The power in your words

By Joel Osteen

Self-Fulfilling Prophecies

We get what we say. Our words become self-fulfilling prophecies. If you allow your thoughts to defeat you and then give birth to negative ideas through your words, your actions will follow suit. That’s why we need to be extremely careful about what we think and especially careful about what we say. Our words have tremendous power, and whether we want to or not, we will give life to what we’re saying, either good or bad. Sadly, many people are living discouraged lives because of their words.

Words are similar to seeds. By speaking them aloud, they are planted in our subconscious minds, and they take on a life of their own; they take root, grow, and produce fruit of the same kind. If we speak positive words, our lives will move in that direction. Similarly, negative words will produce poor results. We can’t speak words of defeat and failure yet expects to live in victory. We will reap exactly what we sow.

The Bible compares the tongue to the rudder of a huge ship. Although that rudder is small, it controls the direction of the entire ship, and, in a similar manner, your tongue will control the direction of your life. If you habitually speak words of failure, you are going to move in the direction of a defeated, discouraged life. If your conversation regularly includes phrases such as “I can’t. I’m not able to. I don’t have what it takes,” or other negative comments, you are setting yourself up for defeat. Those negative words will keep you from being the person God wants you to be.

Guard What You Say

If you’re in a storm today, now more than ever you need to guard what you say and not allow any negative, destructive words to come out of your mouth. Scripture says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue; and you will eat the fruit thereof.” In other words, you create an environment for either good or evil with your words, and you are going to have to live in that world you’ve created. If you’re always murmuring, complaining, and talking about how bad life is treating you, you’re going to live in a pretty miserable, depressing world. You may be tempted to merely use your words to describe negative situations, but God wants us to use our words to change our negative Situations. Don’t talk about the problem, talk about the solution.

The Bible clearly tells us to speak to our mountains. Maybe your mountain is a sickness; perhaps your mountain is a troubled relationship; maybe your mountain is a floundering business. Whatever your mountain is, you must do more than think about it, more than pray about it; you must speak to that obstacle. The Bible says, “Let the weak say I’m strong. Let the oppressed say I’m free. Let the sick say I’m healed. Let the poor say I’m well off.” Start calling yourself healed, happy, whole, blessed, and prosperous. Stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is!

Those are the kinds of words you must learn to speak in your everyday circumstances, and especially in times of crisis and adversity. When you’re facing obstacles in your path, you must boldly say, “Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world. No weapon formed against me is going to prosper. God always causes me to triumph.” Quit worrying and complaining about the obstacle, and start speaking to it. Quit complaining about poverty and lack and start declaring, “God supplies all of my needs in abundance.” Quit nagging that friend or family member who is not serving God and start declaring, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Quit complaining that nothing good ever happens to you and start declaring, “Everything I touch prospers and succeeds.” We must stop cursing the darkness. Let’s start commanding the light to come.

a) Speaking Life-Changing Words
b) Boldly Confess God’s Word
c) Speaking a Blessing
d) Declare God’s Favor
e) Words Can’t Be Taken Back

We need to be extremely careful about what we allow to come out of our mouths. The next time you’re tempted to talk down to somebody, to belittle your child or degrade him, remember, you can’t ever get those words back. Once you speak them, they take on a life of their own. Use your words to speak blessings over people. Quit criticizing your child and start declaring great things in store for her future. We should never speak negative destructive words toward anybody, especially toward people over whom we have authority or influence. Just because you have your own business or supervise a large number of employees doesn’t give you the right to talk down to them and make them feel badly about themselves. Quite the contrary! God is going to hold you accountable for what you say to those individuals under your authority, and He is going to judge you by a stricter standard. You should go out of your way to speak positive words that build up and encourage.

Declare God’s Goodness

You must start declaring God’s goodness in your life. Start boldly declaring, “God’s face is smiling toward me, and He longs to be good to me.” That is not bragging. That is how God says we’re going to be blessed when we start declaring His goodness.
Allow me to make some declarations in your life:

a) I declare that you are blessed with God’s supernatural wisdom, and you have clear direction for your life.
b) I declare that you are blessed with creativity, with courage, with ability, and with abundance.
c) I declare that you are blessed with a strong will and with self-control and self-discipline.
d) I declare that you are blessed with a great family, with good friends, with good health, and with faith, favor, and fulfillment.
e) I declare that you are blessed with success, with supernatural strength, with promotion, and with divine protection.
f) I declare that you are blessed with an obedient heart and with a positive outlook on life.
g) I declare that any curse that has ever been spoken over you, any negative evil word that has ever come against you, is broken right now.
h) I declare that you are blessed in the city. You are blessed in the country. You are blessed when you go in. You are blessed when you come out.
i) I declare that everything you put your hands to do is going to prosper and succeed.
j) I declare that you are blessed!

I encourage you to receive these words and meditate on them; let them sink down deeply into your heart and mind and become a reality in your life. Practice doing something similar with your family. Learn to speak blessings over your life, your friends, your future. Remember, a blessing is not a blessing until it is spoken. If you’ll do your part and start boldly speaking blessings over your life and the lives of those around you, God will provide everything you need to live the life of abundance He wants you to have.

PUSH!

From the Daily Bread October 27, 2007

A little spark of encouragement can ignite great endeavors. In Acts 11: 23 [He] encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord. Be like Joses, more known as Barnabas, the "Son of Encouragement", a good man full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

Lord, I would be to others

A cheering ray of light

Inspiring them with courage

To climb some new-found height - Bosch

The Seed Must Lead

By Joel Osteen

One of the main hindrances to living your best life now is selfishness. As long as you are focused on what you want, what you need, you will never experience God’s best. But if you really want to thrive, you must learn to be a giver. The Scripture says, “Whatsoever a man sows, that he will also reap.” All through the Bible, we find the principle of sowing and reaping. Just as a farmer must plant some seed if he hopes to reap the harvest, we, too, must plant some good seed in the fields of our families, careers, businesses, and personal relationships.

