Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by James MacDonald (2010-05-03) in his book, 10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever (Kindle Location 1593). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) There are so many things you can find in the Bible and one of them is happiness. James says, “Now, the world has tried to hijack this word. So to be clear, when I say happiness, I don’t mean some little oh-I-just-had-a-Big-Mac-meal-I’m-so-happy-right-now. True happiness is not some shallow, giddy, short-lived pleasure. Like we said, God wrote the blueprint on human happiness.” Psalm 1: 1– 2 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD.” James goes on, “The word blessed means happy— real happiness, not the horizontal, worldly substitute that flashes by in a heartbeat. Blessed is the person who knows God’s kind of

From a thought in   10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever   by James MacDonald,   (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Do you need a confident expectation that better things are ahead?   Do you need that?   Do you need hope? James says, “I find most of us can identify an area of life in which we desperately need to hear God’s promise of hope. We need to know that good things can still come for our future. We haven’t so messed up our life that everything good is now past and all opportunities are gone.” Is that true of you today or someone you know? James goes on, “Hope is the idea that it’s not too late, no matter how many mistakes you’ve made. Your life could be better. Some of the things you’ve dreamed about can still be yours. You don’t have to be trapped in this cycle of failing and falling and fumbling all the time. You can rise up and be who God wants you to be. That is hope. Do you feel it rising in your heart?” He goes

From a thought in   10 Choices: A Proven Plan to Change Your Life Forever   by James MacDonald,   (Click on the title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) And that is a very important distinction.   My parents loved me very much and they did everything they could to protect me but they didn’t always prevent things from happening because they knew they would help me learn and help me grow.   James says, “God doesn’t always keep hard things from happening. Here’s why. He has higher purposes for our pain.”   Yes, but if he really loved me but He does really love me and I can trust Him. He goes on, “ God may allow pain to humble us. When we are brought low by pain, we see how much we need Him. One of C. S. Lewis’s best-known comments describes pleasure as God’s whispers and pain as God’s megaphone!” Another reason is, “ God sometimes allows pain to restore us. Some of you were so far from God, off on your own, running away from God, going who knows where with your futu