Waiting on the Lord doesn't mean twiddling your thumbs and whistling Dixie. It means doing your part looking forward to God doing His. Work for the Lord while you wait on the Lord. Life rewards action.

One week we ask God to teach us patience. The next week we ask Him to deliver us from His class. Don't pray yourself out of the very thing you prayed for. Stick to it. Persevere.

Forward!

If I go backwards, I'll only see what I've already seen, do what I've already done and get what I've already got. If I go sideways, I'll be off of the path that's destined for glorious things and godly dreams. If I stand still, I will delude myself with sanctified stagnation, being in the way but not on the way.

I must move forward.

Destiny is forward

Prosperity is forward.

Challenges are forward.

Greatness is forward.

Victories are forward.

The words "Well done thy good and faithful servant" are forward.

Think About what you Think About

"As a man thinks in his heart so is he. Prov. 23:7" Oh the power of a made up mind. And how wonderful the choice of what to think on. Moreover to think on those things that create strength, purpose, health and wealth.

Reality and mentality are irrevocably connected. What you think will doubtlessly be manifest through your body and actions. No, you can't control events and weather. That's not your business. Attitude, actions, responses and character are.

Here's the short of it. If your thinking is miserable, hateful, depressed, resentful, complaining, critical, envious, and such like - - your body will follow. Health will deteriorate, speech will be poisonous and actions will be contaminated. You gotta watch what you think. How you think is how you are.

And by the way, How are you? Are you miserable? Are you resentful or angry? are you faultfinding and bitter? Well the verse works backwards - As a man is so is his thinking.

Amazing news! You get to choose what you will be! You want to be hopeful? Start thinking on hope. Want to be spiritual? Start thinking on spiritual things. What you think is what you are. Practically not magically or metaphorically. Life responds to action and actions are birthed by thinking.

Stop thinking yourself into failure. Have a changed and transformed mind. Think on good things - Phil. 4:8-9.

Focus

It can turn sunlight into a deadly weapon. It can make a blurry haze a sharp distinct image. It can turn a slap into a knockout punch. It can make a life energetic and effective. In all your going, doing, making and moving, have laser like focus on the task at hand. Don't just do it, do it well.

Any Spiritual metaphor that removes us from personal responsibility is a highly debilitating fallacy. God is the King not the servant. He gives the power but we do the doing. Looking for God to do what you are too scared, lazy or busy to do is the picture of effortless failure.

He Thinks of Us

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand. When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:17-18

The Bible is full of good news and this is a supreme thought amid many great thoughts. God thinks about us!!

In His highness He thinks of us. Supremely set above the circles of all that exist. Unmatched in glory, splendid in majesty and transcendent in power – He thinks of us. Amid the adoration of Seraphim and Cherubim, lightning and thunder, sitting on the eternal throne – He thinks of us. The all-knowing, all-mighty, ever present, everlasting to everlasting God of mercy thinks of us.

In our lowliness He thinks of us. Often distracted, dysfunctional and destitute – yet He thinks of us. Prone to falling, failing, pettiness and petulance – yet he thinks of us. Like passing vapors and drifting dust in His eternal view, desperately seeking solidity, significance and the spectacular, the universal intellect thinks of us. Contrary to a thoughtless, calloused world, God’s sees us, considers us and would guide us. While those we think of often think of all else, God has us on His mind.

Why would the Most High, consider those who are so low? It could only be his great love for us. Historic love that grants the most undeserving the greatest of favors.

Thank you Father for the great comfort of your Word and the wondrous knowledge of your love. Forgive us for the many times that we failed to think of you.

Got Peace?

A rare, precious, priceless gift is the peace that passes all understanding. Everybody wants it but everybody can’t find it. This hustle and bustle, daily grind, buy and sell, appointments to keep, people to meet, hasty hecticness that we call life needs a big dose of peace.

Chaos is invasive. It penetrates and disrupts every aspect of our lives. Thoughts become stressful, relationships become resentful, work becomes unfruitful and sleep becomes impossible. You need peace to overcome the chaos. But you need to have the right peace.

Notice how many CVS, Walgreens and Duane Reades are around you? You know what they sell most? Pharmaceutical peace. Pill peace to help you sleep. Pink peace to ease your stomach. Powder peace to ease your mind. The thing is these quick comfort remedies don’t fix the real problem. Headache, sleep loss and diarrhea are usually symptoms of anxiety that comes from poor living.

Real close to Duane Reade, you’ll find a liquor store. They can’t give you peace either. They can only give temporary euphoria. The price though, (monetary, socially, emotionally and spiritually), is too much to pay. Plus you have to do more to get less high. (Don’t ask)

Some try to get away. Unfortunately, life is such that trouble can find you wherever you are. In fact, real life issues will go with you wherever you go. True peace is not found in vacations.

The short of it is, God gives real peace. Meaningful not momentary, systematic not symptomatic, anywhere, anytime peace. God said to His people, “If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea (Isa. 49:18 NIV).”

Real peace comes from following God’s Word. That truth becomes even clearer when you look at it from the back. The most anxious, stressful, sleepless, hostile, chaotic moments of my life, came from disobeying God’s Word. God doesn’t tell us what to do because He’s bossy. He tells us how to live because He knows the secrets to successful, stress free, productive, happy living.

There is nothing like the peace of living Godly. How you livin'?