FAMINE IN THE LAND

Maybe you are in some sort of famine today. It could be a financial famine; or maybe you’re simply famished for friends, it’s possible you need a physical healing. Perhaps you need peace in your home. Whatever the need, one of the best things you can do is to get your mind off yourself and help meet somebody else’s need. If you’re down and discouraged today, don’t sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Go find somebody to cheer up. Sow some seeds of happiness. That’s the way to receive a harvest. The seed always has to lead.

When you meet other people’s needs, God has promised that He will make sure your needs are supplied. If you want to see healing and restoration come to your life, go out and help somebody else get well. The Bible says, “In times of difficulty; trust in the Lord and do good.” It’s not enough to say, “God, I trust You. I know You are going to meet all my needs.” That’s tantamount to the farmer not planting any seeds and expecting a fabulous harvest. Scripture says there are two things we must do in times of trouble. First, we must trust in the Lord: and second, we must go out and do something good. Go out and sow some seeds. If you need a financial miracle, go buy somebody a cup of coffee tomorrow morning, or give a little extra in the offering at church.

Plant Some Seed

In the time of need, sow a seed. An intriguing Scripture verse says, “It is possible to give away and become richer! It is also possible to hold on too tightly and lose everything. Yes, the liberal man shall be rich! By watering others, he waters himself.” Daddy understood that if he generously took care of others. God would take care of his own needs. The same goes for you. If you will focus on giving generously to others, God will make sure your own life is refreshed, even if you must go through a dry, dreary wilderness.

Do Something Out of the Ordinary

Learn to stretch your faith. Do something out of the ordinary. If you want an extraordinary harvest, sow an extraordinary seed. Instead of sitting at home watching TV every night, why not spend some of that time doing something good for somebody else? Instead of going out to eat at an expensive restaurant, why not save that money and sow it as a seed? If you normally give 10 percent of your income, stretch your faith a bit and give 11 percent. Get a little more seed in the ground and watch what God will do. The Scripture says, “For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” In other words, if you give with a teaspoon, it’s going to he given back to you with a teaspoon. If you give with a shovel, it’s going to be given back with a shovel. And if you give with a dump truck, you’re going to get dump truck loads of blessings in your life!

The Bible clearly says, “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sow bountifully will reap bountifully.” If you re not satisfied with where you are in life, increase the amount of seed you are sowing. The size of your harvest depends on the amount of your seed. Certainly, some people live on limited incomes. It takes everything they have to make it each month. In my heart, I want to tell them, “Just hold on to what you have. You need that money” But I know that God’s principles are true. And I know it is imperative that the people with the greatest need continue to sow

Understand, sowing seed is not a replacement for tithing. In fact, it is usually when you give over and above the first 10 percent of your income that this principle kicks into high gear. The Bible says, “The tithe is the Lord’s. And it is holy” That means the first tenth of your income doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to God and should he given to your local church. When you hold on to it, you’re really robbing from God. So if you are not sowing at all, the tithe is a good place to start!

The Scripture says that when we tithe, God not only opens up the windows of heaven, but He will rebuke the devourer for your sake. That means He’ll keep the enemy off your money, off your crop, off your children, and away from your home. He’ll make sure you get promoted. He’ll cause you to get the best deals in life. Sometimes, He’ll keep you from sickness, accidents, and harm that might cause other unnecessary expenses. All kinds of blessings come your way when you honor God in the area of your finances.

On the other hand, you can’t rob God and expect Him to bless you at the same time. You must realize, God doesn’t need your money or your time or your talent. When God asks us to give, it’s riot because He’s trying to get something from us. No, it’s because He’s trying to get us to put some seed in the ground so we can reap a harvest. God abides by the laws He has established, and if you don’t sow, you will not reap. It’s as simple as that. But if you are faithful and do what God tells you to do, God will honor the law of reaping and sowing. You may not have a lot to give, but God will bless you if you start where you are.

Don’t wait until you have more; start now. That’s the way you will receive more from God. You sow some seed, and then God will bless you with more. Then you can sow a little more seed, and on and on. That’s how you increase. But if you are not being faithful with what you have right now how can God trust you with more?

The Scripture is not ambiguous about this matter. It says, “In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.” If you want to prosper in your finances, put God first. If you want to prosper in your business, put God first. When you honor God, God will always honor you. And it’s interesting, the only place in the Bible where God tells us to prove Him—which means to test Him, or check Him out—is in the area of our finances. If you will be faithful and show God that you’re trustworthy with what you have right now, there’s no limit to what God will do in your life.

Draw me close

By Kelly Carpenter

Draw me close to You
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear You say that I'm Your friend

You are my desire
No one else will do
Cause nothing else could take Your place
To feel the warmth of Your embrace
Help me find the way, bring me back to You

You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed
You're all I want

Help me know You are near

By Joe Cullen

Young or old, male or female, a hunger for knowing our Creator is wired into us. Real spiritual growth occurs only when we take steps to get to know who God is—and who we are in relation to Him. "Draw close to God, and God will draw close to you" (James 4:8). Hunger for God is sensed differently at various stages of our lives. The right people coming alongside us at the right time can make all the difference.

Keep you heart of compassion open

By Joel Osteen

The Ability to Empathize

One definition of compassion is simply “feeling what other people feel, being concerned, showing that you care.” In other words, when you see somebody in need, you feel their pain. You take time to com­fort them. When somebody is discouraged, you feel that discourage­ment. You take it to heart and you do your best to cheer them up. If you see somebody struggling financially, you don’t just pat them on the back and give them a quick Scripture verse. No, you take time for them, and you do what you can to help. You have a genuine concern. You show them that you really care.

Everywhere you go these days people are hurting. People are dis­couraged; many have broken dreams. They’ve made mistakes, and now their lives are in a mess. They need to feel God’s compassion and His unconditional love. They don’t need somebody to judge and criticize them, or to tell them what they’re doing wrong. (In most cases, they already know that!) They need somebody to bring hope, somebody to bring healing, somebody to show God’s mercy. Really, they’re looking for a friend, somebody who will be there to encourage them, who will take the time to listen to their story and genuinely care.

