Ep. 129 | Mindsets of Jesus Finale: Why Did God Create Life This Way?
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Why did God create life the way He did?
Why time? Why relationships? Why marriage, family, growth, and spiritual formation?
In this episode, Rob Dayton wraps up the 10-part Mindsets of Jesus series by revisiting the foundational beliefs that shape the way we think, live, and follow Christ.
From believing in Jesus and living as one led by Him to overcoming worry, embracing forgiveness, and living with an eternal perspective, Rob reflects on how these mindsets transform everyday life when they move beyond information and become hardwired beliefs.
He also introduces a powerful mindset that could have easily made the list: gratitude.
Drawing from personal experience, neuroscience, and health data, Rob explains why thankfulness may be one of the fastest ways to reinforce godly thinking and reshape the brain.
The episode concludes with a deeper reflection on why God designed life the way He did. Why time? Why relationships? Why marriage, family, and growth? Rob shares his conviction that the ultimate purpose behind it all is learning how to love like God.
If you've followed the Mindsets series or want a practical framework for growing in spiritual maturity, this episode offers both a helpful summary and a powerful challenge for what comes next.
You'll Hear
• A recap of the 10 Mindsets of Jesus
• Why following Jesus is the pathway to abundant life, not sacrifice
• How gratitude reinforces and accelerates spiritual growth
• The connection between thankfulness and physical well-being
• How to identify mindset shifts that strengthen your God-given responsibilities
• Why God designed life around the opportunity to learn love
• Practical ways to continue applying the Mindsets of Jesus in everyday life
Journal Prompts
• Holy Spirit, what mindset would most strengthen the role You've entrusted to me right now?
• What mindset would most accelerate my growth in this area and help me love more like Jesus?
Recommended Reading
📖 Heaven by Randy Alcorn
https://a.co/d/01GneSO6
📖 Imagine Heaven by John Burke
https://a.co/d/04hcwqr7
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Welcome to the 100X Life Podcast, where we activate people who desire to live the words of Jesus and experience the abundant life He promises. I'm your host, Rob Dayton, and I hope this podcast inspires you to put in the work of following Jesus.
Hey 100x lifers, welcome back to the podcast. I hope you had an amazing week. We are talking about mindsets. We've been focused on mindsets. We just finished 10 mindsets. And then I've got a little bit of just a just some coaching for you on the thankfulness mindset, which we haven't talked about. And then also why why are we doing all this? Why what what is God doing? Why did he
Why did he create life like this? I think the question of purpose is always going to help us track with the things that Jesus is trying to grow us in. And so I want to have some thoughts on that. Before I do, I want to set a shout-out for about 90 people who are doing the 100x life challenge. They're in the challenge right now. They started a summer challenge.
Really cool. We got three coaches. We got one in Bakersfield, we got two in Santa Barbara, and they're killing it. They're on week one, so shout out to them and go do it. Transform the way you think. The the 100xLife challenge is intentionally involving the physical. We're trying to say.
We're trying to position the body so that we say, no, body, you won't do this, or yes, body, you will do that. We're going to exercise the muscle of self-control in in our minds. I don't know if you saw the podcast on the on the ACCM, but like it's pretty crazy how God has designed the brain to actually flex the self-control muscle.
definitely something to be thinking about. But every time you position your mind to take authority over your body, which is your brain, that's when you're gonna be growing this ACCM portion of the brain. It actually physically grows with that resistance. And what's really interesting about what I recognize in my life after you know the the 60-day, two-day challenge is something that's kind of happening,
because I've just adopted all of those habits into my life. Now I need to habits that are more crazy or that are that my brain is totally not wanting to do. The the the best of which is since we moved to Bend, it turns out the water out of the tap is significantly colder than the water out of the tap in Santa Barbara. It is quite the chill. And so when when I'm getting in the shower and I do a cold shower in Bend,
My brain is like, no, don't do it, don't do it. You just do not get in that water. And so that's one of the that I'm in the gym, exercising the ACCM, growing that self-control muscle. That's what we want to do. So, guys who are doing it, I think there's some women involved in those three cohorts. well done. Let's go. You're at you're at the top. It's it's a long journey. It and
The journaling is completely worth it. So go get them. we have been talking about mindsets, and we've been kind of focused on the what are the mindsets of Jesus. Here's the kind of the list is to believe in the one God sent, which is Jesus. So just believing and understanding that Jesus, He's the focal point, He's the beginning of salvation. We invite Jesus into our lives. We begin to follow him, believing that Jesus is the Son of God.
