June 1, 2024

Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, Novelist and Writing Coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Saturday, June 1, 2024, and this is episode #16 in series 2024. This episode is titled, “To Do or to Be? That Is the Question.”

Have you ever noticed that when we meet someone new, the first question we usually ask is “What do you do?” Why don’t we first ask “Who are you?”

The reason we do this, I think, is that we live in a culture that values doing more than being. Accomplishment more than character. Producing more than abiding.

What do I mean?

I mean that we live in a culture in which people derive their worth and their identity from what they do, what they accomplish. In other words, we live in a work-based culture that ascribes value to a person based only on performance.

God, on the other hand, ascribes value simply by the truth that He created us. As a human being created by God, you have intrinsic worth. Your worth is a given. It is not something you need to work for or to earn.

In a society that teaches that there is no free lunch, this is a very difficult concept to accept. We Americans especially are goal-oriented and performance-driven. Unless we perform, we remain dissatisfied with ourselves. We look on ourselves as inferior beings unless we achieve success.

But, what is success? It is illusive, is it not? So I ask you to ask yourself a critically important question: How do you define success?

For me, success is fulfilling God’s will and purpose for my life. Nothing more. Nothing less. If I reach the end of my life having loved and served the people God put in my path, then I will consider myself a success. It’s not about how many books I’ve written, nor how much money I’ve earned. It’s about how well did I love.

Jesus gave us two important commandments:

1) Love one another.
2) Bear fruit for Me.

Unless we love, our lives are meaningless. Love is the essence of life. Why? Because God is Love, and He alone is the Source of Life.

Jesus also commanded us to bear much fruit. Have you ever considered what Jesus meant by “fruit”? I used to think that the fruit I was to bear meant my accomplishments. But, no. The fruit the Lord commands us to bear is the fruit of the Holy Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness, and Self-Control. I ask myself continually, “Am I bearing the Holy Spirit’s fruit?”

In John 8: 31, Jesus said this: “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed.” What does it mean to abide? It means to rest in, to draw one’s life from. Just as a tree branch draws its life from the trunk and the roots, so do we draw our life from Jesus Christ. Abiding does not mean working or doing. Abiding means resting in. In other words, BEING.

God’s ways are above our ways. Whereas the world says that seeing is believing, God says that believing is seeing. Whereas the world says that doing precedes being, God says that being precedes doing. We have it backwards.

It is out of our being in Christ that our doing of good works flows. Unless we are abiding (or being) in Christ, we can do or produce nothing. Jesus Himself said in John 15: 5, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”

Are you abiding in Jesus Christ? Do you even have a relationship with Him? If not, pray this simple prayer with me.

Lord Jesus, I come to You just as I am, a sinner in need of Your mercy and grace. I choose now to turn away from my sin and to look to You to forgive me and cleanse me. I receive You now as my Savior and Lord. Thank You for saving me. Help me to abide in You all the days of my life as You make of me what You created me to be. In Your Name I pray. Amen.

If you sincerely prayed this prayer, you are now a born-again child of God. Welcome to the family of God! Write down today’s date. It is your spiritual birthday and the day on which you received the birthday gift of eternal salvation that Jesus died to give you. Then write to me at drmaryann@maryanndiorio.com. I would like to send you a free PDF booklet titled After You’re Born Again to help you grow in your walk with Christ.

Until next time, remember that God loves you just as you are and just where you are and that He will help you to keep on winning with the Word.

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For award-winning fiction that will entertain you, inspire you, and, perhaps, even transform you, check out these first two books in MaryAnn’s historical fiction series titled The Wives of Old Cape May:

The Captain and Mrs. Vye
by MaryAnn Diorio

A middle-aged, childless widow discovers that her late husband has left her destitute.

PRINT
EBOOK


The Rabbi and Mrs. Goldstein
by MaryAnn Diorio

A 19th-century rabbi’s wife accepts Yeshua as the Messiah and faces divorce, destruction, and death.

PRINT
EBOOK

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Dr. MaryAnn Diorio is an award-winning novelist, certified life and health coach, and a licensed minister. She writes award-winning fiction from a small town in New Jersey where neighbors still stop to chat while walking their dogs, families and friends still gather on wide, wrap-around porches, and the charming downtown still finds kids licking lollipops and old married folks holding hands. A Jersey girl at heart, MaryAnn loves Jersey diners, Jersey tomatoes, and the Jersey shore. You may learn more about her at her at maryanndiorio.com.

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Copyright 2024 by MaryAnn Diorio, PhD. All Rights Reserved.