This world is desperate to experience the love and compassion of our God. More than any other human attribute, I believe our world is crying out for people with compassion, people who love uncondition­ally, people who will take some time to help their fellow sojourners on this planet.
We’re all so busy. We have our own priorities and important plans and agendas. Often, our attitude is: I don’t want to be inconvenienced. Don’t bother me with your problems. I’ve got enough problems of my own. But the Scripture says, “If anyone sees his brother in need yet closes his heart of compassion, how can the love of God be in him?” Interesting, isn’t it? God’s Word implies that we each have a heart of compassion, but the question is whether it is opened or closed.

Furthermore, the Bible says, “We are to continually walk in love being guided by love and following love.” When God puts love and compassion in your heart toward someone, He’s offering you an opportunity to make a difference in that person’s life. You must learn to follow that love. Don’t ignore it. Act on it. Somebody needs what you have.

Certainly, when God created us, He put His supernatural love in all of our hearts. He’s placed in you the potential to have a kind, caring, gentle, loving spirit. You have the ability to empathize, to feel what other people are feeling. Because you were created in the image of God, you have the moral capacity to experience God’s compassion in your heart. But too often, because of our own selfishness, we choose to close our hearts to compassion.

If you want to live your best life now, you must make sure that you keep your heart of compassion open. We need to be on the lookout for people we can bless. We need to be willing to be interrupted and in­convenienced every once in a while if it means we can help to meet somebody else’s need. If you study the life of Jesus, you will discover that He always took time for people. He was never too busy with His own agenda, with His own plans. He wasn’t so caught up in Himself that He was unwilling to stop and help a person in need. He could have easily said, “Listen, I’m busy. I have a schedule to keep. I’m on My way to the next city, and I’ve already been delayed.” But no, Jesus had compassion on people. He was concerned about what they were going through, and He will­ingly took the time to help. He freely gave of His life. I believe He de­mands nothing less from those who claim to be His followers today. Many people are unhappy and are not experiencing life to its fullest because they’ve closed their hearts to compassion. They are motivated by only what they want and what they think they need. They rarely do anything for anybody else unless they have an ulterior goal in mind. They are self-involved and self-centered.

But if you want to experience God’s abundant life, you must get your focus off yourself and start taking time to help other people. You must exhibit and express God’s love and goodness wherever you go. You must be a person of compassion. If you will focus on meeting other people’s needs, God will always make sure your needs are supplied. God will take care of your problems for you.

Take the Time to Listen

Interestingly, Jesus was very patient with people. He took the time to listen to their stories. He wasn’t in a big hurry. He didn’t try to see how quickly He could get rid of a person so He could move on to somebody more important or do what He wanted to do. Instead, He pa­tiently took the time to listen to each person’s struggles. And He did what was necessary to meet their needs.

Sometimes if we would just take the time to listen to people, we could help initiate a healing process in their lives. So many people today have hurt and pain bottled up inside them. They have nobody they can talk to; they don’t really trust anybody anymore. If you can open your heart of compassion and be that person’s friend without judging or condemning—and simply have an ear to listen, you may help lift that heavy burden. You don’t have to know all the answers. You just need to care.

More than our advice, more than our instruction, people need our listening ears. Many people simply need somebody they can talk to, somebody with whom they can be honest. They just need a friend they can count on. You will be amazed at what a positive impact you can have in the world if you will just learn to be a good listener.

We need to learn to be better listeners. God can speak to people and tell them what to do while they’re speaking to you about their strug­gle. Don’t always be so quick to give your opinion. Be sensitive to what the real need is in the person you hope to help. Too frequently, what we really want to do is just shut them down, give them a quick word of en­couragement, a semi-appropriate Scripture verse, and a fifteen-second prayer; then we can go on and do what we want to do. But God wants us to take time for people, to hear with our hearts, to show them we’re concerned, to show them we really care.

Reaching Out

God knows what He’s doing. He knows who’s hurting. He knows who’s at the end of their rope. If you will follow that flow of love and compassion wherever it leads, you may be the answer to a desperate, lonely person’s prayer. You may not fully realize the impact one brief phone call can have. You may not realize the significance of what it means to a hurting, lonely person to hear the words “I’ve been think­ing about you. I’ve been concerned about you. I love you. I believe in you. I want to be praying for you. I’m going to stand with you.” You may have forgotten how powerful and life-changing those simple words of hope can be. Let love lead you through life. Don’t ever ignore that feeling of compassion inside you. Learn to follow the flow of God’s divine love. He will direct your paths and show you where and how to express it. God may be prompting you about somebody to whom you need to reach out. If somebody’s name keeps coming up in your mind, and you feel compassion toward them, do something about it. Don’t put it off; make a phone call; stop by to visit that person, or make contact in an­other appropriate manner.

An Irreplaceable Moment

Most of the time, when we reach out to other people, when we fol­low that flow of love, we think we’re doing it for their sakes, for their benefit. But I can tell you first hand, sometimes God puts that com­passion in our hearts as much for our benefit as for others’. Keep your heart of compassion open. Learn to be quick to follow that flow of love God puts in your heart. Be sensitive and obedient to do what God wants you to do. You won’t be sorry—not now, or a million years from now!

Learn to think differently

By Dr Henry Cloud/Dr John Townsend

Thinking and the Truth

When we take distorted thinking to the next level, to the level of important life goals, we begin to see how much it can affect whether you get what you want out of life. The very way people think can render them powerless and helpless, and lead them to blame others. For example, sometimes people see themselves and their abilities in such a way that they feel they could never succeed. Others look at their options as severely limited. And others listen to their minds telling them that if they take a small risk, their world will fall apart. You really can’t overstate the importance of your thinking patterns. Nor can you overstate how dramatically helpful it can be to learn to think differently. That is why thinking is one of your eight keys to empowerment and life change.

Make the Shift

As you begin the process of learning to think differently, one fundamental reality that you must come to terms with is that your mind is not always telling you the truth! Your thinker sometimes thinks thoughts that have nothing to do with reality. This is despite the fact that your mind may be telling you that those thoughts are real, true, and accurate.

What Your Mind Distorts

Let’s look at some of the major ways that our mind distorts reality in the areas that affect empowerment and life ownership. As you read over these common statements or practices, think about times you may have used them yourself, and consider what it may have cost you.

Distorted- Thinking Statement No. 1: “I’ve Tried Everything and Nothing Helps.”

