Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 69). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Ok, that sounds interesting. Mark says, " The bottom line? You can’t just pray like it depends on God. You also have to work like it depends on you. If you want God to do the super, you’ve got to do the natural. And you have to start first thing in the morning." He goes on, "How you start the day sets the tone for the rest of it, yet many of us never give the morning a second thought beyond getting out the door on time. Our morning rituals are as unplanned as an earthquake. Is that the best way to start the day? Que será será—whatever will be will be. That’s sounding the retreat before the day even begins. If you want to win the day, you’ve got to attack the day. How? Eat the frog." He continues, "Some people like to ease into the day without breaking a sweat, and I totally get that. Perhaps e...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 60). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So true! Mark says, " Am I right? Most of us are good actors! We play the part pretty well—until we hit rush hour traffic. Or is that just me? It’s our reactions that reveal who we really are. And maybe that is why Jesus focused so much of His teaching on reconditioning reflexes.     " Pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:44)      Love your enemies. ( Luke 6:27)      Bless those who curse you. (Luke 6:28)       If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Matthew 5:41 ESV.)      If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matthew 5:39 ESV.) "None of those things come naturally . They’re as counterintuitive as kissing the wave." He continues, "A few days after his denial, Peter infor...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 55). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) There is an important part of imagining the past. Mark says, " We generally think of imagination in future-tense terms, but all parents of preschoolers know that kids have imaginative memories too. Especially when it comes to the proverbial cookie jar! True or false, postimagining is reimagining the past after it happens! This is when many of us make excuses or provide alibis for the hand that got caught in that cookie jar. But let me flip the script. This is also how we acknowledge the hand of God. Isn’t that what David did with the lions and the bears? He postimagined his past from a providential point of view." He goes on, "When I started preaching, I was frustrated by the fact that I wasn’t good at speaking extemporaneously. I had to script every word, every time. Speaking from an outline would have...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 53). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And scars are tough to get rid of. Earlier Mark says, " When we experience physical trauma, our bodies form scar tissue. Unlike our original tissue, scar tissue develops in random patterns. The result is a loss of functionality. In my case, a loss of flexibility. I never regained my full range of motion, and I take full responsibility for that fact. I didn’t do what the physical therapist told me to do! She told me that I needed to release the scar tissue . How? By massaging it. If you don’t release the scar tissue, it becomes a weak link in the kinetic chain. Instead of tension being evenly distributed across a muscle group, scar tissue causes unhealthy tension. If that scar tissue is not released, it opens you up to reinjury." He goes on, "What’s true of physical trauma is true of emotional, relationa...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 49). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Good thought! Mark says, " We want to be self-sufficient. In fact, we confuse self-sufficiency with spiritual maturity. Our only sufficiency is the grace of God, and the only way we qualify for it is that we don’t. His grace has the power to bury dead yesterdays six feet deep! The problem, of course, is that we dig them back up!" He goes on, " Religion is spelled do . Christianity is spelled done . It’s not about what you can do for God. It’s about what God has done for you at Calvary’s cross. Jesus said, 'It is finished.' (John 19:30) That’s how we bury dead yesterdays. We nail them to the cross. Then we take up our cross and carry it daily. (Luke 9:23)" He then says, "There is an old axiom: 'Let go and let God.' It’s hard to let go of present-tense concerns and future-tense...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 42). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Such a good thought! Mark says, " If you don’t own it, it will own you. Kissing the wave is confessing what’s wrong—in this case, cancer. But it’s also professing what’s right—God’s healing power. Remember my miraculous healing from asthma? It began with a brave prayer. For Lora, (his wife with breast cancer) the healing process began with a brave question she stumbled across while reading a poem about illness: "What have you come to teach me?" He goes on, "When we find ourselves in difficult situations, we get so focused on getting out of them that we fail to get anything out of them. Then we wonder why we find ourselves in the same situation all over again. There is nothing wrong with asking God to change your circumstances, but His primary objective is changing you. The circumstances you’re as...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 35). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes it is! Mark says, " It can make us or break us, and that’s up to us. You can get frustrated with the fact that you’re right handed or left handed, or you can cultivate ambidexterity. You don’t get to choose how your story starts, but the ending is up to you." He goes on, "God can flip any script, and that includes David versus Goliath! "If you want to bury dead yesterdays, you’ve got to come to grips with who you are in Christ. False humility is thinking of yourself as anything less than who God says you are, and it’s as destructive as pride. You may be up against a giant, but you are in Christ. And in Christ, you are nobody’s underdog! Just like He did with David, God will turn your weakness into ambidextrous strength. "Your brave is someone else’s breakthrough. "Your hurt is someone...

