Practicing Appreciation – Soaking in Joy - Purity 1586

Welcome to the MT for Christ 24/7 podcast. I am M.t. Clark, and this is today's photo. To see today's photo, go to mtforchrist.com or follow me, M.t. Clark, on Facebook or Twitter, or watch us on YouTube. Good morning. Today's photo of ethereal blue skies over the waters of House Creek from the vantage point of Creek Dock comes to us from here, Strulee, as I decided to capture this peaceful scene while practicing appreciation at the Heritage Shores Nature Preserve in North Myrtle Beach yesterday afternoon. Well, it's Wednesday, and as we approach the summit of another week, I am in that bizarre in-between state that sometimes happens when you go on vacation, where you have begun to get used to your quote-unquote new life as a vacationer, but where you're simultaneously simultaneously realize the fallacy that this is not my beautiful house and this is not my beautiful life. And you may begin to miss things from back home and you may already begin grieving or rejoicing over the loss of your vacation existence as each new morning marks one less day in paradise. I lead men's support discipleship groups regularly. And one of the things that I point out as an icebreaker or to build rapport with the men are the things that most men have in common. For instance, for most men, we are the providers for our families, and we have certain responsibilities that are solely ours. For some, uh, for some things, the buck stops with us and us alone, or at least we may feel that way. One of those responsibilities that I point out that seems to be universal among the men uh, have that I've led, uh, is taking care of our families while on vacation and the immense relief we feel when we arrive safely back at home. We are the man of the family after all, and regardless of what role we play in planning our vacations or meeting individual or family needs while on vacation, we sense that ultimately we are responsible for our family's safety. And have to be diligent in protecting our loved ones from any and all threats to their well-being. This is a primal, God-given instinct to protect the ones we love. And only, and only when we are relatively assured that everything is okay can we relax. And for, and for most men, that assurance isn't completely, uh, felt completely until we arrive safely at home. To our own doorsteps. Um, have you ever noticed that some of the men you have vacationed with have difficulty in relaxing? This may be a small part of why that is. Anyway, while I did miss not hosting the Freedom in Christ course last night and won't be leading the Celebrate Freedom support group at Star Point Church tonight because I'm away, I don't miss work or home too much and have been able to relax here in Myrtle Beach. Well, I did feel like a fish out of water at first. After I established my new normal and continued my daily spiritual practices of physical exercise, blogging, Bible study, and prayer, I quickly acclimated to my new environment and feel at home at my luxury vacation accommodations, and thus the strange in-between state, uh, feeling of unreality. I feel acclimated and fully adjusted to my new vacation life here in Myrtle Beach that will disintegrate and disappear in just over 48 hours. Talk about living in the here and not yet flux of Christian existence. Just like I am living in God's kingdom currently because I am in Christ, but I am not there fully because Christ has yet to return and establish it fully. I am currently living in a temporary existence of heavenly accommodations, uh, but won't really know the ultimate joy of my life until my wife and I are under one roof, or I retire, or until God's kingdom comes. There are many chapters, uh, to our lives after all, and this short vacation is just another one that shows us how quickly we can be here today and gone tomorrow. These changes in life can cause us to grieve or to be in distress, but when we walk in the Spirit, realize that God's kingdom is our ultimate home, and know how to live in the context of who we are in Christ, we can have peace and return to joy continually. Yesterday, my wife and I went on a couple of hikes or short walks at a pair of local nature preserves where we got the chance to see some of the local flora and fauna, and where I was able to do one of my spiritual practices that helps me to focus on the good things in life. And to build my emotional resilience, I got to practice appreciation. Uh, practicing appreciation is one of the core habits or skill sets that I encourage people that I support or disciple to learn and practice to help them navigate through life and to give them the emotional resilience to do hard things or to suffer well when they experience trials. I learned about practicing appreciation during my training at Deeper Walk International School of Prayer Ministry. And through Hinman and Warner's book Building Bounce and share these skills because I recognized