When facing an unreached goal, a relational opportunity, or a life problem that needs to be resolved, a person will often express some form of I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. That is to say, he believes he has tried everything, and there are no solutions, in his mind, he has exhausted all the possibilities for making changes, achieving dreams, and making improvements, and now he must resign himself to the reality that there is no hope for betterment. Nothing helps.

It is true that there are those times in which nothing does help, at least in the sense that you can’t undo the past. When a person you love dies, he is gone. When you get fired, you are not likely to get the job back. When your husband says critical things to you, they can’t be unsaid. No device has yet been invented that can rewind what has happened and replay it by a different script. Dealing with the inevitability of the past is more a matter of knowing how to grieve and adapt.

But the distorted thinking that leads one to think everything possible has been done and the situation is hopeless is another matter. The person with this mentality believes he has nothing left but to accept a bad situation with no hope of change. That is a discouraging and disempowering thinking pattern, and it keeps people stuck and hopeless.

Distorted - Thinking Statement No. 2: “I Can’t”

I can’t thinking is the opposite of can do thinking. It is literally can’t do thinking. In this mentality, people feel unable to make any move to better their situation or reach their goal. They feel profoundly helpless. I can’t thinking simply shuts the door to opportunities, hope, and change. There is no resource; nothing can be done and nothing can be different.

The Bible teaches the same thing about I can’t thinking when it speaks about practicing those things which lead us to maturity: “But solid food for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil” (Hebrews 5:14 NASB). Practicing means trying and failing, and practicing brings training to us. Practice is one of the antidotes to “I can’t.”

Distorted-Thinking Practice No. 1: Passive Language

Active and passive meanings have no moral value; they are neither good nor bad. They just convey when people use passive language to explain their choices in such a way that they disown responsibility ownership, and empowerment. They have selected a way of thinking and communicating to others that hampers their ability to take charge and take action to get what they need. Now you can get back to what you can do and achieve. Until you do that, other people are in charge of your life;

Distorted- Thinking Practice No. 2: Negative Thinking

The minds of some people seem to work negatively all the time on just about everything. Whatever the event, problem, or opportunity, they cast a dark light on it which discourages them and keeps them from the moves they need to make. For them, the glass is always half empty, and the light at the end of the tunnel is always a train.

Research indicates that negative thinkers will key in on three basic areas of life: themselves, the world, and the future. They see themselves as unlucky, even as losers who never get a break. They look at the world as unfriendly to them, oppressing their chances, and giving others more opportunity. They don’t see their future as positive and hopeful. It seems bleak and dark, with no hope to brighten it up.

You may have tendencies toward negative thinking and not even be aware of them. You may think you are simply being realistic. You may even think, Those positive thinkers are out of touch with reality They live in the clouds and don’t understand life the way it really is. You can see how negative thinking can paralyze your ability to combat the culture of blame and prevent you from taking hold of your life in an exciting and change-producing way. Taking chances, risks, and dreaming great dreams takes energy and passion. That energy and passion get sapped and drained when we are plagued by negative thinking.

Distorted- Thinking Practice No. 3: Defensive Thinking

Sometimes distorted thinking causes our minds to work against us. Strange as it seems, our minds will often work very hard to ward off thoughts of any positive plans, changes, and improvements. The mind will create a million excuses and defenses designed to keep us snug in our comfort zone and away from anxiety and tension. This is called defensive thinking. If you see this tendency in yourself, you need to resolve it and get past it, for it is another insidious dream-robber.

Steps to Thinking Better

You need your mind.

To reach your potential, to achieve your goals and dreams, whether they be about career, love, family, habits, or spiritual growth, you need your mind to be your ally and friend, not an obstacle. A mind plagued with excuses, negativity, passive discouragement, and similar contamination is like an engine full of sludge. It will not get you where you want to go.So we want to show you some of the best steps you can take to revive your thinker and make it help rather than hinder your efforts to be more successful.

Step No. 1: Commit Yourself to Raw Reality

Reality may not be pleasant, but no problem was ever solved, no goal ever reached without looking at the situation squarely with no editing or refraining. Don’t be afraid to say, I need to know what is true, not what I hope is true. That is your sure path. Look for raw, unvarnished reality, not the prepackaged, politically acceptable type.
Reality will never fail you. It is how God sees everything, and he uses reality to accomplish his purposes. In fact, reality and truth are part of his own makeup. He is “full of unfailing love and truth” (Psalm 86:15 NIT). Seek reality and you will find God there, helping your thoughts conform to the truth.

Step No. 2: Become a Humble Person

Humility is a trait of greatness. It is not an aspect of timid people who see themselves as trash. Humility is the ability to see yourself and your situation clearly for good and for bad. Humble people don’t care if what they do or think makes them look like a hero or a bad guy. They want to get at the heart of the matter. Be humble enough to allow for the possibility that you can do better—and then act on that possibility.

Step No. 3: Be a Self Observer

Develop the ability to monitor yourself. Observe what you do, why you do it, and when you do it. As Dr. Howard Hendricks, one of my favorite professors, used to say, “Become a student of yourself.” That is a trait of successful people, and they achieve success because they are able to confront the truth about themselves and get over their inaccurate and unhelpful thinking patterns.

When I consult with people who come to me with problems, I often have them try this exercise. “Imagine that you are in two places at once: one ‘you’ is in a real interaction with someone else, discussing some goal or problem. The second ‘you’ is floating above, near the ceiling, looking at the interaction of the other you and learning from it. After you leave the conversation, you can use that floating, observing ‘you’ to review what happened and consider what you could have done differently.”

Step No. 4: Forgive

At first blush. forgiveness may not seem to have anything to do with changing your thinking patterns. But it is highly critical to the process. When we forgive, we cancel a debt. That is the meaning of the word in the New Testament. In other words, we let go of our right to extract punishment, justice, and revenge from an offending person.

This releasing of negative baggage has great power to help us think more clearly, for unforgiveness clouds our minds with thoughts of victimization, powerlessness, punishment, unfairness, and retribution. When we haven’t forgiven another person, we can’t look at our situation or see our choices or see our own part in the problem. We focus only on what the other has done and what has been done to us. Forgiveness unlocks the key to that prison, enabling us to flush out the hurt and obsessions about the offending person. Then our minds can once again be clear to think about hope, action, dreams, and goals.

