Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind (27 page)

Being encouraging is part of being a more positive person. Be careful of your thoughts about people. If we think uncomplimentary or discouraging thoughts they will usually slip out of our mouth. Look for and magnify the good in every person. The Bible teaches us to do unto others as we want them to do unto us, so all we need to do is think about what we want and start to give it away. If you want to be encouraged, then be encouraging!

Peace-Peace-Peace

I have come to the place where I don’t believe life is really worth living without peace, and that drives me to pursue peace in all areas. I spent many years frustrated and struggling in my relationships with God, myself, and other people and I refuse to live like that any longer. In order for things to change in our lives we must pray but we must also be willing to change. We cannot expect everyone and everything around us to change so we can be comfortable while we are passive and do nothing.

The Bible says that if we want to live in harmony with others we must adapt to people and things. I can assure you that I had no interest in adapting to anything or anyone. I did want them to adapt to me, but in my pride I didn’t even consider I needed to change, so my life and relationships remained in turmoil. After many years I finally became willing to do whatever “I” needed to do to have peace, and learning how to adapt was number one on God’s list for me. I have discovered that having my way all the time is not really as important as I once thought it was. Now, I actually enjoy the freedom of not having to have my way. Yes, I said the
freedom of not having to have my own way.
My flesh may be uncomfortable for a short while when I adapt to someone or something else and it is not really what “I” wanted, but I feel great inside because I know I have followed the law of love and have done my part to pursue peace.

Adapting to others does not mean that we let them control us or that we become a doormat for the world to walk on. There are times when we need to stand firm no matter who gets upset, but there are also many times in life when we make mountains out of molehills and give up our peace over things that are petty. Will you make a commitment to be a maker and maintainer of peace? Will you examine all of your relationships—with God, yourself, and others—and do everything you can do to live in peace?

To me the most important point in this section is that we must
pursue
peace. Most people want peace, but they don’t do what they need to do in order to have it. The first step is to get a mind-set that you are going to pursue peace with God, yourself, and others. As you meditate on that power thought and speak it over and over you will find yourself becoming more and more dissatisfied with turmoil. You will pursue peace! Think about it. What can you do to bring more peace into your relationships?

Power Pack

“Depart from evil and do good; seek, inquire for, and crave peace and pursue (go after) it!”

Psalm 34:14

“I have told you these things, so that in Me you have [perfect] peace and confidence. In the world you have tribulation and trials and distress and frustration: but be of good cheer [take courage; be confident, certain, undaunted]! For I have overcome the world. [I have deprived it of power to harm you and have conquered it for you.]”

John 16:33

“If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

Romans 12:18

POWER THOUGHT

10

I live in the present and enjoy each moment.

“This is the day which the Lord has brought about; we will rejoice and be glad in it.”

Psalm 118:24

T
here’s a saying I love that goes like this:
Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift; that’s why it’s called the present
. We need to enjoy every moment of our lives and stay focused on the present. We can’t dwell on the past or look too far into the future, but we need to realize the present moment is God’s gift to us
right now,
so we need to fully live in it and enjoy it.

A friend of mine did not marry until she was forty-five years old. Her marriage was so wonderful and satisfying to her that she often said that her husband was God’s present to her. One day her husband went into the hospital for a routine surgery, but due to an unexpected infection he never came home. His death was a terrible shock and a devastating disappointment, but she is very glad that she thoroughly enjoyed her husband during the years they had together. I am so glad for her that she is not living with the pain of her loss plus a lot of regret. All too often people are so busy that they put off enjoying their family and friends and then when it is too late they regret that they did not make better choices.

The only way to avoid regret is to make good choices and enjoy the present. Every moment is a gift from God. I make an effort to focus on and enjoy every moment of my life, but doing so has been a long and difficult journey for me. I’ve really had to work on doing so because I am a planner, and if I am not careful, I find myself planning the next thing while doing the current thing, which of course steals the present moment from me. Although being focused is a good thing, I can also easily get so focused on my work that I fail to enjoy the magic of the moment. For example, I was usually working while my children were little and found it difficult to even take a moment to stop and enjoy the cute things they said or did. I missed many of those moments and will never get them back. We should celebrate life and the people God has placed in our path. Life is to be enjoyed, not dreaded or regretted.

Through growing up in a dysfunctional home where we certainly did not enjoy life, I turned into a workaholic and tried to find my worth and value in
what I did,
rather than in
who I was.
Because my parents seemed to be more pleased with me when I was doing something and being productive than when I wasn’t, I thought God was also more pleased with me when I was doing and producing.

The atmosphere in my home growing up was very intense and I experienced a lot of fear. I didn’t get to have much fun during my childhood, and when I was in my twenties, I could not remember
ever
being truly happy or completely relaxed. Because of the abuse, my childhood was stolen. I became an adult, but there was no child in me, no childlikeness in me at all—and that’s not healthy. Every healthy adult needs to have a healthy child on the inside. We need to know how to work and how to be responsible, but we also need to know how to play and enjoy ourselves. We should never miss an opportunity to laugh because it is like medicine. It helps us in many ways, including our physical health. And, being lighthearted makes even our work more pleasant and enjoyable.

