It took me over 38 years of life on this Earth to finally start to figure myself out. For the first time in my life I have a set schedule and because of that, I am able to give myself an extra 15-30 minutes each morning to keep this blog updated. But more importantly, that extra time gives me precious minutes where I start each day in prayer. I discuss this practice in detail in the book, Common Sense Reborn, and I tell you sincerely that I feel all the weight of anxiety lifted off my shoulders when I pray in the morning. I pray a variety of things, but my morning prayer always consists of me thanking God for another day, for watching over my family through the night, and then I always ask Jesus to settle into my soul and allow His love to shine through me to all whom I interact with throughout the day. That’s the goal we should all have! Try it. Let me know how you feel after doing this for a week.

January 13

³²”Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.  ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.”(Matthew 10:32-33)

I often struggled with this, the acknowledging Jesus before others.  I mean, obviously, a lot of times it is easy.  At Church I proclaimed His name and glory.  To fellow Christians during our Growth Track into membership with our church it was easy to lift Jesus’s name on high.  Leading a bible study while on deployment gave me opportunities each and every week to stand on my soap box and give everything to the name of Jesus Christ.  But where I struggled was when I was around those that weren’t of like mind and sound faith.  When it was the agnostics and the atheists arguing about their unbelief in God and making a mockery of Jesus, those were the moments I was silent.  Those are the moments where Jesus is looking for us to give Him some praise.  He’s not looking for us to attack those who don’t believe.  Rather, as He states in the passage above, Jesus just wants us to acknowledge Him.  Acknowledge Him in the tough times, because that’s usually the audience that needs to experience Him the most.

I have found that the easiest way for me to acknowledge Jesus is to just tell my story.  As I have done with writing my testimony to compliment Common Sense Reborn, I tell as many open ears about the personal miracles I have seen in my life throughout my incredible journey in life

Reading plan:  Matthew Chapter 11

Deeper reading plan:  add on Exodus Chapters 1-4

Prayer and meditation:  continue to pray for your request from day 1 and ask God to give you the strength to always acknowledge Jesus to others.

Fitness challenge:  Third week of our 7×14 challenge.  Step it up and do two sets of the circuit(ex. 1-7 then repeat 1-7).

1.  Standard push-up                2.  Sit-up or crunches

3.  Air squats                                4.  Hand-release push-up

5.  Leg lifts                                    6.  Lunges (7-each leg)

7.  4-count flutter kick