Step No. 5: Create and Write Down the Good Slogans

Your mind has been coming up with excuses to keep you from owning your future, and it has probably been doing so for a long time. As you become more self-aware, start identifying the slogans you have been repeating to yourself that have been chaining you down. We all have them. But go further than that and create new slogans that counter the bad ones. Craft these new slogans so that they put the true vision into perspective.

Write these new slogans down and keep them around you in places that will remind you of what is true and real. Put them in the screensaver on your computer. Place sticky notes on your bathroom mirror and refrigerator. When negative thoughts invade your mind, look at these notes. When you are doing okay, look at them anyway to keep yourself centered on reality. When you are doing the cognitive work of training mind, the personal work of embracing reality, and being humble and forgiving, the presence of these new slogans can be powerful and effective. Here are a few examples:

• No more I can’t excuses. I can, and I will.
• When I fail, I will learn from it and move on.
• I will not wait for life to find me. I will find life.
• There is great opportunity for a great future.
• I am the only person who can own my dreams, and I choose to own them.
• Blame will not get me where I want to go. Ownership will get me there.
• When I take responsibility for my problems. I am in charge.

God understands the power of writing and repetition to help us remember, and that is why he encouraged his people to use this method centuries ago. He wants us to know, remember, and experience the realities that bring about success.

Look at what he told his people after he gave them his law:

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your towhead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NASB)

Remember the Ambrose Bierce quote at the beginning of this chapter “Brain: An apparatus with which we think we think.” Bierce was trying to be funny, but he was also being cynical. The reality is that God gave you a brain, not as an apparatus to make you think that you think, but as a tool to help you to see reality for what it is, and then to think plan, dream, and take ownership of your life. You can own your own thinker! Take charge of it

The Lord's Prayer

Matthew 6:9-13 (New King James Version)

(9) In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
(10) Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven.

(11) Give us this day our daily bread.

(12) And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

(13) And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen

Don't play fair

By Dr Henry Cloud

The problem is that operating by the principle of playing fair, all it takes for any relationship to go sour is for one person not to per­form, then the other one will do the same. There is an interlocking dependency: the other person must be good so I can be good. In this kind of dynamic, we need the other person to be loving in order for us to love them, or to behave maturely in order for us to behave maturely toward them. And no one ever performs perfect­ly, so that is why all it takes to drag a relationship down is one fail­ure. Under the “play fair” system, deterioration is inevitable. See if these examples sound familiar:

• One person is a little withdrawn, so the other feels aban­doned and gives the silent treatment.
• One person is a little sarcastic, so the other one is sarcastic back.
• One person gets a little angry, so the other one snaps back.

GETTING BEYOND JUST FAIR

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sin­ners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them with­out expecting to get anything back. (LUKE 6:32-35)

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (ROMANS 12:17-18)

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (ROMANS 12:21)

The answer is very simple, and very hard to do. It is the way of déjà vu people:
Give back better than you are given.

People who succeed in life do not go around settling scores. They do not even keep score. They “run up the score” by doing good to others, even when the others do not deserve it. They give them better than they are given. And as a result, they often bring the other person up to their level instead of being brought down to the level of the other. They are a redemptive force carrying a good infection wher­ever they go, infusing relationships with health; infusing businesses with health; and infusing communities with health. They change things for the better. They give back better than they are given.

1. Get Rid of Anger

Successful people know this. They do not blast people with anger. They take a third route, which is using their anger to let the other person know that there is a problem. Then, they go and solve the problem by approaching the person in love, not anger, and facing the issue at hand. This is what we discussed in the last chapter, on hating wisely. Successful people make their anger objective, and its object is the problem, not the person. They are not doormats at all. But they fix problems in a way that treats the other person better than the other person treats them. In so doing they become allies with the person to solve the problem instead of enemies trying to win. You just do not see people who are successful in the true sense of the word who are hotheads and have never gotten control of their anger. The successful ones do not let anger spoil relation­ships. They agree with Solomon: “It is to a man’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel” (Proverbs 20:3).

2. Ask Yourself What Is Helpful

3. Get Past Your Own Need

Successful people see life as a place to give, and as a by-product of giving, they receive back in the end. They are not giving just to get something back, but that is what happens. When a person takes the high road and helps a wayward spouse, sibling, partner, or friend mature through love and enforcing limits, they often get a mature spouse, sibling, partner, or friend in the end as the reward for their sacrifice. By “losing our life” as Jesus put it, we “gain it.” But to demand it in the beginning, we lose it. The high road that leads to payoff is always the one that begins with sacrifice. That may not be fair, but it’s true. So, become responsible for getting what you need and main­taining your own emotional health so that the other person cannot drag you into the gutter. If you keep your feet solidly on the high road, you will be able to drag him or her up. It is like when the flight attendant tells you to first put on your own oxygen mask before helping a child put on hers. You cannot help another if you are deprived of the thing you need.

4. Sometimes Love Takes a Person to a Higher Level

Solomon tells us that “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger” (Proverbs 15:1). This wise father knew that principle, and it worked for him. But to make it work, he had to get past himself and his natural instinct to dish out what he was being given, even though his daughter “deserved” it. Not giving others what they deserve is a big part of not playing fair. To give them better than they deserve is what the Bible calls grace. The word means unmerited favor. It describes how God treats us. Sometimes, as we said above, it means that we give some­one loving limits and consequences if other things have not worked. But often, limits are not needed; only a little softness is.

5. Ask How You Have Contributed

6. Give the Opposite

Remember, it is not a good thing to water a plant that you do not want or to fuel a fire that can burn you. Do not feed the bad, destructive things, but instead sow exactly the opposite. Do not let the other person get away with hurting you. That is not good either for you or him. But avoid sowing more bad behavior into the rela­tionship. That is self-defeating.

WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND

Déjà vu people are not interested in settling the score or getting even. Revenge is for immature people, and they know that ultimately the offending person is going to get what he deserves without his need­ing to bring it about. God and the universe have a way of making that happen, as does also the natural law of sowing and reaping. But even this ultimate payback is not something that déjà vu people wish on another person, and that is the true hallmark of their char­acter. They truly want the best for others, even those who do not do well by them. Solomon expressed that kind of character in this way:

Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, or the LORD will see and disapprove and turn his wrath away from him. (Proverbs 24:17-18)

Our 2 biggest Problems

By Dr John Townsend

“It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-43)

Jesus point was that we all have problems and needs to be looked at, understood, loved, and helped by Him and His resources. But revealing these problems is often the larger problem. We can call our efforts to conceal these problems defenses, which are anything we use to protect ourselves from danger. We put them up as spiritual and emotional “shields” to keep from being exposed or hurt. This isn’t to say that we have only one shield. Most of us use a variety of hiding patterns in different situations.

We tend to select certain shields depending on two factors:
(1) what injured part of ourselves we’re protecting;
(2) who or what we’re protecting ourselves from.

I believe that the reason why we tend to hide our problems and struggles can be traced to two basic problems in life:
(1) we’re unfinished people;
(2) we fear the very things we need to restore us.

PROBLEM #1: WE’RE UNFINISHED

Our fundamental problem is that we are an unfinished people. As Christians, all of us are somewhat like a beautiful but damaged home under restoration. Our basic problem in life is that we are an unfinished and damaged creation, somewhere in between the blueprint and the final whisk of the cleaning cloth. Just as a contractor provides labor and materials to build the structure, we are to be active par­ticipants in our own growth. The solution to our problem is to find our areas of spiritual and emotional unmaturity, and to enter into the process of restoring those parts to their renovated condition.

The fundamental problem of being unfinished has many kinds of effects in our lives. One area of growth that many of us struggle with is a need for genuine, deep, warm personal relationships. Sometimes this need is manifested in a deep sense of not “belong­ing.” of not “fitting in.” It seems there is a void inside our hearts that just will not be filled. The Bible proclaims our need for connection. At the deepest spiritual and emotional level, we are beings who need safety and a sense of belonging in our three primary relationships: God, self. and others. We begin life in a terrified and disconnected state. Disconnectedness is the most destructive result of sin’s entrance into the universe. It is the deepest and most fundamental problem we can experience.

This disconnectedness is a violation of the very nature of God, of what He holds primary. God created us for a life of closeness and attachment. Jesus declared that the entire Hebrew Scriptures rested on loving God and people. Perhaps the number one root of emotional disorders is that some part of the self is isolated from relationship.

PROBLEM #2: WE FEAR WHAT WE NEED

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. [Psalm 139:13-15, NIV) Because of the effects of Adam and Eve’s fall from innocence into sin, those “inward parts” made by God have been damaged in their ability to function in some way. Let’s face it, sin injures us! And untangling the combination of “what’s broken and why” is a major task we must undertake if we’re to see those injured parts healed.

Jesus talks about the principle of roots and fruits in Matthew 7: 17-18: “Every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” In other words, results always point to causes. Children are a good example. A family with loving, successful children is generally a sign of some good roots, such as parenting style, environment, and support. The family with troubled children is often a sign of some sort of struggle in the parents’ lives. The same is true in our lives. Our spiritual and emotional fruit points to our roots.

Hiding always has some fruit, or symptom. In other words, you and I can detect hiding in our lives by the problems it causes. When we hide, a part of our character is pushed away from rela­tionship into a spiritual darkness called isolation. The isolation of some part of our soul from love will always produce a problem. This makes sense, because whatever is isolated from nourish­ment remains broken and undeveloped. In the physical world, we call this malnutrition. Spiritual and emotional malnutrition are just as destructive.

But suppose there are no detectable symptoms in our life? Should we take a look at our defenses anyway? Certainly, pre­vention is better than cure. Recall David’s prayer in Psalm 139. He asks God for awareness without mentioning any symptoms. It’s likely that he’s taking a preventive look at himself. So even if we appear to be without symptoms (which really isn’t possible in a fallen world), we’re wise to stay awake, spiritually and emotionally. Awareness is not all we need, however. We require an envi­ronment of safe relationships in order to come out from hiding, no matter how much insight and information we have about our spiritual and emotional makeup. This is how God designed it.

This point is often missed in our Christian circles, where it is often assumed that doctrinal exposure to the truths of the Bible is sufficient to ensure solutions to all problems. Yet Jesus Himself stressed the necessity of relationship in order to take in truth. His statement “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) is one indication that knowing a person is necessary to knowing his truth. To know here means to understand personally, not just intellectually. This “knowing” applies to relationships with people as well as with God.

The heart of God places great value on our needs being met. Jesus’ anguish over His people’s turning from His provision is a poignant picture: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling” (Matthew 23:3 7)

God wants to help His people in their struggles, dames tells us God is a gift-giver: Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow. (James 1:17) The Bible presents God as a Father who is anxious to see His chil­dren taken care of. He delights in helping us, in providing for us.

Showing God’s Kindness and Mercy..what the Bible says..

By Joel Osteen

The Bible says, “See that none of you repays another evil for evil, but always aim to show kindness and seek to do good to one another and to everybody.” Notice the words aim and seek in this verse. God is saying we must be proactive. We should be on the lookout to share His mercy, kindness, and goodness with people. We must aim for kind­ness and seek to do good. Moreover, we need to be kind to people even when they don’t deserve it. We need to walk in love and be courteous even when somebody is unkind to us.

The Bible says, “We are to love our enemies. We are to do good to them that spitefully use us.” Daddy often said, “Everybody de­serves to have a bad day once in a while.” We’ve got to give people room to have a bad day.When you are placed in awkward situations where somebody doesn’t treat you right, you have a golden opportunity to help heal a wounded heart. Keep in mind, hurting people often hurt other people as a result of their own pain. If somebody is rude and inconsiderate, you can al­most be certain that they have some unresolved issues inside. They have some major problems, anger, resentment, or some heartache they are trying to cope with or overcome. The last thing they need is for you to make matters worse by responding angrily.

