Rick Warren's Blog, page 590

You Don���t Have to Forget

You���ve heard this phrase over and over: ���Forgive and forget.��� There���s only one problem with it: You can���t do it. It���s impossible! You really can���t forget a hurt in your life. In fact, you can���t even try to forget it. Because when you���re trying to forget, you are actually focusing on the very thing you want to forget.

Requirements of Restored Relationship

Forgiveness is not resuming a relationship without change. In fact, forgiveness and resuming a relationship are two different things. One of them is what you do as the offended person. Resuming the relationship is what the other person does in order to get back into your good graces. Saying ���I���m sorry��� is not enough.

What Forgiveness Really Is

Forgiveness may be the most misused, misapplied, and misunderstood quality in our culture. We think we know what forgiveness is all about, but we really don���t. Before reading further, take a minute to do this little quiz by deciding if each statement is true or false.

You Need a Plan

If you want to achieve the goals you���ve made for yourself, you���ll need a plan to get from where you are to where you want to go. You���ll need a plan to overcome the expected problems you���ll face on that journey. Without a plan, all your goals will go up in smoke.

Godly Goals Are Attached to God���s Promises

Many people start the calendar year off with a goal. They resolve to lose weight, to spend more time with their kids, to read more, to achieve something specific at work, or some other noble (or not so noble) goal.

The Power of a Focused Life

If you want God to use you in great ways this year, you���ll need focus. The more focused you are in 2016, the more effective you���ll be ��� and the more God will use you.

Five Winning Choices

We learned yesterday that, ultimately, your identity is based on your choices. Here are five winning choices you can make that will help determine your destiny:

The Wild Card: Your Choices

You are wonderfully complex (Psalm 139:14). To fulfill God���s purpose for you, you have to look at every dimension of your life and understand five factors that influence your identity. We���ve talked the last few days about the ways that our chemistry, our connections, our circumstances, and our consciousness affect the way we are shaped.

Your Life Is Shaped By Your Thoughts

You cannot become all God created you to be until you understand the five factors that influence your identity. The first two are chemistry (how you are made) and connections (your relationships). You are a product of the way God created you and of the relationships in your life.

How Well Do You Love?

Yesterday we talked about the first of five factors that influence your identity. We have all been made wonderfully complex and full of flaws, but until we embrace who we are ��� including our flaws ��� we cannot make the changes in our lives that will bring about true transformation.