What is Intentional Living?
Intentional Living is a lot like a GPS system found in many cars. It shows you the path to where you want to go. A GPS requires putting in the right destination, where you are headed. It also has a beginning point. A GPS knows where you are starting your journey. And once you enter a destination, it calculates a route, a path for you to follow. In the same way, Intentional Living points you toward the path in God’s Word. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” (NIV)
The key to Intentional Living is found in Ephesians 5:10, “Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it.” (The Message) It’s a roadmap for life. When put into practice each and every day, living intentionally changes your life.
An Extraordinary Life
You can experience the best God has for you when you live intentionally. Intentionality happens when you combine information, insight and action.
- Information: gathering the facts you need to know about the situation. It’s your thinking.
- Insight: looking at the situation in a new, heartfelt way. This insight often comes from Scripture; it also represents how we relate at an emotional level with other people and with God. It’s how you feel.
- Action: doing something with the information and insight you’ve gathered. Without action, nothing happens. It’s what you do.
- A balance of intentional Thinking, Feeling and Doing will result in an extraordinary life filled with peace, passion and progress.
Getting to Your Destination
Even though we have a path to follow, it’s easy to get so turned around in this world that we don’t know where we’re going. Always remember that God does the saving through His Son Jesus on the cross. The Bible says we are saved by grace through faith. (Ephesians 2:8 NIV)
So, there’s nothing we can do to earn salvation. But we do show our faith by how we live our lives. We decide how we’re going to think and what we’re going to do when we wake up every day. By taking responsibility for our own thoughts, emotions and actions, the journey of intentional living has begun.
And, the best is yet to come in the five essential areas of life: Faith, Family, Health, Finances and Work. When you apply the teaching in Ephesians 5:10 to each area, you will embark on the intentional life in Christ that you desire.