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happiness, joy, personal growth, positive, Problems, scripture, self help, self improvement, spiritual enlightenment, Spititual Development, Values, vision

Take A Joy Pill And Call Me In The Morning!

We live in some of the most uncertain times that we have ever lived in. We have no idea what the economy is going to do? There is the continual threat of another pandemic and the same ole, same ole, general stress of working hard everyday and paying bills.

It is very easy to get distracted by all that is wrong and miss out on what is right. And if we stop to think about it for just a minute, there is a lot that is right. We need to be careful not to miss the joy of today, because we won’t let go of yesterday or because we are worried about tomorrow.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:4-7

Anxiousness has a way of eating up our minutes and before we know it, we’ve lost hours and then, if we are not careful we have wasted another day. The best way I know to not waste a moment is to be grateful for it. I have found that gratitude creates a space and place where the “joy of the Lord is my strength!”

The Anxiousness Antidote Is Joy!

In Philippians 4:4 we are told to “Rejoice in the Lord always” which means that we are to have joy in the good and the bad, in the ups and the downs of life. We have joy not because everything is going the way we want it to, but because we have a relationship with the One, Who created us and we know that He uses all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

The Scriptures goes on to say: “Again I will say, REJOICE!” It’s Repeated For A Reason and the reason is that we often need reminding to shift gears and pull out of misery and heartbreak and pull into blessing and favor.

We don’t need to deny our feelings. It’s okay to feel your feelings. In fact, I believe it is very necessary to feel them. I think it is very important to feel them and process them, learn from them, grow from them and then move beyond them to the something better that we were created for. We need to process our feelings in light of the relationship we have with God our Creator. In other words: I feel what I feel, but God loves me and has a plan to bless my life, so I have the power to choose what I focus on, so I feel it and move onto the something better I was created for.

There are times when it seems that nothing is working right. We can’t ignore these times and hope they will go away. Instead, we need to acknowledge that circumstances aren’t good, but God is. When we take the time to make this acknowledgement, we are shifting physical, mental and spiritual gears and we cant help but to be filled with hope and blessing over worry and despair!

It really is just as simple as praying about it! When we pray about everything with Thanksgiving and bring our cares, concerns, worries and anxieties to God, we experience His comfort and peace, a peace that transcends all comprehension. We can’t explain it, just experience it, but experience is more than enough.

As a little boy growing up in Church, one of my favorite hymns that we sang was “What A Friend We Have In Jesus!” It went like this:

“What a friend we have in Jesus, All our sins and griefs to bear.

What a privilege to carry, Everything to God in prayer.

Oh, what peace we often forfeit, Oh, what needless pain we bear.

All because we do not carry, Everything to God in prayer…”

Give it to God, get your joy and love every minute of it! ><>

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Learning From Our Limitations!

The older I get, the more I realize that there is still so much for me to learn. The more I truly learn, the more I begin to understand that there is so much that I just don’t know and a lot of it, I can’t know, because I don’t need to know. I just need to make sure that I know the One that does know.

One of the great lessons that life is teaching me is that I have a limited perspective. When we really start to understand this truth, it takes a lot of the pressure off of our having to have everything figured out. There is much in this life that we will never figure out and that is okay. I believe that anything that we don’t know that we need to know, God will explain to us one day and if He doesn’t explain it to us, then we obviously didn’t need to know it and shouldn’t worry about it.

Not only is it important for me to remember that I have a limited perspective, but it is also important to remember that we all see and understand life from our “LIMITED” perspective and this is why we should be extra careful to give and receive GRACE.

8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. 9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts higher than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8-9

It is possible for us all to see the same thing and have entirely different opinions about it, based on OUR perspective. So the next time you get ready to judge someone else, you might want to consider their perspective. Next time you think you are right and everyone else is wrong, you might want to consider that things might not be that simple and take a moment to consider the other person’s PERSPECTIVE.

