BELIEVE

"Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow" (Isa. 50:11).

What a solemn warning to those who walk in darkness and yet who try to help themselves out into the light.

They are represented as kindling a fire, and compassing themselves with sparks.

What does this mean?

Why, it means that when we are in darkness the temptation is to find a way without trusting in the Lord and relying upon Him.

Instead of letting Him help us out, we try to help ourselves out. We seek the light of nature, and get the advice of our friends. We try the conclusions of our reason, and might almost be tempted to accept a way of deliverance which would not be of God at all.

All these are fires of our own kindling; rushlights that will surely lead us onto the shoals.

And God will let us walk in the light of those sparks, but the end will be sorrow.

Beloved, do not try to get out of a dark place, except, in God's time and in God's way.

The time of trouble is meant to teach you lessons that you sorely need. 

Premature deliverance may frustrate God's work of grace in your life.

Just commit the whole situation to Him.

Be willing to abide in darkness so long as you have His presence.

Remember that it is better to walk in the dark with God than to walk alone in the light.

     --The Still Small Voice

"Cease meddling with God's plans and will. You touch anything of His, and you mar the work.

You may move the hands of a clock to suit you, but you do not change the time; so you may hurry the unfolding of God's will, but you harm and do not help the work.

You can open a rosebud but you spoil the flower.

Leave all to Him.

Hands down.

Thy will, not mine."

        --Stephen Merritt

Stay Strong - Believe in Faith that This too shall pass!  Because it always does!

Look up

Do Not Yield to Discouragement

"They looked...and behold, the glory of the Lord appeared in the cloud" (Exod. 16:10).

Get into the habit of looking for the silver lining of the cloud and when you have found it, continue to look at it, rather than at the leaden gray in the middle.

Do not yield to discouragement no matter how sorely pressed or beset you may be.

A discouraged soul is helpless.

He can neither resist the wiles of the enemy himself, while in this state, nor can he prevail in prayer for others.

Flee from every symptom of this deadly foe as you would flee from a viper.

And be not slow in turning your back on it, unless you want to bite the dust in bitter defeat.

Search out God's promises and say aloud of each one: "This promise is mine."

If you still experience a feeling of doubt and discouragement, pour out your heart to God and ask Him to rebuke the adversary who is so mercilessly nagging you.

The very instant you whole-heartedly turn away from every symptom of distrust and discouragement, the blessed Holy Spirit will quicken your faith and inbreathe Divine strength into your soul.

At first you may not be conscious of this, still as you resolutely and uncompromisingly "snub" every tendency toward doubt and depression that assails you, you will soon be made aware that the powers of darkness are falling back.

Oh, if our eyes could only behold the solid phalanx of strength, of power, that is ever behind every turning away from the hosts of darkness, God-ward, what scant heed would be given to the effort of the wily foe to distress, depress, discourage us!

All the marvelous attributes of the Godhead are on the side of the weakest believer, who in the name of Christ, and in simple, childlike trust, yields himself to God and turns to Him for help and guidance. --Selected

On a day in the autumn, I saw a prairie eagle mortally wounded by a rifle shot. His eye still gleamed like a circle of light. Then he slowly turned his head, and gave one more searching and longing look at the sky. He had often swept those starry spaces with his wonderful wings. The beautiful sky was the home of his heart. It was the eagle's domain.

A thousand times he had exploited there his splendid strength. In those far away heights be had played with the lightnings, and raced with the winds, and now, so far away from home, the eagle lay dying, done to the death, because for once be forgot and flew too low.

The soul is that eagle.

This is not its home.

It must not lose the skyward look.

We must keep faith, we must keep hope, we must keep courage, we must keep Christ!

We would better creep away from the battlefield at once if we are not going to be brave.

There is no time for the soul to stampede.

Keep the skyward look, my soul; keep the skyward look!

"Keep looking up--
The waves that roar around thy feet,
Jehovah-Jireh will defeat
When looking up.

"Keep looking up--
Though darkness seems to wrap thy soul;
The Light of Light shall fill thy soul 
When looking up.

"Keep looking up--
When worn, distracted with the fight;
Your Captain gives you conquering might 
When you look up."

We can never see the sun rise by looking into the west. --Japanese Proverb

-- Streams in the Desert

Stay Strong!!!

Snap out of it

"Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have."
- Dale Carnegie

Good ole Dale!  He sure knows what he is talking about.

