- When we become more focused on the overwhelming nature of the storm than the overwhelming presence of God, we are in trouble.
- Whenever Jesus calls someone to get out of the boat, he gives the power to walk on water.
- Hope does not just motivate positive action. It actually has healing power.
- "I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength." - Philippians 4:13 (It means I have great confidence that I can face whatever life throws at me, that I never need to give up, that my efforts have potency--because of the One at work within me.)
- Optimism and hope are not quite the same thing. Optimism requires a belief in progress--that things will in fact get better for me. Hope includes all the psychological advantages of optimism, but it is rooted in something deeper. When I hope, I believe that God is at work to redeem all things regardless of how things happen to be turning out for me today. Hope does not prevent me from expecting the worst--"the worst is what the hopeful are prepared for."
- Law of Cognition: You are what you think.
- The way you think creates your attitudes; the way you think shapes your emotions; the way you think governs your behavior; the way you think deeply influences your immune system and vulnerability to illness. Everything about you flows out of the way you think.
- "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds." - Paul
- Jesus once said that a good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.
- Over the long haul, good thinking--accurate perceptions, healthy emotions, wholesome desires, honorable intentions--cannot produce bad results; bad thinking cannot produce good results.
- Law of Exposure: Your mind will think most about what it is most exposed to.
- The events you attend, the material you read (or don't), the music you hear, the images you watch, the conversations you hold, the daydreams you entertain--all are shaping your mind and, ultimately, your character and destiny.
- If you really want to become a certain kind of person-- a hopeful person focused on Christ--you must begin to think thoughts that will produce those characteristics.
- You need to expose your mind to those resources, books, tapes, people, and conversations that will incline you toward confidence in God.
- Practice "double vision" as Christ does--see the person as he is and the person as Christ wants him to be.
- When problem-solving at work, instead of talking to yourself about the problem, develop a new habit of talking to Christ.
- Allow God to have the last word of the day. Then let your eyes and mind begin there in the morning.
- The real significance of [actively focusing on Christ] is that it opens you wide to spiritual reality and power that is in fact all around you all the time, like a radio antenna suddenly tuned into the right frequency.
- Do you know how to worry? If you can worry, then you can meditate. To meditate merely means to think about something over and over. Let it simmer in your mind. Reflect on it from different angles until it becomes part of you.
- "Something better is coming."
may 14 2010 ∞
jul 24 2010 +