Living a Purposeful Life: The Power of Prayer and Scripture

I recently experienced a profound epiphany while navigating a challenging season in my life, which completely shifted my approach to prayer and Bible study. Join me as I share how immersing myself in Psalms 9 and Revelation 19 reminded me of God's unwavering faithfulness, the purity of His word, and His role as our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. This newfound perspective allowed me to transcend my current circumstances, find strength in applying biblical teachings, and ultimately live a more purposeful life.

Are you ready to refocus your vision and transform your prayer life? Let me inspire you to look beyond your current situation and allow your vision to carry you to new heights. By grounding ourselves in faith, diligently studying the Word, engaging in prayer, and living out God's teachings, we can seize control of our lives and pave the way for improved outcomes. Don't miss this uplifting episode that could be the catalyst for a more fulfilled and purpose-driven life.

Chapters

• 0:04 Refocusing for Better Outcomes
• 12:40 See Beyond Where You Are

Transcript

C. Bond: 0:30

You're listening to See Beyond Where You Are with C. I have Had a trying past two weeks. When I tell you that life has been coming at me fast and hard. It has been coming at me fast and hard, it has been overwhelming at times. It has been hectic, and it has been just fast. But I had this epiphany yesterday, this light bulb moment, if you will, that just absolutely changed everything for me. Now I could have said I had a revelation, but it's not a revelation, if you already know this right. So, I'm not calling what I had a revelation, but I am calling it an epiphany. I am calling it a refocusing and a type of Awakening, reawakening, if you will, and it has helped me process what I'm going through, deal with it so that I can have a better outcome. So that's what I want to talk about. I want to talk about how we process things or go through the process, how we deal with it, so that we can have better outcomes. So let's talk about it.

C. Bond: 1:57

Usually I pray before I do my Bible study. That's been what I do for years, but yesterday I Changed it. I did my Bible study first and then I prayed, and when I tell you. It helped me so much It did. It even changed the way that I prayed that particular day, because I was going to pray and ask for help, but instead, because of the light bulb moment that I had, because of the refocusing that I had, I changed my prayers completely. What I read yesterday helped me so much. It's it helped me so much that I want to share it with you. It helped me refocus my vision. I'm always talking about see beyond where you are, and I'm not encouraging you to do it and I not do it. I want us all to be able to See Beyond Where we are.

C. Bond: 2:58

Our Vision is vitally important. I Feel like it's the difference between survival or being conquered and, as the word of God says, we are more than conquerors. So we have to have sharp visions. We have to have a sharp, crispy, clear vision. But sometimes life Happens so fast that it causes us to lose focus of what's really important And we begin to focus on the things that we're dealing with at the moment, especially when it's something difficult or Important on emergency. We shift our visions really quickly and we don't realize that in shifting our vision, sometimes we shift our vision and we lose sight of what's really important. So yesterday was important for me because it made me refocus so that I didn't completely lose sight of what was important.

C. Bond: 4:07

So I began yesterday by studying the Word of God. So I was reading Psalms 9 and I began to just dig and do some research. And the more research I did, the more cross references I began to do and I am just I'm all in at this point. They finally led me to Revelation 19 and in Revelation 19, starting with the 11th verse, it begins to talk about the names of God, of Jesus Christ, and the name that it gave in the beginning was faithful and true, and I thought about that. I'm like faithful and true and I started thinking about the situations that I'm in and the things that are going on and I thought about how faithful God had been to me. I thought about how faithful God has been to my family. I thought about how faithful God has been even to this situation, and I hadn't been thinking about that. I was so concerned with what was going on. I wasn't thinking about what God had been doing for me. Yes, I was thankful and I'm praying, but I wasn't focused on how faithful he has been to me in these situations and other part of his name was true. They said he was called faithful and true. And I thought about that, and I remembered reading earlier this week earlier last week actually Psalms 30, where it talks about God's word is pure. So, when I think about the pure part it talks about, his word has been tried, it's been tested, it's true, he's faithful and he's true. If the word of God says he can do it, it's the truth. He can do it. If the word of God says we're more than conquerors, it's true. We are more than conquerors. Faithful and true is his name. So, I started applying that to what I'm dealing with. Then, the next thing that came to us, he's called the word of God. That one, right there. It even hit home even harder because, as I said, this is not a revelation, this is an epiphany. This is my light book coming on and shining bright, because I already knew this.

