How to Live an Extraordinary Life

Start your Extraordinary Life beginning today.

“What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.” -Helen Keller

Many go through life searching for that something that will fulfill their life but never find it because they are looking in the wrong places. We enter this earth with a vacuum inside that can only be filled by Christ and Him alone. Jesus promised those who trust in Him an extraordinary life. He said, “…I am come that ye may have life and have it more abundantly,” John 10:10b. When you know Him, you will find How to Live an Extraordinary Life. Itis right there within you.

Look within

It is there that you will discover your true needs. Several years ago, a few months after my wife had died, I bought a motor home.  That same year, I traveled to Florida. I was parked across the street from a county fair in progress. It was night and the lights of the ferris wheel and other rides were fascinating. As I sat in the passenger seat watching, I inserted one of the CDs my wife had bought and the song was Hero: “So when you feel like hope is gone, look inside you, and be strong, and you’ll finally see the truth that a hero lies in you.”  I was still very sad from losing my best friend, my wife.  I realized then that my life could still be an extraordinary life because I knew that a hero was inside, and that He was Christ the Lord.

Over the years it has become increasingly clear to me that an extraordinary life doesn’t come from massive financial wealth, climbing the corporate ladder, fancy titles, or 15 minutes of fame. Neither does it come by the approval of others, especially while doing what you think everyone expects of you. If you want to live an extraordinary life, you have to identify and appreciate the extraordinary things that are already part of your life. The reason something is extraordinary or remarkable in your life is because you say it is. It’s that simple.

Here are some things that will help you to appropriate the extraordinary life God has promised you. These are things for those who have realized that Jesus is the foundation for an extraordinary life:

• Let go: Let go of the things that hold you back and forge ahead with a new found energy. You can do anything God has planned for you to do in this life with His help.
• Stop comparing: Comparing yourself to others is a total waste of time, like comparing apples and oranges. You are unique; no one is exactly like you. Develop your own God given attributes.
• Pay attention: Be attentive to what is going on all around you. Don’t miss opportunities to increase life satisfaction. Pay attention to the good things in your life. Find happiness in the now without depending on the special occasions that occupy less than 10% of life.
• Appreciate the small things in your life: Life is made up of a lot of everyday small experiences. In them lie the basis for happiness and not in the things that might seem more important, like a week’s vacation every year or birthdays and Christmas which are only once a year.
• Be grateful: Show your gratitude to God and others for the things they do.
• Make space: Make space for the important things and quit majoring on the trivial.
• Slow down: Take time to enjoy life. Spend more time with those you love and do the things you enjoy.
• Overcome the past: Overcome your past. It can ruin the present if you let it. The past is past and can never be changed. Learn to live in the presence, for in it is your happiness and contentment.
• Establish a new status Quo:  It may be time to change the way things have always been for you. Expand your horizons and be adventurous.
• Be extraordinary: Be extraordinary in how you treat people, including yourself.

Be extraordinary in how you choose to spend your time.  Be extraordinary through your thoughts, words and actions.

I traveled for 10 years in the motor home, in 37 states. All of the extraordinary moments I experienced while traveling remind me about the everyday extraordinary, but you don’t have to leave home to find it. Extraordinary is everywhere.

I believe that God expects you and me to be more than merely ordinary. In fact, I believe the Bible teaches that God desires for His people to live an extraordinary life of impact. We are to be light in the darkness, salt to the world, and ambassadors of Jesus Christ.

Understand God’s plan for your life

God has a plan for each person. At the top of God’s plan for you is His abundant life. The Bible says in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and have it more abundantly.”  Often we misunderstand the trials we have in life. It is true we bring many of them on ourselves by our actions, however, some come unavoidable. God can bring good out of our trials. James 1:2-3 says, “Consider it pure joy, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.”

God promises those who love Him a good outcome in their life. In Romans 8:28, we read, “And we know that in all things God works for good of those who love Him, who are called according to His purpose.” God is not saying in this verse all things are good. We know that cancer is not good or is the loss of a child or love one. The point is that in the long run God can, by putting all things together, bring to us a life of abundance and purpose.

It is in the combination of things that God brings about the good in our life. For example, food that is salted tastes much better than unsalted food. Table salt is made of a combination of two bad elements, Chloride and sodium which by themselves are both poisonous. Combined they provide a chemical that the body can’t live without. Likewise God can combine the experiences of our lives and bring about something good, and His promise is that He will do just that.

