Time for a Heart to Heart Chat about
Your First Love
by Michelle M Pearson
In our last article, we talked about the healthy properties of dark chocolate! Sweet! Today, you’ll need to put your teeth back in, because this article is a full portion of meat! (grin)
February is our Heart-to-Heart month. That makes it a perfect time to have a heart-to-heart chat about… your first love.
Most of you are already thinking back to the person you first fell romantically in love with or perhaps that first “crush”. But actually, our chat today is about your FIRST LOVE, that which you place first in your life, that which you love most above all else.
This topic became a powerful teaching lesson in one of our live webinars as we shared one of the final training sessions with a group going through our 40 Day Boot Camp, so much so I had to share at least a little piece with you and our entire mailing list.
The first question at hand was, “How does one stay on track after training is over?” The answer to that is HEART change and MIND renewal. You see, if you are merely going through the steps and following things legalistically, two things are inevitable: you will fail and you will turn back to your old habits, which are really your retained preferences. This is the very reason why so many have failed at previous attempts to get healthy, stay on course, overcome adversity, have good relationships, or even just to weather the storms of life with any measure of stability.
Our heart-to-heart today penetrates the issue behind why so many celebrities are seen so often in the news with one catastrophe after another. Celebrities are really no different from the rest of us in that they all have promise, all have a purpose, all have a God-given destiny. They are perhaps more in the spotlight, yes, but nonetheless, God is no respecter of persons; we all have access to the ability to succeed and exceed our greatest imaginations of a glorious life, Spirit, Soul, and Body.
So why do so few actually attain that measure of fullness, of complete joy, health, wealth, loving and lasting relationships… truly satisfying life? Why do so many fall short? Why do beautiful people like Ms. Houston with such extraordinary gifts fail to lay hold of lasting peace and true success? How can a life so beautiful end so tragically?
Why do so many people KNOW they should get healthier or disease will take them out way too early – yet never make a change? Why do folks who already have disease ravaging their bodies not have the fortitude to make some simple changes or even difficult ones to save their, our, lives? Why when faced with cancer do people not change? Why when diagnosed with diabetes do folks keep guzzling soda and sweets?
On the other side of the same coin, why do folks who have been runners for years have heart attacks? Can we not see that diet and cardio-exercise in and of itself is NOT the sole answer to the prevention of heart disease? Why do people with anorexia continue to starve themselves unto death? And why will no one else intervene, no one say a word to them about Truth?
Lack of knowledge? Are you kidding? In this technology rich open-access knowledge explosion of this age? NOT. Get over it. WE KNOW. Do not even whine to me about that or think for a second that it is compassionate to excuse wrong behavior “because they didn’t know”. Face it, people, we do that to make ourselves feel better. That would be to say God withheld information. Read the Word of God if you want to argue that point with me. Cover to cover it says…
The people rejected knowledge. Defiantly and definitely.
(So, O.K. You can be offended right now, or self-righteous, or feign to be hurt, OR… you can listen, learn, and LIVE! What is your real desire? It is to live the outrageously good life! So let’s come up higher today!)
Why in the face of death does this human race reject life-saving knowledge, life-transforming truth? Why do that?? The answer to “why” is the root. It is the single answer that resolves all of the above grief and sorrows and puzzlements.
The cause of disease and destruction is not basically our genetics and not simply disobedience to natural laws that govern fitness. They play a part of the equation, but a comparatively small part. Therefore the complete, long-term answer is not found in our following programs, prescriptions, instructions, rules, and regulations. Look around at the trillion-dollar “health”, diet, and beauty industry. Wait now. Just because the money is there isn’t the measuring stick. Take another look…
What does that look like? With more available than ever before in history to “help” us get healthy and happy, we see a 60% fatter populous worldwide over the past 40 years; ginormous increases in autism, Alzheimer’s, mental illness, bowel disease, fibromyalgia, suicide, heart disease, drug use – both illegal and prescription abuse, etc.
Accept this: the former mentality and socially-acceptable approach is NOT working, it is perpetuating a law-based sickness bondage industry. Including the flip-side of the coin, the so-called alternative or natural health industry. Bondage is bondage, friends.
And, the solution to that bondage is NOT strict adherence to a new diet and exercise regime. Shocking as this may be, it is also not found in “religiously” attending church. Neither act will produce what you are looking for.
PLEASE, don’t take my words apart from my spirit. Yes, a decision and obedience is a step in the right direction. You do need to make healthy choices. And, by design, we all require communion and fellowship with our local church body in order to grow and serve. But there MUST be something else that occurs.
A decision is not a conversion. A alteration of behavior is not a transformation. And transformation inside is the only thing that will change both inside and outside.
I have not digressed. I am still chatting with you about the health of your heart. And your heart health. You are what you have become. But you are not what you have to be. Spirit, Soul, or Body.
What is it that will produce life changing life-saving results in any and every area of life?