Evil is never overcome by more evil. If you mistreat people who are mistreating you, you will make matters worse. When you express anger to somebody who has been angry with you, it’s like adding fuel to a fire. No, we overcome evil with good. When somebody hurts you, the only way you can overcome it is by showing them mercy, forgiving them, and doing what is right. Keep taking the high road and be kind and courteous. Keep walk­ing in love and have a good attitude. God sees what you’re doing. He sees you going the extra mile to do what’s right, and He will make sure your good actions and attitude will overcome that evil. If you’ll keep doing the right thing, you will come out far ahead of where you would have been had you fought fire with fire.

The Bible says, “God is our vindicator.” He will not let you lose out. You may think you’re getting the short end of the stick, but when it’s all said and done, God will make sure that you don’t lose anything truly valuable. Moreover, He’ll make sure you get your just reward. Your responsibility is to remain calm and peaceable even when those around you are not.

Overcome Evil with Good

The Bible says, “Love overlooks a person’s faults.” That’s not always easy but love believes the best in every person. Anybody can return evil for evil, but God wants His people to help heal wounded hearts. If somebody is not treating you right today go out of your way to be kinder than usual to that person. If your husband is not serving God, don’t go around beating him over the head with your Bible, preaching at him, nagging him, coercing him to come to church with you. No, just start being extra kind to him. Start loving him in a fresh way. The Bible says, “It is the goodness of God that leads people to repentance.” If you will be extra good and inordinately kind, before long God’s goodness expressed through you will overcome that evil. Friend, love never fails.

The Bible says, “Love doesn’t hold a grudge. Love doesn’t harbor unforgiveness.” You may have people in your life who have done you great wrong, and you have a right to be angry and bitter. You may feel as though your whole life has been stolen away by somebody who has mistreated you or deceived you. But if you will choose to let go of your grudge and forgive them, you can overcome that evil with good. You can get to the point where you can look at the people who have hurt you and return good for evil. If you do that, God will pour out His favor in your life in a fresh way He will honor you; He will reward you, and He’ll make those wrongs right.

When you can bless your worst enemies and do good to those who have used or abused you, that’s when God will take that evil and turn it around for good. No matter what you’ve gone through, no matter who hurt you or whose fault it was, let it go. Don’t try to get even. Don’t hold a grudge. Don’t try to pay them back. God says show mercy. Aim for kindness. Seek to do good. We have to remember that God is the one keeping the score. He is in control. And when you bless your enemies, you will never lose. God will always make it up to you.

Go the Extra Mile

Maybe you feel that you’re the one who’s doing all the giving in some situation. Because people know you are kind, generous, and friendly, they tend to take advantage of you or not appreciate you. But God sees your integrity. Nothing that you do goes unnoticed by God. He’s keeping the records, and He will reward you in due time.

Don’t grow weary in well doing. God is a just God, and He sees not just what you are doing but why you are doing it. God judges our mo­tives as well as our actions. And because of your unselfishness, because you prefer others, because you’re aiming for kindness, one day God will say to you as He did to Abraham, “As far as you can see, I’m going to give it to you.” Sometimes when we’re good to people and we go the extra mile, we have a tendency to think, I’m letting people walk all over me. I’m let­ting them take advantage of me. They’re taking what rightfully belongs to me. That’s when you have to say “Nobody is taking anything from me. I am freely giving it to them. I’m blessing them on purpose, knowing that God is going to make it up to me.

God sees your acts of kindness and mercy as well. When you are kind to people, when you go around doing good to people, God arranges for others to leave behind “handfuls” of good things for you. You will find a handful of blessings over here, a handful of blessings over there, supernatural favors over here, an unexpected promotion over there. Everywhere you go, you will discover the supernatural blessings of God lying in your path, left there for you by God.

Believe in yourself

by Dr C Maxwell

If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t.
If you’d like to win, but think you can’t
It’s almost certain you won’t…
Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man,
But soon or late, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.

Belief Determines Expectations

If you want your talent to be lifted to its highest level, then you don’t begin by focusing on your talent. You begin by harnessing the power of your mind. Your beliefs control everything you do. Accomplishment is note than a matter of working harder or smarter. It’s also a matter of believing positively. Someone called it the “sure enough” syndrome. If you expect to fail, sure enough, you will. If you expect to succeed, sure enough, you will. You will become on the outside what you believe on the inside.

Personal breakthroughs begin with a change in your beliefs. Why? Because your beliefs determine your expectations, and your expectations determine your actions. A belief is a habit of mind in which confidence becomes a conviction that we embrace. In the long run, a belief is more than an idea that a person possesses. It is an idea that possesses person. Benjamin Franklin said, “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” If you want to achieve something in life, you have to be willing to be disappointed. You need to expect to succeed. Does that mean you always will? No. You will fail. You will make mistakes. But if you expect to win, you maximize your talent, and you keep trying. Then like Joe Namath, you will eventually succeed.

Attorney Kerry Randall said, “Contrary to popular opinion, life does not get not get better by chance, life gets better by change. And this change always takes place inside; it is the change of thought that creates the better life.” Improvement comes from change, but change requires confidence. For that reason, you need to make confidence in yourself a priority. You need to put believing in your potential, yourself, your mission, and your fellow human beings at the top of your list. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt asserted, “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.” Don’t let your doubts cause your expector to expire.

The purpose of trials

By Joel Osteen

No matter how successful we are, we all face challenges, struggles, and times when things don’t go our way. When calamities occur, some people immediately think they have done something wrong, that God must surely be punishing them. They don’t understand that God has a divine purpose for every challenge that comes into our lives. He doesn’t send the problems, but sometimes He allows us to go through them.

Why is that? The Bible says temptations, trials, and difficulties must come, because if we are to strengthen our spiritual muscles and grow stronger, we must have adversities to overcome and attacks to resist. Moreover, it’s in the tough times of life that we find out what we’re really made of. The pressure exposes things that we need to deal with things such as wrong attitudes, wrong motives, areas where we’re compromising. As odd as this may seem, the trials can be beneficial.

