Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by Craig Groeschel from his book, Dare to Drop the Pose (p. 114). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Now that is something we need to grab hold of today, isn’t it? Craig says, “I always want to be in control of the car. When someone else is driving, I tend to offer obnoxious advice, because my survival instinct cries out for some kind of control. Sometimes I have to surrender control and trust the outcome to someone else, but this doesn’t come naturally to me. “With God, the ‘control’ I have to surrender over and over is only an illusion. I never really have control of my life and circumstances, even when I pretend to. “Have you acknowledged that truth? You’re not in control. You never have been. “If that’s true—and it is—then why do we try to exercise power that has never been ours? (That was a rhetorical question, but the answer has a lot to do with human pride.)” He goes on,

A thought by Craig Groeschel from his book, Dare to Drop the Pose (p. 113). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) I’m sure it is totally different from what we feel when someone doesn’t take us at our word. Craig says, “I wonder how God feels when we don’t take Him at his word.   When we distrust His power and promises. When we worry instead of believing Him. George Mueller said it best: ‘The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.’ Think about it. Worry brings turmoil. Faith brings peace. Worry takes you from God. Faith draws you to God. Worry changes nothing. Faith moves God’s heart and can change everything for the better.” Craig then says, “I’m training my mind to focus on God’s promises. The prophet Isaiah makes a powerful promise to us when he says to God, ‘You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts in you’

A thought by Craig Groeschel from his book, Dare to Drop the Pose (p. 110). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Sounds like a very beneficial thing to do.   It really does! Craig says, “Extreme skiing is a wild sport. The participants are talented, half-crazy athletes, known for flying down mountains at kamikaze speeds. With every outing, they risk becoming the new ‘agony of defeat’ guy, crashing head over heels, limbs bending every which way like a sadistic child’s Gumby doll. “Kim Reichhelm is one of the best and has miraculously escaped serious harm. Someone asked her once, ‘How do you keep from crashing?’ “Her answer, ‘I look at the spaces between the trees.’ Brilliant. Instead of looking at what she didn’t want to hit, she aimed her eyes where she wanted to go—away from danger, toward safety and success.” Craig goes on, “Similarly, instead of focusing on the worst-case scenarios—my natura