel they don’t have time to write. Yet I have found that making time to write on a regular basis can be extremely valuable to my life.

I have been a student of finding tools and habits that are helpful to my personal and spiritual growth. Nothing has been more helpful to me than the regular practice of writing. It might be journaling, taking notes on something I am reading or jotting down some ideas for future projects. Whatever mode I use, I find writing to be a great way to focus my heart and give me a routine to propel my personal growth.

I want to encourage you to develop a writing habit. Whether you buy a hand written notebook or you prefer typing your thoughts into a computer (which I do), the end format is not the issue.

You may need to write that book, which will one day become a publication. Or you just may need to develop a journaling habit. Sometimes writing out prayers can be powerful. Writing a record of experiences that you have had can be so valuable.

I spend time writing down things that happen to my children. I write down everything that God helps me to learn and understand. I have an endless list of uses that writing has in my life. I don’t just write books and blog entries. I use writing for so many areas in my life!

Here are some great reasons I believe you should develop the habit of writing.

1. It’s a great way to jump start my heart.

This one is the most important to me. Many people complain about struggling to get their heart going to connect. Whether its connecting to God better or having a more charged heart for life, journaling can be a great way to jump start. I even have some pre-designed questions I used to get the conversation going in writing. Sometimes I write my thoughts to God, other times I am simply writing to express what is within so I can look at things more objectively.

2. I get things out of my mind and heart and onto paper.

Journaling is a way to get your thoughts down on paper. I like that I can get them out of my head and onto paper. Because my mind is always thinking about new things, opportunities and creative ideas, I treasure being able to get things onto paper so I dont stress in trying to remember them.

I also find it so helpful to put what I am going through on paper. I dont write a novel and I don’t write long entries. A lot of times they are just bullet point thoughts. When I look at my problems written on paper, I can get a better perspective. If we are just in our head about so many issues, we can more easily get overwhelmed. Putting the issues on paper can help us step back and put everything into perspective.

I have often found that writing helps me to establish what I believe and the vision I am headed to. When it comes to writing down ideas or processing what God is doing in my heart, I often write these by hand. There is something very special when I hand write thoughts. My brain connects to them better and I even remember them more clearly.

3. I have a record of what God is doing.

It is so important that you record what God is doing in your life.

Why? Because we so easily forget.

God can perform a massive miracle one day and you can end up forgetting it all the next. We our built with a need to be reminded.

In the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to write down and to place monuments as a record what He did in their life, so they would always remember His ways. Today, keeping a regular journal can be a great way to document the work of God in your life. You can look back at all the miracles He has done to propel you into greater things in the future.

4. I can watch patterns in my life.

Last year, I looked over my personal writing and journal entries and noticed a disturbing trend. I saw a thread of negativity and an undercurrent of hopelessness that were making my prayers toxic. I would not have seen these patterns if I did not have a journal. Sometimes we need opportunities to step outside of ourselves and get a picture of what is going on in our lives, so we can make neccesary changes.

With journaling, it causes me to pause and think about where I am and where I am going. Writing these things down helps me to more quickly deal with the limitations of my life and move forward in greater effectiveness.

Question: Do you write on a regular basis? What purpose do you use writing for? What would help you to get going on your writing?

Join Me at the New England Writer’s Conference!

The post Why You Should Write More appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

#079: Why Your Story is So Important [Podcast]

In today’s episode we want to talk about “Why Your Story is so important.” As we meet and minster to so many people the one thing that always resonates is the need to share your story and experiences. We found time and time again that every time without fail that persons story, journey, hurts, triumph of their life has so many significant things that need to be shared or heard. But we find that people don’t see the value of their stories so aren’t getting told, especially in a redemptive way of overcoming and victory. We want to encourage you today on what that can look like.

As you listen, we will cover the following subjects: 

What is your story?
What are some of the things we need to address when it comes to our value, significance and impact in this world?
The reasons why each person’s story is significant.
What you need to know about your journey that is important.
What things you can do today to begin using your story powerfully?

Listen by Using the Player Below or with the Following Platforms

The post #079: Why Your Story is So Important [Podcast] appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.

