Let God Bring Justice into Your Life

God will pay us back double for all our trouble according to Isaiah 61:7. Hebrews 10:30 says, "God is a just God and He will settle and solve the cases of His people". If we place our faith in God, chapter 19 of Joel Osteen's book Your Best Life Now says, "sooner or later God will bring justice into your life. Sometimes when we don't see anything happening month after month, maybe even year after year, it's tempting to become manipulative, to attempt to make things happen on our own. When we do that, we risk interfering with God's plans and purposes, creating another mess for Him to clean up, and possibly even keeping God from doing what He really wants to do in that situation." Wow! I think God is smarter than me...lol...so I believe I will just let him deal with any perceived injustice I may have incurred. Romans 12:19 says, "Never avenge yourselves, but leave the way open for [God's] wrath." Alrighty then, I'll do that, Lord.

I'm so enjoying the teaching in this book. It started with enlarging my vision and then moved on to helping me build my self-esteem. I loved the part about the power of our thoughts and words and now we are being taught to let go of our past. It's so healing, and I feel blessed to be a part of this teaching. Kim, Holly, Mark, & I had the privilege of attending "A Night of Hope" with Joel Osteen's family leading an awesome service in KC Friday night. It was such a positive, uplifting night and Joel poured out those blessings from God on us that we studied in any earlier chapter. I claim a blessing daily. Today I'm remembering that God has blessed me with fulfillment, and I feel satisfied. May God richly bless you this week as you study and blog on this chapter.

Don't Let Bitterness Take Root

We are never angry for the reason I think. What is happening outside us is not the cause of our distress even though that appears to be the case. In actuality, our anger has nothing to do with our present circumstances; it is instead a reminder, something from our unhealed past. By asking ourselves these questions--when, where, and with whom have we experienced these feelings before, we will uncover the experience from our pasts that we now need to forgive, heal, and release. Joel says in chapter 18, "When we don't forgive, we're not hurting the other person......We're only hurting ourselves."

Letting Go of Emotional Wounds

It's Valentine's Day in two days. Maybe this is a good time to let go of emotional wounds so we can be more loving to others and ourselves. Guilt and blame are the chief inhibitors to feeling peaceful and loved. When we find value in guilt and blame, it is impossible to experience love and inner peace. The good news is that we don't have to remain that way. We can forgive others and let go of the past. That's what we will study in chapter 17. We are starting a new section today that will help us learn how to let go and heal from the past so we can enjoy life in the present moment. Praise God!

Speaking a Blessing

I loved this chapter (I know, I say that about all these chapters but this book is great!). I have always done pretty well with this topic and I have always tried to speak blessings to people especially to my children. You know what I have found as well? - When you speak positively to other people it raises the mood of everybody! Just like negativity - positivity is contagious! We need to hear good things from our loved ones - we need it just like air, water and food. Without it, our self esteem never gains traction. Want to hear an inspiration on this? Joel has a short sermon on this at the link below. While I am the only man on this blog I really liked the message that Joel speaks out to the men that as men we do have a leadership role to play in our families and with our children. Thanks Joel! Just like Joel stated in this chapter we all want blessings from our parents - lets not let our children down. Without it they will have to carry all of that excess baggage throughout life! Lets give them the good positive start that all people deserve in life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXVNmF5dBfk

Speaking Life-Changing Words

Romans 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

As Joel states in Chapter 15, it is not enough just avoiding negative talk....you must get on the offense in order to score points and win!

Torrance "Tank" Daniels is my hero of the week. He is living the All American dream of playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday. How Blessed! Of course, as Paul Harvey would say, now is the rest of the story!

He was an undrafted player in the spring of 2006, meaning nobody thought enough of him to draft him because he played for a small college in Northern Arkansas. Didn't matter to Tank; he was going to play professional football anyway! He tried out for several teams and went to the NFL combine where he performed quite well and was able to attract the attention of the Philadelphia Eagles who invited him to training camp. Tank was now playing professional football, but he still had a long ways to go to make the team. He performed admirably in training camp and survived until the final cuts where he was cut by the team for the active roster. However, living in God's favor, Tank was picked up by the Eagles on their practice squad, meaning he could practice with the team but he was not officially a member of the team's roster. That meant getting the heck beat out of him during the week by the veterans as they prepared for the week's game. He did that for about 10 weeks playing his tail off in hopes of someday making the team. His time came when the QB for the team got hurt opening up a roster position for Tank! He had made it to the big time. He was now playing in the NFL and not just in the exhibition season. He had his chance and on his very first play against the Indianapolis Colts he made a tackle that was noticeable enough to be mentioned by John Madden, TV commentator. He continued to play well for the remainder of the season which consisted of five more games.

