How To Become Truly Exceptional

Do you want your life to be exceptional? If it does NOT seem to be, then perhaps it’s time to think about what’s holding you back.  

One of my recurrent stumbling blocks throughout my life is the wrong-thinking that I am the exception to God’s prescription for life—as written in His Word. 

I know I am not alone in this! Let me give you a litany of ways we justify our own disobedience (meaning we believe we are the exception to God’s rules) but we still call ourselves “Christians.” These are probably the most common examples from my own life and from what I’ve observed in others:

• Jesus didn’t mean “me,” when He talked about building the church and He established a pattern in the New Testament for the local church. I don’t need to be vested in a local church. I can “do church” on my own. I can worship anywhere. Besides, I’ve been offended, and there is not a church in my area that I feel comfortable in, so I’ll just do church my own way.
• The Bible isn’t talking about me when it says, “pray without ceasing.” 
• Jesus wasn’t talking to me when He said, “make disciples.”
• Jesus wasn’t talking about me when He said to forgive others as I’ve been forgiven; besides—you don’t know my story and how badly I’ve been hurt. You don’t know what he/she did! 
• I don’t really need to study the Bible—that’s the preacher’s job—I can just read a devotional or watch TikTok and get everything I need. “Study to show yourself approved” is just for church leadership.
• Making money isn’t more important than God and just because I do it with more passion and discipline than I follow God—doesn’t mean that in my heart I don’t love God. 
• Abusing my body—through alcoholism, smoking, being overweight—is okay because I’m only hurting myself.
• I can live outside God’s boundaries of sexual behavior because “I’m in love.” 

Any of these sound familiar? My friend, the list is endless because our enemies have a proverbial Pandora’s box of ways to keep us from becoming exceptional. But when we love anything more than God, we will never find true prosperity or joy! In fact, we have fallen prey to our enemies who never want us to experience God’s exceptional plan. If you think about it honestly, you will acknowledge that most disobedience is very much based upon our “feelings” instead of “truth.” But what do our “feelings” have to do with truth? Will the “truth” of the law of gravity exempt me from consequences if I jump off the Sears tower because I “feel” I can fly? When our feelings control our life, we can expect to be controlled by the tumult of unhealthy emotions instead of being guided by the reality of unchanging truth. This will keep us from being exceptional!

In order to become truly exceptional, we must stop believing that we’re the exception to God’s rules!

The truth is—if we believe we are the exception to GOD’s RULES—it means we are being RULED by our three ENEMIES. This WORLD culture is a cruel, everchanging master. Our FLESH is a self-centered bloodthirsty goddess. SATAN hates us and wants to drag us to hell with him—or, if he can’t do this because we’re already born again—to have us experience hell while we’re on this earth. If you are a born again believer, you have a choice about who you serve! The Spirit of God indwells you and gives you the power to choose to live within the rules of relationship with Jesus Christ. Jesus warned us that we cannot serve two masters.

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (money).”

Matthew 6:24

We ALL serve someone. I often ask myself: Who am I serving? If I’ve lost my joy and peace—I know I’m serving the wrong master. I know I’m living like an exception and have deviated from obedience to the instruction of God’s Word: 

“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.”

1 John 2:15-17

‬ ‭If my life is not demonstrating exceptionality, then it’s time to repent and turn from disobedience to God. God’s Word is my healthiest prescription for life. It’s yours, too! Jesus commanded:

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

John 14:23-24

The more I seek and desire to live by God’s Word, the more He makes my life exceptional. His presence is glorious! When I desire to have Him open the eyes of my soul and reveal the areas of my life that need to change, my prayers are directed to this end: 

“Oh Lord, reveal ANY area of my life I am living in disobedience and robbing myself of becoming Your glorious masterpiece.” 

God is so faithful. He is so good to give us His wisdom and patient to teach us His ways. Give your life 100% to Him today and yield every room of your heart to Him. I promise you, you will never regret having Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. Jesus  was the most extraordinary person to walk the earth and—He has created a master plan to make your life exceptional!

‭‭We would love to hear your thoughts about this devotional. Did God speak to you or challenge your daily walk with him? Or is there a topic that you would like Kimberly to cover or expound on? Please share with us in the comments below.

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