Happy Or Hard Done By (day80/365)

Only we ourselves can choose to be happy or unhappy says Norman Vincent Peale in “The Power of Positive Thinking”. We are all in the manufacturing business. We manufacture our happiness or we manufacture our unhappiness.

The solution is to make it a habit to be happy. A practical help to creating happiness is to practise love. The other is to accept love. Become one of the in crowd and accept that Jesus holds a lot of the answers in relation to happiness. Revitalising spiritual power emanates from those who tap into the vitality, power and joy God offers.

Maybe you feel hard done by and don’t wish to be happy. Consider the following:-

Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. (Mark 14:27)

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

Peace and rest are given freely. We can accept them or choose to continue feeling hard done by. It’s not hard to see which one makes sense is it?

Peace, Power, and Energy with Prayer (day79/365)

So many good things come from positive thinking. Today we’ll only look at peace, power, and energy. Norman Vincent Peale first published “The Power of Positive Thinking” in 1953 and by 1991 had sold two million copies. There just might be a thing or two in this book that we could take notice of.

Rather than being directed and defeated by the circumstances around us, we can take control and enjoy peace of mind, improved health, energy, joy and satisfaction. We need to clean out the fears, hates, insecurities, regrets and guilt feelings and replace them with creative and healthy thoughts.

When lacking confidence, the following is a great affirmation to say over and over. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. Connecting with our higher power and praying has an unequaled effect on dealing with our problems. By releasing prayer power to doubts, fears and insecurities, they can be banished and replaced by peace and confidence. The bigger our problems, the bigger our prayers should be.

After praying, should come visualisation then the actualisation happens.
People praying and visualising are finding they feel better, sleep better, work better, do better, are better.

To help with developing a peaceful mind it is helpful to daily practice having a quiet time. The prescription is for 15 minutes of no noise, no thoughts, no reading, no writing. Just listening for the deep sounds of harmony, beauty and God.

This will help with energy levels too. Discharging any emotional upheaval can help to develop an uninterrupted flow of energy into the mind and body. Keep thoughts positive. How we think we feel definitely has an effect on how we actually feel physically.

Stay tuned. More good stuff to come.

How Can I Resist Evil? (day60/365)

I have learnt so much already reading “Questions of Life” by Nicky Gumbel. Today I’ve learnt about evil and how to put it in it’s place.

Have you noticed that God and good are only one letter difference.
The Devil and evil are also one letter different.

God and the Devil both exist; God being good, the Devil being evil. There’s plenty of evidence that Satan does exist. He is cunning and he is powerful. The Bible confirms his existence, Jesus cast demons (Satan’s sidekicks) out of people, Christians world wide over the ages attest to the very real spiritual forces of evil, and common sense of those viewing the tragedy of abuse, torture, violence, murders, rapes, drug trafficking, terrorism, occult activity confirms the existence of the devil.

The Devil’s main aim is to destroy us. Destruction and despair is what he wants for us. He works very hard to stop any of us coming to faith in Jesus. He does all he can to make us doubt the love of God and the freedom God offers.

While we let Satan rule our lives and hearts, we are subject to sin, guilt, addiction, fear, slavery, death and destruction. Once we ask Christ to take us away from the bondage Satan holds us under, we are free to experience forgiveness, freedom, life, salvation. We are transferred from darkness to light.

The Bible gives us some armour to put on to defend ourselves from Satan’s constant attacks. (Ephesians 6:11)

Belt of Truth – Read the Bible, Christian books, listen to sermons at church, Christian CD’s, DVD,s.

Breastplate of Righteousness – Accept Jesus’ forgiveness. Be sincerely sorry for the bad we’ve done.

Boots of the Gospel of Peace – Be ready to speak about the gospel of Jesus. When we declare our faith, it strengthens our defense.

Shield of Faith – Opposite of cynicism and skepticism. Take the promises of God and dare to believe them.

Helmet of Salvation – Past, present and future. We have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, we will be saved from the presence of sin.

Sword of the Spirit – Know scripture and use it to throw at Satan to rebuke him and squash his attempts to harm us.

Is there anyone else out there wanting to choose life, freedom, peace for themselves, for their family? I’m all for strengthening my defenses and growing stronger in love, hope and faith.