When Life Goes South On Ya!

They say you know a man by his fruit. Well to take it a step further, the fruit you are able to garner for yourself in any category of your life indicates your success or failure. This is taking responsibility at the highest level. Instead of blaming God, circumstances or bad luck, you have to be able to take an honest look at your life, and the fruit, or the lack thereof. There is no such thing as fate or stated otherwise, predetermination or destiny. You may have a solid destination (heaven) but that doesn’t negate the path along the way. Life, if you haven’t already noticed, can get pretty shitty on you. Things can head south, go south and stay south if you are not paying attention. Again, you have to own it. As long as it is someone else’s fault, you cannot ever hope to change it! This is not to imply your whole life is all jacked up. Not at all. You may have spectacular fruit overflowing in certain areas of your life. You may even have good fruit in multiple aspects of your existence. But, it’s those parts of your life that produce no fruit or worse, putrid fruit you have to be concerned about. Why? Because that rotten fruit begins to permeate every aspect of you until there is little of you left, instead some low level imposter pretending to be you. So my friends, what do you do when life goes south on ya?

To understand the actual control you do have concerning your life, you have to comprehend just how your life works. You, at every moment of your life, are deciding what you will believe and what you will not believe. You are choosing. But, the part you missed and I still miss at times is that what you choose is what you get. What you believe is what you receive, no more or no less. If you expect failure for whatever good reason you have reasoned within yourself, you will receive failure. If you choose good by expecting good and looking for good, you will find the good. You will produce the fruit of good which is success. If your tree has a sick part where sticks exist instead of fruit, there must be a reason and that reason is not fate or that life is unfair or even that we have a spiritual opponent. The devil, in case you were wondering, wants to do evil to everyone at all times. You can defeat him (them) also. But, you win not by some mysterious unknown mental power. You win by what you choose to believe because what you believe is what you get. That’s the only control you have; what you choose to believe. So you may rightfully say, “I did not choose this disaster I’m facing at work and no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get a win in this area.” And your words would ring true. But, there is a more universal source of the trouble you are enduring. A source that has the power to sour all things.

What could possibly have such power that it can sour all things? The answer is fear! Fear is always the answer for the problem. “Fear has ruined more men’s lives than any other thing” to quote a man I loved and admired. Fear is a form of belief and like love, is a powerful form of belief. Where you have fear you will always have defeat. “Fear is sand in the machinery of life” – (there he is again.) There is a reason “fear not” is the number one admonition in the Bible. Numeral uno because it is the one thing you cannot afford to do. When and where you have fear, you will have defeat and pain and trouble and a distinct absence of fruit. Life didn’t do you dirty! You did you dirty by that which you were afraid of and that which you failed to resolve. It is definitely bad news, but it is also very good news. The good news is that now you finally know the real cause. You can stop assigning your fate to someone else. Own it brother. Accept it sister. Fear is your problem and fear will always be your problem But, now you know. Now you can do something about it. Not with mind power, but by changing what you have been wrongly believing. Getting rid of your wrong beliefs and replacing them with right beliefs. There is power in doing that. But, if that sounds too hard or you feel that one space is too far gone, then get comfortable with it because it won’t go away on its own. You have to take on fear and overcome it. God will help you do it because you activate His power when you choose properly. He will give you the best He can give you, only limited by the poverty of your expectations. He will always do the best He can for you. But you have to meet Him part way. He won’t rewrite the principles because you refuse or are too afraid to comply. You simply make a choice to trust Him despite what it looks like. It’s a decision you decide to make. It’s a decision you have to make. Good fruit awaits.

So, my friends whom I love, hear what I’m saying to you. Those parts of your life that are sucking right now, suck because you have fear in them. It is not because of the other people, though it sure seems like it. Other people, however trying, do not get to choose for you. You choose for you. Choose you. Decide to take on that fear you have been dragging with you like a preassigned burden and resolve to escape from it. It is not your destiny. “It’s not I’ll take the good with the bad, I guess” thanks 50 Cent. God’s promise is always wholeness in every aspect of your being. It’s that good. He’s that good. What do you do when life goes south on ya? Seek out and destroy that fear like a torpedo honing in on the hull of a ship. Blow it up. all up. You deserve better. Nothing is beyond restoration or repair. Choose wisely.

Just some good thoughts…