Then story is told of three blind men heard that a strange new animal, called an elephant, had arrived in their town. None of the men knew anything about the shape, size or appearance of an elephant so they decided to approach it and use their hands to get a better picture exactly what an elephant is like. The first man felt the trunk and declared that an elephant was round and long like a snake. The second man touched the elephant’s tusk and announced that the strange animal was smooth and sharp like a spear. The third man felt the elephant’s leg and determined that elephants were thick and curved like a tree trunk.

All of the men described the elephant from their perspective and each man was right, while each man thought the other men were wrong. How often in life to we get screwed up by our limited perspective???

Remember You Have A Limited Perspective!

It is important to remember that we have a limited perspective and can only see and know so much. This is why a relationship with our Creator is so important, because God sees the whole picture. God sees the whole picture, because He is the one that made it! When you don’t understand or life doesn’t make sense, look to the one, Who created it and let Him help you make sense out of the senseless.

Our Limited Perspective, Our Hopes And Fears Become Our Measure Of Life, And When Circumstances Don’t Fit Our Ideas, They Become Our Difficulties.” — Benjamin Franklin

They say that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Many of us live our life on a reoccurring loop of insanity and a big part of the problem is that we allow ourselves to be influenced, manipulated and motivated by our limited perspective, thinking that we know it all. We don’t know it all and that is why nothing changes. Some things in life are not going to change, until we change and we are not going to change until we get a different perspective. Ask God to open your eyes and help you see things as they really are from His vantage point.

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Above My Pay Grade!

I remember in college working with a guy and anytime he would encounter something that negative, to much of a challenge or going to be overly frustrating, he would simply respond: “That is above my pay grade!” It was his way of saying: “They don’t pay me enough money to deal with those kinds of issues, they belong to the higher ups!” The thing that was really cool about this guy is that he did not let anything rattle his cage or get him shook up. He really rolled with the punches and made the best of most every situation that ever came his way.

So many times in my life, I have wished that I could be more like that, but I have always told myself that I just care way too much. The truth is: I have often cared about the wrong things and have ended up way above my pay grade, which just ended up costing me even more.

Life has this way of throwing us curve balls. Truth be told: Life has a way of beaming us up side the head with the ball. When life gets to be more than we can handle or more than we signed up for, we don’t need to sweat it. We just need to admit to ourselves and everyone else:
That’s above my pay grade!” There is no shame in being honest, real and down to earth when it comes to things that are bigger than we are.

One of my favorite quotes is: “Don’t Tell God How Big Your Storm Is, Instead Tell Your Storm How Big Your God Is!” This is another way of saying that some things are above our pay grade, but we know the ONE Who can take care of it. We have been given amazing power and whatever comes our way that we do not have the power to take on and handle, God is willing to take on and handle for us, if we will get out of His way and trust Him.

We are trying to learn about our power and how to use it! We have each been born with amazing, incredible and supernatural power. Power that had the ability to open closed doors, move mountains and produce miracles, but we have to believe and if we really do believe then our life of faith will make the impossible, possible through Jesus.

3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; 4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope: 5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. -Romans 5:3-5

We are learning that much of what we worry about is a waste! This is why we should not waste our energy and time worrying, but instead on trusting in God’s power and strength. Look back on your life and you will discover that most of the times you wasted time worrying was spent on things that you never ever really needed to worry about.

We are hopefully understanding the greater purposes to the challenges that God ALLOWS to come our way. God allows troubles and tribulations to come into our life to help us learn patience and trust in Him. As we begin to practice patience, we will discover that much of what happens to us is trying to change and grow something inside of us. The more we learn this most basic of lessons through the experiences of the ups and downs of life, the more we learn that so many times we deceive ourselves and rob ourselves of greater blessing than we could dream or imagine.

Next time there is something you can’t handle or shouldn’t handle, just admit that it is above your pay grade and trust the Master to take care of the rest…