  A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 32). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   So what does he mean by that? At the beginning of this section, Mark said, "According to some estimates, as many as 80 percent of our thoughts each day are negative. If the battle is won or lost in the mind, that sounds like a losing battle before it’s even begun! Flipping the script starts with your internal script. You can’t let your inner critic—and we all have one—grab the mic and become the narrator! If you want to bury dead yesterdays, you... have to rehearse a different story! He goes on, "Gaylord Perry was a future Hall of Fame pitcher but a not-so-great batter. In 1964, his manager made an offhand comment: 'Mark my words, a man will land on the moon before Gaylord Perry hits a home run.' In one of the craziest coincidences in sports history, Perry hit the first home run of his twen...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 27). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.)   And they had an interesting accomplishment. Mark says, "I’m fascinated by an ancient group of archers from a tribe known as the Benjamites. Their ambidextrous ability to shoot arrows and sling stones sounds like it’s right out of a Marvel movie." 1 Chronicles 12:2 (NLT) says, "All of them were expert archers, and they could shoot arrows or sling stones with their left hand as well as their right. They were all relatives of Saul from the tribe of Benjamin." Mark goes on, "Their ability to use both hands equally well raises a few questions. Switch hitters are commonplace in baseball, but there is only one switch pitcher in Major League Baseball! I’m going to make an assumption that the Benjamites were not born this way. Only 1 percent of the population is born ambidextrous. In other words, thi...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 24). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) No, there are aren't! Mark says, " When you’ve been enslaved for centuries, it takes time for your identity to catch up with your new reality. The battle is against the people and the powers actively working against your freedom—and the voice of doubt that calls your God-given dignity and identity into question. In the case of the Israelites, it took forty years. There are no shortcuts. There are no cheat codes. What God says about you has to become your signature story. It wasn’t until the Israelites possessed the Promised Land that they finally saw themselves for who they really were—not slaves but God’s chosen people." He goes on, "Many of us see ourselves or see others the same way, according to some old code. There are plenty of people who want to remind us of those old narratives. You’ve got t...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 23). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) No we don't and yes we do. Mark says, " We don’t see the world as it is . We see the world as we are . If you want to win today, you’ve got to start by rewriting yesterday." Earlier Mark said, "The story of the Exodus is Israel’s signature story. It defined their identity as a free people. Even their calendar revolved around the day God delivered them. The anniversary of the Exodus, the Passover, was a day celebrated unlike any other. God delivered Israel in a single day, but they didn’t possess the Promised Land until forty years later. Did you know that the entire journey from Mount Sinai to the Promised Land was supposed to take eleven days? (Deuteronomy 1:2) But they traveled for forty years ! That’s 14,589 days longer than their original ETA. What the heck happened?" He goes on, "Gett...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 21). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes, we better! Mark says, " Especially if it doesn’t fit within your natural gifting! It’s like tilting the treadmill to a steep incline. You’ll have to work a little longer, a little harder, and a little smarter than everyone else. It will be harder than you hoped and take longer than you imagined. So be it. If you keep walking in the right direction, you’ll get where you’re going sooner or later!" He goes on, "History is replete with people who have defied incredible odds to accomplish unbelievable things. If you’re one of those long shots like John Bertrand or Bo Eason, this book is for you. The stories I share and the studies I cite will redefine what is and what is not possible. But winning the day starts with redefining who you are and, more importantly, whose you are. "For better or for wor...

  A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 19). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So what does he mean? Mark says, " The day God healed my asthma is one of those ever-after days. A signature story usually centers on a day that begins like any other day; then that day rewrites the rest of your life. I actually keep a running tally, numbering the days I’ve been inhaler-free." He continues, "I have no idea how your story reads right now. I don’t know whether it’s comedy, drama, or action and adventure. If you don’t like your story line, God can change it. He can redeem the loss, recycle the mistake, and rewrite the pain. He can do so in a single day, no doubt. That said, don’t wait until your circumstances change to start living your best life!" He then says, "Despite suffering from severe asthma for forty years, I have biked century rides and run in triathlons. Did I menti...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 16). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) So what are the dots? Mark says, " You are capable of more than you imagine, and I wrote this book to help you prove it to yourself. Your brain has no idea what your body is capable of, and your body has no idea what your brain is capable of. Once you connect those dots, all bets are off. Following Jesus is less about minding your p’s and q’s than it is about taking your cues from Christ. What did Jesus say? 'With God all things are possible.' (Matthew 19:26) When you give complete editorial control of your life to Him, possible becomes the plotline." He goes on, "I’d better offer one disclaimer to my hypothesis. Please note the word almost . If you’re five foot seven, genetic factors call into question your dream of playing in the NBA. Be that as it may, may I remind you that Spud Webb won the ...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 15). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) Yes it is. Mark says, " God doesn’t waste days, especially bad days! My life coach helped me identify forty-four defining moments. Some were as dramatic as the day I almost died from ruptured intestines. I was surprised, however, at how many defining moments were as subtle as the subconscious. Identifying those subplots is one key to flipping the script, so I’ll share a few of mine." He shares, "When I was kid, I was playing Kick the Can with my friends when my mom rang the dinner bell. That’s how we texted before cell phones! We sat down at the dinner table, and I remember saying, 'We’ve got to hurry up and eat because my friends are waiting.' I wasn’t having a panic attack, but my sense of urgency was acute. We couldn’t eat fast enough! Why? I didn’t want to keep my friends waiting. I wish it ...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book,  Win the Day   (p. 8). The Crown Publishers Group. Kindle Edition.  (Click on the book title to go to Amazon to buy the book.) And the stories we tell make a difference. Mark says, " True or false, those stories become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you tell yourself the wrong story, you live a lie. If you want to change your life, start by changing your story." He later says, "What stories are you telling yourself? And where do they come from? Are they helping you or hurting you? Are they accurate or inaccurate? Are they carefully crafted or off the cuff? And who is narrating the story? You? Your parents? Your doubters? Your haters? Or have you given editorial control to the Author and Perfecter of your faith? (Hebrews 12:2} He then say, "'Every person is composed of a few themes,' observed C. S. Lewis. 1 Those life themes reveal themselves in a wide variety of ways. Sometimes it’s during the regular routine of li...

A thought by Mark Batterson from his book, Double Blessing (p. 134). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now that is a very interesting thought. Mark says, “That seems illogical on many levels, including the theological level. But study after study corroborates what Jesus conjectured: it is happier to give than it is to receive. (Acts 20:35) “In a study published in Science , researchers Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin, and Michael Norton gave people five dollars or twenty dollars and divided them into two groups. The first group was told to spend the money on themselves. The second group was told to spend the money on someone else. Those who spent the money on someone else experienced an uptick in happiness. Those who spent the money on themselves did not. The question, of course, is, why not? The same researchers tracked a group of employees who received a year-end bonus. Measuring their baseline happi...