TGIF
There continues to be lots of bad news out there, as Tina said on Wednesday. Thinking about America’s exit from Afghanistan and hurricane Ida at the same time can make your head want to explode. As if hurricane Ida didn’t do enough damage when it hit the southern coast in Louisiana, it continued to be a major cause of destruction and death all the way north through Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York. What a depressing two weeks it has been.
We can hardly control anything that goes on in our world, country, state, community, or even around us in our own little bubble. Even those people who are closest to us in our life and those that we love the most in this world sometimes do things very unexpected, and that we may strongly disagree with.
So is there anything at all we can control? Yes, I believe there is! The one and only thing we have total control over is what we choose to think about and how we choose to spend our time. We can choose to have negative thoughts and do negative things, or we can choose to think more positive thoughts and do more positive things. How do we train ourselves to live a more positive focused life when so many bad things are going on around us?
Deuteronomy 5:33 – Walk in obedience to all that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess.
My mind continues to think about some of Don’s statements in his sermon two weeks ago. One of those statements was “Just do what God says, and we’ll be OK”. If we walk in obedience as His Word tells us and do as God tells us, according to our conscience, we will be OK. We will be busy doing pleasant and helpful things for others so that we will think less about the bad things around us over which we have no direct control.
We know that not everyone chooses this path. We know that there is evil and evil doers in our world.
Matthew 10:38 – Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
The problem is we don’t know who is evil and who is truly godly. However, we cannot, or should not, judge other people, only God can make this judgment because only He can see what is in our hearts.
1 Samuel 16:7 – But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Proverbs 16:2 – All a person’s ways seem pure to them, but motives are weighed by the Lord.
Don also said in that sermon two weeks ago “Find a way to help, to avoid despair”. If we stay busy thinking about God and doing things that please Him, and that shine our light to others, our hearts will be fulfilled. We can be at peace, regardless of what we see or hear in the news, regardless of what is going on over which we have no control.
Matthew 5:15-16 – Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Finally, as Don again told us two weeks ago, “You can choose to whine or you can choose to shine”. As Tina has been telling us every week for months now, our choice needs to be to Shine! Shine! Shine!
Galatians 5:25 – Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.