What compels us and strengthens us? Why does it often seem that some people are often encouraged and remain encouraged and others find it hard to receive encouragement and be encouraged? Do you ever find that what we often like, we end up often meditating on it more and more. When we meditate on something often, it becomes our desire within and actually builds a stronghold in our lives, whether good and favorable or evil in Gods sight.
It's the agendas we spend the majority on that we meditate upon and give thought to that truly strengthen us more in those particular areas. Where one person is strengthened in the Lord more than the other, is because they end up giving more thought to Him and meditate on Him more than the one who may not give much attention to the Lord and His ways. We find our strengths are developed within us when we look back and realize what is the majority of a particular agenda we gave thought to? Therefore, what is good and often encouraging is to put several scriptures around to remind us, especially the scriptures that encourages you and lets you know He loves you with a love no other human can give. It is often important to be mindful what we watch and how long we watch programs. When I turn the TV off, which I have done most in this past month, I find that I really don't miss sitting in front of the tube and sitting like a couch potato. I realized that when I often did that, I didn't realize how much time I wasted, which started having a stronger hold on my life. When I started to fast several weeks ago, my fast was to turn that TV off and minding my time to do the things of God more and more. I started to realize that by limiting my time watching TV no longer has that stronghold upon me, and frankly, I don't really miss watching TV. I find watching an hour or half hour of news is now enough for me and no longer feel compelled to watch 6 hours of TV. Watching TV is not bad at times, but I realized it was consuming my time more than it should have.
He also tells us in Phil 4:8 to teach us what we should be keeping our minds focused on. Also, when we give thought to a negative situation that may have happened to us in the past, the longer we dwell on it and give thought to, it causes us to be stirred with anger or bitterness more and more simply because we continue to entertain and dwell on these thoughts. If another person chooses not to dwell on negative things and chooses to be mindful on the wonderful attributes of God and realize how merciful He has been to us, we find that the person who chooses to heed to Gods instruction will not develop that bitterness or negative stronghold in his/her life simply because they chose to dwell on good things the Lord encourages us to dwell on (read Phil 4:8). God encourages us to choose His ways, and we have been given that power to choose. He teaches us what is best for us. But, in order for us to receive His best, we need to consciously choose His instructions that do benefit us the most. By choosing to think and meditate on His goodness, we are liberated with peace, joy and freedom from bondages of any anger or frustration. Just like He tells us that we don't simply overcome evil by just refusing to focus on it, but we overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). Therefore, we need to change our focus from fretting on the negative circumstances and purposefully replace them with His presence. Just like the love message I mentioned about several messages ago, how He fulfills that law of love for each of us perfectly and are constantly surrounded by His presence, and how He (Love) always hopes for the best in us. It is not a bad thing to remember the past in order to bless others with a message, but we have to be careful not to dwell on them. Lately, there has been hackers sending emails to some others using my name in vain about a couple of months ago. It is sad when people do that. However, when I realized I was starting to dwell on it too much, I could feel in my spirit that anger and bitterness would rise up within me, which would have done myself more harm than anything. With Gods help, I chose to dwell on the mercies of God and His love for me, and be able to use this opportunity to be a message to others. If we learn not to dwell on the negative, and learn to seek Him, He can use our situation to be a blessing to many others while at the same time, to frustrate the real enemy (the devil).
Again, we need to not just not focus on any negative situations in our past, but we need to replace those with thoughts of His goodness towards us and the blessings that are before us. That is why Paul tells us that he chooses to forget what lies behind and focuses on pressing forward to what lies ahead. This should encourage us to focus on moving ahead because our momentary times of trouble here on earth will never compare to the glory that will be revealed in us for all eternity (Rom 8:18) when we choose to live for God. If we believe, we can let God use whatever mess we had in our past to be His MESSage of blessings and encouragement to the world. Knowing how God has used my mess to be His message is truly encouraging who continues to strengthen me. I hope the same can be said for you. God bless.
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In the Matchless Name of Jesus
Richard
Associate Director
Answers2Prayer
http://sites.google.com/site/greatestbuilderforourlife
http://www.answers2prayer.org/
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