Day 163- Rise & Shine
📖Daily Reading
Isaiah 59-61
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Isaiah 60: 1
“Arise, Jerusalem! Let your light shine for all to see. For the glory of the Lord rises to shine on you…
You know when I saw these words greet me this morning I knew that I had to write and talk about it! My understanding of rise and shining is putting a lid on our egos - to keep it’s false light from trying to shine and deceive you. This is literally why I committed to doing this daily rise and shine routine and sharing it publicly for an entire year - to get over myself and do the opposite of what my own ego and instincts would have me do, and has had me do my whole life! As a natural peace keeper, people pleasing type my ego and instinct had me sitting and being comfortable in my chair in the morning and keeping my learnings private and only to myself for myself. That keeps me in my comfort zone, even when I am convicted personally, if I don’t share it and no one knows, then I also don’t need to be accountable for following through or acting on what I am learning. I can satisfy my own ego though that by having the heart felt convictions and prayers in my solitude, that that in and of itself is enough.
The enneagram has been a very useful tool to me in my journey of ‘rising and shining’. It has helped me to see myself in an honest way. As part of staying accountable to this I receive a daily email about my instinctive or egoic if ways of being and also my husbands. I checked it this morning during my quiet time and here is what it said: ‘you are influenced by an identification with comfort and not letting unpleasant things get to you.” For my husbands type it said this: “you are influenced by resistance and the desire to control the environment.” I immediately read mine and agreed with it and thought what a good characteristic to have. I read my husbands and immediately thought “yeah! He really does resist things a lot and tries to control too much and that is why we have so much trouble”
Don’t we all do this? We can’t see a problem with our instinctive ways of being, but we immediately see how others instincts are a problem. 🤦♀️ So I read Isaiah 60 and pondered this as well. Paradoxically, we can’t rise if we haven’t also fallen or been in a low position, we can’t shine if we haven’t been in darkness or blind to the light. God’s glory can’t shine fully unless we have experienced its opposite. The same is true for the world. Hence the Old Testament stories which tell of cycle of the humans rising and falling, ‘getting it’ and then ‘forgetting it’.
We don’t understand and know things without the opposite being true. In order to choose God’s way, our ego or instinct needs to be in opposition. The image of a step 🪜came to mind as I was thinking about this. The ego is like an illusion- it seems to be solid and it seems like the thing to do or step on that will get us where we want to go in the moment. Then when we actually follow that instinct the result is often the opposite, we put our foot there thinking it is going to be solid and it isn’t and we fall right into it like a bucket or down the stair case. It leads us in the opposite direction. When I turn my ego over and step on it and do the opposite of my instinct and humble myself, this actually is the thing that begins to bring progress to my life in the direction I want to go - I actually rise! By dimming the light of my ego - I shine!
If I go back to my enneagram warning for the day and I get honest and humble myself I can see that avoiding things that are unpleasant and always being focused on comfort creates chaos in my life not peace. By choosing to do somethings that are uncomfortable and unpleasant to my natural self, I actually create peace and order overall in my life. This is how we can grow spiritually as well. To humble ourselves and submit ourselves to faith and trust in our creator. To do things His way, Love him and reflect and bring Glory to him by also loving others as we love ourselves. In doing this we actually show ourselves the greatest love. In Isaiah 60:5 it says “Your eyes will shine, and your heart will thrill with joy…”
As humans we strive to understand and make sense of things. But when it comes to our spiritual lives and God, we have to stand under His truth in order to understand there is no other path to spiritual or heart knowing. You must surrender and submit your ego and then step on your ego by overturning it, humbling it or it will step on and stomp on you and keep you from seeing the truth. Paradoxically it also takes true grit and courage to humble yourself in this way.
Ps. If you have been through a journey where you have fallen and been in darkness and you have humbled yourself and with God’s help you have risen and shone what is possible - don’t let the ego come back in and tell you that you are special and keep it to yourself and try to deny where and what you were before. Don’t use what you have been able to become to fool yourself and others and pretend that you have always have ‘had it together’. Staying humble, honest and transparent will be what helps others rise and shine and reflect and bring glory to God and his ways! Together we rise and shine and it just keeps rippling out by letting go of our egos. Ego - edging God out!
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
How does your Ego keep you in the down and in the dark? Are you willing to see? Are you willing to humble yourself and try another way that doesn't EGO (edge God out)?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Isaiah 62-65
Coaching Opportunity
Let's make 2023 the year of YOU by laying a solid foundational mind set! The world needs what only you have to offer! Give yourself the best gift ever, the best version of you is ready to rise & shine!
Book your free📞Wake Up Call today to learn if this is what you have been waiting for!
If you have stuck with me this far, then you are not reading this by accident, I believe God has a plan for you and is calling you forward!😉🤩
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