At 16, Armstrong began competing as a triathlete and became a national sprint-course triathlon champion in 1989 and 1990. In October 1996, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his brain and lungs. His cancer treatments included brain and testicular surgery and extensive chemotherapy. His last chemotherapy treatment was received on December of 1996. In February 1997, he was declared cancer-free and the same year he founded the Lance Armstrong Foundation for cancer support called LIVESTRONG -- The Foundation unites, inspires and empowers people affected by cancer.
On February 16, 2011, he announced his retirement from competitive cycling, while facing a US federal investigation into doping allegations. The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) charged Armstrong with having used illicit performance-enhancing drugs, and in August they announced a LIFETIME ban from competition, as well as the stripping of all titles won since August 1998.
Lance Armstrong has cut formal ties with his Livestrong charity to avoid further damage brought by doping charges and being stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Armstrong also resigned from the board of directors for Livestrong on Nov. 4. He had resigned Oct. 17 as chairman from the charity he founded but had kept a seat on the board.
Here is a man who spent his entire life competing and striving to succeed and pushed himself to be the best. And by the choices he made he completely destroyed his legacy in the sport and stained his name. And now finds himself banned from the sport
that he devoted himself to for life and stripped of all his titles. I gotta ask.... Was it worth the risk?
God has a place He wants us to go: I believe with all my heart that God wants us to succeed in this life. In fact, I believe that it is an expression of God’s love to us. Now please understand, I’m not just talking about money. Success includes money, but it is more than money. God wants you to succeed in your spirit, soul, emotions and physical body. He wants you to succeed in your relationships, marriage and job. He wants you to excel toward the promises of God.
God has already done His part. He’s already made lots of things available to us, but if we don’t understand the process that we need to take to arrive at our destination, we could find ourselves making the wrong decisions, having a laps of discernment and in a sense of desperation finding ourselves compromising our integrity and making choices that will forever impact our lives.
Let’s look at what we can apply to our lives to help us succeed in all areas of our life.
8 Steps to Help You Livestrong
Step 1: The Word of God
The Word of God. This is where everything starts. If you’re going to succeed, you’re going to have to start with the Word. “In the beginning was the Word” (John 1:1).
The Word is the incorruptible seed, the seed that will always produce, the seed that will never fail. It is the origin for all success—the gateway to the blessings of God. We can’t achieve success without it.
Livestrong is Word-determined, not money-determined. So many of us want to succeed, but we don’t have a life in the Word. And so we release our time, talents and treasures without any force behind it.
Step 2: Your Thinking
If you ask people why they read the Bible, they’ll give you all kinds of answers. But the reason you should read your Bible is because it governs your thinking. It shows you what type of mind-set you should have. And that’s the second step in this process: Word thinking.
III John 1 states, “Beloved, I wish above all things that you will prosper and be in health, even as your soul prospers.” The success of your life is based on the prosperity of your soul—that is, your mind, will and emotions.
You will be as you think. Proverbs 23:7 says, “As [a man] thinks in his heart, so is he.” If you think you’re going struggle all your life, you probably will. If you think you’re going to break out of this situation, then you’ll break out of it.
Consider how you think. Do you have a lack mentality? A poverty mentality? A sickness mentality? A mentality of defeat? You’ve got to look at your thinking and what influences your thinking, because everything that’s going on in your life can be traced back to how you think.
Step 3: Your Emotions
The Word of God will lead you to start thinking thoughts that are in line with the Word. And thinking that lines up with the Word will produce emotions that line up with the Word.
God gave us emotions. They are a gift. Jesus had emotions. The Bible says He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). It is fine to have emotions…but we must make sure that emotions never have us.
Emotions are feelings caused by pain or pleasure that will direct you or move you in a direction. God has given you emotions. If you don’t learn how to control them, they will move you to places you don’t need to go.
If the devil’s going to move you out of the will of God where success is concerned, then he’s going to do it by enticing your emotions. He tried to do that with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus was sweating blood because He was “deeply distressed” (Mark 14:33). He was resisting, not allowing His emotions to take charge.
As Jesus resisted, the King James Version says He “went forward” (verse 35) and kept praying. When your emotions try to move you out of God’s will, do like Jesus and keep moving forward. Keep doing God’s will, regardless of how you feel.
You have authority over your emotions.
Step 4: Your Decisions
It’s extremely important that we understand how to take charge of our emotions because how we feel will determine the next step in this process: the decisions we make.
Life is a series of decisions. Every day you wake up, you make a decision. According to Deuteronomy 30:19, you’re a free moral agent. You can choose life or death, blessing or cursing. And when you make decisions in line with the will of God, heaven will back you up.
Look what happened when Jairus made a decision and interrupted Jesus’ plans in Mark 5:21-23: Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake, where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue, whose name was Jairus, arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him. “My little daughter is dying,” he said. “Please come and lay your hands on her; heal her so she can live.”
Now, look at what Jesus did in verse 24: “Jesus went with him.”
Did you get that? Jesus stepped off the boat, ready to accomplish the will of God for His life. But when Jairus interrupted Him, Jesus turned and went with him.
Then in verse 28, right in the middle of this situation, a woman with an issue of blood arrived. She had made a decision, too: “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.” Jesus stopped and healed her right there on the spot. Shortly after that, Jairus’ daughter was healed, too.
In both circumstances, Jesus was doing one thing when He was directed elsewhere. When you make a decision that lines up with His will, He will stop, turn and show up at your house to remove burdens and destroy yokes. That’s how powerful a decision is!
You’re destined to live an Livestong life. You’re destined to be healed, to be at peace, to be a success. You’re destined to be happy. You’re destined to be sound. That’s what you were born to enter into. But not at the cost of your Integrity and Character.
You can make the argument that Lance Armstrong is innocent and is free from all allegations. However he had to compromise something in order for his name to mentioned in these allegations. Guilty by association??
Tomorrow I will be posting the final 4 Steps, so Today: make the conscious decision to spend time in the Word and allow the Word of God to govern your thinking process. This will then help you control your emotions and make the wise choices that will position you for success
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