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What are you willing to sacrifice for success?

I'll admit, I'm exhausted.  There seems to not be enough time in the day for me to do what I need to do. The clothes make it to the washer but not the dryer, then they start to smell and need to be re-washed (geesh!).  Then if I do happen to get them from the washer to the dryer, they sit waiting to be folded for several days in the laundry basket.  I haven't cooked a meal at home in weeks.  When I made chicken enchiladas the other day, they loved it and haven't stopped praising how delicious it was - probably out of sheer bliss that it wasn't another frozen pizza.  My blog hasn't been written in two weeks and my morning prayer time is getting shorter and shorter.  Do I want to be successful that bad?

I've been waking up earlier and earlier but still not getting a chance to study my word.  I have been giving my all to my real estate business - building it up, studying, listening to real estate coaches and what I consider self-help teachers. Has there always been this many people in the motivational speaker industry?  The bible says, seek and you will find, and I was looking for inspiration, and I found plenty of books, audio, youtubers, etc. with positive inspirational messages.  This is great, I thought to myself, so I delved in.  I was listening in my car, while working out at the gym, while eating lunch.  I was pumping my mind with this message that I can be whatever I want to be and they were going to show me how.

But wait a minute, how come I have more and more stress?  How come I feel more and more pressure?  When I study the Bible, I get more and more peace.  When I drill this other stuff in, I get more and more anxiety. And then,  because most of the teaching is about what I have to do to correct the problem with anxiety, I get even more stressed that I must be doing it wrong, since I'm more stressed now than when I started listening.

Psalm 106:13 - "But they soon forgot what he had done and did not wait for his counsel. In the desert they gave in to their craving; in the wasteland they put God to the test. So he gave them what they asked for, but sent a wasting disease upon them."

I'm not sure I want to be successful that bad!  I don't want to sacrifice my relationship with God, pushing passed his "wait," to attain my "right now."  Sacrificing bible time for positive meditation time.  Trying to own my business, when I should be managing his business.

Don't mistake my words if you own your own business or are striving in the area God has gifted you.  This is not about where you are going, but more so about the journey and the character you're building along the way. This is about what you believe about who you are and whose you are; about where your strength comes from; about who can really change your heart and your ways vs. the erroneous efforts of man; about who obtains real success and what a counterfeit looks like.

"The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it." Proverbs 10:22.

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