Like Job pray for those who have hurt you and forgive them Job42:10. No matter what you are going through God still has the same good plan for you right now that He had the moment you were born. He has never changed His mind. From the instant the enemy attack you, God has had your restoration in mind.
Stop spending time with the wrong people.
Life is too short to spend time with people who suck the happiness out of you. If someone wants you in their life, they’ll make room for you. You shouldn’t have to fight for a spot. Never, ever insist yourself to someone who continuously overlooks your worth. And remember, it’s not the people that stand by your side when you’re at your best, but the ones who stand beside you when you’re at your worst that are your true friends. Stop running from your problems. Face them head on. No, it won’t be easy. There is no person in the world capable of flawlessly handling every punch thrown at them. We aren’t supposed to be able to instantly solve problems. That’s not how we’re made. In fact, we’re made to get upset, sad, hurt, stumble and fall. Because that’s the whole purpose of living – to face problems, learn, adapt, and solve them over the course of time. This is what ultimately molds us into the person we become. Stop lying to yourself. You can lie to anyone else in the world, but you can’t lie to yourself. Our lives improve only when we take chances, and the first and most difficult chance we can take is to be honest with ourselves. Read The Road Less Traveled. Stop putting your own needs on the back burner. The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too. Yes, help others; but help yourself too. If there was ever a moment to follow your passion and do something that matters to you, that moment is now. Stop trying to be someone you’re not. One of the greatest challenges in life is being yourself in a world that’s trying to make you like everyone else. Someone will always be prettier, someone will always be smarter, someone will always be younger, but they will never be you. Don’t change so people will like you. Be yourself and the right people will love the real you. Stop trying to hold onto the past. You can’t start the next chapter of your life if you keep re-reading your last one. Stop being scared to make a mistake. Doing something and getting it wrong is at least ten times more productive than doing nothing. Every success has a trail of failures behind it, and every failure is leading towards success. You end up regretting the things you did NOT do far more than the things you did. Stop berating yourself for old mistakes. We may love the wrong person and cry about the wrong things, but no matter how things go wrong, one thing is for sure, mistakes help us find the person and things that are right for us. We all make mistakes, have struggles, and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here NOW with the power to shape your day and your future. Every single thing that has ever happened in your life is preparing you for a moment that is yet to come. Stop trying to buy happiness. Many of the things we desire are expensive. But the truth is, the things that really satisfy us are totally free – love, laughter and working on our passions. Stop exclusively looking to others for happiness. If you’re not happy with who you are on the inside, you won’t be happy in a long-term relationship with anyone else either. You have to create stability in your own life first before you can share it with someone else. Read Stumbling on Happiness. Stop being idle. Don’t think too much or you’ll create a problem that wasn’t even there in the first place. Evaluate situations and take decisive action. You cannot change what you refuse to confront. Making progress involves risk. Period! You can’t make it to second base with your foot on first. Stop thinking you’re not ready. Nobody ever feels 100% ready when an opportunity arises. Because most great opportunities in life force us to grow beyond our comfort zones, which means we won’t feel totally comfortable at first. Stop getting involved in relationships for the wrong reasons. Relationships must be chosen wisely. It’s better to be alone than to be in bad company. There’s no need to rush. If something is meant to be, it will happen – in the right time, with the right person, and for the best reason. Fall in love when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely. Stop rejecting new relationships just because old ones didn’t work. In life you’ll realize that there is a purpose for everyone you meet. Some will test you, some will use you and some will teach you. But most importantly, some will bring out the best in you. Stop trying to compete against everyone else. Don’t worry about what others doing better than you. Concentrate on beating your own records every day. Success is a battle between YOU and YOURSELF only. Stop being jealous of others. Jealousy is the art of counting someone else’s blessings instead of your own. Ask yourself this: “What’s something I have that everyone wants?” Stop complaining and feeling sorry for yourself. Life’s curveballs are thrown for a reason – to shift your path in a direction that is meant for you. You may not see or understand everything the moment it happens, and it may be tough. But reflect back on those negative curveballs thrown at you in the past. You’ll often see that eventually they led you to a better place, person, state of mind, or situation. So smile! Let everyone know that today you are a lot stronger than you were yesterday, and you will be. Stop holding grudges. Don’t live your life with hate in your heart. You will end up hurting yourself more than the people you hate. Forgiveness is not saying, “What you did to me is okay.” It is saying, “I’m not going to let what you did to me ruin my happiness forever.” Forgiveness is the answer… let go, find peace, liberate yourself! And remember, forgiveness is not just for other people, it’s for you too. If you must, forgive yourself, move on and try to do better next time. Stop letting others bring you down to their level. Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs. Stop wasting time explaining yourself to others. Your friends don’t need it and your enemies won’t believe it anyway. Just do what you know in your heart is right. Stop doing the same things over and over without taking a break. The time to take a deep breath is when you don’t have time for it. