Who do YOU want to be for your spouse?

Mark Driscoll said on Facebook recently, "You should stop making a list of what you want in a spouse and start making a list of you want to be for your spouse."

Wow, if that doesn't garner a second thought from the majority of people, I don't know what will.

It's interesting, because this links back to another great quote that I've heard before: "I want my woman's heart to be so lost in love with the Lord that I have to go to Him to find it."

In both of these quotes it's all about taking personal responsibility for who your spouse is going to be and how you are going to find each other. Although more subtly in the second, the resounding message is: go seek the Lord and be refined in Him! Then you'll attract who you're truly looking for. The beautiful, Godly spouse that you want to marry won't take a second glance at you unless you have similar qualities and standards in your own life.

And that's how I want it. I honestly don't want my woman to be distracted by me. I hope that her heart is so deep in love with the Lord that she doesn't take a second glance at me until the Lord prompts her to.

The relationship we were designed to have with our spouse was never meant to slow us down in our pursuit of the Lord. Rather, we should yoke together with someone who is sprinting at the same pace and loves the Lord with all of their heart.

One day, I want to simply look beside me and see a woman who is fervently pursuing the Lord as hard as I am. Then, I'll go back to Him and ask that she might be mine in confidence that our whole would be greater than the sum of our singleness.

So, where does that leave me today? Content with my singleness. Seriously! Not only that, but my deep in my heart I want to surrender my singleness to Him that I might seek first the Kingdom ever more fully and love Him ever more deeply.

Besides, if I were to truly seek Him first, then all of this will be added unto me! And even if it's not what I hope it would be (or even a spouse) then I will be able to be content because ultimately it's all a loss for the sake of knowing Him.

How do you view relationships? Are you out looking for someone? Or are you focused on making yourself that someone worth finding? How would God want you to be?

We Need People Who Have Come Alive

Over the past few months, God has been giving me some divine insight into passion and I want to get these thoughts off my head before I lose 'em.

Here it goes:

Psalm 37:4 says to "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." So, obviously, the first step is to give God His rightful place in your life. The Lord of your life. The ruler of your heart. Seek first the Kingdom... Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, etc.

This is important because we CANNOT live public lives ablaze if our private lives are not AFIRE.

But here's the part that got me: the DESIRES of your heart.

You and I were made with desires on our hearts. Passions. Little nerdy pieces of us that just love to do that certain thing JUST BECAUSE.

Simply BECAUSE we like to do it.

To some it's a sport (basketball, football, volleyball etc.), to another it's an art form (drama, music, drawing etc.) to another it's a profession (business, catering, nursing etc.) and to another its' a specific ministry (evangelism, intercessory, pastoral etc.). These aren't meant to be all inclusive, but you get the point.

It can be ANYTHING. You really enjoy to do something and you have to dig it out of you and go after it. God made you that way.

Howard Thurman once said, “Do not ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

So, do a little study of yourself. Find out what you really enjoy doing for no apparent reason. Take those things to God, lay them at His feet and see what He wants to do with them. Chances are, He wants to use those passions for His Kingdom.

And here's the best part, He's already gifted you to succeed with them.

So, what are your passions?

P.S. One of my favorite bloggers, Sammy Adebiyi, has a post about this as well: You Are A Nerd.

Are you ever ALL THERE? Or is your attention always distracted?

"Wherever you are, be all there. Live life to the hilt every situation you believe to be the will of God." -Jim Elliot

This quote often challenges me when I'm sitting in various situations where I could easily be splitting my attention between the setting that I'm in and the smartphone in my hand. I want to be efficient and effective with my time, but here's the question I am confronted with:

Is it the best use of my time to never truly be ALL THERE?

What am I missing out on when I am distracted at chapel? What could I have added to the conversation when with a group of friends? What knowledge could I have gleaned, what principle would I have learned, what excellence could I have achieved if in every situation I was ALL THERE?

My challenge to you is to engage in life to the fullest. Like Jim Elliott said, "Live life to the hilt." ESPECIALLY, if you are a Kingdom-minded individual who is purposeful with your time, what time do you have to waste? If you're living out the will of God in your life then you should be ENGAGED in there here and now, because that's truly the only time you have to give of yourself to it.

Otherwise, you'll have lived a life with one foot in the present and one foot in some other social/futuristic/dreamosphere achieving only half of what could have been achieved if only you had truly engaged.

Keep the main thing, the main thing.

Don't miss out. Engage all of yourself in whatever you're in. It'll only come once, then that moment is gone.

Wherever you are, be all there...

Sow Into a PG-Rated Life, REAP a PG-Rated Life

Yesterday I was reminded of a profound conversation I had with Nate, a friend of mine.

We were talking about how to live a life on FIRE for the Lord and he noted that if we want to reap such a lifestyle then we must SOW into that lifestyle. It is not enough to simply hope that one day our minds will be completely set on the Kingdom and we will walk around like Peter, whose shadow healed people.

No, we must SOW in the place of prayer, into searching the Word of God and into simple devotion with an ear tuned to the Lord's whispers. Our time management and lifestyle must sow this if we want to reap a powerful walk with the Lord.

On the flip side, if you sow into music that does not edify your spirit, into movies that do not encourage you, into relationships that do not uplift you and into reading material that is not God centered, do not be surprised if your reap an APATHETIC, MOTIONLESS LIFE.

That is exactly what you sowed into!

We all know about the "Christian" bands that never mention the Lord and the movies that Christians tolerate and promote. But are those Christians on fire, passionate men and women of the Lord? Or are they as languishing as the next person since all they've ever sowed into their life is as CLOSE to the line of worldliness as possible rather than SPRINTING towards holiness as Jesus called us to do (1 Peter 1:16).

"Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap." ~ Galatians 6:7

God is not mocked. He isn't fooled. So don't fool yourself. You can stop wondering why your passion for the Lord has subsided when you do a little introspection and see where you've sown your time this week.

Into the Kingdom or into lukewarm, water-down Christianity?

What is one new way that you can sow into a life on FIRE this week?

Living on Purpose

I think that's going to be the title of my blog. "Living on Purpose" or maybe it'll just be in the subtitle. Not sure yet. Basically, I want to grab life by the horns in the spiritual, emotional and physical avenues of life. And be the most effective and efficient I possibly can with every moment.

Efficient and Effective. My how those resonate deeply.

I also want to have several pages of references that I can point people to. Diets I've tried, books I've read, sermons I've listened to, training materials for marketing, stocks to check out, The Gospel, spiritual nuggets, and maybe even products I recommend (maybe I can affiliate through Amazon!).

Right now this blog is basically a list of introductory thoughts but it'll develop eventually. I don't really expect anyone to read these. It's more that I'm actually starting... :)

A Whole New Focus

Welcome to my new blog! I have several streams of focus for this new blog, but here's the 50,000ft view. I love life and I want to share my learnings with other people. I want to have a pool of resources for people to dive into and be refreshed by the Word of God, tips of fitness and perspectives on business and economics. This will end up being a conglomeration of ramblings of my mind from spiritual to emotional to physical sides of life and I hope you can glean from my life experience (as little as I have so far) as well as the wisdom that I gain from above.

I am hungry to learn and I rarely spurn wisdom. I view life through a unique lens, especially as one who as lived overseas for 9 years of my life.

Not sure exactly how this is going to turn out, but here's the first step at it. From here, the only direction is up.

For the glory of God above all else and the benefit of His people, With Love, Matt Tibbetts