Dr. Randy Carlson
Our mission is to encourage and equip each person that we reach to live an Intentional Life in Christ knowing it will result in more freedom, peace and purpose – God’s very best for the lives of those who follow it.
So, let’s spend a few minutes and go through the word, L.I.F.E, using an acrostic as the basic foundation. We could call them the baby steps of living an Intentional Life in Christ.
- L: Love God and lock onto a God-intended goal.
- I: Intentionally do one thing; act on one thing every day toward that goal.
- F: Focus on eliminating or decluttering from our lives anything and everything that’s going to keep us from progressing in the right direction.
- E: Engage accountability and celebrate progress.
Let’s look more closely at each one.
L: Love God and lock in on one God-intended goal.
Goals are important. You cannot play much of a game without a goal. It could be a basket, a net or a field goal. A goal tends to be very specific, something you could almost picture in your mind.
1st Thessalonians 4:11, says to make it your goal to live a quiet life minding your own business and working with your hands just as we instructed you before. Paul was writing specifically to a church, and he knew the goal for that church had to be to mind their own business.
That same Paul in 2nd Corinthians, writing to a different group says this: “whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please him.” He’s telling the church in Corinth about his goal, the goal of the disciples and extends that goal to the church.
In fact, the verse for Intentional Living comes from Ephesians: “Figure out what pleases Christ and then do it.”
I: Intentionally act on one thing daily toward that goal starting today.
We do a thousand things a day, and they’re important things, but often they’re only the urgent things. When we focus on the things that really matter, and make sure, at the end of every day you’ve done one thing to move you toward that goal, you are going to:
- sleep better.
- be more motivated.
- be less anxious in your life.
- be more confident that God is leading in your life.
Paul says in Philippians 3, “I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ has possessed me. And then he stops and says: No, dear brothers and sisters I’ve not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead.” Paul is being very intentional.
So, what one thing could you act on starting today and every day over the next month that would move you closer to the goal that you just thought about? And everything else needs to be really evaluated for its value and worth in your life.
F: Focus on eliminating one thing daily that is holding you back.
Ecclesiastes 3 says, for everything there’s a season and a time for every activity under Heaven. Verse says: a time to keep and a time to throw away. There are times we need to hang onto and other times that we need to forget and eliminate from our minds and from our memory to the extent that we can.
Maybe you grew up in a home where there wasn’t much affection, encouragement or love and you know how it’s affected you now as an adult. That is a season you went through. Some of you went through a very difficult time in a marriage, and for any number of reasons, it just wore you out emotionally and spiritually. And you find yourself, even now, stuck with lies about yourself, about life and about God. That’s a time you need to eliminate from your life. On the other hand, some of you have been through times where you saw God do amazing things. Those are times to hang onto.
E: Engage accountability and celebrate progress.
One of the goals that we have at Intentional Living is to be a friend, sort of an accountability partner. One of the reasons I teach every month is simply to encourage you. We’re on this journey together.
We put these together just to send you kind of a shot in the arm in the middle of the month to say, hey, you’re going to make it. God is good. He is good. Follow these life principles. Stay intentional. If you fall down, get back up. Ecclesiastes 4 says, to pity the man who falls down has no one to pick him up. We’re here to encourage one another and lift each other up.
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