You would have thought the rest of the story is history, but Tank was cut by the Eagles the following season at the final cuts of the training camp, and this time he wasn't picked up on the practice squad. His short lived NFL career appeared to be over. However, God wasn't done working his miracles for Tank. Steve Spagnuolo, linebacker coach for the Eagles, was named defensive coordinator for the New York Giants in 2007. Coach Spags knew about Tank's heart and abilities, and Tank hooked on with the NY Giants on their practice squad in the fall of 2007 after being cut by the Eagles. He was again assigned to the practice squad until about 10 weeks into the season when he was called up on the active roster. Tank was again playing special teams in the NFL. Most players would have given up multiple times by now, but Tank is a man of God and faith. The Giants are having one of those miracle years in their own right, but in the first playoff game against Tampa Bay, where the Giants were the wildcard team, it looked like the Giants were not going to advance and that would have been pretty much expected. However, Tank forced a fumble on a punt return, and the Giants recovered and scored a TD. It turned the team around and they won the game. Definitely, a turning point in their season. They turned around and won games at heavily favored Dallas and Green Baby to advance to the Super Bowl. That player from that small college in Arkansas will tomorrow be playing in the biggest football game known to man.

Tank verbalized all the while that he was going to play NFL football! He went on the offense and is living his dream. We all need to use words to go on the offense and word toward our Super Bowl. God wants us to succeed, but we have to use the tools he gives us and words are a big part of our tool box.

Thanks for the memories, Tank, and good luck tomorrow. I have a good feeling!!!

Negativity

I have been mulling over 11-12, now 13-14 the last 3 weeks.
In 11, it talks about differences, seek good counsel and be the person God meant you to be. 12 speaks to the enemy's target being the arena of your thoughts, instead we are to focus on the positive, transforming our lives, not allowing anyone else on the playground to mess with God's plan.
I sold Home Interiors for a while, and just loved it, the positive training and outlook have been a large part of my life. Mary Crowley wrote a book, "God didn't take time to make a Nobody" that has just meant so much to me. Her attitude is the same: Look at the bright side, don't focus on the darker, move on, focus, focus, focus. A few years ago I worked close by a co-worker who could not do anything but focus on the negative. After a very short time, I realized that constant battering on my positive thinking was affecting my life at work, at home, everywhere. Life for this co-worker began by their having to get out of bed in the morning, and drag to work. From the moment of arrival, it was negative this, and negative that. I began to feel so oppressed that I dreaded going to work. I was able to move away to a different work section, but lunch times and break times were the same. I began to find ways to go to another building, another area, etc, to remove myself from the side-effects of the constant battle to stay positive in the darkness of their continual battle. I thought that God had allowed me to sit close to the person to help them look at the positive side of life, but in thinking back, the continual negativity wore away at my positive side. I think we all have to work at staying positive, and sometimes having to be in such close relationship with one who doesn't have a positive outlook can really have long lasting consequences. I look at that time, and wonder if there was something I could have done differently to keep from being dragged down, or to reach out differently.
It is said that you should never jump into the water with a drowning person, because they will drag you down. You should instead throw them a life line. If I had known about Joel's book then, I would have been able to recommend it, and possibly gotten some light in a dark tunnel. I really like what he has to say about focusing on the positive. The last sentences of Chpt. 12: ...start thinking God's thoughts. God's thoughts will fill you with faith and hope and victory. God's thoughts will build you up and encourage you. They will give you the strength you need to keep on keeping on. God's thoughts will give you that can-do mentality.
In Chapter 13, "God made you, and He has programmed you for victory." Recently, I talked to a friend who said "I grew up in such dire circumstances, but God lifted me out of that mire, and I no longer have to drag it around with me, rolling it every once in a while, to remind myself." He has put his past behind him. It doesn't mean it still doesn't show up as a nail hole everyonce in a while, but he has moved on, made of himself a Godly man, with God's help. If he had focused on his negative, he wouldn't be where he is today, a respected pastor, with a wonderful Godly family, friends who respect him, a job where he can minister to others. As mentioned in "Your Best Life," this man asked God to work in him, and through him, with an attitude of faith. As Frank mentions, he didn't look at the mountain, and say, "Oh, woe is me." He asked God to look at the mountain and help him with it, either move it, or allow him to climb it.
I want that attitude to stay with me... to not see the mountain as too big to move, but how best to get it to move, with God's help and direction. FROG is a term another friend uses a lot, he once kept miniature frogs on his desk, swimming in a water filled planter. Fully Relying On God.
I want that to be real in my own life.

Let your mountains know how big your God is!

I needed this chapter! I am my own worse critic sometimes and I do have a tendency to verbalize it and as Joel says in this chapter that only solidifies the thoughts in my own min. I love his statement about facing the mountains. "Stop talking to God about how big your mountains are, and start talking to your mountains about how big your God is! I am going to work on this. Have you talked to your mountain today and let them know how big your God is?

Need help starting your day? Listen to Joel at the following link (Thanks to Patty for helping me with this!!!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XYA49aeoNk&feature=related

Mark 11:23 "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be granted him."