Feeling Discouraged?

Today, I woke up feeling discouraged....Do you ever feel this way? I am sure most of us do at some time or other. I looked to this verse this morning. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 - "Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do"

What gets us discouraged....circumstances, people, choices etc..

People are under a lot of pressure and I read where David felt this in the story at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30) and how he finally recovered from this trauma. David did not sing a sad desperate song. He sang about the majesty and power of God. The bible says that "David encouraged himself in the Lord his God" (Psalms 34). He made a choice...

He sang "I will bless the Lord at all times" all times, be it good, bad, sad, horrific times, desperate times, fearful times, in sickness, in despair...He was discouraged. He then sang "Oh, magnify the LORD with me. Magnify the LORD? what does this mean? thanks for asking.... It means like when you use a magnifying glass to see an object clearer or bigger. But we don't really make the object any bigger; we just changed the way we look at it. We cannot make God any larger than He is, but we can change the perspective we have-either smaller or larger. We can choose: to be encouraged by things or depressed by things.

Magnify the Lord for all the things He has done for you. He becomes larger and when He does, all those concerns and troubles become smaller.

I will encourage myself....today... My God is bigger and all things are small compared to him.

Be encouraged today. Don't allow people or circumstances bring you down. Don't allow fear to creep in. You are a child of the most High God. Let's act like it.

Be blessed,

Ruth

Window Through Which We Look?

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.
The next morning while they are eating breakfast,

The young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside.
"That laundry is not very clean", she said.
"She doesn't know how to wash correctly.
Perhaps she needs better laundry soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry,
The young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a
Nice clean wash on the line and said to her husband:

"Look, she has learned how to wash correctly.
I wonder who taught her this."

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and
Cleaned our windows."

And so it is with life. What we see when watching others
Depends on the purity of the window through which we look


Love this....so true...Ruth

Benefit of the Doubt?

What does giving someone the Benefit of the Doubt mean?

I read several different answers and liked this one the most....."It is a saying that means that even if the cards are stacked against the alleged culprit, a degree of compassion will be allowed to show hopeful proof of innocence". WOW! I read it again and really like it.

Sooooooooooooooo......

If someone is quiet....it might be because they are tired, sleepy, not feeling well (rather than being stuck up)

If someone is friendly....it might be because they are genuinely friendly (rather than brown nosing)

If someone is confident....it might be because they have overcome some issues.....(rather than conceited or like the attention)

I've learned that there is always another side to the story or a reasonable answer.
If someone wears too much makeup....it might be because someone told them it looks good (rather than they want to make a statement)

If someone snaps at you...it might be because they are dealing with a difficult issue...(rather than they just want to hurt you)

Benefit of the doubt...Hmm!

Focused?

Are you easily distracted? or do you consider yourself a very focused individual?

We just returned from a very enjoyable vacation in Europe. I thank God for special friends that joined us and we had a great time!

We visited Paris and had two days in this most beautiful city...We hit the ground running because we wanted to experience everything. Everything we did was with a focus in mind. When on the Eiffel Tower I enjoyed the beauty of the mass construction. While in line to go up the tower I focused on the various people that surrounded me from all over the world. This tower is visited by 30,000 a day! Wow!

We traveled by train to Venice from Paris. We had a sleeper compartment with two small bunkbeds. Anything you did on the train you had to stay focused to do... otherwise you could make a mess....I spent most of the night praying because I could not sleep. (I found out the next day that Jeanette and Garry didn't sleep a wink either. Only Harold slept..cause he was the only one that took a sleeping pill). That night I prayed for everyone I could think of....that was better than counting sheep...because the sheep kept jumping off the train...

We got to Venice and got on a water taxi to our hotel which was an island to itself. "Beautiful"!! We walked the property and found a small chapel that was being restored. We used this opportunity to have Sunday morning worship! We prayed and thanked God for His blessings!


We continued after a few days stay in Venice and then got on a train to Florence, Italy then we rented a car and visited Seina and Ovieto in Italy. Then we drove to Rome....

When you are focused you are able to see things clearly.....There was so much to see that it could all drive you crazy because your head is constantly turning and you don't want to miss anything. I re-focused and saw the things that were important to me....I walked by the streets and really looked at my surroundings and I walked by people that the Lord prompted me to pray for and I did pray for them as I walked past them.

I encourage you to take a vacation and when you do, stay focused on God. Never leave Him behind. Let Him show you things that are important to Him. "Ask Him" to show you these things. I'm not trying to say that oh we were so holy....I'm saying that we had a great time. We laughed, we shopped!!!! We ate!!! But our focus stayed on God....His goodness, His favor.
We maintained our identity in Him first.

Harold shared something interesting in our Small Group dinner last night...."When Peter stepped out of the boat and attempted to walk on water....its says in the scripture that he saw the wind. I believe that when we step out in faith we walk or step into the spiritual realm .. we then are able to see things that we've never seen before. Sometimes these things may scare us because like Peter we've never seen the wind.... and if we just stay focused on Jesus He will assure us and if we just take that second step we will be able to see the things that Jesus sees and that He knows.

Stay Focused on God in all things and He will show you great things!