Pre-Decide: The Power Of Consistency

Those things just go together. Our life is the accumulation of the decisions that we make along the way, which means if we want our lives to change, we have to change our decisions. If we want it to get better, we've got to learn to make better decisions along the way. If we have good things we wanna continue, we need to consistently keep making those good decisions that will allow those good things to continue. And, of course, we believe we find the wisdom for that, the direction for that from God, our creator, and his word, his revelation to us, so that we can make better decisions that lead to a better life. [00:25:30] (39 seconds)  #DecisionsDetermineDestiny

It's how you pre decide these are the habits, these are the routines, these are the things I'm going to consistently be devoted to doing in my life. When you get that settled, it changes the whole trajectory of your life because here's the thing, little things done along the way on a consistent basis, if they're the right things, they add up to the big things that we really want. They add up to the goals that we're trying to set. They add up to the life that we say we want to have. [00:28:35] (33 seconds)  #HabitsShapeDestiny

So here's what I want us to start thinking about before I get to the three points we're gonna look at at the end. Is it possible that maybe we haven't lived up to that kind of example? At our workplace, in our school setting, wherever we're doing life on a daily basis, that we've been willing to compromise who we say we wanna be because we think it'll make us fit in better, that we haven't always done our job with excellence the way God calls us to to work as if we're working to the Lord, not for men. [00:36:24] (38 seconds)  #LiveWithExcellence

See, Daniel understood that even in that situation, even though he had been taken captive, he was still gonna honor God by doing the best job he could do with the responsibilities that he'd been given. Even when everybody around them weren't wasn't willing to do that, he was willing to predecide that's who I'm gonna be in this situation. That's the person I'm going to be. And if we haven't been, friends, we've got a chance to change, don't we? We can start predeciding moving forward, but that's the reputation we wanna have. That's the way we wanna honor God with how we're doing things in our workplace and in our lives. [00:37:02] (39 seconds)  #HonorGodAtWork

Did anything change with his consistency after the decree was made? No. You see, he didn't just start praying that day. What had he already been doing every day? Praying. At the appointed times under the law that said here are the times you are to stop your what's going on in your life and pray, Daniel just stayed consistent with that no matter what the decree, no matter what the environment was that he was in, no matter what pressure was being put on him, no matter what others would think of him for doing that, he stayed consistent with the person he said he was going to be. He continued to be the same person even under those circumstances. [00:41:43] (46 seconds)  #ConsistentPrayerCounts

And the same thing is true for the church today in America. If we could have more members of churches that are consistently living out the call we have from Christ, we'll have greater impact in our neighborhoods, in our homes, in our communities, in our cities, and in our states, and in our country, and in the world. The more of us that will live out consistent faith, the more impact we're gonna have for the kingdom of God. [00:45:51] (27 seconds)  #ConsistentFaithMatters

``But we've got to predecide that's who we're gonna be. Alright. Here's the first thing we need to do. Predecide to start with your why you're gonna do what you say you're gonna do. Start with your why. Why did Daniel pray consistently? It wasn't for outward show. It wasn't to say to people, look how religious I am. That's not why Daniel did this. Daniel was consistent in prayer because he believed in the God he was praying to. He pre decided he wanted to honor that God because he trusted that God to love him and want what's best for him. [00:46:18] (40 seconds)  #PredecideYourWhy

Well, I want my marriage to be better. That sounds good, but why do you want your marriage to be better? It's just because it's gonna benefit you or is it because a good marriage honors God? Is it because a relationship between a husband and wife is supposed to represent the relationship between Christ and his church. Is that why? You see that's a deeper compelling reason to be the husband or the wife that God has called you to be. You gotta have a compelling why to consistently live out the kind of life you say you wanna have. [00:48:15] (37 seconds)  #MarriageForGodsGlory