Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Les Parrott, (2012-08-02) from his book, You're Stronger Than You Think: The Power to Do What You Feel You Can't (p. 72). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. There is something to be said about self-awareness that shows us that we may need to change some areas in our self.   I had just turned on my laptop to start writing and looked away and then looked back and it was shutting down.   I then realized that is was updating some program and it needed to shut down for a moment in order for the change to happen.   Last night as I was plugging in my iPhone before going to bed I saw that it had a couple of apps that needed to be updated.   So I took the time to do it.   The laptop and the smart phone have within them the capacity to get better. But we as humans believe that we have arrived and don’t need to change.   I mean we don’t even want to be honest enough to believe we may have weaknesses and therefore need to do something...

A thought by Les Parrott, (2012-08-02) from his book, You're Stronger Than You Think: The Power to Do What You Feel You Can't (p. 57). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. Dr. Parrot is dealing here with the strength and power that comes from expectancy in your mind.   And one way to start this is to make a list of ten things that you hope for.   It is all about focus.   Have you ever thought about the power of light?   A light bulb turned on has the power to light a room but when it is focused into a laser it has the power to cut through steel. God has given our mind the potential to accomplish unbelievable things.   But we don’t use it the way He has created it to be used.   We fill it with so much useless negative self-talk that it loses its ability to accomplish anything.   Somehow we need to fill it with the hope of expectancy. After I read this thought this morning I stopped and took out my iPhone and went to the Notes app...

A thought by Les Parrott, (2012-08-02) from his book, You're Stronger Than You Think: The Power to Do What You Feel You Can't (p. 55). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition. There are things in our past that keep us from really being focused and being successful in the present.   Somehow we need to tie up those loose ends so that we don’t struggle with thinking for the solution for our present situation. God has given us a tremendous tool to help us in solving life’s problems.   It is our mind.   But when it is cluttered with so much stuff it can get stuck and one of the things that keep it cluttered is unfinished things that we need to take care of. For example, I had set aside this afternoon to write this blog.   That is what I usually do but I had some unfinished business that was getting in my way of writing today.   It was a Spring Training game between the Dodgers and the Giants.   I started listening to it and I then set it aside to ...

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment (Kindle Locations 1105-1106). Kindle Edition. Somehow we have to understand that life is a relationship.   First it is a relationship with our Creator, God, and then it is a relationship with those around us.   God is love.   I like that L is the first letter of love.   True love has an upward part to God but if there is no outward part to others then the L becomes an I which means self-center and that is not what God came to earth for.   His love to us spills out to others.   That kind of loves shows that our faith is real. Our faith is to have both an upward and an outward part to it.   The upward only is religion and the upward and outward is relationship.   If we have a relationship with Him then we also will have a relationship with others. So is your faith a religion or a relationship?  

A thought by Les Parrott, (2012-08-02) from his book, You're Stronger Than You Think: The Power to Do What You Feel You Can't (pp. 39-40). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition . Does that make sense to you?   it does to me?   The way I handle the situations of today comes from my belief that my best days are ahead.   I live that way. Let’s say I am going through a very bad situation right now.   My faith says that God is out ahead of me working things out for my good.   Because He is so good He will make good out of all things that I face no matter what they are.   They may not be easy to handle but they are for my good.   I believe that and I have experienced that.   Now I wake up every day with that optimism.   Life is good because God is good.   He is not only working on my life here on earth but He is also preparing me a place in Heaven.   That helps me face each day with a hope-filled optimism.   To me to...

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment (Kindle Locations 1884-1885). Kindle Edition. That is so true.   The courage I needed to write this new post didn’t come until I took the risk and copied the quote and put it on a blank Microsoft Word document and started writing.   Then it started happening.   If I would have just searched and not made a decision to do it I would never have started.   Courage comes from the action. There is an old movie called The Ten Commandments that has Charlton Heston playing Moses a major character from the Old Testament.   It shows some slaves coming out of Egypt who are chased by the leader of Egypt with his army and these people come up to the Red Sea and they are trapped.   Now Moses tells them that God has told him that if they step into the Red Sea everything will be OK.   They did it I think more out of fear than courage   But as they walked i...

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, Chasing Daylight: Seize the Power of Every Moment (Kindle Locations 2186-2187). Kindle Edition. I know that may not sound right but check this out.   Sometimes we may be reading through the Scripture and we don’t like what it says.   It is saying specifically that we are not to do something that we are doing and so we say, “I’m not going to accept what it says; I’m going to pray about it.”   When you do that, you are rebelling against God, against what He has already said.   Prayer is not a place to strive to change God’s mind but it is a time to connect with God.   Now if you connect with Him and tell Him that you are having problems with doing what He says and you ask Him for help in understanding and doing what He says then prayer is not rebellion.   Or you ask Him to change your actions to do it His way with the right attitude then prayer is an act of obedience. The key is to not use pra...