Why Multitasking is Killing the Life of Your Heart

We live in a world seeking for convenience. But the moment we can make a task more convenient and efficient, we quickly fill that time with something else; all in the name of “getting things done.” We then stack more and more responsibilities, tasks and projects, believing that multitasking is the way to go.

I remember as a kid, developing a multitasking life before Microsoft Windows personal computers ever came along and showed us how. I would sometimes sit on the couch in my living room with my books in hand to study, while I had the basketball game on and music rocking away. Understandably, my parents were not thrilled about this habit and would question this behavior, but my good grades justified that this was my ingenious method for effectiveness.

Little did I know I was slowly training my brain for the dangerous world of multitasking.

Yes it is nice to talk on the phone while you are getting dinner ready, but too many of us are multitasking everything. In fact, multitasking is invading our relationship quality.

When was the last time you had just one thing you are focusing on, being present with and engaging your full self to?

Multitasking may seem appealing, especially to those who get a kick out of being achievers and love checking off to do lists, but in the end, we suffer as a result of this lifestyle. Here’s why:

1. Multitasking trains us to only give a portion of ourselves to everything. So nothing gets all of us.

We are texting someone while being with our kids. We are reading articles or playing games while sitting at the dinner table. We have the television on while we have a conversation or while reading. We talk to the person in front of us while we think about our next meeting or another relationship. We are never fully present to be able to access, embrace and enjoy what is right in front of us: our life!

2. Our relationships become more shallow.

Because we only give a little bit to each relationship, we may have a bunch of acquaintances, yet our intimacy capacity becomes shallow. Our culture has become familiar with having a bunch of relationships that are quick and surface. We have been deceived into thinking we are relationally fulfilled; yet wonder why at the same time we are struggling with meaning, fulfillment and enjoyment.

Instead of a few close knit relationships that have quality investments, we have a bunch of social media friends who know nothing about our deep struggles and heart issues.

3. Our brain gets dumber.

Research has been showing for years that multitasking is one of the worst habits for a healthy brain, even worse than marijuana smoking! Even talking on the phone while driving can be the same as being over the legal alcohol limit when it comes to safe driving. More and more we are finding that giving into the multi-tasking world actually limits our brain’s ability to grow and flourish.

So instead of doing a few things effectively, we are now doing a bunch of things poorly. Your best bet is to do one thing at a time in everything–work, relationships and day to day chores.

4. We become very A.D.D. so therefore, we become easily distracted.

When we allow ourselves to be inundated with many things that stimulate our minds, we easily become prey to distractions. We start with one intention and then 5 distractions later, we are exahausted and feel we never got anything accomplished.

5. We become double-minded.

If we are so open to multiple thoughts at the same time, no wonder we will become prone to being swayed by every option when making decisions. Single-mindedness is a trait that helps us remain focused on who we are and what we are called to do. Double-mindedness keeps us unstable in all our ways, never planting ourselves firmly into a single thought. When we are used to having many thoughts swirling in the air, we will easily listen to doubt, fear and second guessing everything.

6. Our prayer life and worship suffers.

Last but most importantly, our relationship with God suffers, especially because God is not a God who has an “on the go” relationship with His people. He has the all powerful ability to give 100% focus to everyone who calls upon Him, yet in our distracted habits, we will struggle with sit still, remain focused and give our all to him in prayer and worship. Intimacy with God is not complicated, its actually very simple. Yet because our world is so distracted and hurried in multi-tasking, we try to process God in that same way, yet with little fruit. The only way we can truly go to the next level is to spend time giving God our full focus and attention. When we do that, we can then give people our best attention.

7. We are never fully present.

Multitasking trains your mind to move from one thing to another, without giving what is in front of you the quality attention is deserves. Relationship interactions become another thing to check off the list and activities are not enjoyable, because one is quickly thinking about the next event.

In the end, we have to be aware of how multitasking encourages a hurried life, with no time to cultivate the issues of the heart. When it comes to our heart-life, we cannot hurry it, nor can we multitask it.

Multitasking is not completely evil, we just have to be aware of how much it invades our life and relational quality.

Question: Where do you think multitasking has affected our lives? What do you suggest needs to be done to remedy this? (Use the Comment Section Below)

 

The post Why Multitasking is Killing the Life of Your Heart appeared first on Mark DeJesus | Transformed You.