"Making a Private Appointment for Public Influence": When Misfits Become Kings: Book Study Part 7 (weekly podcast episode #34)

Follow along with blog post/transcript below.

Do you know that when we make it a priority to meet with God -- to make appointments with Him -- then amazing things happen? Yes, it's true. And meeting with God means we get public rewards and public influence which can mean something different from person to person. On page 87, Casto says, he believes public reward is the power of God demonstrated through our lives. In other words, it's not how we are viewed by our family, friends, or social media -- it's how God views us. 

I just posted a quote a on my Instagram page and it says, "My whole mindset has changed. I don't even have the energy to do certain things and be around [certain] people anymore. I'm just at the point in my life where if something feels like it's draining me, or fighting with my peace of mind and happiness, I'm not dealing with it." That quote came from Trent Shelton and I'm on Trent today, because he's speaking my language. He's where I am in my life and I'm so feeling his message. You can tell he's been through some things and what I like about him is his new heart. Yes, I like his passion for helping others based on his walk.  I like that he's using his past heartache and pain to positively impact others. He didn't take his experiences and try to hide them. He's sharing part of his life with the world and he's having a major impact. His "private appointments" with God are paying off it seems, right? 

How many of us are taking advantage of our appointments with God? How many of us want our journey to help people? I'm not taking playing patty-cake here either. I'm talking real and lasting change in somebody's life based on our life -- based on our walk. How many of us are trying to hide our story? How many of us are too prideful to share our experiences and testimonies with people? Hmmmm. I'm not saying we have to get on social media and pour our hearts out like Trent and myself do. That public of a platform is not part of everybody's purpose, so I get that. What I'm saying though, is that we have to open our mouths and stop saying we are too anxious or scared or nervous to do it. When we say things like that it is our pride talking, because we are worried about how people will view us -- how they see us. So we actually make it all about us. Believe what I'm saying here, because I lived what I'm saying ok? That was me a few years ago. I was so concerned about what people would say about me and I sat around being too scared to put myself out there. That mindset doesn't honor or please God. It pleases the devil and the people in his camp -- the people who are running scared. And those can be Christians and non-Christians. So, if you're living in fear, that thinking does not come from the Lord (2 Timothy 1:7). 

If we desire to help people -- if we desire a life of public influence (which has nothing to do with numbers, by the way), we have to act. James 2:17 says that faith without works is dead and if we are influencing anybody outside of ourselves, that's public influence. We're going to have to get out of ourselves and stop worrying about things we fear that don't even exist anyway. Many of the things we convince ourselves we fear are in our minds. I had to realize that in my own life. I was scared for absolutely no reason. What a waste of time. 

On page 71, Casto says, "God never designed you to find your approval in man. He wants you to receive your approval from Him, your Creator. We live stressed and complicated misfit lives because we are living for the wrong praise. We once again, must renew our minds and find our source of strength from a secret life with God." Makes sense, right? Who are we trying to please here? Nobody's opinion of us should matter as much as God's does and when we make private appointments with Him, He gives us the power and strength to walk in boldness and confidence. It's true. I'm living that today and it comes with freedom. Yes, I feel free that I can do what I'm doing and I know I got the approval and the go-ahead from God to do it. How does that all work? Well, as I said in previous episodes of this book study -- when we make time for God He makes time for us. And He gives us a peace that transcends all understanding that we know we're on the right track. We know what we're doing and we know we are doing it for the right reason. To make an impact. And when we do that, major impact starts to happen when we operate that way. Major impact happens when we have great communication with the Creator, the Lord God. It's as simple as that. Nothing complicated. We can all do it.  

We just have to know who we are in Christ. And we have to make time -- make private appointments with God to do so. That's how we refine our purpose. That's how it works. That's how we get leverage in helping people, so we are able to do that for as long as God wants us to. Casto says on page 72, that "we must separate ourselves from those who bend to peer pressure, political correctness, and popularity. We live not for an audience of this world; we live for an audience of one, [God]." It's about weeding out the distractions, remember? It's about establishing a private meeting place with just us and God in order for public and private success to happen. We're successful when God follows us wherever we go. And as Casto says on page 90, "let us learn this principle of success; the reward in public only comes to those who make an appointment with God in secret [in private]." All of that happens when we meet with God on a continuous basis.