My Friend sweet Paulina, how grateful i am to see you doing so well, i really enjoy reading your posts, i have something i used for one of my communions that i read for my Chidrens Ministry, i did post this somewhere else today, but would like to share with you my friend today if i can, -) Over the years, I have often reminded people of a truth that we so
often forget when we find ourselves in difficult places. Our lives are
nearly always filled with many more good things than bad things, but we
tend to focus all of our attention on what is bad. Before long, our
thoughts, our talk, our focus, our energy becomes all about the one bad
thing. Before long, the one bad thing becomes this enormous black hole
absorbing all the good things around it. We get tired from dealing with
the problem and before long, we lose the energy to not focus on it and
all we see is an inescapable problem. Like light in a black hole in
space, we cannot reach the escape velocity of the gravity of our own
problem.
This principle is true in our churches, our marriages, and in most of
our relationships. We sit idly by with glued focus on the one problem
and all the good stuff gets absorbed in the evil one's onslaught of
negativity about the one bad thing.
But what can we do?
Deep down we know the truth, or at least most of it, but I'll share a
few reminders of some biblical strategies to prevent us making a black
hole out of our problems.
First, let's focus our minds on something else, something positive,
something holy other than the problem. We should focus on heavenly
things and not earthly ones (Colossians 3:1-4). This is not simply the
power of positive thinking, nor is it a ploy to help us escape reality.
Instead, it is a reminder that our future, and especially our ultimate
future, has been gloriously assured and it is far better than what we
have here and now (Romans 8:18).
Second, remember that God will never leave us or forsake in our
problems (Hebrews 13:5). Our job is to look for the Lord in our storms
and ask him to reveal himself to us. Even the apostle Peter began to
sink when he focused on the storm and not the one who could still the
storm. But he cried out to the Lord to save him. The key to all of the
Bible's greatest leaders is that they kept their focus on God and not
the enemy.
Take charge of what you do and think.
Third, prayer must always be accompanied with praise and thanksgiving (Colossians
4:2). Praise is declaring who God is and what he has proved himself to
be in the past. Praise reminds us that God acts and moves and is
involved in our lives. Thanksgiving is our response to God for what he
has done in our story -- not just our immediate story, but in the flow
of our story from his story in the world. These two dimensions of
prayer help us keep from having just a narrow, problem-based prayer
focus. Praise and thanksgiving open us up to the power-based prayer
focus of Scripture. And if you have a problem knowing how to do this,
open the collection of Psalms in your Bible and begin to see how their
prayer about problems nearly always bring us to praise of God.
Fourth, find a friend or two to partner with you in prayer. Give that
friend some specific things to ask God for in your behalf (Ecclesiastes
4:9-12). Knowing we are not alone in our struggles, but have a friend
to encourage and strengthen us, gives us so much great emotional energy
to fight the battles we face.
Finally, let's talk back to our negative self-talk. So many of us
listen to the negative voice in our head as if we have to. We don't
have to do it! God has given us his word to be a fantastic resource for
us to speak back against the lies and half-truths Satan is trying to
whisper in our ears. The apostle Paul calls this taking every thought
captive and making it subject to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5). So often,
he doesn't have to do much work because we beat ourselves up to the
point of defeat. Speak back God's truth to yourself about who you are,
how God loves you, what God's purposes are for you, and your future
home with him.
Please, don't let the problems in your life become the black hole that
pulls all the other good things out of your life. Take charge of what
you do and think. Hold on to what you have in Jesus and remember God's
powerful promise for us:
What can we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for
us, who can ever be against us? Since God did not spare even his
own Son but gave him up for us all, won't God, who gave us Christ,
also give us everything else? (Romans 8:31-32)