Change Your Outcome

Are you ready for change? Your career, your relationships, even the small details of your life like where you live and what you drive can all be influenced for better or worse by one simple thing: your response.

Like the Pavlovian dog, we’ve all been conditioned for response. A text blip. An email ding. Our response is immediate and effective. We reach for the phone. We blast off a quick reply. Try not checking a text or ignoring an email and you’ll find it can take superhuman effort to resist the conditioned response.

Would that we were so quick to respond to God! Imagine what life would be like — what your life would be like — if we conditioned ourselves to listen for that still small voice, that nudging in your spirit, that “gut-feeling” that you should do this or not do that we so often pass off or reason away.

After his adulterous affair with Bathsheba, King David repented in response to the prophet Nathan’s story. His response preserved his life and his kingdom. (2 Samuel 12:1-15)

Daniel responded to his inner conviction to refrain from eating the king’s food and it propelled him to a position of favor while in captivity. (Daniel 1:8-21)

Balaam… well, he needed a talking donkey to keep him from getting his head cut off, but at least he responded. (Numbers 22:22-34)

We are so conditioned to respond to all the bells and whistles of our day. It takes a concentrated effort, a willingness to train our senses to hear God’s voice, whether it comes from a sermon, a word from a trusted friend, a scripture, a gut-feeling. Listen now. He’s always speaking, He’s always at work.

He longs to bless you and those around you. He longs to show himself strong for you and all that you are believing for in your life and work and He uses people — you and me — to accomplish His will in the earth.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10, ESV)

You may have a string of texts from a daughter and God is quietly saying, “Call her.” Break the silence and talk. You never know the deep need she may be sensing right now to just hear her mother’s voice.

You may see your dream job posted and something inside you leaps at the opportunity. Maybe, just maybe, that’s God prompting you, stirring your faith. Respond!

This can be as big as a major life change or as small as noticing your neighbor’s unshoveled driveway or the gloomy cashier that could use a smile. Acknowledge God’s prompting. Be a blessing, believe for good things, expect things to shift and change for the better. Respond.