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting. Sometimes you need to distance yourself to see things clearly. Stop overlooking the beauty of small moments. Enjoy the little things, because one day you may look back and discover they were the big things. The best portion of your life will be the small, nameless moments you spend smiling with someone who matters to you. Stop trying to make things perfect. The real world doesn’t reward perfectionists, it rewards people who get things done. Read Getting Things Done. Stop following the path of least resistance. Life is not easy, especially when you plan on achieving something worthwhile. Don’t take the easy way out. Do something extraordinary. Stop acting like everything is fine if it isn’t. It’s okay to fall apart for a little while. You don’t always have to pretend to be strong, and there is no need to constantly prove that everything is going well. You shouldn’t be concerned with what other people are thinking either – cry if you need to – it’s healthy to shed your tears. The sooner you do, the sooner you will be able to smile again. Stop blaming others for your troubles. The extent to which you can achieve your dreams depends on the extent to which you take responsibility for your life. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you give others power over that part of your life. Stop trying to be everything to everyone. Doing so is impossible, and trying will only burn you out. But making one person smile CAN change the world. Maybe not the whole world, but their world. So narrow your focus. Stop worrying so much. Worry will not strip tomorrow of its burdens, it will strip today of its joy. One way to check if something is worth mulling over is to ask yourself this question: “Will this matter in one year’s time? Three years? Five years?” If not, then it’s not worth worrying about. Stop focusing on what you don’t want to happen. Focus on what you do want to happen. Positive thinking is at the forefront of every great success story. If you awake every morning with the thought that something wonderful will happen in your life today, and you pay close attention, you’ll often find that you’re right. Stop being ungrateful. No matter how good or bad you have it, wake up each day thankful for your life. Someone somewhere else is desperately fighting for theirs. Instead of thinking about what you’re missing, try thinking about what you have that everyone else is missing. If people love me, they will obey my teaching. My father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. John 14:23
God wants to be your dwelling place. He has no interest in being a weekend getaway or a Sunday bungalow or a summer cottage. Don't consider using God as a vacation cabin or an eventual retirement home. He wants you under his roof now and always. He wants to be your mailing address, your point of reference; he wants to be your home… For many this is a new thought. We think of God as a deity to discuss, not a place to dwell. We think of God as a mysterious miracle worker, not a house to live in. We think of God as a creator to call on, not a home to reside in. But our Father wants to be much more. He wants to be the one in whom "we live and move and have our being" (Act 17:28 NIV). The Great House of Go (Max Lucado) Can science show that Noah's flood was real? The archaeologist who discovered the Titanic thinks so.
Robert Ballard, famed for finding the wreck of the Titanic in 1985, has been working on evidence for the cataclysmic flood described in Genesis. His team claims to have found shells, pottery, and shipwrecks on an ancient shoreline 400 feet beneath the surface of the Black Sea off the coast of Turkey. This evidence shows that the Black Sea was once a freshwater lake until it was transformed by an enormous wall of water from the Mediterranean 200 times more powerful than Niagara Falls. Carbon dating indicates that this event occurred around 5,000 B.C., the time when some experts believe Noah's flood would have occurred. Biblical archaeologist Eric Cline cites "the Epic of Gilgamesh" and other ancient literature which also tells the story of a flood and a man who builds a boat and survives. Such evidence points to the universal nature of this event. While Ballard believes that his discovery supports the Genesis record, he does not expect to find Noah's ark. Will his discovery convince our post-Christian culture that the Bible is true? Probably not. We can prove from ancient historians such as Tacitus, Suetonius, Mara bar Serapion, Pliny the Younger and Josephus that Jesus Christ lived and was crucified by Pontius Pilate, and that his followers believed he rose from the dead and worshiped him as God. Evidence for his resurrection is clear and compelling. And data from archaeology, ancient manuscripts, fulfilled prophecy and internal consistency demonstrates that the Scriptures are trustworthy and true. In spite of such compelling evidence, more people today have rejected religion than ever before. Our culture believes the lie that truth is personal and subjective—there's just "your truth" and "my truth." There was a day when people thought that if a statement was right it must be relevant. Now people believe that if a statement is relevant, it might be right. They must see that Jesus makes a difference in our lives before they'll consider his truth claims for themselves. So, is Ballard's discovery significant? Absolutely. It is further evidence that what Christians believe is based not on myth or tradition but fact. The Bible is indeed "God-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), written by men who "spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21). If you have chosen to make Jesus your Lord, know that your decision is reasonable and logical. Faith in Christ is not a leap into the dark, but into the light. Jim Denison www.jimdenison.com "You cannot kill time without injuring eternity." ~ Henry David Thoreau "Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." ~ William Penn "Time is at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions."~ John Randolph "Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can't afford to lose." ~ Thomas Edison "To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing."~ Eva Young "The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot."~ Michael Altshuler A Jewish businessman in Chicago sent his son to Israel for a year to absorb the culture.