Just as worry and regret are useless and energy-sapping behaviors, lamenting and feeling sorry for ourselves is also a gigantic energy waster!!

Recognize this triumvirate of uselessness as they rear their ugly heads in our daily travels and resolve to snap out of the funk immediately!!

Forcefully replace fear, worry and regret with hope, faith and ACTION!

Ruminating on the fact that life has thrown you a curveball and that you are in the midst of a storm will not do us any good in our attempts to move forward to clearer and calmer seas!

We must say to ourselves "this is not where I want to be in my life right now, but it is happening for a reason!"

We have two choices while battling a storm... we can crawl in the corner and close our eyes - and allow the waves to keep thrashing us about mercilessly.

OR we can put our heads down, focus on moving ahead and forward and through hope, optimism, and faith we will come through the tempest on the other side a stronger and wiser person!

Take Control of the only thing we can control - our actions and reactions to any trial or challenge that we encounter!!

Your "current state" will only remain "current" as long as you allow it to remain in that state!

Step up and change it today!!!!!

You just have to want to move ahead and change it!!! And then take the necessary steps toward it!!

Expect the Best - because the Best is imminent and yours for the taking!

STAY STRONG!

Meaning

"John performed no miraculous sign, but everything John said about this man was true!" (John 10:41)

You may be very discontented with yourself.

You are no genius, have no brilliant gifts, and are inconspicuous for any special faculty.

Mediocrity is the law of your existence.

Your days are remarkable for nothing but sameness and insipidity.

Yet you may live a great life.

John did no miracle, but Jesus said that among those born of women there had not appeared a greater than he.

 John's main business was to bear witness to the Light, and this may be yours and mine.

John was content to be only a voice, if men would think of Christ.

 Be willing to be only a voice, heard but not seen; a mirror whose surface is lost to view, because it reflects the dazzling glory of the sun; a breeze that springs up just before daylight, and says, "The dawn! the dawn!" and then dies away.

 Do the commonest and smallest things as beneath His eye.

If you must live with uncongenial people, set to their conquest by love.

If you have made a great mistake in your life, do not let it becloud all of it; but, locking the secret in your breast, compel it to yield strength and sweetness.

We are doing more good than we know, sowing seeds, starting streamlets, giving men true thoughts of Christ, to which they will refer one day as the first things that started them thinking of Him;

and, of my part, I shall be satisfied if no great mausoleum is raised over my grave, but that simple souls shall gather there when I am gone, and say,

 "He was a good man; he wrought no miracles, but he spake words about Christ, which led me to know Him for myself."

   —George Matheson

 

Gratitude

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.

It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

   - Melody Beattie

Sometimes it is very difficult to feel grateful.

Many times we lose sight of how blessed we are just to be alive,  to be healthy,  to have friends and family who love us, to be able to walk, talk,  and be able to create our own opportunities each day!

It is good practice to list every blessing in our lives - in writing or simply by reciting them to ourselves each morning - in order to put things in proper perspective!

Too often we lose ourselves in our earthly daily battles. However,  if we can instead start the day from the powerful stance of GRATITUDE and BLESSINGS we dramatically increase our chances of having a positive and peaceful day - not to mention LIFE!

We are all more blessed than we think and we must recognize this fact as often as humanly possible!

List them now - you will be surprised how it molds your attitude and approach to today!

Stay Strong!!

Pain

"A Hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And Headwinds right for royal sails."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Remember that anything worth its salt in our lives does not come easily to us.

Life is an amazing gift of beauty and joy, but it is also fraught with its share of pain, sorrow and challenges!

We have to believe that our purpose and the plan for our short time on this earth are going to contain moments of joy and peace but also storms and events that will test our resolve to persevere!

And Persevere we must!

We must persevere through all that we encounter and experience - and never quit or despair because everything has it's shelf-life and whatever you are going through today will surely pass!

Pain and strife may not seem fair to us right now, but no one escapes it and it is the one who takes the pain and is able to harness the lessons of that pain as they move forward who will reap the rewards of joy and peace very shortly thereafter!

Be open to it, ride out the storms we encounter with courage and hope and faith - because the waters will recede and the winds will calm and we will all be ok! 

Stay Strong - we are all in this together and you are never alone!!

Harness

"The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought and its ways
with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings.
As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become."

—Guatama Buddha, Dhammapada

As the poem "God's in the Chrysallis" states:

"Thought is Supreme"

And indeed it is....