Is a foundational mindset for life. And then living as though we are being led by Jesus. I hope that that one has really been captivated. you. It's certainly a 100xLife is that if we're followers of Jesus, we we need to recognize that He's going somewhere. So the mindset is, well, where are you going, Jesus? Because I'm gonna join you. I want to go where you're going, or why are you taking me here? Or what that you get in a situation where you're
Just kind of confounded with the circumstances. They sound pretty bad. Like maybe the enemy's winning. Okay, where are you taking me, Jesus? That's a great question. That's a great mindset. And then understanding that the words of Jesus are your freedom. Let me just camp on that a little bit because a lot of people think and believe that if I'm going to obey the words of Jesus, I've got to sacrifice. I've got to sacrifice in order not to sin.
I've got sacrifice in order to follow Jesus. And I want to point out that that is not the right mindset. If you have a sacrificial mindset where you're having to sacrifice things to follow Jesus, that's a great indication of poor thinking. Let me let me let me give you the argument here. Because let's let's start with Jesus. For for the joy set before him, he endured the cross. What was the joy set before him? That was you.
You are the joy. It's all of us. And the prize was completely worth it. In other words, you know, going to Paul's metaphor of we're running a race and we wanna we wanna win the prize at the end. Jesus won the prize. so the cross, was it a sacrifice? I think it was definitely payment. Was it worth it? A hundred percent worth it. Was it was it, did Jesus gain? Did he win? Did he did he triumph in it?
Absolutely. So instead of thinking s of sacrifice as something that you're foregoing the better, think of following Jesus is foregoing to get the best for yourself. It's kind of a selfish thought. A lot of people have trouble with that. I think that Jesus is actually cre He created our desires. So he's fine with our desires. He just says, Hey, if you want to be the greatest, you know, be the servant of all. Or
To to give better than to receive. Like he's he's appealing to our self-interest. So when we follow Jesus and the words of Jesus specifically, we need to think about that it's not a sacrifice to do the things, force the body to do the things that are Jesus following behaviors. That is actually for your abundant life. That is actually for your eternal rewards. You are getting a benefit out of that. So instead of sacrifice,
Maybe think of it as payment for a better life or a route to a better life. That would be helpful. I'm the dwelling place of was the fourth mindset of Jesus that he actually believed that he was the Son and that He was He was in God and God was in him. There's a dwelling happening in that, and that definitely played into everything he did on planet Earth. So adapting that for us.
Jesus actually prepared a place for us. That place is in the Father's house. We are actually living in the Father's house, and the Father is dwelling in us. And having that recognition and way of thinking, wiring that into the brain will get you automatic behavior identity, identity in who you are. You don't have to prove anything, you already are God's son.
You are, and I include that for women, you are God's son, just like men, you're the bride of Christ. So we're in him. He is in us. That changes everything when we think that way. Then next, the image bearer mindset. I think a lot of people report back to me that this one is the most helpful.
At least in dealing with people in your day-to-day. If I can see the person who just cut me off as an image bearer of God, if I can see the person who's angry at me, who or stole from me as an image bearer of God, and and an image bearer who has a brain that's confused about what's the best for them and the best for everyone else. So just treating people as image bearers changes how you treat people. That's an incredible mindset. I'm a servant to all.
It's another one of the Jesus mindsets. He just became a servant to all. you know, I in the upper room. so cool how he's setting the stage. he washes the feet. He washes the feet because he wants to position and and communicate to his followers that he is a servant foremost. This this act of going to the cross is being a servant. It's actually being in favor of you.
And so he says, hey, now that you've seen me do this, do the same. Be a servant to all. That is true greatness. Unforgiveness is a spiritual cancer. I hope that one was working for you. any kind of forgiveness is gonna be so powerful. If you have a forgiveness mindset, you think that forgiveness is utmost the best thing for you, that's gonna be powerful for you. And then worry is faith in the enemy. I hope that one transformed the way you think. We cannot worry. We have to see worry is.
Is feeding the enemy, feeding the enemy with power. We can't worry. If if God is working all things together for good, which is the next mindset, why would we worry? If it's not good yet, He's not done. All these things, why do we keep hammering on all these mindsets? Because if we get these mindsets hardwired into our brains, if we automatically think with these behaviors, we are gonna be on fire. We are gonna be the light of the world. Actually.