The Scripture says, “Don’t be amazed at the fiery ordeal that’s tak­ing place to test your quality as though something strange was hap­pening.”’ Notice, the trial is intended to test your quality, to test your character, to test your faith. In other words, “Don’t think it’s a big deal when you go through these tough times.” All through life, you will face various tests, and even though you may not enjoy them, God will use those trials to refine you, to cleanse and purify you. He’s trying to shape you into the person He wants you to be. If you will learn to Co­operate with God and be quick to change and correct the areas that He brings to light, then you’ll pass that test and you will be promoted to a new level.

Tests of Faith

God often allows you, to go through situations to draw out those impurities in your character. You can rebuke until your “re­buker” wears out. You can pray, you can resist, you can bind, you can loose, you can sing and shout, you can do it all, but it’s not going to do you any good! God is more interested in changing you than He is in changing the circumstances. And the sooner you learn to cooperate with God, the sooner you’ll get out of that mess. The quicker you learn your lesson and start dealing with those bad attitudes and start ruling over your emotions, the quicker you’ll go to the next level in your spiritual journey. We must recognize the refining purpose of tri­als. We can’t run from everything that’s hard in our lives.

Recognize that God wants to do a work in you. He’s molding you and refining you. But you’re so busy trying to evade the difficulty, the work is not being done. You’re so focused on all the circumstances and all the people around you that you haven’t taken time to look deep in­side and deal with the issues God is bringing to light. Perhaps you get worried and full of fear when important things don’t go your way. Have you ever thought that God may be allowing those events to teach you to trust Him and to see if you will stay peaceful and calm in the midst of the storm? Have you considered that God may be allowing some of that to teach you how to rule over your emotions? He may be trying to toughen you up, to help you develop some backbone and stability in your life.

We often pray, “God, if You will change my circumstances, then I’ll change.” No, it works the other way around. We have to he willing to change our attitudes and deal with the issues God brings up; then God will change those circumstances. God loves you far too much to allow you to go through life in medi­ocrity. He will often permit pressure to be applied to your life, to test you, and only as you pass those tests will you advance. He will put peo­ple and circumstances in your path that grate on you like sandpaper, but He will use them to rub off your rough edges. You may not always like it; you may want to run from it, you may even resist it, but God is going to keep bringing up the issue, again and again, until you pass the test.

Work in Progress

Remember, the Bible says, “We are {God’s] workmanship.” That means we are a work in progress, not a finished product. One way or the other, God is going to get His way. Either you can learn the hard way, as I did in that traffic, and say, “Okay, God, I’ll do it Your way. I understand. I’ll be calm; I’ll be patient.” Or, you can do it the easier way: When struggles come your way, look deep inside and be quick to change. Be willing to deal with any issues that God brings up. Work with God in the refining process rather than fighting against Him.

Scripture says that God is the potter and we are the clay. Clay works best when it is pliable, malleable, and moldable. But if you are hard, crusty, and set in your ways, God will have to pound away on that old, hard clay to get out the lumps. Certainly, none of us enjoy going through struggles, but you have to understand that your struggle may be an opportunity for advancement and promotion. The very thing that you are fighting against so tena­ciously may be the springboard that catapults you to a new level of ex­cellence. Your challenges may become your greatest assets.

Perhaps your adversity was dropped in your path for a purpose. Perhaps it was put there to challenge you, to strengthen you, to sharpen you, to keep you fresh, to keep you alive and active and growing. Granted, at times, it feels as though you have a great white shark in the tank rather than a catfish, but the adversity you are facing could very well be something that God is using to push you and chal­lenge you to be your best. The trial is a test of your faith, character, and endurance. Don’t give up. Don’t quit. Don’t whine and complain, saying, “God, why is all this happening to me?”

Instead, stand strong and fight the good fight of faith. God is giv­ing you an opportunity for promotion. It is the struggle that gives us the strength. Without opposition or resistance, there is no potential for progress. Without the resistance of air, an eagle can’t soar. Without the resistance of water, a ship can’t float. Without the resistance of grav­ity, you and I can’t even walk.
Yet our human tendency is to want everything easily. “God, can’t You teach me patience without having to go through the traffic jam? God, can’t You teach me how to love and trust You without ever hav­ing a problem?”

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts; there’s no easy way to mature physically, emotionally, or spiritually. You must remain determined and work with God. The Bible says, “Work out your own salvation. Salvation is more than a onetime prayer. It is constantly working with God, dealing with the issues He brings up and keeping a good attitude, fighting through until you win the victory.

God never promised that we wouldn’t have challenges. In fact, He said just the opposite. His Word says, “Be truly glad’ These trials are only to test your faith, to see whether or not it is strong and pure . . . So if your faith remains strong after being tried in the test tube of fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day of his return.”When you go through difficult times, make sure you pass the test. Don’t be stubborn and hardheaded. Recognize that God is refining you, knocking off some of your rough edges. Stand strong arid fight the good fight of faith. God has called each of us to be champions; you are destined to win. If you will work with God and keep a good atti­tude, then no matter what comes against you, the Bible says that all things—not just the good things in life, but all things—will work to­gether for your good.

He knows my name

John 10:3
The sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep bny name and leads them out.

God knows each winding way I take,
And every sorrow, pain and ache,
His children He will not forsake,
He knows and loves His own. - Bosch

The Lord will not leave nor forsake you, so when things go wrong, instead of blaming and accusing each other, turn upon Jesus. He will clear your path, make things straight for you. He may not be early, but He will definitely not be late, He will be just right on time to your rescue. Call upon Him and He will be there.....

Above all

Above all powers above all kings

Above all nature and all created things

Above all wisdom and all the ways of man

You were here before the world began

Above all kindgoms above all thrones

Above all wonders the world has ever known

Above all wealth and treasure of the earth

There's no way to measure what You're worth

Crucified laid behind a stone

You lived to die rejected and alone

Like a rose trampled on the ground

You took the fall and thought of me

Above all

Turn your eyes upon Jesus

O soul, are you weary and troubled?
No light in the darkness you see?
There’s a light for a look at the Savior,
And life more abundant and free!

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace.

Through death into life everlasting
He passed, and we follow Him there;
Over us sin no more hath dominion—
For more than conquerors we are!

His Word shall not fail you—He promised;
Believe Him, and all will be well:

Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell!