Tag: Positive Lady

Does Worry Cloud your Thinking?

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“Worry is like a fog,” says A. Purnell Bailey. He goes on the write:

“The Bureau of Standards in Washington tells us that a dense fog covering 7 city blocks, 100 feet deep, is comprised of something less than one glass of water. That amount of water is divided into some 60,000,000 tiny drops. Not much there! Yet when these minute particles settle down over the city or countryside, they can blot out practically all vision. A cup full of worry does just about the same thing. The tiny drops of fretfulness close around our thoughts, and we are submerged without vision.”*

Worry is an anxious and fretful state of mind built on assumptions about what could happen in a given situation. On the other hand, responsibility is a healthy concern about circumstances or situations that leads to positive steps of action. Responsibility and careful planning grow into anxiety when fear dominates our thoughts. As we face fresh challenges in our life, we have the opportunity to decide whether we will walk in wisdom or drown in a sea of anxiety.

Consider Jesus’ words about worry in his famous Sermon on the Mount: “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need. So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today (Matthew 6:31-34).”

Notice Jesus described worry as “dominating the thoughts of unbelievers.” As followers of Christ, we have a different option than to allow worry to take over our hearts and minds. We can seek God and look to Him for our provision. We can also recognize that although we may make our plans, the final result is up to our loving God. When we face difficult times, the difference between those who follow Christ and those who don’t know Him is the opportunity to experience a peace and comfort in trusting a loving God. Hmm . . . do you think the world sees an evidence of our trust in God? Or does the world see us dominated by our fears, just like everyone else?

Prayer: May my love for Jesus and a realization of His unfailing love for me, dominate my thoughts today and push away fear and worry.

A portion of this blog is an excerpt from Thrive, Don’t Simply Survive. Click the picture below to order your copy.

 

580492: Thrive, Don"t Simply Survive: Passionately Living the Life You Didn"t Plan Thrive, Don’t Simply Survive: Passionately Living the Life You Didn’t Plan

*Believe you Can, by John Mason, p 148.

He is Joyful

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 “You are my dearly loved Son, and you bring me great joy.”  Luke 3:22 NLT

  Do you ever think of God as joyful?  I know we recognize Him as holy, majestic, loving and powerful, but joyful? Yet the Bible tells us that one of the fruits of His Spirit is joy.  We are reminded in Psalms that He delights in the details of our lives. Zephaniah prophesied that God would take delight in His people with gladness and rejoice over them with joyful songs.  Nehemiah encouraged God’s people by telling them, “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Yes, God is a God of joy and He encourages us to be joyful too. His joy can be our strength.  Throughout scripture we are reminded to rejoice in the Lord.  As we turn our eyes toward our joyful Father and recognize His love, care and provision, we too can rejoice! We may not find our joy in circumstances or in people, but we can find our joy in the Lord. Rejoice in the God of joy as you walk through your week this week!

This is an excerpt from my devotional, Pursuing God in the Quiet Places. Click Here for more info on purchasing a signed copy.

 

Memorizing Scripture – You Can Do It

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What could be more powerful than equipping your brain with the lasting truths of the Bible? Sadly, we often become discouraged and give up, thinking we just can’t memorize things anymore. I’m here to tell you – don’t give up! You can do it! And what a life-changer it is to know and speak God’s rich truth from the wellspring of your heart and mind.  I use the DART method to help me memorize.

“D” stands for deliberate. Make a decision that you are going to memorize scripture and be deliberate and diligent to do it. Just as you may determine to reach certain goals in your life, you can also determine in your heart that memorizing scripture is a worthy goal and press on to accomplish it.

“A” stands for accountability. Ask at least one person to be your accountability partner. When you know someone is going to require you to say your verse or verses, it helps you stay on track and come through with your goals. You can ask a friend or your spouse, or consider forming a small scripture memory group to recite scripture together.