I I propose you're the light of the world either way. You've got God dwelling in you. You're light, you're the light of the world. I believe the church is actually leading the entire world. The question is, how is the church behaving? How are you behaving? Have you sanctification? Sanctification meaning that you're you've not just decided with your consciousness
Consciousness that you're going to follow Jesus, you've actually hardwired in your brain and you have a natural inclination to faith or to do love, the behaviors of love. That's when the light of the world becomes a true leader into the heavenlies, into leading the world into truth. That's what we want. Final mindset was eternity is my reality. If you can get an eternal mindset, wow, you you have changed, shifted so much. And that was one we were working on this week. How did you do?
How do you feel like you've done? Do you feel an eternal mindset starting to be reprogrammed into your brain that we are living this day for eternity? That this life is not the end. This life is just a small portion of the entire journey. So good, so powerful. And so I hope that these mindsets are working with you just a little bit on the thankfulness mindset.
You know, thankfulness mindset could easily have been one of the mindsets of Jesus. Maybe it will be for the book I'm writing. Thankfulness, if you have a thankfulness mindset, it is gonna be so powerful for everything in you. That all your physiology, I you know, a lot of you know that I do whoop, which is a it's whoop, it's a it's a heart monitor, you know, just does exactly what
A lot of the ones that are dude out there does the same thing as Aura or Apple Watch, which I have both, or Fitbit. The thing that makes it stand out, whoop makes it stand out, is that we're all journaling what happened yesterday. So when we wake up in the morning, we get prompted for a journal and we get a pick items up to two thousand, because I don't do that would take all morning, but two thousand, you you have a menu of options. One of the options that I've chosen
Over the last three years that I've been w wearing whoop is gratitude. was yesterday filled with gratitude? And I checked the box yes. Here's when I checked the box yes, is when I recall yesterday, I'm looking back at yesterday, and there were at least three moments where I was just immersed in gratitude or thankfulness for just about anything.
Any kind of gratefulness and a in an immersion for me means I'm just sitting in going,
I have it so incredibly good. You know, some examples with Nancy. my gosh, the most beautiful woman on planet earth. I am so thankful. I can't believe I get to be married to this woman. Thank you, Jesus. for our existence in Bend. And just thinking, this town is so amazing. Thank you, Jesus, for bringing us to this town.
Thank you for this beauty. Thank you for this forest. Thank you for these mountains covered with snow. I just this deep abiding thankfulness. If that if I can recognize that yesterday, that happened three times, I check that box. And what's interesting about Whoop is that the reason we're journaling and checking, what we did yesterday is we're trying to discern how is that impacting our heart recovery? How is that actually connecting with the signals?
Of our heart. It's not just heart rate, it's actually heart rate variability as well. Heart rate rate variability, the higher it is, determines our relationship in our vagus nerve. parasympathetic, sympathetic, I'm getting a little bit technical here, but essentially how your nervous system is operating. It's the health of your nervous system. So when you have a high HRV heart rate variable, you're way more prepared for any.
Distress that might happen to life. You're going to handle stress better. You're going to, your body is going to communicate with itself internally. Its neural network is going to be more healthy. Everything is going to be more healthy with your HRV high. Here's what I have discovered over three years: that my number one upgrade in HRV, heart rate variability and health, heart recovery from yesterday to today
gratefulness is responsible for that increase. I have the highest increase. The thing that works best for my heart health, addition to exercise, is gratefulness. Isn't that amazing? We're actually measuring the things of God and thinking thankfulness is actually coming across in the way our heart beats, in the way our nerves connect with each other. The gratefulness is possible.
Powerful to transform your mind, your body. It is the pathway, it is the vehicle into new mindsets. In other words, when you practice a thankful mindset, let's just kind of go back to our 10 mindsets that we've been working on in the last 10 weeks. Believing in the one God sent, Jesus, if you exercise thankfulness, thankfulness for Jesus, and you're just meditating, meditation is simply.
a period of focused thought on wow, I am so thankful for you, Jesus, that you are the son of God. Then that's gonna help you. It actually helps you more rapidly rewire your brain, you rewire your neural network to actually believe in Jesus is the one God sent. living is one led by Jesus. Thank you for leading me. Like you you just just rest in the thankfulness that.
That God cares enough to actually lead you through every single moment of your day, that He's guiding you and that you get to follow and expressing thankfulness. Thankfulness for the words of Jesus and holding them in high regard, exercising thankfulness. I could go through them all. thank you that I get to be the servant of all. I mean, that that will switch your brain, that will rewire your brain so fast if you are.
