Many times we say it has taken “everything” to get me here. Everyone has an everything. We are not alone in our struggles. The question is are you willing to have Extreme Living? Everyone has seasons of drought in life, but are you a rainmaker? (read the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 18.) Do you bring refreshing. God has sent you to your job, your family, your friends, etc… do you bring breakthrough to the lives around you? Are you willing to live a radical and extreme life of love. I call extreme living discipleship. This crazy I will do anything for the Father God. I am a disciple. A disciple is a learner; or a follower who puts into practice things they have learned. I am committed to Jesus.
3 steps that I choose to live by to be successful in extreme living.
1) Submit. Submit is not an ugly word. You can tell submission to God by how you react to others: boss, parents, coworkers, authority, family… For me submission has been confused with agreement at times. Submission is not submission until you disagree. I tell my children control what you can. And that is YOU! Your emotions, attitude and reactions. Self Control! Your attitude and body language say it all.
2) Serve. How do you serve those around you? How do you serve the Lord? Elijah and Elisha in the Bible is one of my favorite stories of learning to serve, and serving someone with an attitude at times. Your purpose has to be bigger than pettiness and offense so that you can serve beyond your emotions and opinions. The Bible says that the greatest among us is those who serve. It is a choice to love and prefer others. It may seem like a hard decisions but once you do it the rewards are awesome.
3) Succeed. To succeed you must have success and to be successful you must have a successor. As a parent, I want my children to succeed me and be a greater success than I have been. Their success helps me measure mine. Elijah was even more successful to me because he had an Elisha. Also, to succeed you can’t quit. Who are you disciplining? Can others copy you and be successful? Is your attitude, which is contagious, worth catching?
I challenge you today to not make excuses, but to make a plan to have purpose. The Father God created you with a purpose and a plan, Jeremiah 29:11. Jesus has to be bigger than what you have been through, taught or remember. God wants to exceed your expectations. On the path of life, you don’t need people who can just drop you off, or ride with you, but you need people to get you up and push you to your purpose. We are entering a season of change, our oldest and my favorite son, Hunter is headed to college. Our youngest and my favorite daughter, Caitlyn is headed to a new year in High school. I am praying that they surround themselves with people that push them to their God purpose and that they are pushers to those around them too.
Allison Bramlett 