WHAT YOU LOVE MOST. That’s right. The topic for the month. Now, please don’t tune out like you know this already. Too many think they already know this and you do not. It is the root to any problem anyone on the planet has.
Listen. Here it is. YOUR FIRST LOVE, what it is that you love most WILL always dictate your choices in life and in death.
YOUR FIRST LOVE chooses what you feel, then think, then say and do. Every time.
Your first love, what you love most, selects your food, your drink, your schedule, leads you in your finances, in every things you choose thousands of times every day. Your first love is the core of your heart and it rules every thought, every action, every plan, every ideal you choose to believe and receive.Your first love reaches out and bites you and others in the bottom when you forget to keep it hidden. (Ouch.)
Your first step in laying permanent hold of your very best life in all areas, Spirit, Soul, and Body, in fitness, faith, family, friends, finances, fun, is this…
The Lord God must be your first love. The Father, The Word, and The Spirit of Truth. Seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness – right standing and right ways – as a product of GRACE, empowerment to do through Love!
Friends, that is the master key to all prosperity – including the health of your heart and your heart.
When God’s love truly is your first love, in first place, then that love will be your motivator! The evidence of that is freedom, not bondage. It is the power of Grace, not law. Law kills and brings condemnation. Grace frees and brings transformation.
For example, in the practical application: do you eat food FROM Love (who fills your mouth with good things to renew your strength) OR for the love of it?
And your schedule, is it from Love or in search of it? If you are driven, even by passion, it is not God who is Love. Love invites, pressure drives. A driving spirit is a limiting spirit. Grace is empowerment in the limitless realm of God’s Glory.
Love puts no pressure on people. Not even on ourselves. Sweethearts, if you put pressure on yourself or others to perform, you love you more than Love Himself. Make a heart change.
Why does this fine distinction matter? Because Grace empowers obedience through love. Grace is the power that contains all your supply of every good and perfect thing.
In contrast, performance brings pressure and obeys to access grace to merit love, if it could. It cannot.
The bottom line is that your motivation comes FROM your first love to produce the desire that produces results. Judge your fruit to see the root of what it is that you truly love most.
Want better results… examine what it is that you love most. Return to your first love… He is The One who first loved you. Obedience and healthy lasting results will never again be a problem.
So, that’s our powerful heart-to-heart today. We pray you are receiving it in the abounding love it is delivered in. In can save and revolutionize your entire life! If you see that you have placed anyone or anything above your first love, Christ, or if you have never known the love of Jesus, we want to bring the light of that love to your life, either for the first time or again. It is as easy as making a heart change and as immediate as the moment you choose to return you heart to Him.
We are here to serve you in that same love. Join us as we bring real help, real hope, and real answers. We meet monthly for The Joshua Groups coaching and twice weekly for new blog articles AND soon! we will be on the radio weekly as well! And please stay tuned for more in the series, “Heart-to-Heart for Your Health” all month long – every Monday and Thursday morning!
(For more teaching on individual topics, please watch for the new reveal of our Products and Resources Page!)
Believe. Choose. ACTIVATE. Achieve. (Repeat.)
Michelle Pearson is a dynamic wellness coach, speaker, author, and the Founder & President of Picture of Health Inc. (http://thepictureofhealth.com). On a personal health journey for the past 21 years, Michelle’s mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life through the use of state-of-the-art educational resources to produce significant and lasting health breakthroughs.
Learn Anything? Please tell me below what you learned or discovered from this article today…
Dr. Michelle's mission is to educate, activate, challenge and equip others to live a full, satisfying life, ever-growing in the Kingdom of God.
Michelle is a mountain-taker in all expressions of her calling. Sometimes it is on literal mountains leading ladies on spiritual adventures in faith. Other days, it is consulting with Kingdom-minded businesses and ministries to develop professional website platforms and social media strategies. Still other times, you will find her training mountain-takers to possess their physical land - their health, spirit, soul, and body - teaching classes and doing wellness evaluations for churches and corporations large and small, as well as providing "secret service" concierge wellness services for other speakers and ministers.
Wherever the call of God takes her, she firmly believes it is time for Christian businesses, entrepreneurs, and ministry leaders to be diligent to ‘write the vision and post it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may be able to read it easily and quickly as they hasten by.’ And then ACT on the vision.
Read more About and Experience here: http://thepictureofhealth.com/michelle-2
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OHHHHHH I liked this very much!!
Good Word! Just read it again outloud to my husband. Selah!
Great reading. Agree with Marilyn. And do we eat to live or live to eat? A lot to process here. Good meat to chew on.
Hopefully, the pain in all the toes you just stepped on (tongue-in-cheek here) , mine included, will cause us to meditate on WHO or WHAT it is we truly do love most. It's time for the light bulb to go on in our heads. It's time for an AHA moment. It's time for an EPOCHAL moment!
It's time to turn to the God of all comfort (the COMFORTER) instead of that piece of pie. Instead of reaching for that "high-producing substance" (whatever it may be), reach for THE MOST HIGH–CHRIST JESUS!