I get to be a servant, and that and servanthood is the pathway to my greatness. Jesus, thank you so much. That is amazing. You are you are truly the upside down from this world. You are your kingdom is so much greater because it indulges in servanthood. Thank you that I get to be a servant. Thank you that I got to serve that person yesterday. it's so powerful. Thank you that I'm free from unforgiveness.
Thank you that I don't have to worry. All this these things. Thank you that all things are working together for my good. Thank you for eternity. So I just, you know, I'm rapid firing the list. I don't want to dwell on it, but you get the point. If I have a mindset of thankfulness, being grateful, you see somebody, they give you something, they give you a smile. I'm grateful for your smile. They they give you your attention. Thank you for that. They they serve you.
Thank you so much for serving you, like a waitress or someone at a cashier's checks, all these people were exchanged. They're all constantly serving us. How is your thankfulness for people? Thank you that you have put your face on that person, that they are created in the image of God. The more you dwell on thankfulness, it is a rapid way of adapting any mindset. So I want you to think about as we're kind of finishing this.
10 part series on mindsets, the mindsets of Jesus that I'm proposing, and still really working on them and working it through what those exactly are. Think about how you can refine those into any one thing. For example, with your kids. If you have kids, how do you take the mindsets of Jesus and amplify them to benefit your role as a mother?
Or a father. is the perfect Jesus mindset in how you see your kids or how you see your spouse? Because remember, what when we in this comes from the master's program, we have 10 commitments: body, mind, soul, spirit. Only you are responsible for those four things. And then you are a husband or a wife. If you're married, you're a father or a mother, you're a worker,
and then also you're a steward of everything God's given you so those four roles you're the only one responsible for that God has given them to you and then finally what is your role in the body of Christ what is your role in the world what what is what does Jesus create you for those 10 things body mind soul spirit spouse parent worker steward
roll to the church, roll to the world, those 10 things, they all can have a mindset that makes your role better. So something to think about, something to journal about is just just pick one and then ask Holy Spirit, what is the mindset that is most appropriate in this circumstance? I'll give you one of my examples for Nancy. The mindset that is that works best for me in my marriage is that Nancy is the most beautiful woman.
She's the most beautiful woman on planet Earth. That's what I'm choosing to That's what helps me love her in a way where I walk in it deeply and I don't hesitate, that I don't get frustrated, or I'm less likely to get frustrated when I feel like I'm being hurt by her, which you know, we're hurt, but we're hurt the most by the people that we love the most. So that's very logical that people who we love the most are most likely to hurt us.
And then if I see her as the most beautiful woman in the world, that somehow for me really helps me mitigate those times. it keeps me focused on her, it keeps my imaginations focused on her. When I'm away from her, and again, thankfulness, I'm being so thankful that God gave me the most beautiful woman in the world. and and so every single day I'm looking at her face and refining that.
That mindset, that is what's really working well for my marriage. That is what's taking my marriage to something that I would say is an example for others to follow. So for you, think about in the 10 areas, what what pick one? Okay, I want to work on parenting, or I want to work on stewardship of what God, everything, God owns it all. And I'm just stewarding, or I want to work on my spirit.
I want to have a mindset that really engages with my spirit. And then ask Holy Spirit, what is the mindset that I need that's going to really help me in that responsibility? What's the one that's going to accelerate, that's going to be exponential, it's going to be nuclear in and transforming the way I show up and behave. So those are your journal prompts. Look for those. And then I just want to close with just a broader thought.
This is a this is the kind of the purpose. Wha why did why did God design life the way he did? I've been thinking deeply about this. Wha why? In fact, well, let me tell you about that. I I had this crazy download this week on because I asked the father why I asked actually I asked Jesus, why the triune being? Because I'm really
Really pouring into and thinking about this deeply, I feel like if we understood as Jesus followers, the his kids, if we understood the triune being really, really well, then we would work with our spirit, soul, and body more effectively. 100xLife is is proposing this. Hey, your body and your soul, which your mind is in your soul, they're totally separate. They're so they're separate things. And you can decide to follow Jesus with your mind. But if you haven't decided with your body, your brain.
It's gonna be like a Roman seven thing. You're just gonna keep doing the thing you didn't want to do, and and the thing you didn't want to do, you do. we don't wanna be trapped. That's the hundred X life theory or philosophy on the triune being. And then there's the spirit connection, which I've really been focused on. Here's the question I asked Jesus is what is the purpose? Why did you create a triune being? And the answer, guys, this blew me away. It just it was startling.