God not only gives us victory over sin and Satan, but according to Romans 8:28, He also gives us victory over circumstances. God says, all things work together for good. Consider some of the ways God works to help us rise above circumstances as pointed out in Romans 8:28:

The certainty of the promise: “We know.” This is not loose talk, it is a promise we can rely on. Secondly, is the totality of the promise: “We know all things work together for good…”  Notice that it is not just some things but all things. I know that is hard to understand when we are in the midst of a serious trial, but here it is, God said it, and so we are to believe it. J. Vernon McGee once said about the lung cancer that he survived, he would never want to experience that again, but he would not take anything for what he learned through the experience. Understandably, some of our experiences are bad, but do we consider them as a learning experience that matures us in our spiritual journey? There is no doubt that we learn through affliction.

Joseph in the Bible is a good example of a person who experienced much affliction. He was maligned and thrown in a pit by his own brothers and later sold as a slave. He was lied about, wrongly accused, and imprisoned for something he did not do.

When Joseph of the Bible looked back on his life, he summed it up much like that which is stated in Romans 8:28. He said to his brothers who had afflicted him, “As for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”

The power that brings about the promise: “We know that all things work for good.” Don’t think that things just automatically work themselves out for good. No, it is God that works all things out for good; it is His power, His omniscience. Paul makes clear this point in his letter to the Ephesians: “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” The God of the universe is the maker of the promise and also the one to carry it out in His own power and in His own time.

The condition of the promise: It is not something that automatically happens to everyone. There is a condition. “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” The promise is for those who love God and take Him for His word.

The purpose of the promise: The promise is given to those who are called according to His purpose. “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son.” God’s primary purpose for those he calls out is to be like his son, Jesus. Contrary to what many think, God’s primary purpose is not to make us happy, healthy, and wealthy; He wants to conform us to the image of Jesus. Jesus lived an extraordinary life on earth although He suffered more than any of us ever will by far. The reason his life was extraordinary was because it was centered on helping others and serving others. The lesson on life that many are yet to learn is “It is more blessed to give than to get.”

Whatever the circumstances of life, we can rely on the promises of God found in Romans 8:28. No one can take it away from us, not even Satan. “Greater is He that is in us that he that is in the world.”

Get a God Vision for Your Life

John Wesley was one of the great pastors and evangelist of yesteryear. His aim in life vision was to serve the Lord. In the beginning Wesley was not respected. He was barred from preaching in many churches. He experienced many a trial but never lost his vision. Wesley wrote in a page of his diary:

• Sunday morning, May 5, preached at St. Ann’s, was asked not to come back anymore.
• Sunday p.m., May 5, preached at St. John’s, deacon’s said, “Get out and stay out.”
• Sunday a.m., May 12, preached at St. Jude’s, can’t go back there either.
• Sunday p.m., May 12, preached at St. George’s, kicked out again.
• Sunday a.m., May 19, preached at St. somebody else’s, deacons called special meeting and said I couldn’t return. Sunday p.m.,
• May 19, preached on the street, kicked off the street. Sunday a.m.,
• May 26, preached in meadow, chased out of meadow as a bull was turned loose during the services.
• Sunday a.m., June 2, preached out at the edge of town, kicked off the highway.
• Sunday p.m., June 2, afternoon service, preached in a pasture, 10,000 people came to hear me.

Sometimes you may feel the vision is impossible: Paul experienced many adverse things: He was stoned, and left for dead. They thought he was dead. He was Beaten and imprisoned. He was Shipwrecked and left to drift in the water. He was bitten by a deadly snake.  In2 Timothy 1:12, Paul said, “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.” Paul never lost his vision regardless of circumstances.

The bottom line is there are 3 things that happen to us when there is no vision: We miss God’s blessings;We miss god’s best plan for our life;We miss the influence of Jesus in our life.

Here are some things to consider if you are interested in “How to Live an Extraordinary Life:”Have you thought about what you want for your future? Are you planning today for your future? Paul said in Phil 3:13-14, “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Paul had a purpose to live for – Although, he lived in the presence, he was looking to the future. Here is how to begin: Click HERE to learn how to have a relationship with God.
Written by Jimmie Burroughs