“R” stands for repetition. Reviewing and repeating the passage each day, helps to seal it into your brain. I typically review a passage for 21 days to make sure I really have it down, then I review it once a week to make sure I continue to keep it fresh. You will want to repeat the passage you are learning several times throughout your day. Print it out and put the verses in places where you will see it. This will spur your mind on to repeat them.

“T” stands for technique. There are many tricks and techniques to help you memorize verses, and you will need to discover what works best for you. I like to use silly pictures to help me remember the words of a passage. Here’s an example of how I draw pictures for a verse. This is Romans 12:3, “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.”

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Other techniques include singing the verse, acting it out, writing it over and over, speaking it aloud several times a day. Try several methods and see which one resonates with you.

God’s word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Just as a dart can penetrate into our skin, so the word of God penetrates our heart and changes our lives. Below you will find my latest video on Knowing Him through scripture memory, and remember – with God’s help you can do it!

Be Strong!

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from curt

Generally speaking most of us tend to enjoy the easier path in life rather than choosing to go down a rough or difficult road. But when we consider the great men and women who were used by God in the Bible, most of them walked the more challenging path.  Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Deborah, Esther, Ruth – each stepped forward in faith and courage despite the difficulties and perils they faced.

There are times in each of our lives when we are called, not to take it easy, but rather to be strong and courageous. As we see the moral and spiritual shift in our culture today, we may be facing new and different challenges as followers of Christ. This is the time when our roots must grow deep in our faith in Christ, and we need to grow strong in the knowledge of God’s Word.

It’s time to live lives of purpose and vision. We must speak the truth in love, knowing that no matter how loving we may be, some will misunderstand us and others may persecute us. Trust God to equip you and prepare you to speak wisely, serve lovingly and live courageously. Spend time each day in His Word so that you may know, love and depend on His transforming truth.

Be strong!

We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;

We have hard work to do, and loads to lift.

Shun not the struggle; face it.

It’s God’s gift.

 

Be strong!

Say not the days are evil – Who’s to blame?

Or fold your hands, as in defeat – O Shame!

Stand up, speak out, and bravely,

In God’s name.

 

Be strong!

It matters not how deep entrenched  the wrong,

How hard the battle goes, the day how long,

Faint not, fight on!

Tomorrow comes the song.  By Maltbie D. Babcock

Want to grow deeper in your understanding of God’s Word? Check out Becoming a Woman of the Word.   

Prescription for a Healthy Heart

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Above all else, guard your heart,
    for everything you do flows from it. Proverbs 4:23

Hoping to be a little more heart-healthy? When the Bible mentions our heart, it is essentially referring to the spiritual part about us where our emotions and desires reside. “Heart” is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible. Since our heart can easily be swayed, Scripture warns us to guard it because everything we do flows from it. In a practical sense, how do we do that? How do we keep our heart from being led down a dark path away from God?

Theologian Sinclair Ferguson offers this powerful prescription for guarding our heart.

First, I must guard my heart as if everything depended on it. This means that I should keep my heart like a sanctuary for the presence of the Lord Jesus.

Second, I must keep my heart healthy by proper diet, growing strong on a regular diet of God’s Word – reading it for myself and meditating on its truth, and being fed on it in the preaching of the Word.

Third, I must take regular spiritual exercise, since my heart will be strengthened by worship when my whole being is given over to God in expressions of love for and trust in Him.

Fourth, I must give myself to prayer in which my heart holds on to the promises of God, rests in His will, and asks for His sustaining grace – and do this not only on my own but with others so that we may encourage one another to maintain a heart for God.*

Finally, I would add that memorizing God’s Word helps us maintain a healthy heart. As the psalmist wrote, “I have hidden your Word in my heart that I might not sin against You.”

I want to have a strong and healthy heart, don’t you? Let’s commit to this life-long prescription.

Click Here for my latest book, Becoming a Woman of the Word.

*Adapted by Providence Presbyterian from Sinclair Ferguson’s Catechism of the Heart