The whole reason for the triune being is this is what I heard. You you you verify it with the Holy Spirit in your heart, is for the exercise of love.
What he told me is the exercise of love that this whole triune being set up is all about love. That is what God is after. That's why He created this whole life. The purpose of the invention of time, when you think about it, is pretty crazy. Why the invention of time for the purpose of love is such a beautiful answer. If you're going to create beings that have choice, and those beings have choice and they can choose to love God.
Which would be moving in love, or they can choose to resist or reject God, which would be moving into fear away from God. think about the demons, which were angels. They were created and they were created outside of time. And then when Lucifer decided, hey, I'm I I'm not going to be in favor of this love thing with God, he was out. He was cast out. He is now separate. For us, we have this.
Get out of hell free card? I don't know. We've got time. We're in the invention of time. And then that gives us the bandwidth to say no to God as as as people created in the image of God. God's after people who will love him. Love is only born out of free will. We have to dis we have to be able to not love in order to love. That is that is the way
Love is created. You can't make someone love you and call that love. That's just not how it works. God had to make us so that we could choose not to love him. And then we choose not to love him. And then we fall into this thing that is is short of the glory of God. And then Jesus dies on a cross and says, okay, look, you now can just exercise, you can follow me and you can choose to learn how to love.
The purpose of time is to give us the runway to learn how to love. Unbelievable. You think about the purpose of marriage. The purpose of marriage. Why did you create this thing? And there's no marriage in heaven. The marriage is the unity between us and But there is in this time-bound existence. Why? Why did you do this? Well, the thing that I've discovered is for love. It's actually to learn how to love like God.
your spouse is the one that knows the most about you and still stays committed to you. They're they're the people that, like we just said, are gonna hurt you the most. my gosh, it is a field day, it is a gym of love. Marriage is a way that we can constantly be exercising and gaining the ground and the ability to love. what's the purpose of kids?
Purpose of kids. I mean, how many of you who have had children, had children, and then like, I get unconditional love now? Like I really understand that. Like until you have kids, it's almost like you don't understand God. It's really interesting. So, you know, for those of you who can't have kids or are not going to have kids, I invite you into just imagining, imagining what that would be like to get that mindset. Don't miss out on that.
And the so this purpose is to actually bring us into this space where you look at a person, and this happened with Jed and Kendra. I'm looking at them like, man, I I love them. I love them like no one else. Why is that? Because they because we watched creation and we watched maybe how God works in a way that's very personal. All of a sudden we we kind of get love at a deeper level or maybe another perspective of love. So
Where I'm going with this, all these mindsets of Jesus, all the words of Jesus are simply to indulge in love. The purpose of life, the purpose of the invention of time, the purpose of the triune being, they're all this invitation into love and becoming like him. I I love that in Paul's ⁓ when he says, We're now we see dimly as through a distorted mirror, but when we see him,
We will notice that we are like him. And he's referring to Jesus. And in this life, we don't get to fully taste. It's not as real as we talked about last week. It's not as real as eternity. And in outside of time, it's super real. That's what people report who've been to heaven and then come back is that wow, heaven's real and earth is this distorted thing. We have this opportunity in this limited time, time bound to.
Exercise and to grow in our ability to love and to actually be in union with a full decision. We it's all our decision. We get to decide whether we're going to love or not. And every single moment of every day, these mindsets, these words of Jesus, behaviors of love, as I like to call them, are inviting us in of.
Of exercising love, because where we're becoming most like God. Yes, we have the triumph being is is created in the image of God, and then we get to exercise by our choice the thing that he's looking for is love, and we get to exercise love. That's why we're talking about this. This is why we go to church, hopefully. This is why we're talking about mindsets, this is why we read the scriptures, is to
Be more capable, increase our capability of love. And let me tell you, friend, you have the capability of an expansive love. And I hope this process of 100x life, 100x mindsets are bringing you to that place, that glorious glorious thought of love, and becoming more capable. Even today, as you go through your day and you're listening to this, you're noticing.
All the opportunities for love and exercising what God has given us that right, that privilege to choose love in any moment of any day. Guys, it's been great to be with you next week on the podcast. We're gonna be talking with Daniel Girdler and Chad Erlinborn. We're just gonna have a conversation about just a reflection of the mindsets and where we're going. I I know you'll enjoy that. So we'll see you next week for that. And until then, have a wonderful week.
