WHY DO WE NEED GOD TO DEVELOP OUR FULL POTENTIAL?

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,

 plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 29:11

Because we need strength, courage, resilience, peace, patience, and deep love for ourselves. All these things don’t come easily. Self-love for oneself is not about having a wonderful massage, a nice pedicure, or going to a spa or salon. Although all these things are good and are part of self-care, when it comes to real deep self-love is more about supporting ourselves in a psychological, physical, and spiritual way. So is not about pampering ourselves while the people we are responsible for are neglected or vice versa prioritizing others while we neglect ourselves. There are many misunderstandings about self-love. When we love ourselves, we take care of our needs, and we don’t sacrifice our well-being for pleasing others. To me, self-love means taking care of my mental health. Real self-love is not selfishness either, in my career as a coach I have noticed that often many people are confused about the delicate balance between self-love and loving others. Loving yourself and others are intertwined because the more we love ourselves the more we will love others. Self-love is about prioritizing our values, accepting ourselves, connecting with ourselves and our Higher Self, honoring and expressing ourselves, developing healthy boundaries, and being honest with ourselves.  

So why do we need God to develop our full potential?

Because we need to have a strong sense of identity to keep developing ourselves. In Christianity, we learn that we are the image of God. This belief has been the strongest foundation of my personal development and happiness. Abraham Maslow, one of the most influential psychologists of the XX century said that humans need a strong sense of belonging to someone greater than themselves. In my personal experience of growth, I realized that I needed a strong relationship with God. In the past, I used to pray without expecting an answer. But later in my life, I have learned to discern my ego voice, once this is done it is not hard to discern the other voice that is coming from our heart. The voice of God. This voice becomes stronger as we practice more self-reflection, discern, and listen to our feelings. My main conversations with God are about my day, the things that I am most grateful for, and what I need to do to accomplish His call. When I struggle, I ask him for help.

We all know that God exists but having a conversation with God may sounds weird.  It sounded weird the first time I listened my pastor talking about it. But now I know that He listens because I can feel His love and find help unexpectedly. Of course, one must have faith for this to happen. Prayer is not a repetition or a one-sided conversation. In time, with practice you can think about God more like as having a special friend, you can talk with Him about what is going on in your mind and your worries. I found out that He wants to hear how he can help us.

I fell in love with who God is through the Bible and through Him I learned to accept my humanity and my divinity and now I am more committed to serving God through my coaching work.

We all were created to communicate with God and it is not crazy wanting to do this

Even though we cannot have a face-to-face conversation our connection with Him can grow deeper. If you are struggling with a situation that is the perfect opportunity to connect. I found out that reading the scriptures and reflecting on my spirit is helpful when struggling before making an important decision. This part is tricky.  For instance, I used to believe that all my intuitions were coming from God, but I learned that sometimes are not. Five years ago, I was involved in an unhealthy relationship, and I thought that God’s will was for me to stay in this relationship. Even when I was feeling unhappy, I thought it was God’s will. How did I learn to discern this part? By asking myself if the feeling or thought was coming out of fear or love. My spirit revealed to me that my relationship was more based on fear than on love. Love doesn’t make us unhappy. Love makes us feel safe and at peace. After this experience, I also learned that my thinking comes from my ego and that my feelings are coming from God. In time we all can learn to discern more about these two channels.

In my spiritual walk, I have learned that the relationship with God doesn’t develop from the mind but from the heart. We will use the mind to accomplish our work on Earth, but to connect with God the main connector is the heart. When I say heart, I don’t refer to a physical organ, I refer to the Spirit. The Spirit embeds the ego, but they are two separate identities, yet they are connected because the ego is meant to create and give a form to the Spirit’s call. The ego is the servant of the Spirit.

Most Christians are not developing their full potential because they have not developed their emotional intelligence. Most people don’t have clarity or can define what is the purpose of God for them. They will say: What is the will of God for you? And they cannot reflect on why God has created them. They cannot do it because they were not taught to differentiate their ego from their Higher Spirit, which is God. And this is why most people, not only Christians are confused and don’t have a clue about how to do it. But we were all were created to develop our full potential so that we can achieve our destiny.

To fulfill our destiny the first step is to understand the strengths or talents that God has given us. The truth is that we need His grace to develop our full potential there is no other route. He will sustain you when you feel tired, weak, when you have financial challenges, when you have family issues and health uncertainties. The truth is that we all are sometimes weak and strong and this is why we need His help and wisdom to accomplish the goal, which is the call.