the need for Christians to understand that their faith in Christ has given them all they need for life and godliness. They could actually experience that truth if they understood how to direct their thoughts and attention to what God would point them to. Practicing appreciation is one way where we can meditate on the things that are true, noble, just, pure, lovely, good, virtuous or praiseworthy, um, that Philippians 4:8 points us to. The quote— to quote Warner and Hinman, appreciation is needed in order to train your brain to focus on what there is to enjoy in life. And the way we do this is by staying in a state of appreciation for 5 minutes or longer, 2 or more times each day, and then sharing what you appreciate with someone else. Sharing appreciation with others takes it from simply being a task we perform to an experience of, experience of a relational joy. Doing this twice a day as an ongoing practice or habit will help you grow your capacity to bounce back from hard emotions. So yesterday, as I was experiencing the joy of the serene, quiet stillness and the scenic beauty of the view from the creek dock at the Heritage Shores Nature Preserve in North Myrtle Beach, I paused and just soaked in the joy for the moment, of the moment, for 5 minutes or so before moving along in our hike. And now I'm telling you about it. It was beautiful, the way there was a cold breeze, a cool breeze and sunshine, and the way the waters of House Creek flowed and trickled by the rock and how everything was peaceful and quiet except for the birds singing, calling to one another. It's moments like this where we can have simple peace that we need to connect with. They, they are so sweet. And when we thank God for them, as I did, we realize just how good our lives are and how very good our God is. So check out Hinman and Warner's book Building Bounce, or just follow the simple instructions I have shared here and build your emotional resilience through the practice of appreciation. Life is good and God is good, but we need to make a regular practice of appreciating those facts wherever we go to allow them to help us to experience peace and joy and to become the joy-filled people that God created us to be. Today's Bible verse says— come to us from the Quick Scripture Reference for Counseling by John G. Crews. This morning's meditation verses come from the section on imitating Jesus. Today's verses are 1 John 3:2-3 from the NIV, where the word of God says, dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And all who have this hope in in him purify themselves just as he is pure. Today's verses fall under the 10th point of our Counseling Reference Guide's resource section on imitating Jesus. And that 10th point is: the hope, certainty of one day seeing Jesus face to face and being perfectly conformed to his image should motivate us to seek to be pure even as he is pure. Today's Bible verses remind us of our ultimate destiny to be with Jesus in his eternal kingdom. And encourages us to be like the one we will one day be with. Uh, the concept of no, now and not yet comes through these verses that tell us now we are children of God and what we will be has not yet been made known. We haven't fully arrived yet. These words tell us that we will be like Jesus when he appears, and that because we will be will one day be like him, we should purify ourselves because he is pure. This means we are to forsake the things of the world and repent of our sinful ways of the past to live a life that will reflect the purity of Jesus. God doesn't tell us to stop sinning and to purify ourselves to take away our fun. He calls us to purity because he is pure, and when we are more and When we are more like him, we will know the peace, joy, and love that is common to his kingdom. So rejoice that you are a child of God and enter into the life that you have already been given by following Christ's example of purity. As always, we encourage everyone to go to mtforchrist.com, where we always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to assist our brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk. Today we continue sharing from Day by Day Along the Way by J.E. Adams. It's a 365-day devotional, and we're on day 85, where Adams shares a portion of Proverbs 8:22, which says, Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of his ways, before his works of old. And J.E. Adams writes, wisdom belongs to God and to him alone. From the foundation of the earth, God has exhibited wisdom in all his doings. In creation, wisdom was at God's side. No wonder wisdom is so prominent in Proverbs. She is intimately associated with God himself. All that God does is wise. He would graciously have us closely associate with her. Indeed, since wisdom and God are virtually inseparable, to fail to pursue her friendship is to reject God himself. That's why wisdom goes on to explain, so now, my sons, listen to me. They are happy who keep my ways. If you