What Is a Formula for Change You Would Follow?

It’s important to believe that the capacity for excellence is available to believers in Christ Jesus. So what qualifies a person for excellence? The mindset for excellence depends on your desire for faith made possible through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Striving for spiritual excellence may seem impossible due to the conflict of living up to the highest biblical standards and God’s grace and mercy. Becoming frustrated and irritable can appear to nullify the most ideal objectives and sabotage the best of intentions.

Would you like to know how to get back on track? Be pro-active in replacing negative thoughts and feelings these with these thoughts and feelings from Philippians 4:8: “Whatever is true and admirable, noble and lovely, pure and right, if anything is excellent and praiseworthy, think on these things.” Practice these truths until they become genuine.

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For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

~Ephesians 2:10 New International Version

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How Can You Overcome Vicious Circles?

Greed is easily attributed to those who deprive you of possessions, privileges, or a position. The critical question is, what do I yearn for and spend an inordinate amount of time thinking about? If it’s just wanting more, is it time to rearrange your priorities?

The initial drive to acquire things begins in childhood, innocently fostered by parents’ desire to provide their children with what they believe will make them happy. When given freedom of expression, greed has the power to distort common sense.

Overindulgence lays the foundation for being unable to impose self-boundaries. Desiring more, obtaining it, becoming discontented defines a vicious circle that produces entrapment and emptiness. Jesus offers a way out in Matthew 11:28-29: “Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” This invitation is for you. Why not accept it now? 

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And now fix your eyes on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others. Think about all the things you can praise God for and be glad about.

~Philippians 4:8 The Living Bible

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A Bridge to Healthy Thinking

Where hatred exists, evil is never in short supply. Socrates, the Greek philosopher, wrote that "no one can know good and commit evil acts against society. If a person knows the good, yet commits acts of evil, then that person mistook evil for good because of defects in knowledge." Timothy McVeigh mistook evil for good and killed 168 adults and children by bombing the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 

  

I Think Therefore I Am: Renee Descartes

 McVeigh believed what he did was good. Hatred robbed him of the capacity to see our government as good and those people who worked in the federal building as loved by God. Cold, calculating hatred distorted his perception so completely that he saw evil as good.

           You can change your attitude by believing and trusting in God's Word. Build a bridge to healthy thinking by viewing others from God’s perspective. Seek fellowship with those who pursue change by God’s approved methods. Finally, commit yourself to being redeemed by God's grace and mercy.

Must I Really Love THAT Person? - Part 3

When my granddaughter was four, she asked if we could take a walk around the neighborhood. About halfway around the block she asked, "Why is the sidewalk different? It's crumbling and I can see little shells in it." Her question caused me to question the values of the company who sold an inferior product.

The Roman Empire was among the first to use concrete for their structures, and some of those structures are still standing twenty centuries later. What gives personal values the sustaining power to withstand the trials and storms of life? Values must be firmly grounded in a clear sense of what is right and wrong.

God has given us Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit and his word to guide our walk through this world. The presence of God in our lives strengthens our values by telling us to strive for righteousness, godliness, faith, love and the strength to endure. Whenever anything that is not pure, honest and true gets mixed into our lives, it must be identified and cleaned out. With God’s help, you can do it.