This power thought—I live in the present and enjoy each moment—can transform your life because if you really allow it to change your thinking, you’ll begin enjoying your life in brand-new ways. Even if you consider yourself a “serious” person, extremely focused or very responsible, you should still take time to enjoy what you are doing. Never be too busy to enjoy every aspect of your life.

Think about It

How much do you really enjoy and live in the present moment?

A lot__________________________

A little__________________________

Not much at all__________________________

How much do you enjoy the people in your life?

God Wants You to Enjoy Your Life

Do you believe God wants you to enjoy your life? Of course, He does. In fact, part of God’s will is for you to enjoy every moment of it. How can I be so sure? Because His Word says so in many places. King Solomon, who is considered to have been very wise, wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:24, “There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink and make himself enjoy good in his labor. Even this, I have seen, is from the hand of God.” Solomon said to make yourself enjoy the good of your labor. That sounds like it is something we must do as an act of our will. This does not mean that all of life becomes a huge party or a vacation, but it does mean that through the power of God we can learn to enjoy all of life, even things others would consider ordinary and boring. I think a lot of people have the mentality of just trying to “endure” large portions of their life, but I believe it is tragic to live and not enjoy every moment. I admit that some things are more pleasant to our emotions than others, but we can learn to enjoy God’s presence in everything we do. Try reminding yourself throughout the day that God is with you and the moment you have right now is a gift from Him.

I was struggling with the whole concept of enjoying life until I did a study on what the Lord had to say about it; now I know it is His will and something I am not only entitled to, but actually need. I need to enjoy life for myself, but also for Jesus, Who paid a very high price for me to be able to do so.

Jesus Himself, when He stated why He came to earth, said, “I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)” (John 10:10). He also said, “I have told you these things, that My joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy and gladness may be of full measure and complete and overflowing” (John 15:11) and “But now ask and keep on asking and you will receive, so that your joy (gladness, delight) may be full and complete” (John 16:24). When He prayed to the Father in John 17:13, He actually prayed that we would have joy: “And now I am coming to You; I say these things while I am still in the world, so that My joy may be made full and complete and perfect in them [that they may experience My delight fulfilled in them, that My enjoyment may be perfected in their own souls, that they may have My gladness within them, filling their hearts].” With Jesus Himself speaking and praying such powerful words about His desire for us to have joy, how could we ever doubt that God wants us to be happy and enjoy our lives? If it is God’s desire that we enjoy life, then why are so many people miserable and unhappy? Perhaps it is because we fail to set our minds to enjoy life. We can easily fall into a pattern of surviving and enduring rather than enjoying. But a new mind-set will release you to begin enjoying life like never before. The more you enjoy life the more enjoyable you will be, so get started today and don’t delay. Meditate on and say repeatedly, “I live in the present and enjoy each moment.”

One thing I like to do that helps me savor the day is to take time in the evening to mentally recall all that I did that day. It is amazing what we accomplish and are involved in during one day, but we often go through our days so fast and with our focus divided that we barely remember them, if at all. Meditate on your day each evening and thank God for all that He brought you through and allowed you to do. If you made mistakes, you can learn from them and if you had great victories, remembering them will allow you to enjoy them all over again.

Think about It

Does your day go by in a blur or do you truly enjoy it?

There’s Nothing Wrong with Having Some Fun

When I began to understand John 10:10, I became angry because I realized the enemy had deceived me into thinking that enjoying things was not important. Under the influence of the devil, who is the Deceiver, I had come to believe—falsely, of course—that if I was having fun, something was wrong with it. I must not be working hard enough! I never saw my father enjoy life and it seemed to aggravate him when others did, so I just grew up thinking something must be wrong with it. I can remember being told to be quiet when I laughed out loud.

Maybe you can relate; perhaps you went through some of the same struggles in your childhood, or have been through other things that have left you too serious. Every time you try to rest, every time you try to do anything recreational, anytime you do anything besides work, you have a vague feeling of guilt, as if something is wrong with it. I realize some people may not understand this struggle, but many, many do.

I think this excessive work mentality is one reason people often backslide in their relationships with God. They mistakenly try to serve God as a job or as “work” and fail to enjoy Him. The seventeenth-century French mystic Madame Guyon said that the highest call for every child of God is to enjoy God. I remember what a heavy load lifted off of me the first time I read that. At that time I was working so hard trying to please God that the thought of simply enjoying Him had not occurred to me at all. I had never heard of such a thing! I think it is sad indeed that I had been a committed church member for over twenty years before I learned that God wanted me to enjoy Him and the life He had given me.

God has created all things for our enjoyment and it begins by enjoying Him. He also wants us to enjoy one another and He wants us to enjoy ourselves.

Next time you have a desire to take a short break from your work and go for a walk in the park, or watch a child play. go ahead and do it without feeling guilty or unspiritual. Your work will still be there when you return. I am not encouraging you to be irresponsible, but I do want you to take the appropriate steps to enjoy life in the midst of accomplishing great things. If you have been working hard and feel you need a day off, then take it. You will be more fruitful if you take time to be refreshed. We live in the midst of a driven society but we can change if we choose to. If you don’t want to end up old with all kinds of regret about things you wish you would have done, then get started today making every moment count.