Shownotes
Wisdom-Trek / Creating a Legacy
Welcome to Day 123 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.
This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom.
Beliefs -> Decisions -> Outcomes
Thank you for joining us for our 7 day a week, 7 minutes of wisdom podcast. This is Day 123 of our Trek. Yesterday we continued our commentary of the book of Proverbs and completed Chapter 1 verses 8 through 33. We will be intermixing our Proverbs commentary occasionally throughout the daily treks.
Paula and I have a two trips planned over the next six weeks, so we will be recording some additional Proverbs episodes in advance to air while we are on these trips. As with all of the Wisdom-Trek episodes, if you miss any of the Proverbs episodes, they are located on Wisdom-Trek.com along with the written daily journals. Today we will be discovering how our beliefs affect our decisions which affect our outcomes.
As you spend time with us on our daily trek, if you have any of your own observations, comments, or questions, please share them in the comment section of our daily journal pages on Wisom-Trek.com.
We are recording our podcast from our studio at The Big House in Marietta, Ohio, and this morning I continued to make some progress in our dining room and am still on track to finish it by the end of this week. Our contractors are also in this week to finalize some of the trim work that they needed to complete. So, hopefully we will be able to entirely complete the current projects before we move onto the next room, which will be the library.
As with our daily trek of life, it is important to take time to celebrate the small milestones, victories, and accomplishments. One of these accomplishments is the very positive feedback and gradual increase of trekkers who are joining with us each day on our Wisdom-Trek. Thank you so much for being part of our wisdom community. Joining us each day will positively impact your beliefs, which will impact your decisions as well as your outcomes or results. So, let’s head out on our trail for today and learn how to have positive outcomes in our lives.
If you have joined us on previous days, you realize that as a person of faith, I feel there is much wisdom that can be gained through God’s Word. What we allow to impact our beliefs will have a significant impact on the results that we achieve in life. The Bible tells us there are three reasons why what you believe is important. The first reason why you need to know what you believe and why you believe it is because it shapes your life.
Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart/mind, for everything you do flows from it.”
The Bible tells us that our beliefs determine our decisions and behavior. If there are things in your life you want to change, you don’t change them from the outside in. You change them from the inside out. You start with your thought life, not by trying to change external things.
Second, if you have a faulty worldview, it’s going to cause all kinds of unnecessary problems in your life. Proverbs 29:18 says, “When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is joyful.”
When you don’t have God’s truth and a correct worldview, you stumble all over yourself. But when you pay attention to God’s revelation, then you are blessed.
Do you want your life to be blessed? Just attend to the truth. Pay attention, and get your worldview in line with truth, not popular opinion.
The third reason is found in 1 Peter 3:15, “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it.”
God expects you to not only know what you believe and why you believe it but also to be able to explain it to other people. Our world needs people who can explain effectively to others what they believe because most of the people in the world don’t have a clue what they really believe much less why they believe it.
God expects you to know what you believe and why you believe it and to explain it to other people. Whether they show it or not, the world is desperate to hear about something they can believe in. Sometimes, it just takes you being obedient and telling others about your worldview for them to hear truth.
We need to realize though that regardless of what you say we believe, the decisions you make in your life and the outcomes or results that appear in your life will display what you really believe. If because of your decisions and outcomes in your life, others do not see any hope, they will never ask about your hope as a believer.
Your beliefs are based on your true values in your life. Values have been defined as a set of deeply-held beliefs that serve as standards which guide you to the positions that you take on various social, ideological, political, and religious issues.
These values are the standards to guide how you process the conscious and unconscious justification of your action, thought, and judgement. Therefore, the ultimate function of your values is to provide you with a set of standards to guide you in all your decision making. Values based on God’s Word will serve you best.
Values arise from your worldview; whether God- or man-centered. These beliefs determine your end actions or how you behave. So, values are the ideas and beliefs that influence your choices and actions regardless of whether they are right or wrong, good or bad.
Ethics and the subsequent decisions that you make, on the other hand, is about how you distinguish between right and wrong, or good and evil in relation to your actions, choices, and character. Ethics is about the assessment and evaluation of your values for all of life. It can be said that ethics are what you should and ought to do in life.
Caution should be taken, however, when considering the personal application of your ethics. Just because you have an understanding of your ethics does not mean that you will do the right thing or make the right choices. How you apply your values based on your ethics will result in the decisions that you make. This is the bridge between what you feel you believe and the actual decisions that you make. An example of this is what James speaks of in his letter in 2:20, “How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?”
This leads us to the last point, which is outcomes or results. Your beliefs and actions (or values) will shape your character. Your character is the results of the action that is taken to carry out your beliefs and decisions. It is what defines your reputation and results in who you are when no one else is looking. You display your character in the daily working out of ethical decision-making regardless of whether its means are good or bad.
You need to remember that beliefs and decisions are not the same for the former leads to the latter. The results or outcomes of your life are a reflection of your character, which is based on your decisions and made based on your beliefs. Choosing what goes into your mind will form your beliefs. Choose wisely and remain consistent regardless of circumstances, which will result in wise decisions and positive outcomes and results for your life.
On today’s Trek, we clearly saw how our beliefs are evident in the decisions we make, which will determine our outcomes. So, resolve to join us tomorrow for another day of our Wisdom-Trek, Creating a Legacy. Tomorrow we will begin a short series on how our beliefs create our reality.
That will finish our podcast for today. Remember to listen to your daily dose of wisdom on Wisdom-Trek.com or subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Spreaker, or YouTube, so the episodes will be downloaded to you automatically.
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The journal for today’s Trek can be found at Wisdom-Trek.com. Thank you for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and most of all your friend as I serve you through the Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal each day.
As we take this Trek together, let us always:
- Live Abundantly (Fully)
- Love Unconditionally
- Listen Intentionally
- Learn Continuously
- Lend to others Generously
- Lead with Integrity
- Leave a Living Legacy Each Day
This is Guthrie Chamberlain reminding you to Keep Moving Forward, Enjoy your Journey, and Create a Great Day every day! See you tomorrow!