Living a Focused Life

As I mentioned before, I listened to some CDs on my way to and back from Washington State. One that made a huge impact on me was a talk given by Mike Bickle from IHOP (International House of Prayer) in Kansas City.

He was talking about how in order to accomplish the things we want to in life, we must focus our lives on those things. It won't just happen by accident. Now, don't get me wrong, we still need to lean on God, trust Him and follow Him. However, He is not going to just throw blessings your way if you just sit on your tush wasting away your time all day long.

Mike suggests you put together a schedule for your week. He redoes his every few months based on things going on in his life. We have 168 hours in a week and we need to determine how we are going to spend them. Now it is a given that emergencies will come up and God will lead you to things you've not planned. However that is not what happens the majority of the time. If we don't determine what we are going to do with that time, someone else will for us and it will probably be wasted. Mike suggests if you are able to keep to your schedule even 80% of the time you are doing good and will see things start happening in your life.

He has been doing this for quite a few years now and schedules his time by 15 minute increments. For now I'm going to do mine in 1 hour increments.

The four important things he suggests we all schedule into our lives are

• Relationship Time (family & friends),
• Rest Time (sleeping and just relaxing at times),
• Study Time (Bible Study) and
• Prayer Time.

The second CD I had got into some suggestions he had for your Study Time and I'll share that with you in a separate post.

The point of this is to get your life focused on what is truely important and what you want to do with your life. If you say you want to live your life for God and be a blessing to your family, then you need to ensure your life reflects that. Don't take this to the extreme where you get legalistic about keeping your schedule. It is okay to deter from it, especially if that detour is prompted by God. This is just a way to ensure you are focusing your time in a way that reflects what you say your values are.

I'm going to be putting together a schedule for myself and working to keep it. Even if I'm not able to get to the 80% I think I'll still see changes in my life and my relationships that are important to me. Will you try with me?

If you are interested in teachings by Mike Bickle you can visit the IHOP site. Here is the one that includes the things I'm talking about Power of a Focused Life.