When the son returned, he said, "Papa, I had a great time in Israel. By the way, I converted to Christianity." "Oy vey," said the father. "What have I done?" He took his problem to his best friend, Ike. "Ike," he said, "I sent my son to Israel, and he came home a Christian. What can I do?" "Funny you should ask," said Ike. "I too, sent my son to Israel, and he also came home a Christian. Perhaps we should go see the rabbi." So they did, and they explained their problem to the rabbi. "Funny you should ask," said the rabbi. "I, too, sent my son to Israel, and he also came home a Christian. What is happening to our young people?" And so they all prayed, telling God about their sons. As they finished their prayer, a voice came from the Heavens: "Funny you should ask," said the Voice.. "I, too, sent my Son to Israel . . .." My kingdom does not belong to this world. John 18:36 Unhappiness on earth cultivates a hunger for heaven. By gracing us with a deep dissatisfaction, God holds our attention. The only tragedy, then, is to be satisfied prematurely. To settle for earth. To be content in a strange land… We are not happy here because we are not at home here. We are not happy here because we are not supposed to be happy here. We are "like foreigners and strangers in this world" (1Pe 2:11 )… And you will never be completely happy on earth simply because you were not made for earth. Oh, you will have your moments of joy. You will catch glimpses of light. You will know moments or even days of peace. But they simply do not compare with the happiness that lies ahead. When God Whispers Your Name (Max Lucado) For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14
"And forgive us of our sins as we forgive those who sin against us." The word "as" implies that we cannot be forgiven until we offer that same forgiveness to others. In case we miss the "as," Jesus makes it very clear in the next verse: "But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (Matthew 6:15) Forgiving someone who has treated you poorly, said evil things about you, even broken up your family, is a very difficult thing to do. It takes Godly intervention to truly offer forgiveness to people who have deeply wounded you. But God commands us to do so, and God would never command us to do anything that He wouldn't provide the ability to do. Pray for God to give you the strength to forgive those who have hurt you. Not only will God give you the power to do so, but He will also empower you supernaturally to love them, even though you hate what they did. Remember, bitterness is the poison we swallow, hoping the other person dies. Enjoy the release of this terrible burden by experiencing the cleansing power of forgiveness. I love having the newest technology. I confess I fall prey to the promises from the latest and greatest gadgets on the market. I guess I justify it because of having an Internet ministry. Needless to say, an ad for a new device recently caught my attention.
The bait was cast and I was hooked. Would this new gadget allow me to do more, faster? More emails. More text messages. More Internet connections to remote parts of the world. More efficiency was promised. Could that mean more ministry? Or would it mean more enslavement to technology? It's easy to buy into the empty promises of our world. Paul understood our struggles. In Philippians 3:8 he wrote: "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (NIV). Paul understood what was important, his relationship with Christ. I hope that I always pursue my relationship with God more fervently than my pursuit of the latest technology. How about you? What's your pursuit? A prayer to pray: Lord, renew my passion to know You better. I want a deeper relationship with You today than what I had yesterday. May I finish the day knowing that I have stayed in step with Your Spirit. I don't want to know You in a superficial way...I want to love You personally, passionately, and devotedly. P.S. I passed on the new piece of equipment! Marji "Mike" Kruger www.anchoryourlife.com |
Ana & Andre Schoonbee God uses us to motivate and encourage the body. Authors
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