C. Bond: 6:39

In studying the word of God, in studying the Bible, I'm actually studying learning about God, his ways, his characteristics, what he desires, what pleases him, what does not please him. I'm learning about him so that I can become more like him, and I'm learning how to apply the word of God to every situation in my life. Was I doing that before? Sort of, but not completely? Was I praying before? Absolutely? But I was not being strategic with my prayers. I know that now and I know that because I was looking at my problems. I was looking at my issues, I was looking at what was going on and they were on the same level as God. But God is so much bigger than that and that's the epiphany, that's the light book moment. I'm going through this, dealing with these things, knowing in my mind that God can do anything, but behaving as if the issue and God are on the same level.

C. Bond: 8:01

I couldn't be strategic in my prayers because my focus was off. I had to refocus. How could I see beyond where I am if my focus is not aligned right? Then I came to the final name King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In the Christian community we know that by heart. We do. We say it often Lord, you're the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. But saying it, believing it and living it are three different things. That's important to me. That's important to me even for my situation, even for the things that I'm dealing with, even for life, even when life is good, not that it's bad now, but even through the times when just everything's so great, he's the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, realizing that having that epiphany, having that moment when that light bulb went off, was our opening. It made me, it forced me, it caused me to rethink some things.

C. Bond: 9:21

After I shifted my focus back to what was important, now I can tell you I can truly see beyond where I was, and I want you to be able to see beyond where you are as well. That's why I'm sharing this. That was my process to be able to think about it, to look at it and determine what needed to be done. That's part of the process. So you can look at it, think about it and determine what needs to be done. Then we can deal with it.

C. Bond: 10:00

How do I deal with it? I deal with it by applying what I thought about, what I gave yesterday, putting everything in its perspective place and realizing that what I possess in me is enough to get me through any situation. Now I can be strategic in my prayers. Now I can slow down, figure out what it is that needs to be figured out, plan accordingly and work my plan. And if you're going through something and your plan is only a two step plan. Pray and study the word. You're halfway there. Just apply what you've learned. I encourage you to do that. That goes for me as well. It gives us the strength to endure, but it also gives us the strength to deal with it. Now we have a clear mind. It's not cloudy. Use the peace that you gained to deal with whatever is coming your way. If we take the heart, what we have gained, apply it faithfully, consistently, we can have better outcomes.

C. Bond: 11:34

The other way that I've been dealing with the issues is through songs, is through music. William Murphy's songs really helped me yesterday, especially You Are My Strength. That's one of my favorite songs, but there were other songs like Your Love, same Grace, settle Here. Praise Is What I Do and It's Already Getting Better. All I can think about, all I could see, was me coming out of this situation. Because of what I was processing the word of God and the music that was feeding me. It inspired me to deal with what I was going through differently And, to be honest, that's how I'm going to deal with the life going forward. So, I talked about the process. I talked about dealing with it. Now I want to talk about having a better outcome.

C. Bond: 12:40

As I stated earlier, we don't control life. We don't know when we're going to have a great day or when something's going to come and turn our lives upside down. We can prepare for great days, just like we can prepare for the days that are not so great, but I really believe that seeing beyond where you are truly seeing beyond where you are prepares us for better outcomes. Anything that takes our vision away, our focus away from God could be the difference between a positive outcome or a negative outcome, a better outcome or a devastating outcome. We get to choose. We can choose to be silent, rooted and steadfast and believe and trust God, or we could just go along living in life, taking whatever life gives us. We get to decide if we want to go through life in a defeated manner or if we choose to go through life with our heads held high, knowing that God is faithful and true, believing what His Word says, so that we can experience better outcomes more often than we have negative outcomes. We can choose to slow it down by studying the Word, by praying, by believing what we read, by living what we read and by applying it so that we can deal with life better, so that we can have better outcomes.

C. Bond: 14:46

Now, please note, I'm not promising you that every time you deal with something, it's going to be just the best outcome. No, some outcomes are designed to be bad for us, because it's those bad things that works for our good. It's the bad that works in our behalf as good. So, I can't promise you that every outcome will be the best outcome, but what I can encourage you to do is to see beyond where you are. Let your mind, let your vision, let your imagination take you places that you've never thought you would be, so that the rest of you can follow. You've been listening to See Beyond Where You Are with C. Bond. Until next time, remember, there's more than one way for you to See Beyond Where You Are, but your job is to figure out which way works best for you and apply it.