Watch your thoughts very carefully as it is the single, tiny thought that if believed and cultivated WILL move mountains!

Thoughts are seeds ... plant the good seeds and you WILL reap a fine harvest!!

Plant bad, negative seeds and your harvest will be overrun with weeds and be difficult to salvage!!!

Catch your negative thoughts, comments, remarks and beliefs as they occur! 

Stop them in their tracks and try to change them to a more positive, hopeful outlook - EVEN IF YOU MAY NOT BELIEVE IT AT THE TIME!

The power of our minds is unimaginable but we have to learn to harness that power and it is too easy to aid and abet the naysayers and negative Nellies in our minds!

Make this change to your thoughts and outlook today - and you cannot be stopped!

It is a fact!!

Stay Strong!

Act

"Regret is an appalling waste of energy,
you can't build on it - it's only good for wallowing in."
   - Katherine Mansfield

Just like it's ugly cousin, worry, regret is a useless and draining activity amd should be avoided at all costs!

Regret, if necessary at all, should last only a few moments after we realize an error or omission in our lives.

But once that moment passes, and we understand our error, we must push forward and leave that experience behind us for good!

Just as worry is a waste of energy, regret is just as useless!!

In both of these emotional drains, the thing that is necessary in order to escape their trap is at our disposal day and night -and it is called ACTION!!!

Once we identify the point where we find ourselves worrying about anything,  or as is so eloquently stated above in today's quote - wallowing in regret - what is needed to snap out of it is ACTION!!

Focus on a solution to our worries, and focus on making right that which we seem to regret - by fixing it or simply changing our behavior -  to make sure it does not occur again in the future!

Be vigilant and do not fall prey to these insidious suckers of life and peace!

Act and move forward!!!

We shouldn't be focusing on the past in any event!! 

Let yesterday worry about yesterday - we have all the work we need to do TODAY to keep our energies occupied! !

Stay Strong (and warm)!!

Tipping Point

"The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism."
     - John Baines

We must be vigilant and careful in recognizing the moment we allow our attitudes to drift into negative territory!

It is a never ending battle for all of us to avoid and stop the flow of negative thoughts that bombard us constantly!

If we are not focused on maintaining a consistent,  strong and pervasive attitude of optimism,  positivity,  and unwavering faith and hope, we are putting ourselves at a tremendous disadvantage on a daily basis!

Regardless of our situation and our trials and daily strife, the fact remains that ALL WE CONTROL in this short life is OUR ATTITUDE AND OUR OUTLOOK!

So why not give ourselves a leg up each day and start out every morning with a positive outlook and hopeful stance?

Why would we want to assist the negative cascading thoughts that become our biggest nemesis and drain in our lives???

Take up the battle of emotions TODAY and arm yourselves with a positive and strong vision of what is in store for you -  by forcing yourself to be Hopeful, Faithful, Thankful, and Optimistic about your next steps in this journey!

There is a "Tipping Point" we all can reach whereby we practice being positive and hopeful so much, we make optimism and faithfulness such a core part of our daily discipline that we cross over into that mood permanently and the negatives begin to lose their ground against our positive thoughts!

This is where we want to get!!!  That is the goal - beat back the fear, the doubt and the uncertainties and replace them with hope and goals!!!

We can all get there but it takes work and faith that everything is going to work out for us  - and the strife and labor we encounter daily only serves to remind us that we are that much closer to our goal and our well deserved Peace and Joy!

Stay Strong and make this happen!

Promises

"So don't worry, because I am with you.

Don't be afraid because I am your God.

I will make you strong and will help you.

I will support you with my right hand that saves you. "

   - Isaiah 41:10

We must have Faith and the sincere and unwavering belief that no matter how treacherous or rough the road becomes on our short journey in this life, we will be taken care of - NO MATTER WHAT!

This promise must permeate every one of our actions, decisions, struggles and thoughts!

How different would our lives be IF we could truly BELIEVE that anything that has been placed in our path has been placed there with good reason, for a certain purpose, and the result of us pushing onward in faith will serve to only make us stronger and more equipped to help others as we battle on daily!

Trust and Faith are at our disposal every second of the day and we simply need to make that initial Leap of Faith to reap the rewards of the faith that is promised to us all!!

We are not alone.

Attitude and our perspective is all that matters! 

Enjoy the weekend and Stay Strong!!