are willing to go through life foolishly rather than sensibly, reject wisdom. Wisdom is more than knowledge of truth. It is truth applied, and applied as God would have it applied. Wisdom doesn't come to those who sit and stare. It is possessed only by those who earnestly seek her. Do you? If not, why not? How naive can you be? Amen. And I know, um, we could be pretty naive. Um, I think part of us, you know, the part that God made all of us, recognizes truth. And, uh, recognizes things that are good. We know good from evil, right? And that was given to us by God. But we have a choice, um, to deny that truth, to do what is selfish or sinful, and, um, instead of doing what is right. And so we can choose to be a fool, we can reject wisdom. But as D.A. Adams points out, um, we would, we would be wise to seek wisdom and to apply God's truth to our lives. That is why we always ask the question, have you fully surrendered to God? And, um, it's the question that leads to everything. The answer is no, we'd have to say you're on a foolish path. If the answer is yes, you say you're on the right track. Um, because you've made Jesus your Lord and Savior, and you're deciding to live in wisdom by taking God's word and applying it to your life. And so we recommend that pathway because we've discovered it and that we've benefited from it greatly. It set us free from our— but the addictions and sins of our past. It's given us a hope and a future, and it's given us a purpose. And one of the purposes I have is to lead the Celebrate Freedom support group when— on Wednesday nights in Clifton Park. Um, it's a Christian recovery and discipleship support group. We invite anybody in Upstate New York who can get to Clifton Park on a Wednesday to join us. Um, I won't be there because I'm in Myrtle Beach, but the Celebrate Freedom leadership team will be taking over tonight to lead the meeting., and we encourage you to go. Of course, if you're not in Upstate New York like I'm not, there's still good news. Um, currently I'm doing a series called, uh, Christian Recovery Celebrate Freedom with M.t. Clark on YouTube, and we're sharing all of the teachings that we disseminate or teach at, um, uh, Celebrate Freedom. And right now there's 8 lessons available, um, Lesson 1, the ABCs to Celebrate Freedom, all the way to Lesson 7 of the Recovery material on sponsor, which we released this week. And so we encourage you to share or check that out with anybody who, who needs hope, uh, to overcome hurts, habits, and hangups. Um, beyond that, we've also done other series in the past that we're— that are out there for your enjoyment to help you to find or increase your freedom in Christ. Um, they're on our YouTube playlist page where you can find them all. All the series we've done by going to mt4christ.com and checking out our, our page that has all our YouTube playlists listed. We've done A Picture of the Darkness, Bondage Breaker, Freedom in Christ, and many others. We encourage you to check those out. And if it encourages you, we encourage you to let us know. You can email me at mtforchrist247@gmail.com. Thank you for your positive comments. And if you're really blessed by it and feel moved to give, we would appreciate your support and donations. You can go to mtforchrist.com, uh, just to support the MT for Christ Community Freedom Ministry. Uh, you can give via the Cash App, PayPal, or Venmo, and we encourage your donations. Thank you. Beyond that, we always end by asking the question: Are you empty for Christ too? And that's just a clever— what we thought was a clever play on words to mean, have you emptied yourself? Are you fully surrendered to God's will? Are you allowing the Holy Spirit to come into your life and motivate you and move you to live? If so, we say great, keep on walking and talking with God. If not, we encourage you to pray, because we know that if you seek the Lord, you will find him, and that prayer for help Um, prayer for God to reveal himself will be answered. And so we know prayer works, and thus we pray every day, like right now. Lord God, Heavenly Father, we thank you for another day in your kingdom. We thank you for another day here in Myrtle Beach on vacation. Lord, we thank you, um, for keeping us safe thus far and allowing our bodies, minds, and spirits to find rest and relaxation and joy. And we just pray for you to go before us today, protect us along the way, and lead us in the things we would— uh, you want us to see and things you would want us to do. Because I just want to represent you in your kingdom, Lord, and need all the help you can get with that. And Lord, while you're at it, we're also praying for anyone reading, listening, or watching today's message, that you come alongside them and their prayer requests and their walk of Uh, we're asking her to help them too. Lord, we thank you, we praise you, we love you, and we pray all these things in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.