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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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You’ve Tried It Your Way???

In this thing we do called life, we all need someone we can trust. And most all of us have lived our lives long enough to have trusted and had that trust broken. Once trust is broken, it is hard to ever give it again to anyone, so we just sort of mettle through doing the best that we can. The problem with that approach to life is that we were created for relationship and we can’t really have a growing and meaningful relationship without trust. In other words: To get the most out of this life, we have got to trust someone!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” -John 3:16

God loves you and He created you for relationship. The purpose of the relationship is so that God can bless you and you can glorify God. We glorify God by trusting Him. We trust Him by receiving His blessings and we glorify Him by sharing those blessing with one another. We can call it whatever we want to: “trust/faith/belief”, but regardless of what we call it, the results are the same, it allows the stuff of God to flow to us and through us…

If Not God, Then Who?

I hate to say it, but others don’t have your best interest at heart and even if they do, they can’t even get themselves to where they need to be. There is an old saying that “Misery loves company!” Others don’t really want you to be blessed and succeed, because then they would have to feel bad because they are not being blessed and succeeding. The truth is: We can all be blessed and succeed, but someone has to be willing to trust God and start the process.

You’ve Tried It Your Way!

You’ve tried and failed, so when are you going to learn? If we will take a moment to get still, quiet and look into ourselves, we will know that we can’t, but God can and has and will if we will just trust/believe/have faith in Him. We know our ways don’t work, so let’s honestly and wholeheartedly give God’s way a try!

God has always been the way, is the way and will be the way! The Bible teaches that He is the same yesterday, today and forever. I challenge you to trust Him in all things, not just some things and watch your life line up with His blessings and before you know it – you will be blessing others for His glory…

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The Purpose Of Pain!

In my life, I have had my fair share of pain. Live long enough and you will have more than your fair share as well. Pain is just a part of life and it comes and goes as it pleases, sometimes with a very direct purpose and sometimes, who knows?

Pain, heartache, frustration, disappointment, whatever you would like to call it, comes in all shapes and sizes and from all directions. As I age in this life, one of the things that I think this life is teaching me is that pain always has a purpose.

Sometimes it’s purpose is to act as a warning light that something is wrong and needs to be fixed. Other times, pain is a consequence of a bad or wrong choice or choices we have made. There are times when we are not sure what or why the pain is there, causing us to ask the question: “Why Me?”

When we read the Scriptures, it becomes clear that pain has a purpose and for whatever reason that it has come into our lives, there is great reward and blessing as we learn to handle it in the right way.

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

Below are three things I am learning about the purpose of pain and the benefits of dealing with it…

Pain Always Has A Purpose!

1.) Don’t waste your pain, if you have to endure it, then grow from it! The Scriptures teach that “tribulation worketh patience”. The way we grow from pain is to not get frustrated by it, distracted because of it, but instead focused in spite of it or maybe because of it. Pain has a way of getting our attention and the key is making sure that our attention is focused in the right direction. Next time you find yourself dealing with pain – ask yourself what is this pain trying to teach me?

2.) Painful things teach us things we didn’t know we needed to know! The Scriptures teach that as “tribulation worketh patience, the patience is giving us experience…” In other words we are learning something, if we are paying attention. It would be a terrible waste to have to endure pain and miss the lesson that it has come to teach us. Looking back on my life, pain has taught me many things: It has taught me that what does not kill you, makes you stronger. It has taught me that sometimes I am wrong, make bad choices and choices have consequences. It has taught me that the world can be cruel, but God is always good. It has taught me that no matter what that God will use even the bad for my good as I love and trust Him…

3.) The key to getting through it, is learning from it and moving on! Most people hate their pain and want to get rid of it, but then are often unwilling to let it go. The Scriptures teach that the “tribulation worketh patience and the patience gives us experience and the experience grows into hope…” Looking back on my life and seeing where I am today, one thing is abundantly clear: The pain, tribulation, frustration, disappointments and frustrations of life have all worked together to bring me to an amazing place of blessing.

